The newspaper for retired BBC Pension Scheme members • December 2019 • Issue 6 PROSPERO

A NEW HOME FOR BBC PENSION AND PENSION BENEFITS CENTRE SCHEME PAGE 3 | RETIREMENT AGEING WELL IN YOUR OWN HOME In October’s issue, we reported that a spokesperson from Care & Repair Wales had addressed the BBC Volunteer Visitors at their summer conference. The English equivalent of Care & Repair has provided the following article about their service and ideas to help you stay happy and healthy in your own home.

Home adaptations financial help* • Small items of equipment where the cost is less than £1,000 (such as toilet frames, walking frames, grab rails) should be provided free of charge where these are assessed as being necessary by health professionals (e.g. hospital staff) or Social Services. Phone your council or Age UK (0800 678 1602). gov.uk/apply-home-equipment-for-disabled

• Financial help with larger home adaptations, such as stairlifts, bath/shower alterations, should be available from your local council through a Disabled Facilities Grant, but in most areas this will depend on your income (but not the value of your property). An occupational therapist will usually visit to assess what adaptations you need and what the grant would pay for. Apply through your Social Services or see gov.uk/disabled-facilities-grants

*These apply to England but there are similar schemes in Scotland and Wales.

s we get older some of the simple, everyday As well as a general guide, there are six specific tasks that we used to take for granted can guides covering respiratory problems, macular Abecome a challenge. disease, heart disease, dementia, stroke and arthritis. Getting out of the bath or going up and down stairs Find out more at careandrepair-england.org.uk/ Mystery Sudoku can start to feel not only difficult but also dangerous, planning-ahead-for-housing-in-later-life/ with the worry about falling, especially if we live alone. Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains the letters ACEGLNORS in some So how do we know what to do to our homes to order. One row or column contains a five or more ‘future-proof’ them before a crisis, and where can we letter word, title or name with a BBC connection. get advice and help with adaptations? Solve the Sudoku to discover what it is and send Living with a long-term health condition your answer to: The Editor, Prospero, BBC Pension Conditions such as arthritis, eyesight loss (such as and Benefits Centre, Broadcasting House, Cardiff macular disease), respiratory problems and heart CF5 2YQ by Monday, 6 January 2020. disease are common in older life. While medication can help us to manage these conditions, the The winner gets a £10 voucher. Many thanks to symptoms (stiffness, reduced vision, breathlessness) Neil Somerville for providing this puzzle. can affect the way we manage at home. Most of us like our home and want to live there for as O R long as possible. With a few changes we can help to make our homes good places to age, even if we have S C R a long-term health problem or disability.

We can alter our homes to help us to live with Adaptations and equipment information G A L these health changes – for example, by improving and advice lighting and heating, installing handrails, replacing Impartial information and advice about E G the bath with a level shower, or putting in a stairlift. equipment, assistive technology and adaptations O L S N E A Special equipment and new technology can also help is useful – even if you are paying for the and this is likely to become increasingly used to help equipment yourself. G O us to stay safe at home as we age. The Disabled Living Foundation can help – visit Planning ahead their website at dlf.org.uk or call them on 0300 S C L A group of older people, working with the charity 999 0004. Care & Repair England, have produced a series E A G Many areas have a ‘Home Improvement Agency’ of self-help guides which explain the housing that can offer information, advice and help implications of particular health conditions. C L with organising home adaptations, whether Each guide advises on what changes you can make you qualify for a grant or are paying for the to your current home to make living with the The Sudoku winner in work yourself. condition more manageable. They also describe October 2019 was Mr N Willmot. possible alternative housing options and offer To find out if there is one near you, visit WIN The answer was ‘Jo Brand’. suggestions about where to find more detailed findmyhia.org.uk or call 0300 124 0315. £10 The Crospero winner was information, advice and help. Mrs S Tredwen; the song was ‘How are things in This article has been provided by independent housing charity, Care & Repair England. Glocca Morra’.

2 | BBC PENSIONS BBC PENSIONS MOVES PROSPERO Prospero is provided free of charge to retired Scheme members, or to their spouses and dependants.

INTO CENTRAL SQUARE Prospero provides a source of news on former colleagues, developments at the BBC and pension issues, plus classified adverts. It is available online at bbc.co.uk/mypension

BBC Wales’ move from Llandaff to To advertise in Prospero, please see page 12.

the new broadcast centre at Please send your editorial contributions, Central Square in Cardiff city or comments/feedback, to: Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, centre began on 21 October. Central Square, Cardiff CF10 1FT Email: [email protected]

Please make sure that any digital pictures you send are scanned at 300dpi. Please also note that the maximum word count for obituaries is 350 words.

Contents

Ageing well in your own home 2

BBC Pensions 3

he new address for correspondence is: BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Central Square, Did you know? TCardiff CF10 1FT. • Central Square’s net internal area is Letters 4-5 14,454 square metres (that’s around The move will see around 1,000 production and 150,000 square feet) support staff relocate to the new building, with the final teams reaching Central Square in spring 2020. • It is roughly half the size of the current Llandaff sites and less expensive to operate Back at the BBC 6-7 Central Square is the first BBC centre in the UK to use on a like-for-like basis BBC launches BritBox streaming service Internet Protocol (IP) technology so widely across both its production and broadcast operations, • Around 1,000 BBC staff will be based there 50th anniversaries – Monty Python future-proofing the facilities for years to come. when it’s fully operational and A Question of Sport

As well as the technology advances, Central Square • An economic impact study published by BOP Meeting David Attenborough is designed to be the BBC’s most open and accessible Consulting (April 2018) found that BBC Wales’ building – and the public will be invited into the decision to relocate is expected to deliver a centre for a range of tours, community and £1.1 billion economic boost to Wales, leading learning activities. to the creation of 1,900 additional jobs over a Memories 8 ten-year period The centre will also be a base for S4C as well as the The Exmouth Term independent production sector – with meeting and • Central Square is the first BBC facility in the production facilities available to key partners. UK to use the Internet Protocol (IP) Opening up technology so comprehensively across both BBC Cymru Wales Director Rhodri Talfan Davies said: its production and broadcast operations. Obituaries 9-11 ‘Central Square is all about opening up. Broadcasting and media are changing before our eyes. And our Construction facts audiences these days expect to ‘get up close • There are around 250 miles of copper cable in the and personal’. building – this is about the distance between Odds & ends 12 ‘We’ve designed this building to let the light in – not Cardiff and Bangor and back again, on the train Full circle seal it off – and the fantastic location means that we’ll • There are around 52,600 metres of fibre cables London Lunch be more accessible.’ in the building – that’s around 48 times the height Caption competition As part of the drive to ‘open up’, inclusion is a key part of Snowdon of the design of Central Square throughout. As well as • 47,500 cubic metres of material was excavated opening up the ground floor to the public, the new from the site – this would fill 19 Olympic building will be thoroughly accessible for people with swimming pools a range of neurodivergent conditions. Prospero December 2019 • The backup generators based in Central Square Central Square has been awarded a BREEAM new The next issue of Prospero will appear weigh 36 tonnes and could power 3,000 homes construction rating of ‘outstanding’, the highest level in February 2020. The copy deadline of sustainability. • The rainwater harvesting tank holds 160,000 litres is Monday, 6 January 2020. – that’s nearly 27,000 toilet flushes A number of features allowed it to meet this status, including 500 square metres of photovoltaic panels • There is over 10,000 square metres of glazing and on the roof which will reduce the need for power from roofing panels in Central Square, enough to cover the grid, while underground rainwater-harvesting the entire pitch at the Principality Stadium tanks are used to collect rainwater to flush the toilets. • There was 2,300 tonnes of steel fabricated Located next to Cardiff Central Railway Station, staff and constructed for the base build – that’s will be encouraged to choose sustainable transport the equivalent weight of around 190 methods as they travel to work. double-decker buses.

