Dave Mutton
(see also: Wood Norton Hall 1961 – 1964).
Alex Thomas
I worked with Dave Mutton in Lime Grove TK from October 1959 until summer of 1960 apart from 13 weeks at ETD. I still remember that Dave had very large hands but could lace up a 16mm Cintel TK machine with amazing dexterity.
When the TC telecine machines became operational in June/July 1960, technical operators were no longer needed so we transferred en masse to Tech Ops. Studios.
He had been a policeman before joining BBC and was married to Iris.
He kindly lent me £75 to buy a Jowett Jupiter sports car. I did pay him back
Owning a Jowett stood me in very good stead when I went to Tel. OBs at Wembley in 1965 as Ben Shaw was EiC Services and owned a Jowett Javelin. The mechanical workshop was all geared up for skimming brake drums etc.
Brian White
I believe that Dave Mutton, Jeff Tindale and others transferred across around November 1960, and looking at my earliest Crew List Dave Mutton was DO3 on Crew 2 on 01/05/1962.
Pat Heigham, Dave Plowman
Yes, I certainly would not choose to tangle with Dave Mutton! He was the mole swinger on Crew 3 in the early ‘=1960s in theTVT (“Billy Cotton Band Show”, “Black and White Minstrel Show” and “Crackerjack”). He didn’t need to ‘swing’ the Mole – just chuck the bucket from hand to hand. 😉
Brian White
I believe that there may be a bit of confusion here re the mole swinger on those particular Crew 3 shows being the late lamented ‘gentle giant’ Dave Mutton.
I transferred from LG Engineering on 5/11/1959, stayed for nearly 3 years and remember steering and then driving the Mole with Eric Furze up front and the swinger was Mick Hughes. He was a ‘devil may care’ large lad whose main interest was the theatre and who soon left us for the wider world.
I BELIEVE ( and am open for correction) that this is the same Mick Hughes (not Mike H) who rapidly became a top theatre Lighting Designer all over the country. Wikipedia ref.
All this doesn’t exclude your scenario – I believe that Dave Mutton, Jeff Tindale and others transferred across around November 1960 and looking at my earliest Crew List, Dave M was DO3 on Crew 2 on 1/05/1962.
Geoff Fletcher
Dave Mutton – my Senior Cameraman on Crew T and Crew 14 in 1967/1968. A great bloke (in all ways!). I can confirm the mole comment – I was always a mole tracker but one day he tried me as a swinger with him on the front. I was useless, so he put me on the front and swung it himself to demonstrate how it should be done – exactly as described! I was sailing through the air effortlessly under Dave’s control. When I tracked him on a Heron and he was operating with the seat at right angles opposite the drive wheel side, we often had to have a spare bod stand on the opposite corner as the drive wheel lost traction because of his weight lifting it! Many happy memories from those days – for example, on “Les Miserables” in G one day, he had a make-up girl stand on his rather large shoes and danced her around the studio to much mirth from the rest of us. We could do with some mirth on that drama as it was so depressing to work on what with Michelle Dotrice selling her hair and losing her teeth etc. in her part – every week something awful! I also saw him carry a camera under each arm on a derig once. He always stood up for his lads if he thought someone was getting unfair stick – notably on at least two occasions on “24 Hours” as I recall. Much missed.
Alec Bray
By 1966, Dave Mutton was the Senior Cameraman on crew 14. I worked with him on “The Idiot”
Mike Cotton
I worked with Dave for about 12 years on crew 14, a gentle giant and you would never have known latterly that he was on dialysis.
There was the episode on a John Hurt play when he, John Hurt, came back after the supper break absolutely plastered and could hardly stand up. At 22:00 Dave asked for a "Time out" and he suggested that we didn’t overrun. The director said after he was glad we had done so as it saved him having to sack JH. One actor was disappointed as he played a doctor who had to intimately examine a lady patient.
Len Shorey
Pat Heigham
All I have is a tape of the sig. tune "Topsy Popsy", used at one time for TOTP, I think. Len mixed it and there were several overlays, probably since the musicians were doubling on different instruments.
I think I’ve got a recording of Len’s programme on The Dave Brubeck Quartet. (A “Jazz 625”, recently run on BBC 4). Interestingly, Len told me before he passed away, that he had been experimenting with various mic types and positions.
