N E W S • M E M o r i E S • C l a S S i f i E d S • Y o u r l E t t E r S • o b i t u a r i E S • C r o S P E r o

The newspaper for BBC pensioners – with highlights from Ariel online

Auntie Geraldine

February 2012 • Issue 1

World Service to pilot radio advertisingPage 2

Stalin’s daughterPage 7

amateur staff orchestraPage 12

A pottery, a producer and the early days of the BBC – Page 8

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PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2012

Prospero is provided free of charge to retired BBC employees, 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.

To advertise in Prospero, please see page 12. To view Ariel online, please visit www.bbc.co.uk/ariel. The next issue of Prospero will appear in March 2012.

Editorial contributions: Write to: Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Broadcasting House, Cardiff CF5 2YQ. Email: prospero@bbc.co.uk

Please make sure that any digital pictures you send are scanned at 300 dpi.

Birmingham staff to go on strike

The proposed year-long trial is revealed in the minutes of the BBC Trust’s November meeting, and follows the target for BBC World Service to raise £3m in commercial revenue by 2013, set last year in the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review.

The plan is to insert paid-for advertising in World Service English output on the Berlin FM frequency – currently serving a small but sophisticated audience within the city.

A second proposal is for limited advertising on three World Service language websites – BBC Arabic, Russian and Spanish – following the lead of the BBC’s international-facing website bbc.com, which already carries advertising.

But as BBC trustees point out, the Berlin FM idea would ‘extend advertising to BBC radio broadcasts for the first time, albeit in a very limited way’.

Protests by journalists In 2006 the move to put commercial adverts on sections of the BBC News website visible to overseas readers sparked protests from the NUJ and BBC staff, including prominent journalists and editors.

The results of the Berlin and website pilots – which, like any commercial activity still needs approval from the Foreign Secretary

– would be reported back to the Trust in a year’s time.

World Service is not speculating on how much of the £3m target income the two advertising schemes are likely to raise, in their bid to offset the Government’s cutback to grant-in-aid funding which cut total budgets by 16%.

‘While it could make a difference, this would only contribute a small proportion towards our overall funding,’ a spokesman said. ‘We are adopting a careful and measured approach, with these proposals deliberately contained so we can assess how they work in practice.

‘The BBC has a track record of managing commercial activity through BBC World News TV and the international BBC.com website, and the BBC’s reputation for providing impartial and independent news will always take precedence over wider commercial goals.’

World Service also has some commercial income through co-productions and its content rebroadcast by partner stations, including in the US, is surrounded by ads.

The BBC Trust discussions in November also covered the impact on audiences and the potential for more cuts to services and jobs if the new proposals did not go ahead.

World service to pilot radio advertisingFor the first time in its 90-year history, the BBC is set to carry adverts in its radio broadcasts through a World Service pilot for English-speaking audiences in Berlin.

Nearly 49% of BECTU members working in Vision, Audio & Music and Information & Archives took part in the ballot, with 87% of them voting for strike action and 97% voting for action short of strike.

In October’s DQF announcement, Mark Thompson said that Birmingham Factual output for Vision and Radio 4 would move mainly to Bristol, where a bigger centre for documentary and features will work with Cardiff. Radio 2’s specialist music output at the Mailbox, including The Organist Entertains and Big Band Special, will relocate to Salford.

Birmingham staff reacted with anger to the proposals, holding regular demos outside their offices.

Bectu rep Anna Murray said that, compared with other BBC relocation projects, the corporation had ‘failed to engage in meaningful negotiations’ with Birmingham staff over the reasons behind the move and the migration schedule. ‘It has been pretty much “the programmes are moving from August”.’

She added that the votes showed ‘how angry members are that the BBC will not withdraw the dates for programme moves or engage in meaningful consultation.’

‘The ballot result sends a clear message to Mark Thompson that he must halt these unwise plans to allow for proper consultation and negotiations.’

The DQF document said a smaller property estate, partly achieved by an exit from the West London base, would save around £47m annually by 2016/17. However Murray said: ‘The BBC has not been upfront about the future of the Mailbox. There’s a lack of transparency about the big picture.’

Although DQF plans said in-house factual output such as Countryfile would relocate from the Midlands, the strategy outlines that network drama, including Doctors and The Archers, will continue in Birmingham alongside the BBC’s local and regional output. But Bectu have expressed concerns that the dramas will become relatively isolated and unsustainable.

O’Reilly leaves BBC to run charityA year after she successfully sued the BBC for ageism, Crimewatch Roadshow presenter Miriam O’Reilly is to leave the Corporation.

The former Countryfile presenter, who took the BBC to an employment tribunal at the end of 2010 after she and other female presenters in their 40s and 50s were dropped from the BBC One Show when it moved to a peak time slot, is to set up a support network for women facing discrimination at work.

The BBC apologised for her treatment, following the tribunal ruling that O’Reilly had suffered ageism and victimisation, but not sexism as she had claimed.

A former journalist and presenter on BBC Radio 4’s environmental show Costing The

Earth, Woman’s Hour and Farming Today, O’Reilly always said she wanted to return to the BBC and came back to work on the Crimewatch spin-off last year.

On her latest decision she commented: ‘I have had a rewarding time at the BBC over the last year but am now choosing to move on and work on other projects for a while including my charity, Women’s Equality Network.’

The BBC said: ‘We would like to thank Miriam for her work on BBC television and radio and we wish her well in her new challenges but hope that there will be opportunities to work together again in the future.’

Babcock gains World Service contract

Birmingham staff were set to go on strike in January over plans to move staff from the Mailbox to Bristol and Salford.

The new contract, which comes into operation on 1 April, is worth around £200m.

Babcock has already been providing technical support to the World Service for the last 15 years.Under the new terms, the company will:• coordinateandscheduleallshortwave

broadcasts including more than 180,000 transmission hours in the first year

• operateandmaintaintheBBC’ssixhigh-power sites and a power station to enable global coverage, including across Africa and Asia which are key BBC target areas

• monitorhighfrequencybroadcastperformance to ensure high standards of audio quality

• managesatellitenetworkcontracts and support of satellite distribution systems, including 1,300 receivers in 128 countries

• maintaintheWorldService’sFMRelaynetwork at 150+ sites across the world.

Outside the UK, the BBC reaches a weekly audience of 166 million people through

the World Service on radio and BBC World TV.

Nigel Fry, BBC Global News head of distribution, said the new contract provided ‘clarity of costs over the coming years and significant savings’.

He added: ‘Importantly, these savings will not affect the quality of service that our global audience expects.’

The partnership between World Service and Babcock won two BBC Global News Reith Awards in 2009-10 for support services.

The engineering company has an order book of around £12bn with 27,000 staff worldwide working in defence, transport and telecommunications, as well as energy and education.

Bryan Coombes, communications director at Babcock, said the firm was ‘committed to finding the right solutions to the challenges the broadcaster faces over the next 10 years.’

He added: ‘We will achieve this through offering innovative ideas that drive efficiencies over the life of the contract.’

The engineering support organisation Babcock will continue to provide transmission and distribution services to the BBC World Service for another 10 years.

baCk at thE bbC

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The idea is one of a number of options being looked at in order to recoup the expensive cost of transferring many decades of BBC content onto the internet.

As outlined in the DQF plans, the BBC intends to provide ‘permanent access wherever possible’ and is working ‘to put the BBC’s rich back-catalogue online by a mix of public and commercial means’.

Any system of ‘micro-payments’, i.e. a small fee per programme, could only be implemented after a BBC Trust consultation and discussions with indie programme-makers and the wider industry.

A BBC spokesperson said: ‘We never stop future-gazing at the BBC and there are always a number of new ideas under discussion.

Any such ideas would need to be developed in conjunction with the industry and with rights-holders.’

However, a member of the Taxpayers’ Alliance expressed concern about a ‘two-tier licence’, telling The Sun that, ‘Audiences pay through their licence. It doesn’t seem fair to charge them twice.’

BBC considers archive fees for viewersThe BBC is considering whether to charge people who want to watch or listen to archive programmes (outside the iPlayer catch-up window), as more of its back catalogue becomes available through digitisation.

How did you come to join the BBC?

• ToremaininthecurrentsectionoftheScheme with a 1% p.a. limit on future pensionable salary increases

• Tojointhenewcareeraveragebenefitsarrangement called CAB 2011 by 31 December 2011

• TojoinLifePlan–theBBC’sdefinedcontribution plan now or at anytime in the future.

Around 8,000 members have elected to join CAB 2011 for future pension build up. As a result they will become a ‘deferred’ member

and the pension they had built up to date would rise broadly in line with inflation. They then join CAB 2011 where they build up benefits each year for their remaining time at the BBC. These benefits are based on a percentage of their pensionable salary each year and there is no 1% limit on increases in pensionable salary, either because of any general pay rise or promotion.

Pensioners’benefitsareunaffectedby the changes.

Career Average Benefits 2011 (CAB 2011) window now closed Following the BBC’s changes to its pension arrangements, active Scheme members have had until 31 December 2011 to make a decision about how their future pension builds up.

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Complete the square by using the clues; these apply only to words running across. Then take these words in numerical order and extract the letters indicated by a dot. If your answers are correct, these letters will spell out the name of a BBC classic of yesteryear.

Please send your answers in an envelope marked Crospero to The Editor, Prospero, BBC Pension and Benefits Centre, Broadcasting House, Cardiff CF5 2YQ by Friday, 10 February 2012.

