The newspaper for BBC pensioners – with highlights from Ariel online Beechgrove celebrates 50 years of TV A look back at the Aberdeen studio – page 10

December 2012 • Issue 8

Sailing on Doing time A busy year for Emley Moor? with the BBC North 3 Page 9 Page 11 Page 12

NEWS • Memories • Classifieds • Your letters • Obituaries • CrosPERO 02 BBC pensions Creation of new CEO role for BBC Pension Scheme ‘a milestone event’ A former BBC Pensions employee, Joy Moore, has been appointed as the first Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the BBC Pension Scheme.

Joy will take up her position on 7 January (NAPF) Retirement Policy Council. I am very business of the Scheme. The Trustees meet between those provided to the BBC from 2013. She will have overall responsibility pleased that she is joining us again in what I only six times a year (aside from more regular those required by the Trustees – creating for managing the Scheme on behalf of the think is a key appointment.’ committee meetings), so there is a limited the new post of Chief Executive Officer. Trustees and will report to the Chair of the Geoff described her appointment – period when the whole Board is in session.’ The main role of the CEO is to ensure Trustee Board. and the creation of the CEO role – as Jan Killick, the previous Head of Pensions, the effective execution of Trustee policy, Geoff Jones, the Scheme’s current an important milestone for the BBC supported the BBC on policy, strategy and compliance with legal requirements and best pensioner-elected Trustee, told Prospero: Pension Scheme. funding issues and was also responsible practice, to manage the Scheme relationship ‘Joy was my deputy when I headed up the ‘With 65,000 members and over £9 billion for administration and payroll services, with the BBC, to represent the Scheme to Pension and Benefits Centre in Cardiff. She in assets, our scheme is one of the largest communications, risk management and the Pensions Regulator and other statutory left the BBC in 2001 and is well respected in occupational pension schemes in the UK. secretarial support to the Trustees. When bodies, and to give a lead to the executive the pensions industry, having been chair of ‘It is therefore not practical, nor desirable, she left earlier this year, the Trustees decided team, ensuring the effective coordination the National Association of Pension Fund’s for the Trustees to run the day-to-day to seize the moment and split the duties of all activities.

valuation, when we will see what shortfall is in thing today, you get a yield of about 2.5%.’ more risk than a government bond but Locking place at that time and what needs to be done ‘These are not conditions that are with a better return. They have identified to remove it.’ conducive to generating very strong returns some opportunities in the property and During the year, the Trustees reviewed on investments – but there may be some infrastructure markets. down risk many of the services provided to pensioners reasons to be optimistic. ‘An example is a purchase made by one – among them Prospero (which is sent ‘Despite all the doom and gloom, the of our property managers – CBRE Global This year, fifty people attended the out to around 10,000 pensioners) and the Scheme’s asset level of around £9.2bn Investors – of a development of holiday BBC Pensioner Liaison Meeting (held in Volunteer Visitor Scheme. The Board agreed is higher than it has ever been, and the homes in the UK, where the Scheme has November), where they had an opportunity to continue with both arrangements, albeit Scheme’s three-year annualised return from acquired a ground rent interest. That pays a to hear from and put questions to the team reducing the number of editions of Prospero the depressed levels of 2009 has been yield on our investment of around 4% a year. running the BBC Pension Scheme: interim from nine to six per year. 13.8%, so assets have increased by almost If at any point the ground rent isn’t paid, the head of pensions James Hacker, director Geoff Jones then went on to talk about 50% over last three years.’ property would revert to the Scheme.’ of pension investments James Duberly and people changes and Scheme governance The Trustees are also discussing ways pensioner-elected Trustee, Geoff Jones. (covered in the article above), and then both Lock down that the Scheme can get involved in James Hacker provided a brief update James and Geoff answered some questions However, as James put it, ‘the value of the infrastructure projects, as mooted by the on the Scheme and what has happened from the audience. assets is only one part of the story… It’s the government recently. ‘Infrastructure hasn’t over the past year (much of it covered in value of the Scheme’s liabilities that also need really worked for pension funds in the the summary members’ report, which you Investments to be taken into account.’ past because of high costs and gearing, should have received in September). In his first address to the Pensioner Liaison As part of their long-term investment He made the point that the value of the but pension funds are seeking to develop Meeting since joining the BBC in 2011, strategy, the Trustees have introduced a Scheme’s assets is now at a record high a structure that would better meet their James Duberly’s investment presentation liability driven investment programme. ‘In the of around £9.3 billion. Its income (of around needs, where embedded leverage, fees covered four key themes: risk reduction; past, people might have managed the assets and risks are relatively low, but with a higher £0.5 billion) comes from investment returns responsible investments; looking for without thinking about the liabilities, but we prospective return than government bonds.’ and contributions, whilst the lion’s share of investments with long-term, inflation-linked want to be cognisant about how the two James ended with a mention of the its expenditure is pensions (amounting to cash flows; and fees and costs. are moving together. We look to buy assets Scheme’s costs: the biggest cost to the £0.3 billion in 2011/12). He started off by reviewing the current with very certain cashflows a long time in Scheme is asset manager fees (another topical The next full valuation of the Scheme will economic situation and commented that the future, that deliver a known amount of issue!) The Trustees have been reviewing look at the Scheme’s assets and liabilities as we see a lot of bad news in the media, with money to pay a known benefit. In that way, the fees paid to managers, have negotiated at 1 April 2013. ‘It can be a long process in phrases like ‘quantitative easing’, ‘eurozone we can lock down some of the exposure of reductions and ensure that any new manager terms of identifying what the expected liabilities crisis’ and ‘the new normal’ highlighting the the Scheme and the sponsor to increasing are, and then there is a period of negotiation difficult economic situation we find ourselves in. assignments are made at competitive rates. between the Trustees and the BBC on how James showed the audience two charts – liabilities and investment uncertainty. The result is a material reduction in the to remove the shortfall. Based on previous one of the FTSE100 index going back to the ‘The trouble is that the yields on those very overall costs of managing the Scheme as a experiences, we expect those discussions mid-80s, and another showing bond yields secure investments, such as government percentage of the Scheme’s assets. to run through 2013 and to be finalised and over that time. bonds, are very low – so to what extent do ‘But at the end of the day, we have to communicated early 2014,’ he said. ‘In equity markets, the peak came in 1999, we want to reduce risk but give up returns think about value for money We continue to Following the last full valuation in 2010, and although we have made some recovery that might be achieved? There’s a balance be guided by the principle that what really the BBC agreed a schedule of additional over the last year or two, we are still at lower that needs to be achieved.’ matters is investment performance after fees; contributions to ‘plug’ the shortfall identified market levels than we had 13 years ago. The Trustees have therefore been looking so the Scheme should only be willing to pay by that process, amounting to around ‘If you go back to the mid-80s you could for other assets with secure and inflation- high fees if we have strong grounds to trust £900 million over 11 years. ‘The level of buy a long-term UK government bond with linked cashflows that will make payments a manager’s ability to achieve a higher net contributions will be revisited after the 2013 a yield of around 9%. To invest in the same ‘way into the future’ – probably with a bit return than an alternative lower cost solution.’

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: prospero@bbc.co.uk 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 16. The next issue of Prospero will appear in To view Ariel online, please visit www.bbc.co.uk/ariel. February 2013. The copy deadline is Friday 4 January.

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2012 back at the bbc 03 New director general announced

In an email to all staff on 22 November, Lord Patten announced that the BBC Trust has appointed Tony Hall – Lord Hall of Birkenhead – as the new director general of the BBC.

Tony Hall is currently Chief Executive of the the BBC out of its current crisis and help have had absolutely nothing to do with the Royal Opera House, was Chairman of the rebuild public trust in the organisation. events that have put us under the spotlight, board for the Cultural Olympiad and worked ‘Tony Hall has been an insider and is you have had to share in the pain and the at the BBC for 28 years. He was head of BBC currently an outsider. As an ex-BBC man shame that they have brought. News and Current Affairs from 1996-2001, he understands how the Corporation’s ‘But this is a significant day for the BBC. and had a very distinguished career here. culture and behaviour make it, at its best, There are still very serious questions to He was a digital pioneer who launched BBC the greatest broadcaster in the world. And be answered through the two on-going News Online, Radio 5 Live, BBC News 24 from his vantage point outside the BBC, he independent inquiries into the Newsnight and BBC Parliament. understands the criticisms that are levelled investigation that was dropped and the In the meantime Tim Davie has kindly at the Corporation – both those that are culture and practices of the BBC during the agreed to remain as acting director justified and those that are not. But perhaps years Jimmy Savile worked here, as well as general, and, wrote Lord Patten, ‘I would most importantly, given where we now find a review into sexual harassment. But it is like to put on the record that he is doing ourselves, his experience as a former BBC also marks the beginning of a new phase a fantastic job’. journalist will prove invaluable as the BBC for the BBC. And the key challenge will be ‘While this appointment has been made looks to rebuild its reputation in this area. re-establishing our reputation with the in the most exceptional of circumstances ‘The past eight weeks have been very public. I hope you will all support Tony Hall following George Entwistle’s departure, I traumatic for the BBC. Let me say again that I as he goes about the important work of believe Tony Hall is the right person to lead am sorry that, while the vast majority of you doing just that.’ The Dame Janet Smith Review Grades and BBC pensioners were recently sent a letter from the acting director general, Tim Davie, pay bands set encouraging them to come forward with any information they may have about the Jimmy Savile case, as part of the Dame Janet Smith Review. for overhaul By this time next year, staff should know The Review was established by the BBC 2. people who knew of or suspected or enabling the sexual abuse of children, where they sit within a new hierarchy and to conduct an impartial, thorough and inappropriate sexual conduct by Jimmy young people or teenagers (d) held senior what the BBC thinks is the right rate of pay independent review of the culture and practices Savile on BBC premises, or on location positions at the BBC and who may have for the job they do. of the BBC during the years that Jimmy Savile for the BBC relevant information which would assist the Existing grades and pay bands will be worked there. The Review will receive evidence 3. anyone who raised concerns about Jimmy Review e.g. people who worked in Human scrapped as the BBC introduces a simpler from those who may have been the subject of Savile’s sexual conduct (whether formally Resources, former director generals, directors framework in October 2013 that aims inappropriate sexual conduct by Jimmy Savile or informally) within the BBC or producers. to bring clarity and simplicity where on BBC premises or on location for the BBC 4. people who worked for or with the BBC If you think you can help us, please confusion and convolution currently reign. and from others who may have raised concerns during the time that Jimmy Savile worked contact the Review by emailing info@ The BBC employs around 20,000 about his conduct with the BBC. there (currently believed to be 1964 to damejanetsmithreview.com, or leave a people who make content or who support It will also examine whether the BBC’s approximately 2007) whether or not they message with your contact details on our the making of content; they go by 5,000 child protection and whistleblowing policies were aware of any inappropriate behaviour voicemail-only line: 0800 808 5298, or write different job titles. are fit for purpose. and: to The Dame Janet Smith Review, c/o Reed Some people share a title with others The Review is chaired by the former Court (a) who worked with or for Jimmy Savile Smith LLP, The Broadgate Tower, 20 Primrose who have completely different roles, of Appeal judge, Dame Janet Smith DBE. We or on programmes he presented (whether Street, London EC2A 2RS. responsibilities and remuneration; some do would very much like to hear from: in junior or senior roles) (b) to whom You can also call the BBC Investigations the same job as people with designations 1. people who were the subject of Jimmy Savile reported (directly or indirectly) Unit in confidence by calling them on 020 they hardly recognise. inappropriate sexual conduct by Jimmy (c) who were familiar with the culture or 8752 4168 during office hours. Or, if you All of them slot into more than 20 Savile on BBC premises, or on location practices of the BBC during that time insofar would rather call anonymously, please use grades in a way that can best be described for the BBC as they may have been relevant to preventing our whistleblower line on 0800 374199. as haphazard. Managers have been asking for a more straightforward approach to pay for Crospero 170 devised and compiled by Jim Palm some time; they want clarity over how jobs are matched to grades and what pay 1 2 Complete the square by using the clues; these apply only to words corresponds to each level. running across. Then take these words in numerical order and Staff, meanwhile, would seem to 3 4 extract the letters indicated by a dot. If your answers are correct, welcome a more obvious pathway to these letters will spell out some topical words. promotion. According to the latest staff survey results, 61% of staff don’t 5 6 Please send your answers in an envelope marked Crospero to understand what they need to do to The Editor, Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, 8 advance their careers at the BBC, while 7 Broadcasting House, Cardiff CF5 2YQ by Friday 11 January 2013. 76% feel that career progression here is 9 CLUES not based on a fair and transparent process. 1. Serpent (3); 2. In short order (7); 3. Mountain pass (3); 4. Light meal (3); The ambition is to place people into 10 11 5. Thirties broadcaster A.J. (4); 6. Smallest of litter (4); 7. Medicine (5); seven or eight ‘job communities’ based on 8. Duck (5); 9. Powerful boat (3); 10. Indian language (5); 11. Wrathful (5); the type of work they do rather than where 12 12. Greek letter (3); 13. Plant (5); 14. News reporter Bill (5); 15. Welsh they do it. These might include journalism, resort (4); 16. Rational (4); 17. Gaseous mixture (3); 18. Oil platform (3); technology, content making and business 13 14 19. Charge with misconduct (7); 20. Full stop (3). support. There are expected to be only six grades in the new structure, which will not 15 16 be division-specific. Solutions to Crospero 169: Despite being a DQF proposal, the new 17 18 Brasserie; Giant; Sorts; Rita; Quin; Udder; Esau; Steve Rider; Oats; approach is not designed to make savings, Slams; Doer; Tube; Tiree; Inert; Temperate. The programme was and pay will not be taken away from 19 20 Antiques Road Trip. anyone as a result.

