Cuts TVC in the Book include 50s & 60s review Byford page 6 page 12 page 3

November 2010 Number 8

With highlights from Ariel All change at the BBC pages 2-3 News Less room

PROSPERO November 2010

Prospero is provided free to retired BBC employees. It can also be sent to spouses or dependants who want to keep in touch with the BBC. It includes news about former colleagues, pension issues and developments at the BBC. Prospero includes classified advertisements. To advertise in Prospero or the BBC Staff magazine, Ariel, see page 12.

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CROSPERO 152 Devised and compiled by Jim Palm 1

Complete the square by using the clues; these apply only to words 2 3 Editorial contributions running across. Then take these words in numerical order and extract the letters indicated by a dot. If your answers are correct, these letters will spell out the signature tune of a BBC programme featured in a 45 Write to: Prospero recent Crospero. BBC Pension and Benefits Centre Please send your answers in an envelope marked Crospero to 6 7 Broadcasting House The Editor, Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Cardiff, CF5 2YQ Broadcasting House, Cardiff CF5 2YQ by 19 November . 8 Tel: 020 7765 1414 Clues: 1. Waste channel (5); 2. Yearn (4); 3. Devours (4); 4. Pains (5); 5. TV and newspapers (5); 6. Down at heel (5); 7. Ancient (5); 9 10 8. Three-legged isle (3); 9. Snatch (5); 10. Giraffe-like animal (5); Email prospero@bbc.co.uk 11. Weight (3); 12. Famous battle (5); 13. Sing Ifield-fashion (5); 11 14. Women’s quarters (5); 15. French river (5); 16. Plant (4); 17. Solent town (4); 18. Express feelings (5). Please make sure that any digital 12 13 pictures you send are scanned Solution to Crospero 151: Ajar; Oases; Nor; Ant; Nil; Nag; Gee; Sly; Anode; Rate; Nabs; Bloodsucker; Hast; Dado; Avows; Ale; Tin; at 300 dpi. Bop; Yes; Ate; Ore; Skews; Mend. 14 15 The names of the hidden programmes were Jennings at School and Toytown 16 17 Dot to dot: John Morris’ keen eye spotted the boobs in the last issue of Prospero – a missing dot in the square numbered 19 and a closing date of 18 16th July… We’re glad to have received some entries for Crospero 151 – the winner being Richard Cox of Norwich – and we apologise to anyone who found the puzzle impossible to solve on account of our lack of dots!

