Peter Combes

I feel that Eddie Stewart’s patience with us was extraordinary, I remember his politeness after two of us (one of them me) failed to lock a camera down properly on its pan/tilt head.   When the cameraman panned up during rehearsal, the camera slid right back and crashed on the floor.   Racks, who were well hidden away in the TV Theatre (TVT), asked about the rather strange composition, but reported that image quality was still very good.

Peter Cook

Here is another story related to gravity. During the first Gulf War LO21 was based for a few weeks at the MOD on the embankment. It may have been Colin Hazelwood’s camera, but somehow the camera, LDK14 perhaps, ended up off the shoulder, tripod of chair where it had been. When picked up the viewfinder tinkled prettily and the vision engineer sent it back to Kendal Avenue in a plastic bag. Written on the fault record label he had written ‘NO RASTER’. Bob in Vision Test Room, we were later told, failed to see the humour in this.

Much later in Westminster Abbey another piece of valuable equipment fell from the triphorium. It landed close to — wait for it– Isaac Newton’s grave. The cameraman involved was for a while nicknamed "Plummet".

Alec Bray

Studio G, Lime Grove.  Saturday for “Grandstand”.  CPS Emitrons on peds and the single Vinten motorised.  During the morning, one of the CPS Emitron cameras gently slid off the pan/tilt head of its ped and (quite slowly as I remember) descended to the floor.  Carried on working, though: back on its ped we carried on as if nothing had happened.

Alex Thomas

When the Philips  PC 60 camera first appeared at Acton, they were sent to the Peto Scott factory at Weybridge to be rebadged with the Peto Scott label so that the BBC would be thought to be spending licence money on British cameras.

Peto Scott was owned by Philips.

On an OB, a member of the public wanting to display his engineering genius, came up to my Philips PC 60 and measured the diameter of the two Mk 4 cables.

He turned to his chums and said “I was right! It’s using 16 mm and not 35 mm.”

I said nothing.

Peter Cook

A member of the public once remarked that the PC60 camera with 2 black ‘hoses’ must be water cooled.

Another amusing story about ‘clever clogs’ mistaking the purpose of cables relates to the CRE Safari. Lou Lewis was once stopped by the boys in blue for allegedly speeding, when speed limits for trailers were comparatively low. They sent him on his way with a warning. They remarked that at least his trailer had hydraulic brakes, not realising that his trailer was the genny and the black ‘pipe’ was electrical.