| Could be apocryphal - I heard this in a tea bar.... Peter Hills (trademark: - “Hello, squire!”), well known senior cameraman on crew 17, was doing an attachment as a TM2 (the man who runs the VTs at the end of the desk in the gallery, for the younger members). It was in the days of 405, black and white, tense “as live” studio drama - and huge 10ft by 6ft mirrors used for back projection behind cars etc.. A seriously dramatic bit of acting was going on at one end of the studio, whilst at the other, the Mole had to do a quick reposition. As the Mole turned, the arm somehow got away from its operator, and the inevitable happened. There was the most almighty crash as the mirror fell into thousands of expensive pieces, followed by a deadly hush - broken by a little voice from the loudspeaker talkback in the roof - “You’ve fucked it now, squire!” Bernie |
| Roger Fenna during a crew discussion on the importance of getting the rig done properly: "No director has ever come up to me and said 'Bloody good rig Rog!'" Bill Jenkin |
| Sometime in the 1980s a T.M. who shall remain nameless was setting up a circuit for Breakfast Time with a russian woman in Dundee who was taking action to put pressure on the various authorities in order to get her husband out from behind the iron curtain.
T.M.: " would your like to say a few words for level please" Woman: "what would you like me to say?" T.M.: "just say what you had for breakfast this morning" Woman (very annoyed): "I have had nothing - I am on hunger strike!". Which was what the item was all about in the first place. Bill Jenkin |
| Another Breakfast Time in the 80's Selina Scott turns to the big B.P. screen and asks a question of a man in Belfast. The man in Belfast only gives a blank stare. Selina Scott: "Mr xxxx can you hear me?" Man in Belfast "No I'm afraid I can't" Scotty: "OK then we had better go on to something else and come back later" M. in B.: "Yes I think that would be a good idea". Scotty turns back and carries on with the show. Bill Jenkin |
| Has anyone seen that clip of Jimi Hendrix changing his mind live on BBC1 and playing a different song? A very famous clip from the Lulu show in 1968. I was there, cable bashing on Crew 7.
All the programmes in the series were recorded, and all were wiped in the great disasters that lost huge amounts of historic material (shame on you, vt). The clip survived, along with a lot more, because an engineer (who should be knighted) came round at 0600 every morning and serviced the heads of the vt machines. On the side, he was collecting - under the floor somewhere - chunks of programming that he liked, mostly rock stuff. He copied just this bit. When Whistle Test’s Tom Corcoran found out some time later, he spent several years trying to get permission to re-broadcast the sequence. Eventually the rules were changed, and it’s been shown many times since. Another recording of the series was made, on some early domestic format, by Maurice Gibb. I wonder if he still has it? Bernie |
| A quote.... “Listen to the music, cloth ears” - Stewart Morris to a senior cameraman who hadn’t worked with him before. |
| One of the first moon rocks, from Apollo 11, was brought to TC7 during the Apollo 12 mission, to be seen on British tv for the first time. It arrived with great ceremony guarded by 2 security men, and locked in a heavy briefcase. When the case was opened, the rock was revealed to be sealed in a perspex dome and mounted on a metal stand, irremovable and untouchable. It was explained that it was far too precious to be taken out. The crew were very disappointed that they couldn’t touch the rock, until one of the British scientists being interviewed said “That’s all right, you can touch mine”. He produced a small plastic box which he opened and tipped out another rock which he handed round for everyone to play with. Bernie |
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