Albert Barber
I remember the Gales that blew down most of the trees in the Southern region when Mike Fish got it wrong in 1987.
I was Directing “Grange Hill” at Elstree and we rescheduled and had enough people to do a single camera days shooting.
On “Grange Hill” the wind was so strong it blew one of our cycle sheds over our fence onto the top of Julia Smith’s car. Julia (producer of “EastEnders” and known to sack people on the spot) was fierce and although we were surprised and slightly amused not one of us had the nerve to go up to her office and confess. So we sent the AFM! He came back none the worse for wear and when asked about her response Julia said that these things happen. Phew
Dave Buckley
I can add to Albert’s story about the bicycle shed blowing onto Julia Smith’s car, as I wrote the following for Ariel/Prospero as part of an article about moving to Elstree (TV Training was the first department to move there).
Flying bike shed
One lunchtime, Phil Pitcher, the house manager, came rushing into my office and asked if he could borrow a Polaroid camera, as he wanted to take some instant photos of a problem in the car park just outside the “Grange Hill” set (alongside the rehearsal block).
I followed Phil down and found that the bike shed (which was part of the set and normally on the inside of the fence at the front of the outdoor set and to the left of the gate going in), was now lying against the side of a car which was parked on the other side of the fence. It was a very windy day and a gust had caught the bike shed and lifted it completely over the 6 foot fence!
There was a small problem – the car that it was propped up against belonged to the late Julia Smith, then producer of “EastEnders”. Julia was jumping up and down saying: “Get it off my car. Get it off my car!” It was all Phil and I could do to keep straight faces!
Alan Stokes
At the time of the 1987 storm I was Sound Supervisor on “EastEnders”. I lived in Kingston so it was a bit of a fiddle getting to Elstree. On the radio they were saying not to go out unless it was "..absolutely necessary.." Now, I thought, "is “EastEnders” absolutely necessary?" I decided to venture out and left with plenty of time. Although I met local disruption, I got to Elstree in my normal time. I wondered about my sound crew and I think I had one arrival, oddly, and I can’t remember his name, it was a guy who was often late – in this case, arriving 20minutes early!
We were shooting on the backlot so there was the thought that the (cardboard?!) set might not be there. It was and we did a full day shoot, still then recording on VPR5 in the van. Subsequently, we had a busy audio dub. The Rycote windshields on the fish-pole mics were so good that, with the wind howling round, we could see trees in the background bending nearly horizontal but could hear no evidence on the audio o/p. Thus, at the dub we were adding wind noise on it all.
Peter Cook
That notorious storm arrived during the annual World Matchplay golf at Wentworth.
News broadcast the morning after said ‘..do not travel unless you have to..’. Wentworth was mentioned in terms of trees blocking the entrances. A phone call to Kendal Avenue elicited the advice, “…stay at home until we tell you…” (The call came mid morning when fallen trees had been cleared) Some staff of course turned up at the call time. All the roads into the estate were blocked. One of the SMs parked as others had done on the verge of the deserted A30 which was a clearway. And yes you have guessed already that when he returned to the car at the end of play he had got a ticket. He remonstrated with the police to no avail. He remarked that this sort of event, intransigence and common sense bypass, was exactly the thing that gives the police a bad name. I don’t know if it was ever offered to Esther Ranzen for her ‘Jobsworth Award’.
