Alan Taylor

One of the memorable characters at Kendal Avenue was a vision supervisor called Ralph Parrot. When I knew him, he was close to retirement and occasionally talked about the early days of outside broadcasts. He was a very ingenious man and invented or adapted all manner of devices, often repurposing government surplus equipment.

Ralph was briefly mentioned in Nick Gilbey’s interview with Peter Dimmock. who recalled seeing an autocue in the USA, mentioning it to Ralph and then Ralph built one. Another of Ralph’s simpler ideas was a folding band 1 aerial for use on OBs. These were typically made in an H shape, with the elements being just over a metre long, as a result, they were cumbersome and fragile. They didn’t last long when transported around in the camera van and frequently rigged and de-rigged. His version had the elements made of more rugged aluminium and fitted to parallelogram horizontal spacers so that they could be folded upwards and tied to the support pole for transport. When the ties were released, it simply dropped into shape and gravity kept it that way.

Simon Vaughan

Ralph Parrot was a lovely man and I got to know him quite well via his attendance at the APTS annual reunions.

He donated his collection of OB caption equipment to APTS in the mid 1990’s, pictures of which I have attached. The equipment was on display at an APTS reunion, held in the Londesborough Room at AP in June 2012.

The equipment included both the “Parrascope” and “Doverscope” – two different types of OB caption equipment. Both were designed and built by Ralph. Ralph also wrote extensive instructions for the use of the “Parrascope”.

As far as I am aware Ralph sadly died in 2018 aged 95.

The “Parrascope” can be seen in use for the “NOW” series of OB titles by following this link –

We Bring You Live Pictures — “Saturday Night Out”

Episode 1 in the series about the pioneering days of Television Outside Broadcasts in the years after World War Two. Features excerpts from programmes, many of which were TV firsts. Including contributions from producers, technicians and commentators. Extracts of programmes featured in this episode include: Salute to AP featuring Jasmine Bligh – Tx: 19/3/54.

The top two pictures are the
“Doverscope”/”Riverscope” caption
apparatus.
This was designed in 1956 for a
programme concerning the Dover
Lifeboat and later for a sailing OB.
A revolving glass jar was half-fifilled with
water and illuminated from behind.
The caption was then was seen through
the moving water.

The remaining photographs are of the “Parrascope” designed to be fitted
to a Marconi Mark II camera.
This OB caption apparatus was used for the titles for the “NOW” series of
OB’s during the 1950s.
Both sets of caption equipement were designed and built by Ralp Parrot