2 • • November • 2010 News Licence fee frozen As this issue of Prospero was just about to go to print, the Government at the top announced that the TV licence fee is to be frozen for six years at £148.50. It has been a dramatic couple of weeks for the BBC. The organisation The BBC has been under intense political pressure not to take the licence has been embroiled in a row with staff and unions over changes to its fee increase in these financially straitened times, and indeed the BBC pensions provision and then it announced that the Executive Board will Trust had already agreed to waive next year’s planned increase. shrink by 30% next year (including the high-level departures of Mark Following the Spending Review, the BBC will also take over the cost of the Byford and Sharon Baylay). This was followed by the Government’s World Service, currently funded by the Foreign Office, as well as the Welsh Spending Review and the news that the TV licence fee is to be frozen language TV channel, S4C. It will also take over the cost of BBC Monitoring, for six years (see box right). which monitors, translates and analyses media coverage from around The director general Mark Thompson has cut have put chief operating officer Caroline simpler place, the aim being to streamline layers the size and cost of the executive – sending out Thomson centre stage. Her Operations group and processes and have fewer managers. the world. the strongest possible signal that he is serious has been vastly expanded and now includes ‘About three years ago we had the slogan The Department for Culture, Media about trimming BBC management from top Marketing, Communications & Audiences and digital, simple, creative and open,’ Thomson and Sport currently funds S4C to the to bottom. BBC People. recalls. ‘Well, we’ve delivered on digital, we’re tune of just under £100m a year. Mark Byford, the deputy director general of She has been set three tasks, each of which certainly more creative and, painful though it There had been a proposal to make the BBC, is being made redundant. He will would be daunting on its own: to get the new has been, we’re a lot more open. But simple has the BBC pay the cost of free TV leave next spring and the post will be closed. Operations group up and running; to lead eluded us.’ licences for the over-75s, but this will In an email to staff Thompson said: ‘We have negotiations on the next licence fee settlement, She explains: ‘Unfortunately, delivering on it now not happen. concluded − and Mark fully accepts − that the although these are not expected to start is not that… simple. It really isn’t, otherwise work he has done to develop our journalism until mid-2011; and to deliver a simpler, more we would have done it before.’ It will mean a 16% real terms cut in and editorial standards across the BBC has efficient BBC. Regarded as friendly and down to earth, the BBC’s funds over the next six years achieved the goals we set to such an extent that How will she do it – given that each is a Thomson has worked in broadcasting for 30 as opposed to a 25% cut over four his role can now end.’ crucial part of the BBC’s future? ‘The thing years, joining the BBC as a trainee journalist years if they had been obliged to cover Byford said: ‘I said the drive to reduce senior about doing a complicated job with a large span and going on to make radio and TV current the licence fee costs. management should touch the Executive of responsibility is to make sure you have good affairs programmes before leaving for Channel Board, and it has touched me. Obviously I am people working with you,’ she says. Fortunately, 4. She returned to the BBC in 1990 and is a really sad to go, I believe in the BBC and love she adds, she is good at delegating and is former deputy director of World Service and it, but it’s the right thing to do.’ surrounded by ‘some fantastic people’. director of Policy and Legal. Paying tribute to his deputy Thompson said: They include Lucy Adams, director of BBC ‘Good friends’ with her executive colleagues, ‘I have never had a closer nor more supportive People, who is stepping down from the some of whom she has worked beside for many relationship with any colleague and cannot Executive Board (along with director of BBC years, Thomson concedes that recent begin to express my personal sense of gratitude North Peter Salmon) but taking on additional developments have made for some to Mark for his honesty, steadfastness responsibilities for Workplace, business uncomfortable moments in the corridors. and courage.’ continuity and safety. ‘To be honest, it is a bit awkward. Those of Byford’s responsibilities for overseeing BBC Adams, who has played a prominent role in us who are staying and even being given more Journalism will be picked up by director of putting the BBC’s case during the pension responsibilities feel slightly embarrassed about News Helen Boaden, who will join the reform discussions, will report to Thomson it vis à vis those who leaving. Executive Board next April. while continuing to maintain a direct line to ‘For the people who are going – Mark The second high profile casualty of the the DG on industrial relations and other [Byford] in particular, but also Sharon – it’s an changes is director of MC&A Sharon Baylay. people-related issues. enormous wrench. People love working for the Like Mark Byford, Baylay is taking redundancy. Giving the time-consuming Workplace brief BBC and are very committed to it. On the She goes on maternity leave at the end of to Adams will ‘help me cope with my increased other hand, everyone understands that in the November and will not return to the £376,000 workload’, Thomson believes. modern corporate world, you have to be post she has held for 18 months. In addition, the director of People will be flexible and that change is always round The changes to the executive level of the BBC instrumental in the drive to make the BBC a the corner.’ Lyons to leave next year Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust since April 2007 and the first person to hold the post, has announced he will go at the end of his term next April. As recently as July he had indicated he would like a second term, so what changed his mind? Lyons was not available for an interview but in involved with BBC management. thinking… the quality and public service his letter to Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt, A Department of Culture, Media and Sport focus of the BBC’s output has improved and announcing his decision, he said: ‘The role of spokesman said the process of recruiting a new the public’s affection for the BBC Chairman has been far more demanding than Chairman will begin in about a month, with the has strengthened.’ the nominal three to four days a week in the job post likely to be advertised. The Trust has certainly proved it can hold specification. It is of course a compelling aspect Since its inception the Trust has been firm against the plans of the executive, most of working at the BBC that it can become an criticised, not least by the Conservative Party, as recently by reprieving 6 Music from the closure all-consuming part of one’s life… but this an ill-conceived hybrid, on the one hand the proposed in the Strategy Review. workload has now reached a point where I am voice of the licence fee payer and on the other a Mark Thompson said: ‘Sir Michael Lyons has increasingly concerned that it is crowding out champion of the BBC. been a tireless advocate for the public interest in other appointments to which I remain Lyons defended the Trust in his letter to Hunt, everything the BBC does as well as an effective Media commentator Steve Hewlett told Ariel committed and other activity that I wish to saying: ‘For all the continuing debate I am clear and dedicated Chairman of the BBC Trust. But he thought in years to come Lyons’ achievement undertake.’ that this model is robust, workable and above all he has been a vigilant guardian of the in chairing the Trust would be better recognised. Throughout his tenure Lyons has faced effective. I am proud of what we have achieved independence of the BBC. He deserves our He said: ‘The Trust is essentially a fudge. It’s criticism. He has been charged with a lack of in safeguarding the BBC’s independence against profound thanks for that – as well as a been a considerable achievement to get it to the leadership and, depending on the stance of the significant challenge, and bringing the interests commitment to maintain the principles that he position where it can demonstrate a degree of critic, either being at loggerheads with or too of audiences… to the centre of the BBC’s has stood for as Chairman.’ independence from the management.’ November • 2010 • • 3 Letters Contacts This issue… So when was the first live radio phone-in?; Visiting Scheme If you would like a visit or information on how to become a volunteer visitor, please ring 0845 712 5529. You will be charged only as a local call. Talking of Tommy Queries For benefit and pension payroll queries, call the Service Line on 029 2032 2811. Brian Willey’s splendid Prospero article in celebration of To add or delete a name from the distribution list, ring the Service Line the 70th anniversary of (number above). Prospero is provided free of charge to retired BBC employees. On It’s That Man Again request, we will also send it to spouses or dependants who want to keep in touch (Prospero , July 2010) with the BBC. Prospero is also available on audio tape for those with sight impairment. brought back particular To register, please ring the Service Line on 029 2032 2811. memories for this Spot BBC Club The BBC Club in London has a retired FX Boy in days prior to category membership costing £24 a year for members and £36 a year for family those of Brian and membership. Pre-1997 life members are not affected. Regional clubs may have Johnny Ammonds. different arrangements. Please call BBC Club London What was not mentioned in the slightly administration office on 020 8752 66 66 or shortened version of the original article which email [email protected]. Brian wrote for Evergreen magazine is the series which attracted far greater wartime audiences Benevolent Fund abroad thanks to the BBC Overseas Services This is funded by voluntary contributions and ITMA. Tommy Handley and Dorothy Summers from the BBC and its purpose is to protect Yes, there was often a studio shortage of the welfare of staff, pensioners and their microphones so ‘Spot FX’ would sometimes And then he told me that Barbara Price, his Sgt Brian Forbes and Lt Roger Moore. But families. Grants are made at the discretion have to run from one to another for Rattle young relative had been at Miss Webb’s NOW Martyn C Webster was not only to do of the trustees. They may provide Rattle and ‘Can I Do You NOW, Sir?’ from Mrs Preparatory school in Mill Hill along with this his masterful production of Journey Into assistance in cases of unforeseen financial Mopp. In truth, actress Dorothy Summers – as Hill. He then mentioned another girl with Darkness . He’d invited me to sit in and, to my hardship, for which help from other neither her character’s voice or dress showed – whom I’d shared that 1932 classroom. More delight, having cast Dorothy in a leading role I sources is not available. was one of wartime’s best dressed ladies and about her later. got a HUGE hug; a whiff of VERY expensive when reprimanded by Tommy for exploding Good to see a photo of Dorothy along with perfume and was greeted with, ‘Back doing the Prospero Society over one thing or another, it was hard for Spot Hugh Moreton and Derek Guyler, both of Sound FX are we?’ to which Martyn replied, Prospero Society is the only section of FX not to laugh when Mrs Mopp was to be whom were to be heard post-war in some of my ‘Dorothy dear, you are speaking to the the BBC Club run by and for retired BBC told, ‘Your beads are bursting off your body like own plays and productions. The first to be co-author of this play!’ staff and their spouses. Its aims are to bits of shrapnel!’ broadcast by the BBC was the last which Sgts But earlier I’d referred to another pupil at enable BBC pensioners to meet on a Since running from mic to mic, Mr Handley Margaret Potter and Hill had written whilst Miss Webb’s Prep School. About 85 now – and social basis for theatre visits, luncheons, had christened me ‘Nipper’. On the one serving with Forces Radio in Hamburg. Before a year older than me, we’d done one play coach outings and so on. Prospero occasion prior to the start of rehearsals I was that, we’d done a series of The Adventures of together, after which the kind then Society is supported by BBC Club funds handed a cheque. ‘Just tear round for another Robin Hood and which I had to cast from those eight-year-old suggested I tried painting instead. so as to make events affordable. tenner’. I was used to visiting that bank by the who worked there besides from the Combined And paint we did, myself just backgrounds The only conditions (apart from paying a Criterion. Being paid about a quarter of that Services Unit nearby since neither script nor whilst she not only tidied those up for me but small annual subscription) are that you amount as the weekly salary of a 17-year-old, a actors’ fees were available. The following cast of drew her own impressions of famous Biblical must be a BBC pensioner and a member tenner was a lot of money – and hence my then unknowns included Cpl Nigel Davenport characters before leaving Miss Webb’s for of the BBC Club. Write for an application alarm when on the way back another alarm as ‘Robin’, Sq Ldr Cliff Michelmore as ‘Little America and becoming something of a well form to: Graham Snaith, 67 Newberries sounded and I was to be herded into the nearest John’, Raymond Baxter as ‘Guy de Gisborne’ known character herself – my school chum Avenue, Radlett, Herts. WD7 7EL. air raid shelter. The great Mr Handley laughed and Cpl Brian Matthew as ‘King Richard’. The Angela Lansbury and whom, bless her, I can Telephone: 01923 855177 when I returned somewhat breathless. ‘Easy to part of ‘Blondel’ the wandering minstrel was STILL see to this very day! Mobile: 07736 169612 have had you nicked, Nipper. But I’d have asked played and sung by Cpl Geraint Evans. As mere Trevor Hill Email: [email protected] Babs to boot you back!’ What did all that mean? ‘Foresters’ with just the odd line or two, I’d cast BBC products BBC retired staff are entitled to a discount up to 30% off the RRP of most products in the BBC TV Centre shop. There is a postage charge of £2.95 per order (not per item) for most orders . Pensioners must quote their BBC pension number when ordering. If a retired BBC staff wish to visit the store in TV Centre they can do so providing that they show their retired BBC staff pass. They will also need this to enter the building. Contact: BBC Shop, Audience Foyer, Television Centre, Wood Lane, London W12 7RJ. Tel: 020 8225 8230 Email: [email protected] Or visit BBC Shops in Tunbridge Wells, Eastbourne, Brighton, Leicester, Birmingham or Liverpool. Please note from time to time the BBC Online shop (bbcshop.com) will have different offers to what we have instore. BBC PA For details of how to join the Pensioners’ Association, see the panel on page 5.

