-and a pencil for HMQ
John Cox
A crew list from February 1959 Tel OBs.
From this you can that I was on Unit two with Arthur Reed, also notable are Ray Carney, Reg Lewis and Cedric Beadle as Sound Supervisors.
Others are Alan P Roberts in charge of Radio Links, Ben Shaw in charge of Maintenance with D S Browning, T J Alport who became E I C who was then followed by Charles Paton. J N Bailey known as Bill Bailey is at Swingate near Dover on Eurovision, but before that Bill was seen on the old Dem Film holding the microphone stand at Alexandra Palace.
There used to be an interesting and amusing article by him on http:// www.bbceng.info Recollections of BBC Engineering 1927 to 1997: “Television Outside Broadcasts from 1937” by J N Bailey.
On Unit Four, Derrick Miller-Timmins is mentioned, he is the person on the cover of the BBC booklet published in 1958 on the History of British Television, standing behind the E M I micro-wave transmitting dish. There is also a picture of J N Bailey (Bill) sitting at a desk in B H and a description of the V E R A recording machine.
(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)
Mike Jordan
As a person who didn’t join OBs till 1971, there is a wealth of familiar names here in their “previous positions” in the place.
So memory inducing!
Alex Thomas
John, I seem to remember your story of a Christmas Broadcast by H.M. Queen.
The story came out when you produced a grubby very short pencil and I asked you why you treasured it so much.
On the recording of H.M.Q’s Christmas message, the Queen needed to make a small adjustment to her script.
The producer, one P. Dimmock, immediately produced a very expensive writing implement which (rumour had it), he had purchased specially.
You produced that stub of pencil from behind your ear and H.M. picked the pencil to amend her script.
Have you still got that pencil? It could be valuable given its provenance.
John Cox
I would never offer a Grubby pencil to the Queen.
There is some truth in what you say.
It was in October 1957, the Queen was shaking so much with nerves that we had to stop recording. Everybody was wondering what to do when I suggested that she should hold a pencil. “That’s a Good Idea!” the producer (Anthony Craxton) said.
I quickly pulled out of my smart jacket a clean propelling pencil and offered it to the Queen.
I wrote to the Queen about this incident and about Terry Learner’s camera being tracked out of the music room when it hit the leg of the table that she was at, we were all horrified, but then the Queen burst out laughing and we relaxed. That was ten years ago on the fiftieth anniversary of her first Televised Broadcast and now it’s sixty years this year. The Queen graciously replied to my letter.
Oh! the pencil, I’m afraid I lost it a year later while travelling with John Pilblad on the Isle of Skye.
