The newspaper for BBC pensioners

The fascination of Alexandra Palace Page 8

Feb 2017 • Issue 1

Encounters The Big Radio with HMS Interview Cymru’s 40th Implacable - Evan Davis Page 3 Page 6 Page 9

NEWS • MEMORIES • CLASSIFIEDS • YOUR LETTERS • OBITUARIES • SUDOKU 02 PENSIONS Benefits update

Autumn Statement State Pension Top-Up Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered his Autumn Statement to the House Time is running out for those wanting to take advantage of the government’s State of Commons on 23 November 2016. This was the final Autumn Statement because starting Pension Top-Up. The scheme runs until 5 April 2017 and is available to those who are from this year, the UK will have a Budget statement in the Autumn and then a smaller Spring entitled to a UK State Pension and reached State Pension Age before 6 April 2016. statement will replace the traditional March budget from 2018. This means that the Budget The scheme invites eligible pensioners to pay a one-off lump sum in return for an statement due in March 2017 will be the last Spring Budget. Highlights from the last Autumn increase in their pension of between £1 and £25 per week. statement included: For example, an extra £1 of pension a week (£52 a year) for life will cost a 65-year-old • The Personal Allowance will increase from the current £11,000 to £11,500 for the £890, while an extra £5 a week (£260 a year) will cost £4,450. To get the maximum 2017/18 tax year. The Higher Rate Threshold will also increase from £43,000 to £45,000. additional £25 a week (£1,300 a year), someone aged 65 would need to pay £22,250. The government plans to raise the Personal Allowance to £12,500 and the Higher Rate For a 75-year-old wanting an extra £1, £5 or £25 a week, the lump sum required would Threshold to £50,000 by 2020/21. be a lower £674, £3,370 and £16,850 respectively. The income is index linked and in most cases, some, or all, of the extra pension can be • Fuel duty will remain frozen for the seventh successive year. passed on to your spouse or civil partner after you die. • A new three-year Investment Bond, available from National Savings & Investments, with an To see how much you could get, and how much it will cost upfront, there is an online indicative rate of 2.2% will be available from spring 2017. Anyone aged 16 or over will be calculator available at www.gov.uk/state-pension-topup able to invest between £100 and £3,000. • Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) will increase from 10% to 12% from June 2017. IPT is a tax on insurers and it will be up to them to decide whether to pass on the cost to their customers. Deferring your State Pension Once you are four months away from State Pension Age, you can either claim your State Pension or defer claiming it. Deferring your State Pension could increase the payments you Marriage Tax Allowance get when you do decide to claim it. If you reach State Pension Age after 6 April 2016, your The marriage tax allowance entitles couples to a useful tax break worth up to £432 for new State Pension increases by 1% for every nine weeks you defer. For example, the full new State claimants. However, the government estimates that some 3.6 million of the 4.2 million Pension is £155.65 a week. By deferring for one year, you’ll get an extra £468 a year, or eligible couples have not taken advantage of the offer. about £9 a week. The allowance enables couples to transfer 10% of their personal tax allowance (£1,100 in By default, your pension will be deferred until you claim it. For more information, 2016/17) between them, effectively making it tax free. To qualify, couples must meet the go to www.gov.uk/deferring-state-pension following criteria: • Be married or in a civil partnership • Both parties must be born on or after 6 April 1935 State Pension Age – review • One party must be a non-taxpayer (i.e. earns up to £11,000 in 2016/17) The Pensions Act 2014 requires the State Pension Age to be reviewed during each Parliament. • The other party must be a basic rate (20%) taxpayer (i.e. up to £43,000 in 2016/17) The reviews will consider changes in life expectancy and wider changes in society. They will Once set up, the arrangement will remain in place, and couples signed up for the scheme help to ensure that the State Pension remains sustainable for future generations. should review their situation every year to ensure they still qualify. The first of these reviews is currently under way and will conclude by May 2017. The review For more details and to claim online, go to www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance or is forward looking only and will not re-examine the existing timetable for State Pension Age telephone 0300 200 3300. increases up to April 2028. To check your State Pension Age, go to www.gov.uk/state-pension-age

Sending us your photographs Prospero 2017 The best way to send your photos to us is attached to an email in the file format .jpg – this will produce the best-quality images in the magazine. If you don’t know how to create Copy deadlines and publication dates a .jpg, just follow these steps: There wouldn’t be a magazine without your contributions, so please keep sending in your • If the photo was taken using a digital camera, transfer the file to a computer. If it is a news, stories, memories and announcements. printed copy, use a scanner to create a digital version Please make a note of the publication dates for 2017. We will always endeavour to • Open the image include your submission in the next issue of Prospero, but sometimes we have to hold it back until a later date. • Select ‘File’, then ‘Save as’ • In the ‘Save as type’ drop-down box, choose ‘JPEG File Interchange Format (*.jpg)’ Issue Copy deadline Publication date It’s far better to send the image to us as a .jpg than embed it in a Word document April 2017 Wednesday 8 March Wednesday 5 April • If you drag an image off a website, it may infringe copyright laws but it will also be too June 2017 Wednesday 3 May Thursday 8 June • small to print August 2017 Wednesday 28 June Wednesday 2 August Please note, if you’ve taken a photo from another publication and it’s not your own, October 2017 Wednesday 30 August Wednesday 4 October then please ask for permission from the owner of the picture before forwarding it to December 2017 Wednesday 1 November Wednesday 6 December Prospero. This is due to copyright protection laws.

Please send your editorial contributions, or comments/ feedback, to: Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Prospero is provided free of charge to retired Scheme Broadcasting House, Cardiff CF5 2YQ members, or to their spouses and dependants. Email: prospero@bbc.co.uk Prospero provides a source of news on former colleagues, Please make sure that any digital pictures you send are developments at the BBC and pension issues, plus classified scanned at 300dpi. adverts. It is available online at www.bbc.co.uk/mypension The next issue of Prospero will appear in April 2017. To advertise in Prospero, please see page 12. The copy deadline is Wednesday, 8 March 2017.

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2017 BACK AT THE BBC 03

Forty years ago on 3 January, Radio Cymru Happy birthday to – the one and only Welsh-language national a Welsh institution radio station – was born. t broke free from the world of opt-outs, Where else would you find a programme by Betsan Powys where you might emerge from where audiences turn up in village halls and listening, say, to The Archers and stumble pubs to hear teams of poets going head to across a Welsh-language documentary, head? Talwrn y Beirdd is a jewel in our crown Ibefore being safely returned to Radio 4 Wales. not just because it’s brilliant and entertaining Creating a radio station that broadcast stuff, but because no one else does it like fully in Welsh was long overdue said its fans; we do. it was in danger of becoming a ghetto for If you’d tuned in to our digital pop-up Welsh-language programming said others. station, RC Mwy, launched on the iPlayer But while they analysed, Radio Cymru got Radio app to mark our 40th anniversary, on with it and set out to persuade its you’d know that the Welsh-language music listeners that VHF - FM had a future. scene is thriving – thanks in no small part If you spoke Welsh, then Hywel Gwynfryn’s to Radio Cymru. breakfast show Helo Bobol! was for you. In our house, we spoke Welsh so we listened to Hywel and to Radio Cymru – it ‘Where else would you find a was that simple. When there were birthdays programme where audiences to be celebrated, you did it with requests on turn up in village halls and pubs Radio Cymru. to hear teams of poets going When heavy snow was falling and you needed to know which shops had bread on head to head?’ the shelves, or waited with bated breath for news of school closures, you did it with And it’s thanks to a succession of Radio Cymru Radio Cymru. commentators that the language has kept up News bulletins on that first morning were with the changing vocabulary of football delivered by journalist Gwyn Llewelyn, who and rugby over four decades. Without them, brought stories from every single corner of I’m not sure Dylan Griffiths would ever have Wales – some big, some very small, local and stood in the Stade de Bordeaux last June, from all four corners of the country. microphone in hand and screamed ‘Bale… We still broadcast every weekday from Bordeaux…Bendigedig!’ Cardiff, Bangor, Carmarthen and Aberystwyth, Yet there is an uncomfortable reality to not because it makes life technically any easier face. The Welsh language is under pressure. Presenter Aled Hughes (left) on Radio Cymru’s birthday, but because if you want to speak to the There’s competition from the growing 3 January 2017, discussing Radio Cymru’s launch in 1977 with guest Dei Tomos – who joined the station from the beginning. whole of Wales, you need to be there, live number of digital stations who barely notice there and work there. national boundaries. For my children and for And from those early days, on BBC Radio their friends, Welsh language culture is one Cymru, ‘BBC’ stood for ‘Y Bobol Biau’r Cyfrwng’ part of a patchwork of influences that –‘the people own the media’. straddle, Welsh, British and international cultures. It’s not that simple any more. Missing Doctor Who episode Loyal listeners So as we celebrate, Radio Cymru will look As Radio Cymru turns 40, you’ll be hard back and make the most of forty fantastic pressed to find a national radio station that years of archives. But more importantly, revived 50 years on has more loyal listeners, or who believe we’ll look ahead and hand-in-hand with ‘their’ station is more precious. our listeners, we’ll have a ball. It is considered one of the most important ‘lost’ ones, as it was the first to feature the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton, (pictured right with the third Doctor, MYSTERY SUDOKU WIN John Pertwee) and his clash with the Doctor’s greatest enemy. £10 In February 2016 Rob Ritchie was asked to create a demo reel, which was commissioned. The Sunderland University graduate said: ‘I was initially only brought on board to make the trailer and animate the Daleks for the story, but when we worked out the logistics of the production I was quickly promoted to CGI animator and Despite the popularity of the television lead compositor. Timelord, 97 episodes were lost by ‘This entailed piecing the whole project the BBC. together, taking on the character animation Rob Ritchie, from Sunderland, was and placing the characters in the correct approached by a BBC producer who places, adding the backgrounds and spotted his animation work on YouTube, creating visual effects. and he ended up making a trailer for one ‘It’s a really, really important story in of the most important lost episodes. terms of the Doctor Who universe as it’s the He became the creative force behind the first time the doctor changed faces, and animated recreation of The Power of the Daleks, without that programme the story now available on DVD and download. wouldn’t exist today. Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains the letters ACEHILMRS The serial was originally broadcast in ‘Plus, obviously, there are Daleks in it, in some order. One row or column contains a five or more letter word or name with a 1966 but was later destroyed, with only a and who doesn’t love Daleks?’ BBC connection. Solve the sudoku to discover what it is and send your answer to: The few stills surviving, along with the audio, Released on 21 November, the DVD is Editor, Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Broadcasting House, Cardiff CF5 2YQ which had been recorded by a fan. available to buy online from all good retailers. by Monday, 13 March. The winner gets a £10 voucher. Many thanks to Neil Somerville for providing this puzzle.

