Here is another issue of the e-zine that YOU write!

Topics 4 comes to you in the midst of the latest English four-week “lockdown” for Covid-19, as this second wave of the Covid-19 infection has hit: Wales has already had a two-week “circuit-breaker”, and Scotland has set up five tiers or restrictions.

All this was after a complete Summer of restricted access, restricted visits, restricted recreation and restricted socialisation.  All TV programmes were affected in one way or another, whether in production or scheduling – and some older programmes were retransmitted to brighten up our days.

But there has been a bumper crop of Tech Ops recollections: it’s quite ironic that in these days of restricted travel, so many of the topics are about Outside Broadcasting and freelancing around the world – so enjoy!  

Just a couple of notes:  some pages may be short, to keep tight to the subject matter.  Also, some stories might have appeared elsewhere on this website.   Wherever possible, any duplication has been omitted, but there are times when it is easier to repeat the story than to keep cross-referencing to earlier tellings.

1950s and 1960s Adventure Series

Roger Bunce wondered whether other people had been reliving their childhood by watching those old adventure series of the 1950s and 1960s.

1968 BBC TV Production Planning Training Film

This page started with an extract from a BBC staff training film about production planning, moves on to a discussion of who gets a credit and discusses how “our” directors planned productions using matchboxes and string – not the fancy models in the training film!

A game of KIM

There’s more on nicknames elsewhere in this collection.  This page concentrates on one person whose nickname was “Kim”.  This page can easily be removed and not affect other pages.

An Historic Outside Broadcast

This has been “spun off” from the discussions about the origin of the name “Scanner”.  It seems more than probable that the BBC did a live TV OB of the momentous occasion when Chamberlain, having flown between Heston Airfield and Munich for discussions with Hitler, famously returned to wave his piece of paper.

BBC TV Car Park Tickets

Illustrations of BBC TV Car Park Tickets.  

Bits of Our History

Bernie’s website – “our” website” – is a collection of personal reminiscences and stories about how we used to work.  It’s the sort of history that does not make it into standard academic histories, but it is about the daily activities of people coping with everyday work in a programming-making framework.  As Bernie says, it is terribly fragile.  People will want to know how we did theatrical style multicamera live or as-live television – and only we can tell it as it was.

Camera Tower

This starts with a picture of a camera tower (?) used in the filming of “The LadyKillers”.

Cameramen at War

Cameramen at war, including pictures of Ronnie Noble.

Cater for the Crew

An Army marches on its stomach – and so do TV crews.

Colin Reid – An Appreciation

A quiet man with a calm demeanour, yet he kept a close watch on ‘youngsters’ with a quiet word after a programme if he thought the younger crew members could improve their performance.

Completely Shocking…

Something to do with that stuff that comes along wires and makes things work – or creates spitz and sparkens.  Of course, some of it is static.

Continu….ity?

Sometimes the changeover between programmes is not as smooth as we would expect it to be.  Which leads onto Jack Jackson’s Record Roundabout and a problem with a faxed quiz.

Covid 19 and TV

Some snippets on how various TV shows have coped with the restrictions imposed by attempts to limit the spread of the Coronavirus Covid-19.

David Attenborough

More thoughts about the great man…

Director’s Viewfinder

The little device that showed to the director what the shot might look like.  More useful in “pure” film than TV,  where the director can directly see the camera output.

Ditty Box and Dollies

How did these slang terms come to be used in TV?

Duties Day-by-Day

One requirement of working irregular hours in Tech Ops was the need to keep a diary. Some of us, when we left TV and were freed of the need to keep track of the fortnight’s schedule, jettisoned the diaries ASAP:  but those kept diaries can be very useful as well as bringing back memories.

First TV OB from a Theatre

“When We Are Married” by J. B. Priestley from ST Martin’s Theatre was apparently the first Outside Broadcast from a Theatre.

Flight of the Concordes (….and other planes)

Experiences of flying on business or for pleasure, for the Beeb or freelance, all around the world.

Goonhilly

The original Satellite Dish No 1 ‘Arthur’, now 58 years old, has been restored by Goonhilly Earth Station to enjoy a second life in Radio Astronomy rather than Sat Comms.

Headphones

A discussion on the merits of different types of headphones.

How We Got Started In The Entertainment Industry

Stories of how some people got their job at the BBC.

Julie Felix Show

Julie Felix died 5^th April 2020: for many of us, she was a part of our youth.

Noise, Loudness and Americans

This page is a bit of a miscellany … it also covers accommodation, crew quarters etc.  and working for Americans….

Meccano et al

What we played with in our formative years … with some broadcasting anecdotes interposed.

Memories of Dame Vera Lynn

Dame Vera Lynn died 18^th June 2020 at the age of 103.