C R O S P E R O 1 6 3 devised and compiled by Jim Palm

TheBBCPAhasjustlaunchedaprojectwhich is a first step towards creating a staff history of the British Broadcasting Corporation and would very much like to invite all Prospero readers to take part.

To start with, we want to you to write about how you came to join the BBC. Was it a lifelong ambition? Were you head-hunted? Or did you just need a job? Did you join straight from school, or university or the armed forces, or had you already had a substantial career elsewhere?

Did you have an interview, some kind of test, a formal BBC board with a lot of grave men in dark suits or did a friend of a friend fix something up for you?

What did your first job involve? What sort of training did you get? Were you in an office, a studio, a control room or a workshop? And what about your first boss and your colleagues? Were they friendly and helpful or cool and off-putting?

A couple of months into your new job, how did you feel about your decision to join the BBC?

There is certainly a lot to write about. We have already received some interesting reasons for applying to the BBC:

An enthusiasm for crystal sets, experience developing guided missiles, the lure of the glamour, it sounded just the right job for my brother, it was a choice between that and dentistry, because of the Eurovision Song Contest, because of a school master, because of the man who owned the radio shop, because ITV had pinched all their staff and anyone could get in, to prove the BBC didn’t take people like me.

What we are looking for is detail and anecdote. Some Prospero readers will have joined the BBC 60 years ago and more. There is so much that happened in the past that today’s BBC staff couldn’t even dream of. It should be recorded.

So with plenty of winter still to come and long evenings to get through, why not have a go. When you sit down to write, you will be surprised how much you can remember and you may find it fun. No matter what job you did at the BBC we do want to hear from you. We all helped to build the BBC. Now it’s time to tell our part of the story.

You can email your account to membership@bbcpa.org.uk or use the online form on the Association’s website at www.bbcpa.org.uk where you can find a lot more information about the project and the Association.

Or you can post your account to ‘WorkingattheBBC’,FREEPOSTRSLK_CGKR_XEAG,POBOX230,Alton,Hampshire GU34 9AR.

Make sure you include your name as you were known at the BBC and your contact details, including email if you have one. We would like to have your account by the end of March because, if the response is good, we will introduce a new topic later in the year.

Prosperowillincludeaselectionofresponses to the project later in the year.Nick Whines, BBCPA Secretary

Cuts at top achievedThe BBC has exceeded its target of cutting senior manager numbers and pay. By December 2011 there were 24% fewer senior staff than in August 2009 – a reduction of 156. The pay bill at higher grades has been reduced by £21m, a fall of almost 27% over the same period.

The BBC Executive had originally proposed making the cuts by July 2013, but that was brought forward to the end of 2011 in agreement with the Trust. The target was to reduce headcount by 20% and the senior management pay bill by a quarter. These targets were subsequently brought forward to the end of 2011.

Lucy Adams, director of Business Operations said: ‘The reductions we have achieved reflect our commitment to ensuring we are delivering value for money in difficult economic times. We will continue to keep a close eye on these costs reducing them still further where we can.’

BBC Chairman Lord Patten has said he’d like senior manager numbers to come down to no more than 1% of the total workforce by 2015 at the latest.

baCk at thE bbC

CLUES1. Those people! (4); 2. Scottish town (5); 3. Speedily (5); 4. Musical note (3); 5. Society miss (3); 6. Bandleader Oscar (5); 7. Born (3); 8. Animals’ lair (3); 9. Spirit (3); 10. Japanese drama (3); 11. Buchan novel (11); 12. Greek letter (3); 13. In equal quantities (3); 14. Domesticated creature (3); 15. Town of books (3); 16. Get up (5); 17. Rocker’s enemy (3); 18. Insect (3); 19. Scots landowner (5); 20. Imperfections (5); 21. Beat with whip (4).

Solutions to Crospero 162: Cinematic; Human; Bures; Band; Ebon; Texas; Lento; NAAFI; Dross; Hever; Basal; Dive; Agar; Helen; Lints; Nestlings (down – Tench and Ousel). The festive fantasy was The Box of Delights.The winner of Crospero 162 was Richard Cox.

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Working in Woodlands

The letter headed Gulag North in the December issue ends with the words ‘why here in Salford?’ My immediate thought was ‘why not?’

The answer is the widespread conviction that anyone with aspirations for an interesting and worthwhile career must, of course, go to London. Successive governments and the BBC have long given lip service to decentralisation but done precious little about it. It is self-sustaining idiocy. The more that people from the whole of the UK are sucked into the black hole of London, from which there is no escape before death or retirement, the more that companies will keep their headquarters and senior staff there. And vice versa.

Twenty-five years ago I was living in South Buckinghamshire. My nearest neighbours were from Yorkshire, Cheshire, Durham and even Finland. All of us had started our working lives elsewhere but all had ended up commuting into London. My BBC career started in 1953 on a transmitter station in Dorset from where I moved via Research Department in Surrey and Lime Grove Studios to an office in Henry Wood House, W1, shared with two Yorkshiremen, a Kentishman and maybe even a token Londoner.

I have to agree with your correspondent, Alfred Barber, on one point. I would not wish to live in Salford Quays. But then, I would not wish to live in Woodlands where I had my final BBC resting place. A place best described, in estate agents’ jargon, as ‘located on the site of an ancient scrapyard twixt prison and railway line’. I did not live there of course. I travelled in for 16 miles, a much shorter distance than many of my colleagues. Anyone based at Salford Quays, prepared to travelthesedistances,couldliveinthePeakDistrictNationalPark.Ormuchcloser,iftheylike the bright lights, in central Manchester. Even Blackpool would be a possibility!

Salford Quays, still being developed, already has the Lowry complex with a restaurant, art galleries and one of the finest theatres in England only a stone’s throw away from the BBC building. Woodlands, as I recall it, had a pub and a corner shop. Bill Rhodes

Why can’t they stand still?Morethan20yearsagowhenPSC(portablesingle camera) first came around, I was sent as a sound recordist to record a series of programmes that was based on the idea of a young troubadour walking along the coastline and meeting up with groups of

children to whom he would tell a story and sing a song.

This generally meant him finding the children sat around waiting for him to arrive, and as a very amateur filmmaker I found this rather static. I foolishly suggested to the producer that perhaps sometimes he could tell the story while walking along. My presumption got short shrift from the producer and I was told this was not how it is done, so it is now particularly galling to me that practically every reporter and presenter has to be walking along doing their piece to camera. Being 20 years ahead of time is no consolation when you find that you are more interested in what is going to appear in shot next, or what that bemused person is thinking as they are passed by someone apparently talking to themselves – and that you then realise you have ignored what the presenter was saying.Roy Bradshaw

The origins of Prospero

There’s an irony for Prospero readers in the news that Ariel has been published as a magazine for the last time. John Birt, when Director General, created Prospero because he was fed up with former BBC staff writing letters critical of his policies to Ariel. Their views would henceforth not be seen by people still working in the Corporation. I was on the Executive of the NUJ at the time and learnedthisfromBBCPersonnel.Whateverthereason for Ariel going just online, it will surely mean dissenting staff get less of an audience within the BBC in the future. Long may Prospero continue in print.Trevor Goodchild

We owe JackI was delighted to see the photo and article on Jack Hollinshead in the December issue.

When I arrived in Manchester as a newly trained studio manager in 1963 I was made to feel at home, encouraged and helped by Jack as the senior man in the office.

His warmth and kindness, advice, and willingness to share his own experience with the ‘new boys’ are facets of his character I remember to this day. Likewise his stories of the old days and how things used to be done. I remember him telling me about his initiatives and experiments with sound FX before recordings were available.

Once in a radio drama he had to simulate the sound of a train passing from one end of the station platform to the other; Jack told me he found an old acoustic screen with iron wheels which he trundled across the studio

hard floor behind the actors – and amazingly, he said, it worked!

On the musical side, he took time to monitor my first efforts at balancing the NDOand,togetherwithJimPope,gavemethe confidence to handle the complexities of capturing the band’s unique sound. From my Manchester apprenticeship I moved back to London as a pop music producer in those heady days of the ‘60s, and from there to Radio Leicester which later sponsored its own big band.

Thanks Jack, we all owe you so much.Roger Eames

A plea for ArielRodica Mager addressed the following letter to Mark Thompson and sent a copy to Prospero:Pleasepleasepleasecouldyoureconsider the idea to end the print edition of the weekly Ariel.

When I heard and read about the idea to end the print-edition of Ariel, my eyes went straight to the row of books on my bookshelf and locked on Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451; I shivered at the thought that his oracular utterances would become a reality in our lives.

Youmightregardmyrequest(asaretiredmember of staff) from you as insignificant, but I believe I am among hundreds of other former employees who still follow with devotion, loyalty and interest the BBC’s progress, who read publications like A World in Your Ear, or JeremyPaxman’s Empire: What Ruling the World Did to the British, and are also aware of your own ‘Give an hour…’ to online customers who come up on the screen as virtual reality.

I base my request on a strong personal conviction that, when technology is used to enrich the diversity of the media it is laudable, but when it aims to eliminate other forms of trusted ways of human communication, it commits a hubris.

Written and printed materials have served humanity since antiquity and later, through the contribution made by eminent people like J Guttenberg and W Caxton, brought progress and enlightened people’s lives.

