Dave Mundy
“Shakespeare and Music” was one of my favourite shows. I spent many hours in the very hot grid of the studio moving slung mics a foot here and a foot there (making not a bit of difference to the pick-up!) At the end of the scheduled time we were begged to do a small overrun of 15 mins. as we had a full orchestra and choir.
When the sound crew eventually got to the bar, the bar was closed and the Sound Supervisor hadn’t bought us any drinks! Oh, how we suffered!
I think the SS on the aforementioned “Shakespeare and Music” was dear old George Ageros. He experimented with ‘tape-echo’ leading to double-sounds as you would expect! I have still got a 1/4 in. copy of my favourite bits! The end of the show was the closing bit of Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer’s Nights Dream” with specially written words sung by the choir-boy of the year (Buster Cole eat your heart out!). They don’t make them like that anymore!
Nick Ware
After my TO course I was put on crew 11 (or it might have been 15, I’m not sure which came first). Anyway, whichever, we did quite a lot of orchestral progs, Eric Robinson etc. Vic Godrich was the SA1, and more often than not, the SS would be Derek Miller-Timmins. Vic was a stickler for everything being done in the approved manner, and it was common for him to make juniors like me de-rig what we’d just painstakingly rigged and do it again ‘properly’. He would probably be classified as a bully-in-the-workplace today, but that’s how it was then. Initially I hated and resented him.
Derek Miller-Timmins typically used a C12 slung across the studio on a length of sashcord. He would constantly be asking for it to be moved a few inches, just as Dave says.
A turning point for me was the day I caught Vic in the act of giving the rope a couple of light kicks, not moving the mic at all. Back in the Sound gallery, Derek Miller-Timmins enthusiastically explained what a world of difference such a subtle change had made. Vic caught my eye, winked, and we got on absolutely fine thereafter!
Tony Crake
Strange to think of Vic as an SA1 at TVC! Dave Mundy and I remember him more as the demon wrecker of sound desks. He would often nod off to sleep and wake up with a start and knock his (by now) cold tea or coffee all over the Sound Desk! He began to become rather a liability! Production Departments became a bit wary of him.
Dick Blencowe
Derek Miller-Timmins was quite a character and I remember doing a drama with him at the helm. It was in TC1 and in the corner was a woodland set with real grass and trees, during the scene setting a bird had got into the studio and had taken up residence in said trees. We came to rehearse the wood scene and Derek Miller-Timmins said over TB that he could hear a sparrow, or whatever bird it was. The retort was that was that we had live FX but Derek Miller-Timmins said that such a bird would not have been in the place that this wood was set in.
Consequently during lunch break we opened the scene doors (in TC1, unlike the other studios which opened to the inner covered runway, they went to open air) and led by Derek Miller-Timmins tried to chase the offending bird out. Anyone watching must have though the Sound Crew had lost their marbles with us clapping and shouting amongst the fake woodland. I can’t remember if the bird exited stage right or not but our lunch break was severely cut short. I think also the gram op was playing the sound of a sparrow hawk which according to Derek Miller-Timmins was a natural predator of our unwanted guest!
What fun we used to have in the good old days of real TV.
Geoff Fletcher
Writing of workplace bullies in Tech Ops, I only remember one or two of that ilk causing me grief during my seven years or so in BBC TV – maybe I was fortunate, or maybe it was because having been around a bit before joining the merry throng and being in my 20s I was less of an easy target. However, I do recall one (who shall remain nameless) still. When doing my first weeks on sound on my initial crew – after several weeks on cameras, which was where I wanted to be – I was taught never to track a boom using a hand on the platform. One day at the TV Theatre while on my second stint with sound (in those days we did a few months in studios before going to Evesham for our TO Course) we had a boom pool op with us whom I had not met before. He was, to put it mildly, rather well built. He proceeded to climb aboard the Mole Richardson boom and I proceeded to attempt to heave him about as required. Unfortunately, owing to his weight, I couldn’t exert enough beef to track the boom inwards just using the steering handle alone and put my hand on the platform to give it a push to get it rolling. He looked down and noticed my lily white and promptly stood on it! This hurt like hell because of the upturned rim around the edge of the platform. When I asked why he had done it he just smiled down at me and said he would stand on my hand every time I touched the platform. I explained as politely as I could why I was pushing with it. I did it again – he did it again – but harder. So I used the handle only next time, and couldn’t get the damn thing going quickly enough to satisfy him. Once again the hand thing was repeated on the next move that required a push in. At this point I lost my temper and we had a frank and open exchange of views. He indicated he would continue treading on my hand to teach me “boom tracking manners”. So, after the last boom move before tea break, I “accidentally” committed the other boom tracking cardinal sin and left the handle up but unlatched! He didn’t tread on my hand again. ‘Nuff said!
