According to Lapid's book, this first colour newscast was prepared secretly by some "enthusiastic workers" of IBA, in order to avoid industrial actions by the technicians' trade union, who demanded higher salaries for operating colour equipment.

Tests showed, however, that the technique did not produce satisfactory results when used with colour equipment and so the final set were produced in black and white before being manually tinted.

Though many Australian series shot their interior scenes on videotape in the studio using a multiple-camera setup with only outdoor scenes shot on film, because Australia was yet to switch to colour television the television studios were not yet equipped with colour equipment.

As a part of earlier preparations for colour production, between 1972 and 1973, orders were placed with Rank Cintel and the EMI Group in the United Kingdom and Ampex in the United States for new colour equipment, in time for colour transmission tests on 7 October 1974.

Due to an industrial dispute over extra payments for using newly introduced colour equipment, during which broadcasting unions refused to allow their members to use colour cameras, the first six episodes of the first series were shot in black-and-white, and when colour production resumed, the first episode was remade in colour.

One other was made in colour (but broadcast in black and white) as a test of Thames' new colour equipment, which was first used for broadcasting from November 1969-two months after the fourth series of Public Eye finished its on-air run.

This meant that even though colour equipment was available, all shows were recorded and broadcast in monochrome, thus denying the ITV companies the ability to sell airtime at the higher value that colour transmissions dictated.

Although colour equipment had been introduced two years earlier the first four episodes were made in monochrome because of industrial action.