PROSPEROThe newspaper for retired BBC Pension Scheme members • April 2020 • Issue 2

REMEMBERING A GOLDEN AGE

OF FILM PAGE 8

PENSION SCHEME

2

Paul was born in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, on 24 November 1919.

He was educated at a council school in Byers Green village, where he obtained the first of many ‘accomplishments’, his 11-plus certificate!

He left school at 16 and joined the RAF, completing an 18-month course at Cranwell as a wireless operator, then, after successfully qualifying, went to RAF Thornaby.

After one year, he went back to Cranwell for another course and qualified as a wireless and electrical mechanic. He was then transferred to Finningley and was subsequently posted overseas to join a unit called W.I.S. (Wireless Intelligence System) – part of aconvoy leaving Scotland for the Middle East.

The convoy consisted of 42 ships which zigzagged across towards America (USA), then headed south, down the west coast of Africa, past Cape Town and round to the Red Sea, up to Suez, where he joined another boat and sailed to Aden, where the unit was deployed.

He sailed from Aden to Suez and the unit was deployed in the Sinai Desert, parallel to the Suez Canal. He was then posted to the Western Desert (the sharp end of activities!) to an Army air-support control, providing support for the forward troops.

He then joined a newly formed unit that eventually went to Iraq and joined the Army section of a new air-support unit, which was designed for operations in Persia. However, no war action was engaged due to the success of Russia holding Stalingrad against the advancing Germans. The unit was then ‘stood down’ in Lebanon, from where he was withdrawn and sent to establish a telecoms centre in Palestine. From there, he was posted to Aleppo. A few months later, his period of 4½ years’ service was completed, and he was posted back to the UK.

Mystery Sudoku

E M C O RL

A E L

R CC E S K

S K

E L KL

L O S A M

Complete the grid so that every row, column and 3x3 box contains the letters ACEKLMORS in some order. One row or column contains a five or more letter word, title or name with a BBC connection. Solve the Sudoku to discover what it is and send your answer to: The Editor, Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, 3 Central Square, Cardiff CF10 1FT by Monday, 4 May 2020.

The winner gets a £10 voucher. Many thanks to Neil Somerville for providing this puzzle.

The Sudoku winner in February 2020 was Dave Kenny. The answer was 'Ramblings'. WIN

£10

Grace Wyndham Goldie (BBC) Trust Fund:Application window now open Applications are invited for grants for educational and hardship purposes and should be returned by 31 July 2020.

The Trust Fund exists to help those engaged in broadcasting or an associated activity, now or in the past, as well as their children and dependants.

You can request an application form from the BBC Pension and Benefits Centre or download one here: bbc.co.uk/charityappeals/appeals/grants/grace-wyndham-goldie

| BBC PENSIONS

PAUL BOHAN AT 100: ‘A REMARKABLE MAN’Former BBC broadcast engineer Paul Bohan recently celebrated his 100th birthday, and BBC Volunteer Visitor Arthur Masson caught up with him to talk about the interesting times – and places – he’s seen in his long life.

He arrived at Stoney Cross and joined a unit servicing aircraft, for approximately a year. He was then transferred to RAF Marham, and then to RAF Mildenhall. Eventually, with his service completed, he was released in March 1947. (It is perhaps worth noting that, as he had passed the Commission examinations, if he had remained in service he would have been a Commissioned Officer.)

After leaving the RAF he joined BOAC, which was the state airline, and was posted to Sudan (Wadi-Halfa). After a few months, the unit was renamed International Air Radio. After a year at Wadi-Halfa, he was posted to Eritrea for another year and then returned to the UK and married his schooldays sweetheart, Frances, in 1949.

He was then posted back to Sudan, to Malakal, but a promise of married quarters did not materialise, so he resigned and returned to the UK and joined the BBC as a technical assistant at OSE 8/9 near Penrith – where 24-hour shifts were the norm, transmittingpolitics and news to the world. After four years, hepassed the engineer exams and became a fully-fledged broadcasting engineer.

He was at OSE 8/9 for eight years before he decided to join Northern Rhodesia Broadcasting as a broadcasting engineer, stationed at Lusaka for four years. He then moved to the copper belt, where he opened a new TV station and served for two years until it became Zambia, when he resigned and returned to the UK to rejoin the BBC.

He had to wait 12 months for a vacancy to arise, but he kept busy by joining a factory in South Shields making tape recorders. Eventually the BBC vacancy appeared and he rejoined, spending time at Sutton Coldfield and Rowridge (I.O.W) while re-engineering was in progress.

He was then posted to Meldrum and completed 12 years as a TV engineer.

He was offered early retirement, which he accepted at the ‘ripe old age’ of 58 and joined Aberdeen University Language Laboratory as their recording engineer. He was seven years at the University and then retired at the age of 65 to spend time improving his golf. Sadly, in 1997 his wife Frances died.

He now happily lives, with his daughter Susan on hand, in the village of Kemnay, constantly reviewing a full and eventful life.

Paul enjoyed a special trip to RAF Lossiemouth organised by the Scottish War Blind Association to commemorate his 100th birthday. The museum was opened up for photos and Paul was presented with a Spitfire memorial plaque, a special birthday cake and many other keepsakes. They provided a celebration meal and he was surrounded by invited friends, associates and well-wishers. He thoroughly enjoyed the whole occasion. Uplifted by their warm congratulations, he left with a lasting impression of a memorable day.

2020 pension increaseFrom 1 April 2020, pensions will increase as follows: • Old and New Benefits members’ pensions

in payment and deferred pensions: 2.2%.Old Benefits members who elected to receivethe Pension Increase Exchange will receive alower increase, and in some cases, no increase.

• Career Average Benefits (‘CAB’) 2006 members’pensions in payment: 2.2%.

• CAB 2011 members’ pensions in payment: 1.3%.

No discretionary increase over and above thosedetailed above has been agreed.

You can log into myPension online to view your combined April payslip and P60 document from Thursday, 9 April.

If you have not registered for the service, you will need to contact the pension service line on 029 2032 2811 to obtain your personal security number to complete the registration process.

Paper copies will be posted on Wednesday, 8 April, so should arrive with you by Tuesday of the following week.

3PROSPERO APRIL 2020 |

Letters 4-5

Prospero is provided free of charge to retired Scheme members, or to their spouses and dependants.

Prospero provides a source of news on former colleagues, developments at the BBC and pension issues, plus classified adverts. It is available online at bbc.com/mypension

To advertise in Prospero, please enclose a cheque made payable to: BBC Central Directorate. Rate £6 for 20 words. Please include your pension number in a covering letter.

Please send your editorial contributions, or comments/feedback, to: Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Central Square, Cardiff CF10 1FT

Email: prospero@bbc.co.uk

Please make sure that any digital pictures you send are scanned at 300dpi. Please also note that the maximum word count for obituaries is 350 words.

PROSPERO

Odds & ends 12Red button switch off

Poetry in Prospero

Classifieds

Caption competition

Prospero April 2020

The next issue of Prospero will appear in June 2020. The copy deadline is Friday, 1 May 2020.

Contents

Obituaries 10-11

Memories 6-9Prime target: on secondment to South Arabian Broadcasting Services

A Golden Age of Film

Cliffs and riggers

Stories from the Sudan

| BACK AT THE BBC

What are the symptoms? The Covid-19 disease can cause a fever, cough and breathing problems. It takes five days on average for people to start showing the symptoms.

What you need to do To help reduce the general risk of spreading the virus, please make sure you:

On the cover: Filming beside a replica Viking ship for the series The Vikings (1979).

Do I need to self-isolate? Everyone with flu-like symptoms – defined as a fever of above 37.8C or a persistent cough – is being asked to stay at home for at least seven days.

Patients with mild symptoms are being asked to self-isolate at home. But people are being advised not to ring NHS 111 or their GP to report their symptoms, unless they are worried.

Anyone who has travelled to an affected area, or who has been in close contact with an infected person, has already been asked to self-isolate for 14 days.

Spending 15 minutes within 2m (6ft) of someone with the virus, or having face-to-face contact, is judged as close contact and a significant risk.

CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19)

Sam’s ‘station squabble’ goes global

Sam is currently working on a new documentary series for BBC Studios’ Natural History Unit in Bristol.

It’s not every day that someone is able to capture such an incredible photo – how did it come about?

It’s always been a dream of mine to be in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition and I wanted to do a story on urban wildlife in London.

My friend was on her way home from a night out and she messaged me a clip of some mice running around her feet. The penny kind of dropped and I was like, right that’s what I’m going to do.

I spent a spare week down on the tube and hoped I would get something – and thank god I did otherwise it would have been a bit embarrassing!