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2017 04 LETTERS

I expect that the tapes Music & subtitles JOHN HALE ASKED ‘Does anybody ‘A first class voyage’ used for the ICA DVD I was VERY interested to read the letter care any more?’ The answer has to be I’ve enjoyed recent editions of Prospero and, would be made from by John Hale in the latest edition of Prospero. a resounding ‘NO’. If anyone at the in particular, the feature on the very much the digital copies I completely agree with his comments BBC watched programmes in domestic valued BBC’s pension visitor scheme, compiled by the BBC about intrusive, unnecessary music surroundings, they would know how reporting on the recent get-together, which library at Brentford and spoiling one’s enjoyment of so many TV bad the sound really is. Recently, a BBC I’m sure must have taken a considerable I have no idea to what programmes today. producer said he did watch programmes amount of organisation. extent this programme And, yes John, media students are taught at home on an enormous television – Being interested in nautical subjects I was would intensify or that all programmes have three basic sound probably on expenses and costing more interested to read Heather Summers Turner’s diminish the effect of ingredients: foreground speech, sound than the average viewer can afford. article ‘A First Class Voyage’ about her 1944 the scratching. Chris Rogers says that effects, and music, and that all three should If background music is allowed sailing across the Atlantic to Portugal (although excellent restoration has been achieved. I do run virtually continuously! to intrude to the exclusion of dialogue she rather underestimated the dangers that hope this is the case but his reference to ‘spot I say this as someone who taught media in drama, if the viewer is forced to must been present) followed by her flight in flickers’ sound a bit like scratching to me! studies for many years at university, during watch with subtitles – who cares? a Dakota – an aircraft that certainly didn’t Of course, ICA’s internet page refers to and after my BBC career. I didn’t teach that Now this fad for music is everywhere, enjoy the best of safety records. ‘film’ and I am afraid this is a battle long approach for one moment but most of the Brian Hawkins since lost. Film had nothing to do with from Buying and Selling (where it actually textbooks did. this programme. It was recorded using drowns the dialogue) to Newsnight, I now have significant hearing multi-camera technique and recorded, dumbing down this illustrious impairment and I find unwanted music Dream of Gerontius on location, to video tape over three days, does indeed greatly spoil my enjoyment programme even more. Oh yes, and and electronically edited at Television Centre of many programmes, obscuring the speech. even the News doesn’t escape – 9/11/16 & the Angel of Agony over several more. The original tapes were I mostly watch with subtitles now, but herein 13.00 and 22.00! I read with interest Chris Rogers’ letter about uncut but probably wiped for re-use, as it lies another minefield: why cannot the Production staff direct from media the Boult 1968 Canterbury recording. Firstly, was a very expensive medium at that time. BBC standardise on well-constructed subtitles courses with a ‘degree’ who know the transmission date: I am sure that when I Finally, when I made my CD copy, I also that work? By this, I mean the following: nothing of the language of television, first responded to the request in July 2012, made one for the director, the sound supervisor subtitles should last long enough for one just want to be louder and more brash I had the paperwork to hand that confirmed and the VT recording engineer, plus one for to be able to read them – but no longer, than their colleagues. Production values the December 1968 broadcast. As I recall, Janet Baker. This was because a friend was a i.e. roughly the time it takes for the speech are based on Die Hard and Star Wars, where it was part of the BBC’s Christmas schedule. member of the Harrow Philharmonic Choir to be delivered. dialogue is considered crass and music I attach scans of cuttings that I kept of which Janet Baker is president. The friend In many programmes, the subtitles come the king. (with the tapes) gave it to one of the committee of the society up and stay on screen obscuring other visual With The Missing, it was the dialogue from the Radio Times to pass on to Janet. I enclosed a short note information until either the next piece of which was missing, extra low volume, that I used to to her to explain why, after all these years, speech occurs or a long time interval has but the music... I don’t want to spend produce the CD the CD had come to be created. expired. Also, as noticeably seen on the the evening wrestling with volume front, inside and I rather assume it went astray because recent History of China series, they very often control to avoid a noise pollution order! back of the case I never heard anything back and Janet Baker obscure other subtitles giving people’s names The Press and viewers have many I made for my is such a charming, down-to-earth and etc. or worse still, on-screen translations of times expressed views on loud, intrusive two-CD edited copy. thoroughly nice lady that I find it odd foreign language speech. This means one ‘incidental’ music and have formed the (The ¼” tapes were there was no acknowledgement. has to be forever rewinding and replaying opinion that having a balanced sound not edited at all, just If Chris Rogers can, through his sections in order to get the full wordage output is almost beyond the scope of all recorded to the membership of The Elgar Society, navigate relevant to the story. PC (from a Studer the field of copyright and arrange that my most engineers and production teams. Lastly, I would like to grouse about the tape deck) and edited using Adobe Audition.) CD copy can be legally and officially made When even the volume on the News goes News, and other live programmes! The subtitles Unfortunately, the Radio Times clips do not give available to the public, I would be more up and down, that is inexcusable for these generally run about five seconds any date information. I shall purchase a copy than pleased to provide him with a copy later than the mouth movements that gave and very sloppy! of the ICA DVD to view with great interest. (at no cost). rise to them. This again is most frustrating Probably the corporate excuse is that The original broadcast two-inch video Further to discussion as to first for those of us with poor hearing, partly many programmes these days are bought tapes were 60’ (part 1) and 90’ (part 2) transmission date, others have felt that the because we get confused as to who is saying in, which then leads to the question of reels. Some time later, they were sent to first transmission was before Christmas what sometimes, and partly because the ‘do you have Quality Control’? an outside company for copying for BBC 1968. Chris Rogers points out that the application of lip-reading skills becomes Maybe Lord Hall and the Board of Enterprises sales. Reel 2 was badly scratched BBC Genome project lists transmissions mostly pointless. Governors would care to view in a over a period of some minutes. On two-inch for 14 April 1968, 25 May 1969 and I think that there is a possible solution suburban semi one night and then give video tape, the recording is made transversely 5 October 1975. The original recording to this. If the subtitles were generated their opinion on sound quality. I’m sure across the tape with 40 tracks per frame was in the summer of 1968 and I doubt live but the pre-subtitle picture and sound that plenty of licence payers would (1/25 of a second). that this took place before April and the were delayed by five seconds before the delight in welcoming them in – or don’t Scratching appears as 40 very minute but editing obviously took place after that. subtitles were then added, they would then they care either? very bright white dots, evenly spaced over the The April date cannot be 1969, as the be mostly in sync. I don’t see that this is a Chris Cherry picture, oscillating slightly from side to side, programme would not be repeated just major technological problem and it would due to the instability of the rotating drum over a month later. make a world of difference to the one carrying the four record/playback heads. A project as large as the BBC Genome seventh of the population who have A trio of Rays This is rotating at 250 revolutions per second. will understandably acquire some errors, hearing problems. (So four tracks take 1/250 of a second to particularly if the entries have been created I was sorry to hear of Ray Muncey’s death Please think about these things, replay and 40 tracks take 1/25 of a second.) by OCR (optical character recognition). (December 2016 Prospero). He was among programme makers. These losses of signal from the tape are Indeed, most of us have been shown some the people who started work at the BBC And for those who might remember me, extremely short and defeat the drop-out of the hilarious results to which this process Ealing Film Studios at the same time as I’m not grumpy all the time! detector that would normally replace longer can lead. For example, the Genome entry me in 1970. Andrew Lawrence signal losses with information from the for 5 October 1975 shows: ‘conductor At that time, Ray Holroyd was the EIC, preceding television line. Sir Adrian Boult and The Angel of Agony.’ and there was one day when all three of One of our very clever VT chaps devised a Geoff Higgs Baldock – again us were in the film maintenance workshop, system to generate a switching signal from I, too, have memories of Baldock – but the door opened and someone shouted the rotating head drum that would switch somewhat different to those of Geoff Mitchell ‘Ray’. Three heads simultaneously turned the drop-out compensator on for a brief time TVC memories (Prospero, December 2016). towards the door. I think the ‘Boris’ and it had a manual control to position the The December pensions newsletter showing I was acting for my section head when I nickname started soon after to help avoid timing of the switching to cover the ‘stars at the aerial view of the TV Centre London had to ring Baldock for some information: confusion! I worked briefly in East Tower in night’ sparkling from scratches, and thus bought back memories. I was able to identify ‘I can’t give it to you, you’re not on my list.’ 1971, and also Lime Grove, before moving make them disappear. Obviously, this the Stanlake Road house (at 11 o’clock) in ‘But, I’m acting for someone who is.’ to Telecine in 1972, and then to Pebble Mill required some setting up and rehearsal, and which I lived 1956-57 and from where I ‘It’s more than my job’s worth to tell you.’ in January 1974. Sadly, I lost touch with my was used to restore some important walked into the rear entrance of the Centre, So, I rang his boss in Central London, London colleagues but still meet up with programmes that had suffered this fate. where I worked in the Telecine Department whom I knew quite well, and got the answer. ex Pebble Mill colleagues at the Tally Ho, However, Gerontius had, by this time, been after transferring from Lime Grove It was the only time I ever heard that phrase. most months. transmitted several times and this technique presentation – happy days! Charles Hope Ray Lee was not applied to this recording. Laurice J Darkin

