The newspaper for retired BBC Pension Scheme members • April 2019 • Issue 2 PROSPERO

THE BRITISH WAY OF PENSION FUN AND GAMES SCHEME PAGE 7 | PENSIONS

Marital status survey Our thanks to everyone who has provided confirmation of who might be eligible to receive a benefit from the Scheme, after their death. Over 8,000 pensioners have provided this information to date.

This information may not have changed since you last notified the Scheme but it is useful to know that the information is still up to date. Even if you do not have anyone to nominate, it will assist us to have Music this information. The BBC Club Ariel Orchestra has appointed Mark Eager to be new Principal Conductor. This is important because it’s best practice to ensure any information we hold about you, and your spouse, Mark is an international conductor who travels the civil partner or nominated dependant, is up to date. The Pensions Regulator, who gives guidance to world as a guest conductor and was a former work-based pension schemes, advises that we maintain accurate records. principal trombonist of the BBC National Orchestra In addition, this information can help the Scheme put in place efficient investment arrangements to match of Wales. The orchestra meets every three weeks expected future payment of pensions. at the BBC Maida Vale Studios and is keen to hear from retired musicians who would be interested in If you haven’t provided this information yet then don’t worry. You can do so by logging onto myPension playing with them. online. Alternatively you should have received a reminder letter from us and a paper form that you can complete and return. If you haven’t received the form and would like to be sent a copy, or if you have any Email: [email protected] queries, please contact the service line on 029 2032 2811 or email mypension@.co.uk or [email protected]

Canal cruising BBC Club’s narrow boat is now available to hire at greatly reduced rates for Club members and sleeps 2019 pension increase Would you up to seven. It is moored in Anderton in . From 1 April 2019, pensions will increase as follows: Training is given at the start of your week! like to sit on See the website for details: - Old and New Benefits members’ pensions in the Pension PENSION bbcclub.com/connect/canal-cruising payment and deferred pensions: 2.7%. Old Benefits TRUST LTD members who elected to receive the Pension Trust Board? Golf Increase Exchange will receive a lower increase, The Board of Trustees is responsible for looking The Golf Society costs £30 per year for Club members; and in some cases, no increase. after the assets of the BBC Pension Scheme and why not join or renew your membership now. - Career Average Benefits (‘CAB’) 2006 members’ ensuring that benefits are paid at the right time to See the website for more details: bbcclub.com/ pensions in payment: 2.5%. the right people. connect/golf or email: [email protected] This year the Board will be holding an election for a - CAB 2011 members’ pensions in payment: 2.1%. Rambling former contributing pensioner to join the Board from BBC Rambling Club organises rambles (usually - A revaluation increase of 2.7% to pensions built 1 January 2020. Being a Trustee is demanding, but the circular) of between 6 and 12 miles every 3rd up to 31 March 2018 for active and deferred CAB work is stimulating and rewarding. Sunday in the Home Counties. Lunch will be at a 2006 members. If you’re interested in pensions and committed to helping local pub, or bring your own. All abilities welcome! - A revaluation increase of 2.1% to pensions built to ensure the continued success of the Scheme, look See the website for more details: bbcclub.com/ up to 31 March 2018 for active and deferred CAB out for the information that will be sent later this spring connect/rambling or email: [email protected] 2011 members. on what’s involved and how to stand for election. Flying Club No discretionary increase over and above those You can also find out more here: The Ariel Flying Club, which has a new home at detailed above has been agreed. bbc.co.uk/mypension/news North Weald airfield, offers subsidised training hours and discounted flying hours, as well as no landing fees and more! See the website for more details: bbcclub.com/ Available throughout the UK to connect/flying or email: [email protected] VOLUNTEER BBC pensioners over age 70 VISITING Yacht Club SCHEME The BBC Yacht Club welcomes all from beginner to Visitors are also experienced ocean sailor. We have two yachts and cater for those who wish to learn, race or just enjoy! Visitors carry ID cards BBC pensioners with them for your See the website for more details: bbcclub.com/ connect/yacht or email: CommodoreBBCYC@ security gmail.com

Prospero AGM The Prospero Society AGM will be held in BBC Club Would you welcome W1 on a Thursday – 11 April, 11am – rather than the occasional contact with traditional Tuesday. It is open to all BBC Club former colleagues? We can also offer Prospero Society members, to share views and support during comments about the Society. difficult times such as BBC Club W1 Over 2,000 pensioners bereavement The best place to meet friends and relax after a visit to the West End, the BBC Club retired already use the scheme members’ lunch price is now £6 for one course Meet at home for a chat or and £7.50 for two courses from 1 April and is somewhere public like a available Monday to Friday 12-2pm.

coffee shop EE S Club website FF HO O P C The Club Extra section of the BBC Club website is Operates from the undergoing some changes. The Club Extra Offers section has been replaced by a monthly Club Extra Pension and Benefits e-newsletter detailing all the current Club offers. Centre

BBC Club Broadcast Centre, BC2 B3, Want to know more about what the VVS has to offer? 201 Wood Lane, W12 7TP Call the pension service line on 029 2032 2811 or 020 8752 6666 email [email protected] [email protected]

2 | BACK AT THE BBC THE BUZZ IN THE PROSPERO

Prospero is provided free of charge to retired Scheme NEWSROOM IS FANTASTIC members, or to their spouses and dependants. Prospero provides a source of news on former colleagues, developments at the BBC and pension Rebecca Curran and Martin Geissler (pictured below) issues, plus classified adverts. It is available online are the faces of BBC Scotland’s new nightly flagship at bbc.co.uk/mypension To advertise in Prospero, please see page 12. news and current affairs programme, The Nine. Please send your editorial contributions, e caught up with them as they prepared to or comments/feedback, to: go live on Monday 25 February from a brand Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Wnew studio, right at the heart of Glasgow’s Broadcasting House, Cardiff CF5 2YQ Pacific Quay. Email: [email protected]

There are just days to go now until the launch. Please make sure that any digital pictures you send How have the pilots been going? are scanned at 300dpi. Please also note that the Martin: Every day is different. News is funny because maximum word count for obituaries is 350 words. the news agenda dictates your day, but there is so much more for us to think about in terms of the programme’s structure. Getting miles on the clock is important because we’re both on-the-road reporters, which means learning a new skill. There is no substitute for hours in the studio before you go on air. Contents Rebecca: I don’t know if is because we are launching something new with a big team of new people but the buzz, enthusiasm and ambition in The Nine newsroom Pensions 2 Martin: Hayley Valentine, editor of The Nine, describes it is fantastic. as a programme, not a bulletin. It’s a digest of the most What have people’s perceptions been when you’ve important information from around the world that day, delivered in a style designed to let you sit back and watch been talking about the new channel? Back at the BBC 3 Rebecca: It’s starting to change now but people were as entertainment as well as a source of information. not really familiar with the channel until all the Rebecca: It is a big investment in journalism in promotion started. When I moved down to Glasgow Scotland and we’re both evangelical about the team. from the BBC in Aberdeen at the end of last year, people The people working on this programme are so creative. would ask me why I was here and I’d say that I had a The stuff they are coming up with is the kind of material Letters 4-5 new job and tell them a bit about it. People have been that will help us fulfil our original journalism ambitions genuinely interested in the channel but also in the news – the kind of stories not currently being told in Scotland. hour and what we’re going to be doing differently. Martin: Everyone, regardless of background, has been Memories 6-8 Martin: People are curious but I’m surprised at the left in no doubt that their voice and their opinion matters. number of people I have had to explain it to. By the - Reminiscences of a revolution Rebecca: We are told every day; no idea is a stupid time we go on air, there should be a feverish element - Richard Baker idea. Everything is up for discussion. That ends up which will make people sit down and watch. Scotland - Around the World in 80 Days with excellent discussions and thoughts coming out. hasn’t had a news programme before which - Briefs, pink knickers and pic-nickers incorporates heavyweight global news with stuff Martin: I’m sitting down with people half my age and - Saxophones & happening at the end of your street as well as we live in the same country, we walk the same streets, entertainment; all presented in an informal way. live in same world, but it’s a totally different world What makes The Nine unique? to them because they see it through different eyes. I find that an education. We want their world to come Rebecca: Given that we have an hour, we have a lot Obituaries 9-11 across. Just because I have been around a bit longer, more time to get into things. Martin has mentioned doesn’t mean my world is what we should be it’s more informal. That doesn’t mean we’ll be sitting broadcasting. Hopefully our audience will select us having a laugh on the couch. We’re able to look at a as the place they come to for the day’s news because story, give it more time to breathe; give interviewees they trust us to understand their lives. Odds & ends 12 time to say their piece but also dig into it afterwards, whether that be with a correspondent or live guests Tune in to The Nine on BBC Scotland from 21:00 - Reunion news on the couch. Mondays to Thursdays. - Contacts - Classifieds - Caption competition