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2012 04 LETTERS Madness in the archive Has the BBC gone mad in its old age? After early sound recordings, if this is what reading about the appalling treatment of Adam Phillips is enquiring about, would Adam Phillips (Letters, October 2012), have most likely ended up on shellac discs enquiring about his Grandpa’s wife, I could and then vinyl discs and kept. As the years hardly believe what I was reading. In fact I rolled by, the substantial amount of these would say that whoever was responsible for that survived ended up in the BBC’s Archives sending this out ought to be sacked, what at Windmill Road. One of the last projects I utter rubbish! was involved with was getting all these discs I retired from working at the BBC Archives over to Maida Vale Studios to be digitised when it was at Windmill Road back in 2006 onto newer formats. So, if any recording/s where I had been working for about nine years. had been made of the programme of which Quite often in response to outside Adam speaks, then this is where I suspect enquiries, I would be only to pleased to they could have been found. A step too far look into requests like this one from Adam Had I still been working at the Archives Phillips and if at all possible hunt down and this enquiry had found its way to me, Claire Simpson felt compelled to write today, to describe fabulous string sections – whatever was being enquired about. So in I am sure I could have found out one way to Prospero after reading an article in the though I understand that it is no longer used my BBC book back then there were no or the other if such a recording still existed. July issue, which referred to the BBC’s in present-day BBC orchestral contracts. such words as ‘cannot do’, which the letter Having said that, I still have some people I orchestras as ‘performing groups’. It is a pity that no-one has yet found a Adam Phillips received would seem to state could approach for an enquiry to be made How to demean the great art of music substitute for this degrading expression. quite rudely. on Adam’s behalf. If Adam thinks I might and a lifetime dedication of hard work and Please let us retain dignity, respect and It is now commonly known that until be able to help resolve this for him, please discipline of the fine musicians who bring status, in the language we use, for this relatively recently the BBC had no archival ask him to email me with as much detail it to life. highest art in our culture; remembering policy as such, and that it was only in more as he can give me about the programme/s From ‘A Jewel in the Crown of the BBC’ always the countless people whose lives have recent times that the BBC suddenly realised featuring his Grandpa’s wife and I will see (1981) to an anonymous ‘performing group’ been transformed for the better because of it. the importance of retaining long term all what I can do. (2012). Claire Simpson types of formats. So back in the early to Alan Robinson A term which could equally well apply to middle 1950s, anything recorded, whether it a group of performing seals! Roger Wright, Controller, BBC Radio 3 and Director, had been by sound or film, would have been We put Alan in touch with Adam, who replied to say: Such is the demise of outstanding and BBC Proms, replies: The phrase ‘performing groups’ is retained sometimes just by pure chance or if Please accept my appreciation to Prospero for passing unique orchestras. only used to describe the BBC orchestras and the BBC it had some technical value as something to on my query. Unfortunately, I eventually managed to And what of the great and not so great Singers, BBC Symphony Orchestra Chorus and the be referred to later. Most programmes went locate an old, but still relevant, contact who discovered conductors of the world. How are they to be BBC National Chorus of Wales. To refer solely to the out live so no recordings were ever made that no recordings existed of the material for which I spoken of? Are they perhaps ‘performance BBC orchestras does a disservice to our choirs. of them. Having said that, a vast amount of was searching. Shame, but that’s life. directors’? Or maybe ‘performance director Otherwise we refer to the BBC orchestras as a Number 1 Group’ – or Number 3 or 4! group or with their individual titles. I hope this To our shame and in our ignorance, the explains this purely practical term which we use to abhorrent term ‘rank and file’ still exists describe all of our groups. Confused time traveller Colin Pierpoint, like Dr Who (Letters, October I THINK THAT Colin Pierpoint is mistaken Falling standards The longest serving 2012) is a confused time traveller. Pebble in his letter in the October issue of Prospero. Mill had not been built in 1967 and the Pebble Mill did not open until 1971. part 2 staff member Dr Who recording could not have taken I visited the site last month. It was I concur with Chris Cherry’s comments Well done John Walch for reaching 68 and place there at that time. demolished a few years back and only a pile in Prospero (Letters, October 2012). I was still being employed by the Beeb. I hope he’s As a member of the staff of BBC Radio of rubble remains. I enclose some photos about to write on this subject because I was not full time. Birmingham, now Radio WM, I remember of what is left. (see below.) dismayed with the audio part of the recent I see ‘he has no immediate plans to retire’ clearly being one of the first occupants in 1970. Keith Rider church service for April Jones. – why is he still there when most of us go at Martin Henfield I fully appreciate that this was something 65, if not before? which was organised very quickly, but the His advice to a younger person audio was far below BBC standards. The vicar considering a career as a BBC engineer is ‘go was provided with a radio mic, which was for it!’ Ha! I’m sure they would if he’d get fine when she addressed the congregation, out of the way! but her channel was left open so you could People of his age should move over, hear her discussing private matters and nose especially when so many young people are blowing etc. out of work. In contrast, the voices of those people Dave Johnstone speaking at the lectern (including the Bishop of Bangor) seemed to be conveyed from a THANK YOU VERY much for the paper, mic some distance away from the speaker, and which I enjoy receiving every time. included echoes. With regards the article in the October I can only assume that PPMs (Peak issue, ‘The longest serving member’, I have Programme Meters) – which in my time were no wish to draw attention to myself or to always used to ensure the correct audio levels – steal anyone’s thunder but it depends how are no longer available or used. you measure longevity. Peter S Pearson I regard myself as a member of BBC staff as I am PAYE but work part time at BH WHEN CHANGING CHANNELS or London, sort of ‘on call’ as an SM on Radio 3. programmes, one needs to have the remote I took early retirement in about 2000 but Pebble Mill site. handy for frequent adjustment. Some films have been back whole or part time ever you need to almost turn the volume up since. I joined BBC staff in July 1962 and so to maximum. In the old analogue times, passed 50 years this July. Numbers given to sound and vision quality were vetted by staff on starting appear to be chronological Patience Collier BBC transmitter engineers. Sadly, with all so are a good guide. No doubt, still being I am writing a book about the actress Patience Collier (1910-1987) who had a long career in transmitters being sold to private companies full time, John in your article will have done radio and TV. At the moment I’m researching her early radio career. A friend of mine, Thena and then the switch to digital transmission, a lot more days work than me so, as I say, it Kendall, a former broadcaster (the In Touch programme) has suggested that placing an ad those days have gone, seemingly forever. Are depends how you measure it! in Prospero might be an excellent way of tapping memories of her broadcasting work, and what studio staff asleep? By the way, I was on your front page some it was like to work with her. If you have any information, please get in touch with me Cliff Whittingham years ago about my voluntary work at the at [email protected] Kelvedon Hatch ‘secret’ nuclear bunker. Vanessa Morton (Dr) Robin Cherry

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2012 LETTERS 05 Speedking Compressing Music library I have been trying for years to find a way to get a copy of a film I was the recordist on sound levels and Yalding House which won me a BAFTA for ‘Excellence in I must say that Chris Cherry’s letter about the craft of film sound’, to no avail. It was falling standards in the BBC regarding sound With reference to Pat Holmes’ letter about neatly catalogued, called Speedking, and starred Robert Hardy as levels and the lack of control is very poignant. the music library, I worked there in Yalding inventoried and Sir Malcolm Campbell, Eleanor Quick and His comments should be expanded to House from 1964 until 1978. bagged, was stored Jack Gardner and many other well known cover most broadcasters and especially those During that period the library continued in giant bookcases actors at the time. Why is there no way for received by satellite. to run as Pat remembered it. Those were the filling two large retired BBC staff to access programmes they Feeding the TV sound into the hi-fi a few days when each of us was issued with a clean rooms. It was said have worked on and gained awards for? weeks ago proved to be the final straw. My linen towel every week, and there were fish to be the largest Colin March wife was forever telling me to turn it down. knives in the canteen! collection of The extra fidelity provided by my aged but I was fortunate enough to do the buying performing material mellow Wharfedale loudspeakers made the for the library towards the end of my in the world and BBC shop reply situation worse. time there. It was the biggest library of it was certainly In answer to Angela Bird’s letter in the However, I have an answer. For a sub-£100 performing arts in the world, and we used to the envy of many a October issue, I obtained a pensioner’s pass, outlay I now have a stereo compressor and lend out music unavailable anywhere else to conductor and orchestra administrator. with photo, once the BBC decided to allow limiter connected between the TV and the hi-fi. non-BBC music groups and orchestras. It was After eight years in television, organising them, and I can gain access to the shop Purists may cringe, but this has given a fascinating place to work and I got to meet and administering the music library there, I inside TVC. me a working solution to the problem in a Sir William Walton, Janet Baker, Elizabeth returned to Yalding House as assistant music But is seems that this will now be useless, domestic environment. Poston and many others. librarian, second to John H Davies FLA, according to the article in the same issue, Carefully set up, it steps back and merely The library staff were just as interesting, who was at once the strictest and the most ‘Access to BBC buildings’. As I took early observes on the quieter channels, but when often ex-members of the orchestras, world understanding boss I ever knew. Under his retirement in 1994, I know nobody with fed with a louder channel or advert, the specialists in a particular musical field, leadership the library grew into a focal point whom I could enter a building as a guest. compressor gently copes. During frenzied or retired soloists, well known in their for music making, not only within the BBC but My only reason for wishing to enter BBC broadcasts the peak limiter kicks in, only own right. throughout the music-making industry. Later, premises was to visit the shop. I don’t want noticeable by observing the indicator lights. It was the best part of my working career when I had become a producer, I found the to do this online. Since the BBC closed the The loudness laws being introduced in and I remember the library with great library a most useful resource in programme shop in Margaret Street, TVC seemed to be America may filter over into Europe as new affection. I am still in touch with a number planning and building. So where is it all now? the only option. shows made under these new regimes are of people from those days. I too would like One of the nice things about Prospero is I can’t understand why the shop is not imported, but I regret to say that I expect my to know whether the library still exists in that one is constantly reminded of one’s situated in the foyer of TVC, Media City or purchase to be a long-term investment. any form, and, if not, where that enormous Beeb days by seeing familiar names at elsewhere, where retired staff and members of Bob Allison collection has gone. the foot of the letters, and I actually the public could access it. A security scanner Caroline Dewdney Hayes knew five correspondents in the last could be installed at the entrance to the shop issue personally. These included both Pat if the Corporation is jittery about visitors. Join Film Club MY CURIOSITY WAS aroused by Pat Holmes’ Holmes (then Elphick) and Diane Ward, Jennifer Fry Before I get to the main point, it was nice to letter in the October issue and I too would both from music library days. Pat was one see Pat Elphick’s name in Prospero as I used to be interested to know where the BBC music of the most dedicated and enthusiastic work with her at Yalding House. library is situated and how it is administered members of the issue staff and Diane was 200 Oxford Street Seeing the item about BBC Film Club in this age of minimal ‘live’ music. a tower of strength in the music copying Oxford Street closed at breakfast time on (October, Prospero), I thought I’d let people The remaining house orchestras all need section, along with her senior copyist, 31 October 1957. I was a studio manager there know about my 49 years in film – including library support of course, especially the BBC an ex-Guards bandsman named Jack Lugg, but was about to transfer to BBC Scotland. My the 20 since I left the BBC volunteering for Symphony with its Proms responsibilities, who hand copied music with a clarity night shift on the 30th was my last duty at 200. the Ealing Video and Film Makers Group. but what else remains? and accuracy that was admired by all who That evening the huge Oxford Street closing To say I’ve enjoyed myself would be an My life in the BBC actually began in the used his skills. party was held in the ground floor canteen. understatement. I have been involved in music library in the early 50s, working Such was the support this wonderful It was supposed to end at 9.30pm but people scores of films that have won awards all mainly as an orchestral librarian. In those library afforded in those days. drifted down to the basement studios till over the world, and I have seen films made days the collection of orchestral material, John Meloy well after midnight. At 8am transmission was for the love of it that would not shame a switched from Oxford Street to Bush House, professional film studio with all their money. BBC PENSIONERSʼ ASSOCIATION and that was the end. Incidentally, for Margaret The club meets on Friday nights (7pm Etall, Peter Robinsons came in when the BBC for 7.30pm). If anyone is interested, please An independent organisation operating in the interests of BBC Pensioners vacated the building. contact me via email (famousneville@ A day or two later I joined BBC Scotland gmail.com) or call 020 8992 9137 / For nearly 25 years as one of two studio managers based at 07773970431. I warn you: being involved BBCPA has worked to protect Aberdeen. No television then, the total staff with film and film-making is addictive, and I YOUR BBC PENSION numbered 27. A whole new world! speak from 49 years’ experience! Please Join Us! Bruce Goddard Neville Withers Pensions have never been so important. The strength of your association lies in the strength of its membership. Jubilee bits not The committee can best work to safeguard BBC retirement incomes if you join your shown former colleagues in BBCPA. I am sure the television schedules for Individual annual subscription £10.00 Christmas and New Year are already cast in Joint annual subscription £15.00 stone, but I (and many others to whom I Life membership (over 80) £50.00 have spoken) should be delighted if room JOIN NOW AND YOUR ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION could be found for a programme featuring John Peel Wing WILL APPLY TO THE YEAR FROM MAY 2013 all the bits we didn’t see of the Thames It was with sadness, that I read in Prospero (CHEQUES PAYABLE TO BBCPENSIONERSʼASSOCIATION) Please complete the slip below or visit the website: Diamond Jubilee Pageant. October that the new wing of Broadcasting I am told that short features on each of House is to be renamed, from Egton to John www.bbcpa.org.uk © A. Barber the Dunkirk boats were made – and paid for. Peel Wing. Egton was the name of the old Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms FIRST NAME (as known at the BBC) SURNAME The various orchestras, choirs and bands on building that stood on the site for well over each of their barges were recorded – and 70 years. For over 40 years, it was the home paid for. Perhaps we could hear the church of the Gramophone Record Library, while BBC PENSION NO. DATE OF BIRTH bells responding to the bells on their barge. Radio 1 only used it for a short time. It is Perhaps we could also see the Royal Barge also wrong, at this time, to rename it, while ADDRESS passing through Tower Bridge. It would be a Jimmy Saville, John Peel and maybe others at POSTCODE very cheap programme as it has all been paid Radio 1 are all in the press. Bring back Egton for, bar a knowledgeable presenter. Wing, you are safe with that name. TEL. NO. EMAIL: Mark Rowlinson Peter F Simpson Please return this slip and cheque to: BBCPA, PO Box 230, Alton GU34 9AR PROSPERO DECEMBER 2012 06 retired staff ACCESS None shall pass… An end to retired staff access?

