Open Microphone

New Zealand Listener, Volume 28, Issue 724, 29 May 1953, Page 24

Open Microphone

NEWS OF BROADCASTERS, *N AND OFF THE RECORD,

By

Swarf

Second, a worldwide radio audience will hear commentators describe the procession, the ceremony in Westminster Abbey, and the celebrations in London. The BBC’s General Overseas Service in English will bring a full coverage of commentaries and sound pictures to Commonwealth countries, British Forces overseas and ships at sea. In addition to the broadcasts in English, accounts of the ceremony will be given in every language the BBC uses in its external services. Through transcriptions of BBC programmes, broadcast by the NZBS, listeners in New Zealand will be familiar with some of the commentators’ voices. This week Open Microphone is given up to C): June 2, the day of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth the photographs and short biegraphies of a few of the many Englishom broadcasters, and a map showing the Coronation procession route. The broadcasts will reach New Zealand homes through the NZBS Overseas Receiving and Monitoring Station at Quartz Hill, Makara, whence they will be fed by land line to the studios of 2YA, to be joined up with other broadcasting stations. Details of the principal broadcasts are to be found on page 7.

7YNFORD VAUGHAN ' THOMAS started out for the BBC from the Swansea Grammar School (he’s Welsh) and arrived there via Exeter ,College, Oxford, a spell as a deck hand on a North Sea trawler, and various educational and cultural posts. At the last Coronation he gave his first running commentary in London-in Welsh. He was responsible for many stirring war reports as a BBC correspondent at the Anzio beachhead, with the Allied Armies in Italy and in other campaigns. In Hamburg he made the last broadcast on "Lord Haw Haw’s" microphone, After the war he was on the maiden voyage of the Queen Elizabeth, went to South Africa with the Royal Tour and to Kenya on the first stage of the Commonwealth Tour of the then Princess Elizabeth, and the Duke of Edinburgh. Now, as a free lance, he has become one of the leading commentators in British television.

TALE OF A DOG

NOTHER former BBC war correspondent, Frank Gillard, came up from Somerset, where he had been schoolmastering to join the BBC staff as Talks Assistant. Now he’s Head of the West Regional programmes. The

story is told of him that in the early days of the Normandy fighting he discovered that his G.O.C.,

General Montgomery, as he then was, missed, above all things, the companionship of a dog. Gillard bought a fox terrier from a French breeder, and presented it to the General on behalf of the BBC war correspondents in the field. The dog was called Shi¢, "S" being the code initial for all dogs born in France that year. Monty translated the name to Schicklgruber, and so, it eventually became Hitler. Gillard has headed teams of BBC reporters covering several Royal occasions, including the funeral of King George VI. a

FAMILY FAVOURITE

| ED-HEADED Jean Metcalfe, once a British Broadcasting Corporation typist, will be one of the two women in the BBC’s main team; the other is Audrey Russell (for news of whom see column one on the next page). In less

than a year Jean was given a test and her soft and pleasant voice gained her a job as a continuity

announcer. Now she comperes Woman’s Hour on three days a week as part of her general duties. She has introduced many pregrammes, including the two-way Family Favourites between London and Hamburg. It was on this programme that she first met her husband, Cliff Michelmore. They had talked together over the air for many, many Sundays, and Michelmore decided to go to London to meet his opposite number. He found that she was his personal "family favourite,’ and they were married a few months later.

MECHANICAL MAN

J,AYMOND BAXTER is best known in broadcasting as a tommentator on mechanical matters, especially anything to do with aeroplanes and cars.

The King’s Cup Air Race, the ‘Farnborough Air Show, the Centurion tank, scientific

research at the Cavendish Laboratory, the Motor Show and the British Indus-

tries Fair are typical of his broadcasts last year. In 1947 he was seconded to be No. 2 to the Station Director of the British Forces Network in Hamburg, and two years later he was appointed to the BBC Outside Broadcasts Department. Since then he has covered every type of outside broadcast from the take-off of the Comet from London Airport on the first regular jet airliner service, to the disastrous floods in Eastern England last January. Each year since 1950

he has doubled the jobs of commentator and competitor in the Monte Carlo Rally, which lures drivers’ 2000 miles across Europe. a