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2017 05 Sporting facts Baird – father How surprising it was to see a letter in CONTACTS Prospero’s December edition slightly criticising of television? an omission in an excellent obituary of Whilst I agree with all the facts stated by Lloyd Silverthorne in the December edition Visiting Scheme that splendid man, Tim Neale, written by of Prospero, there is one way in which Baird Available to BBC pensioners over 70, Michael Barton. has to be regarded as a ‘founder’ of television. those recently bereaved, and anyone The criticism came from Jon Silverman. Although he was clearly on the wrong in poor health, the scheme is a method Well, we should never spoil a good story track technically, what he did do in the 20s of keeping in touch and operates by checking the facts but Jon made two and early 30s was to awaken the BBC and the throughout the UK. Visitors are BBC major errors. government, not to mention business leaders pensioners themselves. If you want to As the reporter of sport he referred to and professionals, to the fact the TV had be visited, receive a phone call or meet back in the 1970s, I can reveal that I was Here is a picture that my grandfather-in-law, arrived and had to be noticed as a future John Curtis, took when he was working up somewhere mutually convenient, never an amateur. I was paid for every medium of communication. call 029 2032 2811. The contact is the broadcast that I made by the BBC, and also for the BBC on location. The picture was He spent a large proportion of his life, taken in the 1970s, with Johnny Austin same if you would like to become a visitor. for every article I wrote for 36 years by wearing himself out physically, getting Sheffield Newspapers. and the rest of his work colleagues. John’s advisory bodies, industrialists, journalists, colleague is grabbing another colleague to Queries Most of the broadcasts concerned football and technical folk of all sciences to climb get shots. He is keen to get an article in his For benefit and pension payroll queries, in which I had been a player and then a those stairs to his attic in Frith Street, Soho... favourite paper. call the Service Line on 029 2032 2811 qualified coach and referee. I also knew most and also to persuade at least one West End Hannah Doughty or email [email protected] of the rules of cricket, snooker and Crown store to exhibit his amazing apparatus. green bowls. He transmitted the Epsom Derby live to a When the Sheffield chapter of the NUJ West End cinema, the TV OB units forever Does anyone Prospero attempted to turn their strike at Radio after to be called ‘scanners’ as a result. To delete a name from the distribution list, Sheffield into a National Strike, Esther Finally, he managed after many attempts to ring the Service Line on 029 2032 2811. Rantzen was the only Union member to remember? get the BBC to at least try the medium out on On reading John Harrison’s letter entitled Prospero is provided free of charge to ring me to ascertain my sporting its radio transmitters after closedown, with retired BBC Scheme members only. background. Later that same morning in ‘The Producers’ in December’s Prospero, I am professional producers and actors joining in! prompted to write that as the Corporation is Prospero is also available on audio London, she addressed the NUJ meeting, ‘Father’ does not seem too bad a title to me. steadily progressing with its planned reduction disc for those with sight impairment. who then voted by over 150 votes to three Pete Simpkin in staff, the number of production credits per To register, please ring the Service Line. not call a National Strike. television programme, whizzing through at a Alternatively, it is also available online Jon’s other error? I was never a FURTHER TO LLOYD Silverthorne’s letter ridiculous speed making them hardly legible, at www.bbc.co.uk/mypension, greengrocer. I owned and managed a re John Logie Baird, we should perhaps is increasing! under ‘Documents’. WHOLESALE fruit and vegetable business in remember more importantly the name of John, remembering his days as floor the Parkway Market in Sheffield, which I Alan Archibald Campbell-Swinton, a Scottish electrical engineer like Baird, who in 1908 manager on the programme Gardening Club, BBC Club then sold in 1980. took me back to Studio H, Lime Grove, That left me free to apply for the vacant in a letter to Nature proposed an electronic The BBC Club in London has a retired system like the one we have today, and in and working there myself in vision control, membership costing £3 per month or post of Sports Producer at Radio Sheffield. affectionately known as ‘racks’. Studio H was I was successful and retired in 1991. 1911 expanded the idea in an address to the £36 per year. Members can also add Rontgen Society of London. Unfortunately, the smallest in Lime Grove. Its output included As BBC Radio Sheffield reaches its 50th friends and family to their membership no one at that time had any idea how to make the much loved early ‘soap’, The Grove Family, birthday next November, I hope to meet for a small additional cost. Regional it work and it was some years before a daily live schools programme, and the early clubs may have different arrangements. Jon and other old colleagues at any technology made it possible. Once the system days of the Tonight programme. I seem to planned reunion. Please call the BBC Club London was finally developed by EMI, there was really recall working on the first ever edition of office on 020 8752 6666 or email Incidentally, the NUJ freelance sports no way Baird’s cumbersome mechanical Grandstand there too. journalist referred to in Jon’s letter was Ian [email protected] for details or device, clever though it was, could survive But also, and relevant to John Harrison’s to join. Jowitt, who worked at Radio Sheffield for against the electronic system when the two letter, I seem to remember Studio H hosting many years. He was very knowledgeable, systems were tested side by side by the BBC an edition of a gardening programme. For particularly about tennis, cricket and in studios A and B at Alexandra Palace for a this, a greenhouse frame, without glass, was Benevolent Fund rugby union. short while in the 1930s. erected and then filled with plants that Percy This is funded by voluntary contributions Robert Jackson Brian Langley Thrower, who presented the programme, from the BBC and its purpose is to had brought by trailer behind his car and protect the welfare of staff, pensioners conveniently unloaded in the road outside. and their families. Grants are made I realise that Birmingham 1950/60s at the discretion of the Trustees. They onwards was the source of the majority of may provide assistance in cases of gardening programmes. Perhaps the reason unforeseen financial hardship, for which for using Studio H, Lime Grove, West help from other sources is not available. London, might have been that the premises Tel: 029 2032 2811 in Birmingham were being refurbished at that time. Can anybody remember if this Prospero Society was the reason? Prospero Society is the only section of Brian Hawkins, North Somerset the BBC Club run by and for retired BBC staff and their spouses. Its aim Library life is to enable BBC pensioners to meet on a social basis for theatre visits, I know that occasionally you feature books luncheons, coach outings etc. in Prospero by ex-BBC Staffers. I have my tenth book coming out in February – I’ve had nine Prospero Society is supported by novels published over the past 30 years and BBC Club funds so as to make events this is my first work of non-fiction. It’s about affordable. If you would like an my post-BBC life, working in the local application form, please contact: library – which, I grant you, doesn’t sound Gayner Leach, BBC Club, BC2 B3 particularly fascinating, but it’s essentially a Broadcast Centre, 201 Wood Lane, series of vignettes of the people who use it London W12 7TP – the homeless, the lonely, the bemused. Tel: 020 8752 6666 Reading Allowed: True stories and curious indents Email: [email protected] from a provincial library is published by Constable and Robinson on 2 February 2017. I took redundancy from the BBC five years BBCPA ago having served 30 odd years, mainly as a For details of how to join the Pensioners’ Radio 4 producer, latterly of Midweek. Association, see the panel on this page. Chris Paling

