Ian Hillson
The Beeb’s been showing "Our Friend Victoria" culminating in Episodes 5 and 6 showing from 09 May 2017 – lovely seeing her early BBC (and ITV) work again, trouble is they only interviewed the luvvies and not anyone who actually worked on her shows. Not even the great Geoff Posner!
In Episode 5 Julie Walters (of all people) perpetuated the myth that the camera crew didn’t really know what to make of Acorn Antiques when they first rehearsed it – when they (and the rest of us) knew exactly what Victoria was getting at in 1985 with this parody and contributed heavily from the very first scene. Fortunately the early pre-records were done in TC6 where those earliest Link 110s were and they contributed to the naff picture quality, as did the ferocious studio ventilation helping to blow the painted cloth about (after we’d removed its scaffold pole and had it raised a bit).
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Roger Bunce
So true. I was one of that camera crew and I remember that we were ‘offering’ cock-ups, for example: "When she stands up, do you want overshoot, as though I’ve overestimated her height, and have to tilt back down again, or to act as though I’ve forgotten, let her stand out of frame, and belatedly chase after her?" etc.
Dave Plowman
Now I know where “The Play That Goes Wrong” came from. Every disaster carefully rehearsed. I saw it in Aberdeen, so not the West End cast. Rarely have I seen a company enjoy themselves so much.
Ian Hillson
The camera cock-ups were very well choreographed. Lighting did there bit too – we sent Ken MacGregor down to the floor to get his team to hoover up all the spare stand lamps and work them into the edge of shot.
Each take seemed to be "better" (i.e. different!) – and on one occasion three of the ensemble walked sooooo far downstage they came under the row of frontal soft and into the gloom. If I’d know that was about to happen I’d have let them walk into the gloom but my instinct made me open up the cameras to compensate. Even so, perfectionist Ken looked across at me and all I could do was indicate that the cameras were really "pushed".
Oh so difficult…. making really bad telly!
Roger Bunce
I remember that shot well, all walking downstage, right off the set – cameras and shoot-offs in both directions. Then the embarrassed looks as they realised, and started walking awkwardly backwards.
As you say, it’s not easy doing things deliberately wrong. I once played the role of Ken Worthington, John Shuttleworth’s unseen amateur cameraman friend. Again, the objective was to do everything as badly as possible. I remember one shot when John pointed at something, and I had to whip pan round and crash zoom in to it. I thought I had done it with adequate wobbliness, but when I saw it back, I realised that I had instinctively held the pivot! Ken would never have done that.
Graham Maunder
Having left the BBC I had the pleasure of working with the great Geoff Posner on a (BAFTA winning dare I say!!) programme with Steve Coogan called “Paul Calf’s Video Diaries”.
This was shot ‘as if by the character in an amateur way’.
As with “Acorn Antiques”, it was important to never anticipate a move or have correct looking room etc etc.
I was never quite sure whether to take the booking as a compliment or not…
Ian Hillson
I would advise tech perfectionists to not watch – the 4:3 stuff has been cropped and softened into oblivion.
Graeme Wall
Why do they do that? I’ve switched off so many programmes because that has rendered them unwatchable.
