The Boss's Television et al - by Neil Friday
I knew the previous Marconi Chairman (?) Neil Sutherland and his wife, at their Chelmsford bungalow home. When I was at OSG, we were responsible with Terry Barritt in looking after their colour television. It was one of those Decca multi-standard sets. It was one of those splendid wooden units with closing doors in the front. It had a mix of valves and transistors and a mix of black and white 405 lines and colour 625 lines. We used to take one of the large "Globetrotter" suitcases with spare modules and effect changeover in their bungalow lounge. It was a little embarrasing spreading the TV modules around on the large rug on their soft carpets. Terry forbid me to ever sit on their plush and expensive archchairs. We were offered cold drinks which I had to consume sitting crosslegged on the carpet! If we were unsuccessful at any modules changeover, the TV set was carefully blanketed up and returned in the Commer van.
Back at base there was a storeman called Len Eade. He used to wear an old worsted sports jacket an old tie and substantial brown boots. In other areas he could have been taken for a manor house head gardener !
He was rapidly approaching retirement. He looked after the stores in the department. I believe that no account exists of this guy. He had the patience of a Saint and was always calm and collected, whilst we, at times in the Department were at times in a panic. One of Len´s atributes was that he had a superb memory. When we had problems with the Decca TV´s, Conrac colour monitors or MkV picture and waveform monitors, he would almost pop his head around from the corridor, at Waterhouse Lane Development block, into the studio and suggest the most common faulty component. He was almost 100% accurate in his knowledge and understanding, even though he was not technical in himself. There were numerous occasions that a number of us younger Engineers did not have access to the older Engineers, so Len used to "deputise" and offer helpful solutions to our problems.
When we were about to go out on installations around the world, for a number of months, he would provide the suitable suitcases and spare modules and suggestions of spare parts for various telecine or cameras. He was also "responsible" for assisting in any humble capacity and looked after Ian Rogers checking-outs for the OB vans, which were located in the "Garage", a part of the overall department.
Len´s empire was a storeroom that had a mezanine floor. Stock included large selections of valves, suitable for MKII cameras to MKVIII telecines and cameras. Also camera cables, lighting items and pan & tilt heads to tripods.
He was sadly missed when he retired.
Marconi Day - by Andrew Fremont
International Marconi Day was on Saturday 22nd April and this is celebrated around the world by radio clubs including the Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society who set themselves up in the original Marconi broadcast huts now at Sandford Mill.
Marconi Day, also at Sandford Mill, was on the Sunday and had various displays in addition to ours. This day is for the public rather than the radio types. Photographs of the day can be viewed here. Note that the cameras were, unless otherwise stated, the Mk IX model.
Television Ties - by Neil Friday
Two of the ties are from 1982 Broadcast Studios part, and two other ties. One of those ties was obtained from Eddystone in Birmingham, when I purchased a Marconi/Eddystone B3608 1Kw medium wave transmitter for Isle of Wight Radio in 1990.
The striped tie has an interesting story.
For the first public exhibition demonstration of all Marconi Mk IX cameras (I´m not sure whether it was Montreux or Brighton), all cameramen had to wear a uniform. This came from Marks and Spencer shops. Dark blue blazers, light blue shirts, very dark blue trousers and the ties. We were all very smart. I was in a cameraman capacity. I outgrew the trousers and blazer quite soon, but had the shirt for a good ten years.
Anyone who was at the exhibition would recognise the appropriate tie.
Memories of Qatar - by Neil Friday
Extracted from an email
The death of the former Emir of Qatar has just been announced in the Daily Mail viz:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3865244/Qatars-former-emir-dies.html
I am fluent in Arabic at pronouncing his name, as part of the Al-Thani family.
I met the Emir a couple of times in 1974 and he certainly was a big man. The Qatar TV organisation, (refer pictures below), had an opening ceremony using their Marconi OB Van with MK VIIIb cameras. They had white waterproof covers that attempted to deflect the sun shade temperatures of about 43 degrees. However underneath the covers, the cameras cooked and the red registration errors were visible.
For the opening ceremony, which was relayed via satellite and broadcast towards the Gulf States area, the OB van was used.
Scene one was the Emir arriving by car outside the front doors to the building. Scene two was a side view of the Emir walking past from the outside to the interior. The degree of brightness outside is considerable and it was necessary for the second cameraman to change the external N.D. filter around. This was supposed to happen "off air" but alas had to be changed "on air" but firstly having to cap the camera, to avoid showing the rotation of the filter wheel. I was not pleased at that.