Mystery Sudoku N Complete the grid so that every row, column and S O H 3x3 box contains the letters ADEHLNOST in some Prospero April 2019 order. One row or column contains a five or more O A T D The next issue of Prospero will appear letter word, title or name with a BBC connection. in June 2019. The copy deadline Solve the Sudoku to discover what it is and send L T N is Tuesday, 7 May 2019. your answer to: The Editor, Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Broadcasting House, Cardiff N A L E CF5 2YQ by Tuesday, 7 May 2019. T N O The winner gets a £10 voucher. Many thanks to Neil Somerville for providing this puzzle. A O H L The Sudoku winner in February 2019 L H S was Mr Vincent Fitzgerald. The answer WIN was PROFILE. E £10

PROSPERO APRIL 2019 | 3 | LETTERS

Scottish orchestras Music marring Paper envelopes Like Colin Bradbury, I, too, was somewhat puzzled by Geoff Hall’s account of the Whilst I agree that a paper envelope is 1980 plan to eliminate so many of the BBC orchestras. I had been in the Academy programmes (in one way) more environmentally of the BBC (ABBC of fond memory: the chamber orchestra-sized remains of I have just recently suffered the friendly, it’s pretty useless when it the BBC Training Orchestra, in Bristol August 1974 to January 1976, when I was overwhelming use of music that comes to picking up dog poo! transferred to the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, thence to the BBC Concert marred the two follow-up programmes Graeme Aldous Orchestra in April 1979. on BBC2 of The Fifteen Billion Pound Railway. Around the time I left Bristol, the BBC had already announced its intention to disband the ABBC. Amongst several others in the orchestra, I was involved, even These programmes were extremely Programme after moving to Glasgow, in preparing a submission to the BBC in an attempt to interesting and did not need loud, save it. Clearly, we were unsuccessful and the ABBC was disbanded about a year dramatic music to enhance the recording later, in 1977. explanation of the difficulties and skills As most good or involved in installing huge fans or very interesting programmes Readers with a keen sense of timelines will have noticed that, following my moves long escalators. commence at 9pm, and to Glasgow and London, each orchestra I left had a year or so left before being most people’s recording disbanded or threatened with it – an unfortunate coincidence not lost on some In the February issue of Prospero, machines such as a Humax can only of my Concert Orchestra colleagues at the time! In the event, as pointed out by John Hale reports that the reply to his record two programmes while one previous correspondents, the BBC SSO did survive, not so the BBC Scottish Radio complaints about this subject was that views another live, why can’t the BBC Orchestra. I am relieved to report that, although I retired from the Concert levels were well judged and that the have BBC1+1, BBC2+1 and BBC4+1? Orchestra several years ago, it is still going strong. BBC will not engage further with Most of the commercial TV programmes his complaint. It seems to me that Mr Hall has conflated two separate rounds of orchestral cuts, have this feature, which means you can unless he has archived memos to support the notion that disbanding the ABBC My reaction to that is that I will not record any additional programmes was a direct and linked precursor to the much larger cull announced in 1980. I do engage further with BBC documentaries. you want to see an hour later as the not doubt Mr Hall was ‘there’, but, in one apparent respect, it was a different ‘there’. How I mourn the demise of programmes you want to see that begin Clive Hobday documentaries of the quality of at 9pm appear at 10pm, so you do not The Two-Thousand-Year-Old Computer miss programmes on BBC by viewing on BBC4, 2012. them live or recording them!

Dynasties ruined by loud music Geoff Higgs Roger Fleming I am the widow of Maurice Turner, former WS newsreader and announcer at Bush. Maurice also served as presentation & administration officer in Malaysia/Singapore and on Ascension Island. Whilst on Ascension, we had the pleasure of hosting David Attenborough for one BBC Sounds night and I have been an avid reader of his books and watcher of his programmes BBC Sounds: not a service, an irritation. Mr Grierson is ever since. perfectly correct. I try to access Sounds and frequently fail. I seldom switch on the television, however, last evening I made sure I was all set to I have collided unintentionally with ‘BBC Pop Out Player,’ watch his latest series, Dynasties. and ‘BBC Media’ – what the h*** are these?

I was enraged to find I could not Frances K Jones hear most of the commentary, as it was drowned out by totally I WAS VERY pleased to read what William Grierson had to say about BBC unnecessary, very loud music. Sounds. I have had a similar experience. I too downloaded Sounds, only to I am 88 and can guarantee my discover that its intuitive approach was not at all to my liking. I want to be in hearing is in perfect order. control of what I listen to – not subservient to some algorithm designed for In Prospero, I have read many younger audiences who want their preferences served up to them on a plate. letters of complaint about this My concern is that the BBC, although very reliant on older listeners and intrusion. I hope my letter will viewers, treats us with disdain – assuming we can be counted on and have make the producers leave out the nowhere else to go. Will the bureaucrats finally just consign iPlayer to the ‘background’ music and allow the dustbin and force us to use Sounds? I fear so. commentator and wonderful Fortunately, there are other offers we could turn to, including a range of other photography to tell the story. radio stations around the world, including NPR. I don’t say this because I want I do so enjoy Prospero with to lose what I already have from the BBC, but because it may be snatched away. items, names and photographs, which bring back many Martin Plaut happy memories.

Mrs V Turner, New Zealand Green & white livery I was distracted from the text of the Kingswood Warren article (Prospero, London Hostels remembered February 2019) by the picture of balloon testing, with a van in the background May I express my thanks to Prospero for publishing in the last edition my article on — clearly a BBC vehicle by the distinctive green-with-a-grey-stripe livery. the London Hostels and SADG/Folk Club memories from the late 1960s. It was a fine design, both distinctive and dignified, and I wonder who designed it — is it known? I was delighted to hear from a number of former colleagues, most of whom I had not been in touch with for over 50 years! It was also used in reverse I have replied to each individually, and have even been able to (grey with a green stripe), extend through some of these colleagues communication and I wondered if there with others who do not have email, such as the former head was any significance to of Redbourne Hostel, Jean Ballantine. this. If it was a general change of colour over the If there are still others out there who remember me and/or whole fleet, when did it any of the names mentioned in that article, do please get come about? in touch. The attached pic shows Hopefully, we will remain in touch, and there is even talk of a both liveries, photographed reunion with a few of us, if the logistics might prove feasible. in the OB Yard Thanks again to Prospero for facilitating a valued renewal of Left to right: Kyle sometime in the late 70s. long-lost contact. Mackay, Monica (Sorry that I can’t attribute Mackeness and the photo to anyone.) Bob Wood Denise Butler. [email protected] Graeme Aldous

4 Licence fee consultation Landing too low I think Chris Coneybear’s submission to cancel the over-75s licence neglects Mike Curtis’s story about a complaint of aircraft noise because they were to recognise a fact that was published in the same edition of Prospero. ‘landing too low’ stirred the memory. He mentions that he is 66 years of age and so, presumably, receives a I was on attachment to News at AP in 1987 as a very new TA. Nearly all film State Pension at the higher rate. I am 20 years older and my State pension is inserts were mute and my job was to play in sound effects from our limited almost £40 per week lower! Enough said? number of BBC Sound Effects 45 rpm records. Helen Grierson Whenever we saw aircraft at Heathrow taxiing about, we reached for the trusty ‘aircraft landing and taxiing’ disc. Unfortunately, there was a very alert I WAS DRAWN to the letter from Chris Coneybeer in the February 2019 lady viewer who got most annoyed at this disc. She took to ringing up the Prospero – and totally agree that, as a welfare payment offered by the gallery (somehow she had obtained the number) and complained ‘You are Gordon Brown government in 2002, it is the government of the day to playing that record again’. It got so bad that eventually, we had to physically continue to provide free TV licences for the over-75s, not the BBC. destroy the record to stop it being used. However, it seems that, at the government’s insistence, the BBC has for some John Hale is to be congratulated on his campaign to lower intrusive and reason accepted that it should pick up the tab in the future, thus further unrelated ‘music’ in documentaries. The reply he received from Executive diminishing resources available for programme making. Complaints Unit is typically arrogant and dismissive in ‘we know best’ fashion. This being the case, and to diminish the acute loss of finances caused by the I too have tried. I had a letter printed in The Times on 22 January suggesting government’s decision, it is right that the free licence for over-75s should be that one of the many buttons on my TV remote control could be programmed examined in the Consultation Document, where various options are to cut the music. There are more buttons here than I needed to make the suggested. All options offered have consequences either to the BBC’s programmes in the first place in my 30 years as a VT editor. I called it the finances or to the welfare of the elderly, so a compromise must be sought. MOB Rule button, i.e. putting the viewer in control of Music Off.

