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Home , Ariel (newspaper), BBC Genome Project, BBC Pacific Quay, BBC Worldwide, Brian Matthew, Daphne Oxenford

The newspaper for BBC pensioners – with highlights from online

Talent Spot 1962 Remembering 50 years of – page 7

February 2013 • Issue 1

Flat-rate State The Big Freeze Genome project Pension 1963 update Page 2 Page 7 Page 9

NEWS • MEMORIES • CLASSIFIEDS • YOUR LETTERS • OBITUARIES • CROSPERO 02 BBC PENSIONS BBC Pensions customer survey: Tours of new BH share your views with us In a previous issue of Prospero, we advised you that details of tours of New Question: , MediaCity UK and would be published in the

What’s the shortest word in the English language February 2013 issue. Unfortunately, the tour that contains the letters ABCDEF? dates have not yet been finalised, although we hope to share them with you in the Answer: April issue. However, BBC Tours (which will be fully Goodbye to TVC Club Join us for an afternoon of memories as FEEDBACK transferring its activities from Television we say goodbye. The Club is arranging a From time to time the Trustees of the BBC Pension Scheme (the Scheme) ask for Centre to the new Broadcasting House) ‘Goodbye to TVC Club’ on Saturday 9 March feedback to help us monitor the satisfaction of members in respect of the Scheme-related is piloting tours of the building from between 12pm-5pm, exclusively for retired services provided. 18-28 March this year. staff. This will be a ticketed event with lunch We would be grateful if you could take five minutes to complete this survey. The responses If any Prospero reader would like to included and the Club will arrange access you give are confidential and all questions are optional. go on a free pilot tour, please call to the building in advance. We will be To complete the survey visit .co.uk/mypension 0370 901 1227 and quote ‘BH Free showcasing an exhibition of old Club photos Alternatively you can request a paper copy from the pension service line on 029 2032 2811. Pilot Tour Offer’. and memorabilia and there will be other If you have any questions about this survey or your pension, please contact the pension There are only a limited number of these activities on the day to give TVC Club a service line on 029 2032 2811 or email [email protected]. tours so tickets are limited and issued on a good send off. Find out more at http://www. The results of the survey will be published in the August edition of Prospero. first come first served basis. bbcclub.com/together/television-centre/ television-centre-events) or contact Laura (Email: Laura.Bergamaschi @bbc.co.uk, Tel: 020 8576 8583). Thursday 28 March 2013 will be an historic day for BBC Club as we close the State Benefits update doors on TVC Club. Over the years the TVC Club has been a central hub for BBC staff to relax and socialise. The bar has been an Flat-rate State Pension Full details are expected to be confirmed by Future Pension Centre integral part of BBC life for thousands of In January, the government published further the government over the next few years. The Department for Work and Pensions employees, as well as playing host to live details about its proposal to introduce a The government also stated that the State (DWP) has introduced a new State Pension music events, comedy nights, quizzes, flat-rate State Pension, which was first Pension Age will be linked directly to life Statement service, to replace the State Pension birthday parties, leaving parties and mentioned in last year’s March budget. expectancy. The State Pension Age is expected Forecast service that the Department wrap parties. It would replace the current Basic State to rise to 66 in 2020 and 67 by 2028. previously offered. You can request a To mark the occasion we are putting Pension and the State Second Pension (S2P, statement directly from the Future Pension together an exhibition of old Club photos formerly known as SERPS). Only people Autumn Statement Centre by phone or in writing, or you can and memorabilia. We would love to hear reaching State Pension Age from 2017 would Chancellor George Osborne delivered the visit www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk to from our retired members and staff about receive the new pension. In other words, the Autumn Statement on 5 December 2012. Here request a statement online. The contact memories they have of TVC Club. Maybe proposals will not affect people who are is a summary of the key points announced: details for the Future Pension Centre are: you met your spouse over a pint, conjured currently receiving a State Pension. • The Basic State Pension will be increased by Telephone: 0845 3000 168 up the next programme idea or just have The weekly payment would be £144, plus 2.5% from April 2013, bringing the full Address: Future Pension Centre, Department wonderful memories of socialising with friends inflation rises between and 2017. The Basic State Pension up to £110.15 per week. for Work and Pensions, Tyneview Park, and colleagues. Whatever your experiences current full Basic State Pension is £107.45 a • A planned increase in the level of the NE98 1BA. we would like to hear from you. Send your week. (However this figure can be increased income tax Personal Allowance will be stories to [email protected]. The to £142.70 after pension credits and with higher than expected. From April, the Frozen pensions exhibition will run from 1-28 March. S2P benefits.) Personal Allowance for those aged under The International Consortium of British The new flat-rate State Pension would be 65 will be £9,440, a rise of £1,335 on the Pensioners (ICBP) has launched a new BBC Club secures a future an individual entitlement, so there are no 2012 figure, and £235 more than was website: www.pensionjustice.org. The From March, BBC Club will take over all special rules for people who are married, previously announced. campaign to prevent State pensions being remaining catering outlets for W12, beginning bereaved or divorced. • The threshold for higher rate (40%) tax ‘frozen’ (where they receive no inflationary with the opening of our new café and bar in The government’s proposals indicate that will increase by 1% each year in 2014 and increases) in certain countries continues. To Broadcast Centre. Members will still receive all accrued pension rights will be recognised, 2015, to reach £42,285. find out more, or to offer your support to the all the benefits and services that you have and that under the new system some future • The Inheritance Tax threshold will rise from group, please visit the site. been used to and discounts will be extended pensioners may be paid a top-up to the £325,000 now to £329,000 in 2015/16. to the new sites. Our White City gym is on new flat-rate State Pension during a • The Gains Tax annual exempt Direct.gov replaced the move too, to Media Centre, and our Club transitional period. amount will also rise over the same The government website www.direct.gov.uk and gyms at Western House and Elstree will People will need to have paid national period, reaching £11,100 that year. has now been replaced by a newer version. be business as usual. You can continue to insurance for at least 35 years to receive the • A planned increase in fuel duty of over 3p The new site can be visited at www.gov.uk. collect your from Club Western full amount of the flat-rate State Pension. per litre from 1 January was cancelled. The House and we are investigating alternative Anyone who has paid national insurance scheduled April increase has been deferred methods of distribution. So stick with us as contributions for less than 10 years will not until 1 September this year. we take the Club into a new era with BBC. receive the flat-rate State Pension under the • The overall ISA limit will increase to Got a question or comment? government’s current plans. £11,520 in April 2013. Email us at [email protected] or call 020 875 26666.

Please send your editorial contributions, or comments/feedback, to: Prospero, BBC Pension and Prospero is provided free of charge to retired BBC Benefits Centre, Broadcasting House, Cardiff CF5 2YQ. employees, or to their spouses and dependants. Email: [email protected] Prospero provides a source of news on former Please make sure that any digital pictures you send are colleagues, developments at the BBC and pension scanned at 300 dpi. issues, plus classified adverts. To advertise in Prospero, please see page 12. The next issue of Prospero will appear in To view Ariel online, please visit www.bbc.co.uk/ariel. April 2013. The copy deadline is 1 March 2013.