The article in October’s issue of Prospero about the BBC’s plans to end the current retired staff pass system from March next year led to a flood of letters and emails to the editorial team. We asked Paul Greeves, Director of Workplace and Safety, to respond to the letters – which we have published in this special feature.

have read carefully the letters and and I will also discuss with them a system emails that have been sent to Prospero where if retired staff wish to visit a building, and directly to me in response to perhaps to eat in the canteen or show around the announcement about ending a small number of friends, this can also be Iunrestricted access to BBC buildings for arranged by appointment. retired staff, and I entirely understand the I understand that this decision is depth of feeling, disappointment and anger disappointing to retired staff, many of that this decision has provoked. whom have given long and faithful service Firstly I would like to emphasise that this to the organisation and continue to support really is not about any idea that pensioners and contribute to it. It is not our intention or other retired staff represent any particular to alienate or undermine that if we can threat or risk in themselves. I am not possibly avoid it, and I am committed to aware of any serious incidents of threats to working with the Association to find sensible broadcast or security involving retired staff compromises, but our first duty must be to in recent times. the security of our output, our audiences and This decision is necessary because of our current staff. changes to our buildings, our ways of Paul Greeves working and our systems, which leave us So for all these reasons we need to control by retired staff, in the hope that the impact Director of Workplace and Safety increasingly vulnerable. Our newer buildings, access to our buildings much more tightly of this change will be minimised. From particularly those in Glasgow, Salford and and have greater visibility of who is in April next year the Television Centre and the London W1, are much more open and them, and we are introducing a range of White City One buildings will be closed, collaborative than in the past, with larger and measures to achieve that. These include along with their clubs and restaurants. The more diverse groups of staff sharing flexible campaigns to encourage staff to wear their only club in London will be the West One spaces. Gone are the days when individual ID visibly and challenge those who don’t, Club, which has its own entrance, and the teams in their own areas, all known to each and to take greater responsibility for their only other clubs inside buildings will be in other, would easily spot a stranger. We also guests in the buildings. We are making more Bristol, Plymouth and Southampton where now have much more live broadcasting use of our card-controlled entry systems at we will continue to allow access. In New coming from these shared spaces and the entrances, and within buildings we are Broadcasting House there will be two cafes that has to be protected from disruption. tightening up our card issue process with open to the public, which retired staff Furthermore we increasingly rely on IT movers, leavers and joiners, and we will be can use. systems for production, output and business introducing new technology to link entry I also want to stress that it is not our functions and these too have to be protected more closely to individuals. Regrettably, intention here to exclude retired staff from so that, for example, our audience personal tightening unrestricted access for retired our buildings. We value the relationship data is properly safeguarded. Finally, and staff and the ending of the current retired with former staff and we want to enable somewhat ironically, we want these buildings staff pass system is necessary to support these continued involvement, including in our to be more accessible to our audiences and other measures. buildings – albeit in a more controlled the public generally, and that requires that We have deliberately chosen to introduce way. Therefore, I have agreed to meet the we have much greater control over and this change to coincide with the closure Pensioners’ Association again to explore how certainty about who is on the secure side of a number of our larger buildings and retired staff can be given unrestricted access of the line. facilities that are the ones mostly visited to buildings if they have a particular need,

The response from the BBC Pensioners’ Association At one of the Association’s regular meetings and although receptionists at some buildings perceived dangers and that ID passes Entwistle before his resignation suggesting with BBC management, we were saddened have recently not recognised and honoured could be faked by unscrupulous people on the policy should be re-thought. to be told of the withdrawal of the retired the passes, on the whole the scheme the Internet. He said the BBC values the Paul Greeves confirmed in a subsequent staff identity pass scheme – just a few has worked well. As far as we know, no relationship with its former staff, but times letter to me that social entry will only be days before the announcement appeared pensioner has ever caused a security have changed and access needs to be more permitted if someone on the staff signs in Prospero. problem. So it’s not surprising that at the tightly controlled. people in, but that some kind of access card The Association negotiated the retired Association’s recent regional meetings, Arguments about corporate safety system might be arranged for pensioners photo ID scheme in 2002 with Stephen our members responded to the news of fears are, of course, difficult to refute. Paul with good ‘business’ reasons to be on Dando, the then Head of Human Resources. the withdrawal of the arrangements with delivered them in a courteous and reasoned BBC premises. We welcome this and other This was at a time when the IRA bomb a mixture of resignation and anger. Other manner and we thanked him for that. possible concessions, provided that the at TVC and terrorist atrocities elsewhere organisations, they said, might throw up the However, the committee were sceptical arrangements can be flexible, uncomplicated forced a tightening of security. However, he barricades against ex-staff entry but they about the reasons for the changes and put and easy to make. understood the value that retired staff can thought the BBC was different. up a strong resistance. While recognising the We will be meeting Paul early in 2013. bring to the BBC and that they like to visit In breaking the news to us, Paul Greeves, BBC is, of course, free to do what it likes, Meanwhile, to help us explore this further old colleagues or departments, often at Director of Workplace and Safety, told we asked to be able to discuss things further and to help our negotiations with him, short notice. us only 700 people used their passes for and to explore some kind of compromise. we would be glad to hear from retired Ever since then the ID scheme has entry in the last year. BBC buildings were We set out our position in a letter to Paul. given us a freedom and the feeling of still now even more vulnerable to a variety of The Association also wrote to George staff (whether members of the Association ‘belonging’. Retired staff visit the Club or or not) about why you visit the BBC the canteen or take friends in to show them and to hear your clear views about this around – but some also work formally or “...members responded to the news with issue. So please drop me a line, care of informally with ex-colleagues on projects the Association. or programme ideas. Today, security and a mixture of resignation and anger.” David Allen access is outsourced to Balfour Beatty, Chairman, BBC Pensioners’ Association

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2012 retired staff access 07