It seems to me wrong that all households with just one member over 75 are Ian Rutte eligible, so I feel strongly that the new system should only give free licences to households where all members are over 75. For example, I am just over 75 but my wife is not, so we would not be eligible until she too is 75. However, if our son in his 40s came to live with us when we were both over Fight the good fight 75, our household would again become ineligible. It was encouraging to read Thus any household with anyone aged between 18 and 75 living there would another letter of complaint on have to pay. This would be fair and save the BBC millions! the escalating debate of intrusive music in most BBC John Hale documentaries. I share the frustration of the writer, I READ CHRIS Coneybeer’s letter in the February Prospero about the John Hales, who dubbed many consultation on the BBC licence fee. of my films at TVC, as BH’s He calls it the BBC TV licence fee concession, which it is not. The licence fee response to our dissatisfaction is required to watch any television in Britain, whether BBC, ITV or any other was similar. However, I would broadcast source on a television set. However, I have never seen in his, like to add a rider to his or any other comments on the subject, consideration of the cost of experiences as I feel we should independent television. It is certainly not free; we all pay in the increased not let the Executive Complaints Paul with credit roller from Braden’s Week. cost of retail items, particularly household goods, which is needed to pay Unit have the last word. for the advertising. For my money, the BBC shot themselves in the foot when they launched Slow TV The government decided that people over 75 (which this year includes me) on BBC4. This ‘experiment’ was highly praised by the Corporation, believing they’d should not have to pay to watch television. But we do! The licence was made found a new method of making documentaries without resorting to music. In my free to the over-75s, but I still have to pay the inflated prices every time I go view, Slow TV should not be necessary if the BBC could educate producers to shopping for items which are advertised on independent television. This is think before drowning their programmes with music – if producers insist on very unfair; not only to me, but also to the BBC. If the BBC has to cover the wall-to-wall coverage, could they please ensure the music is not at odds with the cost of the licence fee to over-75s, as is proposed, then the government visuals. During my time as a film editor on the staff, non-music productions were should also make the independent television companies refund to those over widespread. We never used music gratuitously; the same applied when I left to 75 what they have contributed in supermarkets and shops to the running of become a freelance director. independent television. I first wrote to the director-general on the subject in 2015. His reply was Many people do not realise how much this is. The cost of running all sympathetic, saying he and his executive producers monitor the sound levels of independent television channels is roughly comparable to the running cost of the Corporation’s output under their own ‘best practice guide’. After a further the BBC. We all pay for ITV, not only those over 75, but even people without a exchange of letters, he passed me over to his acting correspondence advisor. television set! The only way of avoiding it is to note the products being She kindly sent me a copy of ‘Clear sound: best practice tips’, no doubt hoping advertised and avoid buying them when you go shopping. But that will not work, because the advertising revenue is sometimes spread across a that this would put an end to my correspondence. Far from it, as the pamphlet company, and not just applied to the one product. contained basic advice that was clearly ignored or not even seen by producers. I felt compelled to write back on this controversial area – this was in December 2017 So in future, I look forward to a refund of £150.50 (approx) per annum, and I still await a reply. in addition to my free licence. As I pointed out to the DG, it isn’t just former staff who complain: letters from the Colin Pierpoint general public critical of overpowering music can be found in the national press and even the Radio Times. Nowadays, producers of documentaries have more ‘toys’ to play with, but I believe this is a contributing factor, giving programmes a Galleries & Alexander Palace copy-cat format, regardless of the subject matter. Your feature on the renovation work at Alexandra Palace (February issue) I am proud of my 15 years on the staff where I learnt my trade. This BBC background reminded me of a visit I made there for a Breakfast News OB and how I solved a was also my passport to freelance directing which lasted another 25 years, mainly personal mystery. on documentaries for Granada, Southern and LWT’s South Bank Show. The latter acclaimed films were produced without music as the natural sounds and effects I had always wondered why a TV control room was called a ‘gallery’. Looking round the first TV studio at the Palace was the answer – the control room had recorded on location gave me all the atmosphere and depth I required. Melvyn been in a gallery high on one wall. Bragg, who is a good judge, agreed.

And on galleries, I remember the occasion in Glasgow when, due to some My swansong for the Corp in 1980 was to direct Professor Stanley Unwin in a spoof switching error, gallery talk-back was broadcast along with the studio sound. film for Staff Training on the art of programme making. This 16mm short was Our irrascible news editor stormed out of his office, and before anyone dared commissioned by department head, Peter Cantor who screened it at the start of point out the mistake he was about to make, crashed into the gallery to announce: every new course. Perhaps the time is right to dust down this film and put it to ‘Your ******* talk-back is going out on air.’ work once more!

Andrew Maywood Paul Foxall

PROSPERO APRIL 2019 | 5 | MEMORIES REMINISCENCES OF A REVOLUTION

Harold Briley, former World Service Correspondent, reflects on the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution.

he BBC is often criticised, but I strongest ruler ensuring stability in a surrounding flat rooftops. The BBC It was a relief to leave Iran on an RAF had never before heard it blamed volatile region. That differed from a cameraman leaned his camera on my flight evacuating traumatised British Tfor fomenting a revolution and briefing from the head of the BBC shoulder to film the scene. families to the safety of Cyprus. causing the downfall of such a powerful Persian Service, Jon Dunne, that the Shah One night, the BBC office was attacked I returned to Iran nine years later, leader as the Shah of Iran. would be ousted within a year. He was by gunmen firing at the door. We lay on helping a charity set up a camp for right and the Foreign Minister wrong. After he fled from Tehran in 1979, I had the floor with the lights switched off refugees driven across the Iraq border tracked him down to the remote island The BBC Farsi Service played a vital until they left. by Saddam Hussein. of Contadora off Panama, where he role, widely trusted for its accurate I watched as the Shah’s palace, the Within a few months of reporting the was living in exile under United States reporting. Even diplomats confined to United States embassy and the Iran revolution I was reporting another protection. I telephoned him seeking an the British Embassy asked me for notorious Tehran prison were stormed. revolution, this time in Nicaragua interview but his wife answered my call briefings on the fighting. I witnessed When the Shah fled and Khomeini flew where the Sandinistas overthrew a saying he would never give the BBC an fierce street fighting in which hundreds back from Paris, I got him to talk into military dictator. interview because ‘you brought down were killed. I watched a huge Chieftain my microphone. He was accompanied the Shah’. tank pushing aside barricades, with a on the Paris flight by John Simpson and machine gun mounted on the turret She asserted that the BBC had given his television crew. mowing down fighters armed only with the revolution impetus by broadcasting hand weapons, many of whom were to Iran an interview with Ayatollah carried into a nearby hospital where I Khomeini in exile in Paris. took shelter. Not content with her refusal, I walked A nurse tending to the wounded on the towards the Shah’s house only to be floor asked me why the British had sold arrested by Panamanian soldiers these tanks to the Shah. I dared not guarding him. They put me on a flight reply they were for defence against back to Panama City, where I made Soviet attack and that UK policy was my escape. not to sell such weapons which could A few months earlier, I had been in Iran be used by regimes against their own reporting the revolution. I previously had people. I was astonished to see the tank a briefing in London from a Foreign taken out of action by hundreds of Office Minister that the Shah was the crude petrol bombs thrown from