One other recording I have, a 15 ips first generation, is The Duke Ellington Band, balanced by Hugh Barker, in TC4. It was magic to listen on the monitor speaker in the control room, then to open the studio door and hear them live!
I still think the John Wilson MGM Tribute was the best – I heard via the PA on the show, that hearing it live, in rehearsal, was spine tingling! (apparently there were 1500 camera cuts in that broadcast).
I also think it’s a pity that the balance engineer is not personally credited this year. Something about equally sharing the blame, no doubt!
As sound balance is so subjective, I wonder if all balance engineers have perfect hearing. Due to rifle shooting, I have a 20db dip at 6KHz. therefore I might be dialling in EQ so that it sounds right to me! What does it sound like to Directors and Producers, are they blessed with perfect hearing? And as we get older, the top end goes – not sure I can hear the sizzle cymbal these days.
A good friend loves classical music, and it doesn’t matter to him whether he listens on a tinny tranny or the finest hi-fi. He knows what it sounds like from attending live concerts – so his brain is filling in, I suppose.
This brings me back to the days of the 1960s when a typical TV set speaker was attached to the TVC sound consoles, with a change-over switch to check what it sounded like on a grotty home set, but it was never, in my day, decreed that the signal should be adjusted so it sounded good on that. It was always delivered ‘the best it could be’ for the, then, few audience that had decent systems at home.
Charles Norton, currently looking after the BBC Archive, might know if there are any surviving music shows that Len might have balanced.
Hugh Sheppard
Many of us who had the good fortune to work alongside Len knew we were in the presence of one of the BBC’s finest.
Would it be feasible for those whose knowledge of the BBC shows he mixed, who have access to decent recordings to put together a compilation? Privately maybe, but there’s not a band or a soloist who would invoke copyright considerations, as they would surely all be delighted to have a copy.
“The Sound of Len Shorey” might be as a CD or an audio download only, but what pleasure it would give to so many aficionados!
Duncan Brown
Ian Hillson
It is my very sad duty to announce the death of Duncan Brown, that well known and highly respected ex-BBC Lighting Director.
I have started a web page here http://www.stld.org.uk/news.php?itemid=212.
Albert Barber
Duncan seemed to be indestructible like so many people I have respected, liked and enjoyed working with. I think our first time of working together was on “Play School” and then “PlayAway”. Possibly the last time was “EastEnders”.
Duncan was always kind and helpful and had a smile of encouragement whether you were green and inexperienced or older and perhaps wiser. Always a joy to work with as you knew it would be one area that you wouldn’t have to worry about and that quiet confident style would in turn make for a good team production.
I met Duncan after a few years as a freelance Director at the STLD where he didn’t look much different from working with him many years before.
Dave Mundy
I am really saddened by the news about Duncan. He was on my STO course 20 in 1966 and came over as a really nice guy. Just to remind everyone of him I have attached the picture of the course.
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Toby Hadoke
I have done a short obituary to Duncan on my blog – apologies for the “Doctor Who” slant but most people who are interested in what I write are “Doctor Who” fans. Thanks to Albert Barber and to Margot Hayhoe too:
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Duncan Brown RIP – Doctor Who lighting man dies
John Howell
I was Sound Supervisor on “The Leisure Hive” and there were many challenges for sound coverage but very few of them related to Duncan’s lighting. If I paid a visit to the Lighting Gallery we would end up talking motorbikes!
A realist who produced results that a perfectionist would envy.
Jeff Naylor
Duncan was a really nice guy and I remember watching him work and admiring what he did – Really good pictures and minimum fuss.
His parting advice when I left to light at “Brookside” – "Put a bit of half spun on everything and you’ll be fine".
Brian White
Duncan was a quiet, unassuming, thoroughly professional member of the Tech Ops fraternity.
Scrolling back through quite some time I recalled that Frank Rose immediately dubbed him “The Popstar” and this seemed to sum up this very young Adam Faith Lookalike who had just arrived.
Peter Massey
Dave Mundy
Peter was a lovely man and incredibly generous to all his colleagues. He was a superb instinctive director and very popular with the crews and his lads and lasses (I was one).
Albert Barber
Peter Massey was such an inspirational man and nice with it. When I was wondering what to do to further my days at the BBC I went to his office, then most doors were always open, and asked him. He kindly sat me down and said “Get on the full Drama Directors course, you can do it".
