{"id":11555,"date":"2020-11-20T14:52:24","date_gmt":"2020-11-20T14:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/?p=11555"},"modified":"2022-08-21T09:14:11","modified_gmt":"2022-08-21T09:14:11","slug":"topics-4-another-lockdown-collection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/2020\/11\/topics-4-another-lockdown-collection\/","title":{"rendered":"Topics 4 – Another Lockdown collection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Here is another issue of the e-zine that YOU<\/i><\/b> write!\n

\nTopics 4 comes to you in the midst of the latest English four-week \u201clockdown\u201d for Covid-19, as this second wave of the Covid-19 infection has hit: Wales has already had a two-week \u201ccircuit-breaker\u201d, and Scotland has set up five tiers or restrictions.\n

\nAll this was after a complete Summer of restricted access, restricted visits, restricted recreation and restricted socialisation.  All TV programmes were affected in one way or another, whether in production or scheduling \u2013 and some older programmes were retransmitted to brighten up our days.\n

\nBut there has been a bumper crop of Tech Ops recollections: it’s quite ironic that in these days of restricted travel, so many of the topics are about Outside Broadcasting and freelancing around the world – so enjoy!  \n

\nJust a couple of notes:  some pages may be short, to keep tight to the subject matter.  Also, some stories might have appeared elsewhere on this website.   Wherever possible, any duplication has been omitted, but there are times when it is easier to repeat the story than to keep cross-referencing to earlier tellings.

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1950s and 1960s Adventure Series<\/strong><\/h3>\nRoger Bunce wondered whether other people had been reliving their childhood by watching those old adventure series of the 1950s and 1960s.\n\n
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1968 BBC TV Production Planning Training Film<\/strong><\/h3>\nThis page started with an extract from a BBC staff training film about production planning, moves on to a discussion of who gets a credit and discusses how \u201cour\u201d directors planned productions using matchboxes and string \u2013 not the fancy models in the training film!\n\n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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A game of KIM<\/strong><\/h3>\nThere\u2019s more on nicknames elsewhere in this collection.  This page concentrates on one person whose nickname was \u201cKim\u201d.  This page can easily be removed and not affect other pages.\n\n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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An Historic Outside Broadcast<\/strong><\/h3>\nThis has been \u201cspun off\u201d from the discussions about the origin of the name \u201cScanner\u201d.  It seems more than probable that the BBC did a live TV OB of the momentous occasion when Chamberlain, having flown between Heston Airfield and Munich for discussions with Hitler, famously returned to wave his piece of paper.\n\n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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BBC TV Car Park Tickets<\/strong><\/h3>\nIllustrations of BBC TV Car Park Tickets.  \n\n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Bits of Our History<\/strong><\/h3>\nBernie\u2019s website \u2013 \u201cour\u201d website\u201d – is a collection of personal reminiscences and stories about how we used to work.  It\u2019s the sort of history that does not make it into standard academic histories, but it is about the daily activities of people coping with everyday work in a programming-making framework.  As Bernie says, it is terribly fragile.  People will want to know how we did theatrical style multicamera live or as-live television \u2013 and only we can tell it as it was.\n\n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Camera Tower<\/strong><\/h3>\nThis starts with a picture of a camera tower (?) used in the filming of \u201cThe LadyKillers\u201d.\n \n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Cameramen at War<\/strong><\/h3>\nCameramen at war, including pictures of Ronnie Noble.\n\n
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Cater for the Crew<\/strong><\/h3>\nAn Army marches on its stomach \u2013 and so do TV crews.\n\n
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Colin Reid \u2013 An Appreciation<\/strong><\/h3>\nA quiet man with a calm demeanour, yet he kept a close watch on ‘youngsters’ with a quiet word after a programme if he thought the younger crew members could improve their performance.\n\n
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Completely Shocking\u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\nSomething to do with that stuff that comes along wires and makes things work \u2013 or creates spitz and sparkens.  Of course, some of it is static.\n\n
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Continu\u2026.ity?<\/strong><\/h3>\nSometimes the changeover between programmes is not as smooth as we would expect it to be.  Which leads onto Jack Jackson\u2019s Record Roundabout and a problem with a faxed quiz.\n\n
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Covid 19 and TV<\/strong><\/h3>\nSome snippets on how various TV shows have coped with the restrictions imposed by attempts to limit the spread of the Coronavirus Covid-19.\n\n
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David Attenborough<\/strong><\/h3>\nMore thoughts about the great man\u2026\n\n
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Director\u2019s Viewfinder<\/strong><\/h3>\nThe little device that showed to the director what the shot might look like.  More useful in \u201cpure\u201d film than TV,  where the director can directly see the camera output.\n\n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Ditty Box and Dollies<\/strong><\/h3>\nHow did these slang terms come to be used in TV?\n\n
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Duties Day-by-Day<\/strong><\/h3>\nOne requirement of working irregular hours in Tech Ops was the need to keep a diary. Some of us, when we left TV and were freed of the need to keep track of the fortnight\u2019s schedule, jettisoned the diaries ASAP:  but those kept diaries can be very useful as well as bringing back memories.\n\n
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First TV OB from a Theatre<\/strong><\/h3>\n\u201cWhen We Are Married\u201d by J. B. Priestley from ST Martin\u2019s Theatre was apparently the first Outside Broadcast from a Theatre.\n\n
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Flight of the Concordes (\u2026.and other planes)<\/strong><\/h3>\nExperiences of flying on business or for pleasure, for the Beeb or freelance, all around the world.\n\n
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Goonhilly<\/strong><\/h3>\nThe original Satellite Dish No 1 \u2018Arthur\u2019, now 58 years old, has been restored by Goonhilly Earth Station to enjoy a second life in Radio Astronomy rather than Sat Comms. \n\n
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Headphones<\/strong><\/h3>\nA discussion on the merits of different types of headphones.\n\n
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How We Got Started In The Entertainment Industry<\/strong><\/h3>\nStories of how some people got their job at the BBC.\n \n
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Julie Felix Show<\/strong><\/h3>\nJulie Felix died 5th<\/sup> April 2020: for many of us, she was a part of our youth.\n\n
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Noise, Loudness and Americans<\/strong><\/h3>\nThis page is a bit of a miscellany \u2026 it also covers accommodation, crew quarters etc.  and working for Americans\u2026.\n\n
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Meccano et al<\/i><\/strong><\/h3>\nWhat we played with in our formative years \u2026 with some broadcasting anecdotes interposed.\n\n
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Memories of Dame Vera Lynn<\/strong><\/h3>\nDame Vera Lynn died 18th<\/sup> June 2020 at the age of 103.\n\n
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More About Lime Grove<\/strong><\/h3>\nThis is not a history of the BBC Lime Grove Studios, more a collection of anecdotes about the place.\n

