Andy Boyd
Gary Critcher bought some old negatives, one of them is shown below:
(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)
Dave Mundy
I learnt to drive in one of those (1961), through Bourneville in the rush hour! I found they were very difficult to keep below 40 mph. in top gear.
Dave Plowman
BBC and 105E always brings back memories of Wee Alan – Alan Boyd – with his ‘tuned’ one.
Dave Mundy
Indeed, he moved on to a lovely TR5 I think. Last heard of as consultant to RTL, I believe, having left LWT, the “Generation Game” at the BBC, Presentation Dept. making trailers, Crew 8 with Tony Milton and myself doing “Dr. Finlay” in Riverside … I think one of our group flew over his house where he and Mrs. Boyd (Pam Masters?) were sunbathing…
Graeme Wall
He came to TVS from LWT. I had an odd encounter with him when I was shooting some ENG for the Round the World Race. He asked me if I enjoyed doing ENG: when I said yes he said he supposed it was because of the expenses. Company car, no overnights, what expenses?
Dave Plowman
He was also something high up in Pearson TV at one time. I talked briefly to him on a visit he made to “The Bill”. I did get the impression LE rather than drama was more his thing, though. But I didn’t get a chance to reminisce with him.
I’ve often wondered, thinking about the likes of Alan. Are most people happier staying with the skills they know and love, or seeking promotion up through an industry? I realise it does depend on the individual, of course.
Dave Mundy
I think some people just have to go and on up the promotion ladder whether or not they enjoy where they are, like most of us! Promotion doesn’t always bring job satisfaction, most technical operators would rather stay operators, better than an office job any day and certainly better than management. Good managers are born, not promoted from the ranks, with very few exceptions! That’s me, a humble but happy operator.
Peter ‘The Squire’ Hills
John Henshall
’The Squire’ was one of my all time favourites at TC. I joined his crew (10) in 1962 and he was a fine senior cameraman, with a great sense of humour and very talented, though not appreciated as highly as he should have been by the Tech Ops. management.
Graeme Wall
I was on his crew when I left the BBC.
Albert Barber
Well respected in all areas.
Dave Mundy
My favourite ‘Squire’ story was how he had installed electrically operated driveway gates and modulated his car headlights to open them. Unfortunately, passing traffic sometimes hit the same frequency so his gates would be opening and closing all night long!
Pete reminded me very much of a Tech. Ops. Harry Worth!
Brian Dale
I remember buying a motorbike off him. I went over to his house, which I think was in Wembley, and was amazed by the electric garage door he’d constructed using recycled motors, gearboxes and bicycle chains. Then he took me to his shed/workshop. It was a special privilege apparently. His wife never went up there. He had an intercom to the kitchen. I remember lots of storage for components etc. in metal drawers and cupboards – "Just like Tele Centre.", he said. He had a bank of four or five dishevelled radios on a high shelf each tuned to a different station. He selected the speaker/amp to the one he wanted to listen to on a rotary switch – "Just like Tele Centre."
A great character and a lovely chap to work with.
John Howell
Pete was sitting in the Duty Office.
Enter A. N. Other: " Oh hello Pete what are you working on today?"
Pete: " Just visiting, I’ve been retired for 3 Years"
He was definitely an Institution !
Geoff Fletcher
Pete was the sort of chap you felt would be around for ever. None of us who knew him will ever forget him – and all the wonderful Squire stories.
John Nottage
I’ve forgotten so much about my time in TV Studios, but I’ll never forget Squire Hills – such a great character. Someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m sure it was Squire I had to try and push through jabalite snow on a creeper in Lime Grove doing “Dr Who and the Ice Warriors”. I remember Bernard Bresslaw as a an Ice Warrior. Late 1967.
I’ve just looked at the “Dr Who” production guide:
Studio D
Grams Operator: Pat Heigham
Laurie Taylor
Crew Eleven
and Bear supplied by Zoorama Ltd!
I don’t remember a bear!
After all that, does Crew 11 mean it wasn’t Squire?
Was it Squire who made that sealed wooden box with 5 or 6 red lights that flashed at random. It ended up strapped to the top of the mole monitor.
David Brunt
The bear was pre-filmed at Ealing. A very small bear.
The Crew numbers were from the cover of the Camera Scripts, so unless there was a very late change for some reason…
John Vincent
Was it because he couldn’t remember people’s names he called everyone Squire?
Ian Norman
Yes, it was because he couldn’t remember people’s names.
