Shakespeare Clips
Robert Miles
Some memorable performances of now ‘superstar’ actors in some of the BBC’s Shakespeare output –
Alec Bray
In “An Age Of Kings” – 26 May 1960 and 9 June 1960 – from Riverside Studios, Sean Connery played Hotspur in Henry IV.
Memorable for his exit line – In the play it’s:
“… But that the earthy and cold hand of death
Lies on my tongue: no, Percy, thou art dust
And food for …“
But Connery went for
“… And food for w.. w .. wo …”
and dies.
Interesting that the BBC’s memory does not stretch that for back! And interestingly Connery’s role does not seem to be mentioned in his Wikipedia page.
Lots of famous people were in “An Age of Kings”.
Robert Miles
Would that be an AKG D25 in the boom cradle?
(Click on the picture below to see a larger or clearer version of this picture:
Click the “X” button (top right) to close the newly opened picture.)
( Ian McKellen in Edward II – 1969 )
Barry Bonner
Yes that is a D25. Great mic not weighing a lot so easy to work. Good bass tip-up so when you went in to a close-up the sound matched.
Pat Heigham
I recall, that in the 1960s, SA1 Dave Hawthorne fed a D25 backwards from the talkback chain of the sound gallery. As the unit inside the D25 mic is a moving coil, it could act as a miniature loudspeaker – but one had to be careful of the power fed to it!
I pulled the same stunt on a film set at Shepperton, feeding the D25 from the headphone output of a Nagra, and racking out the boom to position it next to the camera operator’s ear – asking him for top of frame limit! Much puzzlement as to where the voice was coming from!
John Howell (Hibou)
I tried this once with a stick mic (4037) and quickly realised that the ‘little voice’ was not heard because the microphone was now a loudspeaker! But it turned out to be more amusing because no-one knew why the artist was behaving strangely. In this instance he put the mic to his ear in ‘candle-stick telephone style’ much to the amusement of the Production Gallery.
Ian Hillson
I believe that you could achieve the same with the old STC “ball and biscuit” mic (which were talkback mics at AP).
Dave Plowman
Pretty well any mic can be used in reverse, provided it doesn’t contain electronics – like most modern condenser types. Although moving coil types are generally best.
And of course the reverse is true too – a speaker can be used as a mic. Can be useful for snooping.
Ian Hillson
Don’t I know it!
We also had a Gaumont Kalee sqawk box at AP which had a multicore cable running to each unit – the loudspeaker sat permanently across the line. When you pressed one of its many destination buttons you connected its LS to the input of an amp and the output of this went to destination’s speaker. Needless to say, someone with plenty of time on their hands, found that you could listen to what was going on in the hierarchy offices by using a BBC amp at your local end to do the reverse…
Not me, honest.
Chris Eames
The ultimate talking mic story must be the one played on Spike Milligan. We were doing one of his ‘Q’ series, and he demanded a personal mic to talk directly to the director (Ian MacNaughton?), so he was fitted with a lanyard mic (BK6?) for that purpose. The lead caused more chaos, but it was that sort of show! To attract attention in the gallery he kept hitting the mic hard with his hands. In the end the sound boys got fed up with this, and the mic suddenly said, in an Eccles voice: “STOP, you’re hurting me muchly!” Spike thought it was a great jape, but it didn’t cure the problem.
As mere cameraman, I cannot remember the sound crew involved, or who did the Eccles voice.
Tony Crake, John Howell (Hibou), Pat Heigham
The original idea for the Spike Milligan BK6 “mic” was set up by “Yogi” Stocks. He was a Goons fan and could mimic the ‘Bluebottle’ voice.
Dave Mundy
I was gram. op. on the show (Q8, I think). Spike insisted on doing his own sound effects whenever possible! Remember the one -‘Men, beat this winter’s cold with the new electric underpants, but never cross your legs, or else…(scream fx.)’. There wasn’t a suitable fx in gram. library so Spike did it himself. The BK6B joke really spooked him! Norman Greaves was the SS on most of the shows but I can’t remember who voiced Bluebottle, but most of us of a certain age did a passable Bluebottle (even Prince Charles did!).