4 • • November • 2010 Letters memories of Jasmine Bligh; BBC portable microphone kit... and more Apollo 13 Can you help? First live radio Regarding the article OK Houston we have a Tom Beesley (some of you may remember him phone-ins problem here ( Prospero , October 2010), I would as Regional TV Manager, Birmingham, just like to mention that John Humphries, Alec amongst other things) is about to retire as Booker and myself were the three studio Chairman of the Broadcast Journalism Training engineers on duty at the time of the incident, Council after 23 years. and having worked all day were asked to stay all Among the farewell gifts we’ve bought him is night too, which of course we did. a wonderful piece of vintage broadcasting Ted Hartwell equipment – a BBC portable microphone kit, probably about the same age as Tom. It’s a Sennheiser mic (I think) with its own equaliser box, in a specially made veneered case What is money worth about 12 x 9 x 6 inches, and its own shoulder Clay Keyes was probably the first man to give strap. away money. A penny in the 30s. This was I believe it would have been used by early augmented to half-a-crown (two-and-sixpence sports reporters, with the mic connected via the in old money) in the 40s, when Wilfred Pickles equaliser to a landline at a fixed commentary asked his questions on Have a Go . Inflation has point. In the October issue of Prospero , the report on put up the price to a million pounds today A small plaque on the front of the box carries Radio London’s 40th reunion included the line under Chris Tarrant’s questioning. That shows the information ‘Lip Microphone, Type L2.SFR ‘Radio London managed to initiate such what money is worth in 2010. No 138, BBC Patent Application No. technical breakthroughs as the first live Bob Colston 24513/52.’ phone-in programme on the BBC’. Tony Luke Can any ex-engineering or sports types out writes: there shed any further light? I believe the first live phone-in for the UK was Visions of Jasmine and Jim Latham initiated by John Symonds (Chief Producer Big Ben’s chimes Philip Moore BJTC Secretary Light Entertainment – Radio) in 1963/64 after I was very sorry to hear of Philip Moore’s death. prolonged negotiations with the Post Office to I found the article on Jasmine Bligh most I have very happy memories of working with allow transmission of speech via their lines. interesting and a reminder of my early days as a Philip during my time at BBC Bristol in the 70s I also attended the meetings with Post Office vision mixer at AP at the same time as Jasmine. and 80s. I joined BBC Bristol in 1971 as an Speaker saga officials – my role being taken over at a later I well remember the time when Jasmine was Audio Supervisor after 13 years working in Tech May I add to the ‘speaker’ saga? No mention date by Chris Searle ( That’s Life ). to be rescued by the local fire brigade. I think I Ops for the television service in London. has been made of the ‘Spendor’. They agreed to John’s request and live was the vision mixer and Jasmine was directed There were so many occasions when I worked Spencer Hughes was a member of Research phone-ins were included in a new Light to wear a long dress in the afternoon show – in with Philip on recordings of organ music Department who was involved in the Entertainment idea of news, views and music, those prim and proper days of Reith’s BBC. The programmes, and as an organist myself, I development of the process of vacuum forming which was broadcast under the title reason being that she should not show any bare enjoyed the challenges thrown up when cones. Light-Night-Extra . leg or underwear when carried over the shoulder recording a large organ in a really large building In the 70s he left the BBC and, with his wife It was a two-hour programme on Friday by the firemen! such as Salisbury Cathedral. Dorothy, started to manufacture loudspeakers nights fronted by Don Davis (who handled the I remember another incident with Jasmine We worked together on many of the BBC under the name ‘Spendor’. The name derived phone calls) and Peter Haigh the music etc (late when I was vision mixer. In those days it took Training Orchestra recordings and concerts and from their two names. of Movie-Go-Round ). It included the quiz two seconds to fade a camera onto the screen or later the Academy of the BBC until it was Spendors were used by the BBC especially for Mystery Voice Challenge where listeners could fade out. The procedure on starting one hour at finally disbanded in the late 70s. There were also ‘home listening’. win Premium Bonds. 3pm or evening at 9pm was to bring up the visits to the Southern Cathedrals Festival each Sadly, shortly after forming the company, PS: With the current mania for TV’s X Factor , chimes of Big Ben 15 seconds before the strike summer and several studio-recording sessions Spencer died but his wife kept it going. it’s interesting to note that radio had its own of the hour and fade the announcer through with the West of England Singers which I retired in 1982 and at that time staff were talent show called The Talent Spot, initiated by the chimes. Philip directed. allowed to retain their home listening units. and produced by Brian Willey (1962/3). The Unfortunately one evening I brought Jasmine We put together a number of live relays from My two Spendors are still giving good service. Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers are two on screen still memorising her opening words the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra both in Cedric Stansfield of the many acts who became household names. instead of Big Ben’s chimes. In those days it Bournemouth and in the Colston Hall in Brian can supply the correct complete list. (I took two seconds to correct – and so an apology Bristol. We also worked together on many of the was the SM for the series.) to Jasmine. Presenters had no prompters in Bath Festival concerts for a number of years. those days! Cameramen framed the picture on I fully agree with my old colleague Ian Carson a ground glass screen the size of a postcard but (with whom I also spent a great deal of time upside-down. All very exciting! recording and editing music programmes Bob Mears around the South and West) that Philip’s contribution to the BBC’s serious music output was enormous. I feel really privileged to have had a small part of that part of the BBC’s contribution to music from the West of England. Philip was a great musician, a colleague and a good friend. David Franklin-Kitchen Radio London It was good to see so many old friends in the Church. The SA was Gina Madgett, who Radio London reunion picture ( Prospero , documented the event for the archives some October 2010). years ago. I devised the system of using the Jill Burridge was Jill Evans at the time; she equipment we had to turn a device for had useful ‘work experience’ at BBC Radio recording contributions into a live on-air Nottingham during her university breaks. machine. I was Assistant Producer and Steve Bradshaw had a similar training directed the programme. opportunity; his father ran the news agency I was happy to join the training unit who were contracted to write the news (LRTU) and train our new stations under the bulletins for the first couple of years in guidance of Robert McLeish from 1970. Nottingham. It was sorted later and the two Radio London was one of our first teams. That excellent journalists who wrote the copy, John training included how to set up a live phone-in Hobson and Mike Hoskin, joined BBC staff that other stations had been doing for a couple and went on to have good careers as News of years. Editor and Manager on our stations. David Wilkinson They may all remember that the first spontaneous live phone-in on the BBC was on Radio Nottingham early in 1968. The programme was called What Are They Up To Now? The producer/presenter was Tony

November • 2010 • • 5 Memories Life at the TVC in the 50s and 60s By Cliff Hatts In 1955, the Television Centre site was occupied only by Design Department and the Scenery Workshops. The ‘doughnut’ was a building site where we trespassed during lunch breaks – ducking around scaffolding and cement mixers in the vast empty spaces that were to become studios – ‘the promise of the future’. Around the site there were traces of the legendary 1914 exhibition – a ‘White City’ of marble pavilions. Dick Levin was Head of Design, having been construction of ‘temporary structures’ – able to appointed in 1953 following the sudden death deal with contractors and familiar with the Stephen Taylor’s set design for Tonight, 1957 of Peter Bax, the first ‘Head of Television hustle and bustle of the ‘here today and gone Scanned from Television by Design, by Richard Levin, Bodley Head 1961 Design’ in the world. tomorrow’ world of the exhibition business. At the time of his appointment, Dick Quite a catch. practised as a Consultant Designer in Chelsea. Dick gave up his private practice and found Dick didn’t see it that way – not for television They were known as the ‘Tudor set’, the He had been a major contributor to the 1951 himself at Alexandra Palace, in charge of 17 that is – principally because this practice was ‘Georgian panelled set’ and the ‘Regency Festival of Britain as the co-ordinating designer design staff – a scenery workshop and a not possible for the daily turn round of library’. They were theatrical in conception – of the ‘Land Traveller’ which took a none-too-clear responsibility for ‘Costume and television and equally because the central lumpy, solid and worthy and pretending to be promotional version of the festival to major Make-up’. operational responsibility of his new job was to something they were not. cities by rail. He was awarded an OBE. In the 30s, once the pioneers and engineers maximise designer time ‘with no taxis in To deal with this Dick created a ‘Studio Dick already had half-a-foot in the BBC, had the technology up and running, they the rank’. Design Unit’ which under the leadership of having designed a mock-up television studio for sought programme makers and an Art His experience in art and design told him that Stephen Taylor provided producers with the BBC exhibit at Radio Olympia Fair, a Department. For this they looked to the theatre the new medium of television – required as it contemporary settings which supported their post-war radio industries showcase, promoting – appointing Peter Bax, a much admired stage was to inform, educate and entertain – needed programmes with elegance in the spirit of the the sale of ‘wireless’ sets and television receivers. designer, who assembled a team of designers all a fresh design approach. content and the times. This made him a uniquely qualified of whom came from the ‘performing arts’ of Especially when informing and educating with It was in this area of design for television that candidate. He was much respected in design theatre and film, where it is the established Current Affairs – magazine and unscripted Dick’s management and influence made a circles – experienced in the design and tradition to engage designers by invitation. programmes which were unique to television and significant contribution to the integrity of the without any precedent in any other medium. look of current affairs programmes. (For drama and LE – Dick knew these would As a designer himself, Dick Levin was a man be well served by the experienced and talented with a mission to being the best of design to designers he had inherited from Peter Bax.) television. His often-uncompromising way of He discovered that producers of current fulfilling his responsibilities did not please affairs programmes were obliged to use one of everyone. He supported and admired his three stock sets provided by the property designers and they admired him. Dick retired department as a packaged deal complete with in 1971 and died aged 90 in 2000. matching furniture. Television Design & Scenic Services Reunion Lunch 2010 In October, the annual Television Design & members of this annual lunch. Stewart Scenic Services Reunion celebrated its had worked with Frank from the 30th anniversary lunch at Ealing Golf Club beginning, each year contributing a where 66 colleagues and friends braved a souvenir programme enlivened with his very wet day to attend this always original cartoons as well as being a enjoyable occasion. All things considered cheerful Master of Ceremonies. this was a most reassuring attendance. Our main speaker was another old On behalf of Frank Holland, the friend – William ‘Bill’ Stewart – who founder of this gathering, Hilary Worrall stood in at short notice to give us a made all the arrangements, welcoming resume of his life in television, telling in a us with a glass of sherry and bringing light and humorous manner of a career best wishes from Frank who was unable which had many misadventures as well to be with us owing to ill health. The golf as much success. club once again provided a fine lunch Sustained applause marked the end of with a choice of dishes. this much enjoyed 30th anniversary. We Cliff Hatts spoke in remembrance of meet again for our 31st on the first Stewart Marshall and Richard Friday in October 2011. Peter Bax. Greenough. Both had been active Hilary Worrall