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2017 06 LIFE BEFORE AUNTIE

A real can of worms by Brian Hawkins

In the last 65 years, I’ve had two encounters with the ‘mess deck buzz’. Arthur Lasson thought it a good story which I might like to pursue. aircraft carrier HMS Implacable. The first was in 1953, I didn’t know that Arthur, then in his 84th year, was terminally ill. I promised that as when I served on her sister ship HMS Indefatigable. soon as I was able, I’d search Implacable’s log at the National Archives at Kew and see what These two aircraft carriers made up the training I could discover. squadron for the influx of National Service ratings Sure enough, on that particular Sunday in October 1945, the vessel had been opened to the Royal Navy. to visitors and, apart from a Hamilton deck watch, which was recorded as missing or lost, there were no other entries relating to My next encounter with Implacable came that day. Strangely, this entry concerning the nearly 60 years later, via the written word. deck watch in the log had been neatly ruled treatment within the ship and 18 visitors were A retired colleague in my civilian career, through and the alteration initialled by the taken to hospital’. The report continued, Arthur Lasson, contacted me. He’d served Navigation Officer. ‘anything moveable was stolen, even live shells during the Second World War as a Royal Sadly, I was never able to on pass on the from the Bofor guns, rubber eye pieces from Marine on HMS Implacable. little I had learned about Implacable’s visit to anti aircraft guns, rifles, cutlery, tea cups and Vancouver, as Arthur Lasson had died and it even an officer’s cabin was raided, stealing the could easily have been the end of my search occupant’s underwear, even his socks! Three of to find out what really happened aboard the four Hamilton deck watches were recovered Implacable that day over 65 years ago. … but the location of the fourth remains a Several months later, some old friends mystery!’ The Province reported that the main ost of the time, the vessels were who’d emigrated to British Columbia in the chronometer was rendered unserviceable, moored in Weymouth Bay, late 1950s were visiting. We met up and over having been vandalised by souvenir-hunting within easy reach of Portland a long lunch, we reminisced. The fact that visitors. So my late colleague’s ‘mess deck buzz’ Harbour and the shore base, they lived just outside Vancouver prompted had been based on fact and this maybe MHMS Osprey. I remember those grey autumn me to mention the Implacable’s time in accounted for Implacable’s delayed departure for mornings when I, as a fender boy, part of Vancouver as one of my recent interests. Hong Kong. a motor boats crew, helped to pick up the I said how I’d like to be able to delve into officers who chose to live in Weymouth on the archives of British Columbian ‘rations ashore’. newspapers of October 1945. My friends ‘...anything moveable was But our days moored in Weymouth Bay suggested that I contact Jim Hume, a were numbered. The forenoons of dashing Arthur Lasson - 1944. freelance journalist, veteran and regular stolen, even live shells about in Indefatigable’s motor boats collecting contributor to The Times Columnist. His from the Bofor guns, mail from the service Post Office at In September 1945, at the conclusion of the particular interest was recollections of the Portland and enjoying cream doughnuts war in the Far East, Implacable was in Sydney. Second World War. rubber eye pieces from and milky coffee in the Salvation Army With hostilities over, the ship’s air wing This I did, relating the story and explaining canteen there soon came to a close. I wasn’t disembarked and Implacable took on board to Jim how I couldn’t substantiate and add anti aircraft guns, rifles, sorry not to have to scale up the swinging 2,000 camp beds. The Sydney Morning Herald detail to the memories of my deceased ladder to the boom on these return trips to reported Implacable was ‘going for the first colleague. Was the reason given for Implacable’s cutlery, tea cups and secure the craft, with Indefatigable towering time on a mission of mercy rather than one delayed departure just a ‘mess deck buzz’? even an officer’s cabin above me. of destruction’. Thus prepared, she was I didn’t really expect any detailed reply but, We set off, in company with Implacable, on under orders to make passage to Manila to much to my surprise, within a couple of was raided, stealing the a NATO exercise heading south to the Bay of repatriate 2,000 allied ex-prisoners who’d weeks came the text of an article he had just Biscay, acting as a convoy to be the target of been held in Japanese prison camps. With the written and published in The Times Columnist occupant’s underwear, mock attacks from an invisible enemy back ex-POWs aboard, Implacable sailed, crossing under the headline of ‘Ugly Thieving Crowd in those days of the Cold War. I assume these the Pacific via Pearl Harbour to Vancouver, Looted British Warship’. even his socks!’ seamanship exercises were intentionally a voyage of some 23 days. Since my email to him, Jim Hume had planned for the autumn equinox, with its What prompted ex-Royal Marine Lasson trawled the newspaper archives and, from predictably adverse weather conditions. to contact me was to relate what he’d the material he uncovered, written the most The only mention in Implacable’s log relevant to It was a rough passage in heavy sea and witnessed in Vancouver in October 1945: graphic description of Implacable’s visit. events of this dramatic afternoon, apart from a rating aboard Implacable was swept off a Implacable arrived in Canada to a hero’s The Province newspaper, on Monday the reference to a Hamilton deck watch no. forward gun sponson, and then back on-board welcome. The POW servicemen disembarked, 15 October 1945, reported that ‘a crowd 822, was an entry that by 1800hrs ‘all by way of the quarterdeck, in a bewildered to take the train across Canada to the east of 50,000 had jammed the pier but only visitors ashore.’ But they were not. According state, to enjoy a remarkable recovery! coast and join passenger liners to sail back to 20,000 had made it on-board’ and ‘once to Vancouver Daily’s report of the time, ‘a Once Lisbon was within sight, we changed Europe. After this, Implacable’s log records that aboard Implacable, many fainted in the seven-year-old boy was found on-board the course and headed northwards. I assumed the ship was opened to the public from crowded corridors, 350 visitors received following day – chipper and full of life – the exercise was over. Our next destination 1400hrs to 1800hrs. It was the events that running along a corridor, known as ‘The was the Scilly Isles, where we understood took place during this four-hour period on Burma Road’, three decks below by Lt A. St all kinds of excursions had been arranged for 14 October that I later learned about and Clair Armitage.’ Indefatigable’s company to enjoy. A boat from which I found hard believe. The damage to Implacable totalled $5,000 Plymouth was to rendezvous with us off Implacable was due to sail after Sunday – in 1945 dollars! The mayor of Vancouver St Mary’s to be our liberty boat, but our 14 October back across the Pacific to Hong offered full compensation, but the offer was period at anchor off St Mary’s was short-lived. Kong but was delayed until 18 October. declined by Captain Hughes-Hallett, who In just a matter of hours, a gale blew up. Not The reason for this delay had stuck in the was reported as saying, ‘Sunday is behind wanting to follow the fate of HMS Association, mind of Marine Lasson and, knowing my us.’ He continued, ‘It was the best welcome Clowdisley Shovel’s flagship two centuries interest in martime topics, had prompted Implacable has ever received anywhere.’ When before, Indefatigable made a hasty retreat to him to contact me. she sailed from Vancouver, it was reported that deeper, safer waters to ride out the storm. The rumour circulating the mess decks four marines and six seamen were missing, After the exercise, I never saw our sister all those years ago was that one of the pair presumably still ashore, maybe looking for a ship Implacable again. Shortly following that of the ship’s chronometers had been Hamilton deck watch no. 822? Scilly Isles adventure, our entry of National damaged while the ship was open to the Mentioning the Implacable story to my Service ratings left, in my case to RNB public. Implacable would not be able to friends from Vancouver certainly did open a Chatham and subsequently to join the sail with just a single chronometer for can of worms! cruiser HMS Superb. navigation. Perhaps this was merely a In memory of Royal Marine Arthur Lasson, 1922-2008.

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2017 LIFE AFTER AUNTIE 07

Lecture series: Celebrating Christmas and a special birthday join the group for lunch to reminisce about Georgi Markov – her years when assisting the late Patrick Moore and then head for the Underground to avoid the rush hour and make her way home to St Johns Wood. first-hand accounts On Saturday 19 November, an impressive number of BBC Club members and guests by Peter Udell from London and beyond congregated at the Club Western House, dressed for the occasion. Georgi Markov (pictured left) was We indulged in having the traditional season’s This year the Prospero Society committee meal but the highlight was the toast to Arline attacked on Waterloo Bridge on his agreed, in cooperation with the BBC Club who, with her charming smile, radiant with and the staff at the Club Western House, on joy in her bright red outfit, stood up with way to the Bulgarian section of the an extremely early date for their Christmas impeccable posture and thanked us all with World Service in Bush House on lunch to coincide with the celebration of one words which expressed her desire to plan member’s special birthday. and enjoy many more events in the future. 7 September 1978. He died four Arline Firth received a card with birthday The 100th birthday cake was ceremoniously wishes signed by Her Majesty the Queen on presented with sparking candles while, elated days later, poisoned by a pellet containing ricin: 17 November 2016. by the confidence Arline had exuded to all Most of us have met Arline on various around her, we sang the well-known song. the victim of the ‘umbrella murder’. outings and not only admired but also envied After we left the venue, it felt like the her stamina. In 2003 I remember seeing spirit of the birthday celebration was Arline walk independently along the long overflowing into Regents Street, awash with A dissident writer Writing under communism corridors for a tour of the TV Centre, stand festive lights, to whisper in our ears ‘hip, hip Last autumn, as part of a project to help In our lectures – or rather dialogues – and listen patiently to the guide’s lengthy and cheers to the inspiring lady in red!’ young Bulgarians know more about to several hundred students as well as presentations in various echoing studios, Rodica Mager their country’s communist past, the Sofia academics, Hamid and I talked about Platform organised several lectures in Georgi and how the authorities dealt with Bulgarian universities. Their focus: our him while he was in Bulgaria. We also former BBC colleague, Georgi. In the talked about how, after he left, he was World’s most remote inhabited 1960s, he had been one of Bulgaria’s sentenced in his absence to six and a half leading playwrights and novelists, until years in prison, and about how he began several of his plays were attacked, their to build a reputation as a writer in Britain island honours former BBC man performances were stopped, and he left – until his murder by the Bulgarian Former BBC Midlands Senior Press Officer and deal to me and to Julie. While we were there, for the West. secret police. Local Radio pioneer, Chris Bates, has been we had the chance to see the preparations for For these lectures, one of the speakers honoured by the islanders of Tristan da Cunha the new hospital and to see how improvements suggested to Sofia Platform by Georgi’s as part of their 200th anniversary celebrations to the harbour are improving access. They widow, Annabel, was Hamid Ismailov. marking the settlement of what is now the were the priorities which I urged politicians He has been the World Service’s writer in most remote inhabited island on Earth. and civil servants to support when I worked residence, and is one of the founders of its Chris was made an MBE in the 2015 New for Tristan – without those capital projects, Georgi Markov playwriting competition. Year’s Honours for services to Tristan da it might not have been possible for people to He was also one of the leading writers Cunha in the UK and worldwide, when he continue to live on the island. in Uzbekistan, both while it was part retired from his voluntary role as the ‘I thought the island and the people looked of the Soviet Union and for a few years islanders’ UK Representative. in good form and good heart. Their welcome afterwards. He, like Georgi, was attacked A series of events throughout 2016 marked was wholehearted and warm. When it was as a dissident, left his homeland, and the bicentenary of the settling of the remote time to go, we felt very emotional, knowing came to work in Bush House. island (1,750 miles from Cape Town, 2,200 that we would be unlikely ever to be able to I was the other speaker, with no such from Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo) as part return, but we’re looking forward to welcoming background, but I had been the Bulgarian Peter Udell. of British precautions against a French islanders visiting the UK to our new home programme organiser in the early 1970s, attempt to free Napoleon from his exile on near Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire.’ when Georgi joined us; and I was very We talked, too, about writers in other St Helena, 1,500 miles to the north. A full report on the islanders’ celebrations aware of his remarkable qualities as a communist countries. In this, Hamid was Today, a community of just over 260 can be found on the island’s website, creative and original individual. Later, able to give our audiences a unique insight people earns a living from catching and www.tristandc.com working on broadcasts to the Soviet from his own past and the pressures on processing the Tristan Lobster (actually a Union and other East European countries, him. More broadly, we talked about the crayfish) for export to upmarket restaurants I became very aware of dissident writers media in the Soviet Union and Eastern and food outlets around the world and from and of the pressures on them, ranging Europe, and how it was tightly controlled. conservation work with its unique wildlife, from censorship to imprisonment. We talked about the secret police and how from the sale of colourful postage stamps to they inhibited free speech. collectors and from handicrafts. As well as these lectures, we were Chris and his wife Julie made the six-day interviewed at length – including live voyage from Cape Town to Tristan on board interviews on National Radio and the South African icebreaker, SA Agulhas II, Television. We also visited Georgi’s statue in the company of his successor – Chris that was unveiled by the President two Carnegy, Editor, Local TV, BBC English Chris with the bicentennial plaque years ago. Regions, who also undertakes the role of presented to him on Tristan and MBE. Hamid and I weren’t able to judge the being the islanders’ voice in the outside impact of these lectures, but the organisers world on a voluntary basis. have given us a remarkably positive The plaque was presented by the outgoing assessment. ‘The lectures were a great Administrator of Tristan, Alex Mitham, in The success not only in sparking a discussion Residency in the island capital, Edinburgh- among young people and the wider public of-the-Seven-Seas, during a ceremony with about the important role of Georgi Markov Chief Islander, Ian Lavarello, honouring as a dissident, a journalist and a writer but others who have made a significant also in addressing the totalitarian nature of contribution to the isolated community of the communist regime in Bulgaria and in this volcanic island, just seven miles by seven. Chris (left) with his successor as UK Representative Hamid Ismailov. underlining the importance of freedom of Chris said, ‘It was a completely unexpected of Tristan da Cunha – Chris Carnegy, Editor, speech in democratic societies. honour and something which means a great Local TV, BBC English Regions.

