Barry Bonner
Very sad news indeed. Geoff was a great and highly skilled character, always smiling, and a pleasure to work with.
I worked a lot with Geoff on various dramas over the years including the famous trip to Israel on “A Dinner of Herbs” directed by Michael Darlow. See below….
John Barlow
I worked with Geoff as part of Crew 10 on the Barchester Chronicles and other productions too and his crew was always a happy place to be. A BAFTA award winning Cameraman he moved later into Production where he directed many, many shows. As a person he was a close friend of mine, “Best Man” when Laura and I were married and Godfather to my son, Edward. Sadly, I had not seen him for a few years but his is a great loss.
Away from TV Geoff was a skilled carpenter and we fitted out my kitchen from scratch designing and building all the units and laminating the worktops too. Above all Geoff was kind, welcoming and always warm-hearted with an irresistible smile. He was, of course, a cat lover!
Geoff was Chair of the ABS TV5 Branch for a number of years and led the negotiations that ensured all of us were “upgraded” (with pension implications to this day!) I remember too the TORSA (Technical Operations Revised Scheduling Arrangement) that introduced the “Pyramid Doil” and he successfully made the case for a claim under Equal Pay legislation making the General Secretary of the ABS (at the time) regret saying that “TV5 had taken advice from a conveyancing solicitor”! . Happy days!
Condolences to all who loved him.
Graeme Wall
Sorry to hear that, I thoroughly enjoyed my time working with him and Frank on Crew 2.
Dave Newbitt
How very sad – hugely likeable, irrepressible character. This photo with Chick Anthony which is probably already on the site somewhere absolutely captures him in my opinion. So we are now without both of them and the poorer for it.
Pat Heigham
What very sad news – Geoff was my first mentor when I started my BBC career on Crew 2.
A very nice guy and taught me a lot while easing me into the system.
Ian Norman
Sorry to learn of Geoff’s passing, as a trainee, he was my senior cameraman and later when I resigned in 1983.
Sad news!
Geoff Fletcher
News of Geoff’s demise reached me via BBC Alumni on Facebook. Truly sorry to hear of his passing. I knew him well at TC etc. in the 1960s and was involved with him in ACS campaigns . A good chap in all respects. RIP old friend and sincere condolences to his family.
Hugh Sheppard
He was my first real friend in Tech-Ops, a bond formed when sharing an Evesham room with him in the winter of 1958-9 on Tech-Ops Course No.3 (as I recall). His sense of fun permeated those weeks when the weather challenged most journeys to and fro’ and, but for the intervention of instructor Harry Henderson, we would both have been thrown out for a jolly jape at the expense of the austere Head of Training, one Dr. Sturley. That penalty was no joke; it used to happen.
Thank you Bernie for the History site and the memories recalled at: http://tech-ops.co.uk/next/to-training-at-wood-norton-hall-evesham/
I see there that discretion ruled on naming my partner in an Evesham crime, but it was Geoff.
I’m not sure who might pass on every blessing to his family; please say if you’re in a position to do that.
Happy Days of long ago…
Peter Hider ( Ex Crews 2,5,7,9 )
I was very fond of Geoff. He and I had worked together on and off many times over the years and it is difficult to believe that he has left us.
He was exceedingly funny and very observant. We were doing the dress rehearsal for a ‘Black and White Minstrels’ show which entailed the dancers having a quick change tent on the studio floor. All the costumes were on a rail in order and they just grabbed, changed and came out straight into another number. On this occasion, as they high kicked through the dance, one of them had a severely embarrassing ‘costume malfunction’ caused by wearing another girl’s costume. Geoff had his mole swinger take him across to the girl at the next break and as she remedied the malfunction he asked ‘How come the largest girl gets the smallest costume?’
He was passionate when it came to union matters and I’m certain that we owed him a huge debt of gratitude for his and others’ work in getting us a pay rise as a result of the strike.
His nickname for me was Chuckles and I shall miss him greatly as will all who enjoyed his company.
Make Giles
Geoff was one of the Senior Cameramen assigned to the experimental single camera unit, back in the 1980’s ~ Hibou will no doubt give us a precise date. The other was Peter Ware, also sadly departed. John Howell and I were on sound, with Ron Koplick as Herr Grippenfuhrer, Peter Smee and Warwick Fielding lighting/EMs, Eddie Dunlop and John Humphries as engineers. We were given an ancient BBC Land Rover which had been sold to a hill farmer, then reclaimed after non-payment of the purchase price. It was full of straw and there was a bird’s nest under the wheel arch! And it later transpired that the chassis had been cracked, which explained odd quirks in its handling on occasions!
We were given three months to put the gear through its paces and demonstrate that such a unit was a viable concept. It was an absolutely unique undertaking in terms of normal TVC activity and we bonded as a highly cohesive team, each of us turning our hands to tasks well outside our normal remit. Geoff and Peter were inspired in creating opportunities to test the system to its logical limit, and then a bit beyond! Due to “industrial relations difficulties”, that unit never got anything on air, though there were producers interested in using it, but it formed a good basis of experience for the creation of the units used on the Eastenders lot.
Geoff Fletcher
Here is Geoff featured in the ABS Bulletin for October1969 which covered the great strike on October 11 (bottom right). I was involved with creating TV5 with Geoff and Pete Ware and several other prime movers. Incidentally, that’s me second placard holder from the left in the second photo down left side. I find it hard to believe Geoff has gone. Much missed by all who knew him.
Keith Salmon
He was working in a plastics factory, before joining the BBC, and when he was operating a plastic press he brought the press down on his fingers losing two of them. He turned to a colleague to phone for an ambulance, the colleague fainted and ended up on the floor. Geoff had to phone himself.
He reckoned part of the reason the BBC employed him was that he qualified as disabled, the BBC had to employ a certain percentage of disabled staff.
Geoff Hawkes
Geoff was undoubtedly a clever and a multi-talented person with a mischievous sense of humour, a bit like the great Frank Wilkins who turned me from a boy into a man in that big new world of television in its hey day of the sixties. I had many an interesting conversation with Geoff when he was Frank’s number three (one below Bob Coles). Geoff had a liking for calligraphy too which I shared and his hand was even steadier and more developed than mine.
John Barlow mentioned his expertise in woodwork, an unlikely attribute it seemed till I remembered that he had the upper parts of two middle fingers missing. I think he told me once that it was the result of an accident with a wood working machine, probably a band saw or circular saw which wasn’t uncommon in the days before adequate safety guards were used.
The funeral service itself was made available online and is available to view with this link: Geoff Feld Funeral