Richard Baker: face the fans Looking back – I thought Prospero readers might be interested in a story Richard Baker told us at supper one Around the World evening in Manchester after a recording of Face the Music, a BBC2 TV music quiz which in 80 Days I directed in 1970-74. The February 2019 issue of We always regarded Richard Baker as the solid Prospero asked for staff core of the panel participants of Face the Music – personally involved with , Robin Ray and Bernard Levin the programmes featured regularly among them, quizzed from his dummy to get in touch... keyboard by the affable Joseph Cooper, who with It was a great pleasure for Walter Todds had devised the programme and me to be asked to mix the wrote the questions. sound for some of the Face the Music depended on wit and conversation, and not so much as to what Around the World in 80 you knew as how you said it – and they all got on supremely well. It was, however, Days series with Michael Richard Baker’s musical knowledge that went wider and with most depth. He was Palin, and I have a distinct much in the public eye at the time – news-reading and presenting on BBC TV – recollection of a brief but and told his story with an attractive self-deprecatory charm. humorous incident which, to this day, can be heard on the first episode of the Face the Music was then recorded ‘live’ as an OB, if I remember correctly in a series which, as Prospero mentions, was transmitted on 11 October 1989. former chapel in Dickenson Road, Manchester. Richard was travelling back to Michael is frantically trying to find his cabin on a ship for the next stage of his London by train late one evening and decided on dinner in the restaurant car. voyage but is confronted by endless narrow passages with even more closed He rightly valued his privacy and took refuge behind the broadsheet – as it then doors leading off. In continuing to try to find the one cabin allocated to him, was – of the Times newspaper and a pair of sunglasses. he eventually tries a door which opens. He then quickly comes out and shuts By Watford, there was only one other diner left in the carriage. As the train made the door, realising that it is certainly not his! He looks shocked and perplexed. its final approach into Euston, this man plucked up the courage to walk the length In keeping with Michael’s sense of humour and to emphasise his shocked of the empty tables to where Richard was sitting. ‘If you’ll excuse me’, he began, expression on opening the door, I suggested that it would be fun to put a ‘I have been looking at you all the way from Stockport, and I want to know if you lady’s scream on the soundtrack just as he barged in! Director Roger Mills are Richard Baker?’ liked the idea and, having no appropriate recorded sound effect of ‘a shocked female scream’ to hand, I asked the Production Assistant if she would enter ‘Yes I am,’ came the courteous reply. our studio and perform accordingly. After various takes, the selected scream ‘No,’ continued his interrogator, ‘are you the real Richard Baker?’ forms a small but important part of the final soundtrack 37 minutes into ‘Well, yes,’ said Richard, lowering his newspaper and taking off his dark glasses, Episode One! modestly and somewhat hesitantly. ‘I suppose I am a real Richard Baker.’ That programme actually brought a nomination in the BAFTA Sound Awards ‘Oh’, after a short pause, concluded his interrogator, ‘I am disappointed.’ the following year – I often wonder if the scream helped achieve this in some small way! Sic transit – literally, indeed – gloria.

John Hale Denis Moriarty

6 BRIEFS, PINK KNICKERS AND PIC-NICKERS

In his autobiography, Memoir of a Medium Man, former broadcaster Paul Bonner brings to life the ground-breaking days of radio and television, interweaving insights and anecdotes with his personal life story. In this excerpt, Paul describes the making of a 1970 episode about leisure in Britain: The British Way of Fun and Games.

he advertising industry was portraying ever more glamorous impressions of Communal gasps Britain at play. As a parody, I devised a sequence whereby a beautiful young Briefs, in a totally different context, were to feature again before the day was out. Twoman would drive a Lotus sports car along an empty beach, pull up beside Our researcher, Christine Whittaker, had arranged for us, at the end of a hot day, the sea and dive in. It was supposed to be apparent that as she got out of the car to be given entry to the Port Talbot Steelworks staff swimming pool. she was, as was the fashion in advertising at the time, unclothed. The changing room for men was totally communal – and huge, like an aircraft This was to be shot on the emptiest beach we could find, Pendine Sands in south hangar. Desperate to get into the water I threw off my clothes and, as I took off Wales, using a model who agreed to appear without clothes. my trousers, I heard what seemed to be a communal gasp from around me.

When she arrived, the night before the filming, I greeted her and told her roughly I had forgotten that, for comfort, I was in the habit of wearing Marks & Spencer what was expected of her. I failed to ask to see her naked – a fatal mistake, as it women’s briefs, which offered much better support than the men’s pants of the turned out. time! Worse still, they had been in the wash with some red garment which had run and stained them pink. Effectively, many dozens of steelworkers were transfixed to see every stereotype of a media man fulfilled!

I failed to ask to see her naked – a fatal mistake, Held to ransom as it turned out. Another sequence in The British Way Filming a Brecon Beacons of Fun and Games was to follow a lone peak from the helicopter. climber up to the peak of the Brecon The next morning the beautiful Lotus sports car and the beautiful girl were married Beacons, then swing the helicopter up and I took off in the helicopter with Geoff Mulligan, the cameraman. We found round and pan up to see that marvellous precisely the height and angle that would catch her pulling up, getting out of the wild landscape. car and running into the sea. When we got to the peak we discovered It wasn’t going to be possible to do more than one take because the car tire marks there were two people enjoying a picnic were going to ruin the pristine stretch of sand. I gave the order for the car to start underneath it, who would spoil the shot moving and the helicopter followed. The ground crew signalled for the car to pull we’d planned. I couldn’t do without that up at an agreed point. sequence in the film, so there was nothing As the model got out and ran to the sea it became apparent, even from the air, for it but to get the pilot to hover while that she appeared not to be naked. It turned out she had been to the Mediterranean I lowered myself out of the helicopter to ask the picnickers to move round to the on a previous shoot and the bikini marks from her sunbathing made it look from other side of the peak so that they would not be in shot. the air as if she was wearing a white bikini. So the sequence, as I had it in mind, They were two middle-aged ladies, who were none too pleased to have their was a failure. scenic lunch, which they’d expended enormous amounts of energy to achieve, so rudely interrupted.

Paul Bonner (L) with the commentary team for The British Way of Fun They turned out to be skilled negotiators and, seeing that the helicopter was and Games: , Garfield Morgan and John le Mesurier. burning fuel and that I needed to get back into it fast, they demanded a fee for moving round the Beacon and hiding from the camera.

I eventually agreed to pay them £100 but had absolutely no cash on me at all. I scrambled back into the helicopter with difficulty and asked the cameraman or the pilot to lend me money. Geoff fortunately had his expenses with him and was able to lend me the cash. I then had to dismount from the helicopter, hand over the money and get back in again.

Not only was this an exhausting and slightly frightening process, but we had probably burned a lot more than £100’s worth of fuel in order to allow me to do the negotiation, get the money and film the sequence.

Memoir of a Medium Man is published by Matador Press and is available to order c/o TZ Productions, 5 Strand on the Green, London W4 3PQ, or online at www.troubador.co.uk/bookshop/autobiography

£10 incl. p&p (£2 from the sale of each book will be donated to the charity Combat Stress.)

ISBN 978-1-78901-738-0

PROSPERO APRIL 2019 | 7 | MEMORIES IT’S MAGIC It is generally agreed that when two excellent musicians get together, the result is far greater than the sum of the parts – so imagine my delight when the NDO Project received

excellent recordings of Nigel Ogden and Johnny Roadhouse outside his music shop in Manchester. Johnny Roadhouse at the Playhouse Theatre Manchester, recorded in the early 80s.

he result really is ‘magic’ and the music on CD North West for many years – the music and comedy One is quite unique, embracing the extreme which were produced there were indeed magic too. Ttalents of Nigel and Johnny; indeed we know Les Dawson and many others performed in radio of no other recordings on CD of and series there, and it also started the careers of many saxophone duets. comedians and performers.