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2013 MEMORIES 03 USA charter flights CONTACTS Visiting Scheme Douglas Keown’s photograph from the inaugural 1962 BBC Club flight to New York resulted in a If you would like a visit or information on how to become a volunteer visitor, please flurry of emails and letters toProspero , sharing their memories of thunderstorms and Thora Hird! ring 0845 712 5529. You will be charged at the local rate. was a participant in that 1962 first Club who were visiting their son, with a view to went on a BBC club flight to New York in flight to New York. The trip was written settling in , which they subsequently September 1966. The trip was for three Queries For benefit and pension payroll queries, up in Ariel for November 1962. The did. I am still in touch with them all and weeks and the aircraft was a Boeing 707. The call the Service Line on 029 2032 2811. published photo on Prospero was taken at have visited several times. outward flight was quite hair-raising as the Ia slightly different angle to Ariel’s picture, Olive Trevett pilot had to face high winds and announced Prospero AND yours truly in the extreme right hand that we had to land in Montreal to refuel. To add or delete a name from the distribution side of the group was cut off in your version! I can confirm that there was a second trip On our way again we flew through the most list, ring the Service Line on 029 2032 2811. There were indeed subsequent BBC-backed in 1963 between 7 May and 28 May, as I was terrifying thunderstorms, I thought we’d never Prospero is provided free of charge to retired trips – in May 1963, Autumn 1964, 1965 and a passenger on it. We left Heathrow on a get there! We travelled across the States to the BBC employees. On request, we will also 1966. By the late 1960s, the Advance Booking BOAC charter flight at 2.10pm and returned west coast in Greyhound buses, which had a send it to spouses or dependants who want to keep in touch with the BBC. Prospero is Charter/Apex arrangements were materialising on 28 May, at 10.45am. I believe only the ‘99 days for $99’ special offer. From Los Angeles also available on audio disc for those with and the BBC Club ceased to be involved. two flights were arranged by the Club. I we had to rush back to New York for the return sight impairment. To register, please ring I also went on a number of trips during the don’t remember much about the actual flight and did it in four days and nights, spending the Service Line. 1970s and 1980s, but by then passengers flight but I recall my three-week visit to the the whole time on the bus! A fabulous trip. were making their own travel arrangements. US very well. I visited friends and relatives Sheila Marshall BBC Club In the early 1960s period, Bank of in New York, New Jersey, Washington, The BBC Club in has a currency restrictions meant that in practice Chicago, Toronto and Philadelphia, travelling I was on that flight. We left on 6 October retired category membership costing passengers needed relatives or friends across mostly by Greyhound buses. I had just 12.40pm for 13.10pm from Heathrow and £30 a year or £39 a year for family the pond to assist with accommodation and completed my first job in the BBC as a returned on 29 October. We flew both ways membership. Pre-1997 life members are not affected. Regional clubs may have travel etc, within continental North America. secretary in BBC Publications based at 35 with Sabena; the return flight was number different arrangements. Mr Thornley had originally started the whole Marylebone High Street. When I returned 547 at 6.45am. I know this as I had a cine Please call BBC Club London idea off with a ‘Mutual Aid’ small advert in from the US, I joined the BBC Secretarial camera that I used to record my journey and administration office on 020 8752 6666 Ariel, about 1960. Reserve and subsequently started in News on leaving I took some of the flight board. or email [email protected] Through a non-BBC connection, Division for the remainder of my 30-plus Kathleen Heeley I participated one day during the 1962 trip years’ service. Benevolent Fund in the ABC-TV weekday quiz show, Who do Liz Roberts As an aviation enthusiast, although I have no This is funded by voluntary contributions you trust? I was teamed up with a belly-dancer specific knowledge of the events or people on from the BBC and its purpose is to protect the welfare of staff, pensioners and their from Toronto and we won that day, resulting My husband and I were actually on that this flight, I can suggest that – from the tailplane families. Grants are made at the discretion in $300 between us (about £50 to self as the flight and we are 5th and 6th from the right visible in the photo – it looks as though the of the Trustees. They may provide then-current exchange rate). Hence a nest-egg on the photograph published in December’s Club had chartered a Sabena (then the Belgian assistance in cases of unforeseen financial towards the following May 1963 trip! issue. At the time I was working as a research national airline) Boeing 707. Return charter hardship, for which help from other sources Michael Candy assistant at the Hungarian Section at Bush flights at that time would typically have been is not available. Telephone: 029 2032 3772. House. We were newly married and the two or three weeks later – generally two for Editor: The Ariel cutting that Michael kindly chance this flight offered us to stay near Europe or three for transatlantic. Prospero Society sent us tells of another person on that flight who New York with childhood friends of my I can confirm there were later BBC Club Prospero Society is the only section of the BBC Club run by and for retired BBC staff made some money on an American game-show: husband’s was a great gift. We paid £57 charters. I myself flew out of London Heathrow, and their spouses. Its aim is to enable BBC ‘Valerie Pitts made a valiant effort to beat the each for the return tickets and service was with a couple of other BBC sound pensioners to meet on a social basis for CBS panel of ‘What’s my line’ and managed to first class throughout the plane. colleagues on Saturday 17 September 1971 theatre visits, luncheons, coach outings etc. pick up $25 prize money.’ Denise Zollman to Philadelphia on a BOAC (later to become Prospero is supported by BBC Club funds British Airways) Vickers VC10 jet, returning so as to make events affordable. I travelled to New York on a BBC Club flight The man with the clipboard in the middle of Saturday 9 October. I believe BBC Club had The only conditions (apart from paying sometime in the 1960s, but I am not certain the picture is Nick Thornley, who was a studio chartered the whole aircraft, so there would a small annual subscription) are that you which year. I was in the next seat to Thora manager at at the time. He told have been at least a hundred BBC staff and must be a BBC pensioner and a member of Hird and her husband who were visiting their me at the time that the cheapest way to fly to relatives on board. If memory serves, the the BBC Club. For an application form write daughter who was then married America was to find 180 or so friends and return flight cost £79, and no fuel surcharges to: Graham Snaith, 67 Newberries Avenue, to Mel Tormé, a famous American singer. Also charter a plane. And this is what he did. in those days. Radlett, Herts WD7 7EL. with me were a BBC lady and her daughter Tom (G D) Wymer Bob Wood Telephone: 01923 855177 Mobile: 07736 169612 Email: [email protected] BBC products devised and compiled by Jim Palm BBC retired staff are entitled to a 30% CROSPERO 171 discount off the RRP of most products in the BBC TV Centre shop. There is a 1 2 Complete the square by using the clues; these apply only to words postage charge of £2.95 per order running across. Then take these words in numerical order and (not per item). Pensioners must quote 3 4 extract the letters indicated by a dot. If your answers are correct, their BBC pension number when ordering. these letters will spell out a BBC series. The winner will receive Contact: BBC Shop, Audience Foyer, 5 6 a £10 voucher. Television Centre, Wood Lane, London Please send your answers in an envelope marked Crospero to W12 7RJ. Telephone: 020 8225 8230 7 The Editor, Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Email: [email protected] Other ways to order (quoting your Broadcasting House, Cardiff CF5 2YQ by Friday 1 March 2013. 8 9 pension number when ordering): By phone: CLUES 08700 777 001 8.30am-6pm weekdays. 10 1. Scorch (4); 2. Bounder (6); 3. Particular (4); 4. town (3); By post: BBC Shop, PO Box 308, 5. Raised surface (4); 6. Tasty but fattening (5); 7. Thing (4); 8. Salvadore (4); Sittingbourne, Kent ME9 8LW. Email: [email protected]. 11 12 9. Hard coating (6); 10. Establish again (5); 11. Long dissertation (6); Or visit BBC Shops in Eastbourne, 12. Reverberation (4); 13. Tea grouts (4); 14. Loathes (5); 15. Precious 13 Brighton, Leicester, Birmingham or stone (4); 16. Tiny measurement (3); 17. Self-satisfied (4); 18. Magic . UK postage £2.45 for telephone, incantations (6); 19. City of York (4). post and email orders. Overseas: £4.50 for 14 15 one item and £2 for each additional product Solution to Crospero 170: for telephone, post and email orders. 16 17 Asp; Briefly; Col; Tea; Alan; Runt; Enema; Eider; Tug; Hindu; Irate; Rho; Hosta; Neely; Rhyl; Sane; Air; Rig; Impeach; Dot. The topical words were BBC PA 18 19 Silent Night, Holy Night. The winner of Crospero 170 was John Taylor For details of how to join the Pensioners’ of Tunbridge Wells. Association, see panel on page 9.

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2013 04 LETTERS Talking about Film Club A New Year Show I read with huge interest the letter from interests of film-makers and which runs Neville Withers (Prospero, December 2012) an annual film festival and competition It comes as no surprise that the BBC seems to have lost its way, especially to many of us about his involvement with film-making. that attracts films from all over the world. against whom the term ‘tainted by experience’ was levelled when we voiced our concerns I too am now a film-maker, though before Many of the films are more than worthy of a and were not heard, despite our premonitions. retirement I worked in radio production. Like wider audience and exposure on TV, but are Tainted by Experience was the title given to his autobiography by the late Sir John Drummond, Neville I have joined a film-maker’s group – largely ignored. In 2013 the festival is being a former Controller of Radio 3, who said this description of him originated from a henchperson Colchester Film-Makers – and we meet on held in Chesterfield. of John Birt. Tuesday evenings (contact me johnhowden@ I wonder how many more ex-BBC staff are BBC Chairman, Marmaduke Hussey, was also known to be dismissive of BBC managers who talktalk.net or call 01245 422023). similarly caught up in the all-absorbing lacked experience outside the Corporation. He found a ready ally in John Birt who, with no I am also a member of the IAC – Institute of hobby of film-making? It would be good to BBC experience, was appointed deputy DG in 1987 and DG in 1992. Amateur Cinematographers (www.theiac.org.uk) at least talk. Anyone interested? By the time Birt left in 2000, privatisation had become the name of the game, and the – which is a nationwide body fostering the John Howden 16-member, BBC-bred board of management was downgraded to an executive committee, although by then Birt’s ties with Hussey had loosened. When Mark Thompson arrived as DG in 2004 he re-designated the committee as a slimmed-down, Listen with Mother...without sibilance 11-member executive board, to One of the ‘voices’ from my BBC past in London, we were using the ‘new’ LSU10 monitoring which he subsequently introduced Daphne Oxenford, of Listen with Mother fame, loudspeakers with the additional tweeters. non-executive directors from outside has recently died, aged 93. Daphne sounded very sibilant on her the BBC. I came across Daphne when I was with children’s programme and I was asked to The real problems can perhaps be SERB-Dr Alexander in Quality Monitoring investigate the problem (with tact). traced to politicians, of whom Thatcher in Cavendish Mansions adjoining BH in On visiting the studios I found that she in particular knew little and cared less London when FM had just started and when was speaking in her usual conversational about the BBC and had no idea of what manner to children, but her mouth was very we all did. Most politicians would only Daphne Oxenford. close to the metal grill of the AXBT microphone. notice the BBC seriously if the Today Prior to the start of FM, the speech quality programme decided to drop political would have sounded normal on the studio comment and politicians entirely. monitor and via medium-wave, but as soon Birt’s culture of dismissing the idea as the new FM went on-air loudspeaker of team identity and reducing the then quality had also improved overall and the senior staff and management (old like us) that had been with the BBC for at least a couple of sibilance was not up to BBC quality. decades only compounded the problems – and diminished the concept of referral to someone I discussed the ‘problem’ with the with experience who knew the job inside out. studio producer and studio manager, and There seems to be no doubt that the BBC needs restructuring, but will it be the right I suggested they used a reserve AXBT structure? Authority based upon experience; tainted or otherwise? A radical management that positioned 6-8 inches in front of her normal can sort out problems when an organisation loses its way, vision and structure? microphone and used the ‘speech’ from Perhaps this could be a new year quiz show, but a serious one if the BBC is to accept the the ‘reserve mic’ for broadcast, without need to change. upsetting the presenter, as she could continue The adoption of ‘managerialism’ on an executive board, as a ‘belief in or reliance on the her close-speaking delivery to her children’s use of professional managers in administering or planning an activity’, might well have the audience without anyone knowing! approval of Harvard where, we read, Thompson’s son is at university, but is it appropriate for the Paul Gouldstone ‘operational day-to-day management’ of the BBC? And should it be endorsed by the BBC Trust? The advancement of process at the expense of practice is a blight that infects the decision processes of both the coalition and the Corporation. Can it be right that potential savings are put forward from decisions about the welfare state almost irrespective of those who will experience the consequences? By the same token, decisions by the BBC executive board about BBC programmes should surely be informed by a preponderance of members with a depth of Access to BBC buildings experience in broadcasting. Roll on the arrival of Tony Hall as director general. It really can’t happen too soon. I was saddened to read so many pathetic had worked at Monitoring for nearly quarter Albert Barber letters from retired staff pleading in plaintive of a century), we were told that we would tones for the BBC to reconsider yet again need to be signed in by a current member its decision to deny access to pensioners by of staff, despite the fact that Condition 2 on means of ID cards (Prospero, December). the ID card stated: When visiting BBC sites I for one welcome this decision on the please sign the retired staff visitor register. 200 Oxford Street in WW2 grounds that, at the very least, it provides Fortunately one of the other two managed to complete clarity after 12 years of a get hold of a member of staff who signed us One of the letters in the December issue of privileged to watch the Canadian band dog’s dinner of a scheme never in, but quite frankly after that experience we Prospero headed ‘200 Oxford Street’ by Bruce of the AEF under the direction of Robert properly implemented. had all lost our appetite. When I raised the Goddard reminded me of a time in early Farnon. I remember one incident when And this is where Colin Jones, in the issued with BBCPA I was told that an ID card December 1944. Robert Farnon was not happy with the last letter of your mega two-page spread, only made it more likely to gain access, and I was a ‘youth in training’, aged 17, orchestra and he said ‘If you **?@* lot should look for the answer to his question: that even the DG had difficulty getting into having left school early that year and was don’t improve I will have you transferred if the ban comes in next March, why did I the BBC premises in Glasgow recently. on a technical course at Studios to the infantry.’ suffer a humbling dismissal at the Television The clue is in the report on the with approximately 30 other youngsters One evening I was lying on my bunk bed Centre in October? Because ever since the withdrawal of access to BBC buildings in were all waiting to be called up. and a bomb fell somewhere near Selfridge’s, decision was taken in December 2000 to October issue of Prospero: ‘Retired staff will We were based at Grosvenor Square breaking some of the windows. When drastically change its policy on pensioner still be able to enter BBC buildings as a guest opposite the American Embassy where at passing it to go on the tube the next day, it access, despite all the cosmetic concessions of a current employee.’ How nice of the Beeb the time General Eisenhower and his staff appeared nothing in the windows had been and chop and change, the BBC never really not to discriminate against retired staff and were based. stolen. Could it happen ? I doubt it. altered its position. After my ID card had to grant them the same rights as any member We had our meals at 200 Oxford Street, I remember going into Broadcasting expired in December 2000 and following of the public. which was then the studios for overseas House with a lapel badge, which I still have, the much-trumpeted restoration of ID cards Although there is an ID card at broadcasting, including sending secret with not much control over identity, but I in March 2003, it took me six years of Caversham Park, I had to travel to London messages which were passed to agents may be wrong. telephone calls and correspondence and two twice, first to have my photo taken and then working undercover on the continent. Best wishes to any of my former visits to Brock House in London before I to collect it, costing me £100 in fares and Our course was held at Maida Vale colleagues and members of the BBC rugby could lay my hands on my prize possession. expenses, and the one time I tried to use it Studios where we able to watch the side 1955 to 1960 who are still around. However, when attempting to use it for the access was denied. So hurrah for the BBC’s American band of the Allied Expeditionary I am now in my 86th year and have been first time at Caversham Park to have lunch decision – at least we all now should realise Force practising under the direction of retired for 28 years, but I’m still able to play at the canteen in February 2010 with two where we stand. Glenn Miller who later that month went golf, although badly. retired former colleagues (all three of us Alexis Alexander missing and was killed. We were also Tom Smart