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2017 08 MEMORIES The fascination of

Alexandra Palace by Alan Robinson

I was born in 1946, the year following my father’s safe return from the war, and our family lived within sight of Alexandra Palace. As luck would have it, our house in Belmont Avenue, West Tottenham, backed onto a school playground, so from our upper storey back windows, we had a clear and almost uninterrupted view to Alexandra Palace up there on the hill in the distance, a couple of miles away.

s a lad, while my mother was in popularity, I recall many a pleasant summer It was not until many years later that my cooking the Sunday roast, I would Sunday evening spent at Downhills Park with future career in high-street banking often sit looking out of that upstairs my family, around the edge of that extended inadvertently lead me into the BBC. window all the way to Ally Pally. If western field where every seat would be taken Following a failed house move down to Interior plans of Alexandra Palace in 1953. itA was a clear sunny day, all the better. Even up. The band could be heard playing in the Dorset, and having parted from the bank, my from that distance, it was fascinating to bandstand on the eastern perimeter of the wife and I decided to stay in Enfield, where Back in 1953, in those wonderful pioneering watch the single-decker buses trundling up field upon which a cricket match would be in we then lived. I needed a new job fast and I and technically inventive days of BBC drama, and down the hill. Of course, back in those progress with all the players wearing white. spotted that the BBC was advertising for we in our houses spread out at the bottom days and into the early 1950s, BBC Radio Not being that long after the end of the cashiers in the Evening Standard. So in 1983, I of Alexandra Palace hill, being scared out of reigned supreme and families would crowd Second World War, it must have been a heavenly joined the BBC. Based at Broadcasting House, our wits, had no idea of what was taking around their radio sets of an evening. We had time and place for my parents to relax in. I got to serve in most central London BBC place up on the hill in Studio A, so close to an old Philips set and would listen intently to buildings and as far out as Brookman’s Park, us. The sheer complexity of what was going the likes of Henry Hall, Jack Payne, In Town The end of an era Caversham Park and Milton Keynes. As such, I on there, that combined live broadcast Tonight, Much Binding in the Marsh, Dirk Barton Then, with the Queen’s Coronation got to see how the BBC functioned in a with inset 35mm pre-filmed sequences, Special Agent, PC 49, and Journey into Space, to approaching, like many folk, our family wider sense. all linked together to produce the whole, name but a few. purchased our first television set: the iconic By 1985, BBC Elstree Centre had become was groundbreaking. brown Bakelite cased 9” Bush. With the operational and I became Cashier to the site advent of TV, family habits changed and in for the next seven highly enjoyable years, ‘...in the blink of an eye, the blink of an eye, it seemed, families then latterly as Regional Cashier for the now preferred to stay in and watch the TV of a defunct South & East Region, which also it seemed, families then Sunday evening instead of going to the park! had its HQ at Elstree Centre. preferred to stay in It was the end of an era. Early TV back then was quite wonderful. Second wind and watch the TV of Looking back, the viewers were just as much Following the Page Report in 1992, the an integral part of what the BBC was all BBC’s cashiering function was shut down a Sunday evening’ about as the Corporation itself. We quite nationwide and I became redundant. Having happily endured all those early broadcast greatly enjoyed working for the BBC, I then The Quatermass Experiment surviving reels... technical difficulties: the test cards, the gaps set about trying to return, but of course this episode 1. At the bottom of our turning, we had a terrific between broadcast times, the trade test films, was difficult as my old department no longer old Victorian park, Downhills, named after the breaks in transmission due to technical existed and I knew I was going to need new Even to this day, for me the Quatermass series, the big old country house built around 1730 problems and the interludes. For TV viewers, skills and direction to do so. So, it was in a set in the post-war era it was, remains the at the top of a hill. After a campaign by local it was a time of wonderment. The children’s completely new guise that I returned to the scariest TV drama I have ever seen. This is residents, Tottenham Urban District Council programmes were a bit special too, such as BBC for a second career, at the BBC Archives even allowing for the fuzzy black and white bought the house and grounds in 1902. It Muffin the Mule, Whirligig (with Humphrey in Windmill Road. pictures of that first series, courtesy of the demolished the house and incorporated the Lestocq and Mr Turnip) and Mr Pastry. I think it must have been my wider early Emitron cameras and the vision mixers ornate gardens into a new park, opened to My parents usually allowed me and my knowledge of the workings of the BBC of the time (which actually helped make it the public in 1903. It bought nearby fields sister to stay up a little later on a Saturday that aided my return. Within a short time, appear all the more sinister), sudden black and extended the park westwards. evening and on 18 July 1953, I, like many I became Supervisor/Assistant Manager of screens, and the occasional ‘normal service Before the Queen’s Coronation in 1953 other children and adults that evening, was the library side of the archive. After 18 will be resumed as soon as possible’ break and the subsequent advent of TV that was scared stiff watching the first episode of months, I took on the role of Supervisor in transmission. Those pioneering BBC soon to become radio’s equal and surpass it The Quatermass Experiment. Preservation, engaged in a variety of ongoing technicians up there on the hill had worked issues, all centred around the race against wonders during that evening of Saturday time to save the older material from any 18 July 1953. further deterioration and its transfer over to At Windmill Road, the BBC programme newer formats for the digital age. film vault had run for about 300 yards, For me, ending my working days at the packed from floor to ceiling. In general, the Archive was a pure joy. After all, like most earlier material that had survived was there people, the BBC had been a part of my entire at the beginning of the run. Starting at the life and there I was surrounded by what beginning of the racking, if I took ten paces amounted to the complete history of the BBC and turned right, there on the bottom run from its radio days through to television. of shelves I found cans PL026017 and On one occasion, thinking back to my PL026018: the two surviving Quatermass childhood days growing up in the shadow Experiment reels, episode 1: ‘Contact has of Alexandra Palace, I went in search of what been established’. film reels remained of The Quatermass Experiment. When I first found them, it was a very I found that reels remained only from the special moment for me because I felt my first two episodes (there would have been no life had come full circle since those now need to keep any material back then once long-gone days of my youth and the area transmitted, perhaps only if it had some of London I lived in, of which these reels Me with the two surviving Quatermass Experiment episode 1 reels. technical referral value, which these reels did). had also been a part.

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2017 BACK AT THE BBC 09 The Big Interview

Evan Davis tells Ariel Editor Matt Eastley why this is a great time to be a journalist and how he unwinds with a certain Mr Whippy.

