The newspaper for retired BBC Pension Scheme members • June 2020 • Issue 3 PROSPERO BBC PENSION AND BENEFITS CENTRE: COVID-19 UPDATE PAGE 2 PENSION SCHEME | BBC BENEFITS COVID-19 UPDATE As ever, the team at the Pension and Benefits Centre has risen to the challenge of working remotely from home. e’re focussing on maintaining ‘business as You can view your pension details and make certain usual’ for Scheme members, although we changes via myPension online. You can view your Whave had to temporarily amend the opening pension payslips and P60s, or change your bank or hours of the pension service line (029 2032 2811), now address details. open from 10am to 4pm, in order to help us maintain If you haven’t already registered for myPension online essential services. and you would like to, please send an email to Some tasks may take a little longer, however, please be [email protected], quoting your National assured that the payment of pensions will continue as Insurance number. We will then send you your personal normal. Also, thanks to the very robust data protection security number. Then visit systems we already had in place, your details remain mybbcpension.co.uk, click secure even if our staff have to access them remotely. on the ‘register here’ tab at the bottom of the page and The team would like to thank everyone for their follow the instructions. patience and understanding whilst the restrictions remain in place. Please also remember that information relating to bbc.co.uk/mypension the Scheme can be found on our website: bbc.co.uk/ mypension. If you write to us or send an email to [email protected], we may take longer than usual to reply and we appreciate your patience. SCAM ALERT Unscrupulous criminals are exploiting fears about Covid-19 to prey on vulnerable members of the public who are now isolated from family and friends. Please remember to be vigilant as there has been an increase of coronavirus-related scams. Some examples which have been reported to Trading Standards are as follows: Doorstep crime Refund scams • Criminals targeting older people on their doorstep • Companies offering fake holiday refunds for people and offering to do their shopping. Thieves take the who have been forced to cancel their trips. If you’re money and do not return. seeking a refund, please be wary of fake websites set up to claim holiday refunds. • Doorstep cleansing services that offer to clean drives and doorways to kill bacteria and help prevent the Telephone scams spread of the virus. • As more people self-isolate at home, there is an Online scams increasing risk that telephone scams will also rise, including criminals claiming to be your bank, • Email scams that trick people into opening malicious mortgage lender or utility company. attachments, which put personal information, passwords, contacts and bank details at risk. Some of Donation scams these emails have lured people to click on • There have been reports of thieves extorting money attachments by offering information about people in from consumers by claiming they are collecting the local area who are affected by coronavirus. donations for a Covid-19 ‘vaccine’. • Fake online resources – such as false coronavirus maps – that deliver malware (a malicious software program) to damage or infiltrate data on your To help protect yourself, you should: computer. A prominent example that has deployed malware is ‘corona-virus-map[dot]com’. • beware of adverts on social media channels and paid for/sponsored adverts online • do not click links or open emails from senders you don’t already know • take your time to make all the checks you need, even if this means turning down an ‘amazing deal’ • do not give out personal details (bank details, address, existing insurance/pensions/ investment details) • seek financial guidance or advice before changing your pension arrangements or making investments There is further advice on the FCA’s ScamSmart website (fca.org.uk/scamsmart) about how to protect yourself. If you suspect you may have been contacted in what could be a scam, you should call Action Fraud straight away on 0300 123 2040. 