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2019 | 3 | LETTERS BBC2 opening night Edward Mirzoeff was not dreaming – there was indeed a kangaroo in the large His Master’s Voice scene lift servicing Studio E on the opening night of BBC2. I believe the Tonight I was rummaging in the attic and found programme had intended an item about the start of the second network. the tin tray with the ancient advertisement I was the studio engineer that evening and it was my understanding the animal featuring Nipper intrigued by ‘his master’s was herded, in the dark, back into the lift for its own safety and that of the studio voice’ on the old Victor gramophone. staff supporting the programme. I think at least one individual was bruised by the It struck a chord with me and I remembered kangeroo lashing out with one of its legs. Certainly the panelling of the lift showed a similar image. Some further rummaging indentations ever afterwards from further kicking. uncovered a picture taken back in the Edward describes seeing the lift stuck between floors which likely negates, in part, eighties when our kitten Mimi joined us on what I have written. However, there certainly was a kangaroo stuck in a lift on the the bed to listen to the Saturday morning opening night of BBC2 in Lime Grove. repeat of Travel Time, a series that I produced and introduced on BBC Radio Scotland. John Warner She definitely recognised my voice. I thought her to be a very bright creature at the time although EDDIE MIRZOEFF WONDERS whether anyone else remembers the night of the later she developed the habit of taking a swipe kangaroo in Lime Grove on 20 April 1964. I doubt if anyone who was there is likely at any seagulls that appeared on the TV screen. to forget it, though my own recollection differs slightly from his.

By the time I arrived, the hapless animal was out of the lift and being held across Allan Rogers the surrounding stairs by two keepers, from Whipsnade Zoo I think, who were doing their best to keep it calm. One held it by the neck and the other by the tail, while members of staff had no choice but to jump over this unexpected obstacle, Harry Champion as they rushed about in near darkness, trying to salvage what was left of BBC2’s After two failed attempts by BBC opening night. Audience Services to answer a few For those who may not have been around in those far-off days over half a century questions about sound recordings ago, the kangaroo was the brain child of Michael Peacock, the channel’s first (or even send a grammatically correct Controller – BBC2 symbolically emerging from the pouch of BBC1. letter), I thought I might fare better I think it must have been a Monday evening because I was part of the Panorama from some Prospero readers. production team that piled into several taxis, together with cans of film, tape I am researching music hall singer recorders, and even a typewriter, for the short drive up to Alexandra Palace, Harry Champion who, in the 1930s and which had not been affected by the power cut. BBC2 was launched from there 40s, did a number of radio broadcasts. – but without the kangaroo. The questions that the BBC couldn’t answer were (1) ‘Would these Christopher Ralling broadcasts all have been ‘live’?’ (2) What 3 words When did the BBC start recording There is a novel way of using GPS programmes? (3) Are any of Harry’s satellite coordinates to identify your Dinky Toys broadcasts still accessible?’ position in a more user-friendly way Reading Bill Rhodes’ letter in the October Prospero brought back some good If anyone can help I would be than, for example, latitude and and bad memories! The vehicles mentioned in his letter were MCRs13-16 most grateful. longitude or the Ordnance Survey inclusive, which were supplied by Marconi in the mid-1950s – with three National Grid Reference (NGR). Peter Charlton installed cameras, 405 lines, and black and white, of course! Anywhere on the Earth’s surface [email protected] (or sea) can be identified by three The first vehicle I saw (empty) was in Autumn 1954 in a garage in New Street, English-language words (other Chelmsford awaiting fitting-out in the nearby Marconi Works. As part of the languages are available) with an planning for the start of BBC2, I was involved in converting them for 405/625 accuracy of three metres. operation, with four installed cameras capable of operating with longer Nationwide In an emergency, or when using lengths of cable. Whether one of them subsequently became CMCR12 is Many thanks for today’s Prospero. hands-free voice recognition, this is beyond my knowledge. It’s a well-produced mag on quality paper. much more reliable than trying to A set of the Dinky models mentioned by Bill used to reside on a windowsill at list a string of numbers or strange Avenue House – to my regret I didn’t purchase a set – they are now presumably One tiny gripe though. place-names. There are 40,000 very valuable. On page 8, why is the photo of words used in the system, and there is no obvious structure to the However, on the toy stall at a local school fete in the late seventies, I spotted the Nationwide survivors so small? allocation or choice of words. a Roving Eye (RE2) from the set. It was looking very sorry for itself, having lost It’s hard, if not impossible, to see its roof camera, operator, Band V (!) array and its tyres! I hadn’t the heart to what the people in the photo This is great news for Mongolia – leave it there, so paid the stallholder his requested 1p and began a limited above look like now. where there are few streets, fewer refurbishment programme. I was on attachment to 24 Hours street numbers, and no postcodes. I found a set of replacement tyres and scrounged a small quantity of the when Nationwide launched from Since the days of Lord Reith, and correct green paint from the Transport Department and set to work. The model the office next to ours, so was probably still in our Royal Charter, now resides in the family archive, but if anyone can find the missing bits – looking for Derrick Amoore in the BBC has had an obligation to or indeed the other vehicles – I should be pleased to hear from them! the upper photo. Dark glasses inform, educate and entertain. behind Bob Wellings and the If you use the what3words app In passing, I believe Hornby subsequently produced a similar set in the livery woman I can’t identify? Others in on a smartphone, or enter of ABC Television – but you can always repaint! the front row (l-r) Michael Barratt, https://what3words.com/inform. RG (Bob) Matthews Val Singleton (?) and at the end educate.entertain into an internet Richard Stilgoe. Behind them it’s I HAVE MY small matchbox van which browser, you will find that this hard to identify anyone for sure. was given to everyone who worked is the address of a three-metre And in the photos below, I can’t on the Commonwealth Games square patch of Forest Ranch begin to guess any of them. Edinburgh 1986. in the mountains north of Graham Webb Sacramento, California. Mine has never been out of its box Graham, we understand your and is still in pristine condition. Perhaps the Corporation could frustration. Unfortunately we arrange an appropriate permanent Pieter Deuling weren’t able to source a high-res display at this site? version of the photo in question in time for the print deadline, and John Chambers technological gremlins mean we are still unable to do so!

4 Evesham course 1959 It is now exactly 60 years ago that this group of studio managers attended their technical course at Evesham.

Some were to become well known in their area of work in Radio, World Service, Television and Personnel.

They are from the back: Derek Mills, Robert McLeish, Joe Egbuson (Radio Nigeria), Alan Edmonds and Greville Havenhand.

Front: Rosemary Hart, Barbara Hawkins, Tony Slater (?), Monica Carbines, Ann Dalton and Auriol Blandy.

Robert McLeish

Additional noise filtering through to radio, too Once again the subject of music As for the huge development of If the BBC expects this old codger And while I’m at it: Do we not use interference comes up in the October ‘Accessible and Enhanced’ – is that to pay for a TV licence next year so PPMs any more? Sound levels for news issue of Prospero. I agree with all that not rather insane? A lot of money is that I can be irritated, the BBC can inserts, for example on Radio 2, are Paul Foxall, Colin Bradbury and Rodney spent in developing a system to remove think again! all over the place. Mantle write as I am sure so many other noises which are deliberately added in Tom Peckham John Hawkins people do. Despite many complaints the first place. Why not solve the to the BBC about intrusive music and problem by not adding the noises? WITH REFERENCE TO the current I READ WITH interest the article other noises the irritation becomes Much money has been spent in topic of sound problems on TV, and about A&E Audio in this month’s ever worse. developing and building studios talk of gadgets for the home viewers Prospero. However, spending time The aggravating noises are now getting which are soundproof. Engineers work to adjust their own levels, would it not and money on such a device is surely added to the radio programmes. Almost hard to remove all unwanted noises, be a simpler idea if the production team missing the point. As the letters every trail now on BBC Radio 4 has a hum and distortions from the audio were to monitor the output during in that edition (and many previous rather senseless noise added to it which system and then producers deliberately recording on an ordinary domestic ones) show, the issue of music in TV for me makes it impossible to contaminate the output. system? They could then adjust the programmes can be very annoying to understand the speech, hence background noise and music balance, Worst of all is the phantom pianist viewers and yet their complaints have rendering the trail utterly pointless! and, if necessary, the director could who seems to creep into every studio apparently been ignored for years. get the mumbling performers to sharpen Now I try a programme of interest both and clank and hammer away on the There is a simple solution. No music up, so that the home viewer could on radio and on TV. If it starts with a lot keys in a random way producing the over natural sounds, such as waves, appreciate the programme. Or is this of added noises I simply turn it off and sort of noises that a toddler might wind and wildlife – we want to too simplistic? do something more rewarding with my make if allowed to get at a keyboard. experience them pure, with no precious time. I am not prepared to It is utterly pointless stupidity and it Brian Holloway background noise. No music over struggle when trying to follow dialogue even happens in documentary and speech – we want to hear it clearly, to filter it from the added noises. I say scientific programmes. REGARDING THE ARTICLE in October’s otherwise what’s the point? And if ‘noises’ because a lot of the added Prospero about improving audio music is necessary, make sure it’s When I was studying for my material is not by any stretch of the (for television) – why waste Research’s acceptable and not the usual ‘plinky qualifications, had somebody imagination music. Even if it were valuable time? plonk’, to use Jimi Hendrix’s phrase. started to hammer away on a piano music, the old cry that it helps to create during a lecture he or she would Why not use appropriately trained Richard Walsh an atmosphere simply does not wash. have been smartly evicted from the people to do the job properly in the People have such different reactions to lecture room. first place? any sort of music. It is like trying to follow a conversation when at a noisy You have a programme on Radio 4 party. It is a struggle which becomes ‘More or Less’. It might be interesting more difficult as one gets older. to ask that programme to research Can you help? the number of letters of complaint I confess that I turned off the recent BBC local radio: Remembering the people, programmes and places of the about music and irritation noises David Attenborough series on 1970s, 80s and 90s in comparison to the number of letters the planet simply because of the asking for more such aggravations! Radio Times has many photographs featuring BBC radio stations and intrusive noises. their presenters, mainly shot for the local radio listings at the back of the magazine. Whilst these images have no commercial value, they could be a valuable resource for broadcasting enthusiasts and historians, but only if the materials can be scanned and the subjects identified and catalogued.