Nigel Ogden celebrates 46 years of broadcasting When it was sold in 1986, people were saddened that this year, and for 38 of them was the presenter of this was the end of an era, and indeed the end of the Radio 2’s longest running specialist music programme, ‘Big Bands’ in Manchester too. . It came to pass in the early 80s that my colleague He has appeared ‘on the air’ on over 2,000 occasions Peter Pilbeam had the pleasurable production task to Nigel Ogden. and he is the only organist ever to have broadcast a combine the talents of these two musicians in a very Wurlitzer on Radio 3, playing classical items. unique way.

Nigel took over as presenter of ‘TOE’ and remained Peter had first met Johnny Roadhouse in 1953 when there until the programme was axed in 2018. he moved to Manchester as principal sound mixer for Listening to him perform live, usually without any music, the BBC Northern Variety Orchestra. He was soon is still a magical experience and it is well worth making appointed as a producer and had the privilege of the effort to hear any Wurlitzer, with him at the keyboard. working on the majority of their sessions between 1961 and 1974 when the NDO was disbanded. John Roadhouse was born in Sheffield in January 1921 and moved to Moss Side, Manchester as a child. He He first met Nigel Ogden when the organist started was given an old saxophone by his father, an amateur playing regularly on TOE in 1972. Peter produced most musician, and was self-taught. of the recording sessions of the NDO at the Playhouse between 1972 and 1980. He can’t remember who first In 1946 Roadhouse joined Teddy Foster’s orchestra. came up with the idea of combining the undoubted Johnny became a Manchester music legend, having talents of these two fine musicians, but suffice it to started his BBC music career by joining the Northern say that this was a union of talents made for each Variety Orchestra in 1951, helping choose its musicians, other; Nigel playing the BBC Playhouse Wurlitzer and continuing to be lead saxophone with the to perfection, and Johnny playing his well worn Manchester Big Bands until the closure of the alto saxophone with passion. We think that the Northern Radio Orchestra in 1981. arrangements were done by Pat Nash, but sadly the scores no longer exist. ‘I may be a bit short of The items on the first of this double CD set were recorded in stereo in three sessions between 1982 technique but I’ve got by on and 1985, and right from the first note it was obvious that the two soloists were on the same wavelength. sound and interpretation.’ We have also included tracks of Johnny with the NDO He was a consummate musician and highly regarded and solos of Nigel too. in the Big Band scene, both for his charity work and in Both musicians went on to have very successful careers, his regular performances with many symphony orchestras. and we are privileged to have these rare stereo His distinctive warm and musical playing was always a recordings of them combining their unique talents. Johnny Roadhouse. delight. ‘I may be a bit short of technique but I’ve got CD Two – vocals by on sound and interpretation,’ Roadhouse once said. I had always had it in mind to put on CD a collection and to our late researcher, Rod Cotter, whose In his spare time, he ran a music shop in central of some unheard numbers by the NDO and NRO, and knowledge of the history of the NDO was invaluable Manchester, now run by his family. feature some of its excellent vocalists. to us in producing the five NDO double albums we now have available. We have received the relevant The Playhouse was also the home to the third BBC Vocals were an important part of the Band’s output, permissions to make these available to the public in . This Wurlitzer was originally in the and only the best in the country were used. I think it is a strictly limited edition. They will not be available in Tower Ballroom between 1929 and 1935. When fair to say that the NDO certainly had little tolerance music shops. designed the new organ for the for those vocalists who were under-rehearsed, or who Tower in 1934/1935, the original one was enlarged and were unable to get it right after the second take. The NDO project CDs are only available direct moved to the Empress Ballroom where it lived until So what was recorded was always good, sometimes from us and more details can be had by emailing 1970, when it was bought by the BBC and moved to superb, and invariably the first take. us at: [email protected], or writing to: the Playhouse, Manchester. It provided many inserts The material on CD2 goes back to the era of NDO MAILBOX, c/o J Roadhouse, 123 Oxford Rd, to the music shows of the era and was frequently used Alyn Ainsworth and forward to Bernard Herrmann, Manchester M1 7DU. for various series, such as The Organist Entertains Neil Richardson and Brian Fitzgerald. (TOE), I’m Glad, I’m Reg (featuring Reginald Dixon Please enclose an SAE. and Mrs Mills), and Meet Us At The Playhouse On CD Two is the very last recording of ‘Slaughter on Full details of all our CDs, and track listings (Reginald Dixon with the NDO and John Hanson). 10th Avenue’ with Johnny Roadhouse – this was his can be found on our website: Sadly, few recordings remain of this Wurlitzer, ‘sig tune’, and this particular version is incredibly www.northerndanceorchestra.org.uk which makes our CDs somewhat unique. powerful and moving.

The Playhouse theatre in Hulme, Manchester was also A massive thank you to my audio colleagues for Ian C Reed the BBC’s home for comedy and light music in the providing such wonderful sounds for over 60 years, Archivist of all the regional BBC big bands

