ITVA The van they’re all talking about – page 4 December 2009 Number 9 Une étoile is born centre pages page 2 Lynda puts the brrr! in Brum With highlights from Ariel s s i k p i H n h o J : o t o h P News The standard bearer in news Ben Bradshaw , the minister for Culture, Media and Sport, may support top-slicing the licence fee – but as he explained in an Ariel article, he still admires the BBC When I arrived in Berlin in the spring of courtesy military rank, a lieutenant colonel’s Service in English were well listened to from 1989 the post was considered a bit of a house and, crucially, a pass that allowed me people we met in East Germany. But it only backwater. Nothing much had happened to travel freely back and forth through the really hit us when, in the days immediately there since the Wall had gone up in 1961. Wall. after the Wall came down, a steady stream The job belonged to the German language That became very handy as events of East Germans made their way to our service at Bush House. Ability to broadcast unfolded and the East German regime office to say thank you. PROSPERO in German was a requirement, which must clamped down. I was still free to slip in and When I asked them why they listened to December 2009 have been why I, a German speaker, got the out of East Berlin to report and pick up the BBC rather than German or American job straight from local radio, ahead of far interviews when most other journalists were broadcasters they said: ‘You don’t preach to better qualified, more experienced not. On the odd occasion, when I did get us or look down on us as second class colleagues . into a scrape with the Stasi, I just flashed Germans, your programmes are fair, you But that local radio training – turning my pass. allow diverse voices and you acknowledge Prospero is provided free to round endless voice pieces, packages and It was an incredibly lucky break for me – that not everything in your own country is two ways – stood me in good stead when to have the biggest story in the world on my perfect, so we believe what you say about retired BBC employees. It can things hotted up, as they soon did. hands. My only regret is that I didn’t have other places.’ also be sent to spouses or The job was unusual in another way. longer to enjoy Berlin at a more leisurely The same values that still make the BBC Because of Berlin’s occupied status I was pace before things really took off. the most trusted news organisation in the dependants who want to keep officially still a ‘war correspondent’ with We knew the German service and World world today. in touch with the BBC. It includes news about former War witnesses Snow-capped Cinétévé, a Paris-based TV production com - colleagues, pension issues, pany, will be in the UK in January and early and developments at the February to interview people who have per - Christmas spectives on the part played by the BBC in BBC. Prospero includes The work of former BBC designer supporting World War 2 resistance in classified advertisements. To turned artist Lynda Kettle will be gracing Europe. thousands of mantlepieces this year Christiane Ratiney wants to hear from advertise in Prospero or the after one of her paintings was chosen Prospero readers who can help or would like as the official Christmas card of the to take part in Shadow Fighters, a six-hour BBC Staff magazine, Ariel, University of Birmingham. series, being made for the French-German see page 11. She grabbed a rare opportunity to Cultural TV channel Arte in partnership capture a seasonal scene when snow with the national Belgian public TV channel fell on the university’s Aston Webb RTBF. ‘The BBC’s support will be one of the Subscription information for Building last winter, and the image is now winging its way to alumni around leading threads of the series and we would Ariel is on page 12 the world. like to meet and interview BBC staffers who Lynda, who spent 30 years at the worked for Auntie during the war and who BBC, became a full-time artist when could recall for us their day-to-day work.’ Pebble Mill closed. She can be contacted by e-mail at shadow - She now has her own studio at Stoke [email protected], or at Cineteve’s Prior near Bromsgrove, and she teaches office – phone 00 33 1 48 04 30 00. in water colours, pastels, acrylics and oils. Trustee re-elected You can find out more about her work Dan Cooke has been re-elected as Member and the training courses at Nominated Trustee. He received 1,231 of http://www.lynda-kettle.com/ the 2,822 votes cast. His six year term of office will run from May 1 next year. Editorial contributions CROSPERO 144 1 2 Devised and compiled by Jim Palm • • 3 4 5 Write to Robin Reynolds Complete the square using the clues; these apply only to words • • • The Editor, Prospero running across. Then take these words in numerical order and 6 7 8 BBC Pension & Benefits Centre extract the letters indicated by a dot. If your answers are correct, these letters will spell out the name of a topical individual. • • • Broadcasting House 9 10 Cardiff, CF5 2YQ Please send your answers in an envelope marked Crospero to The • • Editor, Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Broadcasting Tel: 020 7765 1414 House, Cardiff CF5 2YQ by December 29. 11 [email protected] • Clues: 1. At the peak of (4); 2. Serving girl (5); 3. Conducted (3); 4. 12 Utility (3); 5. Possessed (3); 6. Mineral (3); 7. Enquire (3); 8. Parisian Please make sure that any digital • summer (3); 9. Sign up (5); 10. Marshland (3); 11. Resin (3); 12. Way 13 pictures you send are scanned of doing things (11); 13. Cornish town (3); 14. Sizeable (3); 15. Appendages (5); 16. Lizard (3); 17. Miss West (3); 18. Land measure • at 250 dpi (3); 19 Fixed (3); 20. Suitable (3); 21. By way of (3); 22. Intermediate 14 15 Design & production editor: Ann Ramsbottom (5); 23. Bump into (4). • • 16 17 Solution to Crospero No. 143: Afar; Seism; Alert; Tip; Cox; 18 Aflame; She; Lye; Net; Roc; Auctioneers; Eon; Sir; Cid; Kew; Recap; • • • Mixed Sources Hid; Via; Orate; Sloth; Deny. 19 20 21 Product group from well-managed forests, controlled sources and The performers were Felix Felton and Erik Chitty • recycled wood or fiber • • WWW.fsc.org Cert no. SA-COC-1468 22 23 c 1996 Forest Stewardship Council The winner of Crospero 143 is Mrs Audrey Page of Bristol. • • 2 • • December• 2009 News Arthur’s dream team Pension visitor Arthur Sadler was back among famous friends when he turned up early for a recent Premiership match at Manchester City. A rising prospect at Manchester City in the late 1950s – the inset shows Arthur captaining the cup-winning Manchester Boys All Schools team of 1954-5 – he joined a line-up of former City footballing greats comprising (from left) Alex Williams, Rex Grey, Gary Owen, Mike Summerbee, Fred Eyre, Tommy Booth, Paul Lake, Colin Bell, Tony Book, Peter Barnes and Joe Corrigan. Arthur’s own football career was cut short by injury, but not before he achieved the unique distinction of being signed for both Manchester City and Manchester United in the same season. In 1956 he played at full back in a City Reserves team that included nine full internationals, but the rigours of top-flight football took their toll on a knee injury sustained in a schools match, and he was forced to quit. ‘I was a greengrocer for a while,’ he says, ‘and then I joined BBC House Services in Manchester.’ But he has no regrets. He has fond memories of two BBC orchestra tours in particular, he still watches City when they’re at home, and more often than not the conversation during his visits comes round to the subject of football. Recognition for world expert in HD cameras Alan Roberts, winner of the top accolade at ‘He combines the knowledge necessary to old last year) at the National Media Museum the recent Guild of Television Cameramen’s produce technically compliant images with under the auspices of the university’s School Awards ceremony, is living proof that you a deep understanding of what makes of Computing, Informatics and Media. don’t have to be young to be at the forefront pictures look beautiful and tell a story. The citation saluted his ‘significant contribu - of technology. ‘Alan’s advice and recommended set-ups tion to British media culture through his For Alan, a colour scientist at Kingswood [for cameras] have become the de facto pioneering efforts in electronic sound effects Warren until he retired in 2004, remains the settings throughout the world, and he is and radio broadcasting’, and his contribution Alan (right) collects his award from Guild leading expert on the newest of camera tech - constantly adding to this knowledge. He is to the Radiophonic Workshop. president Dick Hibberd nologies, high-definition. equally at home with handling the This month he’s in Bristol, addressing the intricacies of colour science with pages and RTS about the principles behind the pages of algebraic notations as he is with BBC PENSIONERS’ ASSOCIATION television camera; in the summer he explaining how it all works to those of us addressed a series of seminars at IBC in whose minds go blank at the very sight of a strong association for a safe pension Amsterdam; he’s also spoken in Gothenburg more than two numbers.