To hold and read printed books or papers is a basic right and need of any human being.

I hope you will find a minute in your busy schedule to think again what can be done – there must be a way, if there is a will.Rodica Mager

Sprinklers to the rescueReading the letter ‘Corrections and recollections – Holme Moss’, November 2011 Prospero, reminded me of an ‘open day’ whenIwasstationedatDaventry(1958-62). I had to show a party of firemen and their wives around the third programme transmitter. I knew little about that as I was one of the few who operated the short-wave‘senders’(transmitters)inthemaintransmission halls.

Talking to people who, understandably, knew nothing about transmitters, I tried to be mildly ‘technical’. I was met with staring blank faces and silence. Then I drew their attention to the automatic sprinkler system. The decibel level shot up from zero to near full-scale as the men babbled with excited enthusiasm.

After that I needed only to say thank you and goodbye.Geoff Mitchell

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Prospero To add or delete a name from the distribution list, ring the Service Line (number above). Prospero is provided free of charge to retired BBC employees. On request, we will also send it to spouses or dependants who want to keep in touch with the BBC. Prospero is also available on audio disc for those with sight impairment.

To register, please ring the Service Line on 029 2032 2811.

bbC Club The BBC Club in London has a retired category membership costing £30 a year for members and £39 a year for family membership. Pre-1997 life members are not affected. Regional clubs may have different arrangements.

Please call BBC Club London administration office on 020 8752 6666 or email member.relations@bbcclub.com.

benevolent fundThis 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. Telephone: 029 2032 3772.

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 is supported by BBC Club funds so as to make events affordable.

The only conditions (apart from paying a small annual subscription) are that you must be a BBC pensioner and a member of the BBC Club. For an application form write to: Graham Snaith, 67 Newberries Avenue, Radlett, Herts WD7 7EL. Telephone: 01923 855177 Mobile: 07736 169612 Email: graham.snaith@yahoo.co.uk

bbC products BBC retired staff are entitled to a 30% discount off the RRP of most products in the BBC TV Centre shop. There is a postage charge of £2.95 per order (not per item). Pensioners must quote their BBC pension number when ordering. Contact: BBC Shop, Audience Foyer, Television Centre, Wood Lane, London W12 7RJ. Telephone: 020 8225 8230 Email: tvc.shop@bbc.co.uk

Other ways to order (quoting your pension number when ordering): By phone: 08700 777 001 8.30am-6pm weekdays. By post: BBC Shop, PO Box 308, Sittingbourne, Kent ME9 8LW. Email: bbcshop@bbc.co.uk.

Or visit BBC Shops in Eastbourne, Brighton, Leicester, Birmingham or Liverpool. UK postage £2.45 for telephone, post and email orders. Overseas: £4.50 for one item and £2 for each additional product for telephone, post and email orders.

bbC Pa For details of how to join the Pensioners’ Association, see panel on page 5.

CONTACTS

Please send your letters to: the Editor, Prospero, bbC Pension and benefits

Centre, broadcasting house, Cardiff Cf5 2YQ or email prospero@bbc.co.uk

John Birt

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Will live music survive DQF?There will, I am sure, be a lot of comment on the proposals for DQF, reported in your last issue. My own concerns, as always, are about the treatment of live music.

As far as can be seen at the moment, the main thrust of BBC Radio’s live music outputwillbetheProms;andquiteproperlyso since no other organisation could so successfully mount a flagship music festival on this scale.

The rest, however, is disturbing. Budgets shared with TV, fewer lunchtime concerts, the BBC Orchestras and music groups again under threat: it all adds up to less and less live music on the air. Could part of the problem be that the only live music considered viable needs to be big and loud, and therefore expensive?

Inmyday,(yes,thatoldphraseagain)there were a number of programmes which featured duos, trios or small ensembles, providing listener appeal at lower cost and a showcase for up and coming talent at the same time. Those that come easily to mind include the 9am Daily Recital, Music at Night and, on a more established level, The Thursday Concert.

Our universities and music institutes continue to turn out legions of highly talented, enthusiastic, sensitive and surprisingly mature young players, and tapping these resources would appear to be a good start towards reviving these programmes.

This, I feel, would show a stronger commitment to live music by the BBC and provide more valuable material than imported programmes from abroad.

Asa Briggs, in his History of the BBC, quotes Sir William Haley’s belief that radio ‘has a duty towards the art of music’. It would be nice to think that DQF could reflect this principle in its present day plans.John Meloy

Coronation correctionIthinkJohnPriesthassomeoftheinformation a little blurred in his excellent article in Prospero regarding how the Americans saw the Coronation in 1953.

Any relays of motorcyclists picking up film from along the route would have been working for film companies making cinema quality versions of the event. The films he refers to were the complete broadcast as seenthroughtheelectroniccameras(nofilm) and mixed into a complete programme as shown live. This was ‘telerecorded’ by pointing special film cameras at high quality TV monitors, and it was this film which was rush processed, assembled onto spools and flown by a chain of helicopters fromAPtoHeathrowfromwherethreeCanberra bombers took off in sequence at 1.30pm, 3.15pm and 6.30pm and flew to Montreal where Canadian TV put them straight on air and showed them ‘as live’ complete programmes with the subsequent instalments being delivered by the later Canberras. The pictures were then TV-linked to the States where they were also seen at the same time.

As a youngster would-be-engineer, I followed such matters closely and still have the excellent BBC hardback book published later in the year under the title

The year that made the day, which documents the preplanning(especiallywiththeauthorities,who were not certain about allowing live coverage in the Abbey at all) right through all the details of the camera and radio positions and some wonderful ‘off screen’ photographs.Pete Simpkin

A lovely cuppaAh, a lovely cuppa in the BBC Club! What more could a Young-at-Heart want after a tiring morning shuffling round the rose bed in carpet slippers? A nice game of bingo, perhaps? Nothing too demanding – we don’t want to wear out the few functioning brain cells we Youngies have left, now do we? You must excuse me now, dear, while I finish knitting this box of breakfast cereal. You just carry on painting your nails.JC

Members of meritWith regards to the letters from correspondents Mr Chesneau and Mr Woolf, I heartily agree with the sentiments expressed.

‘Young At Heart’ is indeed both patronising and derogatory. What is the BBC Club thinking of? Incidentally, the Club is wrong when they write that they ‘have had no other negative feedback’. I have emailed them time and time again to stop sending me their communications with this ridiculous heading.

They have requested a few suggestions; here are the few which also do not include ‘retirement’ – another label which sticks in my throat – namely:• Life-longClubmembers• LoyalClubmembers• MembersofmeritI shall be sending yet another email to the Club with these suggestions; let us hope this time, the lesson goes home!John Harman

Don’t gamble with our pensionI was concerned when the BBC News channel reported that the Government were asking pension trustees to invest their pots of money into stocks and shares to assist them solve their debts, I do not accept the idea that my salary contributions, for more than 30 years, would be used for gambling purposes. Just remember what happened to Equity Life! I sincerely hope that the BBC pension trustees will not take part in this Government’s proposal.Peter S Pearson

Own up to this act of anarchyI’ve long wondered if there’s someone from TVC Network Continuity who’s been hiding a guilty secret for 45 years. It would have been on 8 August 1966, in that pre-Radio 1 era when the BBC’s playing of pop records, evenontheLightProgramme,wasnotjustrestricted, but virtually banned.

I had spent most of that morning playing Revolver,thelegendaryBeatlesLPreleasedthat day, on my home radiogram. Around lunchtime I switched on the TV to see if theday’sbroadcastinghadstarted(thiswas1966!) But when the test card came up, instead of the bland copyright-free musak,

I heard the strains of Eleanor Rigby. This was then followed by the entire Revolver album, still under the test card, before the start of the day’s TX. Even as a schoolboy, I realised it was most unlikely that the BBC had the rights to do this, and have always imagined thatsomeoneinNC1(orwasitNC2?)hadbeen so impressed with their purchase that morning, that they had unilaterally decided to discard the scheduled disc and share their copy of Revolver with the rest of the UK.

I’ve not tracked the incident down on Google, presumably because only a few hundred people heard it, remembered it or realised its significance. So, and with little prospect of getting their wrists slapped at this late stage, does some BBC pensioner want to own up to this minor act of anarchy, or cast some light on the incident?Mike Steed mike.steed@bbc.co.uk

More than pub talkMindful of the recent letters to Prospero, there may be a case for a new feature section. Whenever one retired BBC employee meets another retired BBC employee, the conversation inevitably turns to the way it has gone to the dogs, it’s not the way it was in our day and why are they always going on about money when they pay Thompson so much.

This could be described as just pub logic, pub talk, but we shouldn’t dismiss it. Often a gut reaction to a wrong sometimes hides a real truth in how we might have conducted ourselves were we the ones giving advice or making the decisions. The current banking crisis is a case in point. It seemed to us non-experts that the euphoria then of 100% mortgages and banks offering loans everywhere couldn’t be sustained. Well, it couldn’t!

The BBC today may dismiss our self-righteousness and indignation at some of the horror stories we hear. They might describe what we relate as unfounded and ill-informed or, if we are near the knuckle of the truth, not knowing the whole picture.

WhenIquestionedthelogicofProducerChoice I was told I had been in the BBC too long and should embrace these new ideas. There must be grains of truth in one’s views, built up in the combined years at the BBC, above all, from the Prospero readership.There are stories that one hears:• CanitbetruethatNewscameramen

are being sent out with a sheet of questions so that an interview is done on the cheap? One cameraman being used for vision, sound and a non-existent journalist?

