Bill Jenkin

My memory is probably at fault but there is a discussion going in a Facebook group about whether some people used to get an allowance towards a television. I seem to remember that some people did.  

Anyone with a better memory than me know the answer?  

Bernie Newnham

I did .  Not an allowance, but a TV. I already had a colour TV, so I took it to my parents house, their first colour TV.  It was one of those things you got for being an assistant producer. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t complaining. It eventually went away and we had to buy the TVs if we wanted to keep them.

We also had a cinema/theatre allowance of some minimal amount that was there so that (I think) we could go talent spotting. I don’t know if I ever claimed it.

Steve Rogers

Yes: when I became a news location camera supervisor in 1989 I had a TV supplied by, I think, Rediffusion, and they fitted a new aerial.

That lasted about 18 months and they took it away.

Nicholas Moore

TMs, and other program-making staff on a similar grade used to get an allowance, it was later changed with the Beeb having contracts directly with the rental companies, then it was deemed that everyone had a colour TV and it was withdrawn.

Peter Fox

I think I remember that being true at lighting supervisor level. And fair enough.

But I bet Sound Supervisors got them too?

But then in 1973 someone set up a deal with Decca for BBC staff to buy a 20" or  22"  Decca colour TV at trade, but you had to go to the factory in Battersea to pick it up. Mine dimmed and softened slowly over many years and eventually ended up in the loft. A year ago it was sacrificed to make a period TV prop with a bright sharp monitor inside. RIP. When it was originally retired and replaced I found out that PAL Broadcast TV wasn’t quite as bad as I had thought it was. Arthur Sutton bought loads of them back in the day, and hired them out, which meant asking him about any fault on my TV got an instant and invariably correct diagnosis, often just a valve swap as they were Decca hybrids  with a "Bradford" Chassis if I recall correctly. The downside in a way was that it was too easy to fix and kept going for decades while everyone else was forced to upgrade when their Sonys etc stopped working.

Barry Bonner

When I became a Sound Supervisor (4th  July 1980!) I got a free colour TV supplied by Radio Rentals and my telephone rental paid plus calls made on Corporation business. Wow, such generosity!

Nick Ware

It would be nice to think it was generosity, but I’m sure the BBC found a way to justify that against tax as a necessary expenditure. As can any self-employed person working in broadcast TV. My accountant still asks me every year if I’ve bought a new TV in the current tax year. If in the past I said yes, he claimed a proportion of its cost, on the basis that it’s likely to be part leisure viewing, only part professional.

Ian Hillson

When Geoff Shaw (TM) left the Beeb in 198? he told me it was really brought home to him when the rental man came round ever-so-promptly to reclaim the telly!

Mike Giles

Telly, telephone plus theatre and concert tickets for SSs, LDs and Senior Cameramen, Make-up, Wardrobe, Designers, as I recall. I can’t remember in which order they disappeared, but the theatre and concert ticket concession was withdrawn after abuse of the system.

At a fairly late stage, it was realised that Sound Supervisors were the only ones still on the black and white list and they were costing more than colour sets to hire, so for a brief few years we joined the coloured brigade, before it was deemed that all households had colour sets as a matter of course. This ignored the fact that many families might choose not to watch what Daddy or Mummy had been working on, nor to watch those programmes that it was ‘desirable’ to watch for professional reasons.

When the TV’s were withdrawn we had the option of buying the existing set from Radio Rentals. I opted not to buy, but it was never taken away ~ should I be losing sleep?

The TV withdrawal reminds me of the uniform provision for rigger-drivers. They were given shirts, ties, suits, overalls (to keep the suit clean) and caps (caps were compulsory for rigger-drivers whilst driving BBC vehicles when I first joined), but they were not provided with black shoes to go with the suits, as they were considered “de rigueur” for any gentleman’s wardrobe! Whether they had a polish allowance for cleaning the shoes when they got muddy I can’t recall!