6 • • November • 2010 Life after Auntie

020 8752 6666 One Small Steppe for Van 15% discount on shutters and blinds A former assistant editor in the Radio Newsroom, David Treanor, who took at The California Company early retirement two years ago, has had his first book published. Give your windows a make-over with beautiful, bespoke wooden shutters and blinds from The California Company. Stylish and versatile, shutters suit any living space and can be made to fit any unusual shape, from ovals to triangles. Every order is also checked by the team before it’s processed, giving you complete peace of mind. This discount cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Log on to www.bbcclub.com/save.php for details of how to redeem this offer. Vue Cinema off peak cinema tickets for only £5.75 Valid all day Monday to Thursday at all Vue Cinemas (including Westfield W12). Not valid at Vue West End and not for Gold Class or Premiere. Pop into your local Club site to buy your tickets. The Luxury Travel Fair Two tickets for the price of one when you book in advance. That’s two tickets The book, Mission Mongolia – Two Men, One for just £15. Van, No Turning Back , tells the story of a charity The Luxury Travel Fair, in association road trip to Mongolia he undertook with a with Condé Nast Traveller (4-7 former newsroom colleague, Geoff Stayton. November 2010, Olympia, London) is The two men raised almost £3,000 for Save your must-visit destination for the Children before setting off – and once they’d reached the Mongolian capital, inspiration and advice. Whatever your Ulaanbaatar, the van, a 1999 Nissan Terrano, dream trip – whether it’s cruising in the formerly owned by Anglian Water, was sold to Galapagos or rejuvenating in the Alps – a mining company, raising more money for enjoy a handpicked selection of travel charity. They met all the costs of the companies, ready to create the holiday trip themselves. of a lifetime. During the epic drive the two had to What’s more, the Fair is filled with negotiate mudslides in Kazakhstan, stunning entertainment and features to snowstorms in Siberia and thousands of miles of rough mountain tracks before crossing the fire the travel imagination. Meet The Gobi desert. Experts in the theatre including BBC David Treanor said: ‘Some of the worst presenter Dan Cruickshank, celebrity conditions were in Kazakhstan where it had chef Marcus Wareing and Olympic been raining hard and the roads were littered Skier and Ski Sunday presenter with abandoned lorries – and when the locals Graham Bell. Plus, visitors can enjoy a give up, you know things are bad. Once over sneak preview of Christie’s Vintage the border into Mongolia, maps show a nice Travel Poster Department’s Ski Sale at red road leading all the way to the capital, their dedicated gallery area; sit back 1,000 miles away. This is the greatest lie in the history of cartography. There are just rough and relax with a complimentary tracks almost all the way – it’s been described treatment on board the Elemis SpaBus; quite fairly as the worst road in the world. or ‘Taste the World’ with Harvey Nichols ‘The van kept on going despite damaged Foodmarket. Forthcoming reunions suspension, while we kept going on Log onto www.bbcclub.com/save.php boil-in-the-bag curry and beer. As well as the and click on the offer for details. Pebble Mill Rum Punch Revisited Bournemouth on Wednesday, natural hazards, we also faced some human Anyone with Pebble Mill connections is 8 December starting in the bar from ones – crooked cops and bent border guards – welcome to share a drink or two on 10:30, before moving across to the but also found kindness from local people 10% discount on private Monday, 20 December from 12:00 at restaurant for lunch. along the way. treatment at White City The Nautical Club, 3-4 Bishopsgate This invitation is to remind all past ‘Our worst moment was probably at the Dental Clinic Street, Birmingham B15 1EJ. and present members of the RELCs Mongolian border at Tsagaanuur when the van If you want to improve your dental was impounded in a row about import duty. to contact our lunch organiser Russell It’s a desolate mountainous place and it was health, look no further than White City BBC Scotland Horne, on 01590 624389 or email well below freezing and snowing hard. But Dental Clinic, conveniently based in This year’s retired staff reunion will be on [email protected] thanks to a helpful man from Mongolian White City, Room 1423. Friday, 3 December. The venue is again If you have been in the BBC Intelligence we found a mud brick shack to They provide quality NHS and private the Crowne Plaza in Glasgow, opposite broadcasting system during your career, stay in which was kept warm by a yak dung dental treatments in their modern ‘P.Q.’, between 12:00 and 16:00. you are very welcome to come to fire. But I’m afraid we dodged their offer of a treatment rooms. All retired staff are welcome, and Bournemouth and meet up with fellow meal of goats’ testicles!’ They also provide a range of cosmetic please feel free to draw the attention of colleagues and friends (including And the best time? treatments to enhance your facial anyone not on our email list to the event. partners) and to enjoy some banter and ‘It has to be the nights we spent in the Gobi appearance, ranging from professional desert. We’re not used to such space and To get your name on that list, please chatter. This time, we will be listening to emptiness – huge horizons and total quiet. teeth whitening to facial rejuvenation contact Stewart Shearer the voice of Marconi’s daughter, recorded And above us more stars then we ever thought through anti-wrinkle treatments such as ([email protected]) from the BBC Studio in Rome, talking existed. That was special.’ Botox and Restylane, as well as about her well known father… of radio. The book, which has been published by Invisalign invisible braces to straighten BBC RELCS Any problems, please contact Paul Summersdale, is available on Amazon and your teeth. The BBC RELCs are holding their Gouldstone, Vice-President, at through all leading online retailers and in Just present your BBC Club card to Christmas Lunch at the Miramar Hotel in [email protected] good bookshops. redeem this offer.

