The newspaper for retired BBC Pension Scheme members • April 2020 • Issue 2 PROSPERO

REMEMBERING A GOLDEN AGE OF FILM PAGE 8

PENSION SCHEME | BBC PENSIONS

PAUL BOHAN AT 100: ‘A REMARKABLE MAN’

Former BBC broadcast engineer Paul Bohan recently celebrated his 100th birthday, and BBC Volunteer Visitor Arthur Masson caught up with him to talk about the interesting times – and places – he’s seen in his long life.

aul was born in Bishop Auckland, County He arrived at Stoney Cross and joined a unit servicing Durham, on 24 November 1919. aircraft, for approximately a year. He was then transferred to RAF Marham, and then to RAF PHe was educated at a council school in Byers Mildenhall. Eventually, with his service completed, Green village, where he obtained the first of many he was released in March 1947. (It is perhaps worth ‘accomplishments’, his 11-plus certificate! He was then posted to Meldrum and completed noting that, as he had passed the Commission 12 years as a TV engineer. He left school at 16 and joined the RAF, completing an examinations, if he had remained in service he would 18-month course at Cranwell as a wireless operator, then, have been a Commissioned Officer.) He was offered early retirement, which he accepted after successfully qualifying, went to RAF Thornaby. at the ‘ripe old age’ of 58 and joined Aberdeen After leaving the RAF he joined BOAC, which was the University Language Laboratory as their recording After one year, he went back to Cranwell for another state airline, and was posted to Sudan (Wadi-Halfa). engineer. He was seven years at the University and course and qualified as a wireless and electrical After a few months, the unit was renamed then retired at the age of 65 to spend time improving mechanic. He was then transferred to Finningley and International Air Radio. After a year at Wadi-Halfa, his golf. Sadly, in 1997 his wife Frances died. was subsequently posted overseas to join a unit called he was posted to Eritrea for another year and then W.I.S. (Wireless Intelligence System) – part of a returned to the UK and married his schooldays He now happily lives, with his daughter Susan on convoy leaving Scotland for the Middle East. sweetheart, Frances, in 1949. hand, in the village of Kemnay, constantly reviewing a full and eventful life. The convoy consisted of 42 ships which zigzagged He was then posted back to Sudan, to Malakal, but across towards America (USA), then headed south, a promise of married quarters did not materialise, so Paul enjoyed a special trip to RAF Lossiemouth down the west coast of Africa, past Cape Town and he resigned and returned to the UK and joined the organised by the Scottish War Blind Association to round to the Red Sea, up to Suez, where he joined BBC as a technical assistant at OSE 8/9 near Penrith commemorate his 100th birthday. The museum was another boat and sailed to Aden, where the unit – where 24-hour shifts were the norm, transmitting opened up for photos and Paul was presented with a was deployed. politics and news to the world. After four years, he Spitfire memorial plaque, a special birthday cake and many other keepsakes. They provided a celebration He sailed from Aden to Suez and the unit was passed the engineer exams and became a fully- meal and he was surrounded by invited friends, deployed in the Sinai Desert, parallel to the Suez fledged broadcasting engineer. associates and well-wishers. He thoroughly enjoyed the Canal. He was then posted to the Western Desert He was at OSE 8/9 for eight years before he whole occasion. Uplifted by their warm congratulations, (the sharp end of activities!) to an Army air-support decided to join Northern Rhodesia Broadcasting he left with a lasting impression of a memorable day. control, providing support for the forward troops. as a broadcasting engineer, stationed at Lusaka He then joined a newly formed unit that eventually for four years. He then moved to the copper belt, went to Iraq and joined the Army section of a new where he opened a new TV station and served air-support unit, which was designed for operations for two years until it became Zambia, when in Persia. However, no war action was engaged due to he resigned and returned to the UK to rejoin Mystery Sudoku the success of Russia holding Stalingrad against the the BBC. Complete the grid so that every row, column and advancing Germans. The unit was then ‘stood down’ He had to wait 12 months for a vacancy to arise, but 3x3 box contains the letters ACEKLMORS in some in Lebanon, from where he was withdrawn and sent to he kept busy by joining a factory in South Shields order. One row or column contains a five or more establish a telecoms centre in Palestine. From there, making tape recorders. Eventually the BBC vacancy letter word, title or name with a BBC connection. he was posted to Aleppo. A few months later, his appeared and he rejoined, spending time at Sutton Solve the Sudoku to discover what it is and send period of 4½ years’ service was completed, and he Coldfield and Rowridge (I.O.W) while re-engineering your answer to: The Editor, Prospero, BBC Pension was posted back to the UK. was in progress. and Benefits Centre, 3 Central Square, Cardiff CF10 1FT by Monday, 4 May 2020. 2020 pension increase The winner gets a £10 voucher. Many thanks to Neil Somerville for providing this puzzle. From 1 April 2020, pensions will increase You can log into myPension online to view your as follows: combined April payslip and P60 document from • Old and New Benefits members’ pensions Thursday, 9 April. EMCOR in payment and deferred pensions: 2.2%. If you have not registered for the service, you will Old Benefits members who elected to receive need to contact the pension service line on L the Pension Increase Exchange will receive a 029 2032 2811 to obtain your personal security lower increase, and in some cases, no increase. number to complete the registration process. AE L • Career Average Benefits (‘CAB’) 2006 members’ Paper copies will be posted on Wednesday, RC pensions in payment: 2.2%. 8 April, so should arrive with you • CAB 2011 members’ pensions in payment: 1.3%. by Tuesday of the following week. CE SK No discretionary increase over and above those SK detailed above has been agreed. E LK L Grace Wyndham Goldie (BBC) Trust Fund: LOSAM Application window now open Applications are invited for grants for educational and hardship purposes and should be returned by The Sudoku winner in 31 July 2020. February 2020 was Dave Kenny. WIN The answer was 'Ramblings'. The Trust Fund exists to help those engaged in broadcasting or an associated activity, now or in the past, £10 as well as their children and dependants.

You can request an application form from the BBC Pension and Benefits Centre or download one here: bbc.co.uk/charityappeals/appeals/grants/grace-wyndham-goldie

2 | BACK AT THE BBC CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) PROSPERO

Advice for people who have travelled back What are the symptoms? Prospero is provided free of charge to retired Scheme The Covid-19 disease can cause a fever, cough and to the UK from the main affected areas and members, or to their spouses and dependants. breathing problems. It takes five days on average for some other countries has been issued by people to start showing the symptoms. the government. Prospero provides a source of news on former colleagues, developments at the BBC and pension What if someone self-isolating shares What you need to do issues, plus classified adverts. It is available online To help reduce the general risk of spreading the virus, a home? at bbc.com/mypension please make sure you: If you are self-isolating and share a kitchen, try to avoid using it when other people are there and To advertise in Prospero, please enclose a cheque take your meals back to your room to eat. Clean made payable to: BBC Central Directorate. Rate £6 all the surfaces at home with household cleaning for 20 words. Please include your pension number products daily. in a covering letter.

Although you might not be able to entirely separate Please send your editorial contributions, yourself from family members or flatmates, the advice or comments/feedback, to: is to limit contact as much as possible. Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, If possible, stay at least 2m (6ft) from other people Central Square, Cardiff CF10 1FT you live with and sleep alone. Keep away from Email: [email protected] vulnerable people. Please make sure that any digital pictures you send Do I need to self-isolate? People living with someone in isolation should wash are scanned at 300dpi. Please also note that the Everyone with flu-like symptoms – defined as a fever their hands often, using soap and water for at least maximum word count for obituaries is 350 words. of above 37.8C or a persistent cough – is being asked 20 seconds – especially after coming into contact to stay at home for at least seven days. with them. Patients with mild symptoms are being asked to You shouldn’t share towels, toiletries or other self-isolate at home. But people are being advised not household items with someone in isolation and Contents to ring NHS 111 or their GP to report their symptoms, they should have a separate bathroom. If that is unless they are worried. not possible, the isolated person should use the Anyone who has travelled to an affected area, or who bathroom last, cleaning it thoroughly afterwards Letters 4-5 has been in close contact with an infected person, has if they are able. already been asked to self-isolate for 14 days. Any rubbish that the isolated person has been in Spending 15 minutes within 2m (6ft) of someone with contact with should be double-bagged and kept. the virus, or having face-to-face contact, is judged as If the person tests positive, you will be told what to Memories 6-9 close contact and a significant risk. do with their waste Prime target: on secondment to South Arabian Broadcasting Services This advice was correct at the time of going to print but you are encouraged to check the latest advice via the following link: A Golden Age of Film https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response Cliffs and riggers Stories from the Sudan Sam’s ‘station squabble’ goes global Obituaries 10-11

BBC researcher, Sam Rowley’s amazing photo of mice squabbling hit headlines around the world in February, when it was picked from more than 48,000 images to claim Wildlife Photographer of the Year LUMIX People’s Choice award. Odds & ends 12 Red button switch off Sam is currently working on a new documentary series for BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit Poetry in Prospero in Bristol. Classifieds

It’s not every day that someone is able to capture Caption competition such an incredible photo – how did it come about? It’s always been a dream of mine to be in the On the cover: Filming beside a replica Viking ship for Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition the series The Vikings (1979). and I wanted to do a story on urban wildlife in London.

