Roger Bunce
Some rather wonderful photos, from the Golden Age of monochrome, when cameramen wore jackets and ties, have been forwarded to me by George Auckland. The owner thinks they were shot at Ealing Studios – which they clearly weren’t!
All information gratefully received. Does anyone recognise anyone? (I’m guessing Dave Thompson on the ped.) Names and Mark Numbers of all bits of equipment please (I never remember Mark Numbers, but it sounds so much more impressive if you can quote them.)
Tony Crake
Lots of old similar stuff here on Brian Summers website : <http://www.tvcameramuseum.org/photogall/mjb-gall/mjb-1gall.html>
Picture1
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Graeme Wall
EMI 203 cameras.
Geoffrey Hawkes
The man on the front of the Heron looks like John Hoare, though it may pre-date that.
Bernie Newnham
I think the first one may be at Lime Grove, in D. The roof seems sort of low.
Peter Hider
I think the Heron driver is almost certainly Dave Batt.
Having looked at the back of his head for fourteen years I would hazard a guess that the cameraman on the front of the Mole behind the Heron is Jim Atkinson and the cameraman on the front of the Heron may be either Ron Peverall or a young Rod Taylor.
Great photos but any ideas on which production?
Hugh Sheppard
Possibly a John? On the back of the Heron in 1?
Chris Eames
When I joined, in Dec 1963, I was issued with lightweight plastic STC headphones. All the trackers and cameramen in the photos are wearing metal headsets, so perhaps the pictures predate that. I don’t know when that type of headset was first used.
I think that the EMI picture is TC4. The studio appears too large for 5, and the camera has a dark mark on the side, which I believe housed either the scan reverse switches, or the line standard switches. The later 203s, in TC 1, had smooth sides. Such vital controls had to be under the control of those upstairs, and not available to mere cameramen.
I would suggest that the Heron cameraman is Bryn Edwards ( I think that was his name, but stand to be corrected), I can’t see the tracker’s face, but he could be John Cavaciuti.
John Howell
So in picture 1 the choice for the EMI cameras is TC4 or 5. I reckon I can see a Mole crane parked in the distance, the bucket can be seen just above the Heron tracker’s left hand. There wouldn’t be enough room in TC5 to accommodate a Heron, a Mole and a boom. Some low angle shots seem to be expected judging by the ceiling piece in the foreground set, it all looks a bit too ambitious for TC5.
Incidentally a Mole boom makes it pre 1963/4 and if it was later in TC5 the boom would be that death trap Pedlo with no seat!
Alec Bray
Definitely a Mole crane there!
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Dudley Darby
Picture 1 looks like John Cavacuiti on the back of the Mk. 1 Heron with possibly Vern Dyer on the front. From the lighting barrels and the light coloured girder above at the top, it looks like TC4 with Tenlights and Strand 2ks. I think it was in TC4 that they started using pantographs on some of the barrels too. Far boom and f/g wheel look like Fishers whereas Lime Grove had mainly Mole booms around then. There were still a lot of the old metal cans around in October 1963, although new people were being issued with the STC plastic cans. The guy in the white shirt by the Mole looks like Bob MacDonald (Mac).
Vernon Dyer
It’s not me on the front of the Heron – I agree it looks more like John Hoare. Has he commented on here?
Tony Grant
n the first photo, I can’t say for sure about who’s behind the camera on the Heron, but it looks like Bob Meikle tracking (it’s not me in any of the pics, I’m not that old yet!).
John Cavaciuti
Sorry., it’s not me tracking the Heron, but I think it looks like Rodney Taylor on the front.
Geoffrey Hawkes
I doubt if it’s Rodney, the hair’s not long enough.
Peter Hider
I think it is Rod Taylor. His hair was shorter then. He’d just been in the RAF!
And I’m still convinced it’s Dave Batt driving him.
Bill Jenkin
Those old metal headsets (“cans”) may not have been issued after 1963 but I remember quite a few still being around when I joined in 1965. So don’t let’s put the cut-off date quite so early.
Caroline Batt (Dave Batt’s daughter) isn’t convinced it’s Dave tracking the Heron, she says:
“. . . I was going to say that your picture can’t be dad because he has such hunched shoulders…..but then I looked at this pic (attached)!
I’ve never noticed before! I’m still not convinced that is dad though, I can see the similarity, he is tall and skinny but he doesn’t have the shock of curly hair or glasses. Can’t be sure. I guess the mystery continues!…”
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Now the question is where has that photo come from, what generation of Vinten ped is that? What’s that camera?
John Howell
Could that be Mike Talbott-Smith holding a hand-mic at Wood Norton?
Alec Bray
I am quite confused! In the pair of pictures below, the photo on the RIGHT is of me, Alec Bray, tracking the Mole crane on a TOTP – and it looks very similar to the one on the left…
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But for the life of me, I can not remember wearing a headset with a mouthpiece!
There were no cameras like the one in the picture at Wood Norton when I was there – they were Marconi Mk IIIs! (at least, the one I had to do my practical on was a Mk III).