8 | OBITUARIES

As the WV Team’s ‘boss’, Dave was straightforward, to BBC World Service the point, and did not suffer fools gladly. If he rebuked Pebble Mill bilingualist you, it was probably quite necessary but there was costume designer never any bad feeling afterwards. You knew exactly There has never been, nor John Hadley died on 5 January in the St Peter & where you were, then all was forgotten. His blunt and will there ever be, anyone St James Hospice, Sussex, after a long struggle ‘tell it as it is’ style did not go down well sometimes with cancer. quite like Kathryn Steventon with other managers however! He stood up for his (nee Ayerst). Born in Paris with dual British/French nationality, team against, sometimes, quite unfair criticism from he spent the first 12 years of his life there until the other managers. However you came to know outbreak of war in 1939. Kathryn, and whatever role Dave married Jean, whom he met after he was posted she played in your life, to RAF Shawbury, Shropshire. Jean was a nurse. They Evacuated to his father’s home town, Northampton, I’m sure that you will never he was subsequently re-joined by his British father married and had a son Gareth and daughter Susan; forget her. and French mother and attended the local grammar both now live in Devon at opposite ends of the county. school until 1945, when he was successful in gaining Dave was a proud grandfather. She had many qualities and a place at Oriel College, Oxford to take a BA in quirks that defined who she After retirement in 1987, they moved from Horwich to Modern Languages. was, and kindness, generosity, Llanidloes in Mid-Wales. They enjoyed many holidays, selflessness, loyalty and an ever-so-slightly fierce On graduating in 1948, he was called up for National usually Tenerife and France. Dave was a wine lover nature were all part of what made her the Kathryn Service and recruited by Military Intelligence. Posted and connoisseur, so long as it was Cote de Rhone you all knew and loved. to Graz in Austria, he formed part of a unit engaged Villages! He was a Radio Amateur GW3KAJ who Kathryn was born and raised in St Leonards on Sea, in post-conflict security. built most of the equipment himself, to a very high the youngest of three girls. After school she studied standard of workmanship, but he had not been Following ‘demob’, he was employed by the BBC as a at Brighton Art College before moving to London bilingual studio manager in 1950, based at Bush House. on-air for a while now. She joined the BBC in 1970, starting in the Costume Until 1960, he was involved in the production of French He was a fine man, engineer, manager, great friend Workroom at TVC. She worked her way through the language news and current affairs broadcasts to and colleague. France, which included live music sessions recorded Department, becoming a dresser and eventually a with leading lights of the London jazz scene, such as Peter Condron costume assistant. She moved to BBC Pebble Mill and Humphrey Lyttleton and Chris Barber. assisted on the original Poldark and many other productions, until becoming a designer when she From 1960, the remit of the French language service Movie expert designed Nanny, All Creatures Great and Small, Public was extended to post-colonial Africa, the Magreb and Enemy No.1, An Actor’s Life For Me, Nice Work, and the Middle East. Ken Locke quit school in many other productions. Brisbane Australia at 14 and John was a broadcast journalist and programme didn’t go back. From the After 23 years in the BBC she was made redundant producer from then on, rising to become acting Head moment he saw a battered and started her own business doing dressmaking and of Service. In that capacity, he went on various tours print of Battleship Potemkin alterations from home, while bringing up her son to West and Central Africa and the Lebanon to meet at the local fleapit, film editing Thomas. Nothing was more important to Kathryn than correspondents and listeners. was what he wanted to do, her family and friends, and her love nurtured bonds In 1983 he was invited to do a lecture tour in the USA though he trained as an that would never be broken. at the invitation of the State Department, who had an engraver. A modest multiskilled Her creativity was limitless – as well as her flair for interest in his knowledge of Sub-Saharan Africa. One man with a massive IQ, he read and thought costume and design, she did textile printing, jewellery- of those who welcomed him during that tour was one ceaselessly all his life. making, life drawing, photography and was an active Bill Clinton, at that point Governor of Arkansas. He became a BBC trainee film editor in 1964. member of the WI and a Book Club – which she still In 1986, the French Service was reorganised and John He worked on a variety of TV programmes like went to even when she hadn’t read the books. took early retirement. He continued to undertake Jeremy Isaac’s ground-breaking Panorama. Kathryn had a 10-year battle with cancer that freelance work; he was well respected as a voice-over When, much later, he applied to be Head of Film eventually took her from us. Throughout her illness artist and frequently translated film commentaries into Examination, Programme Acquisitions, his application she carried on regardless. A force to be reckoned with French prior to recording them. contained the unabashed truth: ‘I know a lot about and a true friend. She died on 22 August 2018, three movies.’ The then long-haired Ken was often to be He lived quietly in East Sussex and is survived by his weeks after her 70th birthday party. found at late night classics shows at the Electric wife Denise (also originally BBC staff,) two children Cinema in Portobello Road, along with his daughters. Maggie Harwood and two grandchildren. Great films are education! Marc Hadley In those days when the BBC showed more movies than anyone, Film Exam was the perfect place for a Master of COPPER passionate believer in film preservation. Ken sought to Michael Crotty passed away on 22 January, aged 82. honour the colour grading and sound quality as Firm but fair He used to say, quite proudly, that he was born in originally intended by DP, film editor and composer, Dave Jagger was born in Westminster Hospital in central London. by contacting retired cameramen and film editors in Huddersfield on Christmas Eve, the UK and USA. Michael joined the BBC as a ‘tea boy’, as he put, just 1926. He was always a proud before he was called up for National Service. He was Yorkshireman! He completed One newspaper called him the ‘BBC’s Censor in Chief’, a touch typist (trained in a technical college). He won his RAF engineering because he had to seamlessly re-edit adult feature the top prize in the RAF typing competition and apprenticeship as a wireless films to comply with family TV viewing requirements. became a secretary of the Bomber Commander in technician and saw active He had to reduce or edit out violent/sex scenes and High Wycombe. He apparently worked in a bunker, service in the Middle East, working on Spitfires and swearing. He had to cope with bizarre US studio day and night, during the Mau Mau uprising and the Lancasters. He was involved in the Berlin Airlift of euphemisms in their different prints for different Suez crisis. 1948/49. After 12 years he left the RAF to join markets. ‘Mother-f***er!’ had been turned into BBC Transmitters. ‘Melon-farmer!’ After returning to the Beeb, Michael soon had a post in Salaries, which had just installed a computer system He worked all over the UK at Rosemarkie, Morecambe In collaboration with fellow BBC film editor Keith for the first time. He became the operator after some Bay, Wenvoe and Selkirk. His last post was as Wilton, Ken talked at British Film Collectors training, but said he was horrified – and somewhat transmitter manager, Winter Hill. Conventions about film music, camerawork and overwhelmed – when he first saw the computer, editing. He wrote his own commentaries for dvds At Wenvoe, Dave was team leader of the Wenvoe which was the size of a house. Keith created, celebrating the creativity and skills of Transmitter Maintenance Team (TMT). In its early days, feature film technicians and the movies they made. COPPER (Central Office of Personnel and Pension the team, driving a Land Rover, maintained distant For Ken, almost every movie, however mediocre, had Electronic Records) was Michael’s last post in the stations such as Liverpool, Tywyn, Machynlleth, some craftsmanlike moments to admire. Beeb. It lasted many years and he became the master Haverfordwest, Cardigan etc. Eventually these distant of it. He, in fact, initiated the COPPER system, which sites were maintained by new local team bases. He bubbled with wisecracks from his life and from developed into the BBC’s computerised personnel movies. His entertaining presence will be sadly missed, The introduction of UHF colour TV meant the records system. Most people who worked in Staff especially by his loving wife Annette, his daughters Wenvoe team started to maintain the many UHF Records knew how good Michael was, mentioning and his son. relay stations needed, particularly in the steep South he was an excellent and delightful trainer with Wales valleys. Julius Hogben & Les Filby such patience.

