BBC Tech Ops people have, over the years, become very interested in lots of “ologies” (cf Maureen Lipman’s adverts for BT from some time ago!). Some topics that have featured in the Tech Ops mailing list include
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Cloacopapyrology
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Ferroequinology
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Planeology
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Enginology
As well as these, email conversations among the Tech Ops correspondents have covered a wide variety of topics including vintage buses, vintage transport in general, BBC Pensions and pension options: in fact a whole range of “interesting” things, like how how to rig sound, comparisons between different light sources, cost-effectiveness of LEDs …
The Tech Ops web site is dedicated to information and stories about how we, in BBC Tech Ops, thought and worked in the golden years of television, and so many of these discussions are not germane to the site. However, where there is some tenuous link to the Tech Ops content , the messages – or parts of messages – have been included.
During this set of conversations, we return to some topics covered in other conversations – hopefully the links will make a connected story.
A huge swathe of emails concerned the future of the BBC, maintenance of broadcast standards both in terms of technical quality and content and how the BBC (and other broadcasters) have to face up to the challenges posed by multi-channel TV, on-demand scheduling and so on.
In many respects, the mood amongst the former Tech Ops people is summed up by Geoff Fletcher:
| “… I was so happy and proud to work in BBC TV from 1963 to 1970 when the standards were so very high that it hurts so much to see how far they have fallen now. The BBC that we all knew and cared about doesn’t exist anymore – destroyed by politics and by useless managers and accountants and their ilk. The general viewing public doesn’t know what we are on about and doesn’t care anyway. We are voices in the wind crying for something precious that’s been lost….” | |
And, of course, we still mourn the destruction of our Television Centre…
Note:
During the period covered by these conversations, a couple of things conspired to lose email. Firstly, the collator (Alec Bray) upgraded to Windows 10 from Windows 7 – with the effect that the mail client used locally junked all its info and the folders had to be reconstructed from backup and then secondly, VirginMedia moved from Google Gmail to its own platforms and set up different spam filtering – which junked all Tech Ops mailings for viginmedia.com, blueyonder.com and some other email addresses. Some missing email was recovered – thanks to Dave Plowman – but some interesting tech ops reminiscences may have been lost. Many apologies.
So here is the fifth collection stories of how life in TV (and related industry) was for those who worked for the BBC – and some of the consequences …
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50th Anniversary Stamps
In 1972 the Post Office issued a set of four stamps to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the BBC. A set of three of these stamps was issued to all BBC employees.
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1990-1991 Cobham Sub-Committees and/or Taskforce Committees
The terms of reference of the Cobham committee(s) were to evaluate how the costs of making Light Entertainment Programmes can be reduced by 15% while retaining the quality, range and quantity of the BBC output.
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Aeroplanes and Operations
A number of BBC Technical Operators had served in the ATC or the air arm of the CCF at school – or had other flying experience before joining the BBC.
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TV and Movie Sound Balance Levels
The difference between sound balanced for a Cinema audience and a Television audience, and the relative levels of background music relative to dialogue.
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BBC at Lifestyles 2000
The “Daily Express” “Lifestyles 2000” show, held at Olympic between 8th -16th July 1989, gave people the opportunity to see a BBC’s “Tomorrow’s World” Studio in action – blocking and transmission – amongst other items.
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BBC Souvenirs and Memorabilia
Memorabilia includes things like tickets – items handed out as publicity or authorisation and so on.
Wherever you work, consumable items that are in use every day may arrive home by accident – the used reel of camera tape jammed in a pocket, for example.
There may be other items that find their way out of the work premises. Some items are found, some are scrounged. Some are genuine scrap…
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BBC TV Theatre 1950s – early 1960s
The BBC TV Theatre on Shepherd’s Bush Green hosted a number of well-known BBC TV programmes – including “The Black and White Minstrel Show”, “This is your Life” – and of course – “Crackerjack!”
Some views and reminiscences of the Theatre – inside and out.
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Pips, Big Ben Bongs and Digital Delays
Current (2015) digital processing causes delays in signal transmission – the delay depending on the complexity of the processing needed – so the once universal time signal is now – well – NOT universal. It creates a number of synching problems – which are overcome, for example, on “Children in Need”.
And what happens if “Big Ben” goes off the air?
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Big LED Light
Just one of the things that Tech Ops people get up to … It formed part of a long discussion on domest LED use and LED spotlights – not directly relevant for the Tech Ops site – but did remind us of things done with Government Surplkus equipment in the 1960s.
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Blimps
A blimp in this context is a non-rigid airship, that is, one without an internal structural framework. Blimps have been used on a number of programmes.
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Blue Peter Time Capsule
WHo would have thought that the BBC Television Centre – purpose designed for making Television programmes – would be pulled down just over 50 years after opening? Certainly not the “Blue Peter” team, who laid a time capsule in part of the Telly Centre. So where is it now?
