Roger Bunce

Here is an old Design Department Christmas card.

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Howard Michaels

This lovely picture is a reminder of happy days gone by!

Patrick Heigham

And don’t forget the incredible camaraderie amongst all the crews to issue Christmas Cards. What other ‘factory’ might have done that, by the workers?

Such a shame. It’s often said that whoever controls the broadcasting system, controls the country.

I do believe that the rot started with Thatcher and John Birt – he was a total  puppet. I once had to go and record an interview with him in the executive office in BH – I did not enjoy that.

Raise a Glass!

Mike Giles, Dave Mundy, John Howell

I learned from Radio 4 recently that the BBC once had its own label champagne – “Sans Fils” – wireless! –  and the BBC club’s French white wine called ”Tantine” – Auntie!  Those were indeed the days!

Graeme Wall

Had a few bottles [of “Sans Fils”] at my wedding.

Appropriate Reading …

Albert Barber

Here’s latter-day reading material….

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Pat Heigham

Fancy that cover – brought back many memories!

I used to build cable cars out of Meccano – rigging between an upstairs window and a tree in the garden.

When quite young, I was given a kitten, and when it grew a bit bigger, he liked to sit in the box of Meccano parts, not at all worried about the sharp metal bits and gear wheels – just wanted to join in!

And Bayko too, Dad was posted to Singapore after the war and when my Mum and I joined him, he had saved his pocket change for me to buy something in the big department store (Robinson’s in Raffles Place – and we had never experienced that form of shopping).

I spent the dollars on a Bayko set.

Does anyone remember Minibrix – a forerunner of Lego? It had rubber brick shaped pieces which locked together with raised studs and matching sockets.

I still have the Hornby Dublo train set, packed away in the loft.

Yes, the ad for Gamages – always had the catalogue for Christmas, and Ellisdon’s, full of japes and stuff that Just William would have had in his stocking – itching powder, farting cushions, the ‘SeeBackroScope’.

I’m sure that Meccano did me more good than all today’s computer games do now for the current young generation. Certainly the study of practical physics got me accepted into the BBC!

Bernie Newnham

I have a big Bayko set here, bought at a car boot. The sort of thing – like Meccano No 10 (or even 5) –  that we could only dream about when I was a child. I bought it just because I could.

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Alec Bray

When I was working at the BBC, I bought an Adana Five-Three printing press (as advertised in “Meccano Magazine”). I travelled down to Twickenham to go to their shop, and bought some fonts as well.

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It was quite good for printing tickets and suchlike items.

When I went to college, I printed the covers for our poetry magazine “Rhythm of Life”.

I printed our wedding invitations and order of service – and then, for school when I was teaching, the case inserts for the professionally made cassette recordings of musicals “what we wrote”.

But this Adana Press had to be sold – along with a shed and an N gauge model railway layout – to raise the cash to get my first computer – a BBC B.