It was necessary to unplug camera one, the one at the entrance and move it along other areas and reconnect it to other camera cables to pick up the Emir doing a tour of the facilities. Of course the tripod and pan and tilt head had also to be carried by lots of "Farages".
Then whilst I was supervising all facilities and being Vision Controller, we had the Emir shown the inside of the OB van, with the doors being opened. From total darkness in the vehicle then akin to the sun being admitted to the van wiped out all the pictures on the colour monitors!
Of course we were diplomatic of our later comments on the event.
Picture 1 Picture 2 Picture 3
MkIV Camera at the 2016 Marconi Veterans Reunion
Click here to view
Historical photographs - by George MacLean
Click here to view. Please add comments should you be able to add any information.
2015 Studio Reunion
Click here to view some photographs of the 2015 Studio Reunion. 43 people attended.
30 year old Telecine springs to life - by Phil Doughty
Here is an article from the Diss Express about the Marconi Telecine that’s ended up in Withersdale in Suffolk. The article is from August I think but I only noticed it recently when searching the net for references to ‘B3410 telecine’.
In the article it says that this telecine was originally Scottish Television and then for the last ten years at the Disney Channel in London (possibly in Centre Point I believe) - in my day book I’ve got and entry for ‘Machine 12’ being the ‘Scottish’ telecine so presumably the 12th production machine went to STV.
My day book gives the date that the machine was being completed in New Street as being in September 1983 - I can just about remember working on a machine in New Street about that time and also I have a note about speaking to an STV engineer called Charlie Hunter about the cinemascope option on the machine - I can’t remember much else about it though as it was 31 years ago !
This B3410 telecine unit was used in 2016 to transfer to a DVD the copy of an early promotional 16mm film "The Wide World of Marconi" for use at the Hall Street exhibition - its owner Stuart Orr is shown here. and the video can be viewed here.
East Anglian Film Archive (EAFA) – Peter Smolka (2017)
The EAFA was founded in 1976 by David Cleveland (film historian and author of many books). It was the first of the regional film archives to be established in the UK, and since 1984 it has been owned and operated by the University of East Anglia. EAFA is housed at the Archive Centre in Norwich, a state of the art storage facility funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, Norfolk County Council and UEA which opened in 2003 on a site alongside Norfolk County Hall.
Film archive digitisation commenced 2005.
Some background
In 2001 I refurbished 4 Marconi telecines for British Pathé news archive for the Daily Mail publishers. 3300 cinema news films mostly 35mm, nonstop job for 20 operators over 3 years in Pinewood. Nitrate films transferred daytime, safe stocks overnight (insurance requirement).
Marconi telecines provided by ex-Discovery channel proprietor from Canada (my client).
British Pathé - Wingspan contract completed, Pinewood studios block "G" was closed for refurbishment (it actually burnt down during rebuilding work).
Telecines temporarily stored in HTV - Bristol (Discovery - Wingspan UK studios) eventually donated to Lottery funded East Anglian Film Archive digitisation project.
EAFA constructed 6 telecine suites, 4 Marconi, one FDL 60 ex Anglia plus FDL 60 ex Discovery.
The Marconi 3410 - 03 varispeed was recovered from Indonesia by Wingspan. This Australian owned machine (I used to service it) suffered Indonesian Muslim uprising, foreign facilities looted, operators left Jakarta. Telecine eventually recovered from damaged studio, broken windows in the tropical environment (too heavy to be stolen). The machine was shipped to my UK workshop and fully reconditioned. It was reprogrammed for S-16 format and other upgrades. This main EAFA suite now considered for the Chelmsford museum.
Other 3410 - 01 machines from Wingspan had been provided with narrow gauge options. UEA gave me a full year’s work to prepare this in my workshop. I constructed new gates and film transport changes for 9.5mm,.8mm, S- 8, S16, S 35 and adjustable - full aspect 35 / silent format (unpredictable film frame and speed). Also EVR film cassettes player (BFI lost all EVR cassettes before EVR made ready.)
Digitisation was completed in 2012. EAFA was reduced to 3 fulltime staff for a considerable period. There are now 200 hours of local archive films available on line.
A photograph of all the EAFA staff in 2010 can be viewed here.
The opening of the John and Joy Chittock Research Room
On 23rd August 2011 a grand event was held at the EAFA to formally open the John and Joy Chittock Research Room at the EAFA.
