Barry Bonner
We worked on this in Riverside One. First studio day was Tuesday 4th. March 1966, thence weekly.
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“… One of the most memorable and popular productions in the “Francis Durbridge Presents” series, “Bat Out of Hell” commenced transmission on 26th November 1966 …”.
Tony Grant
I’m fairly sure I was on this, swinging Colin Reid on the Mole with Bryn Edwards tracking. I’ve searched IMDB, but can’t find the name of the director! Please remind me, and I should be able to confirm if it’s the one I’m thinking of, plus what he said to us at the end of the series.
David Brunt
Eventually broadcast the following November/December, right up to Christmas Eve.
Alan Bromly Produced and Directed. He did all the Durbridges.
Barry Bonner
Alan Bromly I think did all the episodes. I think it might have been Crew 18 with Colin Reid and I was on the crew, I certainly remember Tony and Bryn being members.
Chris Woolf
I think I agree. I first started on Crew 18, and I think that might have been my first introduction to Riverside 1. I’d learnt Heron-tracking on Playschool in R2.
Barry Bonner
Crew 18 started life end of September 1965 I was a founder member, although I joined as crew relief “mainly sound” I still wanted to be a cameraman, how things turned out differently is a long story! I do remember Chris joining it.
Geoff Fletcher
Here’s page 5 from the TV Tech Ops Studio Staff List as at 25 September 1965 showing the original Crew 18 personnel, complete with Relief (Mainly Sound) Bonner B.R.
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Tony Grant
On the subject of who’s who, and who’s where (and Dr. Who?) and where’m I? I was on crew 5 before TO19, but where I landed after that and before Crew 18? I also thought that there was DO3 between DO2 and Crew Relief.
Geoff Fletcher
There was indeed a DO3 on each crew. I was DO3 on Dave Mutton’s Crew T and again on Ken Major’s Crew 6. After returning from TO19 you probably found yourself on the Reserve Pool like me until your Evesham pass slip came through, then we were allocated to a Crew as Relief (Mainly Cameras) or Relief (Mainly Sound).
I don’t know why DO3s were omitted from the September 1965 Staff List. John Dailley and I were not listed anywhere and had to be written in by hand on the Dolly Ops Pool!
I’ve just noticed Pat Heigham listed on the Sound Assistant II (Grams and Tape) Pool. I see there is a pioneer female TV Tech Op listed on the same Pool – Daveluy, Miss D.A.L. I can’t bring her to mind after all these years – anyone know her story?
Nick Ware
Denise Daveluy – for some reason pronounced ‘Davuloy’ – kept a tortoise, as I recall. I remember her getting quite upset one day when someone suggested (I think it might have been Dave Lock), that the rather crusty Cornish pasty she was tucking into was her tortoise.
Geoff Fletcher
It probably was Dave Lock, knowing his wickedly funny sense of humour. I still have no recollection of her despite working on many a JBJ.
David Deness
One day working at Riverside with Denise on grams with John Holmes mixing she was late back from lunch.
She had gone up to the gardens on the river for her packed lunch and let the tortoise roam free.
When it was time to return to the studio the tortoise had gone missing and it took her about twenty minutes to find it, hence her late return.
John Howell
There was a story about her driving (a new car?) on the motorway and totally ignoring the oil warning light that had lit up.
Dick Blencowe
The result of Denise ignoring the oil light in her car was a new engine I believe. She not only had a tortoise but a cat that apparently sat on the steering wheel of her car as she drove along (ignoring the oil light!).
I remember her gram oping on “Juke Box Jury”, her eyesight was not good and she had to peer very closely at the disc labels and sometimes played the wrong one!
Tony Crake
One of the first progs I did at TVC was JBJ with Crew 2 ( in TC2). I was “bashing cables” ( ! ) and the Gram operator was Denise.. Much to everybody’s hilarity she played just about the wrong disc each time (including a “run in cue” off an fx disc !! ).
The producer went ballistic.. the place was in an uproar ! Some time after, a proper permanent ‘Gram Op job’ was created at the giddy heights of “Grade C” and Denise disappeared never to be seen again!
Pat Heigham
I remember Denise bringing in her tortoise and letting it roam around Studio ‘E’ Sound Control. She had bagged a few wooden planks from the scene boys to corral the creature in, with a handwritten notice on the outside of the door advising ‘Beware – Tortoise loose!’ I didn’t know about the Riverside ‘Great Escape’.
Denise was usually given the more simpler shows to work, but at some stage, she had a memo to go to Head of Sound, headed: “Your future….” rather ominous, that.
Grams was getting ever more complex, and John-John Eden-Eadon always pushed that Grams training was a stepping stone to Sound Supervisor, as familiarisation with the desks and control room procedure came naturally.
So maybe she was gently ‘faded out’.
Geoff Fletcher
Here are a couple of pics from our TO19 Evesham Course back in 1964. We were all in Stratford shooting stuff for our group’s prog exercise. Bryn features in them both. I can still name everyone in the group shot except the guy fourth from the left. Can anyone identify him?
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On the TO19 group shot the names are, left to right:
Jules Greenway, Bryn Edwards, Bob Gillies, the Mystery Man, Me (Geoff Fletcher), John
Dailley and Paul Gawith, with Geoff Beech on the camera.