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2013 LETTERS 05 Digital switchover Kay Curtis asks (Prospero, October) if the problem with the digital TV service will resolve itself. I am not convinced that it will! My experience with reception equipment located a mere four miles from the Crystal Palace transmitter suggests that there are insurmountable problems with the TV signal that are regarded as of no consequence by the people in charge of these things. The switch to digital in this area was not very impressive. I was visited by no less than three ‘engineers’ purporting to be ‘from the BBC’. This proved to be totally untrue – one was an unemployed student, one was a trainee plumber, and one had been a landscape gardener. None had any real knowledge of TV propagation. Each one brought with them a set top box carrying the name of the once well-known firm of Goodmans. For reasons that were not clear, I understand that this equipment John Nestor writes: Some time ago you asked for any photos which Prospero readers might have which were taken at Woodnorton courses. cannot be purchased by the public; it is only The only one which I can find from that era is attached, nearly 34 years old! EPD Management Conference, 19-23 March 1979. available as part of a package deal through Back row (l-r): M Bloore, J West, P Madsen, T Mann. Middle row (l-r): J Anderson, G Perry, NE Tanton, PR Wagstaff, D Smith, the installation team, at a cost of £40. W Seymour, HP Eva, J Nestor, H Walker, N Brown. Front row (l-r): D Golledge, J Bullard, DC Horner, L Elton, L Hammond, C Gill, It proved impossible to get any of these A Mockford, K Lockhart, P Jones, C Collingham. boxes to work properly, so all were returned and my money was refunded. I subsequently purchased boxes manufactured by Ferguson to get my weekly copy to which I am entitled? and Icecrypt, which worked after a fashion, Music Library Confused time There must be a number of pensioners in the but with strange effects on both picture and I worked in Yalding House in the very early same predicament and I wonder, if like me, sound. For example, sometimes the screen 60s, and remember the Music Library very traveller they are considering whether to continue goes completely blank for about two seconds. well, and the staff who worked there at that Of course I must admit my mistake! Martin their membership? Sometimes the picture breaks up into strips time. So what did happen to that wonderful Henfield and Keith Rider in the last edition Is there any plan to either send copies in of horizontal bands; this lasts for about library – in those days reckoned to be the of Prospero, also Stephen Redburn and I think the post or a more cost effective method of two seconds and is completely random. best in the world? And what happened to Jim Dumighan (I hope I have got the names issuing a book of coupons (similar to the system Sometimes the sound goes and is replaced those catalogues – I often wished I possessed right!) who contacted me direct are quite used by many national newspapers) so that by loud clucking noises, reminiscent of a one as a reference book. correct; Pebble Mill did not open until 1971, we can pick up a copy at our local newsagent? chicken shed. John Meloy made me think of the canteen with Local Radio established first in 1970. Richard Broadhurst I have attended local meetings organised too. There was a trolley service to each floor I think the incident I recalled must have been by The Digital UK Road Show from which in Yalding House – a special treat on Friday when the same actress was in a later play, Julia Kay, BBC Club, replies: The loss of the it would appear that my problems are fairly mornings – cheese scones. part of the Drama which Pebble Mill did so Television Centre and White City Clubs in March, typical. The lady at one of these actually coupled with the revised access arrangements Elizabeth Connah (Williams) much of, now sadly no more. Perhaps readers imposed by BBC for retired staff, has already assured us that the switch to digital TV was might also like to check my facebook page prompted us to look into alternative ways of not so that the analogue frequencies can be for errors: facebook/colinpierpoint distributing the Radio Times, with respect to our sold off to enable phone companies to make Speed King Colin Pierpoint retired members in particular. As yet we do not even more money, but to standardise the In seeking a copy of Speed King (Prospero, have a solution, but we are meeting with Radio manufacture of TV receiving equipment in December), has Colin March searched Times to see if there are other viable options for accordance with European Community Law. YouTube? Entering ‘Speed King (film)’, without Happy days distribution. We will be writing to members by If you will believe that, you will believe end February to update them of the situation. In the quotes, into the YouTube search box Since retiring from the BBC in1995, I read the meantime we thank our retired members for anything! So far as I am aware, the only brings up a seven-minute excerpt from the and keep up-to-date with Prospero (thank you). their continued loyalty and we hope you will be companies to benefit from the switch to film, uploaded by StatesEdgeFilms. I, like many, have very happy and cherished able to make use of the Western House Club in digital TV are all based in the Far East. Clicking on the ‘show more’ link displays memories. We all worked together as a ‘family’. order to collect your Radio Times. Roy Privett an email address for StatesEdgeFilms which There was no talk of ‘targets’; we just worked actually invites readers to get in touch. together to make sure our programmes were Following this up could mean that Colin’s edited and ready for transmission with a search is nearly at an end, if he hasn’t found professional and loving care. Often, for most, Access woes a copy already. it required long hours, planning, endless hours Graham Hare in VT (for those who don’t remember, VT You may wish to get an urgent update into Julia Kay, BBC Club, replies: Unfortunately the stands for videotape editing!), standing out the next Prospero regarding a key point about revised access arrangements for retired staff are Colin contacted StatesEdgeFilms as Graham a matter of BBC security policy, over which the suggested and now has a copy of Speed King. in the perishing freezing cold weather filming access arrangements which was not covered Club has no influence. We are sorry if this has ‘It is not the best quality in the world, but at least with cameramen who also spent a lot of time in your article about revised arrangement inconvenienced any of our retired members. I now have a copy. Thank you.’ away from their families. It was done with a for retired staff. We appreciate that there may be retired staff sense of caring and dedication. Change must Having spent years working at TVC, and club members who would like to visit TVC happen, but please for all of us who so I and a few friends decided we would pay before the Club closes on 28 March. The Club is therefore arranging a ‘Goodbye to TVC Club’ Listening for Lyttleton enjoyed our time and had lots of fun and a final visit to the Club and the places we on Saturday 9 March between 12pm-5pm, I worked in the BBC Sound Archives in pride on our journey, keep the flag flying. used to work. Yesterday I travelled down exclusively for retired staff. This will be a Broadcasting House in the late 1960s Rosemary Caine (known as Rosie Davies) from Norwich with my partner but when ticketed event with lunch included and the Club where extraordinary efforts were made I attempted to sign her in as my guest, will arrange access to the building in advance. to excavate very obscure recordings. as I have done several times in the past, We will be showcasing an exhibition of old Club photos and memorabilia and there will be other I once spent a week of pretty much BBC Club query – I was told the rules had changed and I activities on the day to give TVC Club a good non-stop listening to find a recording could no longer sign in guests! send off. Radio Times? This was news to all of us, and well – which no-one thought existed – of Find out more at http://www.bbcclub.com/ Humphrey Lyttleton playing his trumpet As a pensioner and member of the BBC Club, and truly spoilt what should have been a together/television-centre/television-centre- amongst the noisy crowds outside one of the main benefits to me of joining the pleasant ‘farewell’ to the old place. I’m sure events) or contact Laura (Email: Laura Buckingham Palace on VE Day. It did exist club was the free copy of the Radio Times. Now many other pensioners will be planning the [email protected], Tel: 020 8576 8583). and the producer was delighted. In those that all the London Clubs will be closed with same sort of event and I wouldn’t want their days, time was not of the essence! the sole exception of Western House, which is day spoilt as well, so please can you get this Carol Kemp (nee Furniss) in an area I rarely visit, how will I still be able information out as soon as possible. Peter Scallon