The following documents can be viewed:
- A description of the EAFA organisation, a summary of John Chittock’s achievements and the guest list
The Foreman's Do - by Ewan Fenn and Martyn Clarke
The after effects of a long evening 'just chatting' can be seen here.
HM Queen opens the MkII Broadcasting House – by Paul Marshall
The BBC’s huge new extension to the old Broadcasting House (‘BH’ in BBC speak) was opened on the 7th June 2013 by the Queen. Former Marconi engineer Paul Marshall was there with a Marconi MkII Image Orthicon camera (pictured) which was used at the 1953 Coronation. This camera is familiar to many as the one featured on the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year trophy. It is the classic British 4-lens turret camera of the early 1950s and was the mainstay for Outside Broadcast operations. The example shown spent some 20 years on a rubbish tip in Essex and has now reached a stage in its restoration where it can be seen in public! There’s still much to do to achieve operational status but this is now a real target. The Queen was shown the camera in the presence of the man in charge of the BBC’s Coronation coverage, Peter Dimmock and the television presenter Sylvia Peters. Paul was also lucky enough to be introduced to Her Majesty as the leader of Project Vivat which is dedicated to recreating an early 1950s Outside Broadcast Unit, or ‘scanner van’, as they were then known. See: www.projectvivat.co.uk for more information.
Dicing with Dr. Who - by John Rhodes
I remember the DICE machine in TV Test. One lunchtime the output of the device was fed into the input, the patterns produced would have put the opening sequence of Dr Who to shame!
Memories of a sound and wire man - by John Rhodes
At the end of my electrical apprenticeship with Christy Brothers I had an offer to work on a feature film so left, did that and later joined the Marconi Co as a wireman. Got transferred into TV Test sorting out mods and such on Mk V Mk VI Mk VII Mk IX and a bit on the 9P (I think all that was because the supervisor I was working with was also involved with the stage and knew that I had been playing around with film since the age of eight). Was transferred to staff working on 3404 telecine and the MR2 1in C format VTR.
So I must have been doing something right, though I have no idea what it was!
Basically I ended up working on anything that had sound on it OB trucks film editors and now and then was making video recording of stuff being manufactured.
Also did some voice over recordings for the company (I had the sound recording facilities the company didn`t!). These were for the Farnborough Air Show, internal company stuff, a radio ad, and the voice for a somewhat large MW transmitter being tested at Rivenhall Airfield - "This is G9 BOS Testing!" Seems that it was going out all over southern England. And yes I had to lend the company a tape recorder to play on it back as again they did not have one!
Happy Days although sometimes it did not seem to be at the time..............
The party that started the Marconi Studio Association
Like so many such events this one was no exception; it was started in 1988 at the "The Duck" in Newney Green near Writtle to celebrate the leaving of Henry Mirswinski, now deceased. It has since become an annual event, usually held around October, and people come from far and wide to renew their friendships.
The photographs of that event were taken by <to be provided> and are available here. The original album is held by the Marconi Studio Association.
The same set of photographs, annotated with names where known, is available here. If you can add to these please complete the Comments box at the bottom of this page and the pictures will be updated accordingly.
Reflections on Amalgamated Wireless Australia (AWA)
AWA were the Marconi representatives in Australasia for many years focussing on developing the television and broadcasting markets. They were very successful in their endeavours and various reminiscences are available here.
From George MacLean via email
It was a Marconi 'Open Day' probably about 64 or 65, held at WHL We had a TDU OB Van, with Mark III Cameras. It was powered up and working, and we had a 'mock broadcast' with 4 cameras and a 'director'.
The cameras were manned, as were the engineers positions, with the public walking through observing the 'broadcast' in operation I was on a camera shift, on top of the OB Van, getting shots of people walking by the exhibits It was getting difficult to get interesting shots, and I think the director was getting bored. However I spotted a pretty girl in a short mini skirt, so I followed her, much to the delight of the director and operating crew. I should point out, here, that the camera was situated near the side of the van I was instructed to follow the pretty girl, and as she walked around the back of the van, I had to swing the camera around to follow her, with the result that I lost my footing, at the edge of the van and fell off to the ground!
I could hear yells of disappointment, from inside the van, as the girl had gone 'off shot' and 'keep the camera off the sky' (that was a big 'no no' in the days of image orthicons). Nobody was worried about my state of health, although I was OK!