A pilot project in Scotland, run by a group of staff working in their own time, has resulted in thousands of images being scanned, with the files and catalogue now stored on our database for future use.

If there is anyone out there who worked in BBC local radio and enjoys image scanning or maybe just identifying people and places, please contact Ralph Montagu, Head of Heritage at the Radio Times to discuss the possibilities further.

Ralph can be emailed at [email protected]

Moonstrike anyone? An ex-RAF pilot friend has asked me if it is possible to access any recordings of the TV series from 1963 called Moonstrike. It featured the Lysander aircraft; as a child during the war he lived close to RAF Old Sarum, the home of the Lysander operations. I checked online and apparently most of the recordings are lost or destroyed but some are still in existence. I wondered if any TV staff would know if they are available and how one would access them?

Diane Ward

If you can help, please email Diane at [email protected]

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2019 | 5 | BACK AT THE BBC BBC ENTERS PAID STREAMING MARKET WITH LAUNCH OF BRITBOX Can you help? Do you recognise this token? We’ve come across a medal/token inscribed with ‘BBC Club’, with a lion emblem holding a winged BritBox, a streaming service offering shows from flaming torch (as pictured). We can find no information about it and we would like to hear the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5, has whether anyone would know? If you are able to identify it, please email us at [email protected] launched in the UK.

n an email to all staff on Thursday 7 November, Dramas on the service at launch include Cracker, director general Tony Hall announced the launch of Prime Suspect, Brideshead Revisited and Ashes to IBritBox – a new streaming service offering shows Ashes, while comedies include Absolutely Fabulous, from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 (including Film4) and Extras, Blackadder and Fawlty Towers. Channel 5. Channels 4 and 5 came on board after the More than 600 classic episodes of Doctor Who – BBC and ITV announced BritBox as a way to get into broadcast between 1963 and 1989 – will be available the paid streaming market. to stream for the first time by Christmas. In his email, Tony Hall described BritBox as ‘a new Shows and movies from Channel 4 and Film4’s back and different way of working – delivering a unique catalogue will be available in 2020, and original shows service which brings together all the public service from Comedy Central UK will also feature. broadcasters, in one place, to back British creativity Christmas Radio Times and talent. Some of the biggest hits of recent years, such as Club members can collect their Christmas and Killing Eve, Peaky Blinders and Bodyguard, will not be ‘It’s something we’ve pushed for, with ITV, these last New Year double edition of the Radio Times available at first. from BBC Club W1 in Wogan (formerly Western) few years – and, having had a sneak preview, I think House from Thursday 12 December from 10am. audiences are in for a real treat. This is either because existing deals are in place with We understand that copies may be available in ‘This completes a really significant period for the BBC. other streaming services, or because they are still on shops and newsagents before this date but our Alongside the ambitious plans we have for iPlayer, the broadcasters’ own catch-up platforms. delivery schedules differ. There will be a dedicated we now also have a commercial partnership that will Shows are not expected to appear on BritBox until desk for collections every morning during this grow investment in our industry and strengthen they have dropped off the BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub week to speed things up. Why not combine this British TV still further.’ and All 4, which do not require paid subscriptions. with a morning coffee and mince pie or pastry? Downton Abbey, Gavin & Stacey, Wolf Hall, Love Island The BBC was recently given permission to keep Lottery and Broadchurch are among the shows available. programmes on iPlayer for one year. BBC Club Extra is proud to announce the return The service will cost £5.99 per month and will mostly Some people have questioned why they were being of THE BIG ONE! Our £10,000 jackpot is back feature classic series, but will also include new shows, asked to pay for television programmes they had in December. This is in addition to the other beginning with Lambs of God. already paid for via their TV licence. Tony Hall’s £1,000 and 10 x £100 prizes. To join or increase response was to compare Britbox with releasing a your shares, call the Club on 020 8752 6666. programme on DVD. ‘That was the BBC saying, there’s Minimum entry is £5 per month. How does the price compare with other services? a secondary market – you pay for content after we’ve Events • BritBox: £5.99 per month for HD and shown it,’ he said. ‘This is just a modern-day version of All BBC Club retired members are invited once multi-screen viewing that, and an even better version of that, because it again to Christmas lunch on 7 December when the used to be infuriating when you’d seen a programme • Netflix: £5.99 for basic package rising to £8.99 whole of Club W1 has been reserved until 5pm, for a standard plan, including HD on two screens on the BBC and you couldn’t get hold of the DVD.’ giving our members the opportunity for some Any money the Corporation makes will be put back West End shopping, a relaxed lunch and afternoon • Amazon Prime: £5.99 on up to three screens into programme-making, he said. ‘I think this is wins in the Club with old friends and colleagues (and a simultaneously all round for the licence fee payers.’ chance to meet some new!) and perhaps a glance • Now TV: £8.99 for entertainment pass, with at the Christmas lights in Regent Street and optional extras - Cinema Pass (£11.99), Sports BritBox launched in the US Oxford Street on the way home! You MUST have (£33.99), Kids (£3.99) two years ago and has a pre-booked to attend this event. Please see the different catalogue of content, website or phone for details and to book. • YouTube Premium: £11.99 with 650,000 subscribers.

The Club would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. A Question of Sport The television quiz A Question of Sport first aired on 5 January 1970. The Radio Times promised ‘50 years of world sporting action on film, 50 of our greatest sporting stars – in the studio during the series’.

Presenter David Vine introduced team captains Henry Cooper and Cliff Morgan. Guest panellists on the first edition were George Best, Ray Illingworth, Lillian Board and Tom Finney.

The programme has only had three presenters over its long run. David Coleman replaced Vine in 1979 and Sue Barker became the current host in 1997. Many team captains have taken part including Ian Botham, Bill Beaumont, Emlyn Hughes, Brendan Foster, Willie Carson, Ally McCoist, Phil Tufnell and Matt Dawson. Guests have come from all areas of sport and included, in 1987, Princess Anne.

The format of the quiz has remained largely unchanged and generally starts and ends with the picture board round.

Another perennial favourite is the Mystery Guest round, where the panellists have to identify a sports 020 8752 6666 personality from a film in which they are glimpsed doing something out of character, such as staring through binoculars or gardening. [email protected] BBC Club Broadcast Centre, BC2 B3, A Question of Sport has survived, inspiring newcomers like they Think It’s All Over, and regularly provides 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TP specials for Sport Relief.

6 Celebrating the Beatles of comedy

5 October 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the ‘sick tripe’ that was Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Given a late night slot (22.55pm to be precise), the programme was expected to be experimental, but not necessarily expected to last.