• Aretheendlessrepeatingofmenuson programmes that add time and not information to a weakly structured programme because the production team do not have the funds to do otherwise?

• HowcantheBBCoutsourceits continuity and presentation departments and thereby in effect lose a BBC editorial voice?

• Areinterviewer’squestionsnotbeingheard on the News because of a lack of training, money or the lack of people to wire up the microphones?

• Howcanthis,orthat?• Didyouknowthat…?Many readers of Prospero, if not all, have an ear to the groundswell and many readers have some useful direct knowledge of the systems and structures that actually worked and made for the finest broadcaster in the world. We have more than competent expertise in programme making that many at the present BBC might or might not want to hear, but with the hope that it may do some good.

So, with the above in mind, perhaps we should share and respond to some of the things we hear with perhaps the hope of a reply. It may, at least, be a way of reminding the present day BBC of an alternative to some of the things they are doing and might or might not want to hear. It might do some good.Albert Barber

MEMoriES06

BBC pensioner Mary Surrey, 88, had her wits about her when, one night in February last year, she saw a hooded man in her bedroom, dressed in black.

Mary had just finished listening to the World Service at around 1am and had switched off her light, when she heard ‘an almighty crash’. This was the burglar knocking over a pile of books. She saw him in the doorway – in profile, and just for a moment, so she couldn’t later identify him.

‘I shot bolt upright in bed and shouted,’ she said later. ‘It was like a roar.’

Her shouts drove the burglar away, and when she was sure he was gone, she picked up the phone and dialled 999. Mary was advised by the operator to keep the line open until she heard the police at the door.

They later told her that the burglar had tried the front door first, but when he found it dead-bolted he had gone around to the back of the house, where he managed to prise two panes from a louvre window leading into the garden room and climb in.

‘The police assumed he had targeted my house because he thought it was empty,’ she told Prospero. ‘I don’t have a car, although sometimes my neighbours park their car on my drive. That night, however, they hadn’t.’

Mary thought it must have been a ‘skinny teenager’ who had broken in – how else to explain the fact he had squeezed in through such a small space, so she was amazed to discover it was a 36-year-old man.

Officers found his fingerprints on the window. He was a window cleaner who had previously broken a community order for stealing, and broken bail.

Mary attended court late last year in order to get a better understanding of what might have driven him to commit the crime. ‘I wanted to see the man,’ she said. ‘He wasn’t a thug, just a man who was a bit weak and had hard circumstances in the past.’

The accused pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years and four months.

Mary, who worked at Radio Solent for 12 years, realises that she was extremely lucky to have escaped with only a broken window. ‘I have now put bars on the louvre windows so there is no way in.’

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2012

Fright nightlifE aftEr auNtiE

Although Mary’s experience was unwelcome, statistics shows that older people are in fact less likely to be attacked or robbed than people in any other age group. Nevertheless, there are a few simple precautions you can take to minimise your chances of being targeted by criminals:

Locking upMost break-ins are not the work of professional burglars. Many are carried out by opportunist thieves who get into your home through an open or insecure door or window.When you go out:• Besuretolockalltheoutsidedoorsand

check that all the windows are closed• Manyburglarieshappenduringthe

afternoon, so even if you are just popping out for a few minutes during the day always lock up fully before you go

• Remembertolockgaragewindowsanddoors when you leave, particularly if your garage is attached to your house with a

door leading to the inside• Keepyourladderandgardentoolslocked

away as they can be very useful for the opportunist burglar

• Alwayskeepyourkeysinasafeplace. The first places that a burglar will look for your door key are under the mat, in a flower pot or on a piece of string through the letter box

• Neverleaveanykeysinthelocksorlyingaround the house

• Ifyou’reoutfortheevening,leaveafrontroomlighton(notthehall)andperhapsput the radio on too. Draw the curtains leaving a small gap at the top so you can see the light from outside. An opportunist thief may think there is someone in the house.

If you are going away on holiday:• Remembertocancelmilk,newspapersand

other deliveries. To a burglar a dozen milk bottles on the doorstep or a newspaper

sticking out of the letter box is an invitation to break in

• Ifyouhaveagardenitisagoodideatomow your lawn before you travel

• Don’tclosecurtainsorblindsasthey are a giveaway, especially during the day. You could plug a lamp into a time switch which will automatically turn it on in the evenings whilst you’re away

• However,don’tswitchonthelampinaroom which passersby can see into when the light is on

• Ifpossible,askafriendorneighbourtokeep an eye on your home for you

• Whenyoutravel,remembernotto display your home address on the outside of your luggage.

Reproduced with permission of AgeUK. You can read their Staying Safe factsheet on their website: www.ageuk.co.uk/homeandcare, or you can order any of their free publications by calling 0800 169 65 65.

Don’t let it happen to you

A final salute to Tel OBs Manchester By Jerry CleggSteve Harris, the owner and restorer of the ‘heritage’ scanner North 3/CMCR9, achieved one of his long-term objectives at the end of November, when he brought his restored 1969 colour OB unit

back to New Broadcasting House, Manchester on the final day of operations there before the BBC’s move to Media City in Salford.

North 3, which was one of three of these units based at NBH in the early ‘80s, was featured several times in the final edition of North West Tonight from the Oxford Road Headquarters of BBC North.

It had been almost 30 years since North 3 had last been parked in the transport yard at NBH and a number of interested staff, some of whom had worked on the unit, came out

in the yard to have a look-see and reminisce about times gone by. Amazingly, after all these years, a number of authentic original spare parts were produced from the building as the day wore on!

Steve, a former TV lighting director, drove the scanner himself, from his base near Queensferry, a distance of about 44 miles, one of his longest trips so far. Fortunately, the weather was kind and the old girl ran very well after a recent tune-up, otherwise the winter journey might have been difficult. Wipers and demisters have improved considerably since those far-off days when the BBC had nine of these units in the early days of colour TV.

North West Tonight Senior Correspondent, Dave Guest, appeared in the show in front of North 3andalsointheProductionGallery,wherehe did an interview with Steve. Later he did a final piece to camera in the vision control room before handing back to Studio B.

After the programme, the scanner stayed in the yard overnight and the following day became the last technical vehicle to leave the former Manchester OB base on Saturday, 26 November 2011.

The next item on the calendar for North 3 is a full external re-spray before its appearance at various steam and vintage vehicle rallies in the summer. There will be lots of veteran steam traction engines and restored lorries and buses on show, but only one former BBC mobile control room!

Have you lost your assets? In the UK it is estimated that there are billions of pounds in dormant bank and building society accounts, National Savings and Premium Bonds which have not been claimed as prizes. Insurance companies also have millions of pounds in unclaimed savings policies.

If you think you may have money in lost accounts, then you can still pursue it many years after and be reunited with your lost funds.

The first step is to consider all the savings plans that you might have had, both as a child, perhaps started by friends or relatives, and then as an adult. Particularly if you have moved address a few times, and in the case of women, changed your name, it may be that the institutions with whom you have accounts have not been able to trace you.

The British Bankers’ Association, Building Societies Association and National Savings have a combined website, www.mylostaccount.org.uk, which enables you to make a single claim online.

In the case of many building societies and insurance companies, they may well have changed name or merged with others. If you need help in tracing the current name, most IFA firms would be able to help you. In addition, the Association of British Insurers also offers help with this at www.abi.org.uk, or telephone 0207 600 3333.

If you think you may have owned shares, through a share saving scheme at work or having been gifted them by a relative, the Registrars of those shares will be the starting point for you to find out how to claim their value. A number of the main Registrars, such as Capita, Computershare and Equiniti, offer share-tracing services.

In the case of pensions, the Government set up some years ago a pensions tracing service www.pension-tracing-service.com, telephone 0845 230 2928.

If you wish to avoid losing track of your accounts and savings, or wish to prepare your family for dealing with your estate after your death, then it is a good idea to keep a record of all your accounts and dates of when they mature or might pay out.

An asset management service which enables you to keep track of your savings, updating these from time to time, can be a very useful legacy to leave to your loved ones, as it saves them the distress of having to work through a mountain of paperwork when they may not be in the best frame of mind to deal with this. Most reputable independent financial advisers will offer this service to their clients to ensure that you do not lose track of your savings and that your beneficiaries are able to obtain the full benefit of savings and investments.

Kay Ingram is Director of Financial Planning at LEBC Group Ltd, which is an appointed representative of Tenet connect Ltd. Email: kayingram@lebc-group.com.

MOney MATTeRS

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PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2012

MEMoriES

Having to travel down from Manchester to Lime Grove, London, on a regular basis to produce for Children’s Television, it was a great relief when in 1954 the former Methodist Church – bought in 1947 by Film Studios(Manchester)Ltd–nowbecamethefirst BBC Television studio in the regions.

On setting foot inside a distinctly dishevelled building, it occurred to me this would be an ideal setting for my radio ‘Barn Dances’. With such as the talented Tommy Mottram and others sorting out required lighting, I now undertook the task of studio

designer besides director.Fortunately in the Cheshire village where

I lived was a helpful farmer, and so total design costs for a now televised ‘Barn Dance’ were precisely twelve shillings and sixpence – the price of TWO bales of straw and including delivery.

