Category Archives: Events

Lawford Thomas RIP

From Verena Clark of the Chiltern Open Air Museum Museum where Lawford has been working recently.

Lawford died peacefully at 12.15am on 15th May 2015 at Buckingham House Nursing Home.  I am pleased to say that he did not suffer in his last days
and the staff at the home looked after him very well. He was pleased to be there and not at home alone.

His passing will be a big loss to us all as we all knew and respected Lawford for his immense talents and practical capabilities.

The funeral will be on Monday June 1st at 2.30pm  at Chilterns Crematorium, (Postcode HP7 OND), in the Milton Chapel.

Afterwards, everyone is invited back to the Chiltern Open Air Museum (post code HP8 4AB in Chalfont St Giles) for tea and the opportunity to see the place which Lawford loved and where he gave so much of his time.

Please pass this invitation on to as many people as you wish to who knew Lawford from his BBC days.  .

I would be grateful if you could reply to siteandfarm@coam.org.uk to let me know if you are coming to either the service and/or the tea as I am catering for the event.

Verena Clark


Before joining P&ID where he worked until his retirement 20 years ago, he had been in Telecine. His “Brief History of Telecine in the BBC”, written in 1993 in association with Geoff Rowlands, is reproduced in full under Telecine & FR on the main website.

CB

What goes round……..

Keith Palmer (FR) recently gave John Warner a very old file marked A HE Tel Rec (takes you back – was that Tony Cheal?). Inside was a ‘fragile’ copy of the December 1936 Television Magazine. John scanned this, and, by the miracles of email and Adobe Acrobat Pro, we’ve produced a copy which you can find in Downloads.
However, the introductory page, reproduced here, passes a comment about the state of TV in 1936 that could be appropriate today!

TV-01a

Tom Corcoran RIP

Please could you let everyone know that very sadly the wonderful Tom Corcoran who directed Late Night Line-Up, The Old Grey Whistle Test, The Live Aid concert in 1985, Wogan and Eight Days A Week amongst many other BBC studio and OB programmes, died last Thursday 23rd October after a short illness.

His sister Cathy is arranging for the funeral to be held at Mortlake Crematorium so that as many Beeb people as possible can attend, on 12th November.

More details see here:-Funeral of Tom Corcoran

Christmas is Coming!

Apologies for the absence of updates, but Mrs C J and I have just finished writing a book about the Great War which went to the printers yesterday afternoon. A 2½ year project it has taken up a lot of my time – I’m publishing it – but now I can return to the Oldboys website once more.

Nick Martin has just sent me the details of the Surbiton Christmas Lunch; Thursday December 4th is the date for your diaries, and you will find full details, and, in due course, a Menu at http://www.40sand50sreunion.co.uk.

Additionally, Richard Cox’s photographs of the last Oldboys Lunch at “The Black Horse” will be on the web in a couple of days.

Familiar faces

Ian Norman sent me a video of a live transmission from VT on Saturday, March 14th 1981. He was the cameraman for Swap Shop (Ikegami HL79) – you can find the full version in The 1980s under Swap Shop and in Programmes under VT on TV.

ssvt81_01
Two instantly recognisable faces in the still above, Murray Needham & Mick Goodenough, but take a look at the still below.

ssvt81_02
The first still is of the hexaplexer desk, with Al Goddard driving VT10, but who is the editor on VT9 (updating Grandstand titles) and who is the Sports PA?

Christmas already?

Nick Martin has just updated the 40s & 50s Reunion website with details of the Tel Rec & Friends Christmas Lunch at Surbiton on Thursday, December 5th.

Also, don’t forget the next Oldboys Lunch at our new venue at Chorleywood on Thursday, September 19th. Emails have gone out to those on the list, but everyone is welcome. Full details in Future Events, and Howard would like to know if you are coming so he can give the pub an idea of numbers.
See you there!