During the next half century, the Pythons created TV shows, films, books, records and live appearances that, it can be argued, changed the nature of comedy.

MEETING DAVID In honour of the series, which both delighted and shocked BBC audiences in equal measures, BBC History has created a dedicated website that ATTENBOROUGH looks at the ground-breaking series in more detail, and includes some rarely seen images that were taken by the BBC in 1969 to publicise the show.

BY TOM PARRY The anniversary page is available at https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/ anniversaries/october/python50 A month ago, if you’d asked me who I'd like to meet How much do you know about Monty Python? Here are six quirky questions to tax your more than anyone in the world, I wouldn’t have grey matter… Which one of these was NOT considered as needed a second to consider it. a title for Monty Python’s Flying Circus? • Owl Stretching Time his man has been an inspiration to me since As I watched the crew set up, I began to feel a huge • Whither Canada? childhood. He created my enthusiasm for the weight of responsibility. I was one of hundreds of • The Toad Elevating Moment Toutdoors, and my fascination with wildlife. people to have worked on the series, and I wanted • Casper & Mandrilaftalen He took me to otherworldly, mysterious and wonderful to do them, and I suppose the generation I was The Pythons adored dressing up as old ladies places through a TV screen, and taught me the representing in this conversation, proud. with notable, peculiar, high-pitched voices. intricacies of nature. He inspired me to study Zoology Putting me at ease These characters appeared in many sketches, at the University of Manchester, and later for a But upon meeting David minutes later, these nerves but what were they commonly known as? Masters in Wildlife Filmmaking at the University vanished as instantly as they’d appeared. David is one of the West of England. • Ratbags of the warmest and friendliest people I’ve ever had • Pepperpots And with distant hopes of meeting him someday, the pleasure of meeting. He put me at ease instantly. • Biddies exactly one year ago I joined the BBC Studio’s Natural No doubt he’s become an expert on meeting adoring • Squawkers History Unit in Bristol for my first job in TV. I came fans reduced to a babbling mess, as I felt at the time! in as a Junior Researcher on his next series Seven He shook my hand and said ‘good to meet you’, and In the famous Dead Parrot sketch, what creature Worlds One Planet, so I'm thrilled to be contributing we were off. is offered to the unimpressed customer as a to a series under his name. replacement for his deceased avian companion? What followed is a bit of a blur. It took all my focus to • Wombat stop my mind wandering – I wanted to soak up every • Halibut second, but a tiny voice in the back of my head would • Bee regularly catch the rest of my brain drifting, going • Slug ‘wow, look, that’s David Attenborough over there…’ and shout back ‘he’s going to stop talking in a few The famous foot that squashes the opening seconds, and you better have something to say when credits with an audible raspberry was he does, so listen!’ purloined by animator Terry Gilliam from which famous painting? As the conversation went on, however, it become more and more natural, as we started to connect over • Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time by Bronzino what was clearly in both of us, a genuine passion for • The Wedding of the Virgin by Raphael the nature. David’s enthusiasm is utterly infectious – • The Deposition from the Cross by Pontormo and his wealth of knowledge staggering. • The Garden of Gethsemane by Vasari Out of nowhere Then out of nowhere, at the launch of that series last Advice for the next generation In The Mouse Problem, the telephone number month, I found myself in the amazingly fortunate But the most powerful part of the experience was our of a mouse advocate was given out during the position of meeting the man himself – Sir David last few minutes together. I was given the question sketch, but which actual celebrity did the Attenborough. The context was to film an episode ‘what advice would you give to the next generation?’ number belong to (and had to be edited out for a new strand of original content, produced by David thought for a long while, then said simply of subsequent repeats)? LadBible, called The Gap. The premise is simple. ‘Care for the world.’ • David Frost Two people with a shared interest, background, The impassioned speech that followed will stay with • Barry Cryer or profession – but from completely different • Ronnie Barker me forever. I was fortunate enough to be sat in front generations – have a conversation about the subject • Cliff Michelmore of him, but he wasn’t just talking to me – he was that unites them. addressing a whole generation of young people, Python characters and sketches have given their So here Sir David and I, as the oldest and youngest imploring them to right the wrongs of the generations name to innumerable things: fossils, landfill members of the Seven Worlds One Planet team, were before them. sites, asteroids, rock bands – but a ubiquitous going to have a chat about wildlife. computing term is named after a famous Python The great man’s passion for the natural world, and scene – what is it? In the days building up to filming I was childishly sadness about what is happening to it, had never giddy and excitable. When the big day arrived struck me more clearly. And so as he stood, shook my • Gumby however, this transformed into pure nerves. The studio hand and said ‘Over to you’, I knew I’d leave that room • Spam setup was very intimate – two chairs sat very close understanding properly for the first time just what a • Pither

together either side of a tiny coffee table, upon which responsibility we have to our planet. • Biggles

sat an imposing pile of question-bearing cards. Spam. Frost; David Bronzino; by Time and Folly Cupid, Casper & Mandrilaftalen; Pepperpots; Slug; Venus, Venus, Slug; Pepperpots; Mandrilaftalen; & Casper Answers:

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2019 | 7 | MEMORIES THE EXMOUTH TERM A chance look one day 36 years ago by Brian Hawkins at the official announcements in The Daily Telegraph lead him to discover a fascinating piece of naval history, which became the subject of a documentary for Radio 4.