MkIV camera - supplied by George Maclean
After joining Marconi, with a training year at Marconi College, I was first sent to Rainsford Lane (an offshoot of Pottery Lane) under Dave Parkinson, responsible for the 'Established Designs' section. When we were moved to Waterhouse Lane (WHL) with the whole group, the late Ray Cox took over, the section as Dave Parkinson emigrated to the US. Well the Mark IV had one annoying fault. The 'on air' lights on top, front and viewfinder were controlled by a relay that 'clicked' when operated. This click could be picked up by a microphone, especially on a close up shot. In fact when watching TV plays that were live in those days, one could tell that Mark IV cameras were being used as one could hear the click over the air. Anyway the BBC came to WHL to find out what we were doing about this, and I had to set up a camera, so that they could demonstrate the complaint. Ray Cox was hosting the BBC gents, and Ray, although a very talented musical gentlemen, had a unusual deafness at certain frequencies, and was unable to hear the 'click' (although I could) and refused to do anything about it. The BBC accused Ray of being 'politically deaf' and left the meeting. Later, I believe, the relay was encased in a rubber box which cured the problem.
MkVII camera - supplied by George Maclean
Another anecdote from WHL.
As was mentioned in one email, which featured Judith Chalmers, we had a studio with a control room upstairs.
An Engineer, (name that I cannot remember, but hopefully he will read this and confirm) was trying to set up a Mark VII (colour) camera. He was up in the control room with an assistant operating the camera in the studio. The Mark VII had not got automatic registration, and set up was achieved from pointing the camera to a black and white test card, and then moving the camera to a colour scene, in this case a bowl of fruit. He could not see either the test card nor the bowl of fruit, and would ask his assistant to move the camera from one shot, to another. He was having great difficulty with the set up, although the black and white card was good but the colour shot was not true colour. He tried adjusting the colour scene, but then the B&W, was not right.
Anyway, this was happening about 6PM and the assistant called up to say that he had to leave, so the engineer said something like 'OK, leave the camera on the test card and I will come down and change it when I am ready'.
After a while he came down to move the shot and as he glanced at the bowl of fruit, he discovered that someone, presumably his assistant, had painted the bananas blue!
Life as a television salesman - supplied by Michael Cross
For 2-3 years I was the north of England/Scotland tech salesman for educational systems so every month Marconi would pay for my 1st class sleeper to Glasgow, and I'd collect my Godfrey-Davies rental Ford Anglia the next morning at Central Station.
For 2-3 weeks I'd then travel round the colleges and universities in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and so on hopefully selling them more stuff and installing new items I'd brought with me, like new cameras and monitors. I always remember Dundee College of Education specially ordered twin monitors bolted side by side to provide widescreen facilities - pretty far sighted for 1965!
By the way the reason I got the Dundee order was the head man Bill Dow reckoned it was the Marconi-made R1155/T1154 radio that saved his life when his mosquito was shot down on a sand bank in the North Sea! His Mayday call was heard and he got picked up safely shortly after ditching.
A typical distraction - supplied by George MacLean
It was a Marconi 'Open Day' probably about 64 or 65, held at WHL We had a TDU OB Van, with Mark III Cameras. It was powered up and working, and we had a 'mock broadcast' with 4 cameras and a 'director'.
The cameras were manned, as were the engineers positions, with the public walking through observing the 'broadcast' in operation I was on a camera shift, on top of the OB Van, getting shots of people walking by the exhibits It was getting difficult to get interesting shots, and I think the director was getting bored. However I spotted a pretty girl in a short mini skirt, so I followed her, much to the delight of the director and operating crew. I should point out, here, that the camera was situated near the side of the van I was instructed to follow the pretty girl, and as she walked around the back of the van, I had to swing the camera around to follow her, with the result that I lost my footing, at the edge of the van and fell off to the ground!
I could hear yells of disappointment, from inside the van, as the girl had gone 'off shot' and 'keep the camera off the sky' (that was a big 'no no' in the days of image orthicons). Nobody was worried about my state of health, although I was OK!
I wasn't allowed to do it - supplied by George MacLean
On one of the American space missions (I have forgotten, which one) I was dispatched to the BBC TV centre with a MK VII colour camera, as the BBC, would insert an update on the space programme, every hour or so. I arrived there to set the camera up. There was just a table and chair for the presenter, with a map of the world in the background. So I connected the camera up and the BBC had provided one studio floodlight, with a 13 Amp plug on the end. So I took the plug and plugged it into the wall socket and switched the lamp on. I heard a yell and an engineer with whom I was working rushed up and and yanked the plug out of the wall socket, shouting that I will cause a strike. I said that I needed the light to set the camera on, so he called a number, and soon an electrician and his mate arrived and ceremoniously plugged the plug into the wall socket, switched on, and they both stayed there until I was finished the setting up, switched the lamp off, unplugged it, and went away giving me an extension no to call if I needed to switch on again. I think that I remarked that 'Was I able to use the phone on my own? I did not get an answer!