More About Lime Grove

This is not a history of the BBC Lime Grove Studios, more a collection of anecdotes about the place.

Note that there are stories about Lime Grove throughout the Tech Ops web site!

More about Mother

Joan Marsden (“Mother”) was a floor manager for the “political” and newsy programmes.  She was quite fierce but ran the studio with impeccable discipline.

Please also see other pages on the Tech Ops web site for more about Mother!

More Mole Stories

Remember how the tracker and swinger had to learn how to frame a shot by judging camera distance and angle – just by looking at the camera on the front.  Later there was a monitor mounted on the crane, which made life easier.  

A short page: but please also see other pages on the Tech Ops web site for more stories about Moles!

Multi-Coloured Swap Shop

One of Brian Dale’s Covid projects has been scanning thousands of 35mm colour slides, and here he shows some pics taken on a “Multi-Coloured Swap Shop”.  Bernie also contributes to this page.

Nicknames

This page is not really about Tech Ops techniques – but more about crew cohesion, how we all managed to work together…

Not Everyone Likes “Strictly”

It may surprise many – given the viewing figures for the current season of “Strictly Come Dancing” – but not everybody likes the programme!

“Our World” – yet more about this programme!

David Taylor kicks off this page by writing that he was trying to produce an article about the TV side of the “All You Need Is Love” Beatles BBC TV  segment done as part of “Our World”.  Bernie Newnham produced a numbered version of the BBC crew photo for the Studio setup for “Our World”, and there are suggestions for the names for the numbers.

Please also see other pages on the Tech Ops web site for more about “Our World”.

Pushing the Wrong Buttons

We all maek mistrakes: Pat Heigham has explicitly confessed to some of his!

(Many of our blunders are recorded throughout this site!)

Radio Microphones

Following on from the tale of the OB of the scaling of the Old Man of Hoy (see below), Alan Taylor thought that these sort of programmes were only viable once there were radio microphones.  There then was a long discussion about these – and other – microphones.

Rolling Stones, Beatles and Jimi Hendrix at the BBC

Tales of when these groups appeared on various TV shows.

Ron Peverall at 90

Birthday wishes to Ron on the occasion of his 90^th birthday,

Some Things Never Change …

A short page reporting that in 1952 there were complaints about mumbling actors and intrusive music and noises!

Sounds Effective!

Creating Sound effects when there are none – and capturing wild tracks in a timely manner.

Sports Unit Electronic – and Freelancing

Out and about with OBs and with freelancers.  Hectic days and days of delay, stories of water and of deserts.

Steam-Powered Tech Ops Part 2

Since we all love steam…

Starring “Flying Scotsman”, “King George V” and “Caerphilly Castle” to name a few…

An Interesting Link to the Design of Television Centre

In connection with Television Centre at 60….

Nigel Norman was a keen pilot and formed a business partnership with Graham Dawbarn.  Their company, Norman and Dawbarn designed many aerodrome terminals, such as Heston, Brooklands, Birmingham, Manchester, Jersey and Guernsey.  After Sir Nigel’s death, Graham Dawbarn continued the business on his own and was invited to design a building for the BBC.

Early BBC TV OBs

The first BBC TV OB was the Coronation procession of King George VI.

Talk about jumping in at the deep end – having a Coronation as your shakedown programme for the first ever OB van.

The Old Man of Hoy

Perhaps the most ambitious de-rig of a Mobile Control Room that BBC TV OBs undertook was to televise the live climbing, in 1967, of the Old Man of Hoy, a vertical rock in the Orkney archipelago off the north coast of Scotland.

Watership Down

In our previous Topics we had pictures of walks that we had taken in the first lockdown.  This walk came after Topics 3 had been issued – but led on to some interesting discussions about the skyline on certain views.

Where Did The BBC Place Job Ads?

Where did we see the Job Adverts for Technical Operators?

Which is Real?  Location Shoot or Studio mock up?

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?

It’s not just Queen who asks this question!  We provide the pictures that other people see: does it matter how those pictures are generated?

(Ed: this discussion actually followed on from some other email conversations, but treated here as a separate topic.)

Why MCRs are called Scanners – part 2

Further discussion on the reasons behind the nickname “Scanner” for a Mobile Control Room (and later derivatives, such as MCCR….)

Work in OBs – and Freelance

Pay, Practices, Personalities, Performance, Problems – a plethora of pertinent partisan paragraphs from participants.

Zooming Around

Who hasn’t used Zoom during the Lockdowns and restricted socialisation?  The Broadcast Networks have used it too, to host virtualised television programmes.  How would we have coped without it?

This quickly degenerated into a discussion of wine and cheese …