After seeing the photo of an inside office of the corridors. Should you be approached by the new Broadcasting House on page 1 of security and be without a valid explanation, the October issue of Prospero, and reading the your pass would be permanently confiscated. report of Andy Griffee’s presentation of the It was decided that only current employees West One (W1) Project on page 3, it gave me and accredited contractors will be given enormous relief to come to page 12 and read unrestricted access. I repeat that we were that I am no longer to be allowed in. never given unrestricted access as I have Jack Chatterley already mentioned. It comes to a painful point that we It was with great sadness I read your article could be regarded, irrespective of what ‘Access to BBC buildings’, although it went Mr Paul Greeves has said, as a security some way to explain the frosty reception threat to the BBC and staff. I end this I received at my recent visit to Television item of correspondence with a profound Centre with a friend to attend a pre-booked disappointment after I consider that I worked BBC Club quiz night! for the BBC for 37 years! But I hope that It may not have been intended to be some reconsideration could take place! offensive to suggest that retired BBC staff Arthur Lincoln pose a security threat, but, I am afraid, I was most disappointed to read of the As the holder of a retired staff pass, how it is; particularly to those of us who change in policy with regard to retired staff reassuring to know that the old firm has worked at the BBC during the late 70s and and access to BBC buildings. a department called Workplace and Safety. early 80s when bomb threats and actual One always thought that there was And that its director, Paul Greeves, states terrorist incidents became an almost something special about the organisation, and ‘The BBC welcomes the continued everyday happening. when I was offered such a pass it proved the contact and involvement with retired I am afraid this is yet another example point and that this extra ‘family feeling’ justified staff’. Excellent! of the slow demise of the BBC family and declining offers of increased remuneration Although I note his department is no of the kudos associated with being a part from the commercial side of the business. longer going to allow unrestricted access of the greatest broadcasting organisation The opportunity to ‘drop in’ once or twice to retired staff who hold passes to BBC in the world; over the years it has been like a year to remember the feeling of being premises. He states: ‘The BBC’s key watching an old friend slowly dying. These involved and to discuss and perhaps give responsibilities have to be to maintain days long service is almost a dirty expression helpful information on things from the past broadcast continuity, provide a safe and and this is probably less about security and is surely of benefit to everyone. secure working environment for working more about the perceived extra attention I could support the idea that the pass is employees, protect its interests and retain pensioners may need. Personally, to suggest only valid for the actual individual and not to the trust of the audiences.’ Quite right too! retired members of staff are any more risk guests. Surely those who gave their working It horrifies me to think how the trust than current staff is hurtful and ignores the lives of 30 or 40 years are of no more risk to of the audience would disappear overnight loyalty, dedication and frankly love for the security now than they ever were. In fact they if they were to discover a bunch of perishing Corporation, its ethics and ethos that those It seems that the concept of any BBC loyalty are probably less so. penshes were getting free access to some old staff felt and which went a long way to retired staff has vanished without trace. All I do hope that this new decision will of this country’s most vulnerable buildings. towards what made the BBC what it used to because the right we had as ex-BBC staff to be reversed. I think we all know what a public outcry be, a reliable truth and a cornerstone of the sign in to BBC premises has been taken away. John Crane there would be. Not to mention the health British way of life and reputation. Perhaps, Always, these decisions are taken on and safety risk implicit with a bunch of there is no place for such fervour and sense what seems, on the face of it, quite sensible I was very saddened to read in your unfettered retirees roaming the corridors, of belonging in the modern, short term, here arguments. It seems that these arguments are latest issue that retired staff passes are to losing their false teeth, dribbling on today gone tomorrow idiom of employment logical and clear in a simplistic way but the be withdrawn next March and I am not painted studio floors perhaps, even taking but, it is more than a shame that the underlying basis for them is very unclear, convinced by the arguments put forward by a nap in the Mastermind chair and/or Corporation feels it has to cast off its family when a deeper, and I think more sinister, Paul Greeves, Director of Workplace and Safety. getting their beige anoraks caught in the and indeed its responsibility of welfare meaning is brought to our thinking. It’s a I cannot think how we can pose a threat security doors. and support for those loyal, proud retired weird logic that forgets where and how we to the security or safety to BBC people, It don’t bear thinking about. But all this staff by not even letting them get a sandwich relate, interact and think of each other in buildings and systems as mentioned in and worse could happen if the old system in the canteen unless someone holds society as a whole. your article. If we had wanted in any way of entry by showing your pass were to their hand! It’s not just the BBC – the larger to sabotage any of these elements, I am sure continue. And just imagine the reaction I urge those who made this decision companies, the banking system, the present we would have found a way during our long if one or two rogue oldsters managed to to please reconsider and if it is a question government and many other areas seem to years’ dedicated service. gatecrash a hit show such as Strictly Come of identification, devise a better and more be doing the same. In the name of sensible Have retired staff been wandering around Dancing and reveal their wrinkly old secure means than the simple photo ID card decision making it prevents us being able production areas? I can’t imagine they have faces or worse, win it! It’s too awful to retired staff have been given. to feel free. It is, in what I think is more been doing this, but – if they have – why not contemplate. Still it might take the heat Nigel Mullenger sinister, a way of controlling us. A seemingly write to us and tell us where we’re allowed off the ‘Savile’ thing for a bit. straightforward argument is used to get to go and what we’re allowed to do? Paul Cole what amounts in the end to a ‘nothing to do All I do when I visit is to head to the PS: anybody want to buy a pass? “To suggest retired with us’ mentality, more money for larger Club to pick up my Radio Times, perhaps meet bonuses, less real hands-on responsibility. someone for coffee or lunch, perhaps buy I was saddened to read in the October members of staff are I don’t quite know how to tackle this something in the BBC Shop. How am I to issue of Prospero that from next March question of BBC retired staff access, but was achieve this if I’m not allowed in? It’s no access to all BBC premises would be any more risk than thinking of the way we are brought up by good saying we can ask ex-colleagues to sign denied to retired staff members holding our parents to understand a basic moral us in – as time goes by, more of them have retired passes. current staff sense and also loyalty to an idea of what left and, in any case, I don’t think they’d be I decided that I would like to take a last we are. In this case, I think in its widest very pleased to be interrupted in this way. nostalgic visit to Television Centre and a is hurtful…” sense, still part of The British Broadcasting Retirement has brought a few pleasures, drink in the Club before it closes. Corporation. We have all spent quite a few this is one of them. Please don’t take it away. Presenting myself at TVC reception on years growing up in the BBC and learnt Anna Cassar 19 October, I was informed that the I have just received Prospero and discover that much of what it represented to the audience entry with retired passes was now no history is repeating itself. and to each other. longer allowed. But as a club member I We BBC pensioners well know it took a As such, to be shut out, even though we “Retirement has could visit the club but my wife who was long time with protracted negotiations to don’t go back ‘home’ much, can be a bitter accompanying me could not. So sadly we have the retired staff passes restored. I read psychological blow to many of us. It is more brought a few had to leave the building. the article several times and each time it than a rejection: it is a denial of all that we This felt like a final insult from a once seemed worse. were taught to believe in, and the so-called pleasures, this is one well-respected employer. When we were first issued with the National Broadcaster should think itself If, as you state in Prospero, we are to be passes, it was with the understanding that ashamed. It is this action that goes to the of them. Please don’t banned from all premises from next March, the holder of the aforesaid would visit BBC heart of what, perhaps, the BBC has become. why did I suffer this humbling dismissal buildings with restaurant facilities and that I hope not. take it away.” in October? on no account must the holder wander in Albert Barber Colin Jones

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2012 08 BBCPA memory bank Memory Bank project: holding a mirror up to the BBC?

The recent allegations about Jimmy Savile have shocked those of us who love the BBC and wish it well. For those of us who enjoyed long careers at the BBC the shock is even more profound. We are tainted. This happened on our watch. The past is not as golden as we like to remember it.

t is vital for the BBC that we know what Our approach is two-fold: firstly, an really happened and more significantly essentially narrative paper-based approach “...reconnecting with its past may be an how it was allowed to happen. The in which everybody can take part who has evidence of ex-staff will be of critical a story they wish to tell, and secondly, an important by-product of the inquiry...” Iimportance to the inquiry to be led by Dame online, electronic database approach which Janet Smith. The BBC Pensioners’ Association will allow the information we collect to be (BBCPA) fully supports the inquiry and searched and interrogated. Eventually the post address is FREEPOST RSLK-CGKR-XEAG, encourages all its members who have two approaches will be merged with material PO Box 230, Alton Hants GU34 9AR or you information to step forward: information gathered on paper being entered into can email us at [email protected]. is needed not only about the specific the database. uk with your account attached. allegations but more generally about the Like all good stories, we decided to start For those members without access to the culture and practices of the time. at the beginning. In January we invited Internet, we are preparing a booklet with Part of the past success of the BBC Association members and non-members to edited highlights which will go out with our arises from its ability to reinvent itself as write an account of how they came to join newsletter at the end of the year. circumstances and technology change. the BBC: what put the idea into their head, However, this talent carries with it the risk who influenced them, how they coped with Triumphs and disasters of losing touch with its past or seeing the interviews, boards and shorthand tests, their The BBCPA’s December newsletter will have access to the web, or feel that filling in past as of little relevance. In contrast, for first impressions of the Corporation and the invite you to write about aspects of your online forms is not for them, we hope to a number of years, the BBCPA has taken experience of their first job. What we are BBC career, no matter where you worked recruit volunteers to do this work on their an increasing interest in documenting the looking for is detail and the telling anecdote. or what you did. ‘Triumphs and disasters’ behalf. This is also where we might hope careers of its members under the heading The response has been very good. Many is the theme. Over the years there has been to involve the BBC pension visitors to help of the ‘Memory Bank’ project. members have commented on how much no shortage of both at the BBC, as currently us find people who want to tell individual We have argued that it would be helpful they have enjoyed the process of writing we are so well aware. Again it is detail that is stories or have their careers remembered. to the BBC to share this interest for many up their accounts. Many commented that important: the private triumphs and disasters We have access to a number of digital audio reasons, but particularly in relation to the they were surprised how much they could as well as the corporate ones. We welcome recorders small enough to post to volunteers, retention of knowledge and the input remember once they put their mind to it. contributions from all ex-BBC staff, not just so it should be possible to gather the ex-staff can make to the development and Our membership secretary, who claims to our members. information in the form of an interview or opening up of the archives. Now, suddenly, have read (almost) everything that has come A paper-based approach has got us started conversation, which can be transcribed later. as a result of these and other allegations, back to us, has been particularly impressed on our Memory Bank project. However, We hope our collection of personal followed by the resignation of the director with the accounts of the Youths in Training in the digital age when a mountain of reminiscences will sit happily alongside and general, it seems the BBC will be forced to or YiTs who joined the BBC as 16-year- information threatens to engulf us, retrieval link into other online collections about BBC look back at itself and very critically indeed. olds during the war and made a significant is as important as acquisition. The ability to activities, such as ex-bbc.net and VT Old Not everything it will find will be bad. contribution to the BBC’s war effort. A tale find what you are looking for is crucial. This Boys. In the long term, as the BBC opens Most of it should be a source of pride. In which, as others have noted, has yet to brings us to the second aspect of our project. up its archive, we hope to link the Memory fact, reconnecting with its past may be an be told. The Association is developing a prototype Bank with BBC initiatives such as the important by-product of the inquiry and All the 300 accounts have now been web-based software application based on Genome Project, which itself aims to something which may help the BBC recover scanned and lightly edited for taste and MediaWiki (a form similar to Wikipedia) create a comprehensive, easy-to-use online from the damage the allegations decency, and by December we hope to have a that will allow us to begin to record personal catalogue of all of the BBC’s programmes have inflicted. first batch available to read in the members’ histories and memories in an orderly fashion as recorded in Radio Times, from its first area of our website at www.bbcpa.org.uk. initially via our website, and make them edition onwards. Unofficial staff history There will be an opportunity to comment available and searchable online. The BBC has a commitment to record Put simply, our project sets out on a long on what you read and to add further However, we have to learn to walk before its own history. It employs a professional road to create an unofficial staff history of information. If you are inspired to send us we can run, so we have been testing the pilot historian to produce the official or the BBC based on the memories of all those your account of how you joined the BBC we to make sure we have created the correct institutional history of the BBC. Professor Asa who worked there in whatever capacity. would be delighted to receive this. The free structure in which to store the memories Briggs was the first and Professor Jean Seaton and related details. Later we can publish is the current BBC historian. However, Jean’s them openly on the web for everyone to view – expressed at one of our meetings – is see. In this way the information will remain that an unofficial, personal, anecdotal history available in various ways for a long time. from all levels in the organisation can cover Once we have completed the first phase of subjects never tackled by a top down, official the pilot we will commission some changes history. It can often get to more of the truth to the software to ensure it is easy to use. about custom, culture and practices. Initially just BBCPA members will be able to We hope to launch our Wiki well in time create their personal entries. Later on we will for our AGM in April. In the meantime, we be opening the project up to all ex-BBC staff hope you take up the challenge of writing and contributors. about your triumphs and disasters at the BBC. As indicated above it’s very important we If you are interested in volunteering to collect not just the memories of people who record some interviews for the project or to worked directly on programmes but all the help in other ways, please contact us. other staff as well – transmission engineers, If you would like to join the BBC cleaners, receptionists, you name the job. Pensioners’ Association there is an Everyone has stories to tell and each one of application form on page 5. By joining those memories adds a little bit more to the before Christmas you will enjoy four wider history of the BBC. months’ free membership with nothing further to pay until May 2014. Audio recorders George Auckland and Nick Whines Our longer-term plan is that people will also Email: [email protected] be able to add images, audio and videos to Write to us: BBCPA, PO Box 230, their pages. For those people who do not Alton, Hants GU34 9AR

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2012 Memories 09 The collapse of Emley Moor CONTACTS Visiting Scheme If you would like a visit or information on how to become a volunteer visitor, please television mast ring 0845 712 5529. You will be charged at the local rate. What is the link between the Emley Moor television mast that famously collapsed in 1969 and a small Queries Huddersfield sailing club? The answer might surpriseProspero readers, writes Roger Dowling. For benefit and pension payroll queries, call the Service Line on 029 2032 2811.

