The newspaper for retired BBC Pension Scheme members • October 2020 • Issue 5 PROSPERO SAGA FROM HOLME MOSS PAGE 6 PENSION SCHEME | BACK AT THE BBC ALAN’S PORTRAIT OF NHS HEROES When the country went into quarantine to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, Oxford-based artist Tom Croft found that, instead of experiencing freedom to get on with his work, he felt unsettled. independently settled in Fife. He joined the local art club, became president for a while, and three times has won its prize, as voted for by the public, for best picture in the annual summer exhibitions. He continues to paint, exhibit, conduct workshops, do demonstrations and receive commissions, one of which was a portrait of the principal of Gordonstoun School. Portraits and landscapes are his preferred subject material, and he now paints exclusively in oils, having formerly also worked in acrylics and pastels. His St Andrews base also placed him close to the Pittenweem Arts Festival, one of Scotland’s premier annual art events (although not this year). It’s not a big town, so artists take up every available space and Alan exhibited in the garage of BBC Volunteer Visitor, Arthur Masson. Alan is one of the pensioners that Arthur visits and in that role, Arthur became aware of the NHS Heroes painting, and keen to publicise it, roped in Guthrie Hutton, another of the pensioners he visits, to write up the story for Prospero. NHS Fife is delighted with the finished painting. It represents a remarkable tribute to those hospital is solution to this was to post an online offer of Eleven months later he moved to Swingate, a former heroes who have stayed at their posts during this a free portrait to the first frontline NHS worker World War Two radar station at Dover. He was there dreadful pandemic and, through Alan’s artistic talent who contacted him. From that picture the idea for 18 months, married Geraldine and after the H and generosity in donating a free group portrait, of ‘Portraits For NHS Heroes’ spread, with other artists honeymoon they moved to Rosemarkie on the are being honoured now and commemorated for taking up the challenge. Black Isle, near Inverness. generations to come. One of them was former BBC transmitter engineer, Settled in glorious surroundings, he used his spare Guthrie Hutton Alan Stephens (pictured above). He lives in St Andrews time to revive his early interest in art and began to and so contacted NHS Fife to ask if they would be happy paint. With no formal training, he tutored himself, for him to do this and also to identify a suitable subject. exhibited his work and, when his paintings started Their response was one of delight, but not wanting to to sell, thought ‘this is a good idea’. Mystery Sudoku single out an individual, they suggested a group of After 12 years, he returned south to Oxford, but departmental representatives from the Victoria continued to paint until, in 1990, he took voluntary Complete the grid so that every row, column and Hospital in Kirkcaldy. That sounded a lot, but Alan’s redundancy, still a couple of years short of his 3x3 box contains the letters ADFGILMOT in some apprehensions were eased when five people were put 50th birthday. order. One row or column contains a five or more forward. Photographs were sent and he started work letter word, name or programme title with a BBC Having left the BBC, Alan didn’t look for another on a large canvas, approximately 1300mm x 820mm. connection. Solve the sudoku to discover what job – he had one; he was now a full-time artist. or who it is and send or email your answer to: The completed work is superb, but how did Alan find He advertised his services in various outlets, including The Editor, Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits himself honouring NHS Heroes in this way? Yellow Pages (remember them?) and gradually built Centre, Central Square, Cardiff CF10 1FT A Portsmouth man, Alan was born in 1942. At school he up a business. He received commissions, sold work by Monday, 2 November 2020. was good at art, but also at maths and other technical through exhibitions and was then asked to teach, subjects and that’s the career path he followed, a challenge he reluctantly accepted, but which The winner gets a £10 voucher. Many thanks to starting as an apprentice at GEC in Portsmouth. developed into taking on work as a private tutor. Neil Somerville for providing this puzzle. From there he moved to the BBC in 1965 as a direct In 2005 Alan and his wife ‘Gerry’ were on the move entry engineer in transmitters and after training at Wood again, this time to St Andrews to be near their G T Norton, Evesham, was posted to Wenvoe in Wales. Inverness-born