My friend was on her way home from a night out and she messaged me a clip of some mice running around her feet. The penny kind of dropped and I was like, right that’s what I’m going to do. That fight was only about a tenth of a second and without a photograph you wouldn’t really appreciate it. I spent a spare week down on the tube and hoped I would get something – and thank god I did I didn’t really like the photo at first. I took it three otherwise it would have been a bit embarrassing! years ago. I thought, ‘I don’t love it, but I'll save it’. Prospero April 2020 The next issue of Prospero will appear I usually take a burst of photos and I got lucky with A couple of years later, I went back to them and I in June 2020. The copy deadline this shot, but then I had spent five days lying on a actually quite liked them so I thought I would start is Friday, 1 May 2020. platform so it was probably going to happen at entering them into competitions. some point. Were you prepared for that sort of reaction and The photo topped the ‘People’s Choice poll’ with how has it been dealing with all the 28,000 people voting for it – why do you think it media attention? made such an impression? I didn’t think in my wildest dreams it would get I think it speaks to people. It’s an animal that anywhere, let alone win! I have done 37 interviews everyone knows, and it kind of applies to their about it now, from Columbian radio to Canadian day-to-day lives. news – it’s been crazy.

PROSPERO APRIL 2020 | 3 | LETTERS BBC Schools Radio David MV Jones On browsing recently through my husband’s latest edition of Prospero, I was interested to read about Douglas Coombes and the BBC Schools Does anyone remember David MV Jones, the former Head of TV Activities at the Radio programmes. BBC? And if you do, are you in contact with his family/descendants? The Royal Aeronautical Society (RAS) library holds a series of recordings that In the early 1950s, I attended a small Victorian-era primary school and our David Jones carried out in 1975-76 (not BBC recordings) where he interviewed education was enhanced by the weekly BBC Schools Radio programmes. early Qantas/Imperial Airways pilots. The RAS library is developing a sound archive We listened and sang along with ‘Singing Together’, learned about the world and has been advised they should seek formal permission to use the recordings in ‘Travel Talks’ but my favourite was ‘Adventures in Music’. from the descendants of the speakers. Throughout my time listening to these programmes, I was introduced to If you are in contact with his family, please ask them to contact Brian Riddle Handel's 'Messiah', Mozart's 'Marriage of Figaro', Haydn's 'Surprise' Symphony, – Chief Librarian at the RAS Library. Schubert's 'Trout' Quintet, (I remember learning a song about fishes which we sang to the tune of the 1st movement). I also became familiar with the works of You can contact Brian by email at: [email protected], telephone: many other composers. I remember Beethoven's 5th Symphony having a huge 01252 701060 or write to him at: National Aerospace Library, The Hub, Fowler impact on me and later on, I cajoled two school friends to accompany me to Avenue, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough GU14 7JP. my first Symphony concert where it was being performed.

These programs also encouraged me to widen my knowledge by listening to other works by these composers.

More 40-year anniversaries Over the years, listening to classical music and attending concerts has Radio Norfolk (September 1980) and Radio Lincolnshire (November 1980) enhanced my life and given me such great pleasure and I cannot thank the celebrate their 40th anniversary this year. Mike Chaney, formerly of Today, BBC Schools Radio enough for giving me this opportunity. was the first manager at Norfolk and I started the Lincolnshire station. Maureen Woolley They were the first of what the BBC described as a new wave of local stations with smaller staffs and budgets. The then MD Radio Aubrey Singer told the governors he could build them for half a million each and they would have only 20 staff. But Lincolnshire went on to produce, Graham Webb’s letter, in its early days, two BBC notables – Roger Mosey, who become Head of Sport, and John Inverdale. Prospero October 2019 The people in the front row of the Nationwide photo on page 8 of October 2019 Roy Corlett Prospero are:

Left to right: Michael Barratt, Frank Bough, Val Singleton, Bob Wellings, Sue Lawley and Richard Stilgoe.

Lifts and ladies Bryan Bayliss When I first joined the BBC in 1958, BH London had lift attendants. I had a little ritual with one. I would get in and ask him how his day was going. ‘Oh, up and down you know.’ We would laugh and then go on to discuss the weather. As a recording engineer, I was booked to record an interview with Lady Churchill (Winston’s wife) but it was delayed, as the ball of wool she was carrying had unravelled down the lift shaft and the SM was laboriously hauling it up yard by yard. Who on earth would bring their knitting to an interview?

If you were on a very early shift, you would be escorted across the road to The Langham by a commissionaire and locked in this completely huge, empty building to sleep in a little bedroom on the third floor. Occasionally, in the wee small hours, you would hear the lift doors jangle shut and the lift then slowly rattle and clatter up the shaft. Me? I would snuggle under the blanket and hope it didn’t Friends with benefits stop at my floor. Apparently, there are still tales of ghosts being seen, now it has Regarding your Benefits Update article on Marriage Allowance, this is just to returned to being a hotel. let you know I acted on the information provided and have had a very Many years ago, I met Lady Langham at her home, Tempo Manor, County rewarding outcome! Fermanagh. During our conversation, she told me John Nash originally meant Without that information, we would not have known that Regent Street to continue up to Regent’s Park but Langham we could claim. Thank you very much! and he fell out, so Langham built his hotel on that particular site just to annoy Nash and thwart his plans. Not that I can A satisfied BBC pensioner see the logic of that story but that is the tale I was told.

Regards to anyone who remembers me.

Brian Willis Country Antrim

The malpractice of musak On Radio 4 today, Tuesday 14 January 2020, at 11am, I listened to an episode of Science Stories: ‘How an eel sparked our interest in electricity’. It was a thoroughly enjoyable, interesting programme.

It was followed half an hour later by ‘Art of Now: the Last Exposure’. As usual, there was a too invasive, distracting music track added it, even when they were on Dartmoor! Where was the orchestra on Dartmoor?

The musak was so distracting that I turned the programme off.

Then I realised why I had enjoyed the Science Stories but not the Art of Now, although both were of interest to me.

Science Stories had NO added background musak!

To make sure, I listened again to Science Stories on BBC Sounds – there was no distracting added music. The episode was released on 13 January 2016.

I’m sure we old-timers have been whingeing on about the unnecessary, distracting added music track from before then. So it can be done: programmes can be produced without the distracting music. Why does this malpractice continue?

Bryan Bayliss

4 Were you involved in Moonbase 3 and A Ghost Story for Christmas? My name is Marcus Harmes, an Australian writer on British science fiction and fantasy television.

I have been asked to write production histories of the 1970s BBC programmes Moonbase 3 and A Ghost Story for Christmas. Canal cruising BBC Club’s narrow boat is now available to hire at Much has been written about both, however my greatly reduced rates for Club members and sleeps particular focus is on the production and what up to seven in three separate cabins. You can take happened behind the cameras. That makes the friends and family as crew! This year, it is moored at insights and memories of those who were there Alvechurch near Birmingham. Training is given at in the crew crucial. the start of your week. See the website for details: bbcclub.com/connect/canal-cruising

Would anyone who worked on these be willing to Golf share their memories with me? I would ask for no The Golf Society costs £30 per year for Club more than either 10-15 minutes of your time, or a members. This year’s programme sees visits to short email. It would enable documenting for some great courses. See the website for more posterity the creative and technical achievements details: bbcclub.com/connect/golf of people working in the studio or on location with Rambling film on these well-remembered shows. BBC Rambling Club organises rambles (usually Please contact me on [email protected] circular) of between 6 and 12 miles every 3rd Sunday in the Home Counties. Lunch will be at a local pub or bring your own. All abilities welcome! See the website for more details: Bill Holt bbcclub.com/connect/rambling Roy Corlett’s obituary of Bill Holt (Prospero, December 2019) was spot on Prospero regarding Bill’s calm demeanour. The Prospero Society specifically for our retired When I was returning to the Radio Merseyside offices in Sir Thomas Street with members has its AGM in April. All details are in the the radio car (a Hillman Hunter, I think), it was in the days when you could drive Prospero Society’s newsletter. If you are a retired the car even when the aerial/radio mast on top of the car wasn’t fully retracted. BBC Club member, you can get the Prospero Society newsletter by email. If you would like I drove into the underground car park and heard a loud thud. The mast had hit the ceiling and got stuck, a postal copy, you must be a Prospero Society with bricks tumbling down. I abandoned the car and went to tell Bill what I had done. Bill smiled, member. Please contact the Club to be added shrugged his shoulders and mumbled under his breath, ‘Journalists!’ to the email distribution list or to join the Jon (Steve) Kaye Prospero Society.

