In the 1950s – when many of us were young and investigating everything around us – the world was mechanical. Railway signalling was mechanical, the interlocking between points and signals being achieved by, at times, a baroque arrangement of sliding bars and pins. Cars were fully mechanical – you could buy cars with fully mechanical brakes and steering (no power assist) and mechanical spark distribution – although there was a bit of electro-mechanics in the operation of the trafficators. Telephones – well, the square waves for dialling were generated by a sort of clockwork mechanism: the Strowger electro-mechanical exchanges were based, it is reported, on a model made from a round collar box (for separate shirt collars) and some straight pins.

Sound recording involved mechanics, too: moving ribbon and moving coil microhones to capture the sound – and right up to the late 1950s it was possible to listen to gramophone records with no electronics involved at all!

So perhaps it is no surprise that some three decades earlier, when thoughts turned to broadcasting live, moving images using radio waves, mechanical systems were initially developed to capture the pictures. On 30 September 1929, Baird made the first experimental television broadcast using an electro-mechanical system.

And then, on 2 November 1936, the BBC began the world’s first regular high-definition television service: the first transmission used Baird’s 240 line flying spot mechanical system, followed by the same programme transmitted using fully electronic cameras based on cathode-ray tube technology. It was not only the start of BBC Television – it was the start of BBC Television Technical Operations (in its widest sense!)

80 years ago! When we grew up, and excitedly joined the crews in the BBC TV studios, the medium was barely 25 years old! Here you will find some more tales from the golden age of Television, told by the people who were there, but first comes our introductory page – longer than usual, as it covers a few topics that were discussed by Tech Ops people but are not part of the Tech Ops history as such.

Training versus Technology
Some Tech Ops people have been using the services of Uber, and some thought that the black cab drivers must be really, really annoyed after all that Knowledge doing and exams etc, to be superseded by someone with a smartphone and a GPS. Perhaps the Hansom cab people said similar things!

There is a certain similarity between the black cab drivers’ complaints about their having to learn the Knowledge and other skills compared to the lack of such requirements on the part of the Uber drivers and our own feelings about all the years of training and experience we all went through to get up the promotion/career ladder compared to the lack of training and experience in some present day TV and to a lesser extent Film personnel.

EU referendum
We can not avoid the elephant in the room. Bernie had an idea to set up an informal poll on the big question of the week, month, year – or even the century, during the week before the EU referendum:

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Tony Crake went to stay down in Cornwall with Joe Driver who was at TVC in the 1970s and then came to OBs in the 1980s.  Joe did some ‘Referendum vox pops’ in Truro, and Tony was struck how calm and collected were some of the responses on this vexed subject.

There seemed to be some agreement that the merits of the decision were finely balanced. Generally, we particularly disliked the scare tactics used by some campaigners on either side.  Really, we should try to project ten years on and work out what kind of Britain we might be in, then choose.

The chatter on the Tech Ops email before the vote itself generally contained more sensible and more cogent arguments (for either side) than the politicians had come up with.

This topic is, of course, not part of the history of BBC Tech Ops, but since we made that history, here is the results of Bernie’s poll late on the day before the Referendum itself

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The Tech Ops poll was not far off the mark.  The actual result was:

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There was a great deal of discussion about the result from supporters of both sides.  Pehaps the best conclusion was forwarded by Peter Neil – something that had appeared on Social Media:

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On a sort of related issue, John Howell reckoned that the rot started when we ‘went Decimal’ and Kit Kat added a fraction to their price:

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The wrapper was found under floorboards in 1980s.

Nick Ware said that the best thing about Kit Kat was the metal foil wrapping – perfect for re-ribboning Reslo ribbon mics.(corrugated between a pair of Meccano gears).  He  wondered if there’s any truth in the rumour that Reslo went out of business because Nestlé switched to plastic wrappers.

But then there was an amazing week in British politics and in sport.  England had been dismissed for the Euro 2016 football tournament by Iceland in the first of the knockout rounds – Iceland with a total polulation the size of Leicester (who had won the Premier League not long before, against all odds).  Wales beat the number two team, Belgium, by 3 goals to 1 in the quarter finals: rydym i gyd yn Gymraeg erbyn hyn  (we are all Welsh now!) – although they were gallent losers to Portugal in the semi-finals.  At Wimbledon, a British player ranked 772 in the world, Marcus Willis,  won his first round match to face Roger Federer – and Novak Djocovic (number 1 seed, number 1 player in the world) lost in the first week.

Confound the experts, the analysts, the bookies.

But the drama was in Politics. Jeremy Corbyn lost 60 (yes, 60) of his shadow cabinet or front bench spokespersons and faced a leadership challenge:  Boris Johnson was foiled in his attempt to get on the Conservative party leadership ballot paper by Michael Gove.

Confound the experts, the analysts, the bookies.

It was the Brexit politics that was discussed by members of the Tech Ops forum.  All this in the week that commemorated the 100 year anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

Mike Jordan forwarded his picture of a London B-type bus, here overlaid on a Somme background:

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Which leads us nicely onto…

Buses
Some people have seemed to be surprised that we have so many bus, and tram, enthusiasts among us, not to mention the stream locomotive enthusiasts, traction engine enthusiasts, steam organ enthusiasts and so on…  Wonderful stories of travel to school (and in the London smogs), but these are not part of Tech Ops history – except for the day that John Hays drove the “EastEnders” Routemaster (RM) from the Lot to its garage.

Martin Eccles told us that Beverley in Yorkshire had special buses with pointy roofs to fit through the “Bars” or gates in the city walls: this picture is a must!

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A couple of emails about Landrovers led on to stories and pictures about Patagonia, during which we learned that Graeme  Wall’s in-laws  live in Buenos Aires, and that Gladys Davies (a vision mixer) who used to work on the Black and White Minstrels mounted a fashion show at the Hilton in Park Lane to promote Welsh wool to the Welsh community in Patagonia. Pat Heigham recalls that she enticed several of the TV Toppers to model the clothes (they were allowed to keep them) and enticed him to provide the Minstrels music. Wout Steenhuis was the cabaret, (he used three Revox decks to achieve multitracking guitar, so he and Pat had an interesting chat, as Pat was also employing a Revox).  Leslie Crowther was the MC, and very nervous, so Pat bought him a double vodka – many years later discovering that he had a drink problem.  Pat wasn’t proud of that, but is still on good terms with his widow, Jean, having kept in touch.

Graeme Wall and John Nottage showed pictures of the Pieter Moreno glacier,

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and there were pictures of the Iguacu falls on the border with Brazil.

Alastair Lawrance shared pictures of Carnaval (yes, a correct spelling!) – the appropriate one for the Tech Ops history site is this one from 2009:

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Names
Another topic which generated a lot of contributions was funny family names, some made up and some real.

Graeme Wall reminded us that his favourite was the Chinese take-away in the Mile End Road was “Foo Kin” – trumped  by Geoff Fletcher who said that he and his mate Ted (the tall fellow)  found this one in Amsterdam when they were there in 1984 doing some Anglia thing.

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… and Steve Rogers reported that in the 1960s there was a headmaster at Clement Danes school in Ducane Road, just around the corner from TVC, called Dr Badcock – colloquially known as “Syph”.