I usually take a burst of photos and I got lucky with this shot, but then I had spent five days lying on a platform so it was probably going to happen at some point.

The photo topped the ‘People’s Choice poll’ with 28,000 people voting for it – why do you think it made such an impression?

I think it speaks to people. It’s an animal that everyone knows, and it kind of applies to their day-to-day lives.

That fight was only about a tenth of a second and without a photograph you wouldn’t really appreciate it.

I didn’t really like the photo at first. I took it three years ago. I thought, ‘I don’t love it, but I'll save it’.

A couple of years later, I went back to them and I actually quite liked them so I thought I would start entering them into competitions.

Were you prepared for that sort of reaction and how has it been dealing with all the media attention?

I didn’t think in my wildest dreams it would get anywhere, let alone win! I have done 37 interviews about it now, from Columbian radio to Canadian news – it’s been crazy.

This advice was correct at the time of going to print but you are encouraged to check the latest advice via the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/coronavirus-covid-19-uk-government-response

BBC researcher, Sam Rowley’s amazing photo of mice squabbling hit headlines around the world in February, when it was picked from more than 48,000 images to claim Wildlife Photographer of the Year LUMIX People’s Choice award.

Advice for people who have travelled back to the UK from the main affected areas and some other countries has been issued by the government.

What if someone self-isolating shares a home? If you are self-isolating and share a kitchen, try to avoid using it when other people are there and take your meals back to your room to eat. Clean all the surfaces at home with household cleaning products daily.

Although you might not be able to entirely separate yourself from family members or flatmates, the advice is to limit contact as much as possible.

If possible, stay at least 2m (6ft) from other people you live with and sleep alone. Keep away from vulnerable people.

People living with someone in isolation should wash their hands often, using soap and water for at least 20 seconds – especially after coming into contact with them.

You shouldn’t share towels, toiletries or other household items with someone in isolation and they should have a separate bathroom. If that is not possible, the isolated person should use the bathroom last, cleaning it thoroughly afterwards if they are able.

Any rubbish that the isolated person has been in contact with should be double-bagged and kept. If the person tests positive, you will be told what to do with their waste

| LETTERS

4

BBC Schools RadioOn browsing recently through my husband’s latest edition of Prospero, I was interested to read about Douglas Coombes and the BBC Schools Radio programmes.

In the early 1950s, I attended a small Victorian-era primary school and our education was enhanced by the weekly BBC Schools Radio programmes. We listened and sang along with ‘Singing Together’, learned about the world in ‘Travel Talks’ but my favourite was ‘Adventures in Music’.

Throughout my time listening to these programmes, I was introduced to Handel's 'Messiah', Mozart's 'Marriage of Figaro', Haydn's 'Surprise' Symphony, Schubert's 'Trout' Quintet, (I remember learning a song about fishes which we sang to the tune of the 1st movement). I also became familiar with the works of many other composers. I remember Beethoven's 5th Symphony having a huge impact on me and later on, I cajoled two school friends to accompany me to my first Symphony concert where it was being performed.

These programs also encouraged me to widen my knowledge by listening to other works by these composers.

Over the years, listening to classical music and attending concerts has enhanced my life and given me such great pleasure and I cannot thank the BBC Schools Radio enough for giving me this opportunity.

Maureen Woolley

David MV JonesDoes anyone remember David MV Jones, the former Head of TV Activities at the BBC? And if you do, are you in contact with his family/descendants?

The Royal Aeronautical Society (RAS) library holds a series of recordings that David Jones carried out in 1975-76 (not BBC recordings) where he interviewed early Qantas/Imperial Airways pilots. The RAS library is developing a sound archive and has been advised they should seek formal permission to use the recordings from the descendants of the speakers.

If you are in contact with his family, please ask them to contact Brian Riddle – Chief Librarian at the RAS Library.

You can contact Brian by email at: brian.riddle@aerosociety.com, telephone: 01252 701060 or write to him at: National Aerospace Library, The Hub, Fowler Avenue, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough GU14 7JP.

Graham Webb’s letter, Prospero October 2019The people in the front row of the Nationwide photo on page 8 of October 2019 Prospero are:

Left to right: Michael Barratt, Frank Bough, Val Singleton, Bob Wellings, Sue Lawley and Richard Stilgoe.

Bryan Bayliss

More 40-year anniversariesRadio Norfolk (September 1980) and Radio Lincolnshire (November 1980) celebrate their 40th anniversary this year. Mike Chaney, formerly of Today, was the first manager at Norfolk and I started the Lincolnshire station.

They were the first of what the BBC described as a new wave of local stations with smaller staffs and budgets. The then MD Radio Aubrey Singer told the governors he could build them for half a million each and they would have only 20 staff. But Lincolnshire went on to produce, in its early days, two BBC notables – Roger Mosey, who become Head of Sport, and John Inverdale.

Roy Corlett

Lifts and ladiesWhen I first joined the BBC in 1958, BH London had lift attendants. I had a little ritual with one. I would get in and ask him how his day was going. ‘Oh, up and down you know.’ We would laugh and then go on to discuss the weather.

As a recording engineer, I was booked to record an interview with Lady Churchill (Winston’s wife) but it was delayed, as the ball of wool she was carrying had unravelled down the lift shaft and the SM was laboriously hauling it up yard by yard. Who on earth would bring their knitting to an interview?

If you were on a very early shift, you would be escorted across the road to The Langham by a commissionaire and locked in this completely huge, empty building to sleep in a little bedroom on the third floor. Occasionally, in the wee small hours, you would hear the lift doors jangle shut and the lift then slowly rattle and clatter up the shaft. Me? I would snuggle under the blanket and hope it didn’t stop at my floor. Apparently, there are still tales of ghosts being seen, now it has returned to being a hotel.

Many years ago, I met Lady Langham at her home, Tempo Manor, County Fermanagh. During our conversation, she told me John Nash originally meant Regent Street to continue up to Regent’s Park but Langham and he fell out, so Langham built his hotel on that particular site just to annoy Nash and thwart his plans. Not that I can see the logic of that story but that is the tale I was told.

Regards to anyone who remembers me.

Brian Willis Country Antrim

The malpractice of musakOn Radio 4 today, Tuesday 14 January 2020, at 11am, I listened to an episode of Science Stories: ‘How an eel sparked our interest in electricity’. It was a thoroughly enjoyable, interesting programme.

It was followed half an hour later by ‘Art of Now: the Last Exposure’. As usual, there was a too invasive, distracting music track added it, even when they were on Dartmoor! Where was the orchestra on Dartmoor?

The musak was so distracting that I turned the programme off.

Then I realised why I had enjoyed the Science Stories but not the Art of Now, although both were of interest to me.

Science Stories had NO added background musak!

To make sure, I listened again to Science Stories on BBC Sounds – there was no distracting added music. The episode was released on 13 January 2016.

I’m sure we old-timers have been whingeing on about the unnecessary, distracting added music track from before then. So it can be done: programmes can be produced without the distracting music. Why does this malpractice continue?

Bryan Bayliss

Friends with benefitsRegarding your Benefits Update article on Marriage Allowance, this is just to let you know I acted on the information provided and have had a very rewarding outcome!

Without that information, we would not have known that we could claim. Thank you very much!

A satisfied BBC pensioner

5PROSPERO APRIL 2020 |

Love film? Hate intrusive noise

BBC pensioner leaves £1 million legacy to Medway hospital

Were you involved in Moonbase 3 and A Ghost Story for Christmas?

020 8752 6666BBC.CLUB@BBC.CO.UKBBC Club Broadcast Centre, BC2 B3, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TP

Canal cruising BBC Club’s narrow boat is now available to hire at greatly reduced rates for Club members and sleeps up to seven in three separate cabins. You can take friends and family as crew! This year, it is moored at Alvechurch near Birmingham. Training is given at the start of your week. See the website for details: bbcclub.com/connect/canal-cruising

Golf The Golf Society costs £30 per year for Club members. This year’s programme sees visits to some great courses. See the website for more details: bbcclub.com/connect/golf

Rambling BBC Rambling Club organises rambles (usually circular) of between 6 and 12 miles every 3rd Sunday in the Home Counties. Lunch will be at a local pub or bring your own. All abilities welcome! See the website for more details: bbcclub.com/connect/rambling

Prospero The Prospero Society specifically for our retired members has its AGM in April. All details are in the Prospero Society’s newsletter. If you are a retired BBC Club member, you can get the Prospero Society newsletter by email. If you would like a postal copy, you must be a Prospero Society member. Please contact the Club to be added to the email distribution list or to join the Prospero Society.