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Bob Symes (Robert Alexander Baron Schutzmann von Schutzmansdorff)
Many of us have worked with Bob Symes – or Bob Symes-Schutzmann as he was known for most of his BBC years. He worked with Raymond Baxter on “Tomorrow’s World” (query as producer and presenter?) and on some other programmes, including railway programmes.
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Bucks Rig
A whole Russell Harty show was done with Bucks Fizz on an Oil Rig.
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Coax Cable
Simon Vaughan (of the Alexandra Palace Television Society) asked Tech Ops people if they could help in identifying a length of cable which had been rescued during the decommissioning of TVC from SCAR Stage 6 and was found in a locker.
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Cold Comfort and Condensation
Learning the hard way what cold weather and condensation can do to technical equipment.
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Comments on Current Productions 2015
Tech Ops correspondents’ professional eyes and ears “view” on recent TV productions – May to November 2015
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Crew Lists 1980
Dave Mundy’s final four crew lists before he moved to OBs.
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Crossing the Line – Again …
Further discussion on “CROSSING THE LINE” or reverse cuts, where people or actions seem to swap sides of the sceen.
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David Attenborough
Mike Jordan recently picked up a copy of David Attenborough’s ”Life on Air” book. Mike was impressed by the amazing stories and has shared some very topical photos for the Tech Ops group.
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“Diary of a Young Man” (1964)
Here are a couple of pages from the script of “Diary of a Young Man” from 1964, and some discussion resulting from them.
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Director Training
Not only were Technical Operators and Technical Assistants trained by the BBC, but Television Directors were ALSO trained by the BBC. There was (for a short time) a special Tech Ops crew formed for director training. Even established film directors had to go through BBC television director training. Oh, those were the days …
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Disorganised Walk
On a glorious day, the first of October 2015, a group of Tech Ops people went on a “disorganised walk” in the beautiful Chilterns.
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Early Stereo
Dave Mundy’s examples of early stereo work.
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Early Use of Studios TC1, TC6, TC7 and TC8
TC2, TC3, TC4 and TC5 were the first studios to open in Television Centre, followed by TC1. TC7 seems to have been the next to open, but what shows were done in the spur studios and in what sequence? Tech Ops people have been racking their memories to sort this out …
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Extras – ex-Tech Ops style?
Pat Heigham was a BBC trained Technical Operator, but moved into the Film Industry and worked on sound on some feature films as well as documentaries. Sometimes the crew were asked to act as extras.
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Fly Past
Close encounters of the flying kind.
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Focus Pullers
Credits for focus pullers on a TV series “Vicious” (ITV 2015). Why?
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Frame Rooms
Frame Rooms? Places where circuits originated and terminated. All in a day’s work for some of us.
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Goodbye to Ally Pally
When the Open University moved out of Alexandra Palace, “Nationwide” transmitted a live farewell show from there on the 3rd July 1981.
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“Heart to Heart”
“Heart to Heart” was written for TV by by Terence Rattigan, and is based on a TV interviewer determined to get a coup on a dodgy cabinet minister. The production includes an amazing tracking shot from TC4 round the inner perimeter of TVC to the staircase between TC3 and TC4.
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Jamming and ASPIDISTRA
The Biggest Aspidistra in the World – or rather, at the time, the most powerful broadcast transmitter in the world, Aspidistra was a British mediumwave radio transmitter used for black propaganda in WW2.
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Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix is recognised as one of the most influential electric guitarists in the history of popular music, and one of the most celebrated musicians of the 20th century. And, of course, he was in the BBC TV studios,
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Juke Box Jury Memories
More Juke Box Jury Memories.
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Lens Charts
The B&W IO cameras in the 1960s were manufactured with a lens “turret” – four lenses mounted on a circular wheel which was rotated to brign the appropriate lens into the front of the pick-up tube (EMI’s had a fifth, blank position).
Colour cameras (apart from the Marconi (RCA copy) “coffins”) came manufactured with an integral zoom. Some means of “standardising” shot sizes was needed.
Lens Charts were the answer.
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Lime Grove and its Cameras – early 1960s
This conversation started with a query to Pat Heigham from a colleague Richard Bignell. The main topic is Lime Grove and the cameras used in the various studios, but some into about R1, R2 and TVT is also included.
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Live Aid 1985
Who was the cameraman with whom Freddie Mercury danced on stage?
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Location Catering
“An army marches on its stomach” according to Napoleon Bonaparte.
A television or film crew on location similarly needs plenty of sustenance, even if some (American?) producers think that lunch is for wimps (Pat Heigham). We’re British, we’re wimps.
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Long Wave transmitters, VLF, FM and DAB
What would happen if Long Wave transmitters stopped transmitting? And what about FM Radio on VHF? FM radio may be switched off permanently in next few years, as Culture Minister Ed Vaizey believes Digital Audio Broadcast radio is the ‘future’.
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Captions: Lunch 21 October 2015
The photographs to which these caption relate are here.
Not everyone has been identified, and some have not identified themselves!
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Michael Bentine’s Reminiscences
Snippets from:
Michael Bentine
“The Reluctant Jester Strikes Back”
recorded at The Maltings Arts Centre, St Albans
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More about Dick Hibberd
Dick Hibberd probably did more to ensure the stature of the television cameraman than any other person. He really was a legend.