Future events include theatre trips to 9 to 5 and Hello Dolly (with Imelda Staunton), visits to Trinity House and Buckingham Palace and a BBC pensioner leaves £1 million ghost walking tour!

legacy to Medway hospital BBC Club We received a newsletter cutting talented musician and singer, performed and sang on BBC Club will be upgrading its database in the about a former BBC engineer, stage, often at the Players Theatre in London. coming months. If your contact details have Ralph Barrett, who left a £1 million Ralph's nephew, Glenn, said: ‘He also gave lectures changed or you wish to check data held by the donation to the Orthopaedic all over the country on the history of radio. Not the Club, please contact us. Please note that BBC Club Department of the Medway normal lecture though! He owned ‘antique’ radio is a separate company independent of BBC, so no Hospital Charity in his Will. equipment and many other pieces of apparatus data is shared. BBC Pensions will not inform BBC Ralph, who died in 2017 aged 95, had had a serious which he constructed in his laboratory and used Club of any updates communicated to them. motorbike accident during World War Two and these in his demonstrations. Some lectures were This is particularly important for lottery members! underwent 14 operations to save his leg. During the even delivered in character, Marconi being his The database upgrade will include the issuing of war he had worked for the Special Operations as an favourite historical scientist. This equipment now sits new cards to some members. BBC Club aims to engineer, specialising in clandestine radios. in the Radio Museum. make this process as smooth as possible. Cards will be replaced as needed on visiting BBC Club. After the war, Ralph worked for the BBC, becoming ‘As a scientist myself, I am very proud that my uncle Current cards will continue to work with the new a senior engineer. He was heavily involved in the lectured at the Royal Institution where so many system – there is no need to request a new card establishment of the Eurovision link and, as a great scientists also gave lectures.’ by post or to make a specific trip to change your BBC Club card.

Club Extra Love film? Hate intrusive noise You may have noticed that the Club Extra offers section of the website has been replaced by a I would like to thank John Hale for his excellent My love of all things ‘film’ is still as strong as ever, monthly Club Extra E-newsletter detailing all the piece ‘Making mixers of us all’ (Prospero, so when I’m watching a programme, apart from current Club offers. Please make sure you add February 2020) and add a few thoughts of enjoyment, part of my brain is switched to the [email protected] to your address book and my own. production itself: ‘oh I liked that shot’ or ‘how did check your spam folder if you are a member and they get that angle?’. So, if something jars, I notice I couldn’t agree more with his comments about it, especially intrusive music. have not received this. Please note this is NOT Bergerac, Miss Marple and Shoestring re available by post. sound quality. Two programmes where this really annoyed me were Kavanagh Q.C. and London’s Burning: on one My love of all things ‘film’ started when I moved occasion, during a rape trial, the producer added to Ealing Film Despatch, having been working at music during a cross examination, while there were St Hilda’s, Maida Vale. In those days, the BBC didn’t other occasions and episodes where music was try to fit square pegs into round holes. I took completely unnecessary. redundancy in 1992 after 29 years in the Film In London’s Burning, music was even added to a Department, but by this time, I had already joined scene where they were fighting a major blaze. Ealing Video and Film Makers, a well-respected 020 8752 6666 As I’ve said before, if the visuals are strong enough, film-making group in the amateur film-making [email protected] YOU DO NOT NEED MUSIC. world. Unfortunately, a few years ago because of BBC Club Broadcast Centre, BC2 B3, falling membership, the club had to close. Neville Withers 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TP

PROSPERO APRIL 2020 | 5 | MEMORIES PRIME TARGET On secondment to South Arabian Broadcasting Service (June 1965-June 1967)

Alan Rowe sent us a copy of a report he wrote for his superiors in 1967, which described life as a broadcasting engineer on secondment in Aden (the Federation of South Arabia, now part of Yemen). As well as facing innumerable technical difficulties and equipment shortages, Alan and his colleagues put their lives on the line as political unrest in the former British Protectorate increased.

No doubt this was aggravated by the Steamer Point, Maalla, Little Aden and Our first improvements involved Federal Government’s decision to take Sheik Othman areas, while channel 7 transmitters, as we were committed to over the concern before completion, was there temporarily to serve channel installing channel 7 40 miles up country resulting in an apparent rushed finish. 10 transmitter. This latter was situated in Waddi Abyan. This left channel 10 to Most of the wiring was unacceptable by some 600ft above Crater mainpass and be linked from the channel 4 site. This any standard and certain facilities, such rebroadcast channel 7 signals in the was achieved by a passive back-to-back as cue lights, were never installed. Wade Abyan direction, with a back lobe dish assembly set partway up the 100ft servicing the Crater district in a rather channel 4 tower such that the link beam Studio set up unsatisfactory manner owing to the was redirected towards channel 10 There were two studios: one small nature of the terrain within Crater. transmitter at Crater. Channel 4 link presentation-cum-studio which doubled receiver was then supplied by a wave as the maintenance area, and one larger Raw recruits guide T junction. We had considerable was one of three engineers studio which, although only of the order Engineering staff for television problems with this arrangement due to seconded to the South Arabian of 35ft by 18ft, was the main production consisted initially of two locally multipath fading, dish misalignment and Broadcasting Service as a television studio. The former studio was equipped recruited technical assistants, originally I tower oscillation but it eventually broadcasting engineer. My appointment with a modified Pye industrial vidicon from sound broadcasting, who had proved successful. I would add at this took effect from 14 June 1965 and and the latter with two Pye Mk V.4” been present during the installation point that where Christie specialised on was for a duration of two years. image orthicons. Neither studios had work, together with a fluctuating the transmitters, I took upon myself the Approximately six months following lighting dimmer facilities and neither number of raw recruits. None of these responsibility for radio links, but of my appointment, my designation was could have air conditioning in operation staff had previous television experience course we did overlap. I was therefore changed to that of broadcasting during transmission, causing and none held the equivalent of GCE ‘O’ also responsible for the back-to-back engineer, with responsibilities in both temperatures in the production Level, although the two senior technical dish support structure, which itself was sound and television broadcasting. studio to rise on occasions to assistants had embarked on a City outside my previous experience. As we 160F during the hot season. and Guilds course at the local Sound broadcasting had been started had no standby links system, this technical college. in Aden in 1956 and on our arrival was The production studio had a small caused problems. firmly established. On the engineering control room equipped with a simple For a while, we introduced Sunday On completion, channel 7 rebroadcast side, studios and outside broadcasting A-B type Pye vision mixer, two CCPs morning lectures but owing to pressure channel 10 in a remote area to an were run by one locally recruited and two five-way Pye sound mixers of work and the difficulty in finding a unspecified number of viewers. From the engineer and a nucleus of six looped together. There was also a tape reasonable academic starting point, start, we were beset with signal to noise competent technical assistants, recorder and a turntable. All these were these were discontinued. Thus with problems on the received signal from together with a number of staff in perched upon a long table and all lines Hughes, our Chief Engineer, tied to channel 10. The electricity supply for the training. The associated transmitters were tied direct to their sources or office work, it left Christie and myself area was subject to violent frequency and were run and maintained by Cable and destinations as there were neither vision and the existing staff to maintain, voltage variations which often resulted in nor sound jack-fields. improve and extend facilities, and to run Wireless at a site some 10 miles away breakdown. These problems, together and served by VHF link. the regular five-hour daily programmes, Between the two studios was the with its remoteness (20 miles with no together with twice-weekly morning Television broadcasting, however, master control area, comprising the road, over sand) and our numbers, schools programmes. This we achieved had been fully operational for only nine master switcher and mixer, two Pye resulted in channel 7 transmitter being by working the normal daily hours, plus months and most aspects left much to vidicon telecine channels with two only a marginal success. Later, it was alternate evenings. We later restricted be desired, from both an engineering Philips 16mm film projectors and one ransacked by dissidents. our evening shifts to those involving live and production viewpoint. slide projector multiplexed station. Two programmes. These we were expected Reception within the Crater area was Pye SPGs served associated equipment The studios were sited in a most to light and organise soundwise. improved by using a channel 8, 3-watt looped in series, thus dispensing with unfortunate position on the steep side Marconi translater, rebroadcasting pulse distribution amplifiers. Making improvements of a rock spur and were housed in an channel 10 up into the two main valleys. old colonial-style residence which, Master control’s position also served as This was most successful and reliable apart from being too small, was in an control for the presentation studio. The and worked with minimum attention advanced state of decay. output of the master control chain was until it was very recently burned down then fed to a 1-watt SHF Pye radio link by terrorists, whose activities also transmitter control unit and thence onto caused considerable problems when the head and dish assembly on the roof. servicing Crater channel 10 transmitter, The studios were as we were not allowed to attend Television House also contained a film without an armed guard, and for several housed in an old unit with a Lawley Junior 16mm film weeks before my departure we were processor with dark room and colonial-style residence unable to attend at all. associated equipment for which we in an advanced state were responsible. of decay. Transmitter system When servicing Crater On our arrival, the transmitter system Installation of equipment had been done consisted of three 100-watt Gates channel 10 transmitter, by a Thomsons-Pye consortium, initially semi-unattended transmitters, two of with the idea of forming a purely which were situated on one site. These we were not allowed to commercial service. The installation was two CCIR channels 4 and 7 were sited attend without an done on what appeared to have been a on a 300ft spur some three-quarters of shoestring budget, with what can only a mile away from the studio and served armed guard. be described as a shoddy result. by the SHF link. Channel 4 served the

