Background
In 1933, the Triumph Film Company moved into Riverside Studios, a former industrial warehouse in Crisp Road, London, picturesquely located on the Thames just south of the late Victorian Hammersmith Bridge. Under the ownership of Jack Buchanan, the company produced many well-known films including The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) and Father Brown (1954), starring Alec Guinness. In 1954, the studios were acquired by the BBC for its television service. Series 2 to 6 of “Hancock’s Half Hour” (1957–60) were made at what was now the BBC Riverside Studios, along with other drama and music programmes, including the science-fiction classic “Quatermass and the Pit“ (1958–59), early episodes of the long-running “Doctor Who”, and the children’s programme “Play School” (Riverside 2). The facility was in continuous use until the early 1970s, the rooftop camera position providing one of the highlights of the annual University Boat Race each Easter Saturday.
[Wikipedia]
Geoff Fletcher
Working at the BBC’s Riverside Studios in Hammersmith had several good points – The Chancellors pub (a.k.a. R3) opposite, and the Rutland and Blue Anchor on the Thames down by Hammersmith Bridge to name but three. The canteen also had a certain charm all its own. Does anyone else remember playing “Spot the Duck” in there? The random pattern of loops, whorls, ovals etc. in the melamine table tops sometimes combined to form a distinct little duck. At coffee break or lunch, inevitably crew member, after apparently entering a trance-like state and staring at the table for several minutes, would triumphantly point at a certain area and announce “There’s one!” I remember Pete Levers was particularly adept at spotting the little blighters….
… some party poopers would ring them with pencil etc. Much to the disapproval of the staff who cleared the tables. But it did add some distraction from the taste of the food..
Alec Bray
Ah yes – I used to go duck-hunting in the Riverside canteen. This was also where one TO was heard to complain to the staff about the minute steak – “either cook it or bandage it””…
Often one member of the studio crew was despatched about ten minutes before (the presumed) studio lunch break time to go to the pub of the day to get the pints lined up on the bar ready for the rest of the crew!
Peter Fox
The Duck pattern, still in evidence when Riverside was brought back to life, with Pye Mk V Image Orthicon cameras, (the ones with the motorised turret), around 1964 give or take, was basically a light yellow/orange pattern, and there was no mistaking the ducks. They must have Gone West with the refurb later in that decade.
I recall at least one “Dr Who” in R1, with grumpy old Bill Hartnell and an equally grumpy "East Enders" Julia Smith directing. There were a lot of inexperienced tech ops around in the early sixties, coming in with the BBC 2 expansion, including yours truly, so the grumpiness was probably justifiable exasperation!
John Howell
Ah, the food!
I remember once finishing an afternoon session in the music studio ("RRS") and going to the canteen to get some supper. The staff were a bit taken aback, they were about to go home but after our mutterings about hours between meals and final 45 minutes of duty being supper time they took their coats off. They then asked what we wanted as they would have go to the shops. I think we opted for fish and chips provided that the fish wasn’t Wavy Line or Findus
Paul Kay
I am surprised that there has yet been no mention of the Menu Board at the Riverside canteen/restaurant. This board was black with plug in brass letters stating what was on, and price etc etc. It did not take long for the lads to alter the prices and content. One favorite was " Curried Bint" (huge price) There were many "Chefs Specials" including the very lovely manageress, who later married one of the electricians (a chargehand). Several of our make-up artists also were featured. (There were some menu items which I cannot repeat for obvious reasons). Several lads had managed to buy/find their own letters Unfortunately when the management realised what was happening a glass panel was fitted in front of the board.
John Howell
Two more Riverside stories:
1.
At the end of a heavy session in the Music Studio, thunderous rain outside, me trying to stay awake at the tape machines. My droopy eyes focused on the trunking carrying the mains to the machines and a little trickle of water ran along and dripped fairly and squarely into the hole at the top of one of the D & S mains plugs.
With great alacrity I did nothing, why should I spoil a successful take. We finished and turned off the power. Absolute blackness and the sound of dripping water, my main concern was how to rewind the tapes for the PA to take away, so I just cut them where they were and wrote ‘Tail out’ on the boxes.
Rumour has it that when one of the echo plates was removed to go to Golders Green it was found to be rusty!
2.
Sunday afternoon in November 1969 tearing round Hammersmith Broadway on Dave Denness’s bike, hot foot from the Gram Library with sound FX under my arm for "Education Magazine" in R1, Brian Hiles Sound Supervising. Scary because Dave neglected to mention his bike had a back-pedal brake!
Pat Heigham
Three stories…..
1.
David Attenborough’s “Natural World” – there were lots of mute film footage that was thought worthwhile of which to make a few programmes. Yours truly on Grams, doing my best to dub FX as the programme, with David, narrating live in the studio, was recorded to Ampex.
Afterwards, David offered us a drink in Studio 3! and as it was just after he had been given the job of Controller BBC2, I asked him how he felt about that.
"A great honour" he said, "but I’d rather make wildlife films".
Which of course, he later returned to with spectacular success.
2.
Riverside Music Studio – formerly the old film scoring stage.#1. Evening session for music for an LE show – Len Shorey on the desk, me looking after the Studers and score reading.
Taking the last number, Len suddenly swore: "I’ve missed the clarinet entry!"
There was about 5 mins to the end of the session – not enough time to re-take from the top of the number (overran meant a complete whole extra session fee). I looked at the score, thought I could edit from 5 bars before letter F, but please don’t alter the strings fader setting (quivering strings under the main melody).
Retake canned, band went home at 11pm. No extra session fee. Len says: " Are you going to do the edit now, or tomorrow?"