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2013 06 MEMORIES The Beatles – a 50th anniversary memory Brian Willey recalls their role in his life… or was it his role in theirs? My involvement with the world of The Beatles commenced in November 1962. Throughout that year, among other things, I had been busy producing a radio show for newcomers entitled The Talent Spot.

riginally designed to give a debut During the last week of November the broadcast to audition passes, it recording date dawned and the four lads featured four acts per show, was duly arrived, immaculately dressed and ready first aired on Tuesday 2 January to perform. Oand initially scheduled to run for 13 weeks. The show, to be broadcast on Tuesday After about seven weeks I had completely 4 December 1962, was well received by a run out of audition passes and had to highly appreciative audience. Brian Epstein, consider repeating a few performers plus very happy with the session, asked if I would turning to variety agents, record companies consider giving them a return appearance. and music publishers to obtain sufficient acts My reply was, ‘Sure, only too pleased, but it to continue. Fortunately there were plenty of can’t be for about six weeks.’ young artists on the road to stardom and the The most noticeable thing after their programme eventually ran non-stop for 18 appearance on my show was the audience Brian with Paul. months, during which time about 180 acts numbers, which miraculously increased went through its doors. every week. That next date for The Beatles Somewhere towards the end of 1962 an was actually seven weeks later and by then agent from Liverpool named Brian Epstein their second record, ‘Please Please Me’, had visited me to play a tape of a group of his been released and gone to No. 2 in the charts called The Beatles. They were then working at – the ‘House Full’ sign had to be displayed the Star Club in Hamburg but, soon to return and Beatlemania was on its way. here, he wondered if I would feature them. I By the end of the year, you may liked what I heard enough to tell him I remember, Dora Bryan was insisting would be happy to book them as soon as ‘All I Want For Christmas is a Beatle’. Judging they were back in the UK. by the photograph on the right, she at least Their first record, ‘Love Me Do’, was got a cuddle, and now 50 years on and 90 released in October, entered the charts, stayed years old this month, I guess her wish is there for 18 weeks and reached No. 17 – they probably just a distant memory. could be an act to look forward to, so a booking The two ‘Talent Spot’ Radio Times billings was made for the last week in November. featuring The Beatles in December 1962 and The programmes were recorded in ‘The January 1963 must be unique because in the Paris’, the converted news cinema in Lower space of those seven weeks they jumped from Regent Street. Its seating capacity was 300, the bottom to the top of . Naturally I Dora and the Beatles. but my show seemed to be at the bottom could never get them back on that show and end of the popularity scale for the ticket unit, my next booking for them was on 28 March and was lucky to get more than 75! 1963 for On the Scene, a programme featuring Artists to re-record Beatles’ debut In the hope of tempting the small crowd only the elite of the current pop spectrum. Mick Hucknall and The Stereophonics are among artists attempting to re-record The Beatles’ to come back each week, I was accustomed I later became associate producer of Saturday ‘Please Please Me’ at Abbey Road on the album’s 50th anniversary. to talking to them at the end of every Club and got one more session out of them The musicians will have just 12 hours to complete the work, mirroring the marathon single recording, telling them something about for broadcast on 26 December 1964. Later session that resulted in the Beatles’ debut album. the acts they would see and hear next time. on, all they would do was pop in and chat to They will use the same studio, with all the tracks recorded in order. So little known were The Beatles that, when Brian Matthew about their current exploits. The event, which takes place on 11 February, will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 2. told about this group from Liverpool, the It was a great privilege to have shared It will also be filmed for a BBC Four special called12 Hours to Please Me, which will be audience laughed at their name, probably with them a very small part of their screened on 15 February. thinking it was spelt Beetles. early history.

Ground floor please! Mátyás Sárközi shares these memories of 40 years of working in Bush House.

Much changed in Bush House during the Academy in the 1930s, and, of course, the Béla Iványi-Grünwald, now a programme table and made a rousing speech against time from 1961, when I first worked for the legendary George Campbell, who could assistant but once, back in Hungary, a British colonialism. People were too busy Hungarian Section of the External Services speak nearly 40 languages. His Hungarian revered historian, looked at the menu card, with their food to start a revolution. But as a relief programme assistant, to 2001, was good, and he asked us for a two-volume pinned next to the canteen door. ‘It is not for eventually we could see the smartly dressed when I last contributed to the daily output anthology of Hungarian poetry as a retirement my appetite, but for my system,’ he canteen manager crossing the floor. We all of the World Service as a retired part timer. present, many years later. remarked, disappointed by the choice. wondered what he was going to say to the The raw material of my first news bulletin The lifts of Bush House were operated by There were some great characters to share young man. ‘In this country we don’t stand came up from the News Room in a uniformed operators. If one had a late news the canteen with. A gentleman from one of on the table on which we eat.’ dispatch-tube on the mail chute, to be item to deliver to the studios at the last the Arabic services has been called to the Of course, it was a time when one collected at the end of the corridor. When I minute, one could ask the operator to take all telephone by tannoy every ten minutes. could walk into Bush House without being translated the items, they were scrutinized passengers to the ground floor without It took some time for the management to checked. By the beginning of the 21st page after page by language supervisors. stopping. Later the lifts became self-operated, discover that he operated a lucrative oriental century, entry to Bush House became a The old gentleman who corrected the text and a voice recording announcing the floors carpet business this way. complicated procedure, and the time had according to 19th century Hungarian spelling was installed for the sake of a blind editor, The canteen was open to everyone. When come when a retired veteran like me could rules had retired by the time of my arrival at working in the News Room. it improved, flocks of LSE students came over hardly reach the Club. Bush House. Then, the checking was mostly The canteen eventually became famous for from the other side of the road to use it. One done by white-bearded Arthur Whitney, who its high standards, but it was rather mediocre day it was packed to capacity at lunchtime, studied painting at the Budapest Art during the early 1960s. Our dear colleague, when an African student climbed on top of a

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2013 MEMORIES 07

Singing a torch song Sidney Torch. by John Meloy

Recently, I challenged my ex-colleague and friend Brian Willey on the omission of Sidney Torch from his article on staff composers (Prospero, July 2012) and in reply he pointed out, MONEY MATTERS quite rightly, that Sidney was never a card-carrying member of staff. Nevertheless, I think his track record makes him Don’t forget ‘a BBC man’ and a few notes on his remarkable career may your dividends help redress the balance. For some investors such as pensioners, dividend income can be a core revenue e was born in London in 1908. Light Orchestra for concerts and recording On the rostrum, he was charismatic and stream, while others will reinvest them to see His father, Morris Torchinski, and his compositions became standard extremely authoritarian; a hard taskmaster long-term gains bolstered by compounding came from the Ukraine and repertoire in this heyday of British who always demanded the best from his returns year after year. Companies paying was an accomplished trombone Light Music. singers and players. strong dividends are likely to be blue chip Hplayer. With his early encouragement the His works were finely crafted and firms and it may be possible to achieve young Sidney began piano lessons and immediately appealing. Most of them, like an annual income of 5% – although this is proved to be a talented and enthusiastic their composer, were bright and brisk; I once heard Sidney certainly not guaranteed. And it is important student, making an early professional among them were perennial favourites like to remember that dividends can rise or fall, appearance before he was 20 as accompanist ‘Shooting Star’, ‘On a Spring Note’, ‘Going likened to a character and may even disappear altogether – as to the celebrated violinist Albert Sandler. for a ride’, and ‘Bicycle Belles’. Others BP investors discovered in the wake of the By 1932 he had been engaged as a cinema skilfully used witty allusions to add visual in a Noel Coward play. Deepwater Horizon incident. organist at the Regal, Marble Arch and excitement to their tuneful charm. These Companies that consistently increase quickly established an enviable reputation include ‘Duel for Drummers’, ‘London their dividends are signalling to investors that as a broadcaster and recording artist, finally Transport Suite’ with its graphic portrayal of My own dealings with Sidney were generally they have healthy cash flow and are positive occupying the seat at what was, at the the hansom cab and Rosie the Red Omnibus, cordial, but marred by an incident at our about their future prospects. The resurgence time, the country’s biggest Wurlitzer, at the and ‘Trapeze Waltz’, which required the last meeting. It was at the closing concert in dividends in recent years has come as Gaumont State, Kilburn. His signature tune violins to glissando in the tempo of the of the Light Music Festival at the Royal companies have chosen to attract investors was a popular film tune of the day, ‘I’ve got swinging trapeze. Festival Hall which (inevitably) ended with by paying them a steady income stream, to sing a torch song’. In 1953, the BBC launched a new the famous showpiece, ‘Overture 1812’. rather than investing extra money into their After wartime service in the RAF, during programme designed to relax the listener It was traditional to use realistic cannon business during troubled economic times. which he wrote for and conducted the Royal after the stresses of the week and put him noises at the end of the piece, achieved The most appropriate way for most Air Force Concert Orchestra, he returned to in a weekend mood. That programme was electronically, and as the technology had investors who are looking to tap rising civilian life, determined to develop a career Friday Night is Music Night, and much of the to be operated by qualified personnel I dividends from shares is to hold them as a conductor/composer. He began writing phenomenal success it enjoyed is due to the devised a system of cueing which ensured collectively through an active or passive film scores and compositions for Chappell’s masterminding of Sidney Torch, who was its the guns were fired ‘on the beat’. On this mutual fund or by way of exchange Light Music library, as well as incidental resident conductor from its inception until occasion it appeared to work perfectly and traded funds or through investment trusts. music and signature tunes for BBC his retirement in 1972. His considerable I congratulated the operator. He replied Investors can hold funds direct or by way radio programmes. services to music were rewarded in 1985 lugubriously that one of the smoke boxes of a tax wrapper such as an ISA, pension The best remembered of these is probably with an MBE. had failed. or life assurance bond, depending on their the one he wrote for the Kenneth Horne, I once heard Sidney likened to a character The end was greeted with tumultuous tax circumstances. Richard Murdoch, Sam Costa show, Much in a Noel Coward play and certainly, with applause and, as the conductor bowed According to Capita’s latest Dividend Binding in the Marsh. He conducted both the his elegant, straight-backed, stiff upper lip deeply in response, the offending box went Monitor Report, dividend payments in the New Century Orchestra and the Queens Hall ‘Englishness’, this was a justifiable comparison. off, enveloping him in green smoke! third quarter of 2012 were the largest ever distributed by UK firms. In the third quarter, the total was £23.2bn, up 10.4% compared to the same period in 2011. The Big Freeze of 1963 It is also important to consider the long- term value of reinvesting dividends. The latest Barclays Equity Gilt Study showed Watching ‘1963 – The Big Freeze’ on BBC2 prompted Robert Stones to send in this memory… that £100 invested at the end of WW2 with dividends reinvested would have grown to It was February 1963 and we had been stuck quick de-rig and managed to catch it. By the Beeching closed the Barmouth to Llangollen £92,460 at the end of 2008, compared to in base for six weeks. The Head of Programmes time we stopped at Barmouth we were and Bangor to Caernarfon lines shortly after. just £5,721 if dividends were not reinvested. in Wales, Howell Davies, was due to do an starving. We could see people in a café across Although the AA and police still said the In terms of the dividend outlook for At Home with Lady Megan Lloyd George in the road, and we asked the driver if there was roads were impassable, the drivers had no 2013, it’s hard to make the call that we’ll Cricieth, which was a popular nationwide time to go and get some food. He said he problems and we were quickly back to see the same record performances as in programme, and we decided to have a go. was hungry too, so he left the stoker to look normal programming. I remember driving to 2012. Look to the likes of Capita and you’ll The vehicles were given an extra day to after the engine and we all had a sit-down London on the A40 and passing through a see predictions for positive, albeit slowed travel and the crew went by train. meal. After lunch the driver took us to canyon where the snow was up to the top of development in dividends for the year The train was several hours late arriving in Wrexham where we caught a train to Cardiff. the telegraph poles. ahead. That said, there’s still uncertainty for Bangor and the last train to Caernarfon, dividends, lest we forget that the Eurozone where we were to record a Dechrae Canu at crisis hasn’t gone away! And, unlike the Moriah Church, had left. interest generated from bonds, there is no The stationmaster phoned through to contractual obligation to pay a dividend. Caernarfon hoping to catch the driver before As independent financial advisers, AWD he went home and asked him to return to Chase de Vere can help you make Bangor. While we were waiting he opened up an informed decision about the best the station buffet and heated up some tins of investment strategy for you. For a free initial tomato soup to keep us warm. consultation call us on 0845 140 4014. The scanner and equipment arrived safely We are authorised and regulated by the and we did the programme the next day. The Financial Services Authority. next day the STelE hired a bus which took us The value of your investment and the to Cricieth and we did part of the programme, income from it can go down as well as up finishing it the following morning. and you may not get back the full amount The train which would make connections you invested. Past performance is not a to Cardiff left Cricieth at 1pm, so we did a reliable guide to future performance.