6 Equipment available for transmitter Water cooling tests included a side-band analyser, Two further interesting engineering frequency deviation meters, distortion enterprises concerned the construction factor meters, and RF watt meter and of water-cooling equipment for film general purpose T/V test equipment. In processing and the design of sound general, we felt that the Gates studios some 400 miles away in Seiyun transmitters were not truly of the built entirely of mud. unattended type as stated and that the Pye link was not as reliable as could be expected. Nevertheless, we had a good service ability record and served the During the hot season, public better than could be expected the mains water under the circumstances. temperature rose to the order of 115F, which was found to On the occasion of the sealing off of Crater, staff had to remain in Television be detrimental to House for days and morale reached a very low ebb. Prior to this, an explosive the film emulsion. device all but totally destroyed the sound studios. Fortunately, no one was The water-cooling project was injured, but it was clear that it had been necessary as, during the hot season, placed in the link bay by a member of the mains water temperature rose to Postscript: staff. This resulted in the imposition of the order of 115F, which was found to be Some months after my return, I was a Federal army guard in both Television detrimental to the film emulsion. As we strap-hanging on the Central Line when House and the remains of Sound could not afford a standard cooling unit, by an extraordinary coincidence, I found Broadcasting House with instructions a series of eight locally-made 20-gallon myself shoulder to shoulder with a to search everyone. As the Federal porous pots were installed on the roof. contemporary SABS employee. During army had little sympathy for either the These were connected in series and the conversation, he admitted to being Adenis or Europeans, this was the cause their skin evaporation effect produced an NLF agent. He also explained how of considerable friction. a reduction in temperature of about fortunate we three had been and went 50F at a flow rate of 200 gallons per Our problems culminated in the burning on to explain why we were spared. hour. This proved very successful. down of our channel 8 translater, the This was shocking news to me as I had suspected wrecking of channel 7 naively assumed that as we were Making the best of a bad job Studios in Seiyun were constructed to transmitter, to which access had been bringing progress to the Federation, we In parallel with and subsequent to these accommodate contributors in that impossible for several weeks, and the were unconditionally welcome. This was transmitter improvements, we also remote area. Although these were not washing away of the cliff road to apparently not what Abdul Nasser told carried out studio improvements. At completed on my departure, it was channel 4 transmitter. As access to his troops. first, these were rather half hearted as envisaged that tapes would be flown channel 10 transmitter was via Crater, we were under the impression that we into Aden on the weekly air service. we were also unable to visit this. were to move to new premises of our Design of these fell to Brian Hughes, own design. Unfortunately, it was not our Chief Engineer, and owing to the Unless the security situation improves until about nine months had passed lack of building materials, proved an rapidly, it is difficult to see how that we realised that the necessary interesting exercise. television can be kept going, money could not be raised. We were particularly as at this moment their then committed to making the best Security situation engineering establishment comprises A word on the security situation. From of a bad job. one European engineer and five the start, broadcasting had been a technical assistants, only three of whom A new maintenance area was equipped, prime target. On the day of my arrival, a have more than six months’ experience. an air-conditioning tower block was put bomb had wrecked two studios in out to tender, and the production studio sound broadcasting and a mast had In conclusion, I would like to make control room was re-equipped with received slight damage. special mention of the efforts made by a new Marconi sound mixer, new our Chief Engineer, Brian Hughes. With As time progressed, we were no longer jackfields, concrete ducting and steel responsibilities ranging from the allowed to move in certain areas frames for all equipment. preparation of Government estimates to without armed guards, and a visit to Orders were placed for racks, further P & ID work, he was an inspiration to us Wadi Abyan would resemble an infantry Steve, who had developed close vision and sound jackfields, videotape all. He rarely left his office before nine in exercise. We were encouraged to carry connections with the military, left the recorders and associated Das and PDAs the evening, and worked throughout firearms at all times but did not avail state just in time to avoid something with a view to installing a new telecine most public holidays. Despite our ourselves of this privilege. very nasty. and VT suite on the first floor. problems and without the backing at During general strikes, we remained on Permanent Secretary level, which one I missed the cut as I had a baby son, Plans were made for a further 60ft by the air, despite the fact that each local would have expected, he has achieved and this scored highly. 40ft studio block to be built onto the member of staff had been individually much. His decision to remain for a existing structure, and alternative office threatened. On some occasions, they further six months stemmed from his Brian was thought to be slightly space was provided for production and understandably stayed away and we feeling of responsibility towards the alternative and of some continued commercial staff. Again, however, after were left to run the station by ourselves. South Arabian Broadcasting Service. value to the Front. several months of prevarication, the Our expat news reader colleague, a extension studio was turned down for member of the High Commission, was financial reasons. Simulcast tragically not so fortunate. transmissions were introduced during this period and the presentation studio was furnished with a mixer of our own construction to accommodate this.

Had we known from the outset that we were to remain in this building, plans and orders for equipment could have been made months earlier. As it was, with delivery times of even ‘off the shelf’ equipment taking up to 13 months, with many items being short landed due to harbour strikes, the first-floor telecine suite was only just completed before my departure. The videotape machines were still to be installed.

PROSPERO APRIL 2020 | 7 | MEMORIES A GOLDEN AGE OF FILM

When visiting The National Science and Media Museum in Bradford a few years ago, I was disappointed to discover that, even though one entire floor was dedicated to the BBC, there were no exhibits that recognised the work of Ealing Film Studios. In fact, I saw little in the museum that represented any British film studio – it seemed as if the entire film industry had never existed. Because of that visit, I decided to write A Golden Age in Film before the work we did at Ealing was completely ignored, forgotten and lost in history.