Roger Bunce reminded us that there is no truth in the tales of smutty names in “Captain Pugwash”. It’s just one of those urban myths. The cabin boy’s name was Tom. “Mister Mate” was the only one which might be mistaken for something else. There was a court case against a comedian who claimed he had invented the rude versions. (Roger thinks it was Richard Digance.)

But there are some strange names about: the Heseltine “dog strangling” story (01 November 2016) gave rise to a Mr Daniel Spaniel pic (on the BBC News Channel):

The BBC Club at TVC
We have mentioned Eric before – Eric was the the Club Commissionaire –  often tramping round the bar with his stentorian tones calling for “Mr Andrew Pandy”!  Pat Heigham believed that it was Muir and Norden who used to phone the Club from their office along the corridor, and invent a call out for a fictictious name, dashing back to witness Eric doing his stuff.  The sad aspect was, Pat gathered, that Eric was required to resign through age, and died but six weeks later, as that had been his life in the Club.  So sad.

Geoff Fletcher wondered whether anyone  recalled the cross eyed barman? Geoff always found it difficult to decide if it was him he was waiting to take an order from. Geoff remembers Pete Ware cracking up one night after the barman had asked Geoff three times what will it be and each time Geoff thought he was asking somebody else. Finally, in desperation, the poor guy poked Geoff in the chest and said, “Sure an’ its yew oim tarkin tew now!” Pete’s grin said it all. Doesn’t know his arse from his wingtip!

And then, and then … 2016 was an election year for US president. It was reportedly one of the dirtiest, vicious and divisive campaigns in US presidential election history, fought between an alleged bigoted, iconoclastic candidate with no political experience at all and an alleged devious, ambitious career politician. On the eve of the election, the polls were running neck and neck (within the sampling and statistical error): it seemed like a race to the bottom: which candidate did the electorate hate least. However, in most polls and the BBC poll of polls, Hillary Clinton was just ahead … but it was Donald Trump who won the election.

Confound the experts, the analysts, the bookies.

And now:
Here are the Tech Ops (and Tech Ops history) topics that we talked about. To help make the pages quicker to load on smart phones or tablets, all the pictures in this set of conversations (unless otherwise noted) are shown in a default size – 300 pixels wide or 300 pixels high (whichever dimension is the larger).  All the pictures can be seen full size by clicking on the picture itself.

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3-D Photography

Pat Heigham explained how he took and showed 3-D photographs back in the day, and Bernie enthused over Google “Cardboard”.

What people said…

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Avo Collection

Keith Wicks found a photo of a large collection of AVOs. Is there more information available about this collection?

What people said…

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BBC Monitoring

BBC Monitoring is relocated from Caversham Park in Reading, its base since 1943.

What people said…

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BBC Staff Surveys

Immediately after the advisory Referendum about remaining or leaving the European Union, which showed a majority in favour of Brexit, the Referendum was compared to the BBC Staff Surveys: Roger Bunce wondered what if those surveys had had the “authority” of the Referendum?

What people said…

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Before They Were Famous

In all sorts of shows, from Practical Production Exercises through Pilots, low budget productions and to mainstream productions, we have worked with artists that were little known at the time but who subsequently hit the big time. Here are just a few stories.

What people said…

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Blackadder Goes Forth

There are a number of Urban Myths about some of the programmes we worked on – the names of the crew in “Captain Pugwash” being one – roundly trounced by Roger Bunce.

Another myth is that the recording of the last episode of “Blackadder Goes Forth” was stopped by the crew because of an overrun. It certainly was NOT because of the crew, as our conversations convincingly prove.

Some other occasions when there has been an overrun are also discussed.

What people said…

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Bristol – A Centre Of Excellence

Roger Bunce has been writing his memoirs for the BBCPA and felt the need to talk about John Birt’s scheme to convert all the BBC’s regions into “Centres of Excellence”. But weren’t they already Centres of Excellence – and, anyway, would London then NOT be a Centre of Excellence? Discuss.

What people said…

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Colour Blindness

Tony Grant found lenses that help people with red/green colour blindness by selectively filtering light in a way that the company making the lenses claims corrects for red/green deficiencies. Hmmm.

What people said…

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Comely Boom Operators

During the Radio 4 sitcom “Ed Reardonis Week”, in which the curmudgeonly author takes listeners through his week, mention was made of a comely boom operator on “Doctor Who”. News to us!

What people said…

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Comments on Television programmes 2016

The coverage of the Olympic Games 2016 has its own section (see here).

Here are comments on some of the other programmes shown May to (start of) November 2016, including:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Trainspotting Live
The Proms 2016
Sitcom Season
Railways: the Making of a Nation
Antiques Road Show
Poldark v Victoria
Strictly Come Dancing
Television’s Opening Night: How The Box Was Born

What people said…

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Comments on the Olympic Games coverage Rio 2016

Comments on the coverage and technical quality of the Rio Olympics 2016.

What people said…

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Credits

Credits. In the “Golden Age” of Television no Technical Operators had a credit. As a mere camera operator, or boom operator, or sound mixer, gram op or vision control, there was no official credit on TV programmes for the contribution made by the technical crew … until Monday 27th November 1978 – after some bloody trouble-maker had a go.

But film crews got credit for the shortest insert.

This section turned into a discussion on the role and power of the various unions involved in TV production and broadcasting.

What people said…

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Dave Mutton and Crew 14

Dave Mutton – the gentle giant of the Camera Department. He led his crew, crew 14, on some memorable TV programmes.

What people said…

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Great Developing Shots in Cinema

Developing shots in Cinema releases, commercials – and (sorry) a Eurovision Song COntest Steadicam operator on a Segway.

What people said…

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DIN and SCART

A conversation about the maintenance and repair of Quad amplifiers has not been reported here, but as the discussion turned to the question of plugs used in Sound and Vision, this section is shown here.

Discussion continued on to expensive cables and low-cost fuses.

What people said…

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Early Days in TC3

Albert Barber submitted a photograph – but where, when and why was it taken?

What people said…

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Early Handheld Colour Cameras

A brief look at some early OB radio cameras and transmitters.

And Nick Ware does a sort of “Then and now” in terms of picture capture!

What people said…

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Following Young Dudley

This follows on from the post about Young Dudley.

The type of ped is discussed, and some of us remember our first go on a live TV camera.

What people said…

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Hello Dolly

Identification of some less common OB dollies – and the Peregrine …

What people said…

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Hoists and Cherry-Pickers

… Which leads nicely onto the topic of the way to get good high shots of an event: the hoists and cherry-pickers used by OBs.

What people said…

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Hotels we have known

… and where to stay while working on OBs – and the things that happened or we did while we were there.

• The Queens Hotel, Southport
• The Royal Clarence Hotel, Exeter

What people said…

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Interviews with Mohammed Ali

Accounts of some three or four interviews with the great showman himself.

What people said…

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Landrovers

As Mike Jordan says, BBC OBs could never have existed without Landrovers: other people used them too, and went to wild, windy or (nearly) Welsh places.

What people said…

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Legal Decent Honest Truthful

Reminiscences of work on Adverts – and blue screen television.