Strewn across the floor, a ‘Barn’ atmosphere was immediately created – as the photo of that even surely indicates. Luckily, it was back in 1952 that I had auditioned a chap named Harry Corbett, so now I considered that all the BBC’s Dickenson Road studio required was a clean Sweep – and which it also got!

Fortunately, the owners of Alnwick Castle were watching that day and so my Barn Dances later appeared in far more illustrious surroundings, and thanks also to North’s Outside Broadcasting Unit.

And then when my wife, scriptwriter MargaretPotterandIhadseentwopigsinaholiday sandshow at Heysham head, and it was she who suggested to the Dalibors that thename‘Perky’mightbemoreappropriatethanthebilledname‘Porky’;allMargaretand I now required were friends to pull a few strings in order to get them the first of the three series which she was to write and which I was to produce.

As for announcers, I enjoyed working regularly with Mary Malcolm at Lime Grove, but surely the time had now come for teenagers to announce on television, as Geoffrey Wheeler, Brian Martin and Judith Chalmers had done for me on radio. Judith first announced our Saturday ‘Out of School’ on Children’s Hour with a 14-year-old Joyce Palinaspianist,anda16-year-oldPeterMaxwell Davies as our resident composer. And so Judith was now to make her very first screen appearance from Dickenson Road. Such was to be followed by her regular appearance in Children’s Television Club, along withWilfridandMabelPickles.

When Owen Reed took over at Lime Grove, he wanted this feature on a daily basis and, as a result of the flag that flew aboard The Royal Iris paddle-steamer that Sunday, 7 May 1956 on the River Mersey – the day Judith launched our Club, the series later transferred to London and also, with my agreement, Owen was to re-title the series as Blue Peter. Such is confirmed in Owen Read’s obituary.

How very fortunate were I and others to be working for the BBC in those truly formative years when, controller or fireman, we were a FAMILY in broadcasting and were to greatly benefit from the creative and constructive talents of many others amongst us.

The BBC’s first television studio outside London By Trevor HillFor someone who was to produce one of the very first television programmes from the former Mancunian Film Studios – and to have had the honour to be appointed Chairman of Planning for New Broadcasting House in the 1970s – I am indeed saddened that Manchester will no longer be the home of BBC broadcasts. Happy New Year to one and all!

Here at the Club we hope you had a truly fantastic festive season and you are all looking forward to an epic 2012. Young at Heart – Retired membersAs a result of feedback we have received from you, we will no longer be using the name Young at Heart to describe our retired members. All references to Young at Heart will be removed and replaced with Retired members.This year the Club is looking to increase our Retired member offering. In order to do this we need your help. We want to know what you want so that we are organising events and activities that you want to attend. We want to make it a super social year for retired members in the Clubs and gyms. Talk to us, tell us what you want! Contact Amanda Head (Email: amanda.head@bbc.co.uk; Tel: 0208 752 6539).Membership Membership for retired BBC employees costs just £2.50 per month or £30 a year and includes a wide range of discounts:• intheClubsites,onwine,draughtbeers

and food• onspecialeventsrunintheClubsand

off site• ononlinepurchases• andlastbutnomeansleastyourFREE

weekly Radio Times (which covers the value of your membership alone).

Register at www.bbcclub.com/membership/registration to join.If you are already a member you can collect your new Club card from any of the Club sites on your next visit. Your new Club card will give you access to the discounts in the Club sites and gyms and will be required when logging in to view or book anything online or to collect your Radio Times.Retired members’ lunchA perfect occasion to get together is our weekly ‘Retired members’ meal where you can enjoy a two-course meal and a lovely cuppa for a mere £5. The lunch is held at Club West One (next to Western House Radio 2). For more details please refer to the calendar on our website. Email: nuy.nongphayak2@bbc.co.uk Tel: 020 776 50971. Offers & discounts- 10% discount on all Nigel Wilson

Photography workshop courses.- Post sale bargain hunting? The Club

has arranged a number of discounts of up to 30% in some of your favourite shops in Westfield.

Logon to http://www.bbcclub.com/extra/offers to find out how to redeem these offers and many more.

Stalin’s daughter

Svetlana Alliluyeva came to the BBC Russian Service some time in the 1970s enquiring whether we had a job for her, possibly as a translator.

She spoke excellent English. We had no vacancy at the time but the Russian ProgrammeOrganiser(MarySeton-Watson)andI(thenheadoftheEastEuropeanServices) took her to lunch to discuss possible freelance contributions.

She spoke about her childhood in the Kremlin. Her maternal grandmother, who had looked after her, was sworn to secrecy so she did not learn about her mother’s suicide until years later. The grandmother did, however, make a deep impression on her: Once she pointed to one of the Kremlin churches – I think it was the Cathedral of the Assumption – and told Svetlana that before the revolution at midnight between Easter Saturday and Sunday, one bell of this church would be rung. A moment later the other Kremlin churches would take up the

sound and then – like ripples in a pond – all churches of Moscow. From there the joyous ringing ‘Christ has arisen’ would spread ‘all over Holy Russia.’

Svetlana said she had never heard that bell. All her childhood she had wished she could hear it just once.

I said: ‘Would you come on air at midnight on Easter Sunday and tell this story again?’

‘Gladly,’ she said, ‘but on no account must you mention who I am.’

‘Madam,’ I replied, ‘the story would lose its entire point.’

‘You are just like all the other journalists,’ she said. ‘You just want to exploit my name.’

We never got her on the air!

Seeing the piece in Prospero about CMCR9 rolled back the years when it was resident with us in Birmingham.

The unit was upgraded during the time spent with us. For example, it operated withfivePhilipscameras(afeatureinmuch demand by programme makers). CMCR9, I believe, was the only BBC OB unitwithoutCSO(colourseparationoverlay) – we installed this. We burnt the midnight oil updating its Design Department vision mixing equipment in order to comply with stringent timing requirements.

Irecallthe48V(4x12V)batterieswere replaced whilst in our possession. Originally intended to start diesel engines, they never did! Due to their unusual use, a battery supplier suggested as replacement high lead content batteries.

As for the diesel engine, its lifetime would be less as the workload was somewhat light, in spite of the vehicle’s total weight being just below the maximum allowed for four-wheel usage. It’s with much fondness to know this piece of hardware is living up to its description.

Got a question or comment? Email us at bbc.club@bbc.co.uk or call 020 875 26666.

MEMoriES

Peter Fraenkel, Controller BBC European Services (1979-1986), sent us this amusing memory:

L Darkin sent in this recollection about CMCR9:

Judith Chalmers

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PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2012

MEMoriES

Way back in 1993 I had a phone call from Michael Ford, sometime LE radio producer in Birmingham. In his retirement, Michael was recording people’s memories as a volunteer for the National Trust. He was due to make a recording at Little Moreton Hall in Cheshire when he realised I lived nearer to ‘the crooked house’ than he did.

That was the first of the 650 or so National Trust recordings I have been involved in.

Round about the year 2000, Jeremy Milln of the National Trust became interested intheMiddleportPotteryatBursleminStaffordshire. It had fallen on hard times and the new owners, Rosemary and Tony Dorling, were determined to rebuild its products and reputation. Jeremy tried to persuade the National Trust to acquire it and run it. In the meanwhile I was lucky enough to make recordings with the people who were still working there, some of whose memories of the factoryandthePotterieswentback many years.

Then one day Tony Dorling said: ‘You must record Evangeline Bingham. She is a relation of ours who has invested in the Pottery,andIthinksheonceworkedfor the BBC.’

It turned out that Mrs Bingham had joined the British Broadcasting Company in 1923 and became known on air as Children’s Hour’s ‘Auntie Geraldine’.

When I went to her home to make the recording in April 2000, I discovered that ‘Auntie’,borninIndiain1899(sic),wasblind. But that did not prevent her making us tea. Then we recorded her memories of Children’s Hour, John Reith and 2LO.

So when Prospero contacted me, Roger Dowling, formerly Head of Engineering at theBBCinManchester(andwhoisalsoaNational Trust sound archivist), said: ‘Why not tell Prospero about Auntie Geraldine?’

Why not?So here goes!

When Prospero contacted John Ecclestone, Head of the Network Production Centre, Manchester (1977-83) about the MBE he has just received for his work for the National Trust, little did we know that the story would link back to the earliest days of the BBC. John writes:

My wondrous wireless girl

in London to arrange a job interview for Evangeline with ‘Mrs Fitzgerald’, in charge of Children’s Hour and Women’s Half Hour at the BBC, who needed a secretarial assistant. ‘She had been in Fleet Street before, she had a certain experience in Fleet Street,’ Evangeline recalled.

JE: And what year are we talking about?EB: 1923.Evangeline had been there a week

when Mrs Fitzgerald came in and told her to announce the Women’s Half Hour because the announcer hasn’t come. ‘So there was I, switching on saying: “This is 2LO calling the British Isles”.’

Evangeline recalled that the BBC was located at Savoy Hill. The main office, on the first floor, was a huge room with a few glass divisions. It eventually became Studio 2, which took the orchestra. ‘Because when I got there, there was only No.1 Studio, two-foot walls in blue and gold, and this great big microphone, and a red light which switched on when you were on the air. But there was no control in the room, we controlled ourselves, and somebody would sit at the side table and more or less conduct you if necessary.’

JE: And what sort of atmosphere was there in the place? It was described by somebody as a sort of village atmosphere – everyone knew each other and it was very friendly...