November • 2010 • • 7 Back at the BBC MONEY MATTERS First steps online Cash savings solution just a click away Everyone needs to keep some money Rumeana Jahangir tries out the BBC’s connection campaign in cash deposits to cover any short-term emergency spending and MISSION: Find someone who isn’t online ‘There are so many announcements within realm she had previously chosen not to enter. immediate capital needs. and help them to use the internet. TV shows about how viewers should visit the The programme realised they could inspire Getting a good rate of return on your REACTION: You have got to be joking… website if they want to know more,’ she adds. non-users like Hunniford, when they were money has become more difficult. Two A few seconds later, it dawns on me that this is ‘It’s effectively excluding huge audiences who contacted by viewers unable to benefit from years ago, base rate was 5% and an ideal opportunity for my dad. He’s one of are unable to tap into that additional content, website deals due to a lack of internet deposit accounts paying 6% or more the 9.2 million adults in the UK who have which is also being paid for through their know-how. never accessed the web and are now licence fee.’ Yet delivering the benefits of new And while my dad develops an (alarming) were common. In October 2008, the encouraged by the BBC’s First Click campaign technologies is one of the BBC’s public awareness of Facebook, the fictional Peggy Bank of England cut the base rate from to discover its wonders. purposes, and so it has made a minimum Woolley in Radio 4’s The Archers will also 5% to 2% and soon after to 0.5%, The corporation has joined up with UK two-year commitment to help get the nation learn to use a computer when lessons are where it has stayed ever since. Online Centres, Age UK and the Post Office online. offered at the village pub, in an effort to attract Ironically savers, who were least to run free start-up courses at libraries and more customers and prevent the inn’s closure. blameworthy for the credit crunch, are community centres. Plus internet users, like ‘It’s the perfect community story for us,’ says paying a high price for others’ myself, can teach non-users with the aid of the 60% of over-65s haven’t the drama’s editor Vanessa Whitburn. profligacy. Interest rates have not been First Click website. Although she doesn’t reveal any plotlines, she this low for this long since the 1950s. Once my dad grasps how web domains work, teases: ‘Once you get out there and make your the first site he keys into the address bar is bbc. experienced online access. contacts you never know what will happen in With the Retail Prices Index currently co.uk (naturally). It’s then that he – and I – your life, do you?’ running at 4.7% per annum (August realise that a new unexplored world really does As part of First Click, Rip Off Britain will Go to bbc.co.uk/firstclick for more details. 2010), the real value of cash savings is open up for him. He clicks onto the News film its presenter Gloria Hunniford as she takes Beginners’ courses can be found by ringing falling rapidly. section and, having moved here from her first steps into the world of computers – a 08000 150 950. To make matters worse, many banks Bangladesh in 1970, he’s also keen to check and building societies are not telling out the BBC Bangla site. existing customers about their best Martin Wilson, head of BBC Media Literacy, offers. Loyal customers can be paid as says that getting both his parents online in the little as 0.07% AER gross, while new last six months informed his input to the pan-BBC campaign. ‘It’s all about confidence customers may be offered 3% or more. really. They didn’t think it was for them, didn’t Special offers usually expire after a think they’d be able to do it and didn’t really limited time and keeping up with these see the benefit.’ Although now able to use changes is difficult. Skype and Google, their initial concerns mirror For savers with long-term cash on the unease preventing many from learning web deposit, it is worth finding competitive skills. Nearly a third of people in north east rates and doing this again when England have never used the internet, and existing bonus rates expire. For 60% of over-65s haven’t experienced online example, a £50,000 deposit paying access. ‘The key thing that came from our audience research is that, particularly for this 0.5% gross AER will yield only £250 of older age group, the amount of fear that they interest per annum. Currently a rate of feel about using a computer or the internet is 2.8% is available with full instant enormous,’ explains BBC Learning executive access, giving £1,400 per annum Karen Gregory. which, even after tax, makes a big difference to your net return. You should also maximise the statutory compensation protection Action and further ballot available on your savings (£50,000 per investor) and seek to steer clear of any banks with weaker credit ratings. This is not so simple as it seems, as many on pension offer banks and building societies have merged or been taken over but not also changed their trading names. A 24-hour work to rule went ahead just as Prospero was sent to print (Friday Some special banking facilities, usually with names like Gold Account 22 October), as union members voted in a fresh ballot on the BBC’s revised or Premier, purport to offer special privileges. It is worth checking what pensions offer. these are. We recently discovered one All-out strikes planned for 19-20 October were reforms if the deficit falls below £1bn at next resulting significant loss of salary.’ high street bank which offers travel called off, but the joint unions (Bectu, NUJ and April’s valuation. Locally, a campaign led by Bectu’s radio and insurance as a perk. This is attractive to Unite) called ‘action short of a strike’, from The new proposal also clarifies the position on music production branch and supported by the older saver, but often over 70s are midnight on 21 October. This protects their AVC and Added Years, which, the BBC says, is some Bectu and NUJ officials is calling for excluded, so foregoing a better interest previous strike mandate which expired on 26 subject to equality legislation. Scheme members complete rejection of the offer and restoration rate elsewhere would not be October. The first ballot on proposed pension who join either CAB 2011 or the proposed of what they claim is the affordable existing worthwhile. changes and pay returned a 90 per cent vote in defined contribution plan will be offered a pension provision. favour of industrial action. matching additional contribution up to 3% of NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear predicted During the work to rule, union members were their first £10,000 of pensionable salary – a a resounding ‘no’ vote, strike action and ‘a Kay Ingram is a Chartered instructed to refuse to work longer than maximum of £300 per year. winter of growing discontent’ over pensions, Financial Planner at LEBC Group 12 hours or more than six hours without a In an email to staff, director of BBC People cuts and jobs. He claims to have seen figures Ltd, one of a panel of independent one-hour meal break. Lucy Adams and chief financial officer Zarin drawn up by BBC financial consultants which financial advisers selected by the Under the deal that the BBC says is its Patel said the revised deal was the most the BBC suggest the pensions deficit is under £1bn. BBC. Further details can be found final offer: can afford: ‘We cannot offer further concessions Patel said: ‘This claim is misleading. The BBC on www.bbc.co.uk/mypension. • employee contributions to the new CAB that will disproportionately benefit one group still believes that the 2010 actuarial deficit is LEBC Group Ltd is an appointed 2011 plan are reduced from 7% to 6%; over another,’ they said, adding that the offer likely to be around £1.5bn. However we have representative of Sesame Ltd, which • increases in pensions in payment rise from will be withdrawn if staff reject it. publicly committed in our final offer to the the lower of CPI (consumer price index) and Officially, the joint unions are not unions to revisit elements of our proposals if the is authorised and regulated by the 2.5% to the lower of CPI and 4%; recommending their members vote for or pension deficit falls and stays below £1bn. As Financial Services Authority. • yearly revaluation of pensions rises to CPI or against the improved offer. Bectu assistant published in our 2009/10 annual report and Telephone: 0203 036 0843. 4% (from 2.5%) at the discretion of the BBC general secretary Luke Crawley said: ‘The only accounts, the accounting valuation shows a and scheme trustees; way we could get a better offer would be £1.64bn deficit at 31 March 2010.’ • the BBC commits to revisiting pension through protracted industrial action, with 8 • • November • 2010 Back at the BBC Goodbye Canvas, hello YouView After some late night negotiations in September, to cost around £200 or be offered as part of the pegs were pulled out on Project Canvas and broadband bundles – are not yet in production YouView TV Ltd was pitched in its place. as BBC R&D are still finalising the design. The seven Canvas shareholders – the BBC, ‘We’re not quite there yet, but the production ITV, BT, Channel 4, Channel 5, Arquiva and cycle is relatively short. It’s imperative in a very Talk Talk – signed an agreement to incorporate competitive market that these projects are the venture that aims to deliver delivered quickly or you lose the moment.’ internet-connected TV to our living rooms Companies like Sky and Virgin have within the first half of next year. complained that the launch of YouView will Richard Halton was in Amsterdam at IBC at distort the market, but Huggers regards the new the time. ‘It was 12.30 at night, but we really business – which won approval from the BBC felt that now was the time to get the brand out Trust in the summer – as ‘a test of our ability to there,’ says the newly appointed YouView CEO create public value in the face of intense who helped conceive the project and has led its opposition from some powerful corporations development from day one. with vested commercial interests’. ‘It’s a truly independent joint venture, and But what will its arrival mean for Freeview? by Lisette Johnston I’ve been delegated with the power to make Halton, a former Freeview board member, things happen.’ believes it still has an important job to do. YouView will be subscription free and will Where YouView will demand a ‘state of the art So tell me Mr President require a broadband connection. It will allow IP connect box’, Freeview offers across the price viewers to watch free-to-air digital channels, to range from ‘a high definition PVR to a £19 box catch up with programmes that have been from the supermarket’. Numerous bids and months of planning finally broadcast in the last seven days, to pause live TV The seven YouView shareholders have pledged and to access web content. £4.5m each per year for the next four years to paid off for BBC Persian TV when it landed an ‘It was born from the need to ensure that the the not for profit venture. ‘In layman’s terms it British public can continue to access BBC sounds like quite a lot of money,’ Halton exclusive interview with Barack Obama. content and services as TV and the web admits, ‘but it’s quite a small, discreet converge,’ explains Erik Huggers, FM&T investment when you’re talking about the The TV channel had been trying for an ‘We were told we’d have 15 minutes with director. launch of a new TV platform.’ interview almost since it launched in 2009 and Barack Obama but in the end we were given Halton is confident that his timetable is came close this summer when the US president 23 minutes,’ says Sadeq Saba, the realistic. The set top boxes – which are expected agreed to talk during the BP oil spill crisis, then London-based head of BBC Persian, who went cancelled at the last minute. to New York to manage the interview. On Wednesday 22 September, though, the ‘The White House staff were extremely White House confirmed that Obama would helpful and even let us have the room the night Curtain comes down on speak exclusively to BBC Persian while before to set up. Obama himself was charming attending the UN General Assembly in New and charismatic and afterwards told me that York. Bahman was a good interviewer.’ With everything arranged for Friday 24 It was a good result for Bahman Kalbasi, who World Service drama September, Iranian leader Mahmoud admitted he had felt ‘a weight of responsibility’ Ahmadinejad helpfully provided an extra spark at taking on the world’s most powerful leader. Plays, the Proms and Wimbledon will be weekly, hour-long Proms highlights show, by telling the UN gathering on Thursday that Sadeq Saba points out that the scoop was a casualties of a new round of cost cutting at together with The World of Music series, will ‘most nations’ believed the US government was team effort between Persian TV and World Service. not be recommissioned. behind the 9/11 attacks. newsgathering, which helped with planning From next April, World Service English Grand Slam tennis, meanwhile, will be part of Such provocative comments demanded a and provided camera facilities and other language output will cease to include regular sports shows and bulletins, but the hour-long response and when Obama sat down opposite resources. dramas. Highlights programmes dedicated to programme on each day’s play at Wimbledon Bahman Kalbasi, BBC Persian’s New York As for why Obama chose to talk to Persian The Proms and to the Wimbledon tennis will be scrapped. correspondent, in the Waldorf Astoria the next TV rather than, say, Voice of America, the line championships will also end. In a statement the BBC said it shared the morning he was happy to oblige, condemning from the White House was that he was These were ‘difficult decisions’, said Craig ‘disappointment’ of audiences over what were the claims as ‘hateful’ and ‘offensive’. impressed by the reach of the BBC service, Oliver, controller English, Global News, but a ‘tough decisions’. He went on to answer questions about the which has an estimated audience of around 14 necessary response to ‘the challenges of an A Foreign Office decision over the level of latest economic sanctions against Iran and to million in Iran and also airs in Afghanistan and increasingly tough financial climate’. World Service’s grant in aid is expected within express his solidarity with the people of Iran Tajikistan. Drama and performance will continue to the next week or so, with speculation that and Afghanistan. figure in arts programme The Strand, which will budgets could be reduced by as much as 25 per also reflect the Proms and world music. But the cent in public spending cutbacks. Philharmonic sees the potential Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony Richard Wigley, general manager of NEWS BITES was on the BBC Philharmonic playlist the Philharmonic. ‘The next stage is to when it performed in its brand new let the players settle into the acoustic A REVIEW of radio stations in the organisations they think offer the best studio in MediaCityUK last month. The [of the studio].’ nations has been launched by the BBC employment opportunities, is headed by orchestra, currently based at BBC Further test sessions will take place Trust. A 12-week consultation covering PricewaterhouseCoopers with Deloitte Manchester, held its first acoustic test in until Christmas before the space is Radio Ulster, Radio Foyle, Radio second and the Civil Service third. front of an audience at the venue. ‘It’s a opened to the public next year. Scotland and Radio Wales started in studio of outstanding potential,’ said October, and the review will also look at THE BBC has lost its exclusive rights to Radio nan Gàidheal, which caters for the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Scotland’s Gaelic speakers, and Welsh which next year will be screened live on language Radio Cymru. Licence fee Sky. payers can offer their views until 12 January 2011, with a final report due DAWN FRENCH and Jennifer Saunders next summer. will make their debut as radio presenters over Christmas and New Year, hosting WITH DIGITAL TV switchover due to be three Radio 2 specials. The two-hour completed by 2012, the BBC-run Help shows, of chat, music and humour, will Scheme has reached almost 2.5 million be broadcast on Boxing Day, 1 January of those eligible for assistance, and and 3 January. installed equipment for more than 350,000. Another 150,000 have taken THE RESCUE of the Chilean miners was advice from the helpline. By 2012 the viewed by four million users on Help Scheme expects to have directly BBC.com. The figure, which excludes helped about a million. UK online users, is a million more than the average October day. BBC Mundo, THE BBC is 9th in the latest edition of the Spanish language website, had The Times Top 100 Graduate Employers. around 500,000 unique users on rescue The list, in which students rank the day, up 90%.