There is a bar across the top of the camera, but this does not match any of the three cameras of the late 1960s: EMI 203, Marconi Mk IV or Pye Mk V. If I was forced to choose, I would plump for a Pye Mk V – but not convinced.
Bill Jenkin
Some of the cameras did have headsets like the one shown in the first photo, I seem to recall.
Tony Crake
Seems like another camera mounting in picture 1 lower left – there is a horizontal steering wheel showing…
The flat spoked wheel could be the steering on a Fisher boom.. the other Boom in mid-distance is a Mole, you can see the funny little tiller steering wheel bit and it has what looks like a STC 4033 in the cradle… it sure doesn’t look like a D25!
Dudley Darby
You are right, just behind the Heron you can see the tiller and wheel turned through 90º.
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Pat Heigham
Definitely a Mole boom in picture 1, you can see the support wire, which Fishers did not have.
One time, luckily on rehearsal – remember that the Mole booms had a support wire cable that ran over the top of the pivot to either end of the fixed tube? I had to do a fast swing between sets, and the Sparks had left a safety cable hanging from one of the lighting barrels. What were the chances of the boom wire catching and latching the snap carabineer on the end? It did! and the momentum of the arm caused the whole barrel to lurch sideways. Too far to lean forward and detach the snap hook so everything came to a grinding halt while a stepladder was found to climb up and release.
That would have been fun if on a live transmission!
Dick Blencowe
Re: the flat spoked wheel could be the steering on a Fisher boom
The steering wheel could be a Pedlo Boom.
Pictures 2 and 3
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Alec Bray
Pictures 2 and 3 show Marconi Mk IV 4.5 in Image Orthicons, which puts the productions in TC2 or TC3.
Dave LeBreton
The camera on the ped is a Marconi Mk 4 – circular Marconi badge near the camera cable connector.
Geoffrey Hawkes
It is undoubtedly Dave Thompson on the ped.
Hugh Sheppard
Ah! The Golden Age…
Shades of Crew 6 here; possibly No. 2 has the block of flats built for in TC1 for a John McGrath Z-Cars episode. If that’s so, half the crew were on one side in the flats and half in the street, and the twain hardly ever met for 2 days.
Possibly a Paul? on the back of the Vinten crane in 2.
Dave Thompson yes, in No. 3, but we’d really have been sure if “The Guardian” – even “The Manchester Guardian” – had been poking up from his jacket pocket. Ealing? Nah.
Keith Wicks
Is that Doctor Finlay in picture 3?
Geoff Fletcher
I am not convinced that’s Bill Simpson (Dr Finley).
Dudley Darby
It isn’t. I can’t remember his name, but it is definitely not Bill Simpson.
Bernie Newnham
John Carson?
Roger Bunce
I was thinking it looked a bit like John Carson but, I can’t find anything he was in, at about that time, which fits the setting.
Peter Crocker has suggested to me that the actor might be Peter Halliday – which sounds a pretty good guess to me.
Peter Neill
If picture 3 is a “Dr Finlay”, I worked on several in R1 on crew 6 with Dave Thomson (no "p"). Is the camera right for R1?
Bernie Newnham
Riverside had the same cameras as TVT – Pye Mk 5s.
Peter Cook
I think that the Pye Mk 5 were introduced at the same time as Pye Mk 6 in OBs. That would have been 1963 to 1964. What did Riverside and TVT have before the Pye?
Bernie Newnham
Marconi Mk IIIs.
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Roger Bunce
Something about the studio wall in photograph 3 doesn’t look like TV Centre – or Lime Grove D.
I’m not sure whether photographs 2 and 3 are the same production. There’s an old lady in both who could be the same actress – but the image isn’t clear enough to be certain.
Dudley Darby
Picture 2 is TC3 (long lighting barrels) – Marconi Mk IV on Vinten Motorised.
Picture 3 also probably TC3 with Marconi Mk. IV on a Vinten 419 HP ped, Dave Thompson, not sure of the production, but I think the actress is Queenie Watts.
Picture 4
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Peter Hider
The picture with Kenneth More on the TV sets was almost certainly “Heart to Heart”, directed by Alvin Rakoff, which utilised the TVC fountain, TC1 and its gallery, Red Assembly and the ground floor corridor.
It was a multi Eurovision country production where each country made its own version transmitted simultaneously.
Hugh Sheppard
And who was the girl in No. 4? she looks wasted there!
Bernie Newnham
I think maybe that the fourth picture is at the Radio Show – on the Bush stand.
Chris Eames
I agree that the fourth picture is probably the Radio Show.
Dudley Darby
Picture 4 looks like the Earls Court Radio Show
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Tony Crake
I found these prints squashed in the bottom of a large box of 1960s’ B&W prints. The quality is dreadful (they are scans of prints on matt paper – not recommended!) – but they might provide a bit of interest dating from that era!
I took them when I was first attached to the camera side of things … Nobody had explained to me I shouldn’t be clicking away with my Voigtlander!
I had some much better prints but gave them to one of people in the photo many years later!
I do remember who most of the people are (I think!).
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