Stories from Mike Cotton


I only drink now for medicinal purposes – the beer flushes out the kidneys and the red wine is good for the heart, in fact the diabetic diet sheet I was given allows me more alcohol then I normally drink! I have given up drinking and driving as I spilt so much going round the corners!

Which reminds me of the 1 1/2 hour bladder syndrome. After a good supper break we returned to the Greenwood Theatre for a recording of “Question Time” which normally was all over in about an hour and a half, but a fault on the recording VT which was at an outside company meant a late start to the recording. It was with great relief that after 2 hours we finally managed to make a dash for the loo.


Mike went up to the top of the East Tower at Television Centre when it was brand new and took some pictures.
I’ve joined them together into a panorama, which works really well.

The panorama starts in the middle – use the arrow keys to move from side to side.
Users of Microsoft Internet Explorer will need to click on the pictures first to activate. This isn’t some special security system,
but the result of an argument over patent rights and fees.

See, from left to right –
Queen’s Park Ranger’s football ground
Hammersmith Park (just) looking new and clean.
No forest of satellite dishes on the roof of TC, as they hadn’t been invented
The part built skeleton of the Spur, which was later followed by Stages 5 and 6
Behind this, the White City athletics stadium, now long demolished and turned into BBC buildings.
That wooden “temporary” office building by the front gate, where I had an office for a while 15 years later.
White City tube station
Centre House, though it wasn’t then, because it wasn’t owned by the BBC
The plant hire company – all those red cranes and stuff.
The District Line viaduct
The mostly waste ground surrounding parts of the Central Line. The history is here and here.


Oh – and it was Mike’s Golden Wedding anniversary this year – Congratulations!!



 



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