| This is the place for all those photographs and stories that don't quite fit elsewhere. The first one comes from Bernie Newnham who was trying to find out who the VT engineer was (see below). The next three come from Cliff White who joined the BBC in 1958 as part of Junior PTA1 - see ETD for more information - and the final one from Howard Dell. |
 |
This was in a part of a magazine which must date from late 1963. Ron Bowman came up with the answer as to the identity of the VT engineer:-
I cannot tell a lie - it's me with hair! The occasion was the review of an early episode of Your Life in Their Hands. It looks like we are having a matey chat but he barely spoke to me. Do you remember them, blood and gore in black and white? At a guess I'd say VT7. If he was 36 I must have still been in short trousers! Thinking about it, I must have been about 25. Doesn't time fly? |
|
 |
| This picture was originally published in Weekend Telegraph magazine on 21st May 1965, where it was used to illustrate a feature-length article about the long-awaited advent of colour TV in this country. It was taken during two days of colour TV demonstrations that were carried out in Studio H, Lime Grove on Monday, 22nd March, and Tuesday, 23rd March, 1965. Throughout that time we repeatedly ran a magazine programme which was presented by Judith Chalmers; and which, as the picture-caption rightly says, was much stronger on colour than intellectual content! The audiences for these demonstrations consisted of gentlemen of the press, BBC executives, and Members of Parliament, all in the hope of persuading the Government that we were more than ready for them to give the go-ahead for regular colour transmissions to begin. |
 |
| This was published as an illustration to an article in the Observer Magazine dated 27th September 1964 about series 3 of Z-Cars, which featured the arrival of a character, P.C. Baker (played by actor Geoffrey Whitehead), who joined the cast as the new partner of P.C. Bert Lynch (James Ellis). |
|
You can just see the infamous Eidophor projection screen (see the Wikipedia entry here  ) behind the car which which provided the moving backgrounds when driving . There's no glass in the windscreen which allowed one of the characters who, when he got out of the car live on air, put his hand through the screen to pick up his cap off the dashboard. Some quick ad-libbing (these were live dramas) usually got round problems, such as when the driver got out before the Eidophor BP film action had stopped "...... better wait for the car to stop!". Definitely not in the script. |
|
 |
| The second is a copy of a picture taken and given to me by a press photographer covering the official visit by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother to the recently opened Television Centre on February 15th 1961. This was during my spell with crew 10, and the senior cameraman, on the front of the “Mole” crane, is Peter Hills. Swinging the crane-arm is Peter Ward, and that’s yours truly behind the steering wheel, in my natty sleeveless pullover, talking to a press reporter. Second-in-command on the crew, behind the camera on the left, is Tony Abbey, being driven on the Vinten “Heron” by Barry Webb, who is talking to a camera trainee named Brian Kingston. For the studio part of her tour, the Queen Mother was brought to TC3, where we were rehearsing for that afternoon’s transmission of “Wednesday Magazine”; hence the presence of David Jacobs, Ron Moody (dressed as Fagin), and John Gielgud. But other personalities were obviously brought in, because I can see Richard Dimbleby in the background, talking to Hugh Carleton-Greene. |
|
 |
| A little bit before the 1960s, but Howard Dell sent this picture from the BBC Yearbook for 1952. The caption is:
When the Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Sir Denys Lowson Bt.,went behind the scenes at the Richmond Royal Horse Show in the Old Deer Park to visit the Television Outside Broadcasts Unit, he was received by Harry Newman (left), Assistant Engineer-in-Charge, and Barrie Edgar (light coloured suit), who produced the television programme from the Show.
|