Future events include theatre trips to 9 to 5 and Hello Dolly (with Imelda Staunton), visits to Trinity House and Buckingham Palace and a ghost walking tour!

BBC Club BBC Club will be upgrading its database in the coming months. If your contact details have changed or you wish to check data held by the Club, please contact us. Please note that BBC Club is a separate company independent of BBC, so no data is shared. BBC Pensions will not inform BBC Club of any updates communicated to them. This is particularly important for lottery members! The database upgrade will include the issuing of new cards to some members. BBC Club aims to make this process as smooth as possible. Cards will be replaced as needed on visiting BBC Club. Current cards will continue to work with the new system – there is no need to request a new card by post or to make a specific trip to change your BBC Club card.

Club Extra You may have noticed that the Club Extra offers section of the website has been replaced by a monthly Club Extra E-newsletter detailing all the current Club offers. Please make sure you add bbc.club@bbc.co.uk to your address book and check your spam folder if you are a member and have not received this. Please note this is NOT available by post.

Bill Holt

My name is Marcus Harmes, an Australian writer on British science fiction and fantasy television.

I have been asked to write production histories of the 1970s BBC programmes Moonbase 3 and A Ghost Story for Christmas.

Much has been written about both, however my particular focus is on the production and what happened behind the cameras. That makes the insights and memories of those who were there in the crew crucial.

Would anyone who worked on these be willing to share their memories with me? I would ask for no more than either 10-15 minutes of your time, or a short email. It would enable documenting for posterity the creative and technical achievements of people working in the studio or on location with film on these well-remembered shows.

Please contact me on marcus.harmes@usq.edu.au

I would like to thank John Hale for his excellent piece ‘Making mixers of us all’ (Prospero, February 2020) and add a few thoughts of my own.

I couldn’t agree more with his comments about Bergerac, Miss Marple and Shoestring re sound quality.

My love of all things ‘film’ started when I moved to Ealing Film Despatch, having been working at St Hilda’s, Maida Vale. In those days, the BBC didn’t try to fit square pegs into round holes. I took redundancy in 1992 after 29 years in the Film Department, but by this time, I had already joined Ealing Video and Film Makers, a well-respected film-making group in the amateur film-making world. Unfortunately, a few years ago because of falling membership, the club had to close.

My love of all things ‘film’ is still as strong as ever, so when I’m watching a programme, apart from enjoyment, part of my brain is switched to the production itself: ‘oh I liked that shot’ or ‘how did they get that angle?’. So, if something jars, I notice it, especially intrusive music.

Two programmes where this really annoyed me were Kavanagh Q.C. and London’s Burning: on one occasion, during a rape trial, the producer added music during a cross examination, while there were other occasions and episodes where music was completely unnecessary.

In London’s Burning, music was even added to a scene where they were fighting a major blaze. As I’ve said before, if the visuals are strong enough, YOU DO NOT NEED MUSIC.

Neville Withers

We received a newsletter cutting about a former BBC engineer, Ralph Barrett, who left a £1 million donation to the Orthopaedic Department of the Medway Hospital Charity in his Will.

Ralph, who died in 2017 aged 95, had had a serious motorbike accident during World War Two and underwent 14 operations to save his leg. During the war he had worked for the Special Operations as an engineer, specialising in clandestine radios.

After the war, Ralph worked for the BBC, becoming a senior engineer. He was heavily involved in the establishment of the Eurovision link and, as a

talented musician and singer, performed and sang on stage, often at the Players Theatre in London.

Ralph's nephew, Glenn, said: ‘He also gave lectures all over the country on the history of radio. Not the normal lecture though! He owned ‘antique’ radio equipment and many other pieces of apparatus which he constructed in his laboratory and used these in his demonstrations. Some lectures were even delivered in character, Marconi being his favourite historical scientist. This equipment now sits in the Radio Museum.

‘As a scientist myself, I am very proud that my uncle lectured at the Royal Institution where so many great scientists also gave lectures.’

Roy Corlett’s obituary of Bill Holt (Prospero, December 2019) was spot on regarding Bill’s calm demeanour.

When I was returning to the Radio Merseyside offices in Sir Thomas Street with the radio car (a Hillman Hunter, I think), it was in the days when you could drive the car even when the aerial/radio mast on top of the car wasn’t fully retracted.

I drove into the underground car park and heard a loud thud. The mast had hit the ceiling and got stuck, with bricks tumbling down. I abandoned the car and went to tell Bill what I had done. Bill smiled, shrugged his shoulders and mumbled under his breath, ‘Journalists!’

Jon (Steve) Kaye

6

PRIME TARGET| MEMORIES

On secondment to South Arabian Broadcasting Service (June 1965-June 1967)

Alan Rowe sent us a copy of a report he wrote for his superiors in 1967, which described life as a broadcasting engineer on secondment in Aden (the Federation of South Arabia, now part of Yemen). As well as facing innumerable technical difficulties and equipment shortages, Alan and his colleagues put their lives on the line as political unrest in the former British Protectorate increased.

I was one of three engineers seconded to the South Arabian Broadcasting Service as a television

broadcasting engineer. My appointment took effect from 14 June 1965 and was for a duration of two years. Approximately six months following my appointment, my designation was changed to that of broadcasting engineer, with responsibilities in both sound and television broadcasting.

Sound broadcasting had been started in Aden in 1956 and on our arrival was firmly established. On the engineering side, studios and outside broadcasting were run by one locally recruited engineer and a nucleus of six competent technical assistants, together with a number of staff in training. The associated transmitters were run and maintained by Cable and Wireless at a site some 10 miles away and served by VHF link.

Television broadcasting, however, had been fully operational for only nine months and most aspects left much to be desired, from both an engineering and production viewpoint.

The studios were sited in a most unfortunate position on the steep side of a rock spur and were housed in an old colonial-style residence which, apart from being too small, was in an advanced state of decay.

The studios were housed in an old colonial-style residence in an advanced state of decay.Installation of equipment had been done by a Thomsons-Pye consortium, initially with the idea of forming a purely commercial service. The installation was done on what appeared to have been a shoestring budget, with what can only be described as a shoddy result.

No doubt this was aggravated by the Federal Government’s decision to take over the concern before completion, resulting in an apparent rushed finish. Most of the wiring was unacceptable by any standard and certain facilities, such as cue lights, were never installed.

Studio set up There were two studios: one small presentation-cum-studio which doubled as the maintenance area, and one larger studio which, although only of the order of 35ft by 18ft, was the main production studio. The former studio was equipped with a modified Pye industrial vidicon and the latter with two Pye Mk V.4” image orthicons. Neither studios had lighting dimmer facilities and neither could have air conditioning in operation during transmission, causing temperatures in the production studio to rise on occasions to 160F during the hot season.

The production studio had a small control room equipped with a simple A-B type Pye vision mixer, two CCPs and two five-way Pye sound mixers looped together. There was also a tape recorder and a turntable. All these were perched upon a long table and all lines were tied direct to their sources or destinations as there were neither vision nor sound jack-fields.

Between the two studios was the master control area, comprising the master switcher and mixer, two Pye vidicon telecine channels with two Philips 16mm film projectors and one slide projector multiplexed station. Two Pye SPGs served associated equipment looped in series, thus dispensing with pulse distribution amplifiers.

Master control’s position also served as control for the presentation studio. The output of the master control chain was then fed to a 1-watt SHF Pye radio link transmitter control unit and thence onto the head and dish assembly on the roof.

Television House also contained a film unit with a Lawley Junior 16mm film processor with dark room and associated equipment for which we were responsible.

Transmitter system On our arrival, the transmitter system consisted of three 100-watt Gates semi-unattended transmitters, two of which were situated on one site. These two CCIR channels 4 and 7 were sited on a 300ft spur some three-quarters of a mile away from the studio and served by the SHF link. Channel 4 served the

Steamer Point, Maalla, Little Aden and Sheik Othman areas, while channel 7 was there temporarily to serve channel 10 transmitter. This latter was situated some 600ft above Crater mainpass and rebroadcast channel 7 signals in the Wade Abyan direction, with a back lobe servicing the Crater district in a rather unsatisfactory manner owing to the nature of the terrain within Crater.

Raw recruits Engineering staff for television consisted initially of two locally recruited technical assistants, originally from sound broadcasting, who had been present during the installation work, together with a fluctuating number of raw recruits. None of these staff had previous television experience and none held the equivalent of GCE ‘O’ Level, although the two senior technical assistants had embarked on a City and Guilds course at the local technical college.