2 Volunteer Visiting Scheme PROSPERO In line with Government guidance, face-to-face Prospero is provided free of charge to retired Scheme visits by the Volunteer Visitors have been members, or to their spouses and dependants. suspended. However, this doesn’t mean that the visitors are not keeping in touch. They are making Prospero provides a source of news on former phone calls and, where possible and appropriate, colleagues, developments at the BBC and pension utilising technology such as Facetime and issues, plus classified adverts. It is available online Whatsapp groups to maintain contact with those at bbc.com/mypension with whom they keep in touch. To advertise in Prospero, please enclose a cheque If you haven’t received visits in the past but would made payable to: BBC Central Directorate. Rate £6 welcome a friendly phone call, you can send an for 20 words. Please include your pension number email, quoting your BBC pension number, to in a covering letter. [email protected] to opt in to receive a call and Please send your editorial contributions, we can put you in touch with your local visitor. or comments/feedback, to: If you don’t have access to email, you can also opt in by calling Cheryl Miles on 0303 080 3558. Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Central Square, Cardiff CF10 1FT Email: [email protected] Please make sure that any digital pictures you send Available throughout the UK to are scanned at 300dpi. Please also note that the VOLUNTEER maximum word count for obituaries is 350 words. VISITING BBC pensioners over age 70 SCHEME Visitors are also Contents Visitors carry ID cards BBC pensioners with them for your BBC benefits 2-3 security Covid-19 update Scam alert Volunteer Visiting Scheme Would you welcome Mystery Sudoku occasional contact with former colleagues? We can also offer support during Letters 4-5 difficult times such as Over 2,000 pensioners bereavement already use the scheme Life after Auntie 6-7 Meet at home for a chat or Keep calm and carry on somewhere public like a Funnies There's life after the Beeb coffee shop EE S FF HO O P C Operates from the Pension and Benefits Memories 8-9 Centre H.M.S. Pebble Mill at One The British Entertainment History Project BBC producers’ free first colour TV sets Want to know more about what the VVS has to offer? Call the pension service line on 029 2032 2811 or email [email protected] Obituaries 10-11 Odds & ends 12 Mystery Sudoku Breaking bad (news) Reunions Complete the grid so that every row, column and Classifieds 3x3 box contains the letters ADELORSTW in some E S T Caption competition order. One row or column contains a five or more letter word, title or name with a BBC connection. E A Solve the Sudoku to discover what it is and send your answer to: The Editor, Prospero, BBC Pension L D R and Benefits Centre, 3 Central Square, Cardiff CF10 1FT by Monday, 6 July 2020. A O R Prospero June 2020 The winner gets a £10 voucher. Many thanks to D O A E The next issue of Prospero will appear Neil Somerville for providing this puzzle. in August 2020. The copy deadline W T L is Monday, 6 July 2020. The Sudoku winner in April 2020 WIN was Peter Dean, who correctly E L W £10 identified the BBC connection ‘Mark Cole’. L A Please note, vouchers will be issued once the S L O lockdown restrictions have been lifted. PROSPERO JUNE 2020 | 3 | LETTERS Why ‘scanner’? Stephen Peet – Please excuse an outsider, but I have the feeling Prospero readers are likely to be among those most likely to help. Yesterday’s Witness (I’ve never actually worked in the industry, but have always had a great I am Stephen Peet’s son, Graham. Stephen died in 2015. interest in broadcasting, both technology and production. I did work at I am working on an illustrated book about his life. During his time at the what was, when I joined it, Marconi Research Centre for 20-something years. BBC he made a series of oral history programmes, Yesterday’s Witness - 1969 Anyway…) and 1981. He recorded many stories that would otherwise be forgotten to I have checked (my brother’s an executive editor there), and the Oxford history and it was based on a simple principle – ordinary people telling English Dictionary does not have an entry under ‘scanner’, covering its use extraordinary stories. to mean a television control room built into a vehicle: I would like to remedy I am hoping to record his story in the same way. So, I am trying to find any that omission! BBC people who knew or worked with him who would be interested in My enquiries (mainly in the newsgroup uk.tech.broadcast) suggest that sharing any stories, photos or anecdotes to include in the book. the term has never been an official term, but is in wide use, and would be understood by anybody in the industry. So I’d like to appeal, for what is Graham Peet normally the criterion for an OED entry: can anyone give me a citation of 27 Hodge Bower a printed use of the word? What’s needed is date, page/column, name of Ironbridge publication, author of the piece if known, and the sentence containing it Shropshire (and enough from adjacent sentences to make the meaning obvious, if it TF8 7QQ isn’t clear from the single sentence).