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2013 08 ANNIVERSARIES BBC Breakfast celebrates Coming up from BBC History in 2013 30 years of waking up the nation by Robert Seatter, Head of BBC History First broadcast in 1983 from Lime Grove, it became British In 2012, we marked 90 years since the Before that exhibition opens, however, there’s television’s first regular national breakfast show, paving the way creation of the British Broadcasting Company another momentous anniversary that put the – not till 1927 was ‘Company’ transformed BBC at the of the nation – the for many imitations. into ‘Corporation.’ So what are the milestone Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, which Recalling its first broadcast, former editor an era in which , Dermot moments to come in the year ahead, and happened 60 years ago on a rainy day in Ron Neil says, ‘It was a huge risk. So many Murnaghan, and how can Prospero readers get involved in June. It signalled the lifting of post-WW2 people were against the notion of Breakfast made their mark. telling our BBC story? gloom, the days of a new Elizabethan era, but TV and were willing it to fail.’ Other high-profile journalists to have Continuing the 90th theme, 2013 sees the also the birth of popular television, as The risk was even greater because the worked on Breakfast since its inception include 90th anniversary of Radio Times, first published thousands rushed out to purchase new TV programme, called Breakfast Time, was using , Nicholas Witchell, on 28 September 1923 as ‘the official organ sets in order to watch the young and pioneering technology, including electronic and . of the BBC’. glamorous queen take up the crown and graphics that hadn’t been tested on a UK Since last April, the show has come from It had a sceptre of majesty. As well as on air and web show before. its new home in and has a weekly difficult birth, coverage, we’ll be collaborating with one of It launched with presenters , reach of 13 million. in the face of our key partners, the National Media Museum, and at the helm. They Alison Ford, BBC Breakfast’s current editor, antagonism based in Bradford, to mark in their famous sat on red sofas that were meant to mimic says she’s ‘proud’ to have reached this from the TV gallery this transforming moment in the cosiness of a living room. This formula milestone in such ‘great shape’. newspaper technological and social history. We have an has been copied by many shows since. ‘It’s great to see that so many people watch industry of the oral history interview with Peter Dimmock Breakfast Time became Breakfast News in 1989 and appreciate what we do – we know that day, but went who ran the groundbreaking outside broadcast and replaced the soft sofas with a more the programme is really valued by its audience on to mark the of the Queen’s Coronation, and if any current formal news desk. The red sofas returned for and we’ll keep on building on that in the stuttering readers were involved too, do get in touch. the show’s relaunch as BBC Breakfast in 2000, years to come’. creation of At the end of the year, in November, it’s a television, big moment for all sci-fi fans, as expansion of reaches his 50th astonishing year of superlative all the radio time travel. Whether you were the vintage and TV networks, the end of monopoly of William Hartnell , Patrick Troughton or broadcasting, and the current digital Mat Smith, or any of the other Doctors convergence of all media. One of its inbetween, it’s a cross-generational, UK-wide proudest moments came in 1988, when the celebration. BBC Worldwide, for whom it is Christmas edition sold a staggering one of their most significant global brands, 11,220,666 copies, making it the biggest have major plans to mark the moment, and selling edition of any British magazine in BBC History will be complementing them history. But more generally, it has had an with in-depth storytelling and analysis. unparalleled role in charting the changing We’d love to hear from anyone involved in social mores of generation after generation, Doctor Who over its illustrious history. featuring words, pictures, photography that And last, but by no means least, in early captured indelibly the mood of . In 2013 begins its multi-phase August, we’ll be launching an exhibition on regeneration programme with the launch of its history at the Museum of London. So if an education programme for primary school any Prospero readers worked at the Radio Times in children and their families, focused in any time during its amazing history, we’d particular on its unique studios where the love to hear your stories. race for UK television began and ended. Some of the original Breakfast Time presenters including Selina Scott and Frank Bough (bottom row) in 1983. Pebble Mill at One To mark the launch of BBC1’s daytime Show and McLeod’s America, presented by the late programme, Pebble Mill at One in the autumn of Donny McLeod, as well as several music 1972, 80 guests gathered for a reunion dinner specials featuring international artists. at Henley Golf and Country Club, Warwickshire. Among the guests was veteran producer Members of the original production team Barrie Edgar, aged 93, a surviving member of Grange Hill started 35 years ago on went on to create and . were joined at the 40th anniversary by former the BBC’s fledgling Outside Broadcast team 8 February 1978. The children’s drama was On the BBC today the school drama colleagues from the engineering and resource which covered the London 1948 Olympics. created by and set in a mixed Waterloo Road has a substantial following department at the Birmingham studios. The Pebble Mill broadcast centre, comprehensive school in London. It aimed among teenagers. The popular daily lunchtime show ran opened in 1971, closed in 2004 and was to offer a realistic look at school life, different until 1986. Spin-off series included The Clothes subsequently demolished. to the more traditional depictions seen in Were you involved in Grange Hill in any stories like Billy Bunter. way? If so, we’d like to hear from you. Due to its success, from the second Contact Robert Seatter, Head of BBC series the show went to twice a week, and History: [email protected] gradually introduced more controversial storylines. Through the lives of its characters, Grange Hill was able to raise issues such as bullying, shoplifting, pregnancy and drug addiction, while avoiding accusations from its teenage audience that it was trying to educate them. The long unfolding story of Zammo’s battle with addiction is the best remembered in the series. At the same time the language of Grange Hill was restrained by its teatime time slot, with swearing limited to phrases like ‘flippin’ ‘eck’. The final episode ofGrange Hill aired in September 2008, with the original theme tune – ‘Chicken Man’ by Alan Hawkshaw – Peter Seabrook, Marian Foster, David Seymour and Bob Langley at the playing for one last time. returned Picture shows the cast of Grange Hill, series one Pebble Mill at One anniversary dinner. in the role of Tucker Jenkins. Phil Redmond (class of 1978).