Erected in 1956, the 385m (1,265ft) mast transmission cable to a height of 2,000ft,’ Prospero To add or delete a name from the distribution near the tiny village of Emley in Yorkshire he helpfully suggested. In the event, the ITA list, ring the Service Line on 029 2032 2811. provided ITV 405-line pictures and the new rapidly transported an emergency mast to Prospero is provided free of charge to retired 625-line BBC2 transmissions for much of the site, restoring pictures for many local BBC employees. On request, we will also the north region. My family lived only a few viewers after four days. BBC Manchester send it to spouses or dependants who want miles away, so the mast was a prominent erected a temporary aerial on an outside to keep in touch with the BBC. Prospero is sight on the skyline. I often marvelled that broadcast eagle tower to get BBC2 back on also available on audio disc for those with such a slender structure could remain aloft. the air after a couple of days. sight impairment. A steel cylindrical tube 2.75m (9ft) in Today, a magnificent tapering free- To register, please ring the Service Line. diameter, the mast was supported by steel standing concrete tower provides digital BBC Club guy wires which stretched over nearby roads. BBC and ITV pictures throughout Yorkshire The BBC Club in London has a In winter, large chunks of ice would fall to and the surrounding counties. Erected in retired category membership costing the ground. A Methodist chapel beneath the 1971 and nowadays owned and operated £30 a year or £39 a year for family stays regularly needed repairs as ice crashed by Aquiva, it stands some 330m (1,084ft) membership. Pre-1997 life members are through the roof. It was not a good place to in height and is the tallest self-supporting not affected. Regional clubs may have be on a harsh winter’s day. structure in the UK. It became a Grade II different arrangements. The weather in March 1969 was listed building in 2002. And what is the Please call BBC Club London administration office on 020 8752 6666 particularly bad – station engineers link between the ill-fated mast and the or email [email protected] afterwards described it as the worst they had Huddersfield Sailing Club? The club needed ever experienced. On the fateful day of an observation tower for observing races Benevolent Fund 19 March 1969, ice could be heard crashing on the adjacent lake. As luck would have it, This is funded by voluntary contributions around the transmitter buildings, and the one of its club members – club commodore from the BBC and its purpose is to protect staff prudently kept adjacent roads closed Roger Molyneux – was engineer and the welfare of staff, pensioners and their families. Grants are made at the discretion in the interests of safety. At 5.02pm, with surveyor to the local council responsible for of the Trustees. They may provide a noise ‘heard for miles’ according to The clearing the debris from the site. A deal was assistance in cases of unforeseen financial Huddersfield Examiner, the mast crashed to done, and the only two undamaged sections hardship, for which help from other sources the ground. of the mast were transported a few miles to is not available. Telephone: 029 2032 3772. It was a miracle that no-one was hurt. form the centrepiece of the club building. Prospero Society Had the roads not been closed, a school bus ‘It’s proved absolutely ideal for the job,’ Prospero Society is the only section of the packed with schoolchildren would have enthused club member Allan Brooks. ‘And it BBC Club run by and for retired BBC staff been parked next to the chapel. The chapel has given Huddersfield Sailing Club a and their spouses. Its aim is to enable BBC was less fortunate: a guy wire sliced through very unusual claim to fame.’ pensioners to meet on a social basis for it ‘like a knife through butter’. Sections Roger Dowling was engineer-in-charge at BBC theatre visits, luncheons, coach outings etc. of the mast narrowly missed most of the North in Leeds in the 1970s. He was later Head of Prospero is supported by BBC Club funds transmitter buildings, though a new BBC Programme Services and Engineering in Manchester. so as to make events affordable. transmitter hall was completely demolished. The only conditions (apart from paying Although the loss of BBC2 was serious a small annual subscription) are that you for the BBC, the collapse of the mast was a must be a BBC pensioner and a member of disaster for ITV, which lost all its income- the BBC Club. For an application form write to: Graham Snaith, 67 Newberries Avenue, generating television services in the region. Radlett, Herts WD7 7EL. The managing director of Yorkshire TV, Telephone: 01923 855177 Ward Thomas, had the bright idea of Mobile: 07736 169612 commissioning aircraft to circle the area Email: [email protected] beaming the pictures down to the grateful audience. ‘Another possibility would be BBC products a barrage balloon which would hoist a BBC retired staff are entitled to a 30% discount off the RRP of most products in the BBC TV Centre shop. There is a postage charge of £2.95 per order (not per item). Pensioners must quote their BBC pension number when ordering. Contact: BBC Shop, Audience Foyer, Television Centre, Wood Lane, London W12 7RJ. Telephone: 020 8225 8230 Email: [email protected] Other ways to order (quoting your pension number when ordering): By phone: 08700 777 001 8.30am-6pm weekdays. By post: BBC Shop, PO Box 308, Sittingbourne, Kent ME9 8LW. Email: [email protected]. Or visit BBC Shops in Eastbourne, Brighton, Leicester, Birmingham or Liverpool. UK postage £2.45 for telephone, post and email orders. Overseas: £4.50 for one item and £2 for each additional product for telephone, post and email orders. BBC PA For details of how to join the Pensioners’ Association, see panel on page 5.

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2012 10 Memories

Finding a family archive Broadway before Studio B David Walker (whose brother George was a member of the Foreign News staff Bob Stones, a former sound supervisor, wrote in to say that the article in the October issue of from the 60s onwards) is trying to trace Prospero about Wales Today stirred his memories of Broadway before Studio B. some material from a family archive which was given to a BBC producer who then passed it on to the Imperial The studio was an unmodified Sunday school About once a month we did the hour-and- microphone pointing the wrong way and we War Museum. room which was operated by the MCR9 OB a-half play for network live on Thursday had an early interval while we restrung the David writes: ‘In a letter of 1993 crew as a drive-in studio. evening and repeated live on Sunday evening. booms. (It was normal to have an interval from George regarding this archive he Our main broadcasts were Welsh language My problem as sound engineer was the in the middle of the play of about three said, ‘Sadly, all Aunty Lilian’s Great War programmes which were broadcast on the long narrow studio and the lack of acoustic minutes while scenery was reset, so it was a memorabilia – cards from the Front etc national transmitters after 10.30pm, or when treatment. Unless the boom microphone bit longer than usual.) – I gave to a producer turned successful English programmes finished, and Sunday was really close, every lens change was Our drama producer decided our facilities writer on the Great War and she thought morning. heard, as were the creaking floors as cameras were not up to doing a dramatised version them worthwhile enough to give them to Because of the lack of sound insulation, tracked. We only had one experienced boom of Under Milk Wood and took it to Lime Grove, the Imperial War Museum’. we usually broadcast the rattle of the milk operator, and as we usually needed two so we were rather pleased when they had ‘Staff at the Imperial War Museum float and the milkman’s call ‘Milko!’ on booms we had to hire one from London a camera breakdown and were unable to have been trying to locate the archive Sunday mornings. or Bristol. I was always glad when we had complete the transmission. without success, since I am unable to Ifan O Williams (Ivan the Terrible) was Tiny Durham from Lime Grove, as he was so It was normal to derig the studio on provide the name of the donor. This is very good at producing material for his experienced. When there was a call of boom Thursday night, do a football or rugby where Prospero readers may be able to programmes and usually had too much. (in shot), our boom operator would raise the match on Saturday, return to the studio on help. Would anyone have any idea as to On one occasion we had a complete rocket boom, but Tiny was so confident he was in Saturday night, sometimes do a programme that producer’s name? I realise it’s a long which filled the studio, and the half-hour the right place the camera had to move! on Sunday morning and repeat the play on shot, but the last one I’m able to make programme was so interesting that it over- We usually finished a scene on one boom Sunday evening. on this quest.’ ran by an hour and would have gone on while the other moved to the next set. On I can remember some sort of news or If you can help David, please longer if Lime Grove had not called to say we one occasion the moving boom caught the sports programme being done from the scene contact the editorial team at would have to pay for staff taxis if we did not back of the one in use and they were both dock in Broadway in 1956 or 57. Maybe [email protected] finish by midnight. unstrung. The scene was finished with the someone can remember more about this?

Half a century in Aberdeen In 1938 the BBC moved its radio operation in Aberdeen to new premises in Beechgrove Terrace, and in 1962, in order to compete with the recently opened Grampian TV, it was decided to build a small two-camera news studio on the site.

even though the station was often being threatened with closure during the frequent BBC cutbacks. Besides these news items, however, the studio was underused. Though Landward, a new farming series, had begun in 1976 (and is still going strong today), the Beechgrove House 1950s. Anne and Laura Brand rehearsing in TV Studio 1962. studio was considered to be too small, but Beechgrove had one big advantage over the pilot was finally successfully made in 1978, Many other programmes, also utilising the other centres in Scotland. It had a large area followed by another five programmes. Senior gardens, were subsequently made. It was of ground around it, some of which had management had apparently decided that now running out of space, so it was moved been used as allotments during and after that was as far as it would go, but during to a new and bigger site on the outskirts of the war. So why not use it again to make a these six programmes its popularity grew Aberdeen in 1997. gardening programme for Scotland? After to such an extent that it had to continue, In 1988, the Piper Alpha Disaster occurred the idea was initially rejected (one reason and The Beechgrove Garden is still, after 34 years, in the North Sea and once again, as in 1966, being ‘we don’t need one, as there is a as popular as ever. Open Days attracted the station rose to the occasion and was Basil Skinner had worked as a radio maintenance engineer gardening programme on radio already’), a thousands of visitors to the garden. widely admired for the compassionate way at Aberdeen, even before the TV studio was built. Basil, the story was covered. ably assisted by his former colleague Brian Webb, cut the In 2000, sadly, Beechgrove House 50th anniversary cake. and the television studio were demolished after a new modern broadcasting centre On 26 July 1962 the first live transmission, had been built. Today Aberdeen continues a two-minute insert into the Scottish News, to make a considerable contribution was sent over the microwave link to Glasgow. with news and documentaries to all Because there was a shortage of studio the main BBC networks in both radio space in Glasgow at the time, it wasn’t long and television. before the studio was doing a lot more than In August, the Aberdeen staff baked a news, with programmes, such as Religious birthday cake and invited as many former Services and small LE shows, which were staff as could be found to come along quite a challenge to do since the technical to celebrate the 50 years of television facilities were very basic. broadcasting from the station. Many old The studio came into national prominence friendships were renewed (once we had in 1964, when there was the serious recognised each other, of course), and outbreak of typhoid in the city, due, it was everyone had a very enjoyable time and subsequently discovered, to a contaminated appreciated the efforts our Aberdeen friends tin of corned beef! Suddenly it seemed like had made to organise it. most of the world’s reporters had descended Douglas Keown was appointed as senior television on the studio to get their films processed and engineer in 1962 to get the Aberdeen studio up and their reports transmitted. running for the opening in July of that year. He The discovery of oil and gas in the North remained as S.Tel.E. until 1968 when he became Sea kept the newsroom and the studio busy, Beechgrove Open Day. EiC Aberdeen.

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2012 Memories 11 Doing time in HM Prisons… by arrangement with the BBC by Paul Gouldstone

50 years ago, Arthur Koesler and David Astor held a lunch at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Aldwych to form a steering committee to set up what was to become the Koestler Awards. Arthur Koestler’s experiences (of political imprisonment in the Spanish Civil War and of campaigning against the death sentence in Britain) gave him the idea of establishing an annual prize (or prizes) for the best artistic work produced by prisoners who were still incarcerated. He was willing to set aside £400 a year from his royalties for the purpose, in the hope that others would support the venture as time went on...