For a while, we introduced Sunday morning lectures but owing to pressure of work and the difficulty in finding a reasonable academic starting point, these were discontinued. Thus with Hughes, our Chief Engineer, tied to office work, it left Christie and myself and the existing staff to maintain, improve and extend facilities, and to run the regular five-hour daily programmes, together with twice-weekly morning schools programmes. This we achieved by working the normal daily hours, plus alternate evenings. We later restricted our evening shifts to those involving live programmes. These we were expected to light and organise soundwise.

Making improvements

Our first improvements involved transmitters, as we were committed to installing channel 7 40 miles up country in Waddi Abyan. This left channel 10 to be linked from the channel 4 site. This was achieved by a passive back-to-back dish assembly set partway up the 100ft channel 4 tower such that the link beam was redirected towards channel 10 transmitter at Crater. Channel 4 link receiver was then supplied by a wave guide T junction. We had considerable problems with this arrangement due to multipath fading, dish misalignment and tower oscillation but it eventually proved successful. I would add at this point that where Christie specialised on the transmitters, I took upon myself the responsibility for radio links, but of course we did overlap. I was therefore also responsible for the back-to-back dish support structure, which itself was outside my previous experience. As we had no standby links system, this caused problems.

On completion, channel 7 rebroadcast channel 10 in a remote area to an unspecified number of viewers. From the start, we were beset with signal to noise problems on the received signal from channel 10. The electricity supply for the area was subject to violent frequency and voltage variations which often resulted in breakdown. These problems, together with its remoteness (20 miles with no road, over sand) and our numbers, resulted in channel 7 transmitter being only a marginal success. Later, it was ransacked by dissidents.

Reception within the Crater area was improved by using a channel 8, 3-watt Marconi translater, rebroadcasting channel 10 up into the two main valleys. This was most successful and reliable and worked with minimum attention until it was very recently burned down by terrorists, whose activities also caused considerable problems when servicing Crater channel 10 transmitter, as we were not allowed to attend without an armed guard, and for several weeks before my departure we were unable to attend at all.

When servicing Crater channel 10 transmitter, we were not allowed to attend without an armed guard.

7PROSPERO APRIL 2020 |

Equipment available for transmitter tests included a side-band analyser, frequency deviation meters, distortion factor meters, and RF watt meter and general purpose T/V test equipment. In general, we felt that the Gates transmitters were not truly of the unattended type as stated and that the Pye link was not as reliable as could be expected. Nevertheless, we had a good service ability record and served the public better than could be expected under the circumstances.

Water cooling Two further interesting engineering enterprises concerned the construction of water-cooling equipment for film processing and the design of sound studios some 400 miles away in Seiyun built entirely of mud.

During the hot season, the mains water temperature rose to the order of 115F, which was found to be detrimental to the film emulsion.The water-cooling project was necessary as, during the hot season, the mains water temperature rose to the order of 115F, which was found to be detrimental to the film emulsion. As we could not afford a standard cooling unit, a series of eight locally-made 20-gallon porous pots were installed on the roof. These were connected in series and their skin evaporation effect produced a reduction in temperature of about 50F at a flow rate of 200 gallons per hour. This proved very successful.

Studios in Seiyun were constructed to accommodate contributors in that remote area. Although these were not completed on my departure, it was envisaged that tapes would be flown into Aden on the weekly air service. Design of these fell to Brian Hughes, our Chief Engineer, and owing to the lack of building materials, proved an interesting exercise.

Security situation A word on the security situation. From the start, broadcasting had been a prime target. On the day of my arrival, a bomb had wrecked two studios in sound broadcasting and a mast had received slight damage.

As time progressed, we were no longer allowed to move in certain areas without armed guards, and a visit to Wadi Abyan would resemble an infantry exercise. We were encouraged to carry firearms at all times but did not avail ourselves of this privilege.

During general strikes, we remained on the air, despite the fact that each local member of staff had been individually threatened. On some occasions, they understandably stayed away and we were left to run the station by ourselves.

On the occasion of the sealing off of Crater, staff had to remain in Television House for days and morale reached a very low ebb. Prior to this, an explosive device all but totally destroyed the sound studios. Fortunately, no one was injured, but it was clear that it had been placed in the link bay by a member of staff. This resulted in the imposition of a Federal army guard in both Television House and the remains of Sound Broadcasting House with instructions to search everyone. As the Federal army had little sympathy for either the Adenis or Europeans, this was the cause of considerable friction.

Our problems culminated in the burning down of our channel 8 translater, the suspected wrecking of channel 7 transmitter, to which access had been impossible for several weeks, and the washing away of the cliff road to channel 4 transmitter. As access to channel 10 transmitter was via Crater, we were also unable to visit this.

Unless the security situation improves rapidly, it is difficult to see how television can be kept going, particularly as at this moment their engineering establishment comprises one European engineer and five technical assistants, only three of whom have more than six months’ experience.

In conclusion, I would like to make special mention of the efforts made by our Chief Engineer, Brian Hughes. With responsibilities ranging from the preparation of Government estimates to P & ID work, he was an inspiration to us all. He rarely left his office before nine in the evening, and worked throughout most public holidays. Despite our problems and without the backing at Permanent Secretary level, which one would have expected, he has achieved much. His decision to remain for a further six months stemmed from his feeling of responsibility towards the South Arabian Broadcasting Service.

Making the best of a bad job In parallel with and subsequent to these transmitter improvements, we also carried out studio improvements. At first, these were rather half hearted as we were under the impression that we were to move to new premises of our own design. Unfortunately, it was not until about nine months had passed that we realised that the necessary money could not be raised. We were then committed to making the best of a bad job.

A new maintenance area was equipped, an air-conditioning tower block was put out to tender, and the production studio control room was re-equipped with a new Marconi sound mixer, new jackfields, concrete ducting and steel frames for all equipment.

Orders were placed for racks, further vision and sound jackfields, videotape recorders and associated Das and PDAs with a view to installing a new telecine and VT suite on the first floor.

Plans were made for a further 60ft by 40ft studio block to be built onto the existing structure, and alternative office space was provided for production and commercial staff. Again, however, after several months of prevarication, the extension studio was turned down for financial reasons. Simulcast transmissions were introduced during this period and the presentation studio was furnished with a mixer of our own construction to accommodate this.

Had we known from the outset that we were to remain in this building, plans and orders for equipment could have been made months earlier. As it was, with delivery times of even ‘off the shelf’ equipment taking up to 13 months, with many items being short landed due to harbour strikes, the first-floor telecine suite was only just completed before my departure. The videotape machines were still to be installed.

Postscript: Some months after my return, I was strap-hanging on the Central Line when by an extraordinary coincidence, I found myself shoulder to shoulder with a contemporary SABS employee. During the conversation, he admitted to being an NLF agent. He also explained how fortunate we three had been and went on to explain why we were spared. This was shocking news to me as I had naively assumed that as we were bringing progress to the Federation, we were unconditionally welcome. This was apparently not what Abdul Nasser told his troops.

Steve, who had developed close connections with the military, left the state just in time to avoid something very nasty.

I missed the cut as I had a baby son, and this scored highly.

Brian was thought to be slightly alternative and of some continued value to the Front.

Our expat news reader colleague, a member of the High Commission, was tragically not so fortunate.

8

A GOLDEN AGE OF FILM| MEMORIES

I joined the BBC Film Department in 1963 and it’s amazing how television has changed since…Then, it was impossible to record TV images electronically

and the BBC had to use film to record programmes for re-showing.

Many producers came from the film industry and loved the medium. They could leave the restrictions of the studio and be more creative when it came to editing. Several highly skilled cameramen, perhaps more appropriately called ‘Directors of Photography’, were also joined by sound recordists, film editors, grips and electricians who formed the basis of a group of highly qualified technicians that staffed the BBC’s Film Department, eventually based at Ealing Film Studios. All filming was in black initially, using 35mm cameras, that is until David Attenborough persuaded the management to let him use the less expensive and more convenient 16mm on his first Zoo Quest programmes.

Ealing staff were reluctant to use 16mm, which they regarded as an amateur gage, and David had to employ a freelance, Charles Lagos, to do the work. However, when 35mm costs increased, and professional 16mm cameras such as the Arriflex SR became available, the use of the narrower gage gave Ealing a new lease of life. Kodak also improved its Eastman colour film sufficiently for the Film Department to compete as electronic cameras were introduced.

In those days, film cameras were not fitted with such devices as automatic exposure and focusing. All settings had to be adjusted manually.

Also, film was not very sensitive compared to digital cameras, consequently many locations required lighting.

Once exposed, the film had to be sent to a laboratory for processing and was normally not available for viewing until the following morning. This meant that directors and producers absolutely relied on cameramen to get the shots they required and trusted that once in the cutting room, it could be edited satisfactorily. Today, it seems to be an archaic system, but Ealing was using the very latest methods and available technology.