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2013 BACK AT THE BBC 09

BBC launches TV BBC finishes Radio Times archive channels in Burma Three BBC pay TV channels were launched digitisation effort in Burma on New Year’s Day. BBC World News, BBC Entertainment The BBC has completed its effort to digitise programme listings from old copies of the and CBeebies are being broadcast on Radio Times magazine. Forever Group’s pay TV platform, bringing them to a potential 250,000 homes in The BBC Genome project is designed to help records involving 8.5 million contributors. the team had not accounted for issues raised the country. the organisation identify shows missing from About 4,500 copies of the magazine have by listings showing stations broadcasting World Service in Asia in English will also its archive. had each of their listings pages scanned. different material at the same time. Examples be broadcast via the digital platform. Most early output was not recorded and That compares with roughly one million included when BBC Radio 4 split its schedule The development comes at a time when many later tapes were destroyed. shows listed in the current archive database – to put the news on its FM radio frequency, Burma is easing its restrictions on the It will be used to create an online database the numbers are not completely comparable but the cricket on longwave. Other one-off media after several decades of government allowing, where possible, the public access to as the listings include repeats. issues also had to be checked. control and censorship. old broadcasts – or available photos, scripts The data must also be treated with care as Peter Horrocks, director of global and other materials for missing shows. the magazines only reveal what the BBC Online shop news, said it was ‘a great sign of progress The scheme was given its name because planned to broadcast and not late changes to The BBC Genome database will initially be for Burma’. the Corporation likens each of its programmes the schedules. restricted to the Corporation’s staff, but the ‘I’m so pleased that the BBC is now to ‘tiny pieces of BBC DNA’ that will form a Information is also missing for the first project team said if all goes well it could be able to take the next step forward with the ‘data spine’ once reassembled. nine months of broadcast before the accessible to the public online by the end country to offer that same impartial news magazine was launched. Other records will of 2013. via television as well.’ Missing material be used at a later point to fill this gap. It will then feed into another scheme In an editor’s blog posting, he said that The project has involved scanning in the The researchers hope the project will lead called Project Barcelona, which plans to offer journalists, editors and even officials from pages of about 4,500 copies of the Radio Times. to shows being recovered if the public BBC archive content via an online shop. former censors, the Ministry of Information, They date from its first issue in 1923 to 2009. realises they have audio or video recordings The BBC Trust has still to decide whether were keen to attend BBC training courses For later dates, records generated by the of missing programmes. to allow it to go ahead. to learn about open and balanced reporting. iPlayer catch-up service are used. The work was originally due for Other broadcasters may be concerned about But he insisted that there was still The BBC archive development team has completion by August 2011, but proved the disruptive effect that providing so much ‘a long way to go’. identified about five million programme more complicated than envisaged because content online would have on the market. He pointed to the BBC Burmese service, first broadcast in 1940, which cannot be broadcast within Burma. It is transmitted only on shortwave to an estimated Doctor Who from 1970 gets remastered audience of around eight million a week. Olympic DVD is For many, including Aung San Suu Kyi Spearhead from Space was the first to star John – the Burmese opposition politician who UK bestseller Pertwee as the third Doctor and also the listened while she was detained under house first to feature UNIT, the fictional military arrest for 15 years – it has been a vital BBC Worldwide’s box set of highlights from organisation, as a regular part of the show. source of impartial news about the country. the London Olympics has become the top Caroline John is also introduced as the ‘We urge the government to fully open selling sport and fitness DVD in the UK. Doctor’s new assistant. its airwaves,’ said Horrocks. London 2012 Olympic Games – a five-disc The plot revolves around an army of He added that the BBC would continue collection produced by BBC Sport – has murderous Autons marching across Britain. to ‘scrutinise the country closely’ – sold 550,000 copies, according to latest The Blu-ray version of Spearhead from Space something that would be a key part of the figures from the Official Charts Company The first Doctor Who to be filmed in colour has will be released through BBC Worldwide in role of BBC journalists as they moved more and Br itish Video Association. been digitally remastered in time for the July 2013. freely around the country. It took over from previous bestseller, television show’s 50th anniversary this year. The Ashes 2005 – The Greatest Series. The memento Spearhead from Space, first transmitted in of England’s 2-1 test match series win over colour in January 1970, has effectively been Australia shifted 501,000 copies. given a facelift with state-of-the-art tools. BBC PENSIONERSʼ ASSOCIATION The Olympics compilation features The four-part story is the only one from seven hours of highlights, including a the original Doctor Who series that can be An independent organisation operating in the interests of BBC Pensioners specially edited version of Danny Boyle’s remastered into HD because it was filmed on spectacular opening ceremony. location on 16mm due to industrial action at For nearly 25 years Team GB’s triumphs (GB athletes Television Centre in 1969. BBCPA has worked to protect delivered 29 gold medals) are revisited, With only this exception, the entire YOUR BBC PENSION together with the most memorable original series was recorded to videotape and Please Join Us! performances by international competitors of much lower quality, making it unsuitable Pensions have never been so important. like Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps. for true HD. The strength of your association lies in The collection’s October release was BBC Studios and Post Production’s Digital the strength of its membership. well-timed for Christmas, which is likely Media Services painstakingly started the The committee can best work to safeguard to have boosted sales. remastering process with a variety of BBC retirement incomes if you join your Fiona Eastwood, product development specialist tools. The original film was scanned former colleagues in BBCPA. director at BBC Worldwide, said: ‘The and digitised, allowing for restoration work. Individual annual subscription £10.00 London Olympics marked a phenomenal The lead colourist also used an approach that Joint annual subscription £15.00 year for British sport and we are delighted gave Spearhead from Space, a cinematic finish. Life membership (over 80) £50.00 that so many people have bought this Colourist Jonathan Wood said: ‘We decided JOIN NOW AND YOUR ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION wonderful souvenir of the Games and the to treat this four-part story like an individual WILL APPLY TO THE YEAR FROM MAY 2013 fantastic achievements of Team GB.’ filmed drama rather than thinking of it as (CHEQUES PAYABLE TO BBCPENSIONERSʼASSOCIATION) Please complete the slip below or visit the website: part of an ongoing series normally shot in a TV studio.’ The result, he added, is ‘dramatic’. www.bbcpa.org.uk © A. Barber

Clive Hodge, head of Digital Media Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms FIRST NAME (as known at the BBC) SURNAME Services at BBCSPP, said he is ‘delighted’ that BBC Worldwide commissioned the restoration work in time for the 50th BBCPENSION NO. DATE OF BIRTH anniversary in November. He said: ‘It’s fantastic that the younger ADDRESS generations will have the chance to see this POSTCODE landmark story in the same picture quality that they’ve become used to with the more TEL. NO. EMAIL: recent series.’ Please return this slip and cheque to: BBCPA, PO Box 230, Alton GU34 9AR PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2013 10 OBITUARIES who recommended her to the Head of matches at his beloved Gillingham FC and, Her secretarial skills were highly appreciated The man who ‘cued’ Costume at the BBC. She worked for the BBC in August, he was able to come up to see his and the BBC was always happy to have her Jasmine Bligh for over 20 years. son, Haydn, working as a producer for BBC back (she had been recruited by Miss Redfern). A British television pioneer, Barrie Edgar As a costume designer Betty took on some Sport at the London Olympic Games. In 1963 she went to work in the (1919-2012) was studio manager on the major challenges including Sherlock Holmes, He died in the Wisdom Hospice in newsroom of NZBC – her BBC training was first post-war television broadcast from The Goodies, Little Women, Churchill’s People, Porridge Rochester in Kent on 19 November. Many obviously appreciated here too. She then Alexandra Palace and produced over 1,200 and, most famously, The Duchess of Duke Street (for friends and colleagues were in attendance at worked for charitable relief organisations in programmes over a 33-year BBC career. which she was nominated for a BAFTA) but, his funeral on 6th December. Hong Kong and Vietnam and visited several Initially a generalist outside broadcast as she herself observed, her biggest challenge He leaves a wife, Frances, as well as two countries in the Far East. She returned to ‘the producer working across a now inconceivable was when she was given her first series, sons and five grandchildren. dear old BBC’, as she referred to it, in 1969 range of television genres, Edgar became Sykes, starring Eric Sykes and Hattie Jacques. Haydn Parry until 1971, when she must have gone on her chief producer of a number of BBC stalwart Betty became a stalwart of the BBC Costume travels again, culminating in a three-month series which, in various forms, survive him. Department and approached the task in hand An asset to the overland journey from Bombay via the Following his naval service in WW2, with a single-minded devotion and attention Khyber Pass, Afghanistan, Iran and Jerusalem. Edgar applied to join the BBC as a studio to detail which was always much appreciated Music Library She rejoined once again in 1980, working by the directors she worked with. She became for local radio until she finally retired in 1983. manager, and cued announcer Jasmine Bligh It is with much personal sadness that I report so thorough in her preparation that she was After her mother died, she moved to to declare the reopening of the BBC’s the death of Will Rosser on Christmas Day eventually appointed the Drama Script Assessor Truro in 1990 with her twin brother, George. television service on 7 June 1946. 2012, at the splendid age of 90. and was responsible for analysing new projects, They both became actively involved with the As head of outside broadcasts, his portfolio When I appointed Will to a vacancy in the costing them, and then allocating personnel. cathedral and supporting charity organisations. ranged from sport to religion, from general Television Music Library he had already had a After two years in her new post she decided After George died in 1997, Barbara moved to election coverage to seaside summer shows, distinguished career as a viola player in the to take an early retirement to Holt in Norfolk a more manageable flat in the centre of Truro. from Miss World and Chipperfield’s circus to Yorkshire Symphony Orchestra, playing under with her husband, Anthony King-Deacon, She continued doing odd jobs around the the closing moments of Churchill’s funeral. such as Nikolai Malko and Norman Del Mar. and their cats. cathedral and as a ‘welcomer’ she had a way His long association with Come Dancing When the orchestra disbanded in 1955 he Following a garden accident Betty was of providing comfort for those in distress began in 1953; his proudest single project moved to London and, after several engagements invalided and became confined to a wheelchair. and made many friends with the visitors that was covering the building of the new in London theatres, joined the BBC. After her husband’s death she went to live in she encountered at the cathedral. Cathedral, from the laying of its By the end of his first day in the Music Hill Barn Retirement Home, which was her She died peacefully at her home in foundation stone in 1956 all the way to its Library I knew that I had made a good choice. final residence. November 2012. As befits an excellent consecration in 1962. Will was always a willing, cooperative and Her brother Brian Aldiss, the writer, and secretary, she had everything organised and Edgar’s early career bridged the cheerful member of the team and his sound several nephews and nieces survive her. requested that no-one attend her cremation transformation of television from being musical background, and wide experience of John Peacock or send flowers but instead do a good deed largely a witness of existing events to a music-making in all its forms, made him a for someone instead. medium, dominated by its own original great asset in studio work with the Eric Robinson Geoff & Thelma Rowlands (former visitors) material. This development made it harder Management consultant Orchestra and the visiting London orchestras for the generalist producer: over the years, Former colleagues and in the preparation of orchestral material Edgar saw many of his programmes hived will be saddened to for opera and ballet on Television. Head of Merchandising off to specialised (and centralised) BBC learn that Tony Parry When I left to return to Radio in 1963, Roy Williams joined the BBC in 1943 and departments, from sport to current affairs. has died, aged 69. Will was the natural choice as my successor. served there for 43 years, a career broken But he remained producer of several Tony joined the He later became an active member of the only by two years’ National Service in programmes that one might have thought BBC in 1979 and International Association of Music Libraries, Malaya. His early years included posts in vulnerable to changing fashions but which worked in a series attending their conferences and displaying such varied departments as Film and Pensions. have proved remarkably resilient. Songs of Praise of positions in the the same enthusiasm for the academic It also included Transcription Services, is still substantially the programme for which Corporation for the aspects of his job as he did for the practical. which licensed BBC Radio material to he produced 76 editions, as is Gardeners’ World, following 15 years. By this time we had become firm friends overseas broadcasters. This department later of which he was executive producer up until He started in the BBC Consultancy department and after his retirement to Norfolk (where became BBC Radio Enterprises, but Roy had his retirement. While disapproving of the as a senior management consultant but he could indulge himself more thoroughly in 1960 joined the new Television Enterprises Strictly version of Come Dancing, it gave him within four years moved to Recording in his passion for birdwatching) we visited department created to exploit the same pleasure that Gardeners’ World has not only Services, where he worked as development him on many occasions. opportunities provided by the newer media. survived, but anticipated the trend towards manager. As a great lover of music and radio, I shall miss our endless chats about music, He immediately saw that certain aspects lifestyle programmes which came to this was to be a role and department he birds and our respective fond memories of of Children’s Television could be licensed to dominate BBC2 in subsequent years. enjoyed immensely. He had been a singer BBC days, and I am sure that many who third parties, such as toy and clothing Married for 63 years to Joan Burman during his youth in the 60s and, on one remember him will join me in sending our manufacturers. This activity was already (who died in 2005), he is survived by his occasion, his band had supported the Rolling deep sympathy to Hilda, his wife, David, taking place on a limited scale by an outside three children, David, Sarah and Kate, six Stones at a gig in his native Medway Towns. Kathryn and Steve, his family and Beth, Tom agent, but Roy felt that the BBC could grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. As a strong supporter of the BBC Club in and Jenny, his grandchildren. exercise greater quality control and financial Western House, especially the lunchtime John Meloy benefit if the licensing was done in house. Costume Department jazz, he would make many friends from Among the stellar licensed properties of other areas of the Corporation, and was also Secretarial skills that era were , Doctor Who, stalwart an enthusiastic member of the Big Band Club. Paddington Bear, Postman Pat, The Herbs, After a short illness, Betty Aldiss, costume In 1988, he took up the position of and overseas exploits The Magic Roundabout, and of course The designer for the BBC, passed away on management services officer at the World When the BBC visiting scheme started in Wombles. These ‘properties’ usually had 11 November in hospital in Norwich. Service, working in what would become his 1993, Barbara Martin was one of our first copyright owners with whom Roy liaised, Born in Oxford on 30 April 1930, Betty favourite BBC working environment at Bush ‘visitees’. At first she replied that she did not who were the characters’ creators. If, like studied fashion design at Oxford College of House. In what was undoubtedly the most actually need a visit but would be pleased to Doctor Who, they were the BBC’s own Art but on gaining her degree went to work exotic posting of his career, he made six see us some time. Eventually when we met copyright, there were still actors’ likenesses in a dress shop. After a few years of frustration ‘tours of duty’ for the BBC to Ascension and got talking, it transpired that we had a to be cleared, or the rights of individual in Oxford she enrolled at the London Beauty Island in the South Atlantic, studying, mutual friend. That sealed a lasting creators of certain alien monsters. All this School in Sloane Street and became a improving and managing services to all friendship between us. and more came under Roy’s direction as consultant in a West End salon. Finding the organisations on the island. Finally, as head She told us that she had always wanted to head of merchandising, BBC Enterprises. work uncreative she took up a position with of business communications for Network work for the BBC and she eventually joined in While children’s characters played a huge Woollands, a Knightsbridge department Radio from 1990 to 1992, he won a British 1945 as a clerk/typist in Financial Division. part in the growth of BBC Merchandising, store, until an old college friend who was Productivity Award. After a series of promotions, she became in the early 1980s the BBC launched a new working at Covent Garden told her of a post Only three years into retirement, in early secretary to the chief accountant in 1957. television series introducing the concept and at Alex Shanks Stage Costumes Ltd in Garrick 2012, he was diagnosed with terminal Her career in the BBC was punctuated by usage of the home computer. Street. While working there, Betty became cancer of the oesophagus. Despite ailing several extended trips abroad where she lived The ‘BBC Micro’ was developed under acquainted with Beatrice (Bumble) Dawson, health, he continued to attend football off her wits, taking whatever jobs she could. licence by of Cambridge in