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More about Mic Booms
Pat Heigham mentioned that boom ops in the Film industry had the boom platform low and had the boom high.
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Pathe News – Visit to Television Centre
Part of a Pathe Newsreel item concerning a visit to the BBC Television Centre, dated 1961, and described as being a record of HM the Queen’s visit to TVC.
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Name That Man (and Woman)
A couple of photographs of production gallery people with Barry Letts.
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Never Work with Children or Animals
Animals can be soooo friendly and helpful …
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Now that’s a good spot!
Props (and even clips) from one programme may turn up in another …
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Horses for Courses … and “Grandstand”
This Tech Ops Conversation started as a result of an article by Ian Dow which we are delighted to include here by permission. Directors of “Grandstand” would shot and scream in the Gallery to get OB pictures to which syncs could be genlocked: meanwhile, out in the field …
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Off the Subs Bench
Taking over a zoom camera at very short notice – and thanks for those well-marked up shot cards!
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Over The Shoulder Shots
The “ITTP Approved Skills Scheme” (Bernie Newnham) got a former Tech Op person needing clarification about camera positioning and how to call the shots.
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Periscopes
Full periscopes were used to get low-angle angle shots without the need for a “creeper”. The upper attachment could be used on its own to get a distorted view of the set.
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Personalities – more from the Crews
More about those characters, technical geniuses, larger than life people that made life on the crews a joy.
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Personalities – The Directors
Memories of working with Herbie Wise and Jack Gold.
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Pointless Empty Void
New Broadcasting House versus Television Centre – no contest. But the winner has been destroyed.
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Premises and Phone Numbers …
… as they were back in the day … Mike Jordan found some handouts detailing premises and phone numbers.
How many premises still exist? It’s the final countdown …
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Radio Interference
At one time, TVC had become a hot-spot for radiation at 150MHz (but no-one in the building had realised it).
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Radio Olympia 1956
“Who Done It”, an Ealing comedy starring Benny Hill, includes a whole segment filmed at Radio Olympia taking place at Earls Court Exhibition Centre in 1956.
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‘Kamera-Kharsi’
Either a new Japanese camera mounting, called the ‘Kamera-Kharsi’ or a cameraman on a Segway (or, rather, falling off a Segway and crashing into Usain Bolt)
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Shepherd’s Bush Market
Sad to say that the 100 year old Shepherd’s Bush Market is going, like so much of London it is to be ‘Regenerated’. But we remember …
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Shifts and Coincidences
Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world. ……
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Sic Transit Gloria TVC
We watched it being built … we have seen it being destroyed. We have laughed, cursed, sweated and cried, loved, lost, grunted and tried in that building.
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Sound And Atmosphere
Those of us still actively practicing our art mostly shudder at the poor quality sound that the BBC presents to viewers on far too many occasions now. It is often not of merchantable quality.
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The Fight For Saturday Night
… was a tale of the ratings battle between BBC and ITV. The programme about this ratings battle included odd bits of archive film and clips. One clip was from “The Generation Game” at TVT with Jim Moir and a group with ped mounted EMI 2001s in action.
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The First Outside Broadcast
BBC Press release about the televising of the 1937 coronation procession.
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The Great Glass Hive
“The Great Glass Hive” was a fifty minute Colour Separation Overlay (CSO) piece by Ken Corden about the Crystal Palace.
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The Great Storm of 1987
Everyone has a tale to tell about the Great Storm of 1987. Here are some …
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The Joy of Ops
What ever job we did, it seemed that we were part of something wonderful in the middle of the media, the news and the life of the times.
However, not everyone enjoyed working in Tech Ops.
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Trails, advertising and future BBC Funding
Tech Ops people’s comments on trails, internal trails, advertising and such like. This includes Albert Barber’s manifesto.
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This is not a “history” item: the BBC isn’t what it was in the golden years of TV and Tech Ops, when the BBC had more money and more staff. This looks at a BBC of today without money (but with ‘management’).
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How many uses are there for a Television Centre?
One is not doing costume drama in a theatrical, multi-camera style, that’s for sure. Art exhibitions, discos, housing …
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Weight for it!
Fun with stage weights, Vinten ped balance weights – and some other practical jokes …
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Why MCRs are called Scanners?
Why MCRs are called Scanners? According to one theory, it goes right back to the early days of television outside broadcasts …
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With The Beatles
The Beatles… The Beatles… Some of our times working with the fab four mop tops.
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Wood Norton Hall 1961 – 1964
There are a whole lot of stories about the BBC Engineering Training Department at Wood Norton Hall scattered though the Tech Ops site Contributions and Conversations. Here are some more.
The dates are – shall we say? – flexible?
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Wogan’s Wand on “Blankety Blank”
Was Wogan’s wafty wand what it purported to be?
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You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!
Well, it is still a good quote. Geoff Fletcher has photos of an explosion for an Anglia TV drama.
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