November • 2010 • • 9 Obituaries Talented letter writer Adored & admired Only very recently did Jane Barrow’s circle of friends and colleagues learn of the serious illness she herself had known about for three-and-a-half years! It was so typical of her to carry on regardless, not wishing to burden others with her problems. musical director Jane began her BBC career at Radio Oxford, followed by several years in pursue a musical career. to the regular call for his talents, he continued Programme Correspondence in a role He progressed to the Royal College of Music, to visit the UK regularly, and to work as and for which she was ideally suited! She where he studied clarinet, piano and when requested. In 1979, he wrote the majority composition under Professor Lloyd Webber, the of the new arrangements for the Swingle later joined Radio Times . father of those famous sons. During his national Singers, which were featured on their American In Programme Correspondence, Jane service, he played solo clarinet in the Royal Air tour of that year. He also formed his own Neil was an excellent letter writer, always Force Band at Cranwell. Richardson Singers, who were regularly featured willing to handle demanding and often After national service, he took up a career as a on Radio 2. sensitive correspondence from listeners writer and arranger, and secured a position as He continued, tirelessly, to fulfil the many and viewers. She tackled any task with the staff arranger for Chappell’s music. In the demands on his talents, and, in 1992, he infectious enthusiasm and good mid-60s, the BBC reorganised their two arranged a series of popular songs by Gershwin, humour. Jane had great energy and existing radio orchestras, the ‘Revue’ and the Cole Porter and Jerome Kern for opera star ebullience. Organised, efficient and ‘Variety’, into the new BBC Radio Orchestra, Maria Ewing with Richard Rodney Bennett and and he was invited to become the musical the BBC Concert Orchestra which formed the experienced, she coped admirably with director of the string section, working with such second half of a promenade concert. He also an ever-mounting pile of letters. artists as Johnny Mathis, Neil Diamond, Vic prepared all the music for Robert Palmer’s Hugely popular, Jane could brighten Damone and George Shearing. In 1975, he was concerts at the Royal Albert Hall and wrote any day! She had many interests which asked to take up the baton for the newly formed many of the arrangements for the 40th she pursued with her usual flair, and a ‘Northern Radio Orchestra’ in Manchester, anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the number of charities benefited from her where he remained until he retired from throne at Earl’s Court. generosity. the BBC. In the late 80s, he collaborated with his old Jane never complained about any of It was my sublime pleasure to be one of his friend, singer Mike Redway, to produce the the painful and traumatic symptoms her producers in the early 70s, when he was the Radio 2 show, Those Beautiful Ballad Years, musical director of the strings of the BBC Radio songs from which are still available on a increasing illness presented. She Orchestra. His arrangements graced and ‘Redrock’ CD. handled them all with great courage. enveloped the studio with the warmth of his He worked with Richard Rodney Bennett on Jane will be greatly missed. Special personality, and it is no exaggeration to say that many projects, including the musical score for thoughts and much sympathy go to her he was adored and admired by all who worked the TV mini-series Poor Little Rich Girl, and was mother who cared for her throughout Neil Richardson was one of the stalwarts of the with him – musicians, singers, studio managers the music director for the BBC film Virtuoso, and was such a tower of strength. We BBC Radio 2 musical output in the 70s and 80s and producers. about the life of pianist John Ogden. He wrote share her deep sense of loss at this and, although his contribution to commercial His self-effacing and jovial manner belied his some of the music, and conducted, Richard time and in the difficult months ahead. recordings was substantial, it was often as a incredible talent, to the detriment of the true Rodney Bennett’s score for the award-winning ‘backroom boy’, arranging and conducting for value of his contribution to modern popular film Enchanted April, and worked again with Maureen A Stevens well-known names, such as Joe Loss and music. Although small in stature, he was a giant him on the film Swan. In 1994, he also Edmundo Ros. He was also an accompanist to amongst giants in the world of popular orchestrated and conducted some of Bennett’s many well-known singers, including Jimmy orchestral music. Robert Farnon is quoted as music for Four Weddings and a Funeral. Young, in the heyday of Jimmy’s singing career. describing Neil as ‘the finest writer for strings It was in Spain that he met his third wife, Reg Hutchins He recorded a substantial number of in Europe’ – a view held by the musicians and Christine. They were married on 16 October Reg Hutchins joined the Engineering compositions for the KPM music library, one producers who worked regularly with him. Alas, 2005, and moved to Nerja. I know that Neil Division in Bristol. He moved to TVC of which, ‘Approaching Menace’, still features much of his work is unavailable to the public, had found true personal happiness with regularly on TV as the opening theme as his ‘library music’ recordings are for use only Christine and the times I spent together with and became a TM and worked on for Mastermind. as incidental music for films and TV. them, both in Spain and in the UK, was always Grandstand and Sportview. Whilst at The son of a clergyman, he was born in By the end of the 80s, live orchestral music a joy. They exuded fun and happiness whenever TVC he was active in the ABS and was Stourport-on-Severn on 5 February 1930. His was disappearing from radio and TV, but he I met them and it was obvious to all that they president for a time. love of music started when he became a continued to arrange music for series such as adored each other. Alas, their time together was After a short attachment to Tel Obs he chorister at Westminster Abbey at the age of Poirot, sometimes appearing on screen as the to be all too short, but I know they cherished became a permanent member as an EM. eight, then he became a music scholar at pianist in the band. Much to the regret of his every happy moment they spent with friends He worked on shows like Seaside Lancing College, where he met Benjamin many friends, he decided to take and family. Special and the winter equivalent. He Britten and Peter Peers, who encouraged him to semi-retirement on the Costa del Sol, but, due Bill Bebb took early retirement to care for his wife, whose health was causing them He certainly made his mark with Caversham exterior. Business could be discussed informally some concern. He was a keen rugby Union man admired management and more than once respectfully and minor concerns resolved over a pint (or fan and was a vice-president of said, ‘We are here to assist management to three) and we continued to meet long after I had Bedford RFC. We would have lengthy by all manage.’ They honoured him with a dinner left Monitoring to return to work in London. phonecalls after each Six Nations My thoughts when I party when he retired. In a series of weekend walks along the weekend and I will miss a great friend. first met Joe Hallett at I visited Joe in hospital just before he died. We Ridgeway Trail, we also put the world to rights R Griffiths Caversham in August shook hands for the last time. He placed his – or so we felt at the time – and on some of 1966 were ‘there stands other hand over mine, looked at me and said these we were joined by Joe’s partner, Jean a big man’. I soon ‘God bless.’ Kinnon, a member of the editorial staff in learnt that he was a big Joe Hallett was indeed a rough diamond. Monitoring’s News Bureau. Jean’s sudden man with a big heart. Geoff Mitchell death, only a couple of days after Joe’s Noel Foster Raised in Northern admission to hospital with cancer, was a mortal Noel Frederick Foster died peacefully Ireland, Joe knew BOTH AS A member of Caversham blow that probably extinguished his desire to about survival and how management and as one of the ‘wide live and he followed her a month or so later; two at home after suffering from lung to ‘live off the land’. cross-section of people’ with whom Joe drank, big people, both physically and in personality, cancer. Noel started at the BBC in 1966 He certainly had a grip on life, enjoyed a pint can I add to Geoff Mitchell’s tribute above. they leave a big gap. where he worked at News and Current (or two) and drank with a wide cross-section of Newly arrived as Caversham’s Head of Personnel Kevin Corrigan Affairs, before taking early retirement in people. Equally at home with higher in 1973, I first met Joe when he introduced 1997. His hobbies were photography, management and his immediate colleagues, he himself to me in the club and it was there that bookmarker collecting, and he was a would often announce his arrival with that we established an initially tentative relationship keen walker. Noel was also a retired stentorian laugh. which subsequently grew into firm friendship. Belfast Film caver. He is survived by his wife Monica He devoted much of his time to union Joe was great company and, while he never Unit’s ‘mother’ and his four step-children who activities as Branch Chairman and a member of dropped his union concerns and would enjoy the National Executive Committee, believing taunting me with the perceived failings of Eileen Fearon was laid to rest on a quiet hillside remember him as an intelligent, loving strongly in ‘the greatest good for the greatest management, we shared many agreeable hours that overlooks the Irish Sea and the Scottish and kind man. number’. He hated injustice against anyone and together during which I was constantly coast beyond. As a young dynamic redhead, she M Foster would fight for their cause, often saying, ‘If I reminded of his concerns for others, albeit he joined the Film Unit in Belfast as the manager’s have to, I will take this to the House of Lords.’ often managed to hide them beneath a bluff assistant. Her superb organising skills and 10 • • November • 2010 Obituaries attention to detail encompassed the activities of Royal Air Force, whom she married six years later. all crews who respectfully called her ‘mother’. Connie’s career spanned over 29 years. Prior From early days Eileen was the fixer, buffer and to settling in Somerset her career included sympathetic colleague to us all. service at Caversham. Connie was very much a In darker, more troubled days she managed to family person, and several members of her large find time to provide facilities for ‘foreign crews’ family, in their retirement, persuaded by Voice of the and correspondents, who turned up, often Connie, moved to live nearby. Over the years unannounced with amazing regularity, as well and in spite of a demanding post and a busy as dealing with her busy local crews. So smooth home life, she and Reg were great supporters of was the efficiency of her planning office that the BBC Bristol Club’s activities and travels. these extra efforts went almost unnoticed. To Reg, who established himself as a village question Eileen’s schedules or planning was to craftsman, died in August 2007, after which World Service risk a fiery glare of disapproval. Connie moved to Plymouth to be with her Dependably unflappable, Eileen also found grandson Tony. time to service with the Police Reserve in her Connie died in July of this year. Her funeral spare time. Her role in the Reserve was in the was in Winford at the church of St Mary and St field of welfare, visiting the families of injured Peter where Reg and Connie were married. police personnel, a role demanding the ultimate She’ll be much missed by her daughter Sue, in care, tact and sympathy. In her unassuming son-in-law David, her niece Angela, her way, she helped secure the peace we now enjoy. grandchildren Tony, Symon and Charlotte, Her light relief came from her love of dogs, a together with her great grandchildren Joseph, passion she shared with Desmond, her long Christopher, Jack and Jenson. time partner. Her award-winning Golden Brian Hawkins Retrievers were her closest family and gave her great happiness. For many years she was secretary of the Retriever Club and organised many shows of the breed. Experienced radio In retirement she brought her boundless energy to work as a Pensioner Visitor in broadcaster with a Northern Ireland. Not a job for the ‘chocolate’ voice faint-hearted, as Eileen saw it, and she was quick to tackle the more difficult problems her BBC adverts for broadcasters’ jobs always used pensioners had. Never shirking a confrontation to include the line ‘good microphone voice if she thought they were being treated unfairly, essential’. I often thought John Hayes’s voice she achieved notable success through her sheer would have been ideal as the benchmark. determination, so typical of ‘mother’ of old. If that standard was still required today, an mp3 Bill Brown excerpt of his voice would have been helpful for candidates. Accentless, neither ‘posh’ or ‘estuarial English’, John was always switched on to knowing his voice was his audience winner. Long-time Beeb In death he has been proved so right. Ninety per cent of the scores of online messages, texts freelancer and calls received enjoyed his ‘velvety’ tones, his Although not a BBC staffer, some BBC ‘chocolate’ voice, ‘the finest voice on British pensioners might remember Norman Tozer , radio’. One woman went as far as saying his whose freelance involvement with and creation voice had wooed her into falling in love with of programmes for the Beeb was long-standing. him. Even men wrote of being entranced by his Norman’s career encompassed television and enchanting vocals. radio, both behind the scenes and in front of Coupled with a calm, unflappable style, the cameras. He was roving reporter on BBC whether handling the breaking news of Princess children’s science programme Tom Tom , and Diana’s death, live interviews with victors and arts and entertainment reporter for BBC vanquished on election nights, or commentating London News. He worked in radio too, to a million people at the Southend Airshow, he especially for You and Yours and Woman’s Hour , enjoyed a career spanning five decades. which is where he probably began his A former RAF man, he turned his Taunton involvement in consumer affairs that was to DJ’ing into a presenter’s job at the United lead to roles representing the UK on Biscuits Network where Sky News man Allan Peter King died on 13 September 2010, at the Joe Loss, Geraldo and George Melachrino, to EU committees. King remembers he became the first to age of 89, after a long illness endured with name but a few. Norman’s finest radio achievement was the interview the emerging Kate Bush. stoicism and good humour. He was also a frequent presenter of the Proms prize-winning A Fine Blue Day about the Battle Years later John’s eyes would light up as he I first met Peter in 1947 when, as a very to an overseas audience. For these and other of Britain for Radio 4 in 1980. He died in related being in the company of one of pop junior Programme Engineer, I found myself in programmes, he always wrote his own material. August, aged 76. music’s beauties. He was, to put it politely, a the various continuity studios of the Overseas In 1948, he was asked to introduce the Olympic Warren Hearnden ladies’ man and yes I mean plural. His colleagues Services at 200 Oxford Street. Announcers in Games, which he did brilliantly, although Roger Day at Piccadilly Radio and Dave Cash those days could be rather intimidating admitting he knew little about athletics! at Radio West remain amazed by his success. people, but Peter was very much the Peter always remained loyal to the Overseas At Essex Radio John helped set up the first exception. You could not fail to like him but Services, but made periodic forays into At the heart of the listeners’ community action helpline on local behind the relaxed bonhomie lay a television in the 1950s and to Radio 2 in radio in Britain – independent or BBC. There, in total professionalism. 1965, where he presented the highly successful West Country’s the evenings, he trained broadcasters of the future. He was born in 1921 in Margate, where his Late Night Live , which mixed studio interviews Telex Network In 1990 he joined BBC Essex, running the father ran a small business. He was educated with OB contributions. Southend operation from where he hosted the locally and remembers attending a He was called back from retirement in 1982 Before the days of the email and mobile phones, morning phone in. Eight years later, with one performance of Handel’s Messiah in to present Calling the Falklands at the outbreak broadcasters and programme makers depended foot out of the door onto radio’s scrapheap, his Canterbury Cathedral, an experience which of the war, a programme he had last very much on the BBC’s Telex Network. For career was saved with an idea which turned out awakened a lifelong love of classical music. On introduced 40 years earlier in very different many years at Broadcasting House, Whiteladies to be tailor made both for the audience and leaving school, he had a variety of jobs, circumstances. He always signed off with Road, Bristol it was Connie Wyatt who, in a John. A Sunday morning music and memories including at one stage as a barber’s assistant! ‘Keep your heads down and your hearts high,’ brisk and friendly manner, supervised the show allowed John and his listeners to wallow During World War Two, Peter was posted to a phrase which became a morale booster smooth running of the West Region’s (later to in nostalgia. It went on to draw the station’s the 8th Army in Egypt, where he fought at amongst the Falklanders. At the end of the become the BBC Network Production Centre) highest audience of the week and set John on Tobruk and El Alamein. Subsequently he took conflict, he was invited by the Governor to side of its Telex operation. Her Bristol office, a course to his triumphant place as co-presenter part in the invasions of Sicily and Normandy. receive the grateful thanks of the ‘Kelpers’. virtual nerve centre, was always busy sending of the weekday breakfast show. During the 2nd Army’s victorious advance During retirement, Peter had joined Bowers and receiving communications, in particular to For the past two years, and until his death through Germany, Peter was among the first to and Wilkins, a firm dedicated to the and from members of the Natural History Unit from cancer, John was presenting the Drivetime enter the camp at Bergen-Belsen; an experience development of the highest quality of in far-flung locations spread across the world. Show . he never forgot. At the end of hostilities, he was loudspeakers, a life-long interest. He also Connie was a true Londoner and was in fact He was one of Britain’s most experienced posted to the newly created British Forces became an excellent potter. During the Queen’s born within the sound of Bow Bells. However, radio broadcasters but also switched on to Broadcasting Service in Hamburg, where he Jubilee, he was awarded the Queen’s Medal. over the years she became very much a country today’s world. He was what today’s presenters learnt the elements of his craft. Peter King was one of the finest broadcasters housewife in the Somerset village of Winford, are told to be: himself on air. He also had that Peter joined the BBC Overseas Services in of his generation. His old friend, John Arlott, with a short daily commute to Broadcasting ‘good microphone voice’. As one listener said: 1946 as an announcer. As well as his usual would have called him a great all-rounder. He House in Bristol. Connie’s association with ‘Thanks for the tribute package. I got to hear duties of continuity and news reading, he was also the nicest man you could wish to Winford went back to 1939 when she and her him one more time.’ quickly showed his aptitude for a wide range work with. We shall all miss him and mother came to stay for a short period in the Tim Gille of activities, excelling in the presentation of sympathies go out to Glen and Toby. village to escape the Blitz. It was then that she met popular music, working with the orchestras of Brian Denney Reg, a Winford lad at that time serving in the November • 2010 • • 11 Book review A warming success story Volunteer BBC Pensioner Visitor Chris Blount reviews Red Light and Bell – Memoirs of a Producer , written by John and Gloria Street. John Street will be remembered by many who been written at all if John’s second wife, Gloria, Realism was always John’s mantra. worked in the BBC Television Service during its whom he married in 2004, hadn’t realised what a To illustrate further the breadth of canvas covered formative (and many would say golden) years from kaleidoscope of memories he had, many of which by this most absorbing read, John describes the 1954 to 1974. As a floor manager, then director were unknown to some members of his family. She horrendous scenes he witnessed during his role as an and producer, he worked under iconic innovators wrote the opening and closing chapters but the rest auxiliary fireman during the London blitz and his of their era, including Ronnie Waldman, Tom is John’s own story. John had had a distinguished training as a pilot in the RAF – the latter led to a brief Sloane and Billy Cotton Jr. career in the film industry before joining the BBC, encounter in control of a Lancaster bomber whilst His name was the end credit on shows which so much so that when he arrived as a summer relief directing scenes for the film Dam Busters in 1955. starred the biggest names – Dick Emery, Harry floor manager at Lime Grove in 1955, he f ound a One of John’s proudest achievements was Worth, Kenneth Williams, Bruce Forsyth, Joyce red carpet laid out for him at the door! introducing Benny Hill to American television – Grenfell, Mantovani, Peter Cook and Dudley John was fair haired and handsome as a young man the only British comic to become a success in the Moore…all these and many more had cause to be – no surprise that he became a ‘Deb’s Delight’ in the US, Coast to Coast. grateful for the particular skills that John brought London society of the 1930s. As he sought a job in John Street passed away after suffering a massive to television from the film industry. Outside film-making, he was surprised to find himself in stroke in 2008. His father had been a Church of location work was his forte, but in the studio he demand as a glamorous extra, as well as taking England priest and he passed on this advice to his would never miss an opportunity to use a different principal parts in newspaper adverts like Rinso and son – ‘Kindness and humour will see you through angle or lens to get the shot he wanted. Eric Stork Margarine! Later, as Assistant Director and life.’ As I can concur along with all his friends and Morecambe once told him, ‘I like this man – he Director for MGM, he helped shape the careers of the colleagues, they certainly did. gives me better close-ups – we must work with him greats – including Laurence Olivier, Ava Gardner, Red Light and Bell can be obtained by post from again!’ Clark Gable, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Ustinov – Gloria Street, Homewell End, Poughill Road, This book is a delight to all who like a warming who later recounted the story in an interview of how Bude, Cornwall EX23 8NZ for £23 inc. p&p. success story and yet one feels that it might not have ‘an idiot trainee director put live leeches on my body’! Tel: 01288 352683.

