From Dixon Of Dock Green to Life On Mars... it's Britain's oldest digital TV

Instead of embracing modern technology, Mr Howard has opted to refurbish his family's 51-year-old black and white set, making him the proud owner of Britain's oldest digital TV.

Signal success: Mr Howard converted his 1957 Bush television so it now receives digital TV and can play DVDs

The walnut-encased Bush television has been in his family since he was eight - after his father bought it for £113 in 1957.

Thanks to a remarkable makeover, Mr Howard, 59, can now watch digital channels on the tiny 17in screen.

He had been unable to use the set since the Eighties, when television pictures switched from the old 405-line format to 625 lines. But a specialist repair shop fitted an electronic converter, available only in America, so modern programmes can be shown on the 405-line screen.

And by plugging in a Freeview box he can now see digital shows. As part of the £200 revamp, the experts also replaced 13 old capacitors, the brightness knob and a lead so the tube wouldn't burn out.

The set takes ten seconds to warm up and antiques expert Mr Howard still gets the 'old TV smell' from the warming of the paxolin resin insulators.

He has even kept and framed the old receipt for the set, on which he watched the first moon landing in 1969. He said: 'It was my family's first television. My father was walking past the shop and was just taken by it.

'I think there were cheaper ones available but he liked the way it looked like a piece of furniture instead of just a big screen sitting in the corner of the room. I was away at boarding school at the time but I remember coming home and being amazed. I have a lot of fond memories of Christmas time when the whole family would gather around and watch it together. I could never bear to throw it away.'

The analogue TV signal is gradually being switched off across the UK and will affect Mr Howard's home close to Norwich in 2012.

The revamp also means he can watch his old favourites on DVD. He said: 'There were brilliant shows in the late Fifties and Sixties; I remember Crackerjack and Dixon Of Dock Green. I also watched Churchill's funeral and news of the assassination of John Kennedy.'