At its height, the Film Department employed more than 80 camera crews with associated staff, becoming one of the largest film units in the world. It is estimated that at its peak, 80 per cent of television was made on film. Dr Bronowski’s Ascent of Man, Alistair Cooke’s America, The Royal Family, Cathy Come Home and Civilisation were among the countless all-film blockbusters, while ‘live’ programmes such as Z-cars, Doctor Who and Dad’s Army often contained numerous film sequences.

The programmes Ealing staff helped to make were shown around the world and highly praised – hardly a week went by without TV critics applauding their craftsmanship. But, inevitably, these methods became outdated. Hopefully my book, full of personal memories and anecdotes from a vibrant era, will ensure that although those days are now long past, they will not be entirely forgotten.

Henry Farrar worked at the BBC as an assistant and then film cameraman for 30 years, working on series such as Whicker’s World, Blue Peter, Panorama, Royal Heritage, Horizon and The World About Us. Copies of A Golden Age in Film are available direct from the author, price £15.00 which includes P&P, to:

Henry Farrar 2 Farriers Close Escrick YO19 6ST

When visiting The National Science and Media Museum in Bradford a few years ago, I was disappointed to discover that, even though one entire floor was dedicated to the BBC, there were no exhibits that recognised the work of Ealing Film Studios. In fact, I saw little in the museum that represented any British film studio – it seemed as if the entire film industry had never existed. Because of that visit, I decided to write A Golden Age in Film before the work we did at Ealing was completely ignored, forgotten and lost in history.

CLIFFS & RIGGERSIt was with great sadness that I read of the death

of Tony Smith in the February issue of Prospero. He was one of those ‘once met, never forgotten’

characters, who always managed the extra mile in all that he did. I met him many times during the course of my career but remember him mostly for the time I shared with him and his team of riggers in April 1980.

At that time, we were working together at the Fitfull Head relay station at the southern end of Shetland. The station was situated a short distance from the edge of a cliff which towered 1,000ft above the Atlantic, where rollers dissipated their energy with a thunderous roar at the end of their unimpeded journey from distant Newfoundland.

As you can imagine, being at 60º North and exposed on all sides, the weather could at times be quite horrendous. And so it was when Tony and his team arrived in April. There they were, shut in and unable to work for many a day in a building no larger than 10ft by 8ft.

I was also present with a technician, transmitters, and all the paraphernalia you would expect at a small transmitting station. Sometimes the available space was further reduced by a visit from a member of the Bressay maintenance team. To say that it was crowded would have been an understatement.

It was at times like this that Tony the raconteur came into his own, with his anecdotes and witty repartee helping to pass the long hours waiting for

a break in the weather. Even the uncomfortable challenge of going outside for comfort break became a humorous interlude, with many a remark referring to the challenges met by Scott on his last expedition.

Eventually of course the weather improved, as it always does, and the work got done. At the end of our sojourn there was the need to remove an unwanted 6ft diameter microwave dish from the site. Ordinarily, it would have been cut up for scrap but I thought this was a terrible waste at a time when many colleagues were becoming interested in experimenting with satellite reception and could make use of it. I asked Tony if it was possible to transport it south. ‘No problem’, he said. And true to his word he loaded it on top of the BBC Land Rover and (except for the sea crossing to Aberdeen) drove it all the way to London. It ended its life on top of a Technical College in South East London, where it was incorporated into their first satellite receiving station. Thanks to Tony.

In Tony’s obituary, written by Margaret Smith and Peter Condron, mention is made of Tony’s artistic gift and amusing work cartoons. I was one of the lucky recipients of one of his cartoons, which was presented to me on my retirement in 1994. It was based on my last major project, which was the 9ft satellite dish that overhung the scenery block at TV Centre. At an early stage of this project, a major problem arose when water penetrated the antenna feed horn, causing several thousand pounds’ worth of damage. The many birds that were flying around the catering block became the main suspects. Birds had been known to

have a predilection for pecking holes in the thin diaphragm that protected the mouths of feed horns at other sites. I think it’s a feeding instinct as, on a post-retirement visit to TV Centre, I noticed dead worms hanging through the diaphragm of several of the smaller dishes.

In Tony’s cartoon, he identifies the measures necessary to prove the cause of the damage, and those necessary to resolve the problem. Of course, when you received one of Tony’s cartoons, there was always a price to pay – and it was normally being humorously mocked in the caption. I’ve attached a copy of the cartoon together with the caption. Then and now, I still find it humorous, even though I was the subject of the joke.

These days it can be difficult know what is acceptable for publication and what is not. I hope the cartoon does not offend anyone but if it does, sorry in advance.

James SmithEx Transmission Department

9PROSPERO APRIL 2020 |

on the HORIZONAlec Nisbett

50 years of BBC Television Science from the History of Climate Change via AIDS to Black Holes in Space

Horizon is the BBC’s flagship science programme that has shared ground-

breaking research with viewers for more than 50 years to help them make

sense of the world around them.Alec Nisbett, described on a History of the BBC website as ‘the

quintessential Horizon producer’ directed and also wrote most of his 42

episodes of the series from 1969 to 1995. In On the Horizon he shares his

memories of developing the iconic documentary and telling world and

life-changing stories. From the birth of the environmental movement in

the 1960s to the terrifying and rapid rise of AIDS; dramatic illustrations of

the power of seatbelts to save lives to an influential survey of the dangers

of smoking, Alec was at the forefront of explaining the latest scientific and

medical advances to the public. On the Horizon is an affectionate but not

uncritical look at the history of the BBC as well as a tribute to the power of

television science documentary. His Horizon films include:Cancer Now (1969)The Insect War (1970)Smokers’ Luck (1980) Killer in The Village (1983) Aircrash: The Burning Issue (1987)Food Irradiation: Would You Buy It (1990)

Hubble Vision (1994)The Runaway Mountain (1995)

on the

HO

RIZO

NA

lec Nisb

ett

50 years of BB

C

Television Science from

the History of C

limate

Change via A

IDS to

Black H

oles in Space

STORIES FROM THE SUDAN

L ake Victoria flows north into the Sudan, where half of it disappears. In a vast wetland, ‘the Sudd’, it evaporates, denying its largesse to the Arabs of

North Sudan and also Egypt, with its population growing by a million every 15 months. The two countries had commissioned French engineers to dig a 360-mile canal to bypass that great swamp – to the chagrin of South Sudan’s Dinka tribesmen whose way of life depended on the annual ebb and flow of its waters.

In 1904, British engineers had proposed a canal starting from a village called Jonglei, but it was not until 1978, after independence and war between the Arab Northern Sudan and the tribal South that, acceptable or not, a gargantuan rotating bucketwheel began ripping its way across one of the flattest landscapes on Earth.

For me to secure the co-operation of the French via their HQ in Paris was difficult enough, but for permission to travel from North to South Sudan, I had to fly to Khartoum and seek the Irrigation Minister’s blessing before confirming the booking of a three-man crew (the minimum permitted by Ealing). My plan was to make a three-day journey south along the White Nile to get to the Canal, with stops along the way to film the Sudan’s existing irrigation schemes, which the Minister was determined to develop into ‘the breadbasket of the Arab world’. The South, he suggested, might eventually benefit, too.

I had managed to borrow a UN Land Rover and driver get us there. The vehicle would be heavily loaded, with five people, luggage, all our gear and extra cans of fuel. What we didn’t find out until well under way, was that the driver would embed bags of profitably resaleable salt below our own cargo which, along with the washboard dirt-road conditions, on the second day would break our suspension. We had spent one night beleaguered on the porch of a wayside police station but, a stroke of luck, on the second evening spotted the tented lights of a well-provisioned extreme-tourist expedition, the required desert hospitality of which offered overnight shelter and a cooked breakfast.

After requiring that our driver donate his contraband to a more deserving wayside community, we limped cautiously through the bleak streets of Malakal at the edge of the Sudd, passing the mouth of the Canal, to reach the French base-camp… only to discover that their monstrous canal-cutting bucketwheel had just ground to a halt.

The UN Land Rover was kindly repaired by the well-equipped French and was sent home, while we moved in to windowless, twin-bedded but air-conditioned cells in a container truck. Our hosts would have, more grudgingly than local custom required, offered us free hospitality, but to maintain independence, we insisted on paying and saw their brows lighten – as they set a surprisingly modest fee.

Derek Banks and his camera assistant bunked (with all their gear) in one cabin, while I and Rodney Bond (sound) shared another. Then we waited… while I struggled to find scenes to shoot that might enrich our film.