joined the BBC Film Department in 1963 and it’s Also, film was not very sensitive compared to Henry Farrar worked at the BBC as an assistant and amazing how television has changed since…Then, it digital cameras, consequently many locations then film cameraman for 30 years, working on series Iwas impossible to record TV images electronically required lighting. such as Whicker’s World, Blue Peter, Panorama, and the BBC had to use film to record programmes Royal Heritage, Horizon and The World About Us. Once exposed, the film had to be sent to a laboratory for re-showing. Copies of A Golden Age in Film are available direct for processing and was normally not available for from the author, price £15.00 which includes P&P, to: Many producers came from the film industry and loved viewing until the following morning. This meant that the medium. They could leave the restrictions of the directors and producers absolutely relied on Henry Farrar studio and be more creative when it came to editing. cameramen to get the shots they required and trusted 2 Farriers Close Several highly skilled cameramen, perhaps more that once in the cutting room, it could be edited Escrick YO19 6ST appropriately called ‘Directors of Photography’, were satisfactorily. Today, it seems to be an archaic system, also joined by sound recordists, film editors, grips and but Ealing was using the very latest methods and electricians who formed the basis of a group of highly available technology. qualified technicians that staffed the BBC’s Film At its height, the Film Department employed more Department, eventually based at Ealing Film Studios. than 80 camera crews with associated staff, becoming All filming was in black initially, using 35mm cameras, one of the largest film units in the world. It is that is until David Attenborough persuaded the estimated that at its peak, 80 per cent of television management to let him use the less expensive and more was made on film. Dr Bronowski’s Ascent of Man, convenient 16mm on his first Zoo Quest programmes. Alistair Cooke’s America, The Royal Family, Cathy Ealing staff were reluctant to use 16mm, which they Come Home and Civilisation were among the regarded as an amateur gage, and David had to employ countless all-film blockbusters, while ‘live’ a freelance, Charles Lagos, to do the work. However, programmes such as Z-cars, Doctor Who and Dad’s when 35mm costs increased, and professional 16mm Army often contained numerous film sequences. cameras such as the Arriflex SR became available, the The programmes Ealing staff helped to make were use of the narrower gage gave Ealing a new lease of shown around the world and highly praised – hardly life. Kodak also improved its Eastman colour film a week went by without TV critics applauding their sufficiently for the Film Department to compete as craftsmanship. But, inevitably, these methods became electronic cameras were introduced. outdated. Hopefully my book, full of personal In those days, film cameras were not fitted with memories and anecdotes from a vibrant era, will such devices as automatic exposure and focusing. ensure that although those days are now long past, All settings had to be adjusted manually. they will not be entirely forgotten. CLIFFS & RIGGERS t was with great sadness that I read of the death a break in the weather. Even the uncomfortable of Tony Smith in the February issue of Prospero. challenge of going outside for comfort break became IHe was one of those ‘once met, never forgotten’ a humorous interlude, with many a remark referring to characters, who always managed the extra mile in the challenges met by Scott on his last expedition. all that he did. I met him many times during the Eventually of course the weather improved, as it course of my career but remember him mostly for always does, and the work got done. At the end of our the time I shared with him and his team of riggers sojourn there was the need to remove an unwanted in April 1980. 6ft diameter microwave dish from the site. Ordinarily, At that time, we were working together at the it would have been cut up for scrap but I thought this Fitfull Head relay station at the southern end of was a terrible waste at a time when many colleagues have a predilection for pecking holes in the thin Shetland. The station was situated a short distance were becoming interested in experimenting with diaphragm that protected the mouths of feed horns from the edge of a cliff which towered 1,000ft satellite reception and could make use of it. I asked at other sites. I think it’s a feeding instinct as, on a above the Atlantic, where rollers dissipated their Tony if it was possible to transport it south. ‘No post-retirement visit to TV Centre, I noticed dead energy with a thunderous roar at the end of their problem’, he said. And true to his word he loaded it on worms hanging through the diaphragm of several of unimpeded journey from distant Newfoundland. top of the BBC Land Rover and (except for the sea the smaller dishes. crossing to Aberdeen) drove it all the way to London. As you can imagine, being at 60º North and In Tony’s cartoon, he identifies the measures It ended its life on top of a Technical College in South exposed on all sides, the weather could at times be necessary to prove the cause of the damage, and East London, where it was incorporated into their first quite horrendous. And so it was when Tony and his those necessary to resolve the problem. Of course, satellite receiving station. Thanks to Tony. team arrived in April. There they were, shut in and when you received one of Tony’s cartoons, there was unable to work for many a day in a building no In Tony’s obituary, written by Margaret Smith and Peter always a price to pay – and it was normally being larger than 10ft by 8ft. Condron, mention is made of Tony’s artistic gift and humorously mocked in the caption. I’ve attached a amusing work cartoons. I was one of the lucky copy of the cartoon together with the caption. Then I was also present with a technician, transmitters, recipients of one of his cartoons, which was presented and now, I still find it humorous, even though I was and all the paraphernalia you would expect at a to me on my retirement in 1994. It was based on my the subject of the joke. small transmitting station. Sometimes the available last major project, which was the 9ft satellite dish that space was further reduced by a visit from a member These days it can be difficult know what is overhung the scenery block at TV Centre. At an early of the Bressay maintenance team. To say that it was acceptable for publication and what is not. I hope stage of this project, a major problem arose when crowded would have been an understatement. the cartoon does not offend anyone but if it does, water penetrated the antenna feed horn, causing sorry in advance. It was at times like this that Tony the raconteur several thousand pounds’ worth of damage. The many came into his own, with his anecdotes and witty birds that were flying around the catering block James Smith repartee helping to pass the long hours waiting for became the main suspects. Birds had been known to Ex Transmission Department

8 HORIZON

Horizon is the BBC’s flagship science programme that has shared ground- breaking research with viewers for more than 50 years to help them make

sense of the world around them. on the on Alec Nisbett, described on a History of the BBC website as ‘the quintessential episodes of theHorizon series from producer’ 1969 todirected 1995. In and On alsothe Horizonwrote most he shares of his his42 on the memories of developing the iconic documentary and telling world and life-changing stories. From the birth of the environmental movement in

the 1960s to the terrifying and rapid rise of AIDS; dramatic illustrations of

STORIES FROM THE SUDAN the power of seatbelts to save lives to an influential survey of the dangers HORIZON of smoking, Alec was at the forefront of explaining the latest scientific and medical advances to the public. On the Horizon is an affectionate but not uncritical look at the history of the BBC as well as a tribute to the power of television science documentary. Alec Nisbett

His Horizon films include:

Television Science from from Science Television

Black Holes in Space in Holes Black the History of Climate Climate of History the Cancer Now (1969) to AIDS via Change On the Horizon is a newly-published anthologyThe Insect War (1970) of stories BBC of years 50 Smokers’ Luck (1980) Killer in The Village (1983) Aircrash: The Burning Issue (1987) Food Irradiation: Would You Buy It (1990)

Hubble Vision (1994) from the early years of BBC Two’s flagship scienceThe Runaway Mountain (1995) series.

Here, former Horizon producer Alec Nisbett shares an Nisbett Alec

extract from the book which looks at one of his most 50 years of BBC Television Science from the History of Climate Change via AIDS to Black Holes in Space challenging productions, Lost Waters of the Nile (1979).

The UN Land Rover was kindly repaired by the Serenading a favoured beast, a Dinka warrior would well-equipped French and was sent home, while sing of his own strength, courage and of the girls he we moved in to windowless, twin-bedded but hoped to marry, but he would need 50 of these cows air-conditioned cells in a container truck. Our hosts to exchange for a bride. His food was milk and curds, would have, more grudgingly than local custom preserved by a little cow’s urine. Their faces were required, offered us free hospitality, but to maintain white with powdered ash, which protected their skin independence, we insisted on paying and saw their from the flies that were beginning to blacken our own brows lighten – as they set a surprisingly modest fee. faces, while our guide conferred with some tribesmen.

