Platinum Party  4^th June

Alec Bray

I bet dear old Mike Bond would have been thoroughly chuffed to bits by this….

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Graham Maunder

Quite by chance working on a programme today where we are with Karen, Michael’s daughter and an original Paddington Bear that was made by Jeremy Clarkson’s mum of all people!!!

Needless to say Karen was very chuffed with the Jubilee appearance!

Anyone on here work with Michael? What crew was he on?

 

Peter Neill 

I was on his crew (17) for a few months just after I came back from my TO course – so early 1966.

I think I’d already gravitated towards Sound but the office was still putting me through the system. 

And I found this picture on the interweb

 

John Vincent

Crew 17

Peter Horton I remember.

Mike was a gentle lovely man.

When I became a Camera Supervisor I remembered how he ran the crew.

And Dave Mutton.

Jim Atkinson showed me how not to do it!

All have left their mark. 

The Herbs did have a nod to some characters at TC.

Dill was Martin Dilly. Bayleaf was Bill Bailiff, Parsley was a manager of something!

I’m sure our collective memory will come up with the rest.

We are blessed with some good memories.

 

Barry Bonner

I was on Mike’s crew (17) when I joined the BBC in January 1965, and I was there until I went to Evesham in May. 

There were so many new recruits, I think it was 1983, that half of us were delayed going to Evesham as they couldn’t cope. So TO21 and TO22 were actually the same intake.

Mike was a real gentleman and kept an eye on us newbies! He was very keen that we got our “hands on” straight away. 

[Ed: Agreed!]

 

Alec Bray

January 1963 – three days only for induction and then to Crew 7.  The senior cameraman said “Hello, I’m Mike.  We call each other by first names here”.  What a change from school where it had been surnames only!!

Mike Bond looked after this wet-behind-the-ears naive just ex-schoolboy, and I must say how much I liked and respected him.

 

Graham Maunder

Thanks for that Alec – Karen was really proud to hear what a good man her Dad was to you.

 

Dave Newbitt

Agreement all round. I was on Mike’s crew for a spell and above all else he was just the nicest and kindest man you could ever meet. I think at the time it was crew 7 rather than 17 and if my memory serves me accurately the SA1 was Derek Saunders who resigned in favour of going off to run a pub in Cornwall with his wife. Anyone know how he fared?

On reflection it might have been a post office/village shop rather than a pub. Memory!

 

Graham Maunder 

Thanks to everyone who replied – some e-mails arrived whilst I was still with Karen, and she was really happy to know how highly her Dad was regarded.

I will pass on other e-mails (and the picture) to her.

Interesting day – part of a DNA series I’m doing for ITV that’s destined to hit the screens in September I believe.

 

Peter Fox

I joined Mike Bond’s Crew 7 in November of 1963, and Ron Green was his number 2. In just a month or two we did a La Traviata, with Geoff Dudley and I track/swinging Mike on the Mole, and a bit later a Nina and Frederik show in the TVT. Mike was indeed a calm and brilliant cameraman coping with relative novices (just over a year’s experience) with aplomb, and cheerfully holding court in the bar on a regular basis too.

Anyone who worked with Mike had fond memories of being on his crew I left all too soon to join Ken Major’s brand-new Crew 16 in a rapidly expanding BBC just pre BBC2 in February of 1964 and shortly afterwards Mike himself formed Crew 17 leaving a 34-year-old Ron Green in charge of Crew 7 for the next 26 years.

“… In just a month or two we did a La Traviata, with Geoff Dudley and I track/swinging Mike on the Mole…”

From BBC Genome:

I can’t remember any details now; it was probably a bit too scary for much of it to sink in. I looked down the list of staff but there are no techies that might have confirmed that it was a TVC studio production. I doubt the BBC would have mounted an OB so soon after a studio production, so it is quite likely the same one recorded on 2inch tape. December 1963 is mostly likely studio date because I was gone well before April.

 

Tony Briselden

I was on Crew 7 in the 1950s and early 1960s when Mike Bond was on the crew – a good friend.

I remember tracking him on a children’s programme which he had written. I don’t think the director – whoever it was – knew!

 

David Brunt

Would that be Paddington on “Jackanory” in early 1966?

 

Karen Jankel

Mike Bond’s daughter, author Karen Jankel, has spoken about how delighted the family has been about the Paddington Bear and the Queen sequence:

  

and finally ….

Eleanor Tomlinson sketched the Queen, Paddington, a corgi and bunting – and the picture went viral on social media!

Alec Bray

…[Eleanor’s] illustration captures – in my mind – the essence of the Mike Bond that I remember…  it tells [us] a lot about Mike Bond…

 

Eleanor Tomlinson

I grew up adoring Paddington and the older TV series. It must’ve been marvellous to have worked with the man himself! I would be absolutely honoured for you to include my illustration on this tribute page.

Copyright © Eleanor Tomlinson 2022   used with permission.

Eleanor’s website:   https://www.eleanortomlinsonart.co.uk/

Eleanor Tomlinson is an award-winning artist and illustrator based near South Cave, East Yorkshire. She has been selling her artworks and taking on commissions since her mid-teens. Eleanor’s artwork has travelled across the UK and the world.

If you would like a high-quality print of Eleanor’s picture of Paddington, please contact Eleanor via her website.

More tributes to Mike Bond can be found here: