Photo from Keith Brook, no reproduction without permission
Photo from Peter Poole, no reproduction without permission
The photo is of John Jeavons lighting either Studio B or the foyer.
Jeavons was relegated to working those two places because of an incident at a meeting Sidey had called.
Every department was there to discuss the viability of a simple little TV programme to be made in the foyer. As Sidey went through each section he was greeted with ‘Crazy, but we’ll give it a go’. Finally it got to Tech Ops, who said it was impossible to light, ceiling too low, not enough manpower, far too difficult, yada, yada, yada.
Good old Jeavons stood up and said if we remove the ceiling tiles we’ll have enough room and he’ll only need two sparks who can also do Midlands Today and stay within hours.
That slightly upset Head of Tech Ops, and not being the vindictive type at all, made sure that Jeavons only did those two shows.
Incidentally, he’s using a Weston Master V, the best exposure meter ever made. Which makes him a great lighter!! There’s a load of complicated stuff for still photography but in the TV world, these meters were used to maintain a consistency of light level. To that end, we only used the top window with the needle and tried to keep everything the same.
Keith Brook (Aka Scouse)