PROSPERO APRIL 2019 | 9 | OBITUARIES

In his free time, Michael enjoyed being a member of had organised for colleagues or friends. His hospitality the Ruislip Dramatic Society, and they regularly was legendary and was lifelong. Michael Thomas Flynn performed in Winston Churchill Hall in Ruislip. He took Tony retired in 1989 to Italy in the small village of Cima Born in Battersea in 1938, several major parts in numerous shows, including on the shores of Lake Lugano where he bought a Michael Flynn had the good many of Noel Coward’s plays. He then later took the beautiful apartment with spectacular views of the fortune to be educated at producer’s role in the Society. Some old members lake. He and his wife Mary soon became fluent Italian Emanuel, satisfying his thirst recalled that no other person ever did the job as well speakers and they both spent some 25 years teaching for knowledge and giving him as Michael. English to Italian business people, making many an enduring passion for social Michael was a man of such compassion and would do friends in the process. justice. A month-long stay in anything to help a person in need. Apparently, one of Tournon on a school exchange Several ex-colleagues visited them in Cima, enjoying his line managers said to him, ‘Your problem is you’re opened his eyes to the world of French cinema, a key the continuing renowned hospitality but Tony and Mary too nice to everyone.’ influence in his future career choice. also travelled the length and breadth of the continent In his later life, he began to suffer from ill-health; to share holidays with friends. In our case they joined From Exeter University he went to teach English in the most recent illnesses eventually took him away. us in Umbria, Switzerland, Alassio, Stresa and Rapallo Saint Raphael, then to Paris for a course in French with all the usual bonhomie and camaraderie. literature and on to Spain, tour guiding, before joining Yubill C Kang, Michael’s partner the BBC as a trainee film editor. Retirement also allowed Tony to pursue his passion for painting, in particular his penchant for intricate pen When Alexandra Palace became home to the new and ink sketches of quaint Italian locations. Sadly it all BBC Open University Service in 1971, Mike decided to Sandy Mulkeen came to a sudden end on 29 January, just 11 days join the pioneers. Here editors, producers, directors, Sandy Mulkeen has short of his 90th birthday, and our thoughts are now film and studio crews, designers and academics died near her home in with Mary and his family as we pay homage to would work and socialise together. The experience the village of Taurinya someone who was so influential to us all, both cemented in Mike a passion for film-making as a in the foothills of Le professionally and socially. creative collaboration. Canigou, France. Oliver Dyer Mike returned to mainstream television in 1981, She graduated with finding a new home at Kensington House. Here he an MA in English cut some celebrated films: No Ordinary Genius, and Literature and History of Fine Art from Glasgow The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, with producer University, going on to Strathclyde University where Camera supervisor Christopher Sykes, exploring the brilliance of she gained a Post-Graduate Diploma in Business BBC Wales Richard Feynman. With Peter Gordon he cut the Studies and then worked in the Publicity Department BBC2 Grierson Award finalist War Grave, and Leslie George Ager was of the BBC Transcription Service at Kensington House the BBC2 RTS award-winning series and BAFTA- born in 1924 and brought up in Shepherd’s Bush. nominated Breaking Point. He also had a BAFTA in North London. He joined craft nomination for Airport, one of the early On leaving the BBC, she started her own publicity and the BBC as a junior ‘Fly on the Wall’ documentaries. design business and after living for some years in rural maintenance engineer in Dorset with her two soul mates, BBC TRU engineers Dave 1941 and was posted to the At his funeral in December, directors, producers and Mulkeen and Pete Freshney (pictured above with her), Transmitter. He former assistants remembered the magic of Mike’s she turned to writing under the pen name of Mairi Craw. saw service in the RAF in cutting room. Always deeply engaged, he brought the ‘Beyond the Hedge’ was the first of a series of novels the latter years of the war material to life and greater clarity, searching and inspired by her childhood in Scotland. The three and on demob rejoined the testing ideas. And there was the personal pleasure of friends, often referred to as ‘The Three Musketeers’, BBC at Alexandra Palace working with him: his wit, intellect and lack of ego. moved to rural France with all their numerous pets, before moving to the OB base at Palace of Arts, During inevitable lulls, conversation could touch on and her second book, ‘Between Two Worlds’ followed. Wembley as a cameraman. contemporary French film, the flight patterns of the Both books are available on Kindle and as audio He transferred to Cardiff in 1956 as senior cameraman goldfinch, problems in the Chelsea midfield, the best books. ‘Beyond the Hedge’ was also adapted for in the fledgling BBC Wales TV Unit and became novels of Saul Bellow, where to find the greatest fish radio and stage. one of the most well-known and valued members of and chips in central London and family life. the region. Sandy had found it hard to cope following the deaths Mike was a rock, strong and stable, reliable and of both Dave and Pete and following an accident Although he did his studio stints, it was on OBs that generous, emphatic and caring. Survived by his wife earlier in the year, had withdrawn from her previous Les felt most at home and where his flair and instinct Sally, children Tom and Hannah, and four daily posts on Twitter and Facebook. She is missed by in the live and often unrehearsed situations proved grandchildren, he will be missed by all who had the her many former colleagues, friends in France and their worth. good fortune to know him. those that followed her on social media, both as Les reached the BBC retirement age of 60 in October Sally Flynn Sandy Mulkeen and Mairi Craw. 1984 – his last day was on a rugby OB from Neath; Her funeral took place on 12 December 2018 in her he was interviewed after the game by commentator adopted village in France. David Parry Jones for the weekend rugby programme Edward de Bono the following day. At his official farewell party, the Martin (Tom) Tranter ‘The only person I have speech of Geraint Stanley Jones (Controller, Wales), ever met who’d use a perfectly illustrated the respect and affection that was word like terpsichore in felt for Les throughout BBC Wales. normal conversation. Consummate Les and Gill, who was a BBC PBX operator before they Somehow that says a lighting professional married, together with son Christian, then moved to lot about the way he Llandudno and, as there was a shortage of was. One-of-a-kind.’ It is with sadness that I have to report that Tony Escott cameramen in BBC Manchester, Les was soon, once So said a Group 2 radio died on 29 January. again, a BBC cameraman! Not one to sit around, in colleague of Edward In the early 1950s Tony was an enterprising bobby on 1985 Les was also elected to the Council of the Guild de Bono, former studio manager, who died suddenly the beat in Cardiff until, in the mid-50s, he joined BBC of Television Cameramen and became the Sponsor at his London home in February, aged 67. Wales, gaining experience in sound and cameras Liaison Officer for the next 25 years. In 2009 he was Brought up in Philby’s Lebanon, ‘Ted’ was formed by the before finding his niche in TV lighting. awarded Fellowship of the Guild, having just turned humour of Spike Milligan and the sound of rock’n’roll, 85, and retired as he felt the need to start taking He became a lighting supervisor, later TM1, and for courtesy of the BBC World Service from Cyprus. things a little easier! some 30 years worked on a variety of major Music and radio was his life. So it seemed only natural programmes, excelling in such dramas as The Old Les had a fall about four years ago and suffered a to follow university with a job at Auntie. Devils, District Nurse and the famous (but brain haemorrhage which affected his memory and Ted’s first music session in 1974 was with a solo Cliff controversial) Life and Times of Lloyd George. mobility; when his condition deteriorated further, he Richard and guitar: heaven for this lapsed catholic needed 24-hour care. He died peacefully at the He was a consummate professional and his lighting who had every Shadows record. nursing home on 15 December aged 94. technique was recognised by all who worked with him. There followed nearly 30 years of producing and Our condolences are with Gill, son Christian, Socially he was the epitome of a ‘Bon Vivant’, a hail engineering rock, pop, jazz and drama for all the daughter Beverley and the rest of his family. fellow well met gregarious character who was never networks and commercial release with artists great happier than when playing host at a celebration he John Cavaciuti and small – Madonna to U2, Andy Williams to

10 Terry Wogan, B.B. King to Carl Perkins, Philip Glass to filming episodes of Maigret. The next move was as a the Fall and two decades-worth of John Peel sessions. A woman of Property sound mixer in film dubbing, where he made his mark working on many prestigious programmes, including ‘Ted was the person I most wanted to work with,’ Jane Macfarlane, who joined Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Ken Russell’s The Debussy said Alec Reid, award-winning producer of the BBC’s Architect’s Film and editions of Omnibus and Monitor. cutting-edge drama. Department in 1988, and left BBC Property in 2006, died in Taking early retirement in 1980, Stan turned his ‘He was always so kind and patient with me in our July 2018 aged 65. interest to antiques, where he applied his skills to endless hours at Maida Vale when I had no idea what restoration and to the study and appreciation of I was doing, really,’ agreed producer/presenter Following her Convent School oriental works of art. His single-minded devotion Mark Radcliffe. education at Woldingham, Jane read History of Art and Italian at Trinity College, to a project was a quality envied by many. ‘A sweet and elegant man…with the most exceptional Dublin, which she loved. She started a second degree Stan, who died in his 91st year, much enjoyed family level of skill and attention to minute sonic detail,’ in Architecture at Cardiff University, which she did not life. Married to Sue, a former make-up artist for 59 wrote Annie Lennox of Eurythmics. enjoy, spent two years working in Hong Kong and years, they spent many holidays cruising together. travelling around SE Asia, and at last completed her For SM James Birtwistle, the ‘Ted de Bono BBC tuna They had two daughters, Deborah and Sarah, four second degree, followed by a Master’s at the Bartlett sandwich modification’ lives on: when he discovered grandchildren and one great-grandchild. that a shot of Lea & Perrins sauce had a positive effect School of Architecture. Up until recently, he still enjoyed the daily challenge of on the edibility of this boring canteen staple, ‘…Ted felt At the BBC, Jane was chiefly based within BBC Property. solving the Telegraph crossword in the comfort of their it was his duty to impart this knowledge to as many of Major projects included the development of a second Ealing home which, over the years, he’d lovingly restored. our colleagues as possible over the years.’ extension to Broadcasting House known as BHXX (the Ted was a surround-sound and digital pioneer; had an first home of Radio Five Live), new studios for BBC He’ll be greatly missed by his family and friends. encyclopaedic knowledge; a generous nature, and a Radio Training, and the development and restoration Brian Hawkins mischievous sense of humour, remembered by all who of the listed parts of Television Centre. Jane’s passion met him. for all things artistic meant that she always encouraged the inclusion of art in building projects. He is survived by his younger brother John de Bono, a Peter Bale TV producer. Jane was a consummate professional, meticulous, hard-working and talented. Articulate and Peter joined the BBC in Bristol John de Bono independently minded, she was for many years a in 1943 as a in Training rare female in BBC Property. with, in his words ‘all the will in the world to discover the true Endlessly fascinated by new experiences, places and magic of broadcasting’. He was Gentleman engineer people, immediately after leaving the BBC Jane called up in 1946 and within six completed an intensive TEFL course and headed for Ops & Project Planning months he was posted as Buenos Aires in Argentina, where she lived for two Clive Rickerby, who passed Officer Commanding Radio happy years. away in September 2018, was Trieste for British Forces Broadcasting. At last he was born in Devon in 1950. He is A keen sportswoman, Jane was unusually fearless and close to the microphone. this enabled her to enjoy activities like parachute- best described in the words of Following demob, Peter rejoined the BBC as a junior jumping. Her love of the theatre, ballet and the arts a colleague as ‘a gentleman programme engineer in London, transferring back to generally culminated in her becoming a Trustee of the engineer who derived Bristol a year later and being appointed the mobile Unicorn Theatre for 10 years, helping to fundraise for satisfaction from carrying out topicality radio reporter. In this capacity he reported and oversee the construction of its new theatre on the any given task to the highest from the top of the Devonport Column on the return South Bank. possible professional standard’. of HMS Amethyst to Plymouth in November 1949 and Clive started work at the BBC in London in 1969 and Jane’s battle with breast cancer began in 1994. Truro Cathedral spire – climbing up the outside to get spent the whole of his career working on BBC After major surgery she was given the all-clear, but it an interview with the steeplejack. Whilst a reporter he communications in both Operations and Project returned in 2015. She met each hurdle with courage married Mary Ashdown, with whom he had four children. and grace, refusing to be self-pitying. Unafraid of Planning. Implementation of projects involved close With the arrival of the first television OB unit in Bristol, dying, she was simultaneously determined to fight contact with other BBC departments and British Peter was appointed as the stage manager and the disease, and yet almost matter of fact about her Telecom, so Clive’s tact, polite and friendly manner, January 1954 saw the first live OB from Slimbridge. condition and the probable outcome. and good understanding of the subject was a great Thus began Peter’s enthusiasm for the use of benefit to both the BBC and BT. Jane loved life and lived it to the full to the last. electronic cameras to bring the immediacy of animal Initially Clive worked mainly on audio systems but She died peacefully at home in Chiswick surrounded behaviour to the viewer. In 1955 he was appointed later became a telephone specialist responsible for by all four of her siblings. Television OB producer West Region and for 20 years he covered all sport, Morning Service, Songs of Praise, the installation of telephone exchanges and other Rebecca Tippetts telephone requirements around the UK. In turn he was Come Dancing and major events such as Sir Francis based at London BH, then Warwick and finally at Chichester’s return to Plymouth in 1967, Concorde 002 Wood Norton for Siemens when telephone work was maiden flight and the Review of the Fleet in July 1969. sub-contracted out by the BBC. A man of many talents Peter also made films for the Natural History Unit and When talking to Clive, it often seemed a long time Anybody who worked in 1975 he pioneered the use of infrared cameras for before he responded to a question or comment but with Stanley Morcom, a Badgerwatch, the forerunner of today’s Winterwatch. with good cause, as when his answer came it was man of many talents, will He subsequently produced the first Birdwatch always well thought out and backed up with reason. remember him for his programmes from Slimbridge and Minsmere and was immaculate appearance, editor of the BBC1 series Wildlife on One, always Clive was a railway enthusiast but also a member of the precise and positive encouraging young directors to fulfil their potential. BBC Staff Club, through which he enjoyed rambling manner and his good- and canal boat activities. This widened his circle of Peter retired in 1983 and with Mary moved to live on humoured nature. friends in other parts of the BBC. After retirement, the edge of Exmoor. He moved back to Bristol when They will also recall his Clive made a point of staying in touch with his many Mary died and we married in 2006. Peter died critical ear when it came friends and attending reunions with ex BBC colleagues peacefully in his sleep on 19 January 2019 aged 91. to television sound and the high standard of his work. despite the increasing difficulty caused by illness. He leaves a large family and will be remembered with Stan was from Ottery St Mary in Devon. His full and great affection by all who knew him. Some years ago Clive suffered from cancer and varied BBC career commenced as a youth in training although it was dealt with at the time, it returned Liz Bale on a small transmitter in the Exeter area. Following several years later. Despite increasing difficulties and this he moved to London and Alexandra Palace to join pain, Clive maintained a positive outlook and those who worked on the resumption of the Television undertook much travelling to take pleasure in his Service after the war. With the expansion of television interests and visiting family members. We received a large number of obituaries for he continued his career at Lime Grove, applying his this issue so we have had to hold the following As his illness progressed his wife Debbie was a tower of skills in the days of live light entertainment back, to appear in the June issue: Anne Catchpole, strength and great help in giving Clive the opportunity programmes and ambitious music programmes. Rowland Warne, Terence ‘Tex’ Childs, Charles to continue enjoying his interest in these activities. Our Then, leaving studios behind him, he transferred to the Hutchison, Tony Newbery, Geoff Sherlock, condolences go to Debbie and Barbara, their daughter. Film Unit as a sound recordist working on locations as Harry Ransome-Rose and Dennis Dick. Chris Dale, Martin Ellen, Ken Turner diverse as football stadiums or the streets of Paris

