Since the age of seven I’d wanted to work in television. It all started when a BBC outside unit broadcast from the Methodist church where I attended sunday school. Wow! All those trucks full of cameras and televisions and stuff. I wanted to sit on one of those trollies and be pushed up and down the aisle and wear head phones (cans) and talk to the control truck during the prayers!
When I was 14 (1961) only the cleverest children thought of going to university. Career advisers came to our school and tried to find suitable jobs for the rest of us. Maths was my best subject so I was destined to work in a bank! No thanks, I wrote off to the BBC and they sent me a brochure about becoming a Technical Operator. I can still recall the photographs of young men in sports jackets, shirts and ties twiddling knobs and operating massive studio cameras. Yes, that was what I was going to do. Two A levels were required to be accepted for a traineeship so that was it – I would stay on in the sixth form and take A level maths.
It wasn’t quite that simple! Suitably qualified, I applied for a position as a Trainee Technical Operator and was dismayed to find that I was just one of a thousand, most of whom where brighter than me. Never mind there was always ITV – not the same as the BBC of course but it would do. Two years later I was still applying for jobs and attending interviews all over the country, whilst working in a variety of temporary jobs, cleaning cars, clerking and, finally, as a radio operator. There were no mobile phones in those days so some people had Air Call, a message relay service based on the type of Pye radio transmitter/receivers used by the police and taxis. It was my job to relay messages from a control room in Wardour Street to users in their cars, anywhere in Greater London.
Some of our clients were delivery drivers, some doctors and a few were cameramen and photographers. I often passed messages to and from the BBC TV newsroom at Alexandra Palace and BLUE 42, a freelance cameraman called Chris Baughan. Chris was a “stringer”, a freelance cameraman with a somewhat fiery temperament. But as a news cameraman he was one of the best. Sadly, he died in 2009 of Pneumonia. They say it’s not what you know but who you know that matters when trying to start a career. Well, I kew little about TV and all I knew about Chris Baughan was that he was BLUE 42. Nevertheless, I telephoned him one day and asked if he wanted an assistant.
“I’m going to be outside 10 Downing Street this afternoon” he said ” come and see me there”. When my shift finished at 2.00pm I made my way to Downing Street. In those days ‘security’ consisted of a bobby outside No. 10 so I walked up to the small group of press photographers waiting for Harold Wilson to arrive from the Commons.”Is Chris Baughan here?” I asked. They pointed to a man with a 16mm Bolex H16 camera, just like the one my father owned and which I often used. Chris talked to me for a while and was obviously impressed by my knowledge of the Bolex H16 because a few weeks later I started work as a trainee assistant cameraman/sound recordist.
Thus started a career in television, not how I had imagined it and certainly not down to my brilliance as a candidate! I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, with a little experience of the right cine camera. After a lifetime in the industry, I have listing some of the qualities useful for those wanting a job in TV.
Chris was not always an easy boss but he was a good teacher and took his duty towards his trainee very seriously. Our work, mainly for BBC News, was very varied and every day after work he had me write a report on that day’s assignment, including technical details and what I had learnt. I still have those notes and intend to publish extracts from them here in future weeks. They give an insight into the world of television news in the sixties when Martin Bell was a young reporter and Michael Aspel and Richard Baker were the newsreaders.
Author: Chris Pettit – writing on behalf of Just Film video production company.
This article has received 4 Ducks – Gerald Duck
