The Fantastic Adventures of 4-T followed the escapades of a canine character that had its basis in a teletext dog Ian Irving had drawn while at the BBC. 4-T the dog would subsequently become a de facto mascot for the service provided by Intelfax.
Former Ceefax Editor Colin McIntyre, now acting as a consultant for 4-Tel, asked him to create a story based around his prototype dog character, also suggesting the name 4-T based on the popular film dog K9.
The Fantastic Adventures of 4-T ran for a decade from 1980 to 1990, with the average story spanning 12 weeks of 5 frames each. According to Irving, it was created with the teletext mode of a BBC Acorn, “first on a model B, then a Master 128.”
Irving has stated that he enjoyed making 4-T because it let his imagination ‘run riot’. As the series wore on, it also allowed him to become “more and more aware” of teletext’s possibilities as a graphic medium.
”I rarely started out with a complete story in mind, just began with a basic idea and let things happen from week to week (ending a story was sometimes the hardest part – the sort of “it had all been just a dream, after all!” type of conclusion to one or two stories was really a cop-out. But mostly I think I managed to avoid that).”
–Ian Irving
The End and Return
The last ever screens of The Fantastic Adventures of 4-T showed Ian Irving placing his characters back into their toy box “until another day”, as 4-T uttered his final line on ORACLE, wishing viewers a Happy New Year.
Irving would “revive” 4-T in teletext form some 34 years after his retirement, retrieving them from their box as part of an artwork for the Teletext50 exhibition in 2024. It depicts the character recreating the pose of Nipper in a famous painting by Francis Barraud.
Sources
- About 4-T, Ian Irving, 4-tonline.uk, accessed 4 March 2026
- Teletext People: Ian Irving, Byte High No Limit, uploaded 19 November 2022
- Teletext Sofa Club: Ian Irving Interview, 15th April 2021
- Interview with Ian Irving, teletextart.co.uk, 8 February 2023
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