Such was the encouragement of our senior management in a BBC that was both generous and of a giving nature.
I got on the Film and TV drama courses and I suppose the rest is history.
Peter was liked by everyone I have spoken to. He was of that tradition we all aspired to, one that was good to his crews, someone who knew the job he was doing and knew and appreciated other people’s jobs and knew what they did too. A team man.
John Pilblad
Albert Barber
One of those “characters” that made working at the BBC special.
I met him selling Baked Potatoes at an OB (I don’t think he was working at the same time).
He was an excellent cameraman who could suddenly zoom in and get in focus on anything that moved. Didn’t always work to his advantage in drama. When he was on a four shot and someone got out a piece of paper he was spot on and in focus too, but I had nothing to cut to after.
Enjoyed working with him though.
Dave Mundy
I remember working on the “Country Music Show” in Wembley Arena, every Easter week-end, where JP would be on stage with his ‘parrot’ and come the interval, he would be outside flogging baked potatoes while his minion grabbed some lunch!
Another time we were doing motorcycling from Thruxton where JP had his big, white, truck. Obeying the OB mantra ‘never eat on an empty stomach’, we had ‘dined’ at a local hostlery and, on the way back, passing John’s truck, we asked if he did a BBC discount – he didn’t!
Working on the “Southampton Boat Show” we were putting a brand new yacht through its paces down the Solent. John was hanging over the side getting a great shot of the bow-wave when the boat suddenly changed course sending the bow-wave straight over the Sony330 in John’s hand. Sea-water isn’t good for parrots! Luckily, we were being accompanied by the BBC launch and did a mid-Solent camera swap without dropping either.
Peter Cook
At a Country and Western Easter weekend festival, JP was on the camera rota at the Wembley Pool (now Arena) but also selling potatoes outside in between shifts. Just as well to not need a pee if he was following you on the relief rota. Before the potatoes, his sideline was LP records either of organ music or trains. Travelling with John could be a magical mystery tour as journeys might encompass retail outlets which were often a ‘little diversion’ off the direct route. John was, we gathered, his own distributor. On the plus side he took me to a place near York once where there was railway memorabilia in skips for the taking. I still have a couple of oil lamps (well my son-in-law has one of them) which are much treasured. Needless to say that they needed a lot of attention to restore them from rejects to working models. He kindly provided me with a temporary domicile address in 1972, so that my late wife and I could get married at Harrow registry office not Uxbridge (which smelled like a public loo). So I was briefly a resident of Pinner, not Ickenham. And, yes, the Coach and Horses was my local.
His major claim to fame was probably as the most noticed of radio cameramen on Golf OB coverage. Some wag once captioned his buggy with a large sign which simply said ‘Intrepid’. Happy days. Many years later he moved to Chorleywood where he still is and became an almost neighbour of mine.
Ken Osbourne
A couple of my photographs of John Pilblad:
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and the buggy
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Peter Cook
And another one – Intrepid with Minicam at Gleneagles 1976.
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Bob Coles
John Henshall
I remember Bob Coles particularly well. He was the ‘trained operator’ to whom I was attached on Bert Postlethwaite’s Crew 4 when I joined the BBC in 1961. In 1980 Bob left the BBC to start one of the first lightweight camera units with me. We shot music videos, commercials, C4 programmes, the “Spitting Image” Maggie Thatcher special and even a programme about flight simulators for “Tomorrow’s World”. Bob’s knowledge, experience and humour continued to inspire me for many years. We had a ball.
Clive Doig
I have known Bob from early Crew 4 days (1958 on), when he and Mike Rix were driving and swinging the mole, and I was very badly steering it!
Bob was a good kindly man, and having met him again after he left the Beeb and joined up with John, I know what a good organiser and dedicated man he was, going about his multifarious production and technical jobs always with good humour and intelligence.
I met him about 15 years ago (from 2015) at a Queen’s School, Kew, reunion! His and my daughters attended that great state primary school, surviving in the middle of private preparatory land.
Martin Bell
I remember him first on, I think, the last series of the live one hour “Z-Cars”, when I was a pool cameraman. Much later, during a period when I was trying to establish my own production company (never quite made it stick, actually) Bob shot two of the best productions. The first, in 1985, was a documentary made for the CBI at their annual conference, and the second, in 1993, was for London Transport. He was, of course, brilliant at his job and it was a pleasure to work with him again.
