The Mausoleum Club Forum

Somebody by the name of Barfe in the credits. We know what that's a sign of. I shudder to think. I'm probably biased, but from what I've seen of it, it's a decent stab at the subject. Bradley Walsh is very much front and centre, in vision, as well as doing a lot of the interviews. As 'series consul...

Clive wrote:I don't know what cameras they were using at Wembley, but at least into the evening set, the microphonics on the tube cameras were a real problem, by far the worst I've seen on any live concert.

I'm pretty certain that it was a mixture of Philips LDK5s and handheld LDK14s.

I wondered what else Robin Brown had done, and found that he is predominantly a maker of natural history films, which makes sense. Just observe and record. This picture sums up the whole documentary for me. Allen is laughing, but he's laughing with Snowy Farr, not at him. It's just lovely. https://p...

Quite agree, Andrew. Any laughter is with, not at. I think what I loved most about it was the (correct) assumption that these people knew what they were doing. No attempt to suggest that it was misguided.

My jazz hero Stan Tracey has left us. I've jotted down a few inadequate words on my blog. http://cheeseford.net/blog/?p=617

The way it skated over the Thames years surprised me, because I was interviewed for the programme and was told that they really wanted to put the Thames work in a decent sort of context for the first time. I gave them loads about the importance of Philip Jones, and stressed that whenever they went t...

Ronco wrote:I bet Coburn's son was pissed off! ;)

I do hope so.

The only thing is, The Omega Factor barely has any film inserts. The vast majority of the location filming was on video. This, I think, is what the reviewer might have been talking about: not BBC Scotland's studio cameras, but their OB cameras, which in 1978 would surely have been fairly new models...

I think we have a clear winner for the worst variety act on television. A friend of mine became obsessed with a terrible impressionist called Huwee Huett, who made one spellbindingly dreadful appearance on Sky's Star Search talent show. He wrote about his horrified fascination on his blog, which is ...

Craig is very typical of a great many choreographers and theatrical directors....portrayed as 'Mr Nasty' he might be, but he tells the truth, gives praise and constructive criticism where it is due and genuinely knows his stuff. Absolutely. I think Craig was told to ramp up the Mr Nasty early on, a...

The site is being remodelled in the style of the old Seabrook's crisp packets, where every word was in quotes.

I don't know about the 30 Minute Theatre, unless it was the two hander with Nichol Williamson and Marian Faithful. She only had to lie on a motel bed all the way through, which is good because that's all she appeared to be capable of doing at the time. Given the 2235 finish time, it was probably li...

Shoes. Have I disappointed you?

Satin shorts were sometimes worn on hot summer days by a certain senior continuity announcer too, sadly deceased. And don't forget those beige Clark's "Cornish pasty" shoes, favoured by many engineers, which had a strange side seam along the outer side of the shoe, making them look like, well, Corn...

Yes, I was alerted that earlier, Bob. Cheers for the confirmation of the origin. I think whoever told Gambo was taking the piss.

Bob Richardson wrote:You MUST re-write it TK-Jake! Your contributions are always entertaining and illuminating. Bite the bullet and do it again.

+1

We used to get this on the old forum a fair bit, but I've not encountered it on this one personally. Cheers for letting us know it's happening. I think it's a database thing.

I've just been watching the Nationwide film about Southend from 24/8/73, and it's in B&W, which surprised me, given that it was four years on from the launch of BBC-1 colour, and the crew would presumably have been sent from London rather than one of the chromatically-challenged regions. It looks a...

Peter Neill wrote:For the techies amongst us -

Since last Monday, and for the next 9 months or so, BBC London News is coming from a virtual reality studio. Only the presenter and the desk are real (and I sometimes have doubts about the presenter).

I take it you're not talking about Sonja?

Sometimes they worked, sometimes they don't. One of my favorite TOTP performances is Gladys Knight and the Pips, Midnight train to Georgia. The album track is slow and dreary whilst the TOTP version is upbeat and full of energy. Poor old Johnny Pearson and Derek Warne often had very little time bet...

Lovely. Cheers, Steve. I was hoping someone else would come forward to save you the arseache.

Eric Delaney was a semi-regular on the Six Five Special, appearing on the following shows: 25/5/57 17/8/57 31/8/57 22/3/58 31/5/58 1/11/58 29/11/58 20/12/58 31/8/57 is the one surviving edition and is very much studio-bound, so we can eliminate that one. If anyone has access to the relevant issues o...

Are any stars visible? It will be easier to narrow it down from guests.

Meanwhile, I've found this - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274288/reviews - about a Six-Five Special OB from the Kursaal, with Cherri Gilham saying she and her brother were in the audience.

So basically, this will be a bunch of celebrities sat in a studio watching old videotapes? That's about the strength of it, yes. The holographic Les is 'performing' material from his old TV shows. The original audience laughter is still on the soundtrack obviously, which made it a bit odd in the st...

Bernie wrote:Well, there you go - my excuse is that I haven't actually read the page since 2004.

It's like when people ask me about the record industry. I ask where they found out a fact. They say it's in my book. Oh well.

Definitely mythical. The Peter Ward article you linked to suggests not. "Whilst 20 million viewers watched the transmission in black and white, 150 children and staff of the Hospital for Sick Children in Great Ormond Street watched part of the procession in colour. Pye of Cambridge were given permi...

Yes, 'all the right notes' is in the ATV original, which had Ernie as the Preview character. What Braben did was make it two against one. Ernie fighting Eric's corner all the way. That was the greatness of Braben. He latched onto the fact that these two men were close friends who looked after each o...

Nigel Stapley wrote:He was the crucial third element in M&W's triumphs at the BBC in the early-mid 70s,

I'd argue that the triangle consisted of the boys, Eddie and John Ammonds. Sad news. A great writer, a great man. His memoirs are a joy.

Cheers for all of this. This is the PasB in question. The recording was done at Bristol University, and presumably the 'MBS' indicates that it was done using the West region's scanner. Might this have any bearing on the way in which the show was recorded? All of the other PasBs I've seen for this se...

I've just come across a PasB for a 1966 edition of Jazz Goes to College. Most of the series have codes beginning VT/6T. However this one begins VT/6ET. Can anyone shed any light on the E?