What people said…

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Light on the Subject

The types of lamps that were used in film, OBs and TV studios – as we remember them.

What people said…

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Lime Grove and Shepherds Bush Market

What could be more exciting when working at Lime Grove (apart form jumping up and down in the old lift to Studios D and E to make it come to a juddering halt) than roaming round Shepherds Bush Market instead of pointing a camera on “Grandstand”? Well, checking out all the restaurants and cafes round the area,.of course! Exotic food we had not seen before, like Spaghetti Bolognese to die for …

What people said…

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Loud Singers and Loud Speakers

A short conversation which did not fit neatly into other categories. Thrown microhones, a miniature LSU 10 fold-back loudspeaker and – name dropping – Stewart Morris.

What people said…

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More TO Course Information

More reminiscences of time spent at the BBC Engineering Training Department, Wood Norton Hall, Evesham

What people said…

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National Radio Show – But Which One?

Your chance to do some detective work. Alec Bray found some photos taken at the National Radio Show, as was, but trying to work out WHICH National Radio Show they were taken at proved somewhat difficult.

Can you find the answer?

What people said…

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Oh my aching back!

Portable? lightweight? hand-held cameras from the flared trouser era … and somehow this drifts into Fuller’s Earth.

What people said…

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Operation Lymelight

John Nottage recently came across paperwork for an OB from 1971, on board the Ark Royal in Lyme Bay. This prompted memories of other OBs from ships and helicopters.

What people said…

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People – the Crew

More personalities from the technical crews:

Andy Tallack
Robin Barnes
John Adcock
Rufus Cartwright

What people said…

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Personal Mics

The pros and cons of personal mics in film and television.

What people said…

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Personalities – the Directors

Directors with whom we have worked.

Stanley Dorfman
Andrew Gosling

What people said…

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Production versus Young Generation footy match

Here is a photo showing a Production team (including TOs) in a Production versus Young Generation footy match. All the Production players have been identified.

What people said…

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RF Interference

Walkie-talkie interference with technical equipment.

What people said…

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Rollback and Mix

Roger Bunce wondered when it first become possible to do a “Rollback and Mix”.

The discussion covered Roll back and Mix, roll back and cut, luminance overlay and CSO as well.

Some more tales of the use of Editec also feature.

What people said…

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School Dimmers

Lighting dimmers in use in school productions.

What people said…

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Shakespeare Clips

This started out as an appreciation of actors in Shakesperian roles, moved swiftly into discussion about using microhones as loudspeakers and finished up with Spike Milligan and his sound effects.

What people said…

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Sound and Vision

Our training covered operation of all the studio equipment, but at the end of our training there was the choice of maoving to the sound side of operations or towards camera work. People describe why they made one choice or the other.

What people said…

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Sounding Off – Again

Albert Barber had some specific points to make about the problems of sound recording on recent location shoots and the comments sunsequently made by Charlotte Moore.

There was discussion about sound perception levels

What people said…

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Spot the Errors

Two “Spot the Errors” for you!

The first one concerns an IKEA advert on TV and in the Cinema. It purports to show a couple of OBs in the late 1960s, early 1970 time period, bu there are inaccuracies and anachronisms (in some newspapers (eg “The Sunday Times”) anachronisms of recent times are known as Routemaster moments, as for example a Routemaster bus appears in a scene supposedly set before the bus was introduced.)

The second one is in a recent studio upgrade, and is a technical (operational) error of unimaginable stupidity …

What people said…

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Start ’em young

Don’t need a media studies degree now …!

What people said…

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Stony Faced Technicians

A press article once used the phrase “… stony faced technicians …” but how did this get started?

What people said…

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Studio Camera Fixed Lenses

The angles of view and focal length of the lenses on the studio 4.5 inch IO cameras, the zoom indicators on some early colour zoom cameras, and the various methods of working with these tools.

What people said…

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Take a Sapphire

Pat Heigham and Barry Bonner worked on this. Is there any more information out there about this programme?

What people said…

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Tingles

Dave Mundy advised us that some time ago a newspaper ran an article about music and how there were some pieces that made the hairs stand up on the back of your head!

What people said…

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What’s the Time?

Missing hands on the Elizabeth Tower clock – and no clocks on channel idents any more.

What people said…

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Why has TV Sound got Louder

An article in the “Guardian” discussed why it seems that TV sound has got louder. Audio compression is not something new, and is very different in concept to data compression.

What people said…

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It is a lively bunch who gather round the virtual table in the virtual (tea) bar to chew the fat, and who offer items interest, opinions and information over a wide range of topics.

Things that we discussed but have not included here – as not being relevant to the Tech Ops history site – include Broadband speeds, MAC versus PC, adding various types of PCs to a networks – and the oldest computer in regular use between us. That’s just a small sample!

And what is the collective name for a group of OB Engineering Managers?

Suggestions ranged from a “A Chaos”, a Plot,  an Emsworth, an Eminency, an Emergency, a “cut & paste” of Ems, an “OBTW” of EMs (This, Oh by the way, was a verbal addition to all planning sheets. The bigger the show, the more additional EMs, and hence the addition of even more  “OBTWs”!)

One topic more than any other has featured in this selection – the quality of sound in current television programmes. We were all taught – at Wood Norton but more practically in the studios – that sound perspective mattered and that sound should match the shot (and vice versa, of course). Cameramen and boom operators worked together – or, rather, sound and vision professionals worked together – to provide the best possible experience for the people at home. The conversations about sound have been split over more than 5 sections here.

So here is the sixth collection stories of how life in TV (and related industry) was for those who worked for the BBC – and why we express concern about the quality of sound and vision in current broadcast productions. There is a lot about Sound in these conversations!

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ADAPT project – Sound Technology and the BBC Academy

The Adapt Project is investigating the history of television production technologies in Britain.

Tim Heath’s personal research focuses on the history of sound technologies for television from 1960 to the present day. As part of his research he needs to speak to those, retired or still working, who may have worked in any area of television sound to discuss their careers and experiences using historical technologies.

A formal response to this, coordinated by Pat Heigham, is here Discourse on TV Technology over the years

This section is part of the usual Tech Ops discussions.

What people said…

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A Pretty Nurse is …

Each BBC site had a surgery where one ventured if one had sustained an injury at work – cut finger, electric jolt or whatever.

What people said…

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Ad Breaks and “Maigret”

Fade to black and up again. “Maigret” was a programme sold abroad, so needed breaks so that adverts could be played in: but many other programmes with a potential for overseas sales included clear ad breaks for commercial playout.

What people said…

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Ariel Flying Group

A group photo of the Ariel Flying Group was published in “Propspero”. It may have been taken on an open day sometime in 1973 or 1974. Ariel Flying group started flying at Fairoaks using Condor aircraft and only moved to Denham when GK was bought.

What people said…

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Back to 1975

Daily Duty Sheets and Studio Allocations for the end of August 1975.

– and forward to 1994 …

Lines Booking Sheet for 9th July 1994

What people said…

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Batteries and Multimeters

What happened to B size batteries?
We have AA, AAA, AAAA, C, D.

What people said…

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BBC London Premises

The many and varied premises that the BBC used to inhabit in London alone!