Soon after BBC Radio Solent came As this was the first time this prison had We enjoyed the ferry trip back to another ex-professional (also a prisoner). on air, we received a request to help record invited a BBC Radio OB Unit on site, a Southampton, with the first Koestler OB This recording won a national award and music, prose and poetry in prisons in prison officer guided me to the education recording awaiting to be topped and tailed was broadcast on BBC Radio Solent during the South of England for the Koestler block by walking alongside my car to an and sent to the BBC representative for a Sunday morning religious programme. Award Scheme. area of grass immediately outside the onward despatch to the Koestler judges. The BBC is no longer involved in the Our first venture in 1972 was to Parkhurst ‘recording studio’. There have now been many BBC engineers recording of these sessions, mainly because Prison on the Isle of Wight, where the ‘Red band’ prisoners were organised involved in Koestler recordings around the UK, of budget cutbacks, but most prisons now prison education officer arranged for to help me unload the car and another and I myself recorded music and poetry in have good quality recording machines on his ‘candidates’ to start rehearsing their prison officer was then detailed to take most of the South Coast prisons over the past site, with either prisoners and/or prison staff contributions well in advance of my OB my car keys and to sit on a chair and look 30 years, even after retirement. trained to produce good technical recordings. recording visit. after my vehicle. These sessions were an eye-opener to me Parkhurst had a well established I had a large number of musicians to in all respects, and the BBC’s name was much education section, where inmates could balance and record, using a separate room respected wherever I went. In fact, I was told learn to play a variety of musical instruments, nearby for my recording area, and I would that the prison staff always looked forward with guidance from local music tutors on invite the prisoners to hear our various to my annual visits – probably as a welcome the Island. recordings on playback to assess their change in their daily routine. On the day in question, I booked my views on their standards and the BBC Volvo onto an early ferry from Southampton recording balance. Cheering and jeering to Cowes and took with me Radio Solent’s Initially, I recorded 10 numbers which Many of the recordings were made in the first manager, Maurice Ennals, as my were timed and logged (because Koestler prison chapels, as these areas had a quiet recording assistant. In those days the drive and the BBC had set a maximum recording environment, but I visited one interesting on/off ferries had only one entrance/exit and time per ‘tune’). establishment in Portsmouth where I was you were turned around by hand-pushed As we were de-rigging, we realised we asked to record in front of a lunchtime turntable on the ferry car-deck! needed a name for this Parkhurst session. audience of inmates, officers and visitors, The education officer’s Christian name with the ‘band’ comprising a mixture of Short sentence was Fred, so this produced the obvious prisoners and officers. I had many retakes as We arrived at the main prison entrance and group name: Fred and the Felons. This was the band was not used to performing with were duly checked in. Our BBC identification accepted with much laughter! a red light on and in front of an audience of passes and my car were checked over in Leaving Parkhurst in the early evening cheering [or even jeering] men and women. detail, and a sniffer dog nosed his way into to catch our ferry home also needed another An interesting recording was made in the all my equipment cases and bags. With a complete check, and I insisted that the Albany Prison on the Isle of Wight, where sly grin, a prison officer said to me: ‘If you boot of my car was checked twice, just I recorded a choir of around 30 inmates speak quickly in here Sir, you will enjoy a in case a short/small prisoner had hidden conducted by an ex-professional musician/ shorter sentence.’ himself away. prisoner and accompanied on the piano by

Going, going… Manchester’s ‘New’ Broadcasting House in Oxford Road, opened by Prime Minister James Callaghan in 1976, will soon be no more than a memory. Following the BBC’s controversial move to Salford, the site has been sold to Reality Estates who plan a £200m development including a hotel, supermarket and flats. It’s also hoped that the plans will include a public space for exhibitions, broadcasts and performances. Little now remains of the main office block on the left and the studio technical areas in the centre. On the far right is a single wall of Studio 7, home of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra since 1980. In the foreground, the outside broadcast base awaits the bulldozers. Roger Dowling

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2012 12 Life after Auntie A small town in the Pas de Calais On a visit to the small walled town of Montreuil-sur-mer in Northern France a statue of Field Marshal Haig aroused the curiosity of Terry Hughes.

erry, a former Panorama producer by his former colleague on the Money Correspondence to Terence Hughes, Director, The and founding editor of the Money Programme, Alan (now Lord) Watson. Expeditionary Trust, 22 Coalecroft Road, London Programme, investigated, and The plan is to develop a permanent SW15 6LP [email protected] discovered the town’s crucial heritage centre at the site of the GHQ, Tsignificance for Britain in the First World working in partnership with the civic War. It was there in 1916 that Haig set up authorities of Montreuil and the Region. his General Headquarters – the command, The Trust proposes to open the Centre in control and supply centre of the largest army 2016, the French providing staff and space, in Britain’s history. the Trust being responsible for research, In Montreuil’s school rooms the GHQ publicity and design. planned the major offensives of the Somme While the Trust is actively seeking and Ypres. Thousands of messages went funds we also need help from two or everyday from the communications hub in three volunteers experienced in research, its medieval Citadel. The scale of supporting fundraising and basic administration. An two million fighting men was staggering: interest in military history would be useful, railways constructed, half a million horses as would a knowledge of French. Surely to be fed, fuel supplied for the tanks and there are at least a couple of qualified Prospero lorries, munitions to be sent daily to the Line readers, based in the South East, happy to and medical services provided. help reveal the untold story of small town To commemorate this enormous that became ‘a little English colony in the enterprise, Terry has formed a charitable Pas-de-Calais’? Communications centre. trust, of which I am a member. It’s chaired Tony Crabb An eventful year for North 3 The restored former BBC TV 1969 colour mobile unit, North 3 (CMCR9), was on display to the public at two steam and veteran vehicle rallies during August. The first one was at Astle Park near Chelford, Cheshire on 11-12 August, and it was a scramble for Steve Harris (the owner) and his helpers to prepare for that one as North 3 was fresh out of the paint spray-shop and there were only a few days to get ready.

The truck had been at the body shop since came to file through the scanner and see January for a major exterior renovation. how OBs were put together 40 years ago. The cab windows had all been out for Shrewsbury is the farthest south that replacement of the windscreens, and the North 3 has been on display so far, and interior had gathered a huge amount of we were pleased to welcome a number dirt during the rubbing-down process. of former staff from Birmingham, Cardiff All the external fittings had been removed and Manchester. North 3 was the Midland for renovation during this process and Unit for most of its operational life, and these had to be re-fitted. Bright window former crew members came to renew surrounds were covered with gunge from their acquaintance with ‘their’ scanner. The the masking tape used during the spraying, visitors’ book is gradually filling up and which could only be removed afterwards by makes interesting reading. careful use of cellulose thinners! Steve was The final North 3 outing for 2012 busy replacing the waist trims all the way was at Salford University at the end of round, right up to the last moment. October, when we were invited to take The weather was excellent for Astle part in an exhibition which formed part of Park and North 3 was gleaming in her the Manchester Science Festival. The unit new paint, which exactly conformed to arrived early on the Friday, in order to give the exhibition through a wall consisting back to Steve Harris’s base near Queensferry the correct colours, the original codes for students at the University Media Centre almost entirely of glass. The location was on the Sunday night. which were still visible, recorded on the cab an opportunity to look round, following just over the road from the BBC’s Dock The truck was running superbly, Steve facia. Visitors flocked to inspect North 3 and a fascinating lecture by Richard Ellis, who House on Salford Quays, and North 3 was having recently fitted a brand new diesel the static display outside. was an engineer at Pye TVT Ltd at the time open for public inspection on the Saturday injector pump. A speed of 56mph was Two broadcast cameras were on display: of the huge BBC contract for nine of these and Sunday. We also had a stand inside achieved on the M56 on the way home. an EMI 2001 and a recently acquired Philips units back in 1969, and later became their the exhibition which was called ‘From Whether the cab sound level was within PC80. A live picture and various other chief engineer. Richard was delighted to see Semaphore to Smart Phone’, demonstrating current health and safety guidelines was sources were available on the functioning the unit again, remarking that it looked just how communications had evolved down the rather doubtful! vision mixer in the production gallery, the same as when he had last set eyes on years. On display we had two large 1970s North 3 has now gone into winter and wipes between sources could be it in the Pye factory 43 years ago. He liked broadcast colour cameras, two smaller hibernation after an eventful year, while demonstrated for the first time. it so much that he brought his wife and more recent ones, a 1970s colour TV and behind the scenes much work takes place Two weeks later North 3 was on show at family, including several grandchildren, on a precision monitor displaying our DVDs, on the power supplies for the sound and Onslow Park as a special guest at the 50th the Sunday! which were also playing on the University’s communications equipment. In the New Year Shrewsbury Steam Rally. By this time the Parked close alongside the University large-screen displays…upscaled to 1080 lines we might hear the distinctive sound of the vehicle was looking just as she did back in of Salford Media Centre, the scanner (not by us!) We had so much stuff on show internal phones ringing once again! 1969. Large numbers of appreciative visitors was immediately visible to visitors at that we needed a Sprinter van to take it all Jerry Clegg

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2012 Life after auntie 13 The Proms from the sharp end A surprise invitation led to pensioner visitor and former Music Unit SM, Vivien (Bacon) Wrack, participating in the Proms this year – making her one of the few people to have experienced the event as both a participant and as a BBC staff member.

We – the Rushley Singers, that is – are a not easy to sing. But diaries were cleared, Following our first combined rehearsal with small local choir, rehearsing in Morecambe rehearsals began, and the reality was the BBC Phil and conductor Juanjo Mena, in Money matters Parish Church, Lancashire, most Monday suddenly there in print in the BBC Proms their dedicated studio at Salford’s Media City, evenings. ‘This is unbelievable,’ wrote our brochure. The concert was even to we duly left Lancaster at 6am on the appointed conductor Rachael Lee in an email to us be recorded for subsequent TV transmission. day, a day that for most choir members would Understanding the back in April, ‘but we’ve been asked if we’ll For this small elderly alto it was all last for 24 hours. The experience did turn join the Northern Sinfonia Chorus and the particularly exciting. After taking a music out to be truly memorable: the technical personal allowance Manchester Chamber Choir to take part in a degree I had joined the BBC in 1961 as an problems of Credo were overcome (thanks to An integral part of individual income and world premiere at the Proms with the BBC SM, and by the mid-60s was part of the our conductor Rachael, chorus master Justin tax planning is to understand the reliefs Philharmonic Orchestra.’ Music Unit under Geoffrey Smith. Doyle and the sympathetic direction of Juanjo and allowances available and wherever Surprise, delight and then horror were our As one of the first women to be ‘let in’ to Mena) and I was able to visit the OB van where possible, to use them to your advantage. immediate reactions. The Scottish composer that then masculine world, I had helped to I discovered that nowadays the Radio 3 feed For the current tax year, the basic James Macmillan had been commissioned balance some of the Proms. Forty-five years is mixed on a laptop! And to crown it all, the personal allowance is £8,105, which means by the BBC to write one of the 2012 later, how fantastic it would be to experience choirs’ performance was rated highly not only that, in most cases, individuals start to season’s major new works, a Credo timed a Prom from the other side of by composer James Macmillan but by the pay income tax once their income exceeds at 25 minutes. His work is challenging and the microphone! Guardian and The Times. that level. Not everyone has the same allowance as it depends upon their own circumstances. “Forty-five years later, how fantastic it would be to experience a Prom Those over 65 have an additional allowance, known as the ‘age-related from the other side of the microphone!” allowance’, which reduces where adjusted net income exceeds £25,400. Broadly, the age-related allowance reduces by £1 for every £2 above the limit but not below the basic personal allowance. News trainees It is the Government’s intention to move – 40 years on everyone to a £10,000 personal allowance On 2 October, six people gathered for lunch at the earliest opportunity. They believe to remember the day they joined the BBC that this will simplify the tax system. As a News Trainee scheme 40 years ago to first step in speeding up the process, the the day! We were a class of six and we all intention is that the basic personal allowance survived to tell the tale. will be £9,205 and the basic rate band will I would suggest the training scheme was be the next £32,245 with effect from 6 April a good investment by the BBC. 2013. If this proves to be the case then And we haven’t lost the knack of partying. the higher rate threshold will be reduced to Lunch began at 12.30pm and ended at 7pm. £41,450, from the start of the next tax year. Except for Paxman, poor soul, who had to At the same time, as a means of starting present Newsnight that night! the process of aligning the current range of From left to right: Colin Stanbridge (now personal allowances, provision was made chief executive of the London Chamber of in the Finance Act 2012 to freeze age- Commerce); Liz Ramsay (the first woman to to related allowances from 2013/2014. What edit the 9 o’clock News on BBC1); Jeremy this now means is that only people born on Paxman, Newsnight; Chris Lowe, PM, News 24 or before 5 April 1948 will benefit from the etc; Sally-Anne Thomas (BBC World Service); age allowance in future. and Richard Ayre, now a BBC Trustee. So in 2013/2014 the position will be: Chris Lowe • People born after 5 April 1948 will be entitled to a personal allowance of £9,205. BBC Club inaugural • People born after 5 April 1938 but before trip to New York 1962 6 April 1948 will be entitled to a personal Douglas Keown has been trying to find out allowance of £10,500. some more information about the photo • People born on or before 5 April 1938 on the left, which was taken in 1962 on the will be entitled to a personal allowance BBC Club’s inaugural trip to New York. of £10,660. He was trying to write an article about the Age-related allowances will be removed trip for Prospero. altogether once aligned with the standard He writes: ‘This was the first flight. It personal allowance. Until then they will left on 6 October 1962. When was the continue to be subject to a limit on adjusted return flight? I think it was probably three net income. weeks later. I wanted to know that, as we Clearly, if this proceeds as planned, were in the US in the middle of the Cuban everyone will eventually have the same Missile crisis and if things had not turned personal allowance irrespective of age. out as they did, we could have been stuck This is even more reason why, where there – or worse. The other question was possible, maximum advantage is taken of whether this was the only flight the the current allowances. Club arranged or whether there were For at or around the income limit, steps subsequent ones? might be taken to reduce adjusted net ‘I feel that without this info, I cannot income to preserve the allowance. Such fully put words to the picture, as I would things as altering ownership of investments have liked. I have attached the picture and savings to redirect income to a lower or nevertheless and you may just wish to non-tax paying spouse might be considered. caption it with the basic information. I’m Bob Perkins DipPFS sure it will be of interest, if for no other Technical Manager reason than to see the variety of hats!’ Origen Financial Services