We had come to see a 2,200-ton German-built monstrosity that originally cost $40 million but had been standing idle since finishing a job in the Indus Valley. Sold on for a song and re-erected here, it was the height of a ten-storey block of flats on caterpillar tracks. On a good day it might cut a quarter-mile of canal. But we could film it only as it stood, crippled and forlornly marooned.

We shot the contractors’ efforts to repair it and, having seen enough of that, a sketch of life in the enclosed compound. Borrowing a boat and local navigator, we explored the erratic papyrus-lined byways of the swamp, to show its wildlife – mostly hippos, crocodiles and a plethora of colourful birds. We saw oversized papyrus canoes used for spear-fishing or local transport, struggling to penetrate huge rafts of the perniciously invasive water-hyacinth, one of the fastest-growing plants known, that increasingly threatened to obstruct the swamp.

A Dinka tribesman, who had crossed the ethnic divide to study at the University of Khartoum and was now working for the Jonglei Commission, told us: ‘Since the days of the British, the South has been backward. Then after Independence in 1956, the Northerners got the same position as the British. They did not develop the South, which was growing more backward as the North grew more advanced.’

We really needed to show the Dinka culture in action, particularly at a travelling cattle camp of the tribesmen whose life and customs would be most disrupted by the diversion of the Nile’s waters. But such camps were far to the south, and there was no road. No bucketwheel action; no accessible cattle camp. What could we do? Just find somewhere cool to read a book. Wait for something to turn up.

Then, suddenly it did – problem solved by the helpful pilot of a passing plane, an Islander that touched down on a stretch of completed embankment that was intended to become the Sudd-bypass section of a Cairo-to-the-Cape main road. He offered us a lift on his next leg, an overnight excursion to the south, where we hired a local guide to take us to the nearest Dinka camp and negotiate permission to film. For that, we would offer the tribesmen a small gift, a carton of cigarettes and some money (five Sudanese pounds), to be described in BBC accounting as a ‘facility fee’.

That camp, when we finally got there, was dramatically photogenic. Low evening light filtered through veils of dust and smoke from myriad dried-dung, end-of-day fires, with groups of young tribesmen squatting around them. They kept cattle, not for their meat (eaten only after a natural death) but more for their aesthetic qualities: their shapes, patterns, colours and manicured horns.

On the Horizon is a newly-published anthology of stories from the early years of BBC Two’s flagship science series. Here, former Horizon producer Alec Nisbett shares an extract from the book which looks at one of his most challenging productions, Lost Waters of the Nile (1979).

Serenading a favoured beast, a Dinka warrior would sing of his own strength, courage and of the girls he hoped to marry, but he would need 50 of these cows to exchange for a bride. His food was milk and curds, preserved by a little cow’s urine. Their faces were white with powdered ash, which protected their skin from the flies that were beginning to blacken our own faces, while our guide conferred with some tribesmen.

Facility gift donated, we started quickly, to catch the best of that magical light.

But our guide, from a different tribe and knowing little of Dinka customs and organisation, had asked the wrong people. We discovered this the hard way, when a young, tall, elegant, very lightly but ornately clad warrior, the real leader of the cattle camp, strode briskly toward us, ordered us to stop (as far as we could tell, but confirmed by our guide) then marched us to a central concourse, where we were put on some sort of trial conducted in a language that we could not understand. We stood respectfully at ease, trying to look as nonchalant as possible.

At the end, our judge delivered his verdict, translated as a haughty, ‘If you had been Arab, we would have killed you.’

So, no problem! We were not Arab. Might we please continue filming? Yes, we gathered, provided we come back tomorrow with more cigarettes and paper money. No! – another voice joined in – for a large camp with two chiefs we must bring two duty-free cartons and five-pound notes! We nodded politely. Indeed, the requirement to return was providential. because it was getting dark and the camera was playing up, so we really did need to return at dawn to complete the shoot in a single continuous take, because if we switched the camera off between shots it might never start again. Framing scenes for a few seconds at a time, we saw women milking cows, took close-ups of faces plus such other cutaways as could be captured in the superb early morning light: cattle being driven out to rich pasture, depositing their own final gifts of urine and cow pats as they left – all in the ten minutes before our single roll of film ran out.

So ended the first highlight in a long string of potentially budget-busting problems. For more, see On the Horizon which, throughout, pays grateful tribute to the BBC staff I worked with or alongside. If your name is not there and should be, please let me know.

ADDENDUM: The canal was never finished, and South Sudan is again in the news as a state on the verge of failure.

| OBITUARIES

Documentary director and producer

Julia Cave, documentary director and producer, whose films ranged from ancient history to the work of our finest contemporary painters, has died aged 82. Setting aside drama school offers, Julia began her

BBC career in the late 1950s in the Arabic Service at Bush House, as assistant to the famous but fearsome Dr Lionel Basri, converting him from a file-throwing ogre into a good friend.

Soon she moved to television, initially as a researcher on the panel game What’s my Line? where, owing to the incumbent’s indisposition, she was promoted to studio director – a baptism of fire, learning on the job and working with household names such as Gilbert Harding (who possessed many of the ferocious traits of Dr Basri!)

With studio skills and a reputation for being a good ‘people person’, Julia was then invited to join Tony Essex’s team preparing The Great War, which would be part of the launch of BBC Two in 1964. On film, she interviewed survivors from all ranks and all walks of life. Still only 26, she had the gift of listening and eliciting unique personal stories.

Following a spell directing Patrick Moore’s The Sky at Night, Julia was recruited by producer Paul Johnstone to become a founder member of his new History & Archaeology Unit. Its flagship programme, Chronicle, was one of a raft of specialised series initiated by Controller BBC Two, David Attenborough. It was here I first met Julia and our 50-year friendship began. In the studio but principally as film director, she remained with the Unit until the mid-70s, making memorable documentaries – many presented by Magnus Magnusson – on ancient cultures especially in Egypt, Greece and the Near East.

The last third of Julie’s BBC career was spent with Music and Arts Department, where she worked with, among others, Robert Hughes on contemporary arts documentaries.

In 1998, Channel 4 commissioned The Fake Van Goghs, which Julia proposed, directed and produced with me as executive producer. It won for Julia and Third Eye Productions Channel 4’s award for best arts programme of the year.

David Collison

Remembering John JonesJohn Jones, who adorned the Appointments Department for many years, died aged 90 in November 2019, having suffered from dementia for over a decade. He died at home surrounded by his devoted family.

I didn’t know John when he was at the BBC but got to know him through meeting him as a volunteer visitor. He insisted on saving me the trouble of walking to his place, coming to me. He didn’t need visits as he had family and friends plus good health, but we kept in touch.

John was born in Porthcawl in 1929, the youngest child of William and Nora Jones, his father being a Regimental Sergeant Major in the Welch Regiment. Educated in local schools, John did National Service in the Royal Signals before joining the BBC as a probationary technical assistant at 200 Oxford Street in August 1953. In 1955, he married Beryl Helliwell.

John was tall and dignified and full of energy, striding cheerfully around the streets of East Sheen in South West London. His manner was kindly and gentle, but with a serious engagement with what was going on in the BBC and the wider world. His was public-spirited

10

with a wry sense of humour, which was absolutely right for Appointments, chairing interview boards alongside personnel (now HR), conducting proceedings with integrity to ensure fair play. He was totally committed to the BBC as the commanding heights of public service broadcasting and had a strong personal sense of public service. He worked his way up in Appointments & Grading and retired in 1989.

Having met John through the BBC, I was delighted to become friends with Beryl and other members of the family, including their children Andrew and Elizabeth and grandson Edward, who all survive him.

People commonly comment what a ‘lovely family’ the Joneses are. They have always been close and found John’s dementia very painful to see as he gradually declined. The loving care that Beryl gave John was extraordinary in its selflessness, with wonderful support from other members of the family.

Giles Oakley

World Service accountantGul Lilarum, who worked as an accountant for BBC World Service in the 70s and 80s, died on 7 November 2019 in St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington.

I worked with Gul from 1977 in the Programme Executive/Accounting Services Department of what was then BBC External Services and kept in touch with him ever since.

Gul was one of the nicest men you could have known. He played a very active role in the BBC Club Ariel Wine and Beer Society, as treasurer, until his kidney problems meant he had to give up wine and beer, something that he always enjoyed, always in moderation of course.

Another passion of his was watching cricket and many a day was spent at Oval test matches over the years cheering England on, with mixed results. I’m sure all who knew him will mourn his passing and raise a glass of something in his memory.

Roger Stocker

Original Radio Sheffield engineer When Radio Sheffield

celebrated its 50th birthday in November 2017, we met in the Victorian mansion, our first home, now a school. Telling the children about those testing early days was Peter Mason.