What people said…

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BBC Recording Tape

Was BBC Recording Tape really only good enough for tying up the roses? Possibly not as bad as Zonal, which seemed to be Sellotape sprayed with rust.

What people said…

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Birtspeak 2.0

Birtspeak is a very long running column in “Private Eye” which carries examples of mad BBC quotations. It originated – not surprisingly – by quoting Mr – sorry, Lord – Birt’s pronouncements. Everyone thought that would go away with the man, but it turns out not to be true, hence Birtspeak 2.0.

What people said…

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CLUG

A pretty make-up girl was parked in front of the cameras for colour matching the camera. She was referred to as a CLUG.

What people said…

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Colour Vision

The cameras may be matched – see CLUG – but one person has said that she used to see colour differently with each eye. But did it only concern one shade or hue, and what, if any, difference would it have made to her everyday work/circumstances?

What people said…

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Comments on 2015 and 2016 Programmes

There are anachronisms in many period piece programmes – but more of an issue is the sound pickup in period dramas: this theme is explored in some depth in the sections below on “The Quality of Sound in TV Broadcasting”.

What people said…

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CSO Oversights

Clever stuff this CSO! In the right hands, of course!

What people said…

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CGI Backgrounds and Virtual Newsrooms

Most regional “cubby-hole” studio newsrooms now have a looped CSO/CGI background to give a more controlled environment. Only the newsreaders are real.

What people said…

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Dad’s Army – in which studio?

This discussion started as there had been a suggestion that “Dad’s Army” had been telerecorded at Lime Grove.

What people said…

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Don’t ask me, ask Mother

Amazing what can be found tucked away in the back of a drawer …

What people said…

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Dubbin

We see what we think we ought to see, hear what we think we ought to hear – and relate things unknown to things we know. A story from Geoff Fletcher.

What people said…

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Early Days of Home Computing

My first computer was ….

What people said…

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Early Domestic Tape Recorders

Didn’t we all have Ferrographs? Well, no – don’t tell anyone, but mine was a Ferguson – but then I was on cameras …

What people said…

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Early Portable Tape Recorders for News

What would have been the small audio (tape) recorder used by News reporters of the 1960s?

What people said…

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Flashing Lights and Perspex

Spirals of lights flashing in sequence that served no purpose at all.

What people said…

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Forfar 5 – East Fife 4

Talkback: “And it’s Len on the Lip”

What people said…

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Early days of ENG

Bob Auger remembers where he was fifty years ago…

What people said…

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Filmed and Directed by …

A cameraperson and someone else. That’s maybe all you need. It’s perfectly possible to combine the various skills and get a good show made, as long as it isn’t a complex show.

What people said…

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For Doctor Who in Memoriam

Tony Hadoke has been preparing his current Doctor Who In Memoriam video and has offered a picture.

What people said…

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Frank Wilkins and Crew 2.

That certainly sounds like a Frank Wilkins story!

What people said…

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Handy Tandy

You used to be able to pop round the corner to the little specialist shops selling all sorts of electronic bits and pieces. Not quite Akihabara in Tokyo, of course, but this was London in the 1960s and 1970s.

What people said…

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Information Superhighway

Lillehammer flowchart.

What people said…

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It’s Christmas Time

A miscellany of items with some tenuous connection with Christmas.

What people said…

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Long Live – or possibly not – the BBC TV Theatre

The “Evening Standard” on Tuesday 8 December 2015 reported that the Shepherd’s Bush Empire (formerly the BBC TV Theatre (and before that, the Shepherd’s Bush Empire)) was shut the previous Friday night after a last-minute “formal” health and safety inspection.  “…They checked a problem and it was a lot worse than first thought….”

The 2,000-capacity Grade II-listed hall is now closed for the rest of the year.

What people said…

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Lost and/or Forgotten Shows

Specifically:

• “The Walrus and the Carpenter”
• “The Siegfried Idyll”

What people said…

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More about Jacks

The 3.5mm headphone jack is essentially a 19th Century bit of kit – it is a miniaturised version of the classic quarter-inch jack (6.35mm), which is said to go back as far as 1878.

The thing about standards are that there are so many to choose from.

What people said…

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More from Wood Norton Hall – and afterwards …

More than fifty years ago (from 2016), group of spotty youths would be assembled at Wood Norton Hall to begin life in the BBC on TO courses. The content and compositions of the courses changes over the years, but the training given then stayed with us for our professional careers – inside or outside broadcasting.

What people said…

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More Personalities – the Crew – 3

More reminiscences about the people of the various technical crews that we used to work with.

What people said…

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More Personalities – the Talent – 3

More reminiscences about people who worked in front of the camera (and microphone) and who sadly have died this year (2016).

• Paul Daniels
• Cliff Michelmore
• Victoria Wood

and one who famously worked behind the microphone:

• Sir George Martin

What people said…

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Now We’re History – or is it Pretentious Piffle

Is this just pretentious piffle, stylish criticism or what? But this could turn out to be the history (about us) that gets written.

What people said…

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Old TV Sets

Hot valves, extra high tension, whining line output transformers, cathode rays – but forward facing, full sized loudspeakers.

What people said…

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“Our World” – more about this programme

Mike Jordan went to see the display about Our World” in The Science Museum (January 2016).

What people said…

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Pan’s People

Terribly old fashioned and non pc of course, but we are, aren’t we?

What people said…

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Quatermass

… and associated sci-fi memories and memorabilia.

What people said…

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Related to History

Peter Cook’s connections to famous innovators, inventors and engineers.

What people said…

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“Shakespeare and Music” – and workplace bullies

Somre people may probably be classified as a bully-in-the-workplace today, but that’s how it was then.

What people said…

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Shot card sample

Geoff Fletcher found a shot card in his BBC box. Very few were ever kept, swept up in the detritus of the derig.

What Geoff said…

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Sprinkle Sprinkle – and a segue to “Grange Hill”

in these conversations, Tech Ops people start talking about one thing – and this lead on to another, and on to another … It is difficult at times to unravel the various strands!

Following on from a post by Bernie Newnham, this segued into storiea about water sprinklers (what, with all that electricity all over the place?) and gently segued into “Grange Hill”.

What people said…

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STC Microphones

Mystery surrounds an ST&C microphone type number 4131 that Keith Wicks bought from a car boot sale.

What people said…

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Talyllyn Railway OB Summer 1957

A live Outside Broadcast from the pioneering railway restoration project in the world. It deserves a page of its own.

What people said…

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Tea 6d, coffee 9d

Catering … at least BBC premises never had to suffer the “Roach Coach” (aka sandwich van) which toured industrial estates.

What people said…

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The old ways and working practices

it’s not easy to make judgements about any shift pattern without actually working it.

What people said…

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The Quality of Sound in TV Broadcasting

As mentioned right at the start of these conversations, one topic more than any other has caught the attention of the Tech Ops people – the quality of sound in current television programmes. There are straightforward technical issues – for example, the sound level for an individual programme is different to the preceding and succeeding one. There are problems with the actors – their diction is poor. There are problems with microphone positioning. And sometimes these all come together to provide a “perfect storm” – or it would be if we could hear it.

The conversations about this have been split into four pages.

