There must be many reminiscences of classic phrases uttered on talkback, or on transmission for that matter.
Mike Giles
From the days of mechanical roller caption stands, with push buttons on the side for go and stop, I fondly recall a sport producer, initials JR, thanking the scene guy for getting the closing roller timing right on rehearsal, but beseeching him to stop the roller “without the little jerk at the end!” His antipathy towards the programme’s diminutive editor was well known and the SCR erupted! I can’t speak for others, but I don’t think many missed the point. (Not sure why the cabled remote control wasn’t being used on this occasion ~ perhaps it was a set-up!)
Another eminent sport producer, who was inclined to set up complex sequences during programme openings, once required half a dozen different simultaneous actions and gave the instruction, “When I say cut, the vision mixers wipe and everyone else does what ever it is that they do.” We all knew exactly what was required, but it’s a good job we weren’t working to rule!
And one from transmission that I don’t think ever found its way into Coleman Balls: a Chinese high jumper who was expected to gain a medal at the Seoul Olympics, I believe, had just failed at his second attempt and whilst he paused before his third jump on a cold day, we went briefly to some other event. When we came back to the high jump, the Oriental gentleman was rocking on his heels, deep in thought and wearing his track suit. The QR DC thereupon made the priceless observation “Now we see the chink in his armour.” Sitting at the sound desk, I found it hilarious, but I don’t think anyone else was listening properly, so I laughed alone! No idea whether the third jump was clear, though.
Dave Mundy
Another famous story was of the long jumper and a very keen AP in VT was anxious to show his man, off tape, but the start of the 100 metres was due at any time and having had a false start he persuaded Martin Hopkins to slot in the long jump before the restart. Unfortunately, the long jumper was rocking backwards and forwards at the start of his run-up (as they do!) and the 100 meter men were down on their blocks waiting for the off when the AP was heard to say "Jump you bugger, JUMP!". Luckily, he did just before the starting gun. Hoppo growled down talkback – " ****, see me afterwards!". Poor old Ken (ooops!)
Patrick Heigham
There were great sound guys with an impish sense of humour…. Bob Foley was attached to me for Grams Training and was handling a couple of shows on his own. I was idly commenting on various sound effects:
"More b/g effects in this Chinese restaurant scene, Bob."
"Ah", he says, "Quiet chinking in the background!"
Then,
“Can you make that church bell more Mexican, perhaps?”
Bob: "Ding-a, Dong-a?"
Geoff Fletcher
When I was cameraman at Anglia TV I applied for an attachment to train as a Unit Manager. It was supposed to last three months, but they kept me on, and it was actually five months until I went back to cameras, so I was a bit rusty to say the least! The first programme I worked on I had a tricky crab around a desk to a presenter seated behind it and I mistimed the move, so there was a noticeable lack of smoothness about midway through the shot. When the sequence was over, I went on talkback to the director and said "I’m sorry about the jerk on 2 Pete." The reply came back "So am I dear boy, so am I, but I’m sure he’ll improve!" to gales of mirth all round. I’m still reminded of it over beers at Anglia old boys’ gatherings!
Tony Carter
Anybody who ever worked at AP must surely remember the genial Portuguese director universally known as Gilly. His command of English was very good, but occasionally the subtleties of the language defeated him.
During a rehearsal for the 9 o’clock News the gallery was particularly noisy and hectic and in desperation Gilly finally shouted "Silence, silence in the gallery! Every time I open my mouth some fool speaks".
Cue even louder uproar.
Tony Crake
So many little "bon mots" occurred on OB Sports it is hard to list them all.
Some of Martin Hopkins’ were the best….
Doug Whittaker and I were sitting on the CMCCR Desk one afternoon at Wimbledon.. intermittent rain was in progress.. all sorts of bits and pieces of VT being played in to fill in time and keep on the air just in case the sun came out… We came out of a bit of old interview and it was a difficult ‘out’ as the tape actually cut to another louder item.
Messy!
Martin said nothing.. he knew where the trouble lay and it wasn’t to his right hand side…..
After about 30 secs or so when VT obviously thought they had got away with it…….
Martin leaned forward and pressed his direct SW TB key to VT Control.. "Martin to VT.. Were Sound advised of that incredibly quick out ?"
(A very long emphasis on the ‘advised’ that only Martin could do !)
A long delay.. we all savoured the hidden panic in VT…. after 20 seconds so Barbara (VT Supremo) Slater replied all of a fluster… “Er sorry… no Martin.. No.. er.. time to preview it.. sorry".
