BBC TV North West Regional Opt Out Programme - Homeground, 1980s

Each week every region had 30 minutes available for their own regional opt out programme - opt out so called as they were given the opportunity of opting out of taking the networked programme from London.

For many years BBC TV North West produced a programme to fill this slot called Homeground, that embraced a variety of North West interest - Brass Band competitions, cookery, and generally anything of interest in the region, as are shown in the opening titles.

In this clip it's a programme about Chester Zoo with Brian Redhead. We took the North West region's LMCR (Lightweight Mobile Colour Recorder) van along with three Philips LDK lightweight cameras and parked the LMCR at various spots around the Zoo to record the programme. The cameras had plumbicon pick-up tubes and weren't particularly reliable, nor sensitive either, as can be seen with the shot of the monkey. An introductory shot shows children walking towards the camera in wide shot and the LMCR's radio telephone whip can be seen, from a camera mounted on the top of the van. This early type of mobile phone was mounted on an interior wall of the van with a seperate telephone handset . It was a half-duplex type, where only one end could speak at once.

I remember the VT clock being recorded out of order but positioned on a railing with Graham the sound guy counting down - I'm certain it was 1" VT then. The LMCR recorded all sorts of shows for the region and network - it was a large transit-type of van so could be parked in many more tight places than a Scanner could. Another typical North West programme recorded by the LMCR was the attractive village of Port Sunlight.

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• Television
• BBC TV
• North West
• Homeground
• Brian Redhead
• LMCR
• Philips LDK cameras
• Chester Zoo
• VT clock