John is centre, with Sid James and a well- In the gallery. John directs Benny. known floor manager, Colin Farnell.

going on from the basement of BH, and so was Classifieds From the archives saved. The bomb destroyed the switchboard, but Robert Seatter, Head of BBC History, writes: operators managed to keep eight out of the On 15 October 1940 a delayed-action 500lb normal 70 phone lines open. The news library was Seaview, Isle of Wight. Wanting bomb smashed through a seventh floor window of also wrecked and the next morning the librarian to get away for a break? Pleasant ETB 4* Studio Annexe, sleeps 2 Broadcasting House in central London, before was almost arrested as a looter while trying to comfortably. Near Beach and coming to rest in the music library two floors retrieve files that had been blown into the street. Village. For details contact The next issue will below. It exploded just after 9pm, when attempts The BBC handbook of 1941 reported the [email protected] or were made to move it, killing four men and three damage to Broadcasting House and included a Tel: 01983 812180. appear in December women. Bruce Belfrage, who was reading the photograph of a burnt out studio. The Corporation news in the BH basement, paused briefly and demonstrated its resilience in the face of enemy Barbados, St James. Beautiful 2 then continued. Listeners at home heard a distant action – in common with the country at large – bedroom (sleeps 5) apartment, close impact but were otherwise unaware of the event. and its confidence that it would continue to West Coast beaches. Pool, floodlit Plans for the wartime operation of Broadcasting broadcast, come what may. tennis court. Tel: 07802 483962 House ensured that there was never any See and hear the full story on BBC History’s Lake District. Historic watermill, interruption to the Home Service. Although audio slideshow, along with a History blog secluded in woods and fields, studios above ground took three years to restore, (http://www.bbc.co.uk/historyofthebbc/)… all part sleeps 6, beautiful all year for the main broadcasting operation was already of the ever-evolving story of BBC's iconic home. walking, climbing and sailing. Tel: 020 7387 6654; Email: [email protected]

West Dorset. Recently renovated 3 bedroom cottage with gardens in quiet village close to Beaminster and Lyme Bay coast. Tel: 0118 934 1566

Prospero Classifieds, BBC Pension and Benefits ARIEL SUBSCRIPTIONS Centre, Broadcasting House, Cardiff, CF5 2YQ UK: 6 months £26 Please enclose a cheque made payable to: BBC Central 1 year £50 Directorates. Overseas: 6 months £36 Rate: £5 for 20 words 1 year £60 In a covering letter please include Please phone 01709 768 199 your pension number

12 • • November • 2010