All manner of things were learnt the hard way. Yours truly on a Marconi Mk IV with fixed lenses in Cardiff. We had to rig a high rise building with a colour camera on top and were not allowed to rig internally, so the cables had to pulled up the outside: I can remember sitting, legs hanging over on the parapet taking tremendous strain as inch by inch we hauled them the up, they were massively heavy and we devised a method of loop and tie across the connectors or the ends would have ripped off. On the de-rig none of the cables would go back on their drums for they had stretched beyond belief.

Still on the subject of mishaps, soon after we received the Marconi MK 1Vs, Stan accidentally plugged an EMI cable into the Marconi and it was left for me to inform Steve that the new camera had sent up little distress smoke signals. HOW **** ** *??? Maybe it was the way I told him, I don’t know!! I don’t know why I had to do all the reporting.

We were forced to drive around Italy at night due to missing a border post in time and had been driving for several hours nonstop on a winding country road when suddenly! I had the inclination to stop. I was lead vehicle and had not seen lights behind me for hours. Very soon John stopped in his truck, then Stan. We waited a little while for Harry and the No 1 scanner but No! I felt uneasy and we piled into my smaller tender and drove back up the road, not even half a mile and there was the scanner. Harry had hit a car or vice versa, and to cut the story short, the scanner was un-drivable. It took me quite a while underneath to see that the whole front suspension had sheared its bolts and slid back perfectly in line along the chassis. No 1 Scanner. Limping slightly in Italy. As Luck would have it there was a small country garage within a hundred yards or so locked up for the night. So he thought! I was chosen by my three egg-laying feathered friends to ring Trevor at two in the morning to relate the news. Trevor was amazing! He was as calm as a cucumber as I related the problem and detailed the damage to the front suspension. He rang me back within half an hour. “The two trucks on its way to Milan as of now, degut all cameras, racks gear. D’you know what we need? “Yes.” “OK, take out all the SPGs – we’ll re-build into the two trucks on site when you get there.”

For the next couple of hours, we riggers turned engineers and dismantled the scanner and offloaded all the necessary equipment, whilst in England Alan English (VTR) turned into a rigger-driver and set off for Italy. The job in Milan went like a dream without poor Harry Paul who had to stay behind with his truck. So one can see that it wasn’t all roses. P.S. Who or what made me stop at the same time as Harry had his accident??

No accident this time, but it happened again on an iced and heavily fog bound Autobahn, after driving almost blind for hours into the night, I decided to pull into the next lay-by to rest my eyes for a few minutes because of the strain. There were many of these rest stops along these roads. I pulled in and there murkily parked up in the fog, ahead, was John Ridge and Harry in their respective trucks … it was too amazing, all of us together … except, of course, for Stan, who nearly killed us as all as he skidded by on ice, once he saw us frantically waving him down. You couldn’t help but love him. One of the nicest guys you could ever wish to meet. Some characters may appear to be vilified but, there is no malice intended, they were doing what they did best in the manner they saw fit at the time. Steve Beamish, who often gave us a hard time, had a difficult job to do, he was, as said, the very best at his racks post, but handled his managerial post with a disciplined aggression. Steve did well across the board. It was my job to tease him, for I was put on this earth to do just that! It made for a love-hate relationship, of which disagreement only won in the very short term. I met Steve a couple of years ago on a visit to England and travelled to see him and his dear wife at their home ‘The Vicarage’. A better, quiet, well spoken English gentleman you could not wish to meet. It was indeed a privilege and a pleasure to re-unite.

Associated Rediffusion’s Studio 5 Wembley became home for the colour unit while the “Hippodrome” music series was produced for the American market with many American stars such as Howard Keel and Liza Minnelli. We had covered Liza once even earlier with her mother Judy Garland at the Follies Bergere in Montmartre. I will never forget the picture of Judy Garland being led on stage, remonstrating with all around her, harassed about a quick mid-morning rehearsal, wearing her dressing gown and her head in curlers, under which, I and others presumed, was a seriously intoxicated headache.

We all excitedly trogged off to Moscow during the cold war days to get the overnight train back to Minsk for a week or two to cover The Moscow State Circus. It was a memorable trip for many reasons. We were ushered (security was meant to be super tight) into a very large Hotel just off Red Square and the dining hall was abuzz with an orchestra playing, food had taken forever to arrive and wasn’t all that good, so eventually to speed things up I also ate Harry Bell’s pudding and suggested we go sight-seeing: “Good idea when I finish my !* Who the hells taken …!” I tried to convince him the waiter only brought one for me …Steve Beamish forbade us from leaving the hotel in spite of a long evening wait for the train departure, and recited one of his great one-liners for which he will always be remembered: “You can’t eat and go sightseeing.” Harry, Eckhardt and I snuck out past the guards and went to Red Square which was truly a sight to behold especially at night and (I stupidly had forgotten to pack my camera), even there in the middle of Red Square a local Spiv type tried to sell us his sister’s priceless icon for dollars. I used to pride myself that I could get in anywhere, so I bet Harry Bell a vodka I could get in the Kremlin and confidently walked towards the great entrance flanked by two Ruskie guards who looked as if they had frozen to death over a week ago, as I confidently walked into the great gateway drawing level, I saluted and walked on, then as if practiced for centuries they simultaneously, instantly de-hibernated un-shouldered their rifles and formed a cross “Niet” …. OK! You win some and you lose some. We travelled on the Underground, and I didn’t know you had to put an insignificant coin in the gates, it trapped me around the waist and a very loud alarm went off, a soldier came running, rifle in hand and I put my hands up. Harry Bell was in stitches on the floor shouting… “Capitalist pig trying to save a dime” … The Underground was a sight to behold, beautifully decorated at each station, and one began to realise this was indeed a very cultured society quite removed from the British and American deception. One thing missing from Moscow was traffic, in those days it appeared limited and quiet, just a few Russian cars travelling around the centre, in stark contrast to – let’s say England’s Trafalgar Square where on average one man gets run over every 3 minutes. And he’s bloody fed up with it. 