t’s not surprising that our attention This would require a new college to has been drawn this year, on the accommodate the future intakes of Ibicentenary of her birth, to the long cadets, who would be recruited at the and interesting life of Queen Victoria. younger age of 13, spending two years We have been told that her favourite there before joining the existing residence was Osborne House on the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth. Isle of Wight. Officer training Designed and built by Prince Albert This was all part of a scheme to in collaboration with Thomas Cubitt in modernise what was then the world’s the style of an Italian Renaissance most powerful navy and to give those palazzo, with a commanding view becoming naval officers a broader across the Solent, Queen Victoria wrote: training in what was rapidly becoming ‘It is impossible to imagine a more a technological age. As a result, perfect spot.’ spearheaded by Lord (Jacky) Fisher, On a clear day she could see the masts some 40 acres of the Osborne estate was devoted to the site of the new and wisps of smoke from the funnels The cadets who’d passed the capital ships of the day. But all too college. In complete contrast to the of the ships of her navy, moored off examination and selection interviews that soon the vessels were called to style and elegance of Osborne House, Spithead or leaving or entering were held in London to join Osborne met their war stations and the cadets the college buildings were designed Portsmouth Dockyard. on the South Railway jetty in Portsmouth, returned to Osborne as war had upon a bungalow system built in a on a sunny, blustery afternoon in May 1913, been declared. Just recently an edition of the Antiques prefabricated way with Uralite panels, prior to crossing the Solent to Osborne Roadshow was recorded at Osborne in the cavity walls packed with asbestos! Off to war pier. Their numbers included Prince Louis the beautiful and spacious gardens, with Fisher, impatient as ever, hired an The mobilisation meant that many of of Battenberg and the grandson of the house making an attractive backdrop. American contractor to meet his the younger officer instructors at WG Grace. In the programme’s introduction, the deadline to complete the college to Osborne were drafted to ships, replaced viewer shared the delights of the house’s accommodate 400 cadets. In our interviews, they recalled their by older officers and civilians as the interior with presenter Fiona Bruce. time at Osborne in a lucid and college settled down into its war On completion, greeting the cadets on clear way as if it were yesterday. routine. Soon the cadets of Osborne My introduction to Osborne goes back their arrival when they assembled in the Their recollections were bittersweet. would begin to realise the harsh to 1983 when, quite by chance, I spotted college gym was a large portrait of Former Cadet French remembered the realities of war when they heard the an announcement in The Daily Nelson, below which were the words in delights of fresh rolls with generous news of the sinking within an hour or so Telegraph, which caught my eye. brass letters: ‘There is Nothing the Navy helpings of butter for breakfast, of three elderly Royal Navy vessels in 70 years Cannot Do’. whereas Cadet Drake remembered the the North Sea by one German U-boat. A group of retired Royal Naval officers As well as basic education, seamanship beating he received for being late on Many were drowned, including those had recently celebrated, over lunch in a and naval history, there was an parade. He’d been delayed repairing a cadets serving in them fresh out of hotel in Salisbury, their 70th anniversary introduction to engineering to prepare broken bootlace. He recalled that there Dartmouth who’d only recently left of joining the navy. I was intrigued to them for the navy of the future and, in was always a Cadet Captain or Petty Osborne. Some of those had been the think of how old they must be and all keeping with public school tradition, Officer with a cane to chase the cadets Cadet Captains who’d disciplined the the developments and changes they there were two and a half hours of sport up. For giggling in bed after lights out Exmouth Term. would have witnessed in our navy each afternoon. From early morning Prince Louis was rapped over the Of the 80 or so 13-year-old boys who since 1913. until ‘lights out’, the exacting timetable knuckles with a steel ruler so hard it joined the Royal Navy in May 1913 was announced by a series of bugle took a week for the mark to disappear. making up the Exmouth Term, one calls. The first of these and the most Churchill’s visit became Admiral of the Fleet, four chilling was Reveille, ordering the cadets The Royal Naval Vivid memories came to mind of the became Rear Admirals, 15 retired as to leap out of their beds and jump into occasion when Winston Churchill, at the Captains and 29 as Commanders. the cold plunges that were situated at College Osborne time First Lord of the Admiralty, came the end of each of the dormitories. Bonds of friendship to inspect the college. Prior to his remained operational They served in a variety of vessels, College of kings departure he addressed the assembled some in both world wars, and until 1921. The Royal Naval College Osborne cadets. On the conclusion of his address specialised in the skills that helped to remained operational until 1921. Over 18 he asked if there were any complaints. develop and make our modern navy. From my initial research I discovered years nearly 4,000 cadets were A hushed silence reigned over the 400 Osborne College had played its part. they’d joined the Royal Naval College educated there, including two future or so cadets. Then Prince Louis asked if The plans of Selborne and Fisher had Osborne on the Isle of Wight in 1913. kings (Edward 8th and George 6th) and they could have three sardines for Long since gone, the college was Mountbatten, the last Viceroy to India. breakfast instead of two. Suppressed paid off. All had witnessed dramatic operational from 1903 to 1921. Being nearly 100 years since its closure, giggles followed, after which Churchill changes during an era which saw the The college’s location came about it is not surprising that former cadets replied that when he got back to the ending of a great empire, the like of because, after Queen Victoria’s death in are an extinct species. However, I was Admiralty he would see what could be which had not been seen since the days 1901, King Edward 7th decided to give to fortunate to meet a number of retired done about it. of the Romans. But what came across the nation the residence of Osborne naval officers, mentioned at the to me from researching and compiling The summer of 1914 saw a review at House, which his mother had loved celebratory lunch I’d read about, who’d the radio programme ‘The Exmouth Spithead of the ships of the Royal Navy. so much. joined Osborne in 1913. Term of 1913’ was the spirit of friendship An exciting time for cadets of the that survived between many of the term By coincidence in 1902 Lord Selborne, I persuaded them to contribute to a Exmouth Term who had the chance of members who had known each other then First Lord of the Admiralty, issued documentary programme for Radio 4 joining certain vessels of the assembled for over 70 years. a memorandum which was to revise the entitled ‘The Exmouth Term’. This was fleets off Spithead. Overwhelmed by way future Royal Naval officers were to the name of the term that those their size and the variety and number The Exmouth Term, was produced in be recruited and trained, in particular veteran officers had joined 70 years of vessels awaiting to be reviewed by Bristol by John Knight, narrated by giving a greater status to those who ago (all terms being named after the King, the cadets had the experience Tom Salmon and first broadcast on were to become engineer officers. famous naval figures from history). of what life was like in some of the 3 January 1984. 8 | OBITUARIES

Colleagues sent tributes from around the world. Nigel’s passion for radio was sparked by his father, Jack Hollinshead who was a BBC studio manager in London. As a ‘He believed in being kind, especially to the less I had the privilege of working young boy he rigged up an OB by stringing wires privileged – clerical staff, PAs, the unwell.’ with Jack for over a decade at the across garden hedges to link up with friends. BBC in Manchester, making radio ‘In a department of battling egos Brian’s office Hospital Radio in Dewsbury and stints as a DJ on programmes together. was a sanctuary. He was always peaceful, supportive Pirate Radio City followed, paving his way to Radio and honest.’ Jack started his career in the BBC Leeds in 1968 as a volunteer. He was there for 30 at the age of 14 as an ‘FX boy’, ‘His values and personality reflected so much that years, taking time out to work in Leicester, Belfast and looking after the library of effects was good about the BBC in those days.’ Manchester, and on an Israeli offshore station, The Voice of Peace, which he loved. disks on 78s. ‘A gentle, wonderful man of a bygone time.’ Whilst there, a wish to revive his pirate pseudonym of He was there eight years after the start of ‘He shielded people from trouble; rejoiced in their John Martin was thwarted because a Geoff Martin was broadcasting in Manchester, when the medium-wave triumphs, consoled them in their failures.’ transmitting aerial was at Portland Street, and already on the ship. Mischievously, he took the name broadcast under the call sign 2ZY. ‘Wisdom and common sense in his advice and, if of John Reith instead. necessary instruction. A wonderful example of the Nigel was a ‘live wire’, effective trade union negotiator In 1939, although not required to sign up for the war BBC at its best.’ effort, he did do, and spent a large amount of the time and compassionate pensioner visitor. He always in Aden as a wireless operator and mechanic in the RAF. There were many more such memories. The word considered others before himself, never owned much most often included was ‘kind’. and cared nothing for possessions. To simulate his After the war Jack returned to BBC Manchester to sharp intellect, he acquired a philosophy degree from continue his career. He was responsible for an Will Wyatt the Open University. To protect himself after an expanding FX library, and later mixing drama and unfortunate mugging, he took up Thai Boxing and general programmes in the studios in old opened his own teaching centre in Bradford. Broadcasting House. Reginald John Poulter All this, despite poor health and respiratory problems. Jack was the longest serving engineer and the oldest Born in Kingston, Surrey, the Nigel was a lifelong radio man who simply ran out pensioner that we know of. At the age of 100 he could only child of Samuel and Alice of airtime. still remember the ancient valve amplifiers the BBC Poulter, Reginald Poulter was Derek Woodcock and Caroline Woodruff had in its studios, and even the valves used. evacuated to Birmingham at the I really got to know Jack when we were sent to Leeds outbreak of World War Two, to work on one of Trevor Hill’s dramas – he never where, as a teenager he was made a crisis out of a drama, and at work he just briefly employed as a motor Senior engineer, never had a crisis. mechanic before joining the Post Office as a trainee electrical engineer. His kind, laidback approach to life was reflected in all Radio Merseyside his work – he was simply adored by all of those who Returning to Kingston in 1946, at 18 he was called up Ask anybody who worked with worked with him for his kindness and humility, and he for National Service, joining the Royal Corps of Signals Bill Holt and they’ll remember never said an unkind word about anyone. as a radio mechanic, also meeting future Porridge the whimsical smile with which director Sydney Lotterby at Catterick. he greeted programme staff What singled Jack apart from others was his care for with their technical problems his junior staff, including myself, Ken Gregory and After demob he rejoined Post Office – and the fact he could usually many others. One of my colleagues, who was Telecommunications as an engineer, meeting his fix them! desperately house searching, found that he was future wife, Joan, at Elmbridge Telephone Exchange in suddenly given a day off to do this. Jack came in Surrey. They married in August 1953 and had three Bill, who has died at the age of 76, was EiC at the on a day off to cover his commitments, without pay. children, Martin (1959), Carol (1960) and Simon (1967). Liverpool station for almost 30 years and played a major part in its development, including the move Jack was an inspiration to us all, a true gentleman, and In 1954 Reg applied for a job at the BBC and joined from its original temporary accommodation in an his many friends at the BBC in Manchester share the the Television Camera Department on 1 November. office block to a purpose-built operation in loss of this very special person. He rose through the ranks as a camera operator and Paradise Street. then senior camera operator, retiring in 1989 as a Ian Reed studio technical coordinator. After attending Manchester University, he joined the BBC and became an assistant engineer for the start of During his 35-year BBC career, Reg worked on one of the first local stations, Radio Leeds, in 1967. everything from sitcoms to ballet, with EastEnders, Three years later he became EiC at Radio Merseyside Documentary Features Doctor Who, Last Of The Summer Wine, ‘Allo, ‘Allo, – his home area – where he stayed until his retirement Hi-Di-Hi and Only Fools And Horses amongst his organiser/manager in 1995. many credits. Brian Elliott died at Hillingdon Hospital on 5 July Bill is remembered by his former colleagues as an from prostate cancer. He remained alert and indicated Reg passed away six weeks after his 90th birthday unassuming but talented engineer who could always when he wanted no more treatment. and just a week before what would have been his 66th be relied upon to organise the most complex outside wedding anniversary with Joan. In recent years he’d Brian, a Liverpudlian, joined the BBC as an accountant broadcast or fix the most taxing technical problem. been coping with Alzheimer’s Disease and prostate but is best and widely remembered as the organiser/ cancer, and in August 2018 moved into a Kingston As programme organiser in the late seventies, manager of General Features and then Documentary care home, where he was looked after by a wonderful I decided we would bring a weekly show from a Features from the seventies till the nineties. team of nurses and carers, right up until his passing. listener’s home and we were soon flooded with This was a large department of talented, ambitious invitations. But many of them came from people who He will be greatly missed, especially for his gentle sense and often difficult producers. Thank goodness for lived in multi-storey blocks and, as Bill agreed, there of humour, love of comedy and also for the playful sense Brian. These years witnessed stormy times: a major was no way we could cable that far out to the radio of fun he expressed with the children in his life. bust up between staff and the departmental head, car. Bill shook his head and wandered off. Two weeks Desmond Wilcox, culminating in Wilcox’s sacking; Simon Poulter later he walked back into my office and put a small later came a BBC strike when the BBC Governors suitcase on my desk. He opened it up and explained intervened to halt transmission of Real Lives: At the that it was a portable version of the radio car which Edge of the Union. Through these and other rows he and his colleagues had devised and built to solve Brian was a rock to staff and management alike. Radio Leeds stalwart the problem. Which, of course, it did.