daughters who had both I L BBC Pension Scheme makes 2020 Summary D O M G Report available L T D G M The 2020 Summary Report has been printed and posted to members, and is also available on the bbc.co.uk/mypension website. The report provides the results of the 2019 valuation and also explores the impact that Covid-19 has had M G L A D on the Scheme’s investments and funding level. O I G A The valuation showed that, by April 2019, the Scheme’s funding level had improved from 88% to 94% and the shortfall had reduced to £1.1bn. The latest check-up as at 1 April 2020 showed that the funding level D I had dropped back down to 90%, coinciding as it did with the largest stock market falls since the 2008 financial crisis. However, by the end of June 2020, the funding level had recovered to pre-pandemic levels. T D Following the 2019 valuation, the Trustees and the BBC agreed a revised contribution plan for the Scheme to recover the shortfall. Investment markets have recovered significantly since March 2020, and the Trustees The Sudoku winner in August believe that the revised contribution plan remains appropriate. WIN 2020 was Ms Beryl Miller who The Summary Report looks in some detail at the Scheme’s investments and impact of Covid-19, and also £10 correctly identified the provides the usual mix of general pensions news and summary of Scheme financials for the year to 1 April 2020. connection was ‘Coast’. 2 ‘GOING FORWARD, PROSPERO Prospero is provided free of charge to retired Scheme WORKING FOR THE BBC members, or to their spouses and dependants. Prospero provides a source of news on former colleagues, developments at the BBC and pension WILL BE DIFFERENT’ issues, plus classified adverts. It is available online at bbc.com/mypension In a whirlwind first week, the new Director-General To advertise in Prospero, please enclose a cheque made payable to: BBC Central Directorate. Rate £6 Tim Davie has pinpointed four things which the BBC for 20 words. Please include your pension number must urgently – and quickly – get right. in a covering letter. Please send your editorial contributions, Broadly speaking they are: He called for the organisation to be 'cutting edge' in or comments/feedback, to: Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, • Renew our commitment to impartiality its use of technology to join up the BBC, improving search, recommendations and access. All of this, Central Square, Cardiff CF10 1FT • Focus on unique, high impact content he said, will help make the BBC an indispensable part Email: [email protected] • Extract more online of everyday life – and create a customer experience • Build commercial income that delivers maximum value. Please make sure that any digital pictures you send are scanned at 300dpi. Please also note that the That’s it. Just four. But each brings monumental Building our commercial business maximum word count for obituaries is 350 words. challenges which Tim Davie addressed during his There are two reasons that the BBC needs to build its speech from Cardiff. commercial business. Firstly, it needs the investment As context, the case for a universal BBC has never and partners to make the best programmes possible in Contents been stronger. Ninety-one per cent of UK adults visit an era of increased global competition. And secondly, the BBC every week for nearly 18 hours and contrary it needs to maximise the value for money for to what many believe, young people still consume licence fee-payers. Back at the BBC 2-3 BBC content in their droves – 80 per cent of under Studios has led the way, while there are big opportunities Alan's portrait of NHS heroes 35s in fact. Globally, the BBC attracts a mind-boggling to develop services in news, video and audio across BBC Pension Scheme summary report 468 million people per week and is, by some distance, the globe. The BBC needs to keep building major the most trusted provider of news. partnerships to grow as a global provider of services Tim Davie's inaugural address to staff Mystery Sudoku But, as Tim outlined today, the BBC cannot rest on its and premium content. It will also invest in providing laurels and, to that end, we are only as good as the trusted news globally via the World Service and World value we deliver to audiences. The challenge is to News channel and ‘with the support of government, grow that value. to reach a billion people over the next decade’. Letters 4-5 Renewing our commitment to impartiality Reforming the BBC It’s the reason audiences are drawn to the BBC but Tim said that none of this would be possible many people still feel the corporation does not speak without attracting – and retaining – the finest talent.