I decided to make a copy and test it. Shaving microscopic bits of 1/4" I eventually made it work, and went home at midnight, ready to work on the master tape next day.
3.
Riverside Music Studio #2 (not sure if I should relate this!!). Hugh Barker on the desk – artiste was Patsy Anne Noble (aka Trisha Noble). Hugh took one look through the window as she came into the studio, and standing up, announced "Whew! I couldn’t half f**k that!"
Voice from the back of the control room: "I do!"
Her husband!!
Peter Fox, John Hoare
The cast of “Dixon of Dock Green” were sent in from R1 to look menacing on the firelane of R2 to quell some rowdy audience members of “Six Five Special” Worked too, allegedly. Can’t imagine anyone being frightened of Jack Warner though.
Dave Plowman
Riverside 1 had Marconi MkIII (same as TVT (TV Theatre)) when I first worked there in 1963 – it was a sort of training studio. It (and R2) was refurbished with Pye MkV for 625 working. The exact date of this I don’t remember. I think the mains reason was for “Open House” – the BBC2 alternative to sport on a Saturday.
Alec Bray
Soon after the start of BBC 2 (in 1964), Riverside Studios 1 and 2 were put together for a Saturday afternoon programme called “Open House”. The idea was to cater for an audience that did not watch “Grandstand”. The programme was introduced and linked by Gay Byrne (who later found fame as the person who did the first (disastrous) interview with Boyzone!). We rigged on the Saturday morning, so there was little time for rehearsal, although we did some rehearsal during the Saturday morning. When we went on air, rehearsal would happen in R2 if R1 was on air – and vice versa. So there was little in the way of rehearsal! (and little time for anything else – on one show we had to put an extension on the front of the Mole crane (R1) so the singer would be a constant distance from the lens as the Mole tracked and craned around the studio!) (and extra weights in the bucket to compensate, of course).
Normally on a programme at this time, if there was an interview, the contributors would be placed on a rostrum so that the cameras could line up with the eye lines of the people speaking. On “Open House” the contributors were placed on the studio floor, which meant that you had to have the pedestal at its lowest extent so that the camera lens was on the subject’s eyeline (we did this to minimise any distortion of the subject’s features, of course). Then the only way clearly to see the viewfinder was to kneel down! So there was I, kneeling on the floor, camera fixed on Gay Byrne when the interviewee began to talk. And I began to chuckle (and tried hard to suppress some laughter) – it was quite a job to keep the camera still. Then the interviewee reached into his pocket, and pulled out a marble-sized piece of what looked like chewing gum and slapped it on the table in front of Gay Byrne. “There you are,” he said, “there’s enough gelignite there to blow up this whole studio”. Yup, this was Blaster Bates.
There was another programme where Riverside Studios 1 and 2 were combined. Studio 1 had two orchestras and a “Standard” camera plan for his sort of production: I was tracking a Heron on the right-hand side of the Orchestras. Cameras from R2 were looking at what we were doing. The production was for Michael Tippett’s Concerto for Double String Orchestra (that’s what I believe it was called at the time). Michael Tippett was in the gallery for the final rehearsal and for the director’s notes, and he was given complete freedom to suggest changes to the camerawork and vision mixing for transmission to match what he intended with the music. In fact, as I recall, he made very few changes – the occasional mix rather than a cut, for example, or the slight change to the speed of a track.
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The Pye MkV’s had an electrically operated turret – press a switch and a motor rotated the turret in the selected direction. But it was a slow old rotate!
I was working on “Marriage Lines” with Richard Briers and Prunella Scales. There was a dramatic sequence which required a mid shot, a medium CU and a tight CU within a very short period of time: no zooms at this time, it was change lens for the three shots. The Pye MkV just managed to get the lens in position for each shot – but that also meant focussing the tube while the lens was swinging into position!
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Riverside Studios were ideally placed to watch the Boat Race:
Robin Sutherland
I came across this which was my first OB encounter.
Taken at Riverside on 5th April 1969 I recall assisting Martin Dilly to hump a studio camera [Pye MK5] from R1 outside to cover the Boat Race going past, as a contributing camera to the OB coverage.
I think Martin took this shot of me during the rehearsal and he did the camera for the prog.
(lucky him – he’s got a zoom!)
Peter Neill
My memory of that camera position is that if it was a sunny day, the sun was straight down the lens, so the cameraman always prayed for clouds.
Bill Jenkins
I remember being told some story about someone who had to do that job one year and they never got the comms going into the camera channel so whoever it was had no talkback. So they pointed at the two boats which came past and thought that was it and started to de-rig. Eventually someone came rushing up to point out that the real race hadn’t started yet, what had gone by was Goldie and Isis.
Don’t know the truth of it.
Geoff Fletcher
BBC OBs used one of the Riverside cameras on the flat roof of as part of the coverage. On Boat Race Day, those of us crewed out had a grandstand view of the passing cavalcade from the rear of the premises. I remember one occasion when we were pelted with mud by some yobbos standing on the foreshore. We had the last laugh, however, as they were apparently unaware of the rolling tsunami following the armada of launches trailing the two eights. We watched it come with amused interest, and were less than sympathetic when they suddenly found themselves up to their waists in water.
Cliff White
A camera crew were enjoying a pre-transmission pint in R3 one Saturday evening when, to their horror, they saw – on a TV set in the corner of the bar – the opening titles of "Dixon of Dock Green." Luckily, the first few minutes of this episode were on film, so they were able to make it back to their mounts before the vision mixer cut to a studio sequence. True? Or Urban Myth?!