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2012 14 obituaries As one of the pioneers in the early years bureaucracy, his recollections from different time on the air, he became a household Sailing by of the Plymouth news operation, he stories he’d covered over the years and his name among the Tamil minority. Two words and a symbol illustrated quickly built up a reputation as a talented all-round knowledge of journalism and what Restlessly creative, Shankar initiated a Edward Alan Foote’s (Eddie’s) aphorism: scriptwriter and performer. He became the made it tick, were always worth a listen as drama strand in his programme for literary ‘I ♥ life’; token words written against BBC’s regional reporter for the South West Chris held frequent court at the old BBC classics, including four Shakespeare plays a canary yellow background on a banner in the days when a big story brought two Club bar in the Langham. He was always – Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear and The Tempest stuck on the rear window of his van. functions – cutting a concise film report exciting – never dull, never conformist – but – which he translated and broadcast in Eddie benefited from serving with the for the early evening national bulletin, a somewhat difficult character for the BBC to instalments, playing many male parts himself. RAF, at a time when discipline, self-restraint followed by a longer report for the regional manage. He revelled in that. Twice, excerpts were chosen for Radio 4’s and pride-in-duty-fulfilled were instilled in programme that followed. He was a man who made a lasting Pick of the Week, one to be repeated in Pick of and expected of any young trainee. He covered innumerable dramas for impression on everyone he met and he will the Year. One listener was so impressed by his His disinterested nature, the knowledge national news – notably the wreck of the be greatly missed. version of Macbeth that he suggested it should and skills acquired during his formative years Torrey Canyon with the devastating oil Peter Gallimore be translated into English! Shaw’s Pygmalion enabled him to join the BBC and become pollution that followed. At quieter times, (with a Tamil film star playing Eliza) and The a respected and reliable member of staff his film reporting took him all over the American Anglophile Iliad were given similar treatment. working for the essential technical team. region, where he was expert in finding With a strong religious sense, Shankar Activities related to navigating boats were and charming the right people to talk to. I first met Nancy Holloway when we also wrote devotional lyrics and a verse Eddie’s main passion and he became one His crinkly features and the wonderful worked in BBC Books in Marylebone High rendering of the Sanskrit scriptural text, of the most valuable and devoted members Plymothian burr of his speech soon made Street in the mid-1980s. the Bhagavad Gita, completed shortly before of the BBC Ariel Sailing Club for almost him immediately recognisable. His reports We met by a photocopier, looked each his death. 50 years. were always well crafted, and he had a gift other up and down and from that day on ‘He was a hard taskmaster, but he was In his informal, concisely styled manner, for the pithy phrase as he brought a wry became firm friends. also very lovable, with a fantastic sense of Eddie explained ‘why’ and ‘how’ things twinkle to local events. As the years went by, Nancy subsequently moved to the World humour,’ recalls Anandhi Suryaprakasan, worked to anyone who approached him. he set a standard for the many journalists Service Publicity Department in the early who worked closely with him. It was indeed a real bliss to watch Eddie’s who cut their teeth in Plymouth – including 1990s and then left the BBC to take up a fast- Shankar leaves a widow, Saraswati, and a hands twist and turn strings with a Hugh Scully, Sue Lawley, Angela Rippon, Fern track career in the Civil Service. daughter, Abheya. magician’s elegance and ease to demonstrate Britten and Jill Dando. Nancy first came to England as a teenager Towyn Mason all types of knots. He will be remembered not only as from Virginia, USA to take up a year’s study In the past, BBC Club traditionally used a complete broadcaster who could present at Reading University. She became a firm A nose for news to give an annual Club Award to only one a programme, read the news, direct and Anglophile and eventually settled in London person for outstanding contribution to produce documentaries and cover any where she was able to indulge her passion If Frederick (Freddie) John Knowles had section activities. In 1989 though, the award news story, but also as someone who for the arts, theatre, opera and travel – always followed the lifelong desire of his tender was doubled and one of the winners was could be fun to be with, a brilliant and to exotic destinations. She lived in Notting 16 years, he would have stayed on at Carlton Eddie. Here are the words, printed in Ariel engaging raconteur. Hill with her walls full of books and with High School for Boys in Bradford, continued ( 21 March 1989), that honoured him: David Lomax, John Tanton, Mike Penrose, her two adored cats. to university and ultimately become ‘Nearly every member of the Ariel Sailing Colin Rowe, Tony Byers Sadly, towards the end of 2011, Nancy a scientist. Club over the past 25 years had at some developed an inoperable brain tumour. She But it was a very good day indeed for point benefited from Eddie Foote’s bore this stoically and finally died peacefully journalism, and eventually the BBC, that in experience in all aspects of seamanship’. Knowledgeable on 8 October. In the changed BBC of today, 1943 he spotted an advertisement offering Eddie was also an active volunteer in the journalist the departments where Nancy worked a position on the Bradford editorial staff Catford area and an instructor at Queen no longer exist – but just maybe there is of the Yorkshire Post as ‘a junior to train as Chris Underwood, former BBC Home Mary Club in Ashford, where he helped someone reading this who remembers her. a reporter’. A post he secured, launching Affairs Correspondent who has died aged unreservedly disabled people who joined the Her funeral was at Mortlake Crematorium a 22-year career with the Yorkshire Post, 74, was a reporter, then correspondent, who Sailability club. on 23 October, and despite her lack of including five years as chief reporter in made his name at the Corporation in the 70s Edward Alan Foote we cannot forget. family, there was a splendid gathering of her London, where he covered the main national and 80s. Eddie will be remembered with love, many friends. We shall miss her so much. stories of the day. I first met him in the early 70s when affection and gratitude, whether we rig a Caroline Collyer In 1964 he joined the BBC in Leeds, we were covering a triple murder in Stoke, boat, sail or tie it to the shore, or even when where he reported and interviewed for where I’d just become a trainee reporter on late at night listening to Radio 4 till we hear network and regional radio and television, one of the first raft of Local Radio stations. its closing sig, the piece so perfectly chosen Tamil Service stalwart, and then spent a year in Newcastle. Chris was then a seasoned ex-Fleet street and played in the background as we said To switch from print to the broadcast hack, who’d worked his way through the old ‘Shankar Anna’ goodbye to our dear friend on 10 October. journalism of the 60s was as great a classic route from weekly to daily newspaper, Among the many brilliant talents the World Rodica Mager challenge as his earlier move from Bradford before joining the BBC. Service has attracted over the years, few were to Fleet Street. Television news coverage was He reported regularly on the Troubles as remarkable as Shankar Shankaramurthi, still in its formative years – the rules were Plymouth news pioneer in Northern Ireland and covered all the who has died at the age of 81. still being written and styles evolving to keep major criminals cases of the day, including Shankar – or Shankar Anna (‘elder brother’ pace with the rapidly developing technical the Yorkshire ripper trails and the serial Shankar) as he was affectionately known to achievements. killer Denis Nielsen. He also contributed many listeners – produced and presented the to the scoop in which the whereabouts of Tamil Service’s programmes for a quarter of It was at the BBC in Manchester that the Cambridge spy Sir Anthony Blunt were a century, apart from a break of a couple of he was able to combine all his years of discovered. He was also present at the bloody years, until his retirement in 1991. experience and his highly disciplined and Sunday killings in Londonderry in 1972; Born in a village in what is now the inquiring scientific approach to journalism with anti-BBC sentiment running high, he’d Indian state of Tamilnadu, Shankar went to to the post of assistant news editor, BBC had to be smuggled out of the Bogside area the local school and studied political science North West. He was responsible for the day- in the boot of a cameraman’s car. and economics at Madras University before to-day supply of radio and television news to In the competitive and often bitchy world of When he took early retirement from the starting his broadcasting career in All-India the national network and the radio bulletins journalism, Keith Blackler was one of those BBC in 1989, he became General Secretary of Radio. He was recruited to the BBC in 1966. for Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, Lancashire, The rare individuals who was universally liked the Institute of Journalists, a post he held for When Shankar arrived, the Tamil Service Lakes, Cheshire and the Isle of Man. and admired and who had no enemies. His 14 years. was one of the smallest language sections, His ‘nose for news’, his organisation of roots were unashamedly deep in the West Chris was an unforgettable character. He with only three half-hour magazine-format reporters and film crews, his precise editorial Country and in Plymouth in particular. He was one of the few men I have ever met who programmes a week, but thanks to his briefings and his ability to motivate those he started in local journalism, translating easily could charm and insult at the same time – drive it came to make a huge impact, lead earned him a reputation that inspired into television, and never felt the inclination and get away with it. It’s easy to forget that boasting a mailbag worthy of some much total confidence in BBC’s national news desks to gravitate to London. He was happiest a key part of a journalist’s skill is to illicit larger services. in Television Centre and Broadcasting House when reporting from the community he information from people who don’t want On tour in India to meet listeners he was alike. If it carried the Freddie Knowles seal loved and knew best and was always keen to talk. Few were better at that than Chris. feted as a celebrity, and during the civil war of approval, it was going to be a good story, to socialise. His tales of his latest skirmish with BBC in Sri Lanka in the 1980s, with now more well and concisely told.