Derek Banks and his camera assistant bunked Facility gift donated, we started quickly, to catch the (with all their gear) in one cabin, while I and Rodney best of that magical light. Bond (sound) shared another. Then we waited… while But our guide, from a different tribe and knowing little I struggled to find scenes to shoot that might enrich of Dinka customs and organisation, had asked the our film. wrong people. We discovered this the hard way, when We had come to see a 2,200-ton German-built a young, tall, elegant, very lightly but ornately clad monstrosity that originally cost $40 million but had warrior, the real leader of the cattle camp, strode been standing idle since finishing a job in the Indus briskly toward us, ordered us to stop (as far as we Valley. Sold on for a song and re-erected here, it was could tell, but confirmed by our guide) then marched the height of a ten-storey block of flats on caterpillar us to a central concourse, where we were put on some tracks. On a good day it might cut a quarter-mile of sort of trial conducted in a language that we could ake Victoria flows north into the Sudan, where half canal. But we could film it only as it stood, crippled not understand. We stood respectfully at ease, trying of it disappears. In a vast wetland, ‘the Sudd’, it and forlornly marooned. to look as nonchalant as possible. Levaporates, denying its largesse to the Arabs of North Sudan and also Egypt, with its population growing We shot the contractors’ efforts to repair it and, by a million every 15 months. The two countries had having seen enough of that, a sketch of life in the commissioned French engineers to dig a 360-mile canal enclosed compound. Borrowing a boat and local to bypass that great swamp – to the chagrin of South navigator, we explored the erratic papyrus-lined Sudan’s Dinka tribesmen whose way of life depended on byways of the swamp, to show its wildlife – mostly the annual ebb and flow of its waters. hippos, crocodiles and a plethora of colourful birds. We saw oversized papyrus canoes used for spear- In 1904, British engineers had proposed a canal fishing or local transport, struggling to penetrate huge starting from a village called Jonglei, but it was not rafts of the perniciously invasive water-hyacinth, one until 1978, after independence and war between the of the fastest-growing plants known, that increasingly Arab Northern Sudan and the tribal South that, threatened to obstruct the swamp. acceptable or not, a gargantuan rotating bucketwheel began ripping its way across one of the flattest A Dinka tribesman, who had crossed the ethnic divide landscapes on Earth. to study at the University of Khartoum and was now working for the Jonglei Commission, told us: ‘Since For me to secure the co-operation of the French via the days of the British, the South has been backward. their HQ in Paris was difficult enough, but for Then after Independence in 1956, the Northerners got permission to travel from North to South Sudan, I had the same position as the British. They did not develop At the end, our judge delivered his verdict, translated to fly to Khartoum and seek the Irrigation Minister’s the South, which was growing more backward as the as a haughty, ‘If you had been Arab, we would have blessing before confirming the booking of a three- North grew more advanced.’ killed you.’ man crew (the minimum permitted by Ealing). My plan was to make a three-day journey south along the We really needed to show the Dinka culture in action, So, no problem! We were not Arab. Might we please White Nile to get to the Canal, with stops along the particularly at a travelling cattle camp of the continue filming? Yes, we gathered, provided we come way to film the Sudan’s existing irrigation schemes, tribesmen whose life and customs would be most back tomorrow with more cigarettes and paper which the Minister was determined to develop into disrupted by the diversion of the Nile’s waters. But money. No! – another voice joined in – for a large ‘the breadbasket of the Arab world’. The South, he such camps were far to the south, and there was no camp with two chiefs we must bring two duty-free suggested, might eventually benefit, too. road. No bucketwheel action; no accessible cattle cartons and five-pound notes! We nodded politely. camp. What could we do? Just find somewhere cool Indeed, the requirement to return was providential. I had managed to borrow a UN Land Rover and driver to read a book. Wait for something to turn up. because it was getting dark and the camera was get us there. The vehicle would be heavily loaded, playing up, so we really did need to return at dawn with five people, luggage, all our gear and extra cans Then, suddenly it did – problem solved by the helpful to complete the shoot in a single continuous take, of fuel. What we didn’t find out until well under way, pilot of a passing plane, an Islander that touched because if we switched the camera off between shots was that the driver would embed bags of profitably down on a stretch of completed embankment that it might never start again. Framing scenes for a few resaleable salt below our own cargo which, along with was intended to become the Sudd-bypass section of seconds at a time, we saw women milking cows, took the washboard dirt-road conditions, on the second a Cairo-to-the-Cape main road. He offered us a lift on close-ups of faces plus such other cutaways as could day would break our suspension. We had spent one his next leg, an overnight excursion to the south, be captured in the superb early morning light: cattle night beleaguered on the porch of a wayside police where we hired a local guide to take us to the nearest being driven out to rich pasture, depositing their own station but, a stroke of luck, on the second evening Dinka camp and negotiate permission to film. For that, final gifts of urine and cow pats as they left – all in the spotted the tented lights of a well-provisioned we would offer the tribesmen a small gift, a carton of ten minutes before our single roll of film ran out. extreme-tourist expedition, the required desert cigarettes and some money (five Sudanese pounds), hospitality of which offered overnight shelter and a to be described in BBC accounting as a ‘facility fee’. So ended the first highlight in a long string of cooked breakfast. potentially budget-busting problems. For more, see That camp, when we finally got there, was On the Horizon which, throughout, pays grateful After requiring that our driver donate his contraband dramatically photogenic. Low evening light filtered tribute to the BBC staff I worked with or alongside. to a more deserving wayside community, we limped through veils of dust and smoke from myriad If your name is not there and should be, please let cautiously through the bleak streets of Malakal at the dried-dung, end-of-day fires, with groups of me know. edge of the Sudd, passing the mouth of the Canal, to young tribesmen squatting around them. They kept reach the French base-camp… only to discover that cattle, not for their meat (eaten only after a natural ADDENDUM: The canal was never finished, and their monstrous canal-cutting bucketwheel had just death) but more for their aesthetic qualities: their South Sudan is again in the news as a state on the ground to a halt. shapes, patterns, colours and manicured horns. verge of failure. PROSPERO APRIL 2020 | 9 | OBITUARIES