Of course when the time came for the broadcast, I was not allowed to operate the camera. That had to be a BBC union camera man.
Boom Boom - supplied by Martin Boothman
I found the attached when having a clear out: it is from the front page of The Daily Telegraph in, I think, the summer of 1957 when Norman Page and I were drafted to the studio for a few weeks in the summer as extra hands.
I was given the sound boom because I was tall, which was thought to be a advantageous when controlling the boom, but I had precious little training before going live. The outcome was a barely concealed comment from a BBC fellow that “he’d never seen boom shadows like those on the previous evening’s Tonight”.
Anyhow, there I stand in the photo on the boom while Mr. Warren was interviewed. I think the DT was upbraided about this story and photo because it was thought the publicity might influence any court proceedings and so in later editions of the paper it was pulled.
A Delinerator definition - supplied by George MacLean
I was asked what a Delineator was by the editor of this Wiki……
A Delineator for circuits puts the engineer's circuits into readable form, so that the logically read from left to right with the main path in a video circuit central vertically. Ian Jack worked closely with John Austin so that the handbooks were readable before passing them to the tracers who would use stencils for final printing. I had a complete set of B6128 circuits in my basement but unfortunately they all got destroyed when my basement flooded.
This reminds me that we had an Arab guy, Wassin Abdulla (don't know what happened to him), anyway he would draw his circuits from R to L, and we would ask him to start at the left. The result was half a page started at the left bent round and finished at the left with only half a page drawn on and the other half blank!
4.5kHz shock treatment - supplied by Neil Friday
In the audio test area at New Street, were a couple of other guys; a Steve Purkiss and an Alistair Watson (also a Scot)(my god I've forgotten his surname until now when typing this up). Steve and Alistair may have both been apprentices some five years earlier than myself. Steve left Marconi some time in 1971. Alistair stayed on in various departments - can's remember where though.
The man in charge was the late Jock Scullion. He retired in about 1973. He was a very strongly built Scot, with an "Edinburgh" type of accent. Alas although this was the audio room where all audio products were tested and adjusted, his hearing was very poor. We had one of those large 1 metre high Lockwood Loudspeakers with a high powered Leak valve amplifier inside. One day Steve and I decided to play a joke on Jock. The idea was that we would fill the room with 50 watts of a sine tone at 4.5KHz. He was sitting at his desk/bench position and never turned his heard around to see what was going on. To us the tone was very painful and we had complaints from Engineers outside the room over this tone. Steve and I were falling about the place with laughter afterwards, when we turned the tone off. Jock spotted our laughter and asked what was going on - but we just blagged our way out of that!
Rank promotes Marconi - supplied by George MacLean
Just watched the 1955 film from J Arthur Rank, 'Simon and Laura' with Kay Kendall, and Peter Finch. This film was shot in the BBC Studios and features Marconi equipment. Shots of Mark III Cameras with the Marconi logo badge, including close ups. Also, I think, Mark II's and monitors, which may be Mark IV's. Lots of shots with cameras on cranes and some sound equipment. The film plot is a bit dated but features Muriel Pavlow.
1936 Television set and its viewers - supplied by Richard Jesty
Click here to bring back memories!
Studio "M" - Everything in those days were live - by Martyn Clarke
In April 2009 five photographs were found in an English junk shop by Terence Pegram, a veteran of Marconi, who thoughtfully sent them to the Secretary of the Marconi Veterans Association. At that time he thought they related to one of TDU’s demonstrations, and noted that a young Cliff Michelmore was identifiable in two of the pictures. He finally managed to track down one of the people in the group photograph – Martyn Clarke – who has recalled here some of those times.
I was a MkIX 'poser' (what happened to the other 8?) - by Neil Friday
In response to a question put by the Ed.
Sorry, I was not in the Mk VIII camera, it was the Mk IX. I don't believe that a colour data sheet or brochure was ever produced in colour for the MK VIII, also.
You already have the MK IX on your files. The central part features myself in a pale orange/mauve jersey with medium brown flared trousers.
On one particular day at OSG, Terry Barritt said to me; do you want to have your picture taken for the new brochure?, and I said yes but on one condition only that the positioning of all the zoom controls and headsets was correct and was to be nothing like previous bogus "posings".