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2012 obituaries 15 Freddie Knowles was an inspirational leader. drama as co-coordinator, finally leaving the judgment. But mostly, people remember Other TV productions included Field- He changed lives and shaped careers yet BBC in 1994. Chris for being kind. In a newsroom which Marshall Viscount Alanbrooke’s Triumph in the will never know just how many people he Marion worked on many an episode of could be harsh and unforgiving, he was West, as well as Montgomery’s programme helped to achieve their true potential in Z Cars (1966 – 1969) as AFM, and in 1972 unfailingly generous and helpful: many new on Leadership with Ed Murrow. broadcasting. Many of those now wish that progressed to PA on many a Doctor Who. journalists benefitted from his advice. During the 60s, Michael worked on a they, and the organisation he so diligently On the Internet she is mentioned by one That’s not to say he was a soft touch. Chris wide range of programmes, from organising and honourably served, had acknowledged Who fan as this ‘(N)ice lady’. Marion had firm views, about management, the children’s radio programmes, to presenting this during his lifetime. possessed an exceptional quality of only union and the news of the day, and was not jazz programmes. He produced a TV version He is survived by Irene, his constant saying good about everyone. afraid to express them. But he managed to of Any Questions called It’s my opinion, which companion and loving wife for 36 years, combine a strong personality with a gentle was really a pilot for the current TV series and Rod, his stepson from his and courteous manner. Question Time. He also produced many serial first marriage. In appearance he was tall – one might readings, including several Dick Francis novels Tony Wilkie-Millar almost say gangling – and slender. He’d and books by Trollope and Hardy. approach the desk, his head slightly on one John Tanton, who briefly worked as side. A self-deprecating smile. network radio editor in Bristol, described From Hell to the BBC ‘Um… I just wonder if we really ought to Michael as ‘a superb and widely admired Aud (Audrey) Davis, who has died aged be saying this…’ professional, equally comfortable with the 99, would joke that she was born in Hell, a No sane editor ignored one of Chris’s mighty of the land who appeared on the village in Norway. Her father Arthur was the interventions. programme and the countless ordinary folks stationmaster. Hell today is quite a tourist Marion was very proud of setting high One senior journalist said: ‘Chris was a who showed up week by week… to put their attraction and you can still catch a train there. production standards. I worked with her model writer – calm, wise, judicious.’ questions – in one of the most enduring She came to London in 1939, three days as AFM on The Mayor of Casterbridge (1978), Another wrote: ‘Chris was a dream to institutions in all of radio’. before war broke out, getting a job at a the first ever OB drama recording, which work with: top writer, great judgment, Michael retired from the BBC in 1979 but shipping office and then with the Norwegian brought Corfe Castle square (Casterbridge) totally reliable, utterly unflappable.’ continued working as a freelance writer and government as a translator. She then had to to a standstill. Then, The Prince Regent (1979), And another: ‘A true gentleman broadcaster for several years. He was a much return to Norway, working in a clerical role when she took on the whole sub-committee and a first-class journalist: thoughtful, loved husband to Bobbie, father, grandfather with the forces. of local councillors to allow filming at The conscientious, self-effacing – a thoroughly and friend – a modest and gentle man. She soon found herself back in London, Royal Pavilion, Brighton. Finally, another decent bloke.’ Barbara Bowen and walking past Bush House in the rain she OB recording in bleakest Scotland, Mackenzie That word ‘decent’ crops up again and wondered whether they had a Norwegian (1980). Thereafter, Marion was modestly again, along with ‘lovely’ and ‘gentle’. These section and could they offer her a job? She amused with her job as a drama production are not normally adjectives associated with Light Entertainment PA took a typing test, which she failed, but she manager that seemed to hold such influence journalists. But Chris was no cynical, hard- Her many friends and colleagues from received a letter saying ‘you failed the test but over local authorities on what was or bitten hack. BBC Light Entertainment and Drama would you like to work for us?’ not possible. Someone said: ‘I never heard him say a Plays will be sad to hear of the death of And so she joined that group of exiles Marion completed her drama director mean word about anyone. And I never heard Hermione Stewart in Mojacar, Spain, from around the world who worked for the training in 1983. She moved to the CPU in anyone say a mean word about Chris.’ on 6 November. BBC during the war years. 1984 and 1990 as acting director. That’s not a bad accolade. A legend during the 60s and 70s, she was She lost her BBC job when the Norwegian Marion was in constant demand from He was also a very funny man, a good a consummate professional and entertaining service closed but found work at the successful producers in drama serials drinking companion and a source of companion, and I was very fortunate in my Norwegian Consulate. She also at that time met working on such prestigious productions wonderful anecdotes. first placement from The Panel in 1972 as and married George and they were together for as Smiley’s People (1982), Mansfield Park (1983), Chris leaves his wife, Vivien, son Nick, her assistant on The Adventures Of Don Quixote many years until he sadly passed away. Blott on the Landscape (1984) and Fortunes of War daughters Rachel and Hannah and his directed by Alvin Rakoff and filmed in In the 50s, Aud returned to Bush House, (1987), to name but a few. grandson Joseph. central Spain. working for the East European service till She received so many merits, earning Sally-Anne Thomas She worked with many prestigious she retired aged 60. She was affectionately special awards and bonuses from heads directors, including Donald McWhinnie and known as Mrs D. of departments and also high praise from Christopher Morahan. She retired to Spain She lived a long and active retirement and a managing director television for her A quarter century to live 30 years ago and we remained in I was delighted to get to know her when I outstanding contribution to BBC television. producing Any touch; I visited her in Mojacar where she became a volunteer visitor. This ‘(N)ice lady’ certainly reached for enjoyed a sociable life and doted on her She had an impish sense of humour, a love the stars and touched them many a time Questions adored dogs. I am pleased to say that my of a good story and although she loved the throughout her glittering career. Her friends Michael Bowen was born in Bristol in 1920, husband and I visited her less than a month BBC she was also an LBC radio fan. One of sadly miss her, and especially Iris, her long- not far from the BBC where he was to spend before her passing and she was still the same my last jobs when I visited her care home term partner in life. most of his career. Hermie – although obviously suffering – she was to re-tune her radio to LBC, ensuring Anthony Garrick Educated at Clifton College, he joined was brave, amusing and well organised to of course that her TV had good BBC the Western Daily Press as a reporter in the end. She managed to come out to lunch reception! She hoped to get to 100 but September 1938. Drafted into the Royal with us – here is a photograph of her with didn’t quite there. A news career Armoured Corps in May 1941, he set sail her carer Anita, my husband David Allan Stuart Wallace spanning four decades for North Africa on the day the Japanese (ex BBC1 and BBC2 continuity announcer) and me. I owe Hermie a great deal as she The original obituary, published in July 2012, had Chris Tye,was a stalwart of the World Service bombed Pearl Harbour. As a wireless taught me with good humour and patience the wrong photo despite the correct information being newsroom for nearly 40 years. operator in tank crew, Michael remembered all I needed to know for my own career in supplied by Stuart Wallace. His BBC career began in 1971 and ended Montgomery’s visit to the tank crews. television drama. We shall miss her. in 2009, stretching from the Vietnam War to (Sixteen years later he was producing Meg Allan (nee Humphries) This ‘nice lady’ the global financial crisis. a television series about Montgomery.) Chris trained in the North West of Michael joined the BBC Bristol staff in of drama serials England, beginning his career on local 1962 as a regional reporter, and six months Marion McDougall sadly passed away newspapers. In 1967 he emigrated to later was covering the East Coast floods. In on 24 March 2012. After attending The Australia where he worked in the press and March 1953 he was appointed OB producer Central School of Speech & Drama (1962- with the ABC. He returned home to the in Bristol, which included the production of 64), Marion progressed to theatre stage World Service. Any Questions, which he continued to produce management in 1965, and in 1966 she He did spells in the domestic newsroom, until his retirement in 1979. joined the BBC TV Drama Serials Department in the parliamentary unit and World Service In 1958 Michael worked on the as an AFM. television. But Bush House newsroom was preparation and production of Field- In 1972 she was appointed production where his heart was. Marshall Montgomery’s TV series, Command manager (then PA), departing from her He rose to duty editor, frequently acting in Battle. This consisted of a prologue and six substantive post in 1992. Marion then was up to SDE and gained a reputation for being programmes on Alamein, Mareth, Sicily, Italy Left to right: Hermione Stewart, Anita Gomez (carer), eager to work on the new costing system for fair, balanced, and having first-class news and North West Europe. Meg Allan (nee Humphries), David Allan.

PROSPERO DECEMBER 2012 16

BBC to dispose of its books Classifieds Fuerteventura, Canary Islands. Quality The BBC is to dispose of more than 80,000 books as storage space across the Corporation shrinks. one-bedroom apartment with balconies ‘Many major libraries are conducting similar and private roof terrace. Stunning beaches reviews and are not interested in the bulk of and lagoons nearby. £295pw. Tel: 01428 653127. the BBC’s holdings,’ says Kavanagh. The archivists have also considered Lagos, Algarve, 2-bed townhouse, charitable donations – specifically to those roof terrace, from £150pw. Also 3-double- charities that use, rather than sell books. bed apartment. Both inside city walls and near beach. Some were accepted but many of the Tel: 07956 181613. BBC titles were of the ‘wrong kind’, Email: [email protected] admits Kavanagh. Booksellers will be invited to bid for any Menorca. Detached villa with private pool. Sleeps 2-7. Close amenities. remaining books and journals, before they Short drive gorgeous beaches. are recycled, thrown out or, possibly, offered Brochure 01621 741810 or visit to individuals. www.menorcaholidayvilla.co.uk Kavanagh recognises that getting Save those programmes. Ex-editor can rid of books is an emotive subject. ‘We care transfer your tape/DAT/MD to CD, or VHS/ Volumes that relate to broadcasting will Jacquie Kavanagh, I&A multimedia archivist. about them as well,’ she insists, ‘but the Betacam to DVD, at special pensioner be kept, together with books belonging to In the last four years, loans from the TVC priority has to be to care for the BBC’s rates. Email: [email protected] the Music Library, but there’s no room for library have fallen by 70%. She points to the own content which directly supports Spain, Calpe. 2-beds, furnished thousands of general interest titles. rise of the Internet as a research tool as well BBC business.’ apartment, Av. Valencia 16 (Google). These include anything from fiction as to the splintering of production, with Three minutes to beach, south-facing and travel guides to autobiographies and more programmes now made outside of Other archive collections balcony with sea view, £110,000. encyclopedias, all of which were previously London and by independent companies. The Photo Archive: the collection consists Email: [email protected] available on loan from the Television Centre The BBC is also relinquishing its collection of the BBC’s own photographs and is being Altea, Spain. Beach front apartment with research library or for on-site reference. of journals, including the whole series of added to on a daily basis. The collection, Jacuzzi, two bedrooms, air-conditioned, The decision was triggered by the sale of Jane’s military guides and a long run of which is now in digital format, including underfllor heating. Contact Sandra Television Centre, which has dramatically Illustrated London News dating back to 1848. discs, will be moved to Perivale. (Email: [email protected]; mobile: reduced the amount of space available to News Stills: about a third of the total 0034 6635741). Information and Archives. Donations collection will be disposed of; the remainder Venice, Giudecca. Beautiful apartment ‘The journals review led by the research (mainly BBC IP) will move to Perivale. in quiet private courtyard, sleeps 5, Drop in demand team confirmed that 90% (69 of 76 journal Heritage pieces: broadcasting equipment of fully equipped. Experience the real Venice. Several million items – including photos, runs) do not support current business,’ historical importance will be held on behalf Tel: 01260 227262. CDs and heritage artefacts, as well as books says Kavanagh. of the BBC by the National Media Museum Email: [email protected] – have had to be reviewed. Items that are the Some of the unwanted books will in Bradford. Smaller items, including a BBC’s intellectual property, are of historical be donated to other publicly funded porcelain vase given to the BBC by Denmark Seeking news of Tony Johnson, value or which meet current business needs organisations like the British Library, House to thank it for its work during the war, is an SM in London BH around 1959-65. have been retained. of Commons, National Portrait Gallery, now in Perivale. Artist friend F West is keen to contact. ‘It became clear from the usage statistics Victoria & Albert Museum and university Grams Library: Older recordings are already Email: [email protected] that there was a substantial and continuing libraries; 450 organisations were approached, held in Perivale. The newer CDs will be decline in demand for both books and but many of them were downsizing their moved from Broadcasting House to Perivale. journals over the last ten years,’ explains collections too. VHS collection: This remains under review. Reunions

London Lunch The London Lunch 2013 Reunion Wednesday 6 February: Loudness Explained for colleagues from engineering and An invitation from the Using file-based workflows to describe the operational departments together with challenges of loudness monitoring and friends and guests will take place on processing, industry guru MC Patel provides 5 March 2013 at the Victory Services Club Royal Television Society an in-depth investigation into the current as usual. loudness standards, broadcaster compliance, If you wish to receive further and what it all means for you. information about the surprise guest The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a charity that runs Venue: Pincents Manor, Pincents Lane, speaker and booking details, please send an regular lectures, free of charge, which may be of interest to Calcot, Reading RG31 4UH email to [email protected] Time: 6.30pm for 7pm or a stamped addressed envelop to LL12, PO Prospero’s readers. Box 208 Havant PO9 9BQ. Booking details The RTS hosts a programme of lectures and Wednesday 13 March: AGM and Channel will be available in the New Year. Those of visits throughout the year – generally nine or in a box – an evolution in automation you who attended the 2012 lunch will be ten a year. As a taster of what you can expect, With numerous players in this space, this contacted automatically. the Society’s Thames Valley branch (based in is your opportunity to enjoy an open Reading) has the following lectures lined up discussion and debate with four of the Technical Ops Course 24 till March 2013: top suppliers in our industry. Following (1966) an introduction from a broadcaster who Roger Long is trying to organise a reunion Wednesday 9 January: Access Services evaluated many options before deciding of people on the Technical Operations – what are they are what do changing on one, the panel event will be chaired Course 24, from 1966. He is looking for OFCOM regulations mean to you? by an independent specialist. the following people: Roger Goss, Roger OFCOM regulations are changing and Venue: Pincents Manor, Pincents Lane, Guest, Mike Lucas, Paul Markwell, Mick Access Services will need to be supported Calcot, Reading RG31 4UH Martin, Doug Prior, Trevor Taylor, Linda not only by UK broadcasters, but by non- Time: 6.30pm for 7pm Jennings, Pam Gibson, Ann Elliot, and UK broadcasters operating under OFCOM Cheryl ??? licences from January 2014. Access service To find out about RTS events in your region, If they are interested in attending, please providers, manufacturers and system please take a look at the RTS website: could they contact him (Email: relong@ integrators discuss the impact this will have. www.rts.org.uk. If you’d like more btinternet.com; Tel: 01452 770391). He Venue: Pincents Manor, Pincents Lane, information, or want to be added to their says: ‘We intend to reunify at the newly Calcot, Reading RG31 4UH mailing list, please contact Kara Myhill refurbished Wood Norton Manor. Home Time: 6.30pm for 7pm (email: [email protected]). of many a reprimand!

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