‘When I’m doing The Bottom Line, I’m on very that description but is aware of his strengths: Connect groups comfortable ground but the variety of topics ‘I do think I’m quite good at intelligently The BBC Club offers a range of Connect we discuss on Newsnight means you are more getting to the essence of an issue. Taking a Groups dedicated to fun and learning. exposed and I’m definitely not as comfortable complex, amorphous issue and giving a For details of all our Connect groups, on areas like football or soaps which are my shape to it. I view journalism as helping the go www.bbcclub.com/connect and click dreaded subjects.’ public make sense of something.’ on the Club of your choice! Evan says it’s taken him two years to While Evan’s stint as presenter of Today Have you ever wanted to try Scuba really feel comfortable in the Newsnight role. clearly stood him in good stead for his role, Diving? The Ariel Sub Aqua Club has a Try He confesses to moments of uncertainty and he believes his spell as Economics Editor was Dive session on 7 February from 6.45pm whether he was the right ‘fit’ but has even better experience for helping provide at Oasis Sports Centre WC2H 9AG. overcome these now. context to big-ticket issues. For more information or to book email: ‘You have to decide how much of yourself And what of his other activities? He still [email protected] you want to be and how much you’re faking enjoys presenting Dragon’s Den and is proud to If Golf is more your thing, the Golf Society something when you’re on TV,’ says Evan. be one of only three people who have been season begins on 1 April – we’ll be playing ‘It is a really difficult thing to truly be yourself there from the start. He’s even more proud on some outstanding courses across the when you’re sitting in that chair with a camera of The Bottom Line and the way he has helped country. For more information please email: hen Evan Davis began on you. It’s very hard to inject real personality. shaped what has become an excellent show. [email protected] presenting Newsnight just ‘I don’t want to be the presenter who As far as the future is concerned, Evan says over two years ago, he does comes across as ‘it’s all about me’. I’d rather his ultimate aim is to do something away Memory Lane not mind admitting that it be a little bit restrained. On the other hand if from journalism. He’s working on a book The Club Hub team were contacted wasW a slightly alarming prospect. there’s no personality there, it’s probably not at the moment, though he won’t say what recently by a gentleman who bid for a The former Today presenter was effectively going to be as engaging for a lot of viewers it is about. bottle of vintage Dom Perignon 1964 and filling the shoes of Jeremy Paxman whose as it could be.’ Away from the BBC, Evan is a big film fan, was surprised to find this BBC Club big personality was stamped into the Evan took over just as the editorial changes particularly enjoying the work of directors Champagne included in the lot! I wonder show’s DNA. wrought by Ian Katz were beginning to emerge. like Eric Rohmer, Agnieszka Holland and if it brings back memories, and if there are Yet it was not the fear of following in There has always been a behind-the-scenes Werner Herzog. He’s also on the Board of the any more unopened bottles out there? ‘Paxo’s’ footsteps which worried Evan – debate about whether Newsnight should be a Museum of London. simply the far more prosaic reason that it news or current affairs programme. Katz has But the big passion in the life of Evan and was a big career change. nudged it towards the former. his partner is their demanding yet lovable Speaking from one of the distinctive When Evan was given the Newsnight job, whippet dog, Mr Whippy: ‘railway carriages’ in London’s New Director-General Tony Hall described him ‘He really plays a big part in our life,’ says Broadcasting House, he told Ariel: ‘It was as one of the outstanding journalists of his Evan, flashing that big smile which is well always a risky move, but not because it was generation. He’s too modest to fully embrace known to millions of us. a particularly radical appointment. It’s just that whenever you make a move, there is a 30 per cent chance you are not going to fit Prospero Society the new job which is why it was scary.’ Remembering Sir Terry Wogan The Prospero Society is BBC Club’s While Evan confesses to a few ‘ups and Connect group for retired members. downs’, he has absolutely no regrets in ‘He was always so lovely and laid-back, It is totally separate from this Prospero taking on one of the highest-profile so easy to work with.’ newspaper. Prospero Society newsletters journalistic jobs in British television. John Barlow, a cameraman at Television are emailed or posted to Prospero ‘This is such an interesting time to be Centre and later BBC Head of Cameras, Society members and can be emailed in journalism,’ he said. ‘The world is going said, ‘Terry was always a lovely, lovely to retired Club members. They can also through one of its sporadic convulsions. person. It didn’t matter what your role be viewed on the Prospero home page In many parts of the world we are seeing was, he always treated you with respect.’ of the BBC Club website: insurrection by a group of people who feel Among the many fans who attended www.bbcclub.com/connect/prospero they have been without a voice for many were Aled Morris Jones who travelled After the January tour of the Charles years. We’ve seen that in the US elections from the Isle of Anglesey to attend. ‘I have Dickens Museum followed by lunch at the and to a lesser extent with Brexit.’ never felt such a compulsion to attend an Victorian Lamb pub, February sees the So what’s it like to present what is event like this until now. He is someone Society visiting Goldsmith’s Hall and the arguably the nation’s flagship news and I admired from a very young age,’ he said. play ‘A Comedy about a Bank Robbery’. current affairs show? Evan replies with his BBC staff past and present paid tribute to And Carwyn Tywyn added: ‘I loved the Tours of the Royal Institution and the usual searing honesty: Sir Terry Wogan at a memorial service at music he played and he came across as Tower Bridge Exhibition follow in March. ‘Firstly, you are in front of a very large Westminster Abbey. such a kind and sensitive soul.’ The Prospero Society AGM is scheduled audience you can’t see and it’s very hard to The service was broadcast live on Craig Hazel, who travelled from North for April; please see the website for details. hide anything if you’re puzzled or not BBC Radio 2 on the 50th anniversary Yorkshire with his partner Jacqui Schofield Prospero Society membership costs hearing something correctly. You can’t bluff of Sir Terry’s first BBC radio broadcast. to attend, spoke for many when he said: £15 per year. To join Prospero you need anything so you are very exposed. For me, Before the service, Julia Burton, ‘In my opinion, whatever Terry did, he was to be a BBC Club member. Contact the that was the big change from radio where correspondence assistant in the the governor.’ Club Hub on 020 8752 6666 or email I think you can get away with more. Director-General’s Office, said, ‘I worked As almost 2,000 people gathered in [email protected] for more details ‘The second big challenge is that you’re with Terry on Friday night with Wogan as a the Abbey, the mellifluous tones of the and to join. flitting from topic to topic. One minute you production co-ordinator. He was an much-loved broadcaster echoed around can be talking about Pakistan and the next absolute professional, a really warm and before the service was opened by the BBC Club W1 With the former Western House building you are talking about football. gentle man. He was fantastic.’ dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend now renamed Wogan House, the BBC Club ‘However we get plenty of ‘prep’ time plus And Nigel Griffiths, Music Librarian, Dr John Hall. there is now known as BBC Club W1 at a lot of support and guidance so we never go said, ‘I used to help run the Radio 2 music In a moving tribute, Chris Evans said he Wogan House. in unprepared.’ library and Terry used to wander in and was invited to ‘Wogan Towers’ when he Evan is of course also the presenter of BBC out to see what we had. He was a lovely, took over the BBC Radio 1 Breakfast Show. BBC Club Broadcast Centre, BC2 B3, Radio 4’s business discussion programme lovely man.’ A visibly emotional Evans said: ‘Terry 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TP The Bottom Line and the perennially popular Laura Barlow, nee Gilbert, who was an Wogan wasn’t the best. He is the best, and 020 8752 6666 Dragon’s Den. assistant floor manager on Wogan, said, always will be.’ [email protected]

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2017 10 OBITUARIES

Programme editors always felt comfortable If you wish to make a donation in his Geoff retired from the BBC in 1986 and, Consummate journalist in deploying him on stories, knowing he memory, please support Epilepsy Scotland with his second wife Kate, went to live in Many in BBC TV News will remember would deliver the important pictures for the or Cancer Research UK, two charities which Hartley, near Kirby Stephen. They moved to Alan Roblou as a good friend, a multi-talented nightly TV bulletins. meant a lot to him. Norfolk in 1997 for a warmer climate, but gentleman and a truly consummate BBC He was known for his camaraderie with Adele Miller Geoff was widowed in 2000 and three years journalist dedicated to his work. Always helpful, his colleagues, holding court with much later, he moved to Waterbeach to be near his he was a gentle, softly spoken, thoughtful laughter and jocularity in the News bar at family. He took great pride and joy in seeing person with an endearing, broad smile. the BBC Club in Television Centre. BBC Skelton stalwart his grandchildren and great grandchildren Born in Hendon in 1944, Alan lived in a His prized possession was his vintage Geoff Hodgson growing up. small council flat with his parents and Rolls Royce, the only BBC staff cameraman died on 24 Geoff was precise in all his work and grandparents. His parents emigrated to the to have one. He enjoyed seeing the raised November 2016 expected the same from his crews. He USA, where Alan completed his studies. eyebrows when he told others about it or at a nursing maintained very high standards and cared as After graduating from Hobart University, when he was seen in it. Once, he drove home in York. much for his crews as he did for the shows. he returned to the UK. His first job was in his family to Oxford Street for shopping He had just He was a true north countryman, friendly Swindon as a newspaper reporter, but after but parked his car at TVC. The TVC celebrated his and entertaining, and he loved a pint with only a year, he was working as a chief commissioners at the gate, on seeing his 91st birthday. his friends and colleagues. He will be greatly sub-editor in Gloucester. After three years car, directed him to a VIP car parking space Geoff joined missed and fondly remembered. on provincial papers, he moved to the without batting an eyelid and Chris was so the BBC in York Steve Whitaker and Jerry Clegg London Evening News. chuffed, having saved the high London in September Alan started his 30-year career at the BBC parking charges. 1941, straight in 1970 as a scriptwriter in the TV News Chris worked for over 40 years at the BBC. from school. BBC World Service pool of journalists. A variety of jobs He was excellent company and missed all the He was called up for war service in correspondent followed, including editing Breakfast Time, and banter when he finally gave up work about a December 1944 and served in the Royal the Six and Nine O’clock News bulletins. He was year ago. Diagnosed with cancer, he kept the Navy as a wireless and radar mechanic. Peter Johnson – one of three foreign duty editors for TV fact to himself, losing some four stone in He returned to the BBC in February 1948. our man in Berlin News and visited a variety of hot spots, weight, though he was very hopeful he Geoff spent many years working on the and Moscow and including Vitez, Lebanon, Baghdad, Kuwait would recover one day. BBC Skelton transmitter for External Services. fluent speaker in and Saudi Arabia. He was part of the Chris leaves behind his wife Helen, his This was the place he was happiest working. both languages production team when Margaret Thatcher daughter Katie and his twin sons, Andrew In his free time, he enjoyed walking on the – hailed from resigned live on the Six O’Clock News. and Christopher, two step-children and Fells, reading and listening to his record Yorkshire. Fascinated by technology, computing seven grandchildren. collection. Where possible, he obtained His family says and satellite TV, Alan became involved in Bob Prabhu postings back to Skelton. that the seeds of development and set up the first remote- Geoff retired at age 57 in March 1983. journalism were operated studios in Brussels and Jerusalem. He then moved back to York to be close sown when he He researched new, cheaper methods of Dusty Miller to his family. He continued to live an was very young. getting satellite, including using what we Ernest George independent life until September 2016, Always inquisitive, fondly called ‘wobble-sat’. William Miller when he fell and had to move into care. always questioning, always wanting to know the whats, wheres and whys of everything. He married Chrissie in 1972 with whom (known as John Scurr he had a daughter, Tabitha. His second Dusty) died From 1943 to 46 Peter served in the Royal marriage was to Sue in 1992 and they had peacefully on Navy. From his final posting at the Royal a daughter, Kate. 27 November Pioneering S.Tel.E Naval Headquarters in Hamburg, he returned Alan loved cycling and cycled across 2016 aged 97. Engineering to Bradford with his bride-to-be, Elfi Kowitz, France three times, tackling various peaks in Dusty was born manager, Geoff a refugee from former German East Prussia. the Alps and the Pyrenees, including the Tour in London in Lomas, died After cutting his journalistic teeth on two de France’s famous Mont Ventoux. Later, he 1919 and spent in a residential local newspapers, it was in 1954 that Peter and Sue enjoyed cycle-touring on a tandem, the war years home near joined Reuters as a sub-editor in London and although he did leave Sue behind once in in France and Cambridge on became their correspondent in Bonn, East Vienna when he failed to notice she had not Algiers with the Royal Corp of Signals. He 3 November, Berlin and Moscow. yet ‘boarded’ the bike. married the love of his life, Chris, in 1946 following a In 1965 Peter moved to the BBC as the Alan was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and they had two children, Ian and Alison. gentle decline Berlin correspondent based at Bush House. in July 2014. He died peacefully in bed at In 1947, Dusty got a job working for the after a recent fall. From 1971 until his retirement in 1985 home, spending his last days listening to BBC in London. His role involved setting He was 89. he was a BBC World Service correspondent music on his BBC quality ‘Rogers’ speakers. up for outside broadcasts and he had many Geoff’s career specialising in German and Soviet Bloc issues. Bob Prabhu humorous stories of the things that went began on transmitters at Carlisle and Skelton, His journalism and reporting encompassed wrong and the ingenious fixes as they tried before becoming radio links engineer at TV- great changes in the political landscape. to make stable broadcast connections. OBs in Wembley. He moved to Manchester Skirting Kruschev to pick up exclusives Rolls-Royce-owning He was very proud to have been a part of and became S.Tel.E. Radio Links in the new – him with his ear to the shifting ground, TV News cameraman the broadcast from Buckingham Palace after North Television Unit. He subsequently listening for the next story – the Stasi, ever the Queen’s Coronation in 1953. And yes, he transferred to Programme Operations and vigilant, always on his tail, changed his code Chris Marlow was did indeed steal a piece of headed notepaper became S.Tel. E. Television, involved in many name from ‘KENT’ to ‘MOON’ as his balding fondly known to from the Queen’s desk, as instructed to by pioneering OBs. These included live pictures head became more evident! his friends and his boss! from a helicopter for the opening of the first His honesty and integrity in reporting on colleagues as the In early 1957, the family moved to motorway and going two miles underground an incident in Red Square finally got him, his giant of BBC TV Scotland as Dusty transferred to work for the to broadcast live from an iron ore drift mine wife and two small boys expelled from Russia. News cameramen. BBC in Glasgow. He spent many happy years at Scunthorpe. A small price to pay, his family would say, for He joined the BBC there and made numerous good friends, who Geoff planned and lit The Good Old Days a man who wasn’t afraid to speak the truth. in 1966, aged 22 he stayed in touch with long after his early from the City Varieties, Leeds, for many After the fall of the Berlin wall in 1990 after a short spell retirement in 1977. years until the final episode in 1983; and on which he reported for Breakfast TV, of work with ITN and a German TV station. He sadly lost his wife in 1988 after a it was through his association with Barney Peter went in search of his Stasi papers and He had a privileged upbringing and on lengthy illness, but he went on to live a Colehan that Geoff became the principle EM discovered which relatives and friends had completion of his schooling at the full and happy life. He was a much-loved on It’s a Knockout and the international Jeux sans been passing information about him to the prestigious Ardingly School in West Sussex, Grandad, and more recently Great-Grandad. Frontieres series. State Security officials. his mother presented him with a new 16mm He spent the final 16 years of his life in His attention to detail and skill in After retiring from the BBC in 1985 film camera, of which he was very proud Canada, living with his daughter. He loved planning and lighting a wide variety of Peter wrote three books about his and which he used to make his short films. life there though he always missed ‘the TV outside broadcasts was exemplary and experiences – they give a real insight to Chris made his mark in the young breed of auld country’. he was always ready to pass on his the changing times he reported on. Fond news cameramen in the 60s, with a keen eye It is impossible to sum up the nearly 98 experience to those who wanted to of the piano, he tinkled the ivories and for news stories. He was always patient with years he lived. However, if you look in the improve their knowledge. enjoyed painting. In later years dementia his fellow crew members, guiding them in dictionary under ‘gentleman’, there should In 1975, he planned the first One Man and took Peter away from those who knew and their professional roles. Moreover, he was be a photo of him. He believed the best in his Dog programme with director Phil Gilbert loved him. But the legacy of his life’s work kind to all new BBC journalists and producers everyone and always encouraged and loved and he continued to manage that show, often remains undiminished. with his sense of wit and teamwork. those who surrounded him. in his beloved Lake District, until 1984. Marion Allinson, BBC Pensioner Visitor

