Alan Taylor
I’m trying to fill in a few gaps concerning OB drama prior to the LMCR and LPU. Does anybody recall working on dramas in that period or know any tales about them? There was … drama in the early 1970s. I’ve long believed that it was called “Baker’s Dozen” and starred Stratford Johns, but neither IMDB nor BBC Genome come up with anything, so I might have both the title and star wrong. It was a police drama and was using one of the last B&W scanners, but might have been MCR21 after having been converted for colour.
Any thoughts or suggestions?
Robin Sutherland
I think there were quite a few dramas shot by OBs before the advent of the experimental LMCR [the old RE5 vehicle] and the arrival of the purpose built LPU and LMCR.The “Baker’s Dozen” series you mention is interesting. I was on LO21 in 1972 and worked on several of them, doing location inserts into a studio production using EMI 2001 cameras. There were some big names involved and I remember shooting scenes with Ann Todd and Michael Redgrave. It was a thriller anthology in 13 episodes linked by Rupert Davies playing a character called Baker, hence the working title of “Bakers Dozen”. But the title changed before transmission to “The Man Outside” and that’s why you couldn’t find anything about it. Tx dates were from 12th May to 11th August 1972. Anyone remember working on the studio end of these? Directors included Douglas Camfield and Paddy Russell with many notable actors so must have been a top-drawer production but quickly forgotten. The shooting dates for the inserts I did with LO 21 were:
12-14 January 1972 “Last Target” with Michael Redgrave and Ann Todd.
Locations in Chenies and Latimer
27-28 January 1972 White Waltham
3-4 February 1972 Cambridge Road, Kilburn NW6. 2
4-25 February 1972 Norland Square, W11
8-9 May 1972 50 Woodville Gardens, EalingW5
I also found some photos of the first shoot with Ann Todd sitting on the bench. Martin Wyatt on camera, mounted on what I’m pretty sure is a Chapman Titan crane.
Alan Taylor
Thanks, Robin, for supplying those pictures and dates, it’s filled in a lot of blanks for me and I can now put dates, locations and programmes to some of the events I remember. For instance, a while ago I told a tale of a lighting electrician using old single core wiring, who extended the run in a panic by using cables with the wrong colour code. Either he or one of the other electricians ended up shorting out the system and about a metre of heavy-duty cable and brass connectors vaporised instantly, amazingly without causing serious injury.
That happened on 3rd Feb 1972 in Kilburn.
Mike Minchin
I was certain I recognised the series with Rupert Davies as linkman, and I knew I worked on some episodes. But trawling my diaries didn’t throw up anything called “Baker’s Dozen”. The Web reference from Alan Taylor helped me find three double studio days labelled “The Man Outside” (so the re-titling must have happened quite early). We knew that we were not shooting the whole play, and the rest would be done on location with electronic cameras (EMI 2001s?).
The days were:
14-15 March 1972 (TC1)
14-15 April 1972 (TC3)
5-6 May 1972 (TC3).
I was no.3 on Crew 10. I don’t know which crew(s) did the other 10 episodes, but that May episode was undoubtedly Episode 13, with Ron Moody. His co-star was the lovely Anna Cropper, and she was supposed to be blind. They ended up in bed together, and she played the scene topless. We weren’t trying to be lascivious – it was a very gentle scene – but it got to the point where I had a shot where I could either frame a nipple, or carefully exclude it. Both versions of the shot looked good to me, so it was really someone else’s decision as to whether we saw the nipple or not. On the dress run I did include it – expecting some comment. None came. At the post-supper notes session I asked: “Do we see nipples this year, or not?” At last I got a response: “No”. So that’s the way I shot it.
The next day but one (8th May), I took my 5-year-old (+ 2 months) younger daughter to 50 Woodville Gardens, where the OB crew had taken over the kitchen (they may have used more of the house, but I wasn’t aware of it). Becky and I took up a position, quiet as mice, while Ron did some clattering around in the kitchen and then exited with a tray (as if to go upstairs) through the room where we were. It was clear that we were in the way, so I left.
Robin Sutherland
Also spotted while browsing my 1972 diary two other unusual shows I did while on LO 21. They were location inserts into “The Engelbert Humperdinck Show” with Engelbert and The Young Generation dancers. First location was Horsted Keynes station on the Bluebell Railway, renamed ‘Generation Gap’ where a steam train “driven” by Engelbert steamed into the platform, all the doors opened and the Young Generation poured onto the platform and performed a dance routine fronted by Engelbert singing. It was directed by none other than Stewart Morris and did not go well with problems with the speed and stopping of the train which couldn’t hit its marks! [Ed: see I seem to recall poor Stan Appel was production manager trying to reset it all endless times which took ages. The final straw was when he told Stewart that the engine needed to refill its water tanks at the other end of the line and it would take an hour. Stewart exploded but we got it all done in the end. I can still recall him shouting “Gun the train, Stan – faster!” over talkback.
[Ed: see here for more detail.]
Second location was, unbelievably, the fully working main assembly line at Vauxhall Motors in Luton, with the same performers doing a song and dance routine around the moving assembly line, much to the interest of the car workers and the detriment of the quality of the cars they were assembling. Many were leaking or wouldn’t start when they came off the line! I think that one went ok but wouldn’t get past Health and Safety these days.
David Newbitt
I worked on the studio end of the Young Generation shows through January and February 1972, initially in TVT but switched mid-February, first to TC1 then TC8. Hugh Barker was mixing of course, with Stewart being Stewart as per usual. Never saw nor knew anything of the location shoots other than seeing the finished inserts and thus find these pictures and anecdotes interesting and fascinating.