BBC Academy, Personal mics, Equalisation and more …
What people said…

Flying Scotsman – no locomotive sound, Merlins, wildtracks and a poem by Geoff Fletcher
What people said…

Mumblegate, mixdown, transmission chain, mutlicamera shoot …
What people said…

And here is the opposite … two gaffes, caught clearly.
How was the sound was so good when obviously no-one was mic’ed up?
Obviously speak the Queen’s English.
What people said…

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Soft or Sharp, Quad or Helical – and TOTP – again!

Watching old programmes on modern tellies.

What people said…

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Theme Music

The theme music for some TV programmes include the name of the programme in morse code.

What people said…

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Trains and Filming

The Talyllyn OB had its own page: here are some more stories and pictures of Trains and filming (should that be Trains and Telerecording?)

What people said…

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VT Clocks and Film Recording

VT clocks were used to ident VT recordings – but what sort of idents were used for Film Recordings?

What people said…

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What are all these people doing here?

Union disputes, selling the family silver, Mrs. Thatcher, overmanning …

What people said…

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What’s ’is name worked as a …

BBC TV was like a wonderful club, says Geoff Fletcher. He has been trawling through his diaries and has listed the number of people he knew by their job titles at the time.

What people said…

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Wobblyscope

A wonderful name for the juddery hand-held-like camerawork seen nowadays. Ans the unmotivated crabs and cranes on wide angle interview shots. And …

What people said…

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That’s all for this time around .

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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

• Cloacopapyrology
• Ferroequinology
• Planeology
• 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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50^th 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.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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BBC at Lifestyles 2000

The “Daily Express” “Lifestyles 2000” show, held at Olympic between 8^th -16^th July 1989, gave people the opportunity to see a BBC’s “Tomorrow’s World” Studio in action – blocking and transmission – amongst other items.

What people said…

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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…

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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?

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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?

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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Bucks Rig

A whole Russell Harty show was done with Bucks Fizz on an Oil Rig.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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Cold Comfort and Condensation

Learning the hard way what cold weather and condensation can do to technical equipment.

What people said…

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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

What people said…

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Crew Lists 1980

Dave Mundy’s final four crew lists before he moved to OBs.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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.

What Mike said…

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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.

What people said…

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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 …

What people said…

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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.

The photographs and comments…

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Early Stereo

Dave Mundy’s examples of early stereo work.

Examples…

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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 …

What people said…

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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.

Pat Heigham’s stories …

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Fly Past

Close encounters of the flying kind.

What people said…

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Focus Pullers

Credits for focus pullers on a TV series “Vicious” (ITV 2015). Why?

What people said…

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Frame Rooms

Frame Rooms? Places where circuits originated and terminated. All in a day’s work for some of us.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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,

What people said…

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Juke Box Jury Memories

More Juke Box Jury Memories.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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Live Aid 1985

Who was the cameraman with whom Freddie Mercury danced on stage?

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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’.

What people said…

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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!

What people said…

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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

Snippets and comments…

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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.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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Name That Man (and Woman)

A couple of photographs of production gallery people with Barry Letts.

What people said…

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Never Work with Children or Animals

Animals can be soooo friendly and helpful …

What people said…

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Now that’s a good spot!

Props (and even clips) from one programme may turn up in another …

What people said…

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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 …

What people said…

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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!

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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Personalities – The Directors

Memories of working with Herbie Wise and Jack Gold.

What people said…

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Pointless Empty Void

New Broadcasting House versus Television Centre – no contest. But the winner has been destroyed.

What people said…

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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 …

What people said…

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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).

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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)

What people said…

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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 …

What people said…

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Shifts and Coincidences

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world. ……

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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The First Outside Broadcast

BBC Press release about the televising of the 1937 coronation procession.

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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The Great Storm of 1987

Everyone has a tale to tell about the Great Storm of 1987. Here are some …

What people said…

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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.

What people said…

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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.

***
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’).
***

What people said…

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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 …

What people said…

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Weight for it!

Fun with stage weights, Vinten ped balance weights – and some other practical jokes …

What people said…

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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 …

What people said…

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With The Beatles

The Beatles… The Beatles… Some of our times working with the fab four mop tops.

What people said…

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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?

What people said…

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Wogan’s Wand on “Blankety Blank”

Was Wogan’s wafty wand what it purported to be?

What people said…

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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.

Geoff Fletcher’s photos …

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Tech Ops people have been emailing about any and all aspects of BBC programming – current sound and picture quality, quality of content and comparisons with BBC reality and the spoof “W1A” – it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference!

The Tech Ops site captures photos and stories that former Tech Ops people could share from the nineteen sixties and seventies (and occasionally earlier and later) – that is, during the golden age of television, when the BBC was the best – and most respected – broadcaster in the world.

Some topics compare a “then” and a “now” (for a given definition of “then” and “now”), and so earlier and later photos and stories are included where appropriate and relevant. Destruction and sell-off of places we worked, and changes in the BBC way of doing things are also included.

This set of conversations, then, does not capture every thread of the Tech Ops emails, so apologies if a favourite recent topic is not recorded here.

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6 Days – the siege of the Iranian Embassy in 1980

A BBC Outside Broadcast unit was available, and captured some of the most memorable scenes of the siege and its resolution. Trapped inside the embassy – and one of the first to make his way out – was Sim Harris of BBC News – and ex OBs.

What people said…

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8 mm Projector and Film

Gary Critcher had a picture of a Eumig P8 projector. This led to futher comments and to Pat Heigham describing how he put together his -er – illicit 8mm film of the “Black & White Minstrel Show”.

What people said…

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“Best of Both Worlds” 1964

In 1964 there was a series on BBC 2 called “Best of Both Worlds” which featured big orchestras from both sides of the Atlantic, and was produced and directed by Yvonne Littlewood.

What people said…

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“EastEnders” Live Quality (Feb 2015)

It started as a discussion about the quality of the live parts of “EastEnders” during the anniversary week, but quickly moved on to Ultra High Definition (UHD), 4K and 16K.

What people said…

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“Fifty Shades of Grey”

This is not about black and white Television!

E.L. James, the author of “50 Shades of Grey”, is the daughter of the late Alistair Mitchell, known universally as Mitch, who was a long serving cameraman and latterly supervisor with London BBC OBs.

What people said…

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“Grandstand” Memories

It’s a Saturday in the sixties, it’s twelve o’clock – it must be “Grandstand”!

What people said…

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“PlaySchool” and “Playaway” Musicians

What musicians were there in the group? Someone would have had a swannee whistle if nothing else!

What people said…

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“Poldark” – the original version (1975 to 1977)

From the “Birmingham Mail” Poldark Original Actors:

” … the benchmark for the period drama was actually set in 1975, when the first series was screened. And although all the sex and scandal happened in 18th century Cornwall, the series was actually made in Birmingham. Poldark, which ran from 1975 to 1977, was a BBC Pebble Mill production and all the interior scenes was shot at the Birmingham studios…

It was watched by 15 million people in Britain and aired in 40 countries around the world…”

What people said…

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“The Adventures of Robin Hood”

Um….  “The Adventures of Robin Hood” was commissioned by Lew Grade, filmed by Sapphire Films Ltd for ITC Entertainment and shown on ATV.  Not live or telerecorded, not BBC – shouldn’t be here …   However, there was a lot of interest in the signature tune (and so on) on the Tech Ops mailing list …

What people said…

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A Dalek looks at VT

One of the Christmas VT tapes had a very inventive sequence shot by VT guys of a Dalek chatting up a 2″ VTR.

