Barbara Slater
Daz Abberstein
Anyone who makes Barbara Slater (the Scream Queen of VT 14) squirm is a hero in my book!
Jeff Booth
Barbara Jane Slater OBE is now BBC Director of Sport.
I worked with her in VT. She appeared in Xmas tapes etc.
Lovely to work with.
John Howell, Barry Bonner
At her best doing cartwheels across the control room!
That was her entertainment for us in the control room in Seoul! Unfortunately no cameras to hand!
Jeff Booth
Memories of Barbara Slater doing a walking handstand in VT9 with a tray of tea on her feet! (long story!).
Tony Crake
She could be full of so many bright ideas at once in an OB VT truck that the van couldn’t cope. On one of the golf matches she had this crazy idea of selecting different cameras to go "iso" to a separate VT by a vision only matrix… trouble: No sound… We complained after several of these mute replays.. Then I had an eager young VT engineer asking me for CL FX feeds of each hole! Clearly he had no idea of what a large undertaking this was … but I gave him what I had that was easily available (this in the middle of the transmission ! The next lot of replays from VT were even stranger with clicks, crackles and bangs all over them…. the VT guy was trying to keep up with Barbara’s lighting fingers by chasing her on his Sound jackfield!
Pretty soon a "stop was put to all that nonsense"!
David Denness
Meanwhile in the truck next door, TVi servicing ABC USA, for the mute holes we had a keyboard sampler so depending on the type of shot was the note you keyed.
Derek Martin
I won’t hear a word said against Barbara Slater – always a pleasure to work with…(ahem!) What wonderful memories working on the golf with Barbara, Harold Anderson and Fred Viner!
Tony Crake
Well she calmed down a bit…. VT guys seemed to love her… just ‘could’ be a little bit of nuisance to Sound.
I did Some PSC/Sports Unit type shoots with her and it all went very well with no Histrionics at all….
Mike Giles, Daz Abberstein
I remember her husband, Mark Schofield, well, after giving him a bollocking on John Howell’s behalf in Mexico.
He went off to TWI or something like.
Fred Viner
Peter Cook
Back in about 1987 we were doing a golf tournament at Woburn. I was commuting a lightweight camera on a buggy and was flagged down by Ian Gibb. He was carrying a big sign on a stick which said "Beware of misdirected shots" It had come from near a tee. It was a new location just below the steps of CMCCR at a time when Fred was either going in or out and was impossible not to notice. I do not think it amused him.
Another Fred story which Colin Hazelwood used to tell, probably a Wimbledon tale, related to ‘direction’. I hope I get this right. Fred continually would say "smash in 4" when wanting a close up. Colin interpreted this as a compliment – smashin’ 4-. and stayed zoomed out. The command was repeated with similar non response. Humour bypass was again in evidence.
Perhaps a funnier tale was at Wentworth, where Fred had been spotted filling his car boot. He found when he wanted to drive home that he had a flat tyre; what a coincidence. A number of very helpful chaps from the crew just happened to be there and offered, nay insisted, on helping him put on his spare, which was of course in the boot underneath all the hospitality booze which had so recently found its way there and which had to be offloaded to get to the wheel!
David Beer
Another Fred Vinerism which caused much amusement at Carl Wilson’s expense when he was a junior cameraman in Manchester, occured when we were covering golf at Fulford near York, and Carl was up a hoist on, I think, the 17th, (made famous by Bernard Langer’s famous up-a-tree shot in 1981). On this occasion he had to keep dropping down as the tee shots were landing behind him and he was between the ball and the green. After about the 6th request to come down Fred shouted, with much exasperation, “What the hell is the matter with him, has he got a weak bladder?”
The same OB was memorable after Carl had complained to the EM that he thought his fertility might be at risk as his hoist position was almost in line with a radio links dish. That was solved when the engineers presented him with a pair of tinfoil underpants! As far as know they worked.
Patrick Heigham
Now who was on the hoist cam that focussed up on a couple bonking in the long grass!
This was Racing – what were the odds on who came first! (Horses – horses!)
Seriously, though, working for NBC at the pre-Wimbledon week, I was taken up on the massive Simon crane and was terrified – because you could not see what was holding you up. (the arm being below you). So – respect for the guy on that camera.
David Denness
However, for the recent several years that camera has been on a hot head remote.
Len Shorey
Parick Heigham
Ah! Lovely Len – he taught me a lot about balancing jazz and LE bands. He could have a blast at you if he was pissed off, but five minutes later, it was back to square one – he’d said his piece and trusted that you’d taken it in.
As a Gram Op in the ’60’s I sometimes had a short day. I discovered that TVT had the Woody Herman band in for “Jazz 625”, Len mixing.
I phoned the sound gallery and asked if I could come and hover.
After the final rehearsal, on which Len always ran a tape, the brass section asked if they could have a listen. (I was lurking in the gallery). After a run of a couple of numbers, there was a deathly silence. I could see that Len was a bit disturbed. Then the lead trumpet said:
"That’s how we sound. Why can’t we get that in the recording studio?"
I think they were about to offer Len $$$$ to come and be their engineer.
Later, I was in the wings of TVT, happily watching the show, when Woody was introducing the soloists of the bank on a hand mic. during a particular number.
I knew the number and knew that he had his own clarinet bit coming up. I could see that he was looking around for a sound assistant to take the mic off him. No-one. I took a quick look at the transmission monitor, luckily showing a CU of a player, shot across the stage, rescued the mic and disappeared off-prompt side.
No one noticed! I told Len later!
And I wasn’t even on that show!
Bernard Lodge
Alfred Barber
Bernard was a graphic designer was (or is) a BAFTA winner. He pioneered much modern BBC graphics of the nineteen sixties and seventies. Went to Canterbury college of art as a lecturer.
Roger Bunce
Bernard worked on the film “Alien”.
Warwick Fielding
Geoff Hawkes
I was sad to hear of Warwick’s passing. He was one of those genial characters who just got on with the job without being a prima-donna and as far as I know was universally liked. When those of his generation are gone, the world will be a poorer place. Let’s hope that some may say the same of ours too,
Peter Cook
I remember Warwick having an attachment to OBs. Pleasant man and played a mean game of squash.
John Staples
Dave Mundy
So many stories about John Staples, this flawed genius! He liked to mix with his belt loosened, one day the wall phone rang in the sound gallery and John, being alone, leapt up to answer it. Gravity did its work and the production gallery dissolved in giggles.
Another lucky escape for me and my No.2 Wilf (now Wendy) Rath, John took us to Biggin Hill for a trip in a light aircraft. (Un)fortunately, the weather closed in and we were forced to spend the afternoon in the mess – much safer, although John’s driving was challenging to say the least.
Finally, John lived very close to me and wanted help with his rented Tandberg colour TV. I owned one and knew a lot about it. His came from Granada TV rentals, when they did decent TVs. Unfortunately, while trying to converge the TV, he had managed to drop it on its back and shatter the CRT PCB and then proceeded to rewire it!
He also had a box room full of world-band radios and other electronic goods from Headquarters and General. He would order things and then complain that they hadn’t arrived and was sent replacement items. What a man!
His wife was Rhodesian and they moved back there – the only white man ever to do so!
Sadly, I believe he was killed in an aeroplane accident.