\nNote that there are stories about Lime Grove throughout the Tech Ops web site!\n\n
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More about Mother<\/strong><\/h3>\nJoan Marsden (\u201cMother\u201d) was a floor manager for the \u201cpolitical\u201d and newsy programmes.  She was quite fierce but ran the studio with impeccable discipline.\n

\nPlease also see other pages on the Tech Ops web site for more about Mother!\n\n
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More Mole Stories<\/strong><\/h3>\nRemember how the tracker and swinger had to learn how to frame a shot by judging camera distance and angle \u2013 just by looking at the camera on the front.  Later there was a monitor mounted on the crane, which made life easier.  \n

\nA short page: but please also see other pages on the Tech Ops web site for more stories about Moles!\n\n
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Multi-Coloured Swap Shop<\/strong><\/h3>\nOne of Brian Dale\u2019s Covid projects has been scanning thousands of 35mm colour slides, and here he shows some pics taken on a \u201cMulti-Coloured Swap Shop\u201d.  Bernie also contributes to this page.\n\n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Nicknames<\/strong><\/h3>\nThis page is not really about Tech Ops techniques \u2013 but more about crew cohesion, how we all managed to work together\u2026\n\n
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Not Everyone Likes \u201cStrictly\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\nIt may surprise many \u2013 given the viewing figures for the current season of \u201cStrictly Come Dancing\u201d – but not everybody likes the programme!\n\n
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\u201cOur World\u201d \u2013 yet more about this programme!<\/strong><\/h3>\nDavid Taylor kicks off this page by writing that he was trying to produce an article about the TV side of the \u201cAll You Need Is Love\u201d Beatles BBC TV  segment done as part of \u201cOur World\u201d.  Bernie Newnham produced a numbered version of the BBC crew photo for the Studio setup for \u201cOur World\u201d, and there are suggestions for the names for the numbers.\n

\nPlease also see other pages on the Tech Ops web site for more about \u201cOur World\u201d.\n\n
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Pushing the Wrong Buttons<\/strong><\/h3>\nWe all maek mistrakes: Pat Heigham has explicitly confessed to some of his!\n