What people said…

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Art at the BBC

What has happened to some of the artwork produced for the BBC and BBC programmes with the destruction of OBH and TC.

What people said…

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Big Ben Model

In the days when OBs and lines could be problematic, the Beeb had made a highly detailed model of Big Ben’s clock face, about three feet tall, to cope with any unexpected line failure(s) on a New Years Eve.

What people said…

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Boredom on set?

A TO’s life could never be boring – could it? Things to keep you occupied…

What people said…

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Catch Up on Previous Conversations (July 2015)

A number of points made about topics covered in previous conversations but which were received after the conversations had been published. Comments cover:

 

• Lens Change on shot – On Purpose
• Aspect Ratios
• Ally Pally
• Sex and the Sixties

 

What people said…

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Children’s TV in the 1950s

“Whirligig”, Mr. Turnip, Hank and Silver King – Saturday at 5 pm-ish

What people said…

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Crossed Lines

Wires that should go from here to there sometimes go from erehwon to somewhere else.

What people said…

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Destruction at Television Centre

Some pictures of the mad destruction of an iconic building.

What people said and saw…

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Dick Barton, Stereo and Binaural Sound

A bit of a mixed bag, this topic. Some episodes of “Dick Barton” were transmitted in stereo on Radio 4 in the 1970s. This led on to a discussion about binaural sound and stereo sound – and some of the (early) experiments in stereo/binaural transmission that were made by the BBC.

What people said…

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Drink in the Mix(er)

Here with a bank of faders set up well,
A cup of coffee, script and score – oh hell!
Reaching for another fader under stress –
The drink is in the mix – a total mess.

What people said…

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Ephemera

A page of miscellaneous ephemera.

What people said…

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Expenses … when the food is available

There was already a thread concerning the expenses paid to TOs and crews generally: and then this happened …

Jeremy Clarkson was furious to find that there was no hot meal available when he returned from a drinking session at a nearby pub. Clarkson complained it was “ridiculous there was noting to eat” and that the producer had not done his job properly. After a 40-minute rant, Clarkson punched producer Oisin Tymon in the face after he had sworn at him and referred to him as a “lazy Irish”.

Tech Ops people also found there were times when no food was available.

What people said…

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Falklands – and Noel Edmonds

To the Falklands by Hercules.

What people said…

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Familiar Face(s)

From fighter pilot to Technical Operator.

What people said…

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Foreign Powers

The power supplies in foreign countries, especially in India, with some other observations.

What people said…

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George Ageros

Sound Supervisor.

What people said…

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Goodbye to the EMI 2001

Access to an article in “Ariel” which says “goodbye” to the EMI 2001 – the cameraman’s camera.

What people said…

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Heard on Talkback

Classic phrases uttered on talkback – or on transmission for that matter.

What people said…

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I Walk the Line

Or walk across the production and/or mixing desk if there is no other way out …

What people said…

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Learn your Lines and Hit your Marks

In the days of theatre-type (multicamera) live (or recorded as live) drama, actors, cameramen (and trackers) and boom operators (and trackers) were often rushing from set to set to get the next shot. It was very important for the actors and actresses to be able to know their lines – and to hit their marks. The vast majortiy of television actors and actresses in the golden years of television were very good indeed in terms of these “mechanics”.

What people said…

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Lovely Ladies

Early in the 1960s, Vision Mixers – who had been part of the studio Tech Ops crews – were moved over into Production. So for a couple of decades, the studio crews were exclusively male. Any ladies who crossed our path, especially those we poked cameras at or fumbled with microphones around, obviously caught our attention.

What people said…

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Mic Boom Experiences

Tracking and using Mic booms, and differences in techniques between television and film.

What people said…

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Microphones

Different types of old microphones and a gun mic story.

What people said…

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More about Asbestos in TC

More about the discovery of asbestos in the Television Centre studios and its aftermath.

What people said…

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More About Jim Atkinson and Frank Wilkins

Cameramen and characters.

A timid TO glanced in a studio where crew 5 were working one day, and there were two guys holding up Jim’s cable from the floor, so there would be no drag – and no sound of the cable being dragged, either.

Here are stories told by those who worked with Jim and Frank.

What people said…

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More Cards

 

• Crew 3: Investiture of the Prince of Wales
• BBC Club Christmas Card 1963

 

Cards…

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More Memories of Dock Green Nick

Cue sniff. Cue Jack. “Evenin’ all…”

What people said…

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More Stewart Morris Stories

“… The credit “Produced by Stewart Morris” was the final caption on hundreds of BBC light entertainment programmes from 1958 to 1992.

But every programme with Morris was a rollercoaster ride …”

said The Independent.

What people said…

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More “Z-Cars”

“Z-Cars” in 1964 – and the “Z-Cars” signature tune.

What people said…

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Not for the oosily effended

WARNING: This page may offend some people.

This is a section of a script from a Freddie Starr show originally shown on BBC TV back in the 1970s. The irony is, the BBC received not one complaint.

That was then …

What people said…

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Oil be oil right

This is about incidents from the 1980s – and on oil rigs and oil platforms – outside of the default Tech Ops website timeframe.

What people said…

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People in Photos

Photos from TO courses, in the crew rooms, in the gallery and on set.

Photos and comments…

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Personalities – The Crew (and others)

• Barbara Slater
• Fred Viner
• Len Shorey
• Bernard Lodge
• Warwick Fielding
• John Staples

What people said…

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Personalities – The Talent – 2

• Ronnie Barker
• Harry Rabinowitz
• Katarina Witt

What people said…

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Pinkoes and Traitors

Tech Ops discuss the error-ridden book by Jean Seaton – meant to be part of the official history of the BBC (and the nation) between 1974 and 1987.

What people said…

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Plugs and sockets bonanza

Was a “double-ender“ a cord with two PO jacks at each end for use on a jack field (or just any cable with two male plugs)?

The BBC used the D&S plug, with its self-removing fuse pin, perhaps to prevent something like a vacuum cleaner being used on tech supplies.

There were lots of different plugs and sockets in use during our time. Here is a discussion of just some of them.

What people said…

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Producer Choice and BBC Outsource

Discussion on aspects of Producer Choice and an aside on the effect on one aspect of BBC Outsourcing in 2004-ish.

What people said…

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Riverside Destruction

Demolition of Riverside Studios: nothing left recognisable AT ALL!

This prompted memories of working at Riverside.

What people said…

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Sound Ladies in Costume

Two ladies from the sound empire in a costume drama.

What people said…

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Strange (CGI) Trains in Programmes

“Call the Midwife” has a scene/set where there is a railway bridge – and occasionally a train rumbles over it. But a steam engine with FIVE tenders?

“EastEnders” has a prominent London Underground bridge (and tube station) in or near Albert Square, and at various times trains appear to cross the bridge.