with a wry sense of humour, which was absolutely right Peter was a key foundation stone of those pioneering Documentary director for Appointments, chairing interview boards alongside days – versatile and energetic. His quiet supportive personnel (now HR), conducting proceedings with style was a joy to work with. and producer integrity to ensure fair play. He was totally committed What began as a two-year experiment was to last Julia Cave, documentary to the BBC as the commanding heights of public almost 30 year, before Peter took voluntary director and producer, whose service broadcasting and had a strong personal sense redundancy. He loved Sheffield and walking in the films ranged from ancient of public service. He worked his way up in nearby Peak District and spent his retirement serving history to the work of our finest Appointments & Grading and retired in 1989. the community by helping the blind or disabled and contemporary painters, has died Having met John through the BBC, I was delighted to driving doctors for Healthcall. aged 82. Setting aside drama become friends with Beryl and other members of the school offers, Julia began her Our deepest sympathies go to Lorna, Catherine, family, including their children Andrew and Elizabeth BBC career in the late 1950s in the Arabic Service at David, Jennifer and eight grandchildren. and grandson Edward, who all survive him. Bush House, as assistant to the famous but fearsome Michael Barton Dr Lionel Basri, converting him from a file-throwing People commonly comment what a ‘lovely family’ the ogre into a good friend. Joneses are. They have always been close and found John’s dementia very painful to see as he gradually Soon she moved to television, initially as a researcher declined. The loving care that Beryl gave John was on the panel game What’s my Line? where, owing to Trailblazer in a extraordinary in its selflessness, with wonderful the incumbent’s indisposition, she was promoted to support from other members of the family. man’s world studio director – a baptism of fire, learning on the Just two weeks after we celebrated her 100th job and working with household names such as Giles Oakley birthday, Margaret (Peggy) Walker died peacefully Gilbert Harding (who possessed many of the in her bed. ferocious traits of Dr Basri!) She was born in Leeds in 1920 where she went to With studio skills and a reputation for being a good World Service school. During the war, she was a driver in the army ‘people person’, Julia was then invited to join based in Salisbury. Tony Essex’s team preparing The Great War, which accountant would be part of the launch of BBC Two in 1964. Gul Lilarum, who worked as an accountant for Peggy joined BBC Radio in Leeds in 1949, as a On film, she interviewed survivors from all ranks and BBC World Service in the 70s and 80s, died on secretary. She soon realised that the future was in all walks of life. Still only 26, she had the gift of 7 November 2019 in St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington. television, which was just getting off the ground, and so she transferred to the Manchester studios. She was listening and eliciting unique personal stories. I worked with Gul from 1977 in the Programme secretary to some of the well-known programme Following a spell directing Patrick Moore’s The Sky at Executive/Accounting Services Department of what directors and she cut her teeth on the fledgling Night, Julia was recruited by producer Paul Johnstone was then BBC External Services and kept in touch outside broadcasts, doing sporting events such as the to become a founder member of his new History & with him ever since. Grand National and the Open. She ended helping to Archaeology Unit. Its flagship programme, Chronicle, Gul was one of the nicest men you could have known. direct the programmes. was one of a raft of specialised series initiated by He played a very active role in the BBC Club Ariel When a vacancy came up as a director she applied. Controller BBC Two, David Attenborough. It was Wine and Beer Society, as treasurer, until his kidney Since she had proved her potential by doing the job here I first met Julia and our 50-year friendship began. problems meant he had to give up wine and beer, regularly over a number of years, she got the job over In the studio but principally as film director, she something that he always enjoyed, always in some who were more qualified but less experienced remained with the Unit until the mid-70s, making moderation of course. memorable documentaries – many presented by than she. Another passion of his was watching cricket and many Magnus Magnusson – on ancient cultures especially She took over as director of Call My Bluff when it was a day was spent at Oval test matches over the years in Egypt, Greece and the Near East. sent up to Manchester from London and she made it a cheering England on, with mixed results. I’m sure all hit with audiences for many years. She also directed The last third of Julie’s BBC career was spent with who knew him will mourn his passing and raise a glass the Mancunian versions of A Spoonful of Sugar, Music and Arts Department, where she worked with, of something in his memory. among others, Robert Hughes on contemporary amongst many others. Roger Stocker arts documentaries. She finished her career directing the Manchester In 1998, Channel 4 commissioned The Fake Van edition of Look North and retired in 1980 back to Goghs, which Julia proposed, directed and produced Harrogate in her native Yorkshire. with me as executive producer. It won for Julia and Original Radio She never married – it would have been impossible in Third Eye Productions Channel 4’s award for best the 1960s to have had a career and a family; you could arts programme of the year. Sheffield engineer say that she was married to her job. When Radio Sheffield David Collison Recently she had not been well, having been celebrated its 50th birthday in diagnosed with Alzheimer’s six years ago. November 2017, we met in the Victorian mansion, our first She will be dearly missed by her extended family. Remembering home, now a school. Telling Andrew Walker the children about those John Jones testing early days was John Jones, who adorned the Appointments Peter Mason. Department for many years, died aged 90 in One of the original engineers who helped set up the Radio 2 producer November 2019, having suffered from dementia for new radio station, Peter died on Christmas Day at the John Meloy worked for the BBC for 44 years. He always over a decade. He died at home surrounded by his age of 76. knew that he wanted to have a career concerned with devoted family. music. He joined the BBC in 1950 and his first job was in His stories – often hilarious – went down a bomb with television accounts. When not working, he used his time I didn’t know John when he was at the BBC but got to the children… how he and his wife Lorna scoured to study harmony and orchestration and go to concerts, know him through meeting him as a volunteer visitor. Sheffield for egg boxes to act as acoustic treatment in including attending all the Promenade Concerts he He insisted on saving me the trouble of walking to his the ballroom and how Nellie the cleaner took the place, coming to me. He didn’t need visits as he had could afford, to further his musical education. station off air when she plugged in her vacuum cleaner. family and friends plus good health, but we kept He always enjoyed singing and joined choirs, including No job description could accurately describe what in touch. the Ariel Choral Society where he met his future was required of a local radio engineer in 1967. The John was born in Porthcawl in 1929, the youngest wife, Pat. answer was anything from fixing transmitters, radio child of William and Nora Jones, his father being a cars and tape recorders to rewiring a studio. We left His next job was in the BBC Music Library, concentrating Regimental Sergeant Major in the Welch Regiment. Peter and his colleague Ken Beard to get on with it on orchestral work. One of his duties was now working Educated in local schools, John did National Service on the Proms with musicians he had previously admired, – soldering irons burning until midnight. in the Royal Signals before joining the BBC as a and on programmes such as Friday Night is Music Night. probationary technical assistant at 200 Oxford Street But Peter’s greatest delight was outside broadcasts John worked in television and radio and was a producer in August 1953. In 1955, he married Beryl Helliwell. – brass bands, the Sheffield Show, the Torchlit Carol on Radio 2 for many years. When he left the BBC, he Service, election night and many more. He was never John was tall and dignified and full of energy, striding wrote that, ‘It had been a magic journey and I fazed by the most daunting of tasks, taking great pride cheerfully around the streets of East Sheen in South thoroughly enjoyed each and every stage of it’ and also in getting the job professionally done on a shoestring. West London. His manner was kindly and gentle, but that his chief pleasure had always been, and still was, with a serious engagement with what was going on in If he had any gripes, he kept them to himself – except ‘live performance’. This remained true throughout the BBC and the wider world. His was public-spirited when reporters failed to put their Uhers on charge! his life. 10 He became a principal friend of the LPO, where he television, especially the live Current Affairs enjoyed many concerts and loved to attend the open programmes for secondary schools. Nothing ever Leeds TV’s female rehearsals. John attended his final LPO concert in threw her, and she was tact personified in nudging me October 2019 when he was 91. to make script and casting decisions in good time. camerawoman Ada Hakeney (nee Green), who has died aged 87 The final concert he attended, however, was at the She knew her way around all the technical departments after a stroke, worked for an opticians and the Watford School of Music to see his grandson play violin we dealt with and cheerfully worked late through the Ministry of Supply before joining the BBC in last December. This made him so happy and proud. evening when necessary. Birmingham in 1954, but after a week was sent After a short illness, he died in the Peace Hospice in My annual reports were so enthusiastic that she to Manchester. Watford. He leaves behind Pat, his wife of 59 years, and was promoted to researcher, then assistant producer There, she was a technical operator in the Lines Control two children Stephen and Julia. He will be sadly missed to Paul Mitchell making careers programmes. Room, before it was discovered 16 years later that she and fondly remembered by family and friends. She became a producer-director, specialising in could not hear stereo sound. programmes to give school leavers a feeling for the Julia Meloy We had become friends over the control lines, so she world of work. She made a series of 20-minute moved to the Leeds TV studio, where she was documentaries, filming in offices and factories up welcomed, especially by comedian Charlie Williams, and down the country. Her focus was always on the who mentioned her and her camera in every Telephone Systems young people working there. She engaged with programme in his North Region series, as she was the them easily and encouraged them to speak freely first camerawoman he had worked with. engineer about the pros and cons of their chosen profession George ‘Ron’ Renton died on or industry. Ada took a Grade C course at Evesham and passed, 19 November 2019, aged 87. even though she spent a fortnight of the time in In Children’s TV, she worked with Pat Farrington on Ronkswood Hospital. She had to leave BBC Leeds in Following his National Service Look and Read, The Boy from Space, You and Me and 1977 when we married, as I got a post in Cardiff. in the Army, Ron had a long Watch. She was one of the very few people in the However, Ada was soon asked to rejoin to operate career in the BBC Lines/ BBC who worked her way up from being a secretary (and maintain) Cardiff telecine. Communications/Transmission without a degree to assistant producer. Departments, the major part of After retirement in 1992, we returned to East Yorkshire, She married Walter Plummer, a leading film sound which was spent within the where she did voluntary work with the WRVS. Her Telephone Systems section. recordist, and their son Jamie was born in 1978. favourite pastime was baking wedding and birthday She made lifelong friends in the department; Ron managed many, varied telephone projects but by cakes – especially lemon drizzle. some of whom would join her on family holidays far the largest and most costly single project that he led In 2014, Ada was asked by Newcastle and De Montfort in Barbados. was the replacement of the telephone systems at universities to contribute to their Oral History of Broadcasting House, Television Centre, Bush House and When she retired from the BBC, she continued Women in Film and Television project. This has resulted Villiers House. to demonstrate her interest in young people by in 28 half-hour interviews, now online. working as a classroom assistant at her local school in The selected replacement system was the EBX 8000 Joe Hakeney (configured for more than 12,000 extensions in total) Princes Risborough. Once she retired, she was largely and multi-million-pound contracts were placed in 1980 occupied looking after her husband, Walter, who had with Philips Business Systems Ltd. A new multi-storey suffered a serious stroke. Gill died of pneumonia in building was provided for the TVC replacement system, January and is survived by her husband Walter and Specialist motorcycle which went live in 1982 (as did the Villiers House and their son Jamie. Bush House systems) followed, in August 1983, by the John Miller and Paul Mitchell cameraman replacement system for London BH. The project had Chris Wickham, who has died after a short illness, many facets: whole buildings were re-wired; user joined the BBC as a trainee cameraman in 1959. requirements had to be sought, assessed and collated; a new Directory Enquiry system was needed. Altogether, it He spent the 60s at Television Centre, Lime Grove was a mammoth undertaking, spanning some five years! Niall Kennedy, and Riverside studios and did occasional attachments to Television Outside Broadcasts at Kendal Avenue. Ron was an experienced and knowledgeable engineer cinematographer In 1975, he managed to transfer to Tel. OBs and became with a quiet, gentle disposition — although he would be When l learned of Niall’s passing shortly before a camera supervisor. By the early 1990s, he was a firm and assertive when he thought it necessary. Christmas last year, I found myself re-living a host of lighting cameraman working mainly on single-camera He was an active supporter of the BBC Social Club and, memories and stories, for he and I had worked together shoots with a sound recordist and an electrician. in particular, the Engineering Society where, as as a camera team for close on five years at TFS Ealing. He was also a specialist motorcycle cameraman, Secretary, his friendly character was able to persuade Our travels took us to many distant locations as well covering many cycling and athletics events including many speakers to visit and provide talks and as assignments in ‘home waters’ –firstly treading the The Milk Race, The London Marathon and The Great presentations. blustery, rain-swept decks of sailing ships shooting North Run. Ron retired from the BBC in December 1990. He was an film inserts for four series of The Onedin Line, where His work took him all over the world but one accomplished bridge player and a nature-lover, toughness and good humour were tested to their programme that made a deep and lasting impression particularly enjoying the birdlife in Kelsey Park, close to fullest. Niall had both qualities in spades. Along with was a trip to Nepal to shoot a documentary about the his home in Beckenham. this, his meticulous planning and attention to detail Gurkhas. His experiences there gave him a lifelong made each assignment run smoothly wherever we His funeral service was held on 12 December at The interest in this proud race. Church of St Edmund of Canterbury, Beckenham were deployed. There were moments of panic but He studied navigation at night school and qualified followed by the committal at Beckenham Crematorium. Niall’s approach always worked to the benefit and often the relief of all. as a skipper of the BBC yacht. He would sometimes Our sympathy is with Ron’s family who survive him. set out to sea with a crew of senior BBC management In one short period of six months in 1978, I lost both who, by law, had to obey the reasonable orders of a Douglas Malone my parents and returned from filming to London. lowly cameraman. On each occasion, Niall took over as cameraman and In 1996, he took redundancy with early retirement and produced spectacular footage – making a mockery went back to his old job as a freelance. Schools TV secretary of being informed when he first joined the Film Department that he would never be promoted to that After 10 years, he had a heart attack and stopped work altogether. who worked her way up role. On my return, he showed me kindness and understanding, the characteristics that defined him. His many interests included military history, and, with Gill Reed grew up mostly in the four other BBC pensioners, he visited most of the Great West Indies, where her father In due course, he was promoted and went on to War battlefields between the North Sea and the Swiss was Director of Education, create a fine body of work. Modestly describing border. Chris made copious notes and with many of based in Barbados. himself as a ‘jobbing cameraman’, he was much more his photographs, we would produce a booklet of She came to England when than that, offering technical skill and artistry whatever our discoveries. she was 18 and did a secretarial the project, and making friends with whoever he He met Heather Thorburn (ex-BBC) in 1982, course in London before worked with. He was always in demand. married her in 1983 and their son, Jonathan arrived becoming a secretary in On his climb to the top at TFS, he built a reputation in 1984. Broadcasting House, living that earned him the accord of being an Ealing Chris died on 30 December 2019 aged 78 years. in a BBC hostel. stalwart, with laughter and a smile that endeared him to all fortunate enough to share his company. A gentle man, he will be sorely missed by us all. In 1965 she transferred to Schools TV and became PA to John Miller. She had an ideal temperament for John Walker Alex Thomas