\n(Many of our blunders are recorded throughout this site!)\n\n
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Radio Microphones<\/strong><\/h3>\nFollowing on from the tale of the OB of the scaling of the Old Man of Hoy (see below), Alan Taylor thought that these sort of programmes were only viable once there were radio microphones.  There then was a long discussion about these \u2013 and other – microphones.\n \n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Rolling Stones, Beatles and Jimi Hendrix at the BBC<\/strong><\/h3>\nTales of when these groups appeared on various TV shows.\n\n
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Ron Peverall at 90<\/strong><\/h3>\nBirthday wishes to Ron on the occasion of his 90th<\/sup> birthday,\n\n
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Some Things Never Change \u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\nA short page reporting that in 1952 there were complaints about mumbling actors and intrusive music and noises!\n\n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n \n
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Sounds Effective!<\/strong><\/h3>\nCreating Sound effects when there are none \u2013 and capturing wild tracks in a timely manner.\n \n
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Sports Unit Electronic – and Freelancing<\/strong><\/h3>\nOut and about with OBs and with freelancers.  Hectic days and days of delay, stories of water and of deserts.\n\n
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Steam-Powered Tech Ops Part 2<\/strong><\/h3>\nSince we all love steam\u2026\n

\nStarring \u201cFlying Scotsman\u201d, \u201cKing George V\u201d and \u201cCaerphilly Castle\u201d to name a few\u2026\n\n
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An Interesting Link to the Design of Television Centre<\/strong><\/h3>\nIn connection with Television Centre at 60\u2026.\n

\nNigel Norman was a keen pilot and formed a business partnership with Graham Dawbarn.  Their company, Norman and Dawbarn designed many aerodrome terminals, such as Heston, Brooklands, Birmingham, Manchester, Jersey and Guernsey.  After Sir Nigel\u2019s death, Graham Dawbarn continued the business on his own and was invited to design a building for the BBC.\n\n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Early BBC TV OBs<\/strong><\/h3>\nThe first BBC TV OB was the Coronation procession of King George VI.\n

\nTalk about jumping in at the deep end – having a Coronation as your shakedown programme for the first ever OB van.\n\n
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The Old Man of Hoy<\/strong><\/h3>\nPerhaps the most ambitious de-rig of a Mobile Control Room that BBC TV OBs undertook was to televise the live climbing, in 1967, of the Old Man of Hoy, a vertical rock in the Orkney archipelago off the north coast of Scotland.\n\n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Watership Down<\/strong><\/h3>\nIn our previous Topics we had pictures of walks that we had taken in the first lockdown.  This walk came after Topics 3 had been issued \u2013 but led on to some interesting discussions about the skyline on certain views.\n\n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Where Did The BBC Place Job Ads?<\/strong><\/h3>\nWhere did we see the Job Adverts for Technical Operators?\n\n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Which is Real?  Location Shoot or Studio mock up?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?<\/p>\n\nIt\u2019s not just Queen who asks this question!  We provide the pictures that other people see: does it matter how those pictures are generated?\n

\n

(Ed: this discussion actually followed on from some other email conversations, but treated here as a separate topic.)\n\n

\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Why MCRs are called Scanners \u2013 part 2<\/strong><\/h3>\nFurther discussion on the reasons behind the nickname \u201cScanner\u201d for a Mobile Control Room (and later derivatives, such as MCCR\u2026.)\n\n
\"open_this_topic\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
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Work in OBs – and Freelance<\/strong><\/h3>\nPay, Practices, Personalities, Performance, Problems \u2013 a plethora of pertinent partisan paragraphs from participants.\n\n
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Zooming Around<\/strong><\/h3>\nWho hasn\u2019t used Zoom during the Lockdowns and restricted socialisation?  The Broadcast Networks have used it too, to host virtualised television programmes.  How would we have coped without it?\n

\nThis quickly degenerated into a discussion of wine and cheese \u2026\n \n
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 <\/h3>\n \n

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 <\/h1>\n

\"ianfootersmall\"<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here is another issue of the e-zine that YOU write! Topics 4 comes to you in the midst of the latest English four-week \u201clockdown\u201d for Covid-19, as this second wave of the Covid-19 infection has hit: Wales has already had … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Alec Bray","author_link":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/author\/alec\/"},"featured_img":null,"coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Uncategorized<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Uncategorized<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 6 years ago","modified":"Updated 4 years ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on November 20, 2020","modified":"Updated on August 21, 2022"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on November 20, 2020 2:52 pm","modified":"Updated on August 21, 2022 9:14 am"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11555"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11555\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12726,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11555\/revisions\/12726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tech-ops.co.uk\/next\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}