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2013 OBITUARIES 11 conjunction with BBC engineers. Overseeing WHSmith at Stinchcombe Hill near Dursley. the commercial aspects of this activity was Roy. Points West presenter With many high level folk from both Talented linguist Following retirement in 1986, Roy Mark Puckle, a former reporter and presenter organisations in attendance, tact and tolerance provided his experience to The Copyrights for BBC Points West and Radio Bristol, died in as well as his usual organisational skills Group as a director, and as a consultant to a late September, aged 81, three weeks after his ensured 20 highly successful occasions. number of clients including the BBC. wife Jenny (see left below). Mark was a regular Tony Burrows Roy is survived by his wife Marian, face on Points West from the early 60s until 1983. daughter Vanessa, son Max and their families. Trained at RADA as an actor, Mark found Christopher Crouch himself more in demand as a broadcaster. Foreign language Following work at Anglia Television he was producer offered a post at BBC Bristol and he soon Maddalena Fagandini was a dedicated and found a home with his wife Carol, an actress, CPU Open Door talented TV producer who began her BBC for their growing family in the West Country. career as a studio manager in the Italian Section producer In time Mark was to marry again, and his of the World Service at Bush House in 1953. After his wife Moira, the ‘other great love’ of second wife, Jenny Loram, made them a Roger Brunskill’s life was the BBC, where he home to retire to in Brixham in Devon. produced one of the more controversial Jenny, a fondly recalled producer’s assistant television programmes of the 1970s on an in Bristol, died suddenly in August this year. issue that still resonates today. Just weeks later, Mark was visiting his ‘Married’ to the Corporation from 1955 grandchildren in Clevedon when a fall led to Pat Wilson worked for the BBC for 23 years, until his retirement over 30 years later, Roger his death in hospital. He had suffered poor eventually becoming Head of Artist Contracts. served in an extraordinary range of health for some years. A native of Pickering, North Yorkshire, capacities. Wherever he worked Roger always Trevor Puckle, Mark’s eldest son (already he was born in Wigan, on brought an infectious spirit, swiftly winning enjoying a distinguished career in film) with 23 November 1919. Educated at Lady him friends at home and abroad. his mother Carol, his brothers and their families Lumley’s grammar school, Pat then chose By the end of the 60s, he was a director on joined his father’s old Bristol colleagues at to study languages privately with Mr Alan, such staples as Late Night Line Up and Points of View Mark’s funeral in Bristol on 3 October. a Scarborough teacher, eventually speaking before becoming one of the producers who Colin Godman nine languages fluently. made a success of Open Door, the pioneering With her fluency in both Italian and His first employer was Joseph Rowntree BBC2 ‘public access’ series within the English she became a crucial member of the of York where he became their first foreign Community Programmes Unit (CPU). Circulation manager Television Outside Broadcast Unit in 1960 during the coverage of the Olympic Games correspondent and translated the German Roger was passionate about public service Lawrence (Laurie) Corry was born in 1922, in Rome. In later years she remained an recipe for Aero chocolate, among many broadcasting and had a deep commitment to and spent much of his formative years shuttling ardent sports fan with a particular penchant others. Called up in 1940 he joined the giving airtime to unheard voices, whether or between Portsmouth and Malta, his father for Formula 1. Intelligence Corps and spent time on the not he agreed with them. In that spirit he made serving in the Royal Navy. The family eventually The swinging 60s was a time when she Isle of Man, interviewing German and one of the most controversial programmes in settled in London. He joined the RAF in the again found herself in her element at the Austrian internees. CPU history in 1976, an Open Door with an dark days of 1940. After training as a radar famous BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop. Landing in Salerno, Pat was one of the first anti-immigration group with suspected links operator, he spent most of his service in the As part of a highly creative group, she worked into Rome and addressed the crowds from to the National Front. There were questions Middle East. It was in Cairo that he met on creating sound effects, theme music and Mussolini’s balcony, interviewing Mussolini’s in Parliament, but the film was defended by Beryl, serving in the WRAF, whom he jingles and experimenting with the electronic dentist! He spent time in Ancona and was the BBC as free speech on behalf of a significant married in 1947 following demobilisation. distortion of music. Music was in her genes: given the Freedom of Staffolo. Whenever he but under-represented body of public opinion. They had three loving daughters and 65 her father, an Italian émigré, had been a singer returned there after the war, he was always Roger produced over 30 programmes for years of great happiness together. in the London clubs in the 1920s. Classical met by the Mayor and Town Band. Making CPU, including a legendary ‘live’ Open Door Laurie joined the BBC in London as an music and opera fed her musical passion and many friends in Sicily and Italy, he stayed on with the Chicken Liberation Front. As the engineer in 1946. In 1948 he applied for the she played rather well, but with some after the war, working with Frontelini, a group expounded their aims in the studio, post of publications assistant and joined the diffidence, her cherished Baby Grand. piano accordion manufacturer, helping to the chickens began to expire under the hot department at 35 Marylebone High Street. In 1963 Maddalena got her big rebuild his business. lights and keel over, one by one. As a sales representative he should have had a breakthrough, on the very first foreign On his return to England, he became I first got to know Roger in the CPU in the car, but these were in short supply. In fact language teaching series on BBC television manager to the Impresario Sandor late 1970s and found him a big bearded Laurie was rather proud of having walked working with Peter Montagnon – Parliamo Italiano. Gorlingsky, travelling on concert tours with cuddly bear of a man with tremendous, round much of his area for a few months, This was the beginning of what became artists including Gigli, Tito Gobbi, Sir rather innocent enthusiasm. He gave kindly, visiting newsagents. Radio Times in those days Maddalena’s life work producing foreign Thomas Beecham, Joan Hammond and avuncular advice, often with a self-deprecating was much in demand and he found himself language programmes in Spanish, Italian and Eileen Joyce. chuckle, notwithstanding the huge range of on many occasions having to play the BBC German. With the help, support and Pat joined the BBC in 1956. For many his experience on technical matters. I will diplomat, apologising for the worldwide admiration of academics from Oxford and years he had special responsibilities for the always remember Roger’s quiet integrity and shortage of newsprint. Cambridge Universities she led the way in engagement of light entertainment stars, deep-rooted decency. He moved to Birmingham in 1949 and to devising new ways of teaching and learning operatic and classical soloists and for the He is survived by Moira and their four Norwich in 1959. By now Radio Times sales foreign languages – ‘kits’ as they were called, negotiation of long-term contracts in the children, eight grandchildren and one were over six million. Laurie and his colleagues combining broadcast, audio tapes, discs and field of sports and of package contracts with great-grandchild and by his youngest brother, had added selling skills to diplomacy. books. They can still be found in bookshops organisations such as the Royal Ballet, Covent Richard, a popular film editor at the BBC. In 1962, he was appointed assistant and continue to be used in schools and colleges. Garden Opera, Sadlers Wells Opera and Giles Oakley circulation manager (West) in Bristol where Her final language series, Deutsche Direkt, Glyndebourne. Pat was a member of the he remained until retiring in 1982. During was made in the 1980s. But in between times Institute of Linguists and his ability in this this time, BBC Publications expanded The Devils Music took her and Giles Oakley on field was of great value in his negotiations Producer’s assistant enormously. Radio Times’ Christmas edition in an extensive filming trip in the USA exploring for foreign companies and artists, on his 1969 sold over 10 million copies. There was in Bristol the roots of blues music. All the filmed musical journeys to the Continent with light a huge market for foreign language beginners’ Jenny Puckle (nee Loram) has died aged 73, performances are available on You Tube. entertainment producers in search of new courses on TV with accompanying books and after a short illness. She was for some 30 years Her final series on Mediterranean Cookery acts and in assisting with arrangements for records and later tapes. Blockbuster TV series a producer’s assistant in Bristol working on is a fitting reminder to those of us who were international events, such as the Eurovision like Alistair Cooke’s America, Bronowski’s Ascent network programmes such as Tom Tom and fortunate enough to share her congenial table, Song Contest. of Man, plus TV cooks from Fanny Craddock to Animal Magic. To those who knew her, Jenny where we listened, learned and laughed. Pat retired from the BBC in 1979 and and Keith Floyd created big was warm, funny, a loyal and generous Maddalena will be much missed by returned to Pickering. Late last year Pat could profits which of course would be ploughed friend, and always sensitive to the feelings of colleagues and friends alike, but she leaves a no longer maintain his independence and back into the BBC as a whole. those in front of the camera. She spent the legacy of great memories and a considerable A secondary, but by no means unimportant, eventually moved into a nursing home near last years of retirement living with her body of work. part of his duties was to organise the annual York. He died peacefully on 7 December 2012. husband Mark in her hometown of Brixham. Marion Allinson John Wilson Cynthia James (nee Paul) golf match between the BBC (Radio Times) and