The overnight train ride to Minsk was uneventful and at first light one was able to view the vast grey areas, the poverty, shacks and coal fields stretching forever as we crossed the miles of desolate snow-covered landscape. Eddie Fegan, (Lighting), John Ridge (looking ill) and Norma Camara (makeup) on the train to Minsk.  Minsk itself was just as grey ‘as it was winter there too’, and the women workers were clearing and digging the roads. One could only get boiled or sour milk with your tea and the food was pretty bad. Eddy Fegan was the lighting Gaffer and he lived on cheese omelettes the whole two-week trip. On his subsequent late evening arrival back in London, after having flown in from Moscow, his wife whipped up (you guessed) a cheese omelette as she knew he liked them. I relate these stories to give you an idea of the times we lived and worked in, the Cold War cold war was a reality and we were held with suspicion by the locals as ‘they too’ were fed propaganda. Prague, Czechoslovakia for the Ice-Skating Championships was memorable for the skating was out of this world as the Russian pair of Belousova and Protopopov lifted the Pairs to a new level. Bratislava Championships in 1966 followed a year later for yet another trip behind the iron curtain of the time. Viewing the poverty in Bratislava, the people there were different from Russia, though very poor they invited me into their homes and brought out their hidden home-made brandy to celebrate our union. On the downside there were the heavily oppressive barbed wire border posts with the high turrets and the intensive searches of the trucks. (There was a story that the AG unit had once smuggled a young woman out of the eastern side to ‘freedom’).

Check point Charlie.

On leaving Bratislava I was driving the last truck in the convoy and approaching just such a post when I noticed in my mirrors a car trying to catch up, flashing its lights and someone waving, it was unnerving as we had dollars in the truck that should not have been there and the car was catching me fast, they caught me just a hundred yards or so from the border and swerved in front of my truck forcing me to stop. I had visions of Siberia flash before my eyes when I suddenly recognized the folk with whom I had shared a home brandy. They all jumped out of their car and embraced me, stuck a pin badge in my lapel and said “Goodbye” and each gave me kiss …

Goodbye Berlin central 

The amazing contrast between West Berlin and the East side just a few hundred yards away was to bring home the reality and the social divide enforced on the populous by politicians and their bankers. 

Back at the Minsk hotel… Although he could hold his beer quite well, John Ridge would often over-indulge a little the night before… We were on our way to breakfast past the Guard woman posted on each floor at the end of every hallway. Alan English asked Stan who was sharing: “Where’s John?” “He’s still sleeping I think.” We opened the door to his room; he didn’t respond to my calls to muster from under the sheets … So I unwound the fire hydrant hose from outside his room and gave the signal to Alan English to open the stop cock. Directed straight at his bed he shot out like a scalded cat at the freezing jet. We retreated at high speed, put the hose back in a second and Alan bolted into his room opposite and slammed the door shut – whereupon all the plaster the length of his room from floor to ceiling fell off into the passageway. Now you can sort of understand why the locals were suspicious of such a group. There was quite an enquiry of course.  

Trevor ran out of dollars to pay the crew. One evening, in true Mafioso style, as we were all having dinner in an up-market Hotel in Minsk, Joe Cates arrived with an attaché case brim full of dollars, quietly placed it on the table and carefully showed Trevor its contents. No surveillance cameras in those days, thank goodness. Marconi camera with carrying frame, handles are being inserted as it took four people to carry one camera. Accompanying tender with heavyweight cable drums required two people to carry one drum. L to R Mike Sampson, John Ridge, Stan Hamblin (riggers) Colin Calow (Cam) George Connaughton (VTR) Dave Ashley Smith (Audio) Eckhardt (Eng) Horst Wenzil(Cam) inserting handle.

Geneva 

It was a tough enough to manhandle the Marconi MkV111s in and around England but nothing to the difficulties in the snow and ice of a European winter.

In the Alps covering the Winter Games for ABC WW Sport it became necessary for us to have hair dryers – naturally one can jump to the conclusion and think we were all … A de-ice on the base of an IO tube! Note the filters above very vain, but not all of us were.  During the night, if a snowstorm blew up even with our special great tailor-made covers, wind driven snow would find a way through the smallest of holes and it was a common occurrence for the orthicon tubes to be totally encased in ice. Terry Heath showing Europeans the camera still works after such a de-ice ‘Fantastisch Cameramen nearly froze to death’, for lineups could take forever as neutral density or even colour filters had to be manually put in or removed on each tube to enable tube balances to be gained, then would come the line up itself – a delicate manual procedure effected with skew and twist knobs on each of the three tubes, each tube individually aligned, then all three had to be overlaid and matched up. It was commonplace for any tube to jump out of registration during a shoot and it relied on the dexterity and understanding of the cameraman with the aid of the engineers over ‘cans’ to re-align the tube or even stick in or remove a filter or two as quickly as possible to get back on shooting. Some could manage others not. All unbelievable by today’s standards especially in driving snow and Alpine cold. The above line-up shots and these Camera positions hardly visible after a night’s snowfall up a piste in probably Serfaus, all lifted off a piece of 8mm film shot by John Duncum. Heavy weight frozen cable drums. Some camera positions were a little higher than others.  Ski Jump and Slalom course.