Long delay from Martin "Thank you VT!" There was a delicious silence .. Martin half turned his head to us and smiled… Great Moment!
Daz Abberstein
Anyone who makes Barbara Slater (the Scream Queen of VT 14) squirm is a hero in my book!
<< see Personalities the crew >>>
Barry Bonner
On a “Grandstand”:
Hoppo: "Sound, I’m not hearing Des (Lynam) on his prehear."
Me: "He’s not saying anything!"
Hoppo: "That’ll be it then!”
Vernon Dyer
A classic, not from the Beeb but from YTV in its studio drama heyday:
We were doing a courtroom scene, and a floor-lamp on its stand had been left on set, so some of the jury couldn’t take their places.
Director: “Are we an extra light in the jury?”
FM: “No, but we’re a light extra!”
Dave Buckley
Before joining the department, one of my colleagues in TV Training had done a stint directing the 9pm news.
He ran the start of one programme using Star Trek commands! However, he had prepped TK and the vision mixer as to what he was going to do beforehand and what each ST command stood for in production language, eg “fire phasers” = “run TK”.
Pat Heigham
I recall working on a programme "Wait a Minim". This was a South African stage production and the BBC lent the technical facilities to Dutch TV to record a studio version for their network.
The Dutch Director was supplied with a cartoon strip which showed what ’tilt-up/down’ ‘pan right/left’ etc was in English.
I later wondered if this was actually necessary as meeting and working in Holland later, I found that most Dutch people spoke perfect English!
Was it still the routine to paste up the cameramen’s names above the monitor bank, so they could be referred to personally?
There was the system whereby the Sound Supervisor could inject his T/B mic into the feed to warn boom ops of the wide shot coming up etc. and I believe that it was Dave Hawthorn who developed ‘inter-boom’ t/b, so that on a multi-boom set, we ops could discuss between us, who was better positioned to cover what dialogue (we did tell the SS!).
Alan Stokes
“Breakfast Time”, before News took over…
Lime Grove studio E Sound Control, on air, live as ever. Yours truly in the chair, Stuart MacDonald directing. There had been a change to the sequence of events at the regional Opt In following local news. The normal sequence of events had previously been:
“Opt In”,
“Run VT”,
cue live voice over VT effects.
It was now:
“Opt In”
"Run VT",
– the complete package with voice-over now comes from VT.
During the Opt, Stuart, very clearly over talkback, said, "Sound, don’t forget that this whole sequence is now pre-recorded." – "Yes, Stuart". At least twice more, Stuart reminds me, and everybody else, about the change. Simultaneously, I was being slightly distracted by a commotion behind me, about what I cannot remember, but it was all a bit hectic. We approach the Opt, Stuart stands VT by. There followed this sequence:
Stuart: “Stand by VT”
‘BUZZ’
Stuart: “Opt in, opt in, Run VT”
I fade up VT sound. There is a rather longer than normal pause after zero on the VT effects, before the voice over is cued. Having not totally been concentrating on the talkback from the director, I panicked and thought, "oh ****", live voice over, and proceeded to fade up the presenter’s mic. Fade up Frank Bough. Sound of distant voice, spill from foldback of the VT which has the voice over packaged. My panic starts to grow. "Oh, it must be (name of next presenter)". Spill problem still present. There were various other guests/presenters sculling around. I am furiously going through the pre-hears and cannot confirm which is speaking. So, last chance, I fade up all the presenters, expecting to confirm who is chatting and fade the others out. Result? A HUGE sound of studio atmos and spill from foldback. I still can’t confirm the speaker but realise that I have the VT sound up. "That can’t be right!"
Who remembers the "..half way up, I met the barrel coming down!…" line? It felt rather like that.
Stupidly, I now faded out the VT sound. All that was left was a big pile of studio atmos followed by "Cue Frank…" etc.
I know that many of us found it difficult to wake up for such early programmes but this seemed a rather extreme way of getting ‘black booked’.
The whole thing was probably only 15-30 seconds but it felt like a lifetime then.
After the next main VT had been run, Stuart, very calmly, said, "All right in sound, Alan?" "Yes thank you, Stuart."
Not another word was said.
The second Sound Supervisor, I think it may have been Dick Chamberlain (lovely man of happy memory), just appeared over my shoulder and said, "That was very very funny, watching your face as the whole pile just grew."
Peter Neill
During one of several sparks disputes in the 1970s we were attempting to record a drama using houselights only. I don’t think anyone believed it would be transmittable, but we had to go through the motions. After about half an hour Head of Drama or somesuch made the decision to abandon. TM presses TB button: “Sorry chaps, Bad light stopped play”.