I spent two happy years on his crew. He had a tendency to crew down, so as a junior camera assistant, later cameraman, I got lot of camera opportunities, particularly on the Ikegami HL79.
On one of the “Jim’ll Fix It” shows, he was given a credit as Squire (see below).
He never took things too seriously.
(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)
Roger Bunce
Found it! I knew I had a photo of Squire Hills somewhere – see below – talking to Dudley at our leaving party in 2001, long after his own retirement.
(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)
Because he called everyone else ‘Squire’, everyone called him ‘Squire’ – including himself. You need this knowledge to understand a phone call, which I once received, beginning with the otherwise inexplicable wording, "Hello Squire. It’s Squire here." To anyone in the Camera section, of course, this made perfect sense.
Jeff Naylor
I only visited Squire’s crew, but his approach was legendary.
Two anecdotes that should be included:
When working as a TM2 on Grandstand and being shouted at to "Let me talk to Wembley" (or similar) – "Do you want to speak to them on the control line or should I just open the window?" (Lime Grove Studio E obviously).
Robin Nash coming onto the floor because Pete wasn’t responding to his direction on TOTPs "You see Squire, there is a talkback volume control on this camera, and the more you shout the more I turn it. Right now I can’t hear you at all."
Nick Ware
One of the things I missed most when I left the BBC was the things you could say when you were staff, but you couldn’t when you were freelance!
Chris Holcombe
Dave Mundy
Sadly, Chris died a few days ago in hospital (February 2017). A few years ago he had a small stroke and whilst in hospital they found that he had emphysema. The rest is history, unfortunately.
So many of the ‘great’ sound mixers from our time in the Beeb have slipped under the radar, and not had the industry recognition they deserved long before the ease of computerisation of sound desks, when before strips of camera tape were the set-up for the next mix on stage!
Pat Heigham
I often was Grams on a show that Chris was Sound Supervising, and he was one of the really nice guys to work with.
When he moved to OBs, it was their gain and TVC’s loss.
Another good man!
Stan Bale
Dave Mundy
In the attached photo the gent in the dark jacket, opening his 80th. birthday cards, is a highly respected OB cameraman who, unfortunately developed multiple sclerosis, which affected his eyes. A brainwave by the then Head of Sound, Jeff Baker, suggested that he could continue working, now for the sound department, covering the horse racing start sound effects. This he did for a long time keeping his income going and, more importantly, his pension contributions. Yes, it’s Stan Bale, having a huge party 20th April 2017 at my usual Thursday “put-the-world-to-rights get-together with retired colleagues”. Smile everyone, good news for once!
(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)
Peter Cook
It looks as though something has affected your eyes, Dave, as Stan is soft focus. Go on blame the camera. Glad to know Stan is still able to enjoy the odd pint.
Dave Mundy
Many thanks for your critical input! I didn’t have my OM2n with me but grabbed a quickie with my mobile as I didn’t want to intrude on his private party (although John Mealing managed to get a seat opposite Stan just before the cake arrived!). Just be grateful that Stan is still with us and is mentally very bright and enjoying life. There’s hope for us all yet!
Lois was there, and Stan is seen talking to his son.
Brian Buckley
Bernie Newnham
Someone posted this on Facebook. A good picture.
(Click on the picture below to see larger version:
use your Browser’s BACK button to return to this page)
Geoff Hawkes
It’s Brian Buckley, though I don’t know what the show was. Brian left to go and run a guest house, I think in France or Spain?
Vernon Dyer
Yes, Spain, I think, somewhere in the hills inland of a Costa. Brian did a few days with Paul Kay, Alec Wheal and me at Sky News in 4 Millbank in the early 1990s.
Geoff Fletcher
I worked with him quite a lot at TC. He was quite a quiet man and I thought what a change it would be for him to leave and do what he did. I got in touch with him once after he left and the new life seemed to have suited him better. I did have an address for him at his place in Spain but can’t find it now which is a pity and I can’t find him on Facebook. He must be over sixty now and I’m sure he’d have liked that photo to remind him of the old days.
It would be nice to exchange some memories of the people we knew on TO 18. Where are they now, I wonder? Some of them like us are still around but others, like Doug Smith, Bob Meikle and John Carter, to name but three, I’ve not heard of for years,
Dave Lawson, Graeme Wall, Dave Plowman, Geoff Hawkes
Bob Meikle went from TVC to Pebble Mill and has now bought a house on he West coast of Scotland. The thing about Bob was the amusing Carol stories, which anyone who worked with him can tell of. She was obviously quite a character! Unfortunately Carol died in 2016.