NOTHING short of a major disaster _ will interrupt the Coronation broadcasting’ arrangements at the New Zealand end. L. H. Martin, engineer in charge of the NZBS Receiving and Monitoring Station at Quartz’ Hill,

RECEIVING POINT ~

Makara, and staff, will operate 20 receivers on normal power, but With

emergency power available throughout the proceedings. Considerable work has been done at

Quartz Hill in co-operation with the BBC ‘to select the most suitable shortwave frequencies for the transmissions. Martin, who has been with the NZBS for 14 years, has spent the last four we at Makara, where he and _ his fe and two children live. His hobby is training young soldiers, and at week"ends he changes into uniform for ‘parades of the Territorial Army, in which he holds the rank of Lieutenant.

FRONT SEAT

UDREY RUSSELL has had what ‘she calls a "front row seat" covering every Royal event and pageant which has graced London since the war. One was the Dedication Service on May 3, 1951, when King George VI opened

the Festiva] of Britain, which gave. her the almost certain distinc-

tion of being the first woman to broadcast from St. Paul’s Cathedral. This Dublin-born, fair-haired commentator, now in her early forties, pioneered a new field in Britein when she became

the BBC’s first woman reporter. After assignments in’ front line Dover and other embattled towns she was accredited as the BBC’s gnly official woman war correspondent, working in operfational areas in Belgium, Holland and Germany. Audrey Russell resigned from the BBC two years ago to freelance in sound broadcasting and television.

FROM AUSTRALIA

"TALBOT DUCKMANTON, Australia’s representative in the Coronation team, is one of the ABC’s fore-

most commentators. He is assistant manager of the Commission's stations in Queensland and-in his very early °

thirties-its young- | est executive officer. In 1939 he

transferred from announcing to the Sporting Department and covered his first Public School Boat Race — one of the highlights of Sydney’s sporting year. He became Sporting Supervisor in New South Wales in 1950, covering Davis Cup, tennis, Rugby and many other sports, and in the same year he came to Auckland as one of the two ABC commentators at the Empire Games. The following year he reported the Sturt Expedition up the Murrumbidgee River as part of the Commonwealth Jubilee celebrations, and a few months later was appointed to his present post in Queensland.

MAN ABOUT TOWN

{OWARD MARSHALL, who has achieved distinction in_ several spheres, has spent much of his -professional life round about Fleet Street, the BBC, Whitehall, and since the war. in. the public relations and indus-

trial welfare department of a big steel firm. His first jobs were on the editorial staff of

Answers and the London magazine, with a period as a steward on a cargo boat sailing between London and Hamburg. He joined the BBC as an announcer in 1929, passed on to News and thence to Talks, and the next year resigned to go to the Daily Telegraph. He broke new ground by describing Britain’s slums in a talks series called Other People’s Houses, which attracted Wide attention and resulted in one of his early books, Slum. From then on he began to be known as a broadcaster in Children’s Hour, Radio Sports Club and other programmes, and a commentator on any type of event from a Test Match to a Royal wedding.

HAMPSHIRE ACCENT

OHN. ARLOTT, whose cricket com- ~ mentaries delivered in the loamy Hampshire accent are known to a worldwide audience, has had solid experience of most phases of radio. He has read the lesson in a Christmas Day Service,

and talked of the "wines of Bordeaux, given Soccer commentaries and ~ compered

Country Magazine. One of his most trying ordeals was to announce, produce, narrate and act in a 60-minute Gandhi Memorial feature programme at an hour’s notice without notes or script. But it is in connection with cricket that he is best known, as a player, historian and a writer and commentator who rejoices in its lyricism and grace. Most summers since the war have seen Arlott touring with County or Test cricket teams, and he has covered Test series against the Australians, Indians, New Zealanders, :South Africans and West Indians. He has also been a pro-’ ducer in the BBC Eastern Service in charge of poetry and literary talks, been questionmaster in Twenty Questions, and one of the panel in Any Questions? From 1951, until he resigned early this year to join the London Evening News, he was Senior Instructor at the BBC’s Staff Training School, teaching announcers, producers and other BBC staff in various aspects of broadcasting.