One day in the summer of 1970 Crew 9 were expecting a standby. This meant we did not have to come in. The phone rang and we were scheduled to do a show. We all moaned like hell, then the vision mixer (Ron Istead) said “It’s a nude ballet” – “Yeah pull the other one Ron” In the event it was a nude ballet, just as Ron had mentioned. It was called THE RELAY and featured the New York Contemporary Ballet, director/chorographer, Alwyn Nicholi. Apparently, the BBC was the only broadcasting organisation that was willing and able to televise it, and had the technical facilities that Alwyn required. Viewing and observation rooms were sealed off, there were commissionaires on all doors and our day commenced, starting with the directors briefing to the crew. There was a film made of us making the programme, I`ll call it a trailer (this was also transmitted), the Studio Director was Bill Fitzwalter, a really talented and great guy. There were several never to be forgotten moments, just before we started a female dancer did a flashing routine jumping out from behind a flat showing all. Whilst she was behind the set I asked my tracker, Dave Skerry (I was on the NIKE) to track in. When she appeared again there was a huge fully frontal! We then pursued her for a short distance. The rest of the cast roared with laughter, they had not approved of her antics. From that moment we had it made, there was great rapport between the cast and crew, more importantly no embarrassment. Bill’s briefing was full of useful info, again increasing the rapport with all in the studio. I think we were in a Rehearse/Record situation. The show was recorded without embarrassment or incident. We were all working so hard that after twenty minutes we hardly noticed the nudity. although I can vividly remember calling one of the dancers over to give her a note, saying to myself “Look at her face! Don’t look down”. I think a make-up girl summed things up quite nicely “I’ve no problem with full body make ups, but not at this time of day!” I think one of the male dancers ‘tried it on’ we were quite prepared to Mole him. Fortunately for him, it was not necessary. My crew on Cam 1 NIKE was Dave Carter swinger, Dave Skerry tracker. John Dean on Cam2 MPRC (Mole) Dave Jervis swinger Pete Langford tracker. I cannot remember who else was on cameras, possibly Brian Parker and Dave Whitaker. I think Clive Thomas was lighting, Ron Istead Vision Mixer. There was a controlled photo-call and all visiting photographers were given a chance, however they only had limited viewpoints, so I volunteered my services from the NIKE and took many shots for them, I believe that John Dean did so from the MPRC several were published in photo mags, but only one gave me a credit The Relay and the filmed trailer was shown on Whit Sunday. We had guests from America staying with us, they made no comment. However I became quite notorious in quiet Marlow Bottom, I received several dinner invites, and had to relate Bill’s briefing, slightly embellished. Several shop-keepers in Marlow and High Wycombe commented to Pauline my wife “Your husbands got a ****** good job aint he?” and “I’m surprised you let him go to work!” Those were the days. A really great show! I was talking to someone at the IBC last Sept, whilst manning the Guild stand. He gave me his card, it named him as William Fitzwalter, Charle Sturt University Australia. I mentioned that I had made a programme called the Relay with a Bill Fitzwalter in the seventies “Stone me!! Paul” we embraced each other and chatted about our ground-braking show, after thirty years it seemed like yesterday.

Braden’s Week In the early 70s Crew 9 were televising Bradens Week from Studio 7 at TVC. Director was Simon Wadleigh. During the recording my zoom developed a fault, having a complete mind of its own, zooming in and out and defocusing, I was at the time covering Bernie, and racks shouted down the talkback “Can you cope?” to which I replied “No!” Bernie was exposing some corruption or mal-administration and had a line like “Councillor Bloggs said * *** **** etc”Suddenly an engineer (the late Joe Starrie) shouted “Camera One can’t cope” (The practice was to only wear one headphone, usually over our left ear, the other was loose fitting not over the other ear) the sound leached out over the Studio, and Bernie instead of delivering the rehearsed line said “Councillor Bloggs said Camera One can’t cope!” taking it as a prompt. This bought the place down, the audience, and especially the Crew were in hysterics. We waited whilst the fault was cleared and recommenced recording. After the show Bernie was completely mortified, he made a personal apology to me I told him it was a good laugh, and not to worry, there were tears in his eyes, and he asked me to come to hospitality afterwards. I went and he pressed a bottle of BBC Scotch on me, he insisted I took it. There was no need. He was a super professional, quiet and gentle, we were all shocked when he was given the bums rush. One person on the production team did complain, Yes you are right! but that is another story, however it did me no harm at all, and the crew also benefited.