One of the original engineers who helped set up the new radio station, Peter died on Christmas Day at the age of 76.

His stories – often hilarious – went down a bomb with the children… how he and his wife Lorna scoured Sheffield for egg boxes to act as acoustic treatment in the ballroom and how Nellie the cleaner took the station off air when she plugged in her vacuum cleaner.

No job description could accurately describe what was required of a local radio engineer in 1967. The answer was anything from fixing transmitters, radio cars and tape recorders to rewiring a studio. We left Peter and his colleague Ken Beard to get on with it – soldering irons burning until midnight.

But Peter’s greatest delight was outside broadcasts – brass bands, the Sheffield Show, the Torchlit Carol Service, election night and many more. He was never fazed by the most daunting of tasks, taking great pride in getting the job professionally done on a shoestring.

If he had any gripes, he kept them to himself – except when reporters failed to put their Uhers on charge!

Peter was a key foundation stone of those pioneering days – versatile and energetic. His quiet supportive style was a joy to work with.

What began as a two-year experiment was to last almost 30 year, before Peter took voluntary redundancy. He loved Sheffield and walking in the nearby Peak District and spent his retirement serving the community by helping the blind or disabled and driving doctors for Healthcall.

Our deepest sympathies go to Lorna, Catherine, David, Jennifer and eight grandchildren.

Michael Barton

Trailblazer in a man’s worldJust two weeks after we celebrated her 100th birthday, Margaret (Peggy) Walker died peacefully in her bed.

She was born in Leeds in 1920 where she went to school. During the war, she was a driver in the army based in Salisbury.

Peggy joined BBC Radio in Leeds in 1949, as a secretary. She soon realised that the future was in television, which was just getting off the ground, and so she transferred to the Manchester studios. She was secretary to some of the well-known programme directors and she cut her teeth on the fledgling outside broadcasts, doing sporting events such as the Grand National and the Open. She ended helping to direct the programmes.

When a vacancy came up as a director she applied. Since she had proved her potential by doing the job regularly over a number of years, she got the job over some who were more qualified but less experienced than she.

She took over as director of Call My Bluff when it was sent up to Manchester from London and she made it a hit with audiences for many years. She also directed the Mancunian versions of A Spoonful of Sugar, amongst many others.

She finished her career directing the Manchester edition of Look North and retired in 1980 back to Harrogate in her native Yorkshire.

She never married – it would have been impossible in the 1960s to have had a career and a family; you could say that she was married to her job.

Recently she had not been well, having been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s six years ago.

She will be dearly missed by her extended family.

Andrew Walker

Radio 2 producerJohn Meloy worked for the BBC for 44 years. He always knew that he wanted to have a career concerned with music. He joined the BBC in 1950 and his first job was in television accounts. When not working, he used his time to study harmony and orchestration and go to concerts, including attending all the Promenade Concerts he could afford, to further his musical education.

He always enjoyed singing and joined choirs, including the Ariel Choral Society where he met his future wife, Pat.

His next job was in the BBC Music Library, concentrating on orchestral work. One of his duties was now working on the Proms with musicians he had previously admired, and on programmes such as Friday Night is Music Night.

John worked in television and radio and was a producer on Radio 2 for many years. When he left the BBC, he wrote that, ‘It had been a magic journey and I thoroughly enjoyed each and every stage of it’ and also that his chief pleasure had always been, and still was, ‘live performance’. This remained true throughout his life.

11PROSPERO APRIL 2020 |

He became a principal friend of the LPO, where he enjoyed many concerts and loved to attend the open rehearsals. John attended his final LPO concert in October 2019 when he was 91.

The final concert he attended, however, was at the Watford School of Music to see his grandson play violin last December. This made him so happy and proud.

After a short illness, he died in the Peace Hospice in Watford. He leaves behind Pat, his wife of 59 years, and two children Stephen and Julia. He will be sadly missed and fondly remembered by family and friends.

Julia Meloy

Telephone Systems engineer

George ‘Ron’ Renton died on 19 November 2019, aged 87.

Following his National Service in the Army, Ron had a long career in the BBC Lines/ Communications/Transmission Departments, the major part of which was spent within the Telephone Systems section.

Ron managed many, varied telephone projects but by far the largest and most costly single project that he led was the replacement of the telephone systems at Broadcasting House, Television Centre, Bush House and Villiers House.

The selected replacement system was the EBX 8000 (configured for more than 12,000 extensions in total) and multi-million-pound contracts were placed in 1980 with Philips Business Systems Ltd. A new multi-storey building was provided for the TVC replacement system, which went live in 1982 (as did the Villiers House and Bush House systems) followed, in August 1983, by the replacement system for London BH. The project had many facets: whole buildings were re-wired; user requirements had to be sought, assessed and collated; a new Directory Enquiry system was needed. Altogether, it was a mammoth undertaking, spanning some five years!

Ron was an experienced and knowledgeable engineer with a quiet, gentle disposition — although he would be firm and assertive when he thought it necessary.

He was an active supporter of the BBC Social Club and, in particular, the Engineering Society where, as Secretary, his friendly character was able to persuade many speakers to visit and provide talks and presentations.

Ron retired from the BBC in December 1990. He was an accomplished bridge player and a nature-lover, particularly enjoying the birdlife in Kelsey Park, close to his home in Beckenham.

His funeral service was held on 12 December at The Church of St Edmund of Canterbury, Beckenham followed by the committal at Beckenham Crematorium.

Our sympathy is with Ron’s family who survive him.

Douglas Malone

Schools TV secretary who worked her way up

Gill Reed grew up mostly in the West Indies, where her father was Director of Education, based in Barbados.

She came to England when she was 18 and did a secretarial course in London before becoming a secretary in Broadcasting House, living in a BBC hostel.

In 1965 she transferred to Schools TV and became PA to John Miller. She had an ideal temperament for

television, especially the live Current Affairs programmes for secondary schools. Nothing ever threw her, and she was tact personified in nudging me to make script and casting decisions in good time.

She knew her way around all the technical departments we dealt with and cheerfully worked late through the evening when necessary.

My annual reports were so enthusiastic that she was promoted to researcher, then assistant producer to Paul Mitchell making careers programmes. She became a producer-director, specialising in programmes to give school leavers a feeling for the world of work. She made a series of 20-minute documentaries, filming in offices and factories up and down the country. Her focus was always on the young people working there. She engaged with them easily and encouraged them to speak freely about the pros and cons of their chosen profession or industry.

In Children’s TV, she worked with Pat Farrington on Look and Read, The Boy from Space, You and Me and Watch. She was one of the very few people in the BBC who worked her way up from being a secretary without a degree to assistant producer.

She married Walter Plummer, a leading film sound recordist, and their son Jamie was born in 1978. She made lifelong friends in the department; some of whom would join her on family holidays in Barbados.

When she retired from the BBC, she continued to demonstrate her interest in young people by working as a classroom assistant at her local school in Princes Risborough. Once she retired, she was largely occupied looking after her husband, Walter, who had suffered a serious stroke. Gill died of pneumonia in January and is survived by her husband Walter and their son Jamie.

John Miller and Paul Mitchell

Niall Kennedy, cinematographerWhen l learned of Niall’s passing shortly before Christmas last year, I found myself re-living a host of memories and stories, for he and I had worked together as a camera team for close on five years at TFS Ealing.

Our travels took us to many distant locations as well as assignments in ‘home waters’ –firstly treading the blustery, rain-swept decks of sailing ships shooting film inserts for four series of The Onedin Line, where toughness and good humour were tested to their fullest. Niall had both qualities in spades. Along with this, his meticulous planning and attention to detail made each assignment run smoothly wherever we were deployed. There were moments of panic but Niall’s approach always worked to the benefit and often the relief of all.

In one short period of six months in 1978, I lost both my parents and returned from filming to London. On each occasion, Niall took over as cameraman and produced spectacular footage – making a mockery of being informed when he first joined the Film Department that he would never be promoted to that role. On my return, he showed me kindness and understanding, the characteristics that defined him.

In due course, he was promoted and went on to create a fine body of work. Modestly describing himself as a ‘jobbing cameraman’, he was much more than that, offering technical skill and artistry whatever the project, and making friends with whoever he worked with. He was always in demand.

On his climb to the top at TFS, he built a reputation that earned him the accord of being an Ealing stalwart, with laughter and a smile that endeared him to all fortunate enough to share his company.

John Walker

Leeds TV’s female camerawomanAda Hakeney (nee Green), who has died aged 87 after a stroke, worked for an opticians and the Ministry of Supply before joining the BBC in Birmingham in 1954, but after a week was sent to Manchester.

There, she was a technical operator in the Lines Control Room, before it was discovered 16 years later that she could not hear stereo sound.