He was a calm and wily administrator, and a wise and and BBC visitor Shortly afterwards the same kit was used by Bill to rig kindly handler of people. In the best spirit of the civil The sudden loss of Nigel Fell, at the age of 68, the first Merseyrail train to inaugurate the Northern Line service he would ask, ‘Are you sure?’. Even better, was a shock to former Radio Leeds colleagues, who with HM Queen on board. It won the station a national ‘I think we can tuck this away in Work In Progress.’ regarded him as a special member of their ‘family’. award for local radio outside broadcast of the year. He was the one who kept everyone else in touch, Brian was rarely seen without a suit and tie, but Quite a talented guitarist himself, Bill was an enabling a small band of ‘originals’ to gather for a was not formal or stuffy. A very private man, shy in enthusiast for country music and for many years 50th anniversary celebration last year. manner, a listener but with a gleam of mischief in the eye. he also produced the station’s weekly Sounds Nigel had a large network of former colleagues and Country programme. He loved books, music and opera – and on these friends but only two surviving family members – a subjects would happily chat through many a lunch in He leaves a widow, Maria, two sons and a daughter. half-sister, living abroad, and an aunt, for whom he the canteen. He was a regular at the Festival Hall and was full-time carer. Roy Corlett Covent Garden.

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2019 | 9 | OBITUARIES

He was later responsible for staging the London The engineer known productions of ‘The Music Man’ and ‘Half a Sixpence’. A broadcasting pioneer During this phase of his career, his tours involve Don Grattan died on 21 August shortly after his 93rd as ‘Golden Ears’ theatres all over the UK as well as in New York, birthday. Sadly Valmai, his wife of almost 70 years, Ralph W Mills, known as Brussels and Paris. predeceased him by several months. 'Golden Ears’ because of In 1965 he joined BBC Television and became manager Don was a proud descendant of Henry Grattan his exceptionally sensitive of the Scenic Services Department, responsible for (1746-1820), the Irish statesman who began the hearing, regularly tested the producing scenery for all London-based productions struggle for legislative independence for Ireland in the commercially produced LS3/5A and locations. He retired from this post in 1980. 1780s, and whose statue still stands in Dublin. Since loudspeakers to make sure that then all male Grattans bear the name Henry. their sound was true. If the He recalled how his love of theatre went back to manufacturer changed a component, even the type of when, at the age of eight, he would see the circus Educated at Harrow Boys’ Grammar School and later wood used for the casing, it could impair the sound. trains travelling through his village. His father took him at King’s College University of London, Don took a Ralph was an avid concert attendee and listened to to see the great Bertram Mills Circus. BSc with first-class honours in mathematics and a BBC Radio 3 while he worked. He believed that the diploma in radio-physics. Pat Gammon LS3/5A loudspeakers should and could recreate the After ten years teaching, he joined the BBC as a sound one experienced in a concert hall. He worked producer in school television, soon to become head, closely with the engineers in the Kingswood Warren then assistant controller and controller in 1972, a post BBC Research Department to perfect the Nirmal Singh he held until he retired in 1984. His combination of loudspeakers’ performance. The LS3/5A loudspeakers Nirmal Singh Sehmi was born on good looks and gravitas called to mind a Roman have been recognised as the most successful small 3 November 1939 in Nairobi, Senator. He had both the wisdom and the authority loudspeaker of all time, with around 100,000 pairs Kenya, and came to the UK in the to match. of speakers sold by new and old licensees. 1960s, where he subsequently Softly spoken, Don Grattan was a dedicated teacher, a In 1955, Ralph was lured away from the BBC worked for the BBC. He retired shrewd manager and a far-sighted strategist. He was Monitoring Service in Caversham Park to join Ronald from the BBC in 1989, aged 50. quietly passionate about education as a liberating D Petrie in the BBC Designs Department. Ralph spent He worked on the 1980 Moscow force. He believed in the motivating power of the next 26 years in Designs, working solely on sound Olympic Games and several BBC broadcasts in spear-heading far-reaching campaigns equipment and sound problems, specialising in radio stations, setting up channels that required partnerships with others to achieve their loudspeaker work. as an electrical engineer, and was well known at full effectiveness. Broadcasting House. For Ralph, loudspeaker work was not a narrow and In initiating further education, radio and television, limited blind alley but rather a door which gave him Nirmal passed away on 16 September 2019 aged 79, Don started with a blank sheet. He wrote the original access to the world of radio and television. Within this two months short of his 80th birthday. He is survived brief and appointed an Advisory Council and world he maintained many friends who knew that a by his wife, son, daughter and four wonderful Programme Committees made up of independent loudspeaker problem was not just an encounter to grandchildren. experts from outside the Corporation. He recruited all solve a problem, but was also an opportunity to share Rajpal Kaur Sehmi the staff, including a team of education officers whose in some philosophy. role was to test the materials at the sharp end and Ralph’s preference for chequered shirts defied feed back the results. Series and books covered a convention, hinting at his humour. He frequently Longstanding PA range of subjects from the arts and sciences to entertained colleagues through the many teatime leisure pursuits. short plays and musicals that he wrote to celebrate and first on ToTP As a brilliant networker on behalf of a lifelong their birthdays, retirements, achievements and Esme Trueswell, who died on commitment to education, Don served on a range of adventures. Superb lyrics were written to Gilbert and 31 August, was one of the councils and committees. He was made a CBE in 1989. Sullivan music and colleagues were willingly drafted longest serving producer’s as actors and singers. Several of these creations Don was greatly respected across the BBC and much assistants in BBC Manchester, were recorded… sadly only a few copies were made. loved by his colleagues. Although a workaholic he was working there from the 1950s Perhaps you are lucky enough to have one? also a fun-loving family man. At home in Marlow his until retirement in 1990. In that passion was croquet. Despite his joie de’vivre, Ralph carried the scars time she assisted many different from his injuries during the 1973 Ealing Rail Crash. producers and directors, but Don leaves a daughter Jenny, a son David, seven He retired from the BBC in 1981. He passed away in 2019. one early highlight was grandchildren, nine great-grandchildren and many Our heartfelt sympathy goes to his wife Marie José. calling the shots for the first live transmission of admiring, loving friends. Top of the Pops, produced by Johnnie Stewart, Robert Kitcher Sheila Innes which came from the Dickenson Road studio in 1964.