Mr ReithEB: Oh no, no. I wouldn’t have said we knew each other at all. Everybody was in great awe of Mr Reith. No, we all rather kept to our own sections as far as I know. Later we did have certain sporting activities because I did play tennis for them and hockey, so one had occasional gatherings like that. About once a year there was a party with a dance. The first birthday Outside Broadcast was in the Savoy. Marconi was there, and I sang in the BBC Beauty Chorus, conducted by Stanford Robinson.

JE: And that was broadcast was it?EB: Oh yes, the whole thing was broadcast, it was

the first Outside Broadcast. Then later we had the first Outside Broadcast from the Zoo, and Uncle Peter and I went down beforehand to recce the place and watch the sea lions and talk to the keepers and things. And then Peter wrote the script and we broadcast it from No. 1 Studio in London with Peter conducting, but with the

Evangeline Bingham nee Curtis was born in Dharamsala,inthePunjab.‘Myfatherwasinthe siege of Ladysmith at the time, so there was my poor mother with my two brothers and two sisters, and this wretched child!’

In 1905, all the records of her birth were destroyed in the great Dharamsala earthquake, and in 1907 she and her siblings were sent to boarding school in Kent.

‘After the war I decided I must earn my own living – I couldn’t sponge off the family any longer – so I trained at secretarial college. I got one or two smaller jobs and then I got this gorgeous job at the BBC.’

At this point in the interview, John asked her: ‘When you were at secretarial college,

how aware were you that this strange thing called the wireless, or radio, existed, or were you not aware?’

Evangeline answered: ‘Hardly aware, I certainly never had a set or anything of that sort. We saw these aerials and things but didn’t know what it was all about.’

Then a chance encounter led her flatmate

“After the war I decided I must earn my own living.”

From the days of 2LO

09

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2012

MEMoriES

When listening to one of John Ecclestone’s National Trust tapes, one is struck by the ease with which he interviews his subjects and teases out the memories of times past.

Last year, John – a former head of the Network Production Centre in Manchester – found himself the recipient of an MBE in the Birthday Honours, for his work as a volunteer sound archivist for the National Trust.

Not many people know that, as well as preserving ‘old’ properties, the Trust records the personal recollections of people who can remember the very circumstances that made the property special.

‘It has been a wonderful experience to meet and talk to Lords of the Manor, chambermaids, gardeners, cooks – you name it – so many people associated not just with stately homes, but with the Edge at Alderley, the Beatles’ homes, the Mill at Quarry Bank and the Birmingham Back to Backs.’

John has been involved one way or another in over 650 interviews, at over 60 National Trust properties from Oxford to Keswick.

John confesses that the ‘Auntie Geraldine’ interview was among his most memorable, in light of the 27 years he spent working for the BBC, and also because ‘one was talking about a period of time that not many people can remember. She was doubly, trebly, fascinating as a person.’

There is a wide variety of work, but what John enjoys most is sound recording. ‘When I joined the BBC in the 1950s, a non-engineer was not allowed within a mile of a recording machine, and so for the past 17 years I’ve really enjoyed myself working off those frustrations! To have been able to contribute to the nation’s archives at the same time has been a rare privilege, and I hope that others who retire from the BBC will think about volunteering for the National Trust.’

John was unfortunately not well enough to travel to Buckingham Palace to receive his award, but was delighted with the alternative arrangement – to have about a dozen or so of his family, friends and National Trust colleagues watch him receive it at one of his favourite National Trust properties, Quarry Bank Mill.

When John was a television production assistant in Birmingham in the ‘60s, they produced a weekly TV opt out just for the Midland Region, called SCAN, produced by Edmund Marshall from the Gosta Green studios (home of Top of the Pops and Gardener’s World amongst others).

‘Someone, probably Edmund, had the brilliant idea of having the cartoonist ‘Larry’ do the closing titles,’ remembers John. ‘Every transmission day Larry would come into the studio and draw the closing captions, each of which was relevant to one of the film stories or studio items in that week’s programme. One of the captions is of me apparently shouting instructions through a megaphone as if to a rowing crew. What story could that have been?’

Do any of our readers remember?

microphone in the Zoo, so when a sea lion went in I was signalled (because I was doing the Cockney mother taking her ghastly child round the Zoo!), and when a sea lion went in the water I went [cockney accent] ‘Henry, look, do you see, he made a terrific splash, didn’t he?’ You see! (laughs) – and that was that – you had to be conducted, you had to wait for the sound to be heard before you spoke.

EB: Of course in those early days, you see, we had to make all our noises for ourselves – there were no nice recordings. There was the beginnings of the sound effects department, I forget the name of the chap who had it. And all we could get were coconuts for horses hooves, a sheet of iron for thunder, a sieve with shot in for the seashore and a wind machine, and these were dumped in the studio for us and we had to work them ourselves.

JE: And if I told you I was still doing that in 1956 – in exactly the same way you described.

EB: Well! That is fascinating!JE: Now you mentioned Mr Reith. You met him and

knew him?EB: I don’t think I can say yes to either. I doubt if I

ever spoke to him unless to say ‘good morning’ if he passed me in the passage. And when he became Sir John Reith he was very pleased with himself! No, one never met him or spoke to him.

JE: What did the staff think of him?EB: Everyone was more or less a bit scared of him.

Becoming Auntie GeraldineEvangeline recalled how she came to be AuntieGeraldine…‘UnclePeter[CecilHodges, who was in charge of Children’s Hour at that time] decided to haul me into the programme, and Evangeline doesn’t broadcast well; Auntie Evangeline doesn’t sound right, and so he just said be Auntie Geraldine so Auntie Geraldine I remained.’

She received thousands of letters from

children – 64,000 in 1924. ‘They wrote in for their birthdays of course – we had a most fearful long birthday list to do – and all the unpronounceable Welsh names were a bit of a problem!’

The birthday letters weren’t replied to, but if anything needed a reply Evangeline would do it. She had a couple of secretaries from the typing pool that she could draft in to help.

JE: Did the range of Children’s Programmes grow or were you doing a very wide range from the start?

EB: It grew I suppose because we got more people writing for it – but we set the tone right away from the start. Peter and I used to take auditions and we turned down people with impure vowels, because at that stage we wanted them to speak properly. We thought we had a mission to improve the whole standard of life for everybody, and people’s appreciation – we were feeling very altruistic! (laughs).

JE: So you wouldn’t have taken anyone with a regional accent?

EB: Not unless it suited any particular part. We just wanted the best of everything. I believe it was said that it was more difficult to get on Children’s Hour than any other programme.

JE: Were you conscious that in the BBC at the time

there was a sort of clash, as it were, between how much the BBC should entertain and how much the BBC should educate?

EB: One knew that was more or less going on but life was too full doing one’s job and just living anyway to be bothered about that.

JE: No one agonised over that in Children’s Programmes?

EB: No, certainly not.JE: Just as a final thing, I wanted to ask you, the

reaction of people to broadcasting at the time, and to yourselves in broadcasting, I think this was a bit of a humorous thing from Radio Times at Christmas in 1923: ‘You’ve set my valves a throbbing, My headpiece is a whirl, So turn your earpiece to me, love, My wondrous wireless girl’.

EB: (laughs) Oh lovely!JE: Was that in anyway typical of the times?EB: I should think quite likely. I may say I used to get

letters from a gentleman on Carlton Club paper asking me out to dinner and sending me enormous bouquets of red roses. I used to write back thanking him and saying the flowers were beautiful and that we had sent them to Great Ormond Street. And I was very popular with the clergy. They used to send me all sorts of presents and write loving notes to me. They thought I was a nice girl – and they were right! (laughs)

“We had a most fearful long birthday list to do – and all the unpronouncable Welsh names were a bit of a problem.”

In June 2011, The Prince’s Regeneration acquired the site at Middleport Pottery to save it from possible closure and to embark on an ambitious conservation and regeneration project. The Grade II* Listed site will be restored and developed over the next two years – the project will save and create local jobs, preserve traditional techniques and restore the buildings to create a hub of traditional craftsmanship that residents and visitors can enjoy.

Middleport Pottery – update

“Someone, probably Edmund, had the brilliant idea of having the cartoonist ‘Larry’ do the closing titles.”

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PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2012

obituariESShe worked for three different managers, all of whom trusted, appreciated and respected her. She was diplomatic, sensitive and had a fine judgment in difficult situations. Barbara absorbed the pressures of her job and enjoyed it. She protected and filtered access to the managers. Her instinct and intuition was rarely shown to be wrong. She also had a huge local knowledge of the local area and its diverse communities. She was able to put anyone at their ease, whoever they might be, and showed kindness to everyone. Barbara was loved by all.

An attaché, who later applied for a permanent vacancy, recalls: ‘I’d already become part of the ‘family’ and poor Barbara, as the one giving the shorthand tests, stuck to the rules absolutely rigidly. But after about the fourth or fifth attempt, bless her, she put the transcript in the open drawer next to me, smiled and left for a few minutes on ‘urgent business!’’

Barbara was a committed Christian and the driving force within her life was her family. Our sympathies go to her beloved husband Stan, her two children Richard and Judith and her six grandchildren. Barbara was 81 when she died.Liz Clinton

Spirit of adventureDorothy Moody known to her BBC colleagues as Billie, joined the Corporation early in World War Two, having answered an advertisement for people with ‘basic qualifications in science’. It wasn’t until she got the job that she realised she would be working for the BBC.