PROSPERO APRIL 2020 | 11 | ODDS & ENDS

POETRY IN PROSPERO CONTACTS

In 1975, Sue Lochead walked up the steps of the BBC Network Centre in Queries Manchester and asked for a job. She filled in a form and three months later For benefit and pension payroll was asked to come and work as Secretary for the then Head of Centre. queries, call the Service Line on She quickly moved to working in Radio when David Hatch, the then Head 029 2032 2811 of Radio 4 in Manchester, asked her set up the Radio 4 Today office, with or email [email protected]. Brian Redhead presenting from Manchester and John Timpson in London. Prospero n 1978, she moved on to Television and Unseen. Both are published by The Divine Feminine. This became the To remove a name from the Production, becoming one of the early Wordcatcher and are available major underlying influence in her poetry. distribution list, ring the Service handful of women television directors on Amazon. I She has been writing poetry over a Line on 029 2032 2811. Prospero is at the time, making films, producing provided free of charge to retired In 1985, Sue went through what period of 20 years. Her poetry is mostly television series and specialising in she describes as a ‘transformative BBC Scheme members only. directing live television for Children’s TV soul searching and spiritual in content, experience’ that changed her Prospero is also available on audio and General Features TV for the network. as well as drawing on life experience and whole perspective on life, and she disc for those with sight impairment. nature for inspiration. Sue has recently published two has spent the second half of her life To register, please ring the Service collections of poetry: Revelation – dedicated to studying Esoteric Sue has published several collections of Line. Alternatively, it is also available An Exploration of Life Through Poetry Philosophy and Spirituality, Christian poetry, and also won a Waterstones online at bbc.com/mypension, and Sacred Place – Poetry as Seen Hermeticism, Perennial Wisdom and competition for best poem. under ‘Documents’.

BBC Club The BBC Club in London has a RED BUTTON SWITCH OFF SUSPENDED retired membership costing £3 per month or £36 per year. Members In the February issue of Prospero, we reported that the BBC was planning to switch off the BBC Red Button can also add friends and family service. Shortly after that issue went to print – and a day before it was due to have started being phased out to their membership for a small – the BBC announced it was suspending the closure. additional cost. Regional clubs may have different arrangements. The news came days after a petition, ‘People have expressed their concern Last year, a BBC spokesperson said Please call the BBC Club London organised by the National Federation that the closure of Red Button text the decision to close the service office on 020 8752 6666 or email of the Blind of the UK (NFBUK), service could negatively affect elderly had not been taken lightly and that [email protected] for details, was handed into the BBC and people and people with disabilities,’ the the resources that maintained it or to join. Downing Street. letter read. would go towards ‘even better internet-based services’. Benevolent Fund BBC director general Tony Hall said he ‘These are issues which I feels [sic] This is funded by voluntary would examine the concerns and make deserve to be explored in more depth... contributions from the BBC and its ‘a fresh decision’ in the spring. so we have decided to suspend its purpose is to protect the welfare of closure pending further work in BBC Radio London, The NFBUK called the news ‘fantastic’ staff, pensioners and their families. that area.’ 50 years on and said it was looking forward to Radio London celebrates 50 years working with Mr Collins, the BBC and Lord Hall said the service would Grants are made at the discretion since the original station opened in the British Deaf Association ‘for a continue ‘as close as possible to its of the Trustees. They may provide Hanover Square with a reunion on better resolution’. current state for the time being’. assistance in cases of unforeseen 6 October in central London. financial hardship, for which help Its petition expressed concerns that the His pledge was echoed by Matthew If you’d like to reminisce about the from other sources is not available. removal of the service would ‘leave Postgate, the BBC’s chief technology old days in Hanover Square and Tel: 029 2032 2811 many people, who are already and product officer, who said the Marylebone High Street when vulnerable, further isolated and corporation would ‘listen carefully and editing involved razor blades and Prospero Society marginalised from society’. with an open mind to the views which yellow pencils, music came from the Prospero Society is the only section have been expressed’. To be explored in more depth Canadian Talent Library, and Twitter of the BBC Club run by and for In a letter to Damian Collins MP, Red Button text – which enables was confined to the Countryside of retired BBC staff and their spouses. Lord Hall said the BBC had heard headlines, football scores, weather and London, come and join us. Its aim is to enable BBC pensioners to meet on a social basis for theatre from organisations, MPs and members travel news to be read on TV sets – More information from Ann Kaye: visits, luncheons, coach outings, etc. of the public about its decision to launched in 1999, taking over as [email protected] phase out the service. Ceefax was phased out. Prospero Society is supported by BBC Club funds so as to make CLASSIFIEDS events affordable. If you would like Caption an application form, please contact: Menorca. Stunning detached villa Gayner Leach, BBC Club, with private pool. Sleeps 2-7. competition BC2 B3 Broadcast Centre, Es Castell. Close to amenities, bars The winner of a £10 shopping voucher 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TP & restaurants. Air conditioned. is Geoff Mitchell, with the caption: Brochure: 07860 232854. ‘Skilfully crafted; a lot of thought Tel: 020 8752 6666 www.menorcaholidayvilla.co.uk must have gone into making that. Email: [email protected]. Yes. But what is it?’ BBCPA Andalucia, Spain. Modern villa south The BBCPA was founded in 1988 to of Granada, 20 metres from beach. WIN promote and safeguard the interests Traditional fishing village. Sleeps 8. £10 of BBC pensioners. It is independent Email for brochure: of the BBC. For details of how to [email protected] join, see the panel on page 5 or Post your entry to Prospero by download a membership form Prospero Classifieds, BBC Pension Monday, 4 May 2020. at bbcpa.org.uk. and Benefits Centre, 3 Central Square, Or, you can email your entry to Cardiff, CF10 1FT. [email protected], with ‘caption Please enclose a cheque made payable The picture shows Paddy McGuinness competition 3’ in the subject line. to: BBC Central Directorate. Rate: and Freddie Flintoff in Top Gear as Please include your BBC pension £6 for 20 words. In a covering letter, they journey across Nepal. number. Good luck! please include your pension number.

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