She went on to work with John Miller on Sixth Sense (Michael Aspel’s first venture outside newsreading) A man who made Raymond Gammon and Not a Word (with chairman Brian Redhead); then Ray was born into a farming for John Buttery on Screen Test (with Michael Rodd) a difference community in Kent and educated and The Movie Quiz (with Robin Ray). at the local village school. He left ‘Dennis Carr was a supremely Her final ten years were spent in the Manchester school aged 14 to become a hotel competent engineer with a deft Children’s Department, where she worked both in page boy in Folkestone. personal touch and studio and on film programmes, notably the Go with understanding – a joy to work At 19, at the start of World War II, Noakes series, during which she became a great fan with’…‘he was gentle, yet he was called up, first to the Royal of John’s dog Shep, a large photo of whom found authoritative, humourous, Artillery and then to the Royal pride of place in her retirement flat in Skipton. courteous and helpful...’ Armoured Corps, serving in Northern Ireland, North Esme was always a very private person, but never Africa, Malta, Sicily and Italy. On discharge, his papers DC, as he was known, left the RAF in 1955 for the BBC afraid to make her views heard. When working in the described his character as ‘exemplary’. in Birmingham, working as a cameraman and then 9th floor office in Peter House, she led a one-woman sound engineer on such notables as Workers Playtime, On demob from the army, he joined the Entertainment campaign against the high temperatures that afflicted The Goon Show, Educating Archie and The Clitheroe Department of Margate Corporation. He started as a the building in the summer. To prove her point to Kid. Cameras and photography became hobbies as commissionaire at the Winter Garden Theatre before House Services, she brought in a tomato plant and sound engineering led his career forward. joining the stage crew and eventually becoming a quickly grew a good crop on the windowsill. In 1971, as local radio expanded, Dennis became one of stage manager. After five years, he moved to Hastings She had no living relatives and wanted no public the first four travelling local radio engineers which based Corporation to become stage director. funeral, but asked for her ashes to be scattered him in his home city of Newcastle. Within two years he Whilst there, he was head hunted by a West End in a memorial woodland on the edge of the was appointed Engineer-in-Charge Radio Leeds, impresario to become a touring stage and concert Yorkshire Dales. overseeing adventurous OBs and the move in 1978 from manager. After only one year, he was promoted to the Merrion Centre station with its experimental Mk I David Brown production manager and was responsible for staging equipment to state-of-the-art studios at Broadcasting many touring and West End shows. These included the House with Mk III local radio desks. The smoothness of first large-scale post-war pantomime, ‘Cinderella’ at the that operation and continual good spirit under stress London Coliseum, involving cast, musicians and staff of was not only characteristic of Dennis’ engineering and 80 plus a gaggle of geese, six ponies and a horse! management but of his personality and supreme people 10 skills. With the fresh broadcasting potential including Cawston directed every Christmas Day broadcast the big studio capable of incorporating bands, Bush House External since 1970 – and David was the only technician who audiences and on one occasion, a horse, Dennis’ keen was with him from the original crew from 1970 sense of humour and can-do attitude was a gift to Service and then until 1982. producers, facilitating innovative programmes no matter David was awarded the Queen’s Silver Jubilee Medal how technically challenging. Radio Brighton in 1977 and the Queen gave him a pair of gold Meriel Ball was born and brought up in Surrey with Dennis’ retirement in 1986 brought cherished cufflinks at Christmas 1981. her younger sister, Carolyn. She attended Chatsworth opportunities for voluntary work in India and Primary School and then the Convent School of the He finished his time at the BBC as Allocation Lighting Sri Lanka, living in a mud hut at the Academy of Sacred Heart, Epsom. Gaining ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels, she Manager and retired from the BBC in 1983, when he Development Science in the wilds of Maharashtra and then did intensive secretarial training at Kingston was made a member of the Royal Victorian Order. with VSO helping to establish the media department College of Further Education. at the University of Colombo. He loved both places He was nicknamed the Royal Spark within the and people, finding fulfilment and serenity living Meriel applied to the BBC and started at Bush House Film Unit. On leaving the BBC, he formed his own simply and helping others. External Service in August 1965 as a secretary in lighting company for five years where he picked up ‘English by Radio’ with a programme called ‘Come many jobs due to Channel Four starting including Dennis was married to the late Jean Rowntree with Let’s Learn English!’ Man and Music. whom he had six children. He later became the close companion of Carol Jefferson-Davies, remaining In October 1965 they took on an exciting new project He was the Royal Navy Association representative lifelong friends, and latterly, Dagmar Wright. – an Archers-type programme in Hindustani which hit for Woking for ten years and many veterans attended the headlines of the national papers and she wrote in his service with ex-film staff when he passed away on Diagnosed with Parkinson’s, Dennis bore it her diary ‘to think I typed all the scripts, memos and the August Bank Holiday 2019. philosophically despite increasing difficulties. He died letters, etc for it!!’ on 1 September aged 88. He leaves daughters, Paul Gorringe Jennifer, Helen and Diana, sons, Dennis and David, By February 1966 she was Secretary to the Assistant seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Head of the Far Eastern Service and later became Production Secretary in the Chinese Section where, Carol Jefferson-Davies on 15 April 1971, she notes ‘telephone communications Sound expert were re-opened today for the first time since 1949!! It is with great sadness that I convey news that Shanghai is the receiving station’. Richard Yeoman-Clark passed away on 17 September Radio 4 announcer, In August 1971 she was Secretary to the Head of the following a short illness, aged 75. studio manager and World Service. However, in early 1972, Meriel’s family Richard joined BBC Radio direct from school as a had moved to Goring-by-Sea and she and her sister technical operator at Broadcasting House, moving to drama director travelled between London and Sussex until the train the Experimental Stereo Unit as the recording strikes took their toll. In June 1972 Meriel became engineer a couple of years later. There he was involved David Willmott died aged 88 Administrative Assistant at BBC Radio Brighton where with the integration of Stereo Operations from just in the early hours of Monday, she remained until September 1991. test transmissions into the regular output of Radio 3 in 14 October after a lengthy battle with cancer. She had always wanted her own tea shop and opened the late 1960s. As stereo proliferated across BBC ‘The Pantry’ in South Ferring in December 1992. Radio he transferred to the Music Department as a David was a BBC radio BBC Radio Brighton did an OB from there in studio manager. There, his technical expertise was in announcer for many years. September 1993. Having moved to Crockerhill demand for the presentation of electronic music He joined the BBC in Manchester in 2007, Meriel continued running her teashop concerts, working with contemporary composers such in 1953 as a studio manager and worked on many until October 2015 when she retired. as Stockhausen, Berio, Boulez etc. This experience led television productions. him to join the BBC Radiophonic Workshop where he Although starting to be poorly, she enjoyed life with He met his wife Kate, who also worked for the BBC in produced the special sound for the science fiction her sister, Carolyn, and their pets including three dogs. Manchester, and they were married in December 1966. series Blake’s Seven, amongst other programmes. Latterly Meriel could no longer garden but sat in the They have two children, Benjamin and Simon (now Later he became the technical coordinator for the conservatory watching the wildlife. known as Nathan) and four grandchildren, Tallulah, Workshop when electronic synthesizers started taking Luke, Joseph and Georgia. Meriel died on 30 July 2019 aged 73, in the home over from Musique Concrete. that she loved so much and with those she loved He was born in Windsor on 15 September 1931 and Richard left the BBC in 1978 to become the chief around her. it was during his National Service that he began working technical engineer at Roundhouse Recording Studios for British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) in 1950. Carolyn Ball and oversaw the installation and operation of one of After his return to the UK, he joined BBC Manchester the first 3M Digital Multitrack Mastering System in the as a studio manager in 1953. He worked in both radio UK. Leaving Roundhouse Studios in the early 1980s he and television as a drama director. He gave Ray Moore The Film Unit’s joined FWO Bauch as a field service engineer, later his first job in radio and worked with names as becoming service manager for their professional illustrious as Ingrid Bergman, David Frost and ‘Royal Spark’ broadcast products. Morecambe & Wise among many others. Just before the war, David Gorringe MVO was on In 2002, Richard was recruited to the BFI National He also wrote and read an edition of the Morning Brentford FC’s books, playing for Southall, who was Archive where his vast knowledge and experience of Story and children’s stories broadcast on Radio 4, Brentford’s nursery team. sound and digital techniques transformed the audio masterminded the adaptation of many popular TV Due to the outbreak of war he signed up with the department’s capabilities to cater for sound programmes to radio and conceived the feature ‘Bells Royal Navy as a DEMS Gunner. Once he was restoration of the optical soundtracks of films being On Sunday’ which runs on the station to this day. demobbed in late 1945, he landed his first job as an restored by the BFI for both theatrical and DVD He also regularly read the evening ‘Shipping Forecast’ electrician at MGM Borehamwood and then Pinewood release. Perhaps most notably, Richard led the sound and a recording of him reading it from the mid-1970s Studios. During this film studio period, he worked on restoration project for a special David Lean Centenary is often dug out of the BBC archive to illustrate the many British and Anglo-American productions, collection of ten of the best known Lean films which heritage of this iconic fixture of British broadcasting. including Edward My Son, Under Capricorn and were re-released in 2008. The Guinea Pig to name three. He was seconded to Libya for a year in 1969, Since his retirement from the BFI in 2012, Richard has been the technical powerhouse behind the Church becoming a BBC Radio 4 announcer on his return. In 1952 he joined BBC Television and was at Lime Stretton Arts Festival, quietly providing a dazzling After another Middle Eastern secondment, this time Grove Studios for four years, then transferring to the array of skills, knowledge and equipment each year to to Dubai in 1978-9 to help set up British speaking BBC Film Unit in 1956 and moving over to Ealing Film numerous artists and audiences. TV station Channel 33, he joined Radio 3, regularly Studios. He travelled the world working on many documentaries, for example All My Loving. presenting the Proms live from the Royal Albert Hall, Charles Fairall before rejoining Radio 4 as a continuity announcer. As the chief lighting electrician he worked with He also presented on Beacon Radio, Wolverhampton, Richard Cawston on Royal Family broadcasts, starting Blue Danube Radio in Vienna and BFBS and taught with the Trooping of the Colour in June 1968. In that at Evendine Court School. year he was part of the small team that filmed at Ben Willmott Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, Holyrood House and Balmoral. There were numerous public functions with the Queen on board the Royal Yacht Britannia Rodney Taylor’s obituary will appear in the and extensive overseas travel. Arising out of this, February 2020 issue of Prospero.