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2017 MEMORIES 11

1963 and transferred to the same post in engineers had a massive model railway in Musical Programme Glasgow in 1972. He then began moving the loft!). Peter Granger through a succession of senior posts in A lighting training course at Wood Norton At Christmas I received news that Peter had Engineer died the previous August. Usually at this time Jimmy Grant was born in Southampton in Engineering and Resource Management, followed and television lighting became beginning with his selection as HPSE Ron’s main occupation. of year we would make contact by telephone 1920. He attended King Edward VI School or letter, but not this year. and gained a BSc in Physics at University Birmingham, based in Pebble Mill. Then, In 1964, Ron moved to Manchester his reputation as a problem solver took him where the North Tel Unit had just started up. Peter was one of the now diminishing band College, Southampton in 1942. In 1943, he of BBC television programme makers, from studied piano at Trinity College of Music, back north of the border to become HPRE He divided his time between duties in Scotland in 1980. Manchester and in Birmingham. Over the the TV black and white days of the 1950s. qualifying externally as LRAM. Our paths crossed in 1964 making the During the war, Jimmy was an The final part of his career in the BBC years, Ron lit all genres of regional productions brought him to London as HSCPD and then and network programmes including the Ninette de Valois Royal Ballet production of Experimental Officer in the Ministry of Checkmate, starring Robert Helpmann and Supply and after the war, he taught Maths on to Television Centre as GM Network, Old Grey Whistle Test and Pebble Mill at One. He also Studios and Recording, finally retiring performed various management functions Beryl Grey, directed by Margaret Dale. and Science at Eastleigh County High School. Peter was senior cameraman and I was In his spare time, he played in a jazz quartet in 1989 as Assistant Controller Resource including OB Operations Organiser but Operations and Development Tel. always preferred operational work in the lighting assistant to Phil Ward. alongside the likes of Roy Plummer and Much later on we worked together as Nat Gonella. Away from work, John was always ready studio. Colleagues remember him warmly as for a party and his calling card was a set of the personification of professionalism, technical managers on the first Black Adder In 1948, Jimmy joined the BBC as a series, The Box of Delights and Blake’s 7. Programme Engineer in Plymouth. A year bagpipes. Many an evening was kick-started competence and reasonableness. when John began to play, in places as far Ron was a stalwart of the Royal Television After retirement he travelled in this later, he transferred to the BBC Radio Variety country and the continent. Peter sent me a Department in London. Jimmy was never apart as Windermere, Montreux and Berlin. Society, serving on its Northern branch Burns Night, in particular, was a speciality. committee for a number of years. photo from The Harry Potter Experience, happier than when working in the studio flying a Ford Anglia – the wonders of with musicians. If you asked him what his Typical of the public servant he was, John Geoffrey Latham and Jerry Clegg served as Chairman of the Ealing Hospital special effects! biggest thrill was, he would tell you that Farewell Peter, I shall miss our chats it was a special Light Programme anniversary Trust and took on Chairmanship of the Board of Visitors at HMP Wormwood Scrubs, where Sir Jimmy Young CBE putting the world to rights! extravaganza, involving the combined Brian Clemett personnel of the BBC Revue and Variety his humanity and diligence led to several Popular as a singer Orchestras, with arrangements specially brushes with the Home Secretary of the day . (Too Young, Unchained written for the occasion and featuring the Latterly, he moved to North Berwick to Melody and Man from BAFTA Award winner wartime singing star, Vera Lynn. be near his family, continuing to play golf at Laramie) and then Although Jimmy was at ease in the world Whitekirk Golf Club until very recently. as presenter of the and Head of Design of complex musical arrangements and John’s outstanding characteristics were BBC’s top-rated daily For Peter Seddon professionally trained musicians, he didn’t the quality of his leadership, his clarity of radio show for Leeds was the let his formal musical education stand in purpose and his unremitting care for those 35 years (1967-2002), starting point, then the way of adventure. He produced Jazz Club, with whom he worked. Those who knew Sir Jimmy Young the Royal College of devised a ‘Jazz for Moderns’ spot when the him will also remember his unmistakable died aged 95 at Art. That was in the genre was under threat, and in 1957, he soft Scottish accent, his native wit and his home in London, his wife Alicia at his side, early 1960s. The BBC conceived Saturday Skiffle Club (soon to be irrepressible good humour. on 7 November 2016. was flourishing, renamed Saturday Club). Duncan Thomas Born in September 1921 to a Gloucestershire it was developing Jimmy will be best remembered by baker and his wife, Jim said he had an ‘only BBC2 and dabbling millions as the creator of Saturday Club, the and lonely’ childhood. with colour. These pre-eminent radio show for teenagers – from Former technical Many Prospero readers will have their own were the days of the era of Lonnie Donegan, through the manager and memories of this iconic figure and will have black and white, salad days of Cliff Richard and the Shadows, read the obituaries that appeared in every just one channel and evening-only the Beatles and the Rolling Stones to the lighting director newspaper. In his autobiography, Jim kindly transmissions. Designing for television was psychedelic rock of Jimi Hendrix. Ron Latham praises my launching his career as a presenter something new. It was decided to recruit and In 1972, Jimmy took early retirement to died in hospital – this is a modest return of the compliment. train in-house some bright young things. look after his elderly widowed mother. He on 1 December During the war, he was a Sergeant in the Peter was one of them. taught music and English on a casual basis 2016, aged 91. RAF, mostly on a hill station in India. This In the late Sixties he designed The Six Wives and gigged locally well past his official Ron’s whole, was notable, from our viewpoint, for his of Henry VIII. At six hours long it was a big retirement age. varied career increasing popularity singing and playing undertaking and in colour. It broke new In 2005, Jimmy took up residence in a was with the the NAAFI piano. ground for television drama. It won all sheltered retirement apartment in Brompton BBC and he His first solo pro engagement was in 1945 the awards. For Peter that was a BAFTA Court, Bournemouth. He suffered a stroke retired in 1985. – songs at the piano – in Deal, Kent. The for Design. in September 2016 and was admitted to the He began as a agreed fee for the week was £15, but that By now Peter was a young Senior Royal Bournemouth Hospital. Jimmy trainee engineer failed to materialise! Designer. He designed many programmes, died with his relatives by his side on at Broadcasting In 1967, I assigned our new daily ‘JY mainly drama. They included Colditz, Casanova 16 October 2016. House early in the war. He related how he Prog’ to Chief Producer, Geoff Owen and and Elizabeth R, all marked with the same flair Bill Aitkin was the first civilian in the country to know we asked Doreen Davis to produce it. For and attention to detail. about the Graf Spee sinking, when he saw mid-morning, it seemed sensible to have Then came the time of John Birt as DG the news from Montevideo coming off a a feminine perspective and she would and ‘producers’ choice’. Peter was Head of John Reuters teleprinter. complement Jim’s inexperience – provided Design. It fell to him to reduce the size of the One of his night-shift duties was testing these two strong personalities gelled. Mine in-house design team, to stop development Jarvie technical facilities in the DG’s office. On one were not the only fingers firmly crossed! and training, to end all recruitment and to John Jarvie, occasion, he fell asleep there but didn’t reveal Highlights included the several times that manage a dejected department. This was the who died in whether he got caught! He spent some shifts Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher came to department that had developed television November, manning the BBC’s wartime Emergency his studio, and the 1972 tour of the six design and set the standards for the whole had a long and News Headquarters at a house called Common Market countries that Britain was industry. This did not square with Peter’s successful career Kelvedon in North London. about to join. conscience. He wisely stood aside and in the BBC, and In 1944 Ron was called up as a ‘Bevin Boy’ Doreen describes those years as challenging then retired. afterwards in in the coal mining industry near Doncaster. but rewarding and I dare say that was the His view on life had been changed by public service. His work involved rigging lighting in the view of her production team, Ray Harvey, the death of his son of leukaemia. In his He was called mines – a sign of things to come in his Roy Herbert and Roger Pusey. With our tiny memory, Peter became very involved with up for National later life. He returned to the BBC in 1946, ration of ‘needletime’, they recorded all the charitable work in India, which he visited Service in the Army, where he joined the joining the fledgling television OB base at music for the daily transmissions. Jim would in 1993. The other important influence was Signals and rapidly became a sergeant the Palace of Arts, Wembley. He married want me to emphasise his indebtedness to singing, choral then later opera music. instructor. On his release, he was taken on by Jean in 1948 and they had two children, them and to the exceptional group of experts In his retirement, he carried on designing, the Marconi Company and then joined the Geoffrey and Helen. in matters important to his listeners. mainly graphics, and wrote a book on BBC in Glasgow in 1956. Ron was involved in the Coronation Closing the funeral service, the Reverend television design. He moved to Norwich in 1959 as the coverage and also the early Eurovision Canon Roger Royle said, ‘I can imagine A principled man, he will be missed by S.Tel.E. on the start of the local television exchanges. He spent some time at the Post Doreen saying, ‘Stop worrying now, Jim… his family, his three children and Veronica, opt-out from Birmingham. Promoted to Office standards conversion station at Tolsford rest in peace.’’ his wife. Manager Operations, he went to Belfast in Hill near Folkestone (where the Post Office Donald MacLean Dick Coles