What people said…

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Striking Seventies – and the “PlaySchool” Clock

Should the “PlaySchool” Clock be operated by the Sparks, because it was electrical, or was it a prop? In the nineteen seventies there was a lot of unrest, manifested in Union activity: when one TO joined in Feb 1978 all he seemed to do was to spend the first few Decembers on strike or working to rule.

What people said…

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TC1 B&W 405 and 625

Did TC1 ever work 405 lines (B&W) or was it always 625 lines?

What people said…

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The AP Shift Pattern

In response to a question from one former Tech Op, the “AP Shift System” is described – however, not everyone who worked at Ally Pally worked the AP Shift system (although Pres in TC did!)

Alternative shift systems are described and compared to the AP Shift.

What people said…

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The Art of Direction – 2

An ironic title for this section, as it discusses the paucity and poor quality of training for directors nowadays. Bring back the Practical Production Exercises – all is forgiven …

What people said…

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The BBC Micro

The BBC Micro was a game changer in British schools of the 1980s, and is part of the reason that the UK is such a big player in the computer games industry.

What people said…

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The Mythical Studio C

AP had studios A and B,
LG had Studios D, E, F, G and H (although F was a scene store).

But where was Studio C?

What people said…

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Toehold on Sound

What people said…

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TOTP – “Paperback Writer”

Pictures taken on the occasion of the now wiped TOTP performance of “Paperback Writer” and “Rain”, 16th June 1966 in TC2.

Pictures and comments…

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Travelling Backwards

The Goons sang I’m Walking Backwards to Christmas.

There have been occasions when the telerecording has been run backwards on purpose (or not?).

What people said…

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Unused and mythical London Underground Stations

There are a number of unused London Underground stations – and there are some “secret” London Underground stations, too. No wonder stories about them abound.

Now, what exactly was underneath old Broadcasting House?

What people said…

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Warnings and Notices to put on Machines

Useful notices to keep prying fingers out of the innards.

What people said…

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When Television was Young and the Audience was Old

Many of our grandparents (parents, even) and other ancient relatives grew up in a time before television – before indoor toilets, electricity, aeroplanes, cars … and not surprisingly some were slightly hazy about the technicalities and conventions of the new medium.

What people said…

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Where in TC is this parked?

What people said…

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Will, Shall, Show and Shewn

Rather off topic, this, but it was an interesting thread which came about as a result of a discussion about a painfully ungrammatical sign at TC.

What people said…

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We stop the Mighty Roar of London’s Traffic

Wood Lane was a busy road in the 1960s, even more so latterly. Add in the rattle of the Metropolitan l
ine (as it was then) trains rocking and rolling down to the Bush and then past Lime Grove (although the trains are now (2015) brand new and the line has been rebranded back to the “Hammersmith and City” line (the “hot and cold” of old)).

Sometimes it was difficult to exclude all the noise.

What people said…

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Wood Norton Hall Club Guide and Accommodation D Block

More about Wood Norton Hall – and what we got up to.

What people said…

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And Finally …

A 20 Hz sine wave walked into a bar.
The barman asked: “Hey, why the long phase?”
The 20 Hz Wave answered: “I’m feeling sinusoidal, right out of ports*, must be something to do with my period”,
but  the Barman didn’t like her tone.

—————————
thanks to Warwick Cross, John Howell, Barry Bonner, Philip Tyler et al
*IT rather than TO – sorry …

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Here is a third collection of threads from the Tech Ops mailing list.

There’s a lot of sound stories in this collection!

Many of the conversations in this set covered a number of topics, and some segued into new topic areas. As a result, some entries (pages) are not as “clear-cut” as others in their content – a comment might be on another page.

The conversations have been edited – hopefully to create a better “flow” – but always the intention has been to keep the Tech Ops mails as intact as possible

So here are more stories of how life really was for those who worked for the BBC – and some of the consequences …

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405-line TV broadcasts returning

405 lines, the good old days of grey and white! British Heritage Television is to broadcast old shows in 405 line analogue.

What people said…

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1960s Icons

TVC, Tom Jones, a Two-thousand-and-one and TW3!

What people said…

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“A Day with A TV Producer”

Pages from the book “A Day with A TV Producer”.

What people said…

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Abbreviations: Some Explanations

There is a list of Abbreviations, acronyms and general jargon used in Tech Ops here.

This page gives some explanations of what lay behind some of the terms in that list.

What people said…

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Aspect Ratios

Discussion of Aspect Ratios, including Cinerama and Panavision.

What people said…

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Aspects of Drama

• “Calf Love”
• Douglas Adams in his school play
• “Wolf Hall”

What people said…

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BBC Channel Idents

A prototype BBC 1 “Mirror World”, BBC Sports – and a resurgent BBC-2 Ident.

What people said…

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BBC OBs – Golf

Remember the sensation created by cameramen when they showed they could follow a ball in flight from drive to landing.

What people said…

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BBC Production Costs

One of the myths about “Producer Choice” was that BBC programme makers never knew their true costs before it was introduced.

There were at least two earlier accounting systems, both of which claimed to identify the “true costs” of programmes.

There might even be a longer history of attempts to cost programme making.

What people said…

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BBC stands for …

It seems that everyone wants to use the letters “BBC”. Here are some of them …

What people have collected (and said) …

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BBC Vehicles Diecast Models

More diecast models of BBC road vehicles. Dinky, lledo, Corgi…

What people said…

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CSO As History

A discussion on the use of Inlay, Overlay and Colour Separation Overlay following publication of a paper by Dr Leah Panos (a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Reading) entitled “Stylised Worlds: Colour Separation Overlay in BBC Television Plays of the 1970s”.

What people said…

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Dress Code

Remember the days when camera crews at TVC had to wear dress suits for the audience recording?

Just have to wear the right clothes for the right occasion.

What people said…

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Early Animation Techniques

Amazing what we used to think was the ultimate in easy animation.

What people said…

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Early days at Ally Pally

Photos, booklet and a recording of an Engineering Society lecture about the early days of broadcasting.

What people said…

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Early days at TC3

What happened during the early days of TC, before it officially opened?

What people said…

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Electricity – Shocking Supply and Demand

We never consciously set out to be candidates for the Darwin award, but then circumstances – combined with electricity – sometimes made things go with a bang!

What people said…

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Golders Green Hippodrome

The BBC took out a long leasehold of the Golders Green Hippodrome in the late 1960s and at first used the building as a television studio. In 1972 it was converted into a radio studio.

What people said…

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Hearing Loss

Nearly all septuagenarians and octogenarians and earlier have severely reduced hearing if for no other reason than it is a feature of old age. But for some of us there may be other reasons for suffereng some level of hearing loss.

What people said…

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Horse Names

Frank Rose was Horse, and gave many of people he worked with “nicknames” – or in this case, “horse names”. Here are some that people can remember.

What people said…

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Inspiration for my Career

What inspired us to co the work for BBC Tv Tech ops. Some people tell their stories.

What people said…

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Lime Grove – First and Last

A rabbit warrren of a place. Lifts that would stop if you jumped up and down in them.
Gaunt huge Studio F – nothing but a scene store. Mechau TKs. Slippery fire escapes to get to the Canteen. Aaah! Lime Grove!