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2019 | 11 | ODDS & ENDS

FULL CIRCLE by Neil Somerville London Lunch The latest London Lunch for retired BBC staff was held on 16 October at the It’s funny how things turn out. For many years Victory Services Club in London. I worked at the BBC Written Archives Centre The guest speaker was Torin Douglas, BBC media correspondent for 24 years at Caversham. It is here where a huge amount and who has reported on media issues for over 40 years. His well-received talk of the BBC’s written history is stored. Whether included many stories from the varied, amusing, and sometimes fraught, life of files concerning programmes and policy, a media correspondent. correspondence with contributors, scripts or press cuttings, all these sources have stories to The annual London Lunch is arranged by Paul Mason and Simon Shute. tell and remind us of how things once were. Ray Liffen I remember looking though a box of press cuttings from the 1930s and there was discussion in the papers about what to call those who watched the new BBC television service. Suggestions included auralookers, teleseers and televisor viewers.

There were also many cuttings about theatre managers putting a ban on artists appearing on the BBC lest it affected numbers going to the theatre.

The Centre holds a treasure trove of material and I was there when the trivia craze became popular. One day I took a phone call from the Radio Times asking if I could compile trivia about the BBC for the magazine. I very much enjoyed the task and it became so popular I was later asked to compile the Radio Times Radio and Television Trivia Quiz Book and also a further one containing puzzles about the BBC.

As a writer I leapt at the chance but little did I know how this would develop. Having set trivia and puzzle books, several years later I was given chance to compile more and this resulted in other themed puzzle books, including on Britain, literature, football and sport, and The Ladies and Gentlemen’s Puzzle Books. For my latest, which is about The Archers, I was thrilled to be able to delve back into BBC history and research this much-loved programme. It reminded me of many classic highlights Light Entertainment as well as enjoy the programme’s humour and splendid characters. CLASSIFIEDS The Archers too has its serious side, particularly in highlighting contemporary Television Reunion issues as well as the pressures facing the farming community. It gives a superb Open to all who have worked in and for Menorca. Lovely detached villa in Es snapshot of rural life. Light Entertainment Television. Another Castell. Sleeps 2–7. Private swimming pool. Air conditioned. Close amenities. The Archers is a delight and it was also a delight to compile puzzles about this opportunity to meet up with former great British institution. Not only was I able to devise themed sudokus, cryptograms, colleagues. To be held at Club W1 at Brochure: 01621 741810. Or visit coded crosswords as well as anagrams but also discover country words used in the Wogan House (formerly BBC Club at www.menorcaholidayvilla.co.uk Midlands, where The Archers is set. Western House), 99 Great Portland Street, W1A 1AA on Wednesday Prospero Classifieds, BBC Pension For instance, here’s a challenge. What does squib mean? Is it: 15 January 2020 from noon onwards. and Benefits Centre, Broadcasting • an anvil RSVP Tony Newman (email: House, Cardiff CF5 2YQ. • a swarm of bees or [email protected]) or Lesley Begley Please enclose a cheque made payable • the den of a hare? (email: [email protected]) to: BBC Central Directorate. Rate: £6 for 20 words. In a covering letter, During my years at Caversham I remember an enquiry concerning the very first please include your pension number. episode of The Archers broadcast on the Midland region. This episode ended with a cliff-hanger concerning a sick cow. Having sent the script off, I had a phone call the next day asking what happened to the sick cow. Sadly, the second script had not CONTACTS survived and with the fate of the cow still a mystery. Queries Grants are made at the discretion It is funny how things go full circle and how I was able to rekindle my love of BBC For benefit and pension payroll queries, of the Trustees. They may provide history as well as engage in more puzzle setting. And if you are still wondering, the call the Service Line on 029 2032 2811 assistance in cases of unforeseen answer to the above, squib is a swarm of bees. or email [email protected]. financial hardship, for which help from other sources is not available. For the Love of The Archers: The Unofficial Puzzle Book by Neil Somerville is Prospero Tel: 029 2032 2811 published by Summersdale. To remove a name from the distribution list, ring the Service Line Prospero Society on 029 2032 2811. Prospero is Prospero Society is the only section provided free of charge to retired BBC of the BBC Club run by and for retired Caption Scheme members only. Prospero is also BBC staff and their spouses. Its aim available on audio disc for those with is to enable BBC pensioners to meet competition sight impairment. To register, please on a social basis for theatre visits, luncheons, coach outings, etc. The winner of a £10 shopping voucher ring the Service Line. Alternatively, it is also available online at bbc.co.uk/ is Mr P Walling, with: Anna Rampton Prospero Society is supported by mypension, under ‘Documents’. – ‘My view is not to have a view, so as BBC Club funds so as to make events to remain impartial.’ Ian Fletcher – BBC Club affordable. If you would like an ‘So that’s all good then.’ The BBC Club in London has a retired application form, please contact: membership costing £3 per month or Gayner Leach, BBC Club, £36 per year. Members can also add BC2 B3 Broadcast Centre, friends and family to their membership 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TP for a small additional cost. Regional WIN Tel: 020 8752 6666 £10 clubs may have different arrangements. Please call the BBC Club London Email: [email protected]. office on 020 8752 6666 or email BBCPA [email protected] for details, Post your entry to Prospero by The BBCPA was founded in 1988 to or to join. Monday, 6 January 2020. promote and safeguard the interests Benevolent Fund of BBC pensioners. It is independent Or, you can email your entry to This is funded by voluntary of the BBC. For details of how to [email protected], with ‘caption contributions from the BBC and its join, see the panel on page 5 or The picture shows John Birt competition 6’ in the subject line. purpose is to protect the welfare of download a membership form (ex director general) visiting Please include your BBC pension staff, pensioners and their families. at bbcpa.org.uk. Bush House. number. Good luck!

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