\n"… On transmission, I set up the zoom for the final closeup… checked that the tube was locked in position and panned down for the wide shot. As the old man chased around the set, I started the (fastish) zoom in. Horror of horrors, it was going out of focus! …”"<\/p>\n
I have often wondered in the 50 odd years since if it was something I had done – it is a relief to know that it happened to someone else!<\/p>\n
Bernie Newnham<\/h3>\n
I remember Stuart laughing so hard on a Morecombe and Wise show his camera was shaking.<\/p>\n
Graeme Wall <\/h3>\n
And Morecombe stepped out of character during the recording to say to the audience, \u201cI know this next gag is funny as Camera 3 has been pissing himself at it all through rehearsals!\u201d<\/p>\n
I was tracking the Heron on that show.<\/p>\n
[see also: http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/tales-of-the-riverside\/<\/a><\/span><\/font><\/a> , the piece about \u201cOpen House\u201d]<\/p>\n One of the most difficult times I had for suppressing laughter was in Pres B, doing a LNLU Interview with Michael Bentine about his proposed trip up the Orinoco. He was telling wonderful tales about his childhood in South America, including a story about ordering goods from the UK and arriving at the docks a couple of days after they’d been told they’d arrived, only to find a large empty packing case, with two families living in it. Of course, this in the 1960s, when you couldn’t (stony faced!) openly laugh out loud, and I had to let go of the camera I was shaking so much. The Interviewer was Noel Picarda (remember him) and he was unable to interrupt or stop Michael’s flow as he too was crying with laughter.<\/p>\n Memories, memories \u2026<\/p>\n Crew 7 were working an a \u201cLaughter Show\u201d and Dustin and Les were doing a sketch dressed as Keith Harris and Orville. During rehearsals they were actually quite funny and the crew were laughing quite a lot. Now, Crew 7 also did the Keith Harris Show and Ron said, "We’d better not laugh like that tonight -Keith might recognise us." Peter Fox replied, "I’m not worried, Keith has never heard me laugh."<\/p>\n (\u201cThe Laughter Show\u201d was a BBC comedy sketch show, which featured Dustin Gee and Les Dennis, from 1984 to 1986 and then just featuring Les Dennis until 1991.)<\/p>\n We were always laughing when doing \u201cNot Only But Also\u201d. Anyone else remember the Poets Cornered game at the end of the shows on one of the series – the canvas tank of green foamy stuff into which Pete or Dud or their unfortunate guest were dumped from tipping seats along the edge after failing to continue a rhyme? <\/p>\n One of Ronnie Corbett’s jokes was: "If the crew laughed at our sketch during rehearsal, we would have to go away and clean it up!"<\/p>\n I remember a magazine article in the 1980s where the journalist, describing a visit to the \u201cTomorrow’s World\u201d studio, said the cameramen had an air of ‘studied indifference’. I’ve been trying to perfect that look ever since!<\/p>\n Easily explained. They are on talkback and may not react what’s being said in the studio – may not even hear it if concentrating on something else.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jeff Naylor Nigel Williams and I are puzzling over this quote: \u201c.. stony-faced technicians…\u201d We used it just the other day… At some point in our careers we were greatly amused by a press article that used the phrase but … Continue reading Tony Grant<\/h3>\n
Peter Neill<\/h3>\n
Geoff Fletcher<\/h3>\n
Dave Beer<\/h3>\n
Nigel Taylor<\/h3>\n
Dave Plowman<\/h3>\n
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