She started as a programme engineer in the World Service, working with people like JBPriestley,GeorgeOrwellandKimPhilby.

When the King of Norway took refuge in England, the BBC arranged for him to broadcast a rallying cry to his people. Billie was chosen to do the recording at the BBC’s Monitoring Station at Caversham. She immediately splashed out with her precious clothing coupons, bought a length of material and made herself a long frock appropriate to the occasion. After the recording, Billie was instructed to guard the discs with her life, so she took them back to her digs and stowed them under her bed. Consternation in the studio next morning when the discs were nowhere to be seen, until Billie appeared with them tucked under her arm!

Billie was born in Manchester in 1917 and as a schoolgirl sang in the famous 1929recordingofPurcell’sNymphsandShepherds by the Manchester School Choirs and the Halle Orchestra.

She will be remembered for her remarkable style, which was unconventional and dashing, and for her spirit of adventure, touring Ireland with a horse-drawn caravan or sailing to remote destinations on Russian cargo boats. She was always a pleasure to work with; her empathy made her quick to grasp the nature of a programme and to recognise the technical demands made on junior colleagues.

After retirement Billie created a beautiful garden at her home in Essendon. We would find her there, digging and weeding, in all weathers, well into her late eighties. We shall miss her – a kind and generous friend and a true original. Mary Haydon and Julia Brooke

From sea to TVCGeoff Botterill died on 31 October 2011, shortly before his 87th birthday.His BBC career began in 1960 and until his retirement in 1986 he worked as a film editor and chief film editor at Television Centre and Ealing.

Geoff’s early ambition was to join the Royal Navy; however, his eagerness to go to sea persuaded him to join the Merchant Navy, whose recruitment age was lower.

He celebrated his 16th birthday at sea. In 1941, family circumstances forced him to take a brief period out of the Navy, during which time he took a job as an assistant projectionist at Lime Grove Studios. It was to be the genesis of his eventual career. When he left he was given an invitation to return when the war was over. He did not forget the offer.

In 1942 he re-joined the Navy, serving on the highly dangerous Atlantic convoys and seeing more of the world than most could ever dream of doing. With customary understatement, he once described that period of his life as character forming.

In 1946 he returned to Lime Grove and was soon working as an assistant in the film cutting rooms. For the next 14 years he worked extensively in the feature film industry.

During his 26 years at the BBC he worked on a vast range of programmes, including Z Cars, Blue Peter, Not Only But Also, Porridge, Likely Lads and many other dramas and documentaries.

Geoff was a consummate professional. He acquired his technical knowledge and his craft from some of the most renowned and respected film editors in the industry.

Geoff was passionate about training younger editing staff. He gave selflessly of his time, his patience and experience to support the formal film training schemes operated by the BBC.

As a colleague and friend, Geoff was known as a kind, gentle and generous man, well respected for his personal integrity, sociability and sense of fun.

His marriage to Moya spanned 48 happy years. His family was his pride and joy.

We extend our deepest sympathy and condolences to them all.Roger Waugh

Pioneer of local radio education programmingGeoff Coates, an early pioneer of education programming in local radio, died peacefully, after a long illness, on 29 November 2011.

Geoff’s early career was neither in broadcasting or education. Born and raised in Newcastle upon Tyne, he first worked as a clerk in the Town Hall, then as a clerk in Lloyd’s Bank. He was a volunteer during the war, trained in Canada and served with the RAF in the UK. After the war, he returned to the bank and married Dulcie in 1949.

The turning point in Geoff’s career came about in 1960. He was working at Lloyd’s Carlisle branch when the fledgling Border TV advertised for a part-time continuity presenter. Geoff applied and turned up for an interview straight from his day’s work at the bank. He was surprised to find that all of the other applicants had their agents with them, but it was Geoff who got the job. As he was still doing the day job, he was amused to find that suddenly the longest queues at the bank were at his till.

Some years later, back in Northumberland and with two teenagers to support, Geoff and Dulcie took the brave step of both giving up their jobs to train as teachers. Geoff would attend college during the day and into the evening, and then work as a continuity announcer at Tyne Tees TV. On graduating, he started work as a geography teacher at his old school. Tyne Tees weren’t finished with him yet, however, and they persuaded him to return as head of continuity.

Geoff’s move to the BBC came in 1970 when he joined the staff of BBC Radio Durham as an education producer.

By 1974, as commercial radio was coming into being, Geoff was invited to join the board of North-East Broadcasting and helped to steer the bid which won the franchise for Metro Radio, the region’s first commercial radio station.

A return to teaching followed and Geoff retired from Slatyford School in 1983. He continued to work after retirement, contributing to the weekly religious affairs programme Soundings on BBC Radio Newcastle, and I had the great privilege of working with Geoff again on the station’s education programme, Digest.

The whole team found Geoff a pleasure to work with. His charm and enthusiasm were infectious and he had a seemingly effortless way of putting everyone at ease. He was a devoted family man and deeply loved by his family. Virtue Jones, with contributions from the Coates family

Female sound effects engineer Audrey Newman (née Payne), who joined the Corporation in 1944 and spent 20 years working as a programme engineer, specialising in sound-effects production, has died at the age of 84.

Having discovered that, at 17, she was too young to train as an occupational therapist, Audrey decided that a career with the BBC was a suitable alternative and so telephoned (anunorthodoxapproachatthattime)to

enquire about vacancies. Her timing was fortuitous because the Corporation had only recently begun employing female engineers. Audrey worked in Variety on the Light Programme, where she also produced sound effects for various drama series and shows such as It’s That Man Again.

In 1951, she gave birth to her son Mark by first husband Michael Roberts, and spent the next 10 years predominantly based at Bush House but also shuttling between at Broadcasting House and Maida Vale.

In 1964 – three years after marrying her second husband, announcer Allan Newman – Audrey left the BBC to concentrate on her role as a mother to her growing family.

After an eight-year career break, Audrey worked for many years in a primary school in Essex and then set up her own business, Cakes for Occasions. Her elaborate, intricate creations won her a good reputation and clients including the London livery halls and a former Lord Mayor, whose daughter’s wedding cake she iced and was the focal point of the reception, held at the Mansion House.

She also became a popular speaker at meetings of groups such as the Women’s Institute on the subject of creating sound effects for radio, where she held audiences spellbound with her astonishingly accurate impersonations of crying babies or squawking chickens, and descriptions of the inventive ways sound effects were achieved.

Audrey Newman died only nine weeks after Allan, her husband of nearly 50 years, and is survived by her three children – Mark, Kate and Louise – and five grandchildren.Louise Nevin and Kate Quarry

Radio Leeds secretarial stalwartRadio Leeds has lost one of its kindest and most loved former members of staff with the death of Barbara Jones. Born in 1930 she came from a generation that consisted of highly skilled professional women who gave in a way that those of us who came later did not.

Her working life started at the Yorkshire Bank. She left there to raise a family.

When she returned to work it was with Radio Leeds, where she spent 20 years, until her retirement, in various secretarial roles, including station manager’s secretary, a post that exercised both her powers of tact and discretion to the full.

11

PROSPERO FEBRUARY 2012

obituariES

West Country political journalist and broadcasterLK (Leslie) Way CBE has died at the age of 95 in a care home near High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.

From about 1950 until his retirement in1981,LKWay(thatwashisprofessionalby-line) wrote and presented The West at Westminster – on the then BBC West of England Home Service, from Bristol. It was a weekly look back at parliamentary news as it affected the West of England region; it started out as a 10-minute read-through, but in later years added a five-minute interview with a politician. At the time it was one of the longest-running programmes on BBC local radio.

His full-time job was as parliamentary, then lobby correspondent of the Plymouth Western Morning News, which he had joined in the Exeter office after leaving school in about 1934. He moved to London after the war where he served in the Royal Artillery. He leavesawidow(hissecondwifeAnn), four children, six grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.Michael Way

Family life at the BBCSylvia Latham passed away on 9 December 2011 at the age of 88.

Sylvia joined the BBC just after her 21st birthday in August 1944. When she was ‘called up’, she was given a choice of three jobs: work in a jam factory, carriage cleaner at Old Oak Common GWR or join BBC Engineering(shehadstudiedelectricityand magnetism at school). After due consideration(!)SylviajoinedtheBBCasatraineetechnicalassistant(F)andfoundtoher surprise that she was told to report to the Weymouth Steam Laundry.

She soon discovered on arrival there that round the back was a small bit of BBC territory which housed the H-Group transmitter. This was shortly after D-Day and Weymouth was full of American troops on their way to France. Doughnuts were delivered when the GIs discovered where the girls’ digs were but Sylvia was soon sent on the A1/B1 course at Maida Vale and Droitwich. In October 1944 she was posted to the Washford Transmitting Station in Somerset and joined WilfSeeley’sshiftasaTA(F)II.

I was a TA on the same shift and so we met first in October 1944. Just before the war ended I was called up and joined the Royal Signals. After the war, Sylvia was moved to Bush House Control Room, then to Recordings as a clerk and then to Overseas Services as a bookings assistant at 200 Oxford Street.

Sylvia and I kept in touch, and after I was demobbed I retrained as a junior programme engineer and was fortunate enough to be sent to 200 and so we met again. We married in November 1950 and had two sons: Andrew, who works for the BBC, and Charlie, who lives in Australia.