We had become friends over the control lines, so she moved to the Leeds TV studio, where she was welcomed, especially by comedian Charlie Williams, who mentioned her and her camera in every programme in his North Region series, as she was the first camerawoman he had worked with.

Ada took a Grade C course at Evesham and passed, even though she spent a fortnight of the time in Ronkswood Hospital. She had to leave BBC Leeds in 1977 when we married, as I got a post in Cardiff.

However, Ada was soon asked to rejoin to operate (and maintain) Cardiff telecine.

After retirement in 1992, we returned to East Yorkshire, where she did voluntary work with the WRVS. Her favourite pastime was baking wedding and birthday cakes – especially lemon drizzle.

In 2014, Ada was asked by Newcastle and De Montfort universities to contribute to their Oral History of Women in Film and Television project. This has resulted in 28 half-hour interviews, now online.

Joe Hakeney

Specialist motorcycle cameramanChris Wickham, who has died after a short illness, joined the BBC as a trainee cameraman in 1959.

He spent the 60s at Television Centre, Lime Grove and Riverside studios and did occasional attachments to Television Outside Broadcasts at Kendal Avenue. In 1975, he managed to transfer to Tel. OBs and became a camera supervisor. By the early 1990s, he was a lighting cameraman working mainly on single-camera shoots with a sound recordist and an electrician.

He was also a specialist motorcycle cameraman, covering many cycling and athletics events including The Milk Race, The London Marathon and The Great North Run.

His work took him all over the world but one programme that made a deep and lasting impression was a trip to Nepal to shoot a documentary about the Gurkhas. His experiences there gave him a lifelong interest in this proud race.

He studied navigation at night school and qualified as a skipper of the BBC yacht. He would sometimes set out to sea with a crew of senior BBC management who, by law, had to obey the reasonable orders of a lowly cameraman.

In 1996, he took redundancy with early retirement and went back to his old job as a freelance.

After 10 years, he had a heart attack and stopped work altogether.

His many interests included military history, and, with four other BBC pensioners, he visited most of the Great War battlefields between the North Sea and the Swiss border. Chris made copious notes and with many of his photographs, we would produce a booklet of our discoveries.

He met Heather Thorburn (ex-BBC) in 1982, married her in 1983 and their son, Jonathan arrived in 1984.

Chris died on 30 December 2019 aged 78 years.

A gentle man, he will be sorely missed by us all.

Alex Thomas

Designed and produced by Wordshop - J-070089

| ODDS & ENDS

12

| ODDS & ENDS

12

In 1975, Sue Lochead walked up the steps of the BBC Network Centre in Manchester and asked for a job. She filled in a form and three months later was asked to come and work as Secretary for the then Head of Centre. She quickly moved to working in Radio when David Hatch, the then Head of Radio 4 in Manchester, asked her set up the Radio 4 Today office, with Brian Redhead presenting from Manchester and John Timpson in London.

Caption competitionThe winner of a £10 shopping voucher is Geoff Mitchell, with the caption: ‘Skilfully crafted; a lot of thought must have gone into making that. Yes. But what is it?’

Post your entry to Prospero by Monday, 4 May 2020.

Or, you can email your entry to prospero@bbc.co.uk, with ‘caption competition 3’ in the subject line. Please include your BBC pension number. Good luck!

The picture shows Paddy McGuinness and Freddie Flintoff in Top Gear as they journey across Nepal.

POETRY IN PROSPERO

BBC Radio London, 50 years onRadio London celebrates 50 years since the original station opened in Hanover Square with a reunion on 6 October in central London.

If you’d like to reminisce about the old days in Hanover Square and Marylebone High Street when editing involved razor blades and yellow pencils, music came from the Canadian Talent Library, and Twitter was confined to the Countryside of London, come and join us.

More information from Ann Kaye: ann@annkaye.com

RED BUTTON SWITCH OFF SUSPENDED

Queries For benefit and pension payroll queries, call the Service Line on 029 2032 2811 or email mypension@bbc.co.uk.

Prospero To remove a name from the distribution list, ring the Service Line on 029 2032 2811. Prospero is provided free of charge to retired BBC Scheme members only. Prospero is also available on audio disc for those with sight impairment. To register, please ring the Service Line. Alternatively, it is also available online at bbc.com/mypension, under ‘Documents’.

BBC Club The BBC Club in London has a retired membership costing £3 per month or £36 per year. Members can also add friends and family to their membership for a small additional cost. Regional clubs may have different arrangements. Please call the BBC Club London office on 020 8752 6666 or email bbc.club@bbc.co.uk for details, or to join.

Benevolent Fund This is funded by voluntary contributions from the BBC and its purpose is to protect the welfare of staff, pensioners and their families.

Grants are made at the discretion of the Trustees. They may provide assistance in cases of unforeseen financial hardship, for which help from other sources is not available. Tel: 029 2032 2811

Prospero Society Prospero Society is the only section of the BBC Club run by and for retired BBC staff and their spouses. Its aim is to enable BBC pensioners to meet on a social basis for theatre visits, luncheons, coach outings, etc.

Prospero Society is supported by BBC Club funds so as to make events affordable. If you would like an application form, please contact:

Gayner Leach, BBC Club, BC2 B3 Broadcast Centre, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TP

Tel: 020 8752 6666 Email: bbc.club@bbc.co.uk.

BBCPA The BBCPA was founded in 1988 to promote and safeguard the interests of BBC pensioners. It is independent of the BBC. For details of how to join, see the panel on page 5 or download a membership form at bbcpa.org.uk.

CONTACTS

In 1978, she moved on to Television Production, becoming one of the early handful of women television directors

at the time, making films, producing television series and specialising in directing live television for Children’s TV and General Features TV for the network.

Sue has recently published two collections of poetry: Revelation – An Exploration of Life Through Poetry and Sacred Place – Poetry as Seen

and Unseen. Both are published by Wordcatcher and are available on Amazon.

In 1985, Sue went through what she describes as a ‘transformative experience’ that changed her whole perspective on life, and she has spent the second half of her life dedicated to studying Esoteric Philosophy and Spirituality, Christian Hermeticism, Perennial Wisdom and

Prospero Classifieds, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, 3 Central Square, Cardiff, CF10 1FT.

Please enclose a cheque made payable to: BBC Central Directorate. Rate: £6 for 20 words. In a covering letter, please include your pension number.

CLASSIFIEDSMenorca. Stunning detached villa with private pool. Sleeps 2-7. Es Castell. Close to amenities, bars & restaurants. Air conditioned. Brochure: 07860 232854. www.menorcaholidayvilla.co.uk

Andalucia, Spain. Modern villa south of Granada, 20 metres from beach. Traditional fishing village. Sleeps 8. Email for brochure: kaymarilynbrooks@gmail.com

The Divine Feminine. This became the major underlying influence in her poetry.

She has been writing poetry over a period of 20 years. Her poetry is mostly soul searching and spiritual in content, as well as drawing on life experience and nature for inspiration.

Sue has published several collections of poetry, and also won a Waterstones competition for best poem.

In the February issue of Prospero, we reported that the BBC was planning to switch off the BBC Red Button service. Shortly after that issue went to print – and a day before it was due to have started being phased out – the BBC announced it was suspending the closure.

The news came days after a petition, organised by the National Federation of the Blind of the UK (NFBUK), was handed into the BBC and Downing Street.

BBC director general Tony Hall said he would examine the concerns and make ‘a fresh decision’ in the spring.

The NFBUK called the news ‘fantastic’ and said it was looking forward to working with Mr Collins, the BBC and the British Deaf Association ‘for a better resolution’.

Its petition expressed concerns that the removal of the service would ‘leave many people, who are already vulnerable, further isolated and marginalised from society’.

To be explored in more depth In a letter to Damian Collins MP, Lord Hall said the BBC had heard from organisations, MPs and members of the public about its decision to phase out the service.

‘People have expressed their concern that the closure of Red Button text service could negatively affect elderly people and people with disabilities,’ the letter read.

‘These are issues which I feels [sic] deserve to be explored in more depth... so we have decided to suspend its closure pending further work in that area.’

Lord Hall said the service would continue ‘as close as possible to its current state for the time being’.

His pledge was echoed by Matthew Postgate, the BBC’s chief technology and product officer, who said the corporation would ‘listen carefully and with an open mind to the views which have been expressed’.

Red Button text – which enables headlines, football scores, weather and travel news to be read on TV sets – launched in 1999, taking over as Ceefax was phased out.

Last year, a BBC spokesperson said the decision to close the service had not been taken lightly and that the resources that maintained it would go towards ‘even better internet-based services’.

WIN£10