Doug Smith, also late of Pebble Mill, retired with tinnitus and it is believed that he became a teacher.
Geoff Fletcher
If you blow up the picture on the monitor and tweak it a bit, there are some letters in relief on the front of the desk but I can’t decipher them. Might help with identifying the programme?
David Brunt
It’s “Dr Who”, one of the episodes from the ‘Trial of a Time Lord’ series in 1986.
Geoff Fletcher
I should have guessed from the guy in the left of frame. Not letters on the desk front then – just suggestive of letters!
Keith Swadkins
Mick Rodger
Keith was a Senior Cameraman working with John Chester for a while and was also a cameraman at TV Centre before coming up to Manchester.
Dave Mundy
I knew Keith well at TVC and enjoyed his memories of being projectionist at the ABC Blackpool. I thinks he has his own website on cinema topics.
Tony Scott
I knew Keith during my time at New BH Manchester. Here’s more on Keith
Keith Swadkins
Peter Hider
Ķeith was a very likeable, very knowledgable institution. I spent a good deal of time with him in studios discussing 8mm, the rarer 9.5mm and his main passion Cinerama. His ‘Hovis advert’ voice is still in my head as is his sense of humour.
Geoff Fletcher
I remember Keith from my BBC days – a really nice chap I always thought.
John Vincent
I remember him as a sort of loveable eccentric.
Did he convert his garage into a cinema with the full works, curtains and everything. He’d put on shows for the local kids of old Disney cartoons.
Today I suppose he’d have H & S and CRB checks to contend with.
Chris Eames
I think that ‘lovable eccentric ‘ sums Keith up perfectly. He lived a short distance from me when he was based at TVC.
His cinema was a large garden shed complete with cinema seats, and I think, 3 projectors. 16mm, 9.5mm, & 8mm.
On wet days in the school holidays he would sit the local children in there, and run cartoons. He was very popular with his neighbours!
On the other hand, he once gave me a lift to TVC. He had a dislike of traffic queues. We came off the bottom of the M1 and, as soon as we had 2 or 3 cars in front, he turned off onto a ‘better’ route. We actually drove past Maida Vale studios! Needless to say we were late.
Truly one of the characters that made life at TVC so interesting in the 1960s.
Dave Plowman
Did he once have a bubble car?
Alex Thomas
I began my career in Lime Grove Telecine with Keith. He was in heaven with the amazing machines there.
There were several old Mechau projectors, allegedly war booty from cinemas in Germany, Rank Cintel machines both 35mm and 16mm and upstairs was a colour-capable 35mm Cintel for test transmissions on a weekday afternoon.
Keith had a fund of stories and waxed lyrical about 9.5mm systems. He had even ground a pair of anamorphic lenses to use with this gauge. We christened it Swad-A-O.
He was a true eccentric and the world is a poorer place without him.
Bernie Newnham
Keith had a cinema in his garage, with proper seating, curtains and projector. I think he only had one 35mm film to play on it. He lived near me and once gave me the tour.
When I was trying unsuccessfully to get a Pres attachment he offered to let me copy his application. “Oh, have you done one?” ” No”
Indeed one of the great eccentrics.
Geoff Hawkes
I remember Keith well from his days at Television Centre with his cardies and signature bow-tie. I don’t know when he left for Manchester, early nineteen seventies, I’d guess, but did he continue wearing the tie years after, I wonder? I was on a crew with him at TC for a while (six, Dave Thompson, I think) and worked with him in Pres during at least one of the attachments we were regularly assigned to. He was, as has been said full of stories and good humour, never one to sit quietly in a corner when there were people around to chat to. He’d be the one whose voice you’d hear while walking down the corridor in the morning and until he or you went home. It was a feature which earned him the name in Frank Rose’s Horse world of “The Northern Natterer”.
At the time he lived in Luton and talked about the cinema he’d built in his garden. I went to visit him and sure enough it was fully equipped and operational like the one Dave described at his home in Disley. I think it even had flip-up seating and the only thing lacking was an usherette with a torch and a tray of ice-creams and Kia-Ora.
I understand that he had four daughters, he used to talk about one of them, Vreli, but I don’t know the names of the others who may have come along later.
Keith was indeed one of the memorable characters of his day, as shown by the number of people who’ve written about him here.