We both retired from the BBC in 1983 and travelled widely – so we did not waste our retirement together and I have many happy memories to look back on.

I was at her bedside when she died in Hillingdon Hospital, together with our sons. Charlie’s flight from Australia landed at 5.20am and he got to the hospital half an hour before Sylvia passed away. The nurses said: ‘Don’t worry, she’ll wait for him to get here.’And so it proved.

May she rest in peace.Joe Latham

natural World producer

Barry Paine(1937-2011)arrivedinBristolin 1962, after gaining a degree in zoology and oceanography from Bangor University and starting his career in radio in London.

When John Boorman, Head of Films at BBC Bristol, saw the 16mm film Barry had made in the rock pools near Bangor, he encouraged him to apply for the first regional film traineeship. Making the move to television, Barry began working on Animal Magic and the Gerald Durrell series, Catch Me a Colobus.

By 1965 Barry was working as an assistant producer on Life In the Animal World presented by Desmond Morris. In 1967 David Attenborough commissioned the first episodes of The World About Us – later to become the Natural World – a series that Barry worked on as producer for the following 28 years.

His worldwide filming trips would sometimes have only a few days’ notice as in 1973, when he responded to an extraordinary phenomenon, the blooming, after years of drought, of the Simpson Desert in the heart of Australia. One of the BBC’s first co-productions with the Australian

Broadcasting Commission, The Year of the Green Centre was a beautiful and unusual film which Barry subsequently published as a book.

In 1978 he accompanied the Royal Geographical Society’s expedition to Mulu, Sarawak. Some of the scientists and naturalists went on to form the Rainforest Club of which Barry was a proud member.

Also an active member of the city’s Kelvin PlayersTheatreCompany,Barrylovedtheatreand acting: in a powerful performance as Judge Brack in Hedda Gabler he showed us the other career he might have led. But his love of broadcasting always came first.

Barry made The Rotten World About Us in 1979, his words accompanying stunning macro photography. The broadcaster Trevor Philpottwrote:‘Iwouldhavegivenmyrightarm to have written that script.’

In 1983, he turned to full-time writing and narrating, thereby giving ‘voice to the wild animals and plants that can’t speak for themselves’. In so doing, he enhanced over 200 programmes from the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol and almost 50 independent programmes.

Barry is survived by his partner and former BBC assistant Sheila Fullom. Barry Ernest Paine, writer, narrator and film-maker, born in Ilford, Essex, in 1937 and educated at Wanstead High School; died 10 October 2011.Peter Jones

From norwich to newcastleThere are not many BBC employees who do 40 years’ service and still retire early. Such a man was John Frost who died on 6 November 2011. In the ‘50s, John, having started just after the war in overseas audience research, worked in radio news as a producer. In the ‘60s he was in Norwich almost from the start of regional television news there. It was where he learnt his trade – directing and editing film and studio.

John moved to Southampton where, during the‘70shebecameeditor(features),producing a large variety of excellent programmes – typical was one in 1976 entitled Spitfire – 40 years on, which has been repeated on the network more than once.

In 1981 he was appointed regional television manager for BBC North East and Cumbria, based in Newcastle. John was a BBC man through and through and he ran a very happy ship. He was quick to praise other people’s work, to encourage them to do better, very rarely mentioning his own success. I don’t think I ever heard him say an ill word about anyone.

John also had to manage, over five years, the move into a new broadcasting centre, a £10 million development. He did it with great skill and no fuss and he retired from Newcastle in 1987.

After his retirement he helped to raise half a million pounds for ‘Bede’s World’, now a tourist attraction in Jarrow. He acted as media consultant for Tyne and Wear Development Corporation, and chaired the RTS North East Centre, becoming a Fellow of the Society in 1992. He became Deputy Chairman of the NewcastlePolytechnic,later the University of Northumbria and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship.

John believed in the NHS, and, with his membership of the North East Ambulance Trust, became very involved. In the last decade he had to call upon the NHS far too often himself but he could never be a passive patient. He knew every detail of his medication. When John went to see a consultant it was a tight call who was the better informed.

John made light of his own illnesses and bore them bravely. He died quietly in his sleep just before his 82nd birthday. The efficiency of that would have pleased him. He always gave wonderful love and support to his wifeJoy,childrenPeterandTinaandhisfivegrandchildren. He will continue to influence them and us for many years to come.Keith Clement

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Flautists, violinists and French horn players are among musicians wanted for a new amateur staff orchestra – with retired staff welcome to join as well.

If you play an orchestral instrument, you are invited to a taster session for the proposed orchestra in London’s Maida Vale on 12 February.

Led by professional conductors, the session – aimed at those who play around Grade 8 level or equivalent – will take place in the BBC studios between 2-6pm.

The ambition is for the orchestra – which, if formed, will become part of the BBC Club Music Group – to rehearse once a week and to play the core classical repertoire.

Hannah Nepil, a music journalist who has worked on Radio 3 programmes, had the idea to create the new ensemble after spotting a gap in BBC Club activities.

‘The BBC must be full of talented instrumentalists of every sort who would love to all play together but have no opportunity,’ she reasons. ‘This strikes

me as strange since the BBC Club seems to offer everything else, from rambling to theatre going.’

Satisfaction and enjoymentNepil, who plays the violin, has recruited two conductors to lead the musicians. Sam Draper conducted her university orchestra, theOxfordPhilharmonia,andhasbeenprofessionally trained at the Royal College of Music.MikeFage,aformerBBCPresentationexec, studied conducting in the Czech Republic and met Nepil at a Czech class.

Nepil hopes the orchestra will offer both musical satisfaction and enjoyment.

‘I hope it will promote friendships among BBC people from various departments and build in forces, repertoire and quality,’ she says. ‘Who knows – perhaps eventually we’ll get to play Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand!’

Those who are interested in being part of the orchestra – even if they cannot make the taster session – should contact Hannah Nepil at hannahnepil@gmail.com or call 07751693888 with details of which instrument they play.

BBC staff orchestra seeks talented amateurs

Maureen Coulson sent in these photos of TVC in response to the letter by D Blake in October’s Prospero, and writes:

Registry Staff of three accompanied by a large removal van containing hundreds of filestransferredfromAlexandraPalacetothe Ground Floor Scenery Block TV Centre in December 1953.

Along with us on this floor at that time wereGuestProducersoffices,IncomingMail and Teleprinters.

We were all having to work to the sounds of workmen demolishing the remnants of White City Stadium.

Registry soon expanded, as the photos taken of ‘The Girls’ on the Scenery Block Fire Escape shows, along with a ‘tea break’ in the early canteen.

Sale of Television Centre

Above: Canteen Scenery Block. L-R: Maureen Coulson, Joan Stephens, unknown and unknown.

Right: Fire Escape Steps, Scenery Block. L-R: Mary Wright, Pat Greenslade, Brenda Flynn and Brenda Farquarson.

I didn’t realise it at the time, but the email from a former BBC Tees presenter which landed in my inbox in 2007 marked the start of a five-year quest.

Stan Laundon now runs a website which lists, among other things, the great Teesside bands of the 1960s. He’d been contacted by a Teessider called Adrian Ludley, who’d long since emigrated to California.

Adrian’s dad was the lead singer of Rivers Invitation, one of the bands listed on Stan’s site – but there was a tragic twist. Alan Ludley died in a car accident when his son was just a baby. It meant Adrian was desperate for any connection to his dad, especially the chance to hear his music, so we invited him onto BBC Tees and he appealed for the help of our listeners. Incredibly, within an hour we’d

been contacted by someone with old tapes.The following day, Adrian was on the line

again, as we played those old tracks. No-one in the studio, or the audience, knew this was the first time he’d heard his dad sing. He was in tears. I was close to it myself.

But there was one song we couldn’t find, the one with the biggest, perhaps saddest, story attached. It was Seasons in the Sun, one of the 30 biggest tracks of all time.

It was a huge hit for Terry Jacks in the 70s, but long before he smashed his way to number one around the world it had been recorded by six lads from Middlesbrough, and it should have been the making of them.

Instead, because of the tragic death of lead singer Alan Ludley before it could be released, they never got that chance.

This was the song Adrian was aching to hear. So we searched for it. But the surviving members of Rivers Invitation drew a blank. PolydorRecordsdidtoo.

Weeks turned into months. Every year a lead came along which turned into a dead end. I was at a local football game when a steward came over to me and asked ‘if I’d found that song?’. This was three years after we first interviewed Adrian.

Early 2011: an email arrived from a former band member. The subject? Eureka…Found! All this time it had been inside a rusty tin in the back of his cupboard.

Adrian’s lifetime quest for the song was at an end. So wouldn’t it be great for the Afternoon Show to bring him home to Teesside and reveal all?

We teamed up with producer Andy Smythe at Inside Out and managed to get Adrian back to Middlesbrough – without letting him know the real reason why. When we played him the song, the tears flowed. We even brought his dad’s best mates, the band members, back together to meet him. He told me ‘nothing else tops this in my life.’

In my 21 years on air, this story is the one I’m most proud of.

It’s an example of the great human tales that BBC local radio can unearth, and the life-changing effects it can have. Despite tough times, it also shows why two threatened institutions – a local radio afternoon show and Inside Out – offer so much to our audiences.

Searching for Seasons in the SunAriel online ran this heart-warming story from Teesside, by John Foster, presenter, BBC Tees.