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2017 12 BBC BOOKS The ‘Darlingest’ Crumpet goes

of books… by Marion Allinson to Lundy

19th July 1940 …We had an air-raid practice this morning. (Notes from a Very, Very Small Island) I’ve 20 girls in a small room and just enough space to lie on the floor, so it’s going to be lively. The windows ‘At last, a true account of what really goes on I found myself have double wire netting on the inside, but there behind the scenes,’ says Jimmy Perry, creator waking early, won’t be any chance of getting any distance away of Dad’s Army, in his very amusing foreword reading at 5am, from the window… to Maggie Partington-Smith’s hilariously curious to know All the while the folk in the village honest account of filming a small BBC what happened battled shortages, made-do-and-mended Drama documentary in 1989. next. The process while trying to grow food for the nation There were just four actors: Ken Colley of making a film and themselves. as exiled Napoleon, with Ian McNeice, on Lundy is so 17th November 1940 John Normington and Stephen Fulton… entertainingly …Sunday dinner time. A lovely smell of roast pork and no actresses (a rumoured romance between brought to life. I’m hungry. It’s a piece from one of the Post Office pigs. Napoleon and a local young lady was Descriptions of Hitler or Gobbles! (sic) deemed inappropriate). the primitive, These letters were gold dust and the clues The crew crosses from Bideford, North improvised within them allowed Liz, for the exhibition, Devon to ‘Puffin Island’ (a notable absence transport bumping When Liz McDowell, BBC Pensioner Visitor for to reveal the facts behind them – the weekly of puffins, but handy as a substitute location and rattling up and down rocky terrain in northwest Somerset, gets an idea into her head dances, the ordeals of the soldiers back from for the more remote island of St Helena). the wind and rain, loaded with antique you know that there’s just no stopping her. Dunkirk and their training for North Africa. There are graphic descriptions of the furniture and actors (often simultaneously) Her energy and enthusiasm is infectious The outcome was a request to pull it churning, vomit-ridden voyage, surpassed – no doubt more enjoyable in retrospect and when she retired from the BBC in 1996 all together. only by those of the eventual arrival: than at the time – is gloriously absurd and and moved to the rural Somerset village of As her former BBC colleagues and equipment, props, costumes and luggage true. Used as we are to ‘Elf ‘n Safety’ now, Milverton, she took it all with her. friends know, Liz has never been known piled in sodden heaps, potted palms flapping resourcefulness and common-sense were In 2005 the village decided to give their to turn down a challenge. Nor would she wildly in the wind: ‘We huddled together, simply the norm then. annual May festival a wartime theme and fight shy of ‘creating order out of chaos’ hunched and forlorn, on the boulder-strewn Often ravenous due to fresh air and organise an exhibition commemorating the – an essential skill in programme making! beach, waiting for further instruction...’ gruelling exercise, food was always 60th anniversary of VE Day. The call went out These attributes, along with her lifelong But throughout, and despite all the odds uppermost in everyone’s mind, but a for volunteers to record interviews with love of history, gave her the golden the ‘Dunkirk spirit’ prevailed. Maggie’s meagre catering budget allowed only for those who had memories of the war while opportunity ‘to roll-up her sleeves and keen observations of the assortment of a frugal diet of damp spam baps, the search for wartime memorabilia began in get on with the job’. personalities and their foibles, lends the book accompanied by tepid tea and coffee, earnest. This was a real community event and Her book ‘Darlingest’ Milverton in the War great charm. from a collection of old thermos flasks. right up Liz’s street! was published in October 2016. ‘Crumpet’ was the collective name given This dull fare was stoically tolerated despite During the war Milverton was busy with This book is a powerful and evocative by the lusty prop boys to the female costume causing embarrassing digestive problems visitors – American and British soldiers, account of the reality of daily life set in a & make-up contingent who were lodged, for some! Land Girls and wartime evacuees escaping broader context of the politics of war. together with technical equipment, in The book is written in quasi-diary form, Hitler’s bombs. Nellie’s gentle voice, heard through her Government House. Maggie’s evocation the narrative (like the author herself) is great In June 1940 Nellie Clemens, a flowing pen in the letters to her husband, of the film Elephant Walk (as male members company, and as many of the crew already schoolteacher, arrived with a group of remains undiminished with the passage of the crew trampled noisily through the knew each other from past productions there children from a north London school, of time. house early each morning, sending a is plenty of teasing. Bill Bryson wrote to her along with her six-year-old daughter Helen. A handsome, intelligent book which frisson through the startled ladies still in personally, allowing her to paraphrase the Nellie’s husband, working with the ticks all the boxes: informs, educates their nighties) is very funny, as indeed title of one of his own books. Civil Defence Service, remained in London. and entertains! are the hikers pausing for breath and Maggie’s affectionate humour and During the 18 months that Nellie lived Price £15. ISBN 978-0-9955169-0-8 peering innocently in through the illustrations soften her sharp-eyed in Milverton she wrote every day to her Available from the National Archives bathroom windows...! observations. This is a hugely enjoyable, ‘darlingest’ husband. Bookshop at Kew and Brendon Books, Taunton. nostalgic read for anyone who has ever been Years later, after her parents’ death, away on location, and a must for those who Helen found the letters and gave them to have not yet had that pleasure. the Imperial War Museum, but not before WIN June Hudson sifting out relevant extracts which she CAPTION competition sent to Milverton. £10 Readers may recall this book review in Prospero, July 2011. Crumpet Goes to Lundy was privately printed for cast and crew, CLASSIFIEDS The winner of a £10 shopping voucher and is a true but personal account is John Forsyth with ‘And a bauble on the (based on diary notes) of an ill-fated, top and you’ve got your very own drama documentary (pre-digital) Menorca. Detached secluded villa with private pool Christmas drone!’ filming experience, on the Isle of Lundy. in Es Castell, Mahon. Sleeps 2-7. Aircon. It concerned the last years of Napoleon’s Brochure: 01621 741810 or visit exiled life on St Helena. In 2016 www.menorcaholidayvilla.co.uk by popular demand a second private Venice, Giudecca. edition was printed. Some copies Beautiful apartment in quiet, private are still available (£10 per copy plus courtyard, sleeps 5, fully equipped. £2 P&P…cheques only please), Experience the real Venice. first come first served. Tel: 07513 455655. Email: [email protected] Picture shows a classic Dads Army line-up Please contact Maggie Partington-Smith: of Arthur Lowe as Capt George Mainwaring, [email protected] with Prospero Classifieds, BBC Pension and John Le Mesurier as Sgt Arthur Wilson, your name and address for more details. Benefits Centre, Broadcasting House, Post your entry to Prospero by Monday, Clive Dunn as L-Cpl Jack Jones, John Laurie Cardiff CF5 2YQ. 13 March 2017. Or, you can email your as Pvt James Frazer, Arnold Ridley as Please enclose a cheque made payable to: entry to [email protected], with ‘caption Pvt Charles Godfrey, Ian Lavender as BBC Central Directorate. competition 1’ in the subject line. Please Pvt Frank Pike and James Beck as Rate: £6 for 20 words. In a covering letter include your BBC pension number. Pte Joe Walker (Christmas Special, 1971). please include your pension number. Good luck!

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