What people said…

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London Teleohone Exchanges

On some diecast models of BBC Vehicles, the BBC phone number was WELbeck 4468 – which became LANgham 4468. The BBC Television Centre phone number was SHEpherds Bush 8000.

What people said…

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Microphones and Mic Placement

A page all about old mics, older mics, modern mics and mic placement (or should that be mis-placement?).

What people said…

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Monitor – Alfred Hitchcock

About the interview between Alfred Hitchcock and Huw Wheldon which was telerecorded for the BBC television programme “Monitor”.

What people said…

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More Crew Christmas Cards

Many of the crews sent Christmas Cards to directors and producers that they liked in the hope that said directors and producers would ask for them in preference to other crews for their programmes. Of course, cards would be sent to other people as well!

More Crew Christmas Cards…

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Never Twice the Same Color

Following on from chats about Acronyms, Aspect Ratios and colour and things like that, conversation turned to NTSC.

What people said…

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Nine Lessons and Carols 1964

The service of Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s College, Cambridge was first broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1928 and, except for 1930, has been broadcast every year since. Since 1963, the service has been periodically telerecorded for television broadcast in the UK. This page started with a photo of the TV broadcast (telerecording) in 1964 – but was it?

What people said…

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Period Pieces – Getting the Details Correct

A number of recent programmes have been set in the early 1950s to the mid-to-late 1960s,and many people had working knowledge of what it was like to work then – and what things looked like and how they worked.  However, many of these programmes get things wrong – sometimes even when the programme makers have been told that things were wrong (see http://tech-ops.co.uk/next/an-adventure-in-space-and-time-errors/). The problem is, of course, that the period that these programmes are set in is still within living memory for some – although likely not within living memory of those making the programmes- so general viewers will notice errors and not just academics.

What people said…

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Personalities – The Crew

Memories of people we worked with including:

• Ken twitchen
• Jack Belasco
• Jimmy Cellan-Jones
• Dave Baumber
• Dave Sydenham
• Len Shorey
• Roger Davis
• Bob Tate

What people said…

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Personalities – The Talent

More tales of the Talent including:

• Rik Mayall
• Ken Dodd

What people said…

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Pop Group Sound Levels

Noisy things, Pop groups. Stone Roses, Deep Purple – and Aims Minim.

What people said…

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Present Day (2014) Audio Levels

Differences between channels – differences between the same sort of show (talking heads) on the same channel. No one seems to have the same care and quality approach to sound levels.

What people said…

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Presentation at Work

What happened in Presentation Suites A and B at TVC.

What people said…

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Recording All Cameras

Recording the output of more than one camera simultaneously has a longer history that you might suspect – how about 1963?

What people said…

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Retake! That’s a Wrap.

Discussion of the derivation of the term “That’s a Wrap” – which follows after take and retake.

What people said…

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Round the Horn

The re-furbished Denman Horn was put on display at The Science Museum during some of 2014.

Denman, an expert on loudspeakers, specially designed the horn in order to reproduce frequencies as low as 32Hz and up to 6kHz. This was achieved by loading it to one of the latest moving-coil driver units from the Western Electric Company (U.S.A.) namely the WE 555W, widely used in cinema sound systems of the time and now considered to be one of the greatest loudspeaker drivers ever made.

What people said…

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Sex and the Sixties

Veteran entertainer Rolf Harris was found guilty in June 2014 on 12 counts of indecent assault against four girls and young women.

Investigators have found that ex-BBC DJ Jimmy Savile sexually assaulted victims aged five to 75 in NHS hospitals over decades of unrestricted access.

Stuart Hall pleaded guilty in May 2014 to 14 offences of indecently assaulting 13 girls between 1967 and 1985.

What people said…

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Soft Soled Shoe Shuffle

We were supposed to ensure that our shoes made no noise whatsoever when walking/tracking/crabbing/shuffling across the studio floor.

What people said…

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Something in the Air

There was quite a bit of chat about things aeronautical – here are bits more on topic with BBC Technical Operations as we know it…

What people said…

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Sound in Sync(s)

During the “Last Night of the Proms” on BBC 1 HD in 2014, the pictures were easily 3 or 4 frames late compared to the sound: it seems that someone didn’t really check somewhere downstream.

What people said…

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Sound Levels circa 1961
Sound Levels since 1961

General discussion of sound levels and the inconsistencies across and between programmes. The two pages overlap to a large extent – the division is somewhat arbitrary.

Sound Levels circa 1961:
What people said…

Sound Levels since 1961:
What people said…

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Sound (Trolley) Stories

Never knew that rigging and derigging sound could be so much fun? hassle? problemmatical?

What people said…

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Studio sound and talkback, Eurovision and Dana …

Converstaions about studio sound levels lead on to a story about the Eurovision Song Contest, the Beeb’s approach and the Irish insurance policy.

What people said…

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SYPHER

SYPHER is “SYnchronised Post-dub Helical-scan and Eight-track Recorders”.

John Eden-Eadon was responsible for progressing the concept and for the operational specification of the system – and gave it that name.  The BBC Engineering Monograph number 108 December 1977, section 3 mentions how the name came about.

John has offered a copy of the engineering monograph, and people who used SYPHER describe how it was used.

What people said…

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TC7 1967

Barry Bonner found a picture that he thinks is Peter Hider in TC7 around 1967.

What people said…

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That’s Why we had Cameramen …

A new game – “Find the newsreader” (with variants, like “Find the interviewee”) – and get the white balance right.

What people said…

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The Case of the Disappearing Image Orthicon

A fictionalised account of something that really happened.

What people said…

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The Joy of Location Accommodation

Shed A anybody?

What people said…

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Restaurants round the Bush

The places to eat – and be seen eating – around Shepherds Bush Green.

What people said…

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TOTSIs

What did TOTSIs stand for and what did the qualification entail?

What people said…

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TV Pilots

Christopher Perry is trying to make a definitive list of TV pilots for a book he is writing.

What people said…

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TV programmes about WW2

The 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings (06 June 2014) was the catalyst for Tech Ops people to remember BBC-TV programmes about World War 2.

What people said…

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TVC

More comment about the destruction of Television Centre.

What people said…

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Vintage Photographs

Mike Jordan has offered a couple of photographs which he says are quite good in a sort of historical sense. Not quite HD nor yet 4k TV!

See them here…

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VT Tea Two

More VT Tea.

What people said…

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A discussion of the various VTR formats and those used for archiving. This follows on from discussions as to the use of CSO from VTR – see Inlay, Overlay and CSO.

What people said…

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Wardrobe Malfunction

A new term for an old happenstance. All will be revealed…

What people said…

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We Were There – Winston Churchill’s Funeral 50 Years On

At home, at school, in the studio, on OBs. Winston Churchill’s Funeral and Queen Elizabeth II’s Coronation were defining moments in BBC Broadcast TV history.

What people said…

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Who gets the Credit?

TV cameramen hardly ever got a credit whereas the few seconds worth of film insert into a TV programme always had the film cameraman credited. Some crews had mascots that they put somewhere on the set – at least the crew would be recognised by those in the know.

What people said…

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