Tag: Oliver Crocker
All Memories Great and Small – Part 9, Alex Christison
This is the final excerpt from “All Memories Great & Small” – by Oliver Crocker
This time it is memories from Alex Christison (Film Sound):
‘The main problem on All Creatures was that we are talking about the days before multi-mic radio microphones were available – so you couldn’t just scatter personal mics around each actor and mix accordingly. We were also recording in mono audio, so I didn’t even have another track to play with like the dramas do these days with split track. Basically, I relied on my boom swinger to get my sound. We’d done away with the old sync lead by then, thank God, which meant I wasn’t joined up to the camera – the boom mic would be connected to my Nagra mixer and would be recorded separately to picture. The clapperboard really did concentrate the minds in those days because it was quite a costly process if you got it wrong.’
60 cast and crew have shared their memories for this new book, which is available to preorder now from Miwk – http://bit.ly/2d7p5ts
All Memories Great and Small – part 8, Maggie Thomas
Excerpt from “All Memories Great & Small” by Oliver Crocker.
Memories from Maggie Thomas (Make-up Assistant, and later Make-up Designer):
‘Television was still in its infancy in comparison to what they can do today. We didn’t have mobile phones on location, they hadn’t been invented then, the AFM had walkie talkies, but they could only be used a short distance within the crew – we were totally on our own once we were out on location. It was too late to make any important changes once you left Pebble Mill, so you had to make sure you had everything you needed in your kit before you left for Yorkshire, because it was something like a four hour journey from Birmingham up to Darlington to the unit base, so you had to do a lot of preparation behind the scenes before you hit the road.’
60 cast and crew have shared their memories for this new book, which is available to order now from Miwk – http://bit.ly/2d7p5ts
All Memories Great and Small – part 7, Carol Churchill
Here is the latest excerpt from “All Memories Great & Small” – by Oliver Crocker.
This time, it is the memories of Carol Churchill (née Ganniclifft) (Make-up Artist):
‘I’d joined the BBC in 1973. I had heard they were looking for make-up artists at Pebble Mill and I thought it sounded interesting so I applied and I got the job – though when I applied, I really had no idea what it was! My mother had a hairdressing salon, so I had that skill, because in television you needed to do both. They sent me to London for a course for three months and then I was up and running. I feel very sad for the girls today because it is so hard to get into it and they have to pay for their training now, which for the same course I did is about £9,000, so not everyone can afford it.’
60 cast and crew have shared their memories for this new book, which is available to preorder now from Miwk – http://bit.ly/2d7p5ts
The following comments were left on the Pebble Mill Facebook page:
Richard Burn: ‘Great to see this set again, first programme I ever worked on in television. I did the pre-production sign design for Darrowby and packaging and signage for the Dispensary, I had never heard of set dressing before then.’
Andy Frizzell: ‘Ha! First studio drama I ever worked on. Bob Gell was TM1 (lighting director nowadays) the hands on the clock in the hall were held on with blue tack.’
All Memories Great and Small – part 6, Janice Rider
Here is the next excerpt from “All Memories Great & Small” by Oliver Crocker:
Memories from Janice Rider (Costume Assistant on 1978 series, and Costume Designer on 4 episodes in the 1989 series):
‘I first worked for the BBC in 1976 and sometime after making a couple of period costumes for Joyce Hawkins, I was offered a seven week contract as a Dresser on the first series of Poldark. My enthusiasm was soon dashed however, when after I had revealed to the designer during the second studio recording that I had never worked on location before, I found myself unceremoniously ditched from the show… it never pays to be too honest! However, because the BBC had to honour the contract, I was transferred onto The Sheik of Pickersgill as Costume Assistant which was, ironically, a mini promotion! From then on I continued as a Costume Assistant and in 1978 began working on All Creatures Great and Small with Anne Barfield.’
60 cast and crew have shared their memories for this new book, which is available to preorder now from Miwk – http://bit.ly/2d7p5ts