In the studio (at Waterhouse Lane) a large area had been lit with a rear cyc paper type material laid out with the curve at the ground. I had to wear no shoes to protect the cyc material. I was happy that the camera controls and positioning were authentic.
The MkVIII versus the MkIX - by Neil Friday
As a passing comment, the reliability of the Mk VIII's was not great. The AUTOTEST feature was extremely useful that the camera was working. The trouble was that it was desirable that the autotest was left on all the time, but the Shadow mask and PIL colour monitors soon had the autotest colour boxes, permanently burned into the phosphors of the monitors. So everywhere the cameras looked, lurking in the background were the autotest boxes !
The MK VIII and to a lesser extent the MK IX cameras pictures are still recognisable on vintage video tape programmes due to the black edging around sharp transitions that included actors faces and clothes as well as set items. images.
I used to complain extensively about this phenomena to the development team to no avail. Using the strobe facility on waveform monitors, the edges overshoots were easily visible.
The subjectively portable Hitachi SK90 (?) camera we had for a short while, that I was responsible for had a different approach to aperture correction.
The whole unpleasant MK VIII and MK IX images was apparently due to the aperture correction being added to the video signal prior to gamma correction. Thus down at the black level, thse edges were amplified. The SK90 added aperture correction AFTER gamma correction. The side by side comparisons were that as the correction was increased, the Marconi images had more and more black "cut out" effects, against more and more whites and sparkly effects of the SK90. ( as well as the majority of other cameras in use, worldwide)
The story was that this was a requirement for the IBA (Independent Broadcasting Authority). The failure of logic was that the superb quality of the MKVII and to a lesser extent EMI 2001 4-tube cameras did not suffer from these unpleasant edging effects. Yet these cameras were in service in the UK commercial sector !!
Life after Life – by Neil Friday
I'm pleased to see that the guy John Rhodes has been mentioned.
When I was in New Street's TV Test's Audio Room, outside John had a bench. He was an expert wireman amongst other attributes. He was frequently requested, when I moved to Terry Barritt's OSG department to come over and do some modifications to the cameras. As the B1100 audio mixer was coming to the end of its manufacturing life, around 1972, he bought the last one from TV Test. How this was done, I don't know. It was the rag bag of the dregs. Various items had been removed from the unit, to supply other mixers, for customers. He did the audio at a Chelmsford Theatre and thought that this mixer would be ideal. I believe that eventually, he managed to scrounge all the missing PPM meters and the odd audio transformer.
Also, if I recall, he bought from TV Test the last 16 mm Bauer telecine projector. These were stand alone units for the MK VII telecine multiplex. They were located on pedestals.
Perhaps you could ask John to describe these two events, as I would be interested where they ended up?
….and John Rhodes’ response……
Re the audio mixer.
I did indeed buy the last one to be manufactured (I think that the one from WHL was for spares) and it did service for a long long time as the main part of the sound fx recording part of my hobby.
The fader starts being very useful when working on you own and having to start several machines at once.
Eventually of course everything went digital so it came out of service and "rested" for a while. Nowadays it resides next to one of it brothers in Paul Marshall`s OB, which had space for two of them, but was fitted with only one. Charlie Boyton and myself spent an enjoyable weekend with Paul`s home fitting the thing in. It was just like old times but without the tea breaks!
The 16mm was supposed to replace the rather creaking projector at the Marconi Club and although we did manage to get the thing up into the projection room, we never did succeed in providing it with a three phase supply.
Thank you Neil for calling me an "expert wireman" I thought it was more like "Desperate!" That would have been before Dick Cooper and myself were transferred to staff and set about, literally in the dark, getting the B3404 projectors to work. But that is another Marconi story.
I am still recording stuff, and sitting here in front of the digital control panel, typing this. Nowadays I seem to be doing more and more radio drama for the London Sherlock Holmes Society, and the Essex Audio Theatre. Strangely the one thing I always wanted to do when I left school was to get involved with radio drama and about three years ago, at the suggestion of one of the cast Roger Johnson of the Holmes society contacted me........................I was just coming up to seventy, of course I jumped at it, but with the thought WHY NOW!!!
If you go onto the London Sherlock Holmes website the first one I recorded and edited was a two hour two episode play "The Strange Case of Miss Alice Falconer".
You see, there is life after Marconi`s.
The 1964 UK Election - the Alan Hartley-Smith influence
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