Tony Grant
(Heard but not on talback)
Whilst doing PSC out of the Grove, I was rushed off to do a quick interview outside on the street with Ken Livingstone. No idea what it was about, but we had a researcher sent out, who had obviously never done this before, but asked all the right questions during the i/v, but for an editing shot, he turned to me and said, “I want a 2 shot without me in it.” Ken (being media savvy) collapsed with laughter whilst I tried to explain to poor researcher the basics, and I think I eventually persuaded him to accept a huge wide O/S 2s from down the road, so that he could have been anybody.
Alan Stokes
Heard but not on talkback. We were de-rigging a programme and there was this almighty shriek, the like of which I’ve never heard since, when a member of the sound crew crouched down to retrieve a cable or mic or something, and impaled himself on a C-stand. I don’t remember his exact words but they were not polite.
Hugh Sheppard
Roll back to the 1966 World Cup, Alan Mouncer directing at Goodison Park, Everton. Portugal v North Korea. Bryan ‘Ginger’ Cowgill i/c in London and self in the makeshift FCV at the ground.
During rehearsal, team captions ordered up during the opening sequence. Portugal OK, but the North Korean one didn’t please Bryan. “Where’s the 12th man?” he shouted over talkback, “Come on Alan. Get it right. ‘Oos the 12th man?”
By the next run-through, Alan had got Wurmser’s man to dutifully complete the caption with ’12th man: Shau Tin Ginge.’
“Thank you Alan” says Ginger, “’bout time”.
Everton smirks all-round!
PS. Portugal won 5-3 having been 0 – 3 down; Eusebio scored 4.
Geoff Fletcher
Another Cowgill / “Grandstand” TB memory. Cowgill always had ITV o/p up on an off air monitor in the gallery. One Saturday afternoon he spent forever bawling at the OB director on some distant Rugby match about the size of his close-up shots. "Bigger close ups – get me bigger close ups!" and "Why can’t you get your close ups as big as ITV?" only less polite. We were all sick of hearing it, and it got worse and worse. Eventually, the TM lost it and somewhat forcibly pointed out to the Ginger Whinger that any idiot could see that the BBC OB close ups were much the same size as the ITV ones, it was just that the ITV monitor was bigger than any of the others in the production stack! Smiles all around downstairs, including the great DC.
Alan Machin
Not heard on talkback but on the grapevine, so may have been embroidered along the way….
When Ginger was Controller of BBC1 (1973-1977), the Music and Arts people wanted to do a documentary about Diaghilev’s Ballet Russes. Fearing Bryan’s antipathy to the Arts they pitched it as a documentary about Nijinsky and got the commission. Vaslav Nijinsky had been principal dancer and choreographer with the Ballet Russes, but Nijinsky was also the name of a famous thoroughbred racehorse and stud at the time.
I can’t remember if Ginger had a sense of humour or not?
Dave Buckley
I was playing-in VT inserts from the Woodstock Grove studio to a producer’s assistants training production in a TVC studio.
For reverse buzz, I would cut from VT bars to a capped up studio camera, but one evening, getting a bit bored, I uncapped a camera and pointed it through the window into the gallery (the studio and gallery were on the same level).
At the next “standby VT”, I cut to the camera, waved, and cut back to bars. There was a short pause down TB followed by laughter!
Another ‘jape’ when doing such play-ins was to switch on the edge modulator on the vision mixer and modulate one of the VT colour bars with the TB from TVC. If I really got bored, there were windows around the studio (which were covered with heavy internal shutters which could be opened). One window gave a good view of the roundabout at the pointed end of Shepherds Bush green. Zooming in to just the roundabout, I would insert a new lamp-post through the VM, and even modulate the edge as with VT bars!
Oh happy days…….
Squawk Box
Tony Crake
I seem to dimly (very dimly) remember doing some early bit of Editec drama series (possibly "Brett" with Patrick Allen and Hannah Gordon ) where it became a bit time wasting to have only " Yes/No” buzzes back from VT … all that discussion about edit points (yawn yawn … as far as the tudio floor was concerned!).
The TM2, some enterprising chap who had been a VT chap (I think) suddenly announced "We need VT to have a squawk box!" He disappeared off and reappeared ( later ) and we all heard a voice (as far as I recall) never heard before.. the actual VT operator on the machine !
When I went to OBs, apparently they had never had the buzzers, only a real person talking from the van next door! Much easier !