PROSPERO APRIL 2019 | 11 | ODDS & ENDS

BBC Bristol Retired Staff Christmas Party CONTACTS Around 40 retired staff enjoyed a celebration Queries Grants are made at the discretion of dinner at Whiteladies Road on Thursday For benefit and pension payroll queries, the Trustees. They may provide 13 December, which was hosted by Rob Jones call the Service Line on 029 2032 2811 assistance in cases of unforeseen and Kate Chaney. or email [email protected]. financial hardship, for which help from other sources is not available. John Adams Prospero Tel: 029 2032 2811 To remove a name from the distribution list, ring the Service Line on Prospero Society Yorkshire pensioners: 029 2032 2811. Prospero is provided Prospero Society is the only section save the date free of charge to retired BBC Scheme of the BBC Club run by and for retired The Reunion/Pensioners’ Lunch for members only. Prospero is also BBC staff and their spouses. Its aim the Yorkshire Region will once again be available on audio disc for those with is to enable BBC pensioners to meet held at the very popular Dower House sight impairment. To register, please on a social basis for theatre visits, ring the Service Line. Alternatively, luncheons, coach outings, etc. Hotel, Knaresborough on Thursday Please will you pass on this information it is also available online at bbc.co.uk/ 15 August, 12.30 for 1pm. to any colleagues who may not know Prospero Society is supported by mypension, under ‘Documents’. Come along and catch up with your about this popular get together. BBC Club funds so as to make events former colleagues and meet new For any further information please BBC Club affordable. If you would like an acquaintances. Enjoy good food and contact Sue Pagdin 0113 2612613 The BBC Club in London has a retired application form, please contact: membership costing £3 per month or good company! or email [email protected] Gayner Leach, BBC Club, BC2 B3 £36 per year. Members can also add Broadcast Centre, 201 Wood Lane, friends and family to their membership London W12 7TP for a small additional cost. Regional Paper boats, The Burning of Tel: 020 8752 6666 clubs may have different arrangements. Teignmouth and Shaldon, 1690 Please call the BBC Club London Email: [email protected]. office on 020 8752 6666 or email BBC pensioner Sheila Aldous, who worked at the Advertising Department of the BBCPA [email protected] for details, or to join. Radio Times when it was based at Marylebone High Street, recently completed her The BBCPA was founded in 1988 to MA in Creative Writing, and has just published her first poetry collection. Benevolent Fund promote and safeguard the interests This is funded by voluntary of BBC pensioners. It is independent Paper Boats, The Burning of Teignmouth and Shaldon, 1690 is based on the last contributions from the BBC and its of the BBC. For details of how to invasion on English soil. The event occurred in 1690 when over 1,000 French sailors purpose is to protect the welfare of join, see the panel below or download invaded Teignmouth and Shaldon in Devon. These villages were completely razed staff, pensioners and their families. a membership form at bbcpa.org.uk. to the ground and all livestock, along with the inhabitants’ cottages, churches, fishing boats and their shipbuilding industry were destroyed. Sheila leant about this event during her research for her MA. Intrigued by the history, she found that few people today are aware of it, and this inspired her to write her collection.

The poetry in the collection is written in contemporary style with some use of modern and traditional forms. It uses the natural world of sea and riverscape to permeate the poems with tales of terror and destruction. Paper Boats is written Caption from the perspective of characters moving through time within the haunting landscape of the Teign valley. It moves from the present day with people who competition have discovered the event and are imagining what happened, to characters The winner of a £10 shopping voucher actually living through the fire, the effects on them and the is retired film editor, Alan Avery: aftermath, which delivers a ‘cry from the past’. ‘Didn’t you see the warning on the bottle about the possible side effects Paper Boats, The Burning of Teignmouth and Shaldon, of using banana essence shampoo?’ 1690 (ISBN: 978-1-910834-97-8) is available to purchase from Waterstones, Indigo Dreams, or direct from Sheila Aldous - [email protected]

Post your entry WIN to Prospero by £10 Tuesday, 7 May 2019. Or, you can email your entry to [email protected], with ‘caption competition 2’ in the subject line. Please include your BBC pension The picture shows Bruce Forsyth and number. Good luck! Sylvia Sims on the Generation Game.

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Prospero Classifieds, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Broadcasting House, Cardiff CF5 2YQ. Please enclose a cheque made payable to: BBC Central Directorate. Rate: £6 for 20 words. In a covering letter, please include your pension number.

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