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2013 12

Book review CLASSIFIEDS Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. Acts of Defiance: Quality one-bedroom apartment with balconies and private roof terrace. Stunning beaches and lagoons nearby. A Marriage, A Theatre, A Town £295pw. by Oliver Bayldon Tel: 01428 653127 Lagos, Algarve, 2-bed townhouse, ur hero, Garrick Jones, (the book’s At this point, he runs smack into small-town roof terrace, from £150pw. Also 3-double- full of theatrical references) is a politics, family secrets and jealousies, bed apartment. Both inside city walls man with problems. He’s lied relationships, corruption and… women. But, right from the start, there’s also a strong and near beach. about his career, telling anyone It’s like on speed. sense of impending doom – it’s almost as Tel: 07956 181613 Owho listens, including his wife, that he’s an There are many sub-plots, all of them though Garrick is defending himself – from Email: [email protected] experienced theatrical producer and director, intense and very funny, a couple of them another world – against any blame for what when all he did was manage a team of strippers. tragic, but the biggest joke is that it’s eventually happens. Menorca. His wife and American mother-in-law are nearly Christmas and the town really His wife wins a job of her own, as the Detached villa with private pool. Sleeps both descendants of the Russian dramatist doesn’t want Chekhov – it wants panto – hostess of a TV cookery programme – cue 2-7. Close amenities. Short drive Anton Chekhov and bully him into applying specifically Cinderella. more observational humour – his marriage gorgeous beaches. for a job as director of productions at the Bayldon himself is an award-winning film comes under pressure, he falls for a sexy Brochure 01621 741810 Majestic Theatre – purely to present a season and TV production designer, as well as a teenager, the behind-the-scenes political or visit www.menorcaholidayvilla.co.uk of Chekhov plays. writer, and must have closely observed puppeteering boils over. It’s 2004, the centenary of the playwright’s dozens of dramas in his time – and the I won’t give away the ending – it just left death and they want a proper celebration of magnetic power that theatre, film and TV me wishing the book had gone on to Altea, Spain. his achievements. hold for many. describe what happened afterwards. Beach front apartment with Jacuzzi, The trouble is that the Majestic is in a His rehearsal scenes for the panto are simply Jim Latham two bedrooms, air-conditioned, underfloor heating. Contact Sandra small Lancashire town, 200 miles away from hilarious – all the old jokes and plenty of A paperback version of Acts of Defiance is London, his family and his usual life – new ones – his reportage of a modern stand-up available through www.lulu.com, or as an e-book (Email: [email protected]; another problem is that he wins the job. comedian at work, revealing and cutting. from Amazon. ISBN978-1-909473-00-3 mobile: 0034 6635741)

Venice, Giudecca. Beautiful apartment in quiet private Can you help? courtyard, sleeps 5, fully equipped. Prospero has received several requests for help, which we Experience the real Venice. are publishing in this section. If you can shed any light on these Tel: 01260 227262 requests, please write to Prospero at the usual address, email Email: [email protected]

us at [email protected], or contact the person direct if they Turquoise Coast – SW Turkey. CAPTION have given their details. Kalkan ideally suits DIY holiday makers. Poolside direct access, sleeps four. Grand Hotel discusses the issues such as censorship and Prices from £500 / fortnight. competiton propaganda in that period. Pictures ‘Owners Direct’ TK2992. I would dearly love to have a copy of Grand As much as the major objective of my work Hotel. My late husband, Mark Beard, played Email: [email protected] We’re starting the new year with a new is to explore the influence of the wartime viola in the Light Music Unit of the BBC for politics on the Polish Section broadcast, I am feature in Prospero – a caption competition. many years. I know some recordings of were Somerset holiday flat. Give us your wittiest witticisms and you also very interested in how the Section was made. The one I particularly want is with organised and operated in the wartime period. Near coast and Exmoor National Park. could win a £10 voucher. Please send ‘Molly on the Shore’, where he was always Sleeps two. Affordable rates. your entries to our usual address, or email I am looking for former employees of the given the solo part to play. Pre-War he was a Polish Section, the World Service, in general Visit www.cottageexmoor.co.uk them to [email protected], with ‘caption viola player in the small band at Ally Pally. competition’ in the subject line, by Friday anyone who worked in the BBC during the Tel: 01643 704778 After the war he returned to the BBC. His war and could provide any information 1 March. We’ll publish a selection of the elder brother was Paul Beard – leader of the best entries received in the April issue related to the Polish Section of the BBC or Salcombe, Devon. BBC Symphony Orchestra for years and years. could help me to allocate wartime of Prospero. Lavender Beard Family holiday cottage. Sleeps six. employees’ relatives. Spectacular views. Three minutes to If you can help Aga, please email Agnieszka. wonderful beaches, National Trust walks, Update: family archive [email protected] or call her on 07766130439. boating and great restaurants. In the last issue, we asked for readers’ help in Email: [email protected] tracking down a family archive. We received The BBC and all that several ‘leads’, which we passed back to David Recently I heard part of a Radio 4 reading of Walker, who said: ‘I was thrilled to receive Prospero’s The BBC and all that by Roger Eckersley, which response to my quest for the name of the was a fascinating account of the start of Seeking news of Tony Johnson, producer (Lyn MacDonald/Franks) to whom the BBC. Unfortunately I didn’t manage to an SM in London BH around 1959-65. my brother George gave my aunt’s archive, and get it on iPlayer, but am now wondering if Artist friend F West is keen to contact. which subsequently she allegedly donated to someone might still have a copy of the book Email: [email protected] the IWM. If Lyn did in fact donate it, the IWM (published by Sampson Low, Marston & Co) should be able to locate it! Please convey my that I could buy or borrow? thanks to the correspondents involved – David Mairi MacIntyre Gallop, Robin Cherry and Amanda Howse. Reunions I hope that I may be able to report a happy conclusion to my quest in due course.’ Advice on acquiring RELC April lunch TV stills The next gathering for members and Seeking information on I am interested in the photo archive – and friends of the BBC Retired Engineers possible acquisition of TV Drama stills: Luncheon Club (RELC) is on Wednesday WW2 Polish Section London Dramatised Documentaries 1954 to 10 April at the usual seaside venue of the My name is Aga Broda and I am a Polish Miramar Hotel in Bournemouth. The Goons Revolution. 1961; Z Cars 1962 to 1965; English Regions prepares to guillotine Spike Milligan, aided and student studying Journalism at City University Drama, Pebble Mill 1971 to 1981. Grateful Contact Russell Horne to book your abetted by Peter Sellers in The Goon Show, in London. I am currently writing a PhD for any advice. reservation on 01590 624389 or email broadcast weekly in the BBC Home Service dissertation on the Polish Section of the BBC [email protected] and Light Programme. David Rose during the Second World War, which [email protected] Designed and produced by Wordshop PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2013