I was a cameraman in London, working mainly on crews 7, 10 and 13, from 1959 until 1969, when I moved to Bristol to work as a cameraman on O.B.’s, before gaining promotion to Floor Manager - a post from which I recently retired. I have been raiding my loft and my memory banks, and have come up with some stories and illustrations which I hope everyone will find interesting. |
The next picture was published in Weekend Telegraph magazine on 21st May 1965, where it was used to illustrate a feature-length article about
the long-awaited advent of colour TV in this country. Yes, yours truly again, operating a camera that thoroughly dwarfs its modern-day counterparts! In fact, it was so big and heavy that it actually took four men - using a handle at each bottom corner - to lift it on and off the camera pedestal! The photograph was taken during two days of colour TV demonstrations that were carried out in Studio H, Lime Grove on Monday, 22nd March, and Tuesday, 23rd March, 1965. Throughout that time we repeatedly ran a magazine programme which was presented by Judith Chalmers; and which, as the picture-caption rightly says, was much stronger on colour than intellectual content! The audiences for these demonstrations consisted of gentlemen of the press, BBC executives, and Members of Parliament, all in the hope of persuading the Government that we were more than ready for them to give the go-ahead for regular colour transmissions to begin. Even so, this didn’t happen for at least a couple of years; when, from late in 1967, several programmes per night were broadcast in colour on BBC2. These were mainly documentaries on film or were US imports - who can forget Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in! |
Until now, I thought that was as far back as my memory went, but then I happened to trawl through my work-schedule diaries for the previous
five years, and came up with the following entries: Friday, 13th July, and Monday, 16th July, 1962. Studio H, Lime Grove. Colour TV Experiments. Monday, 20th August, to Saturday, 1st September, 1962. Earls Court Radio Show. (I believe I am right in thinking that, as a result of those experiments a month before, this is when colour television was first demonstrated to the Trade and the visitors to the show.) Wednesday, 13th January, 1965. Studio H. Colour TV transmissions to Moscow. (This was to help Soviet Television decide whether they wanted to use the German PAL system, or the French SECAM method.) |
At Bristol I soon became the “personality” cameraman for their sports coverage, and the next picture, printed in Ariel on 13th
October 1972, was taken while we were setting up to record a Match of the Day from Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane ground.
The unit had recently taken delivery of its new colour scanner, CMCR 13, and I was getting to grips with Angenieux’s latest
100inch telephoto zoom lens, which enabled me to see the whites of the goal-scorer’s eyes from my position on the half-way line.
Happy Days!!
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