With nursing on pause I saw an advert in the paper from the BBC. They were looking for people for a variety of roles who had minimal qualifications. I applied and had an interview. I had hopes of a technical job and perhaps my imagination said, a career on TV. How hard could that be?
The offer from ‘Aunty BBC’ was a clerks job in Central Directorate Accounts. The CDA was a small department that dealt with general bills like the telephone bill for Broadcasting House. There were special items like lawyers fees, and on occasion dealing with well known personalities. The actual office was on the first floor of a building in Argyle Street, next door to the London Palladium. It had two areas of open plan, one overlooked Liberty’s store. We had a flexible working arrangement that meant we could work longer hours some days to facilitate an early getaway on a Friday or a later arrival on a Monday. The BBC itself had the staff clubs, and lots of groups for activities.
A favourite was SADG - studio amateur dramatic group. Based in radio studios after hours, there were some who could operate the dials and be the director and producer. Others of us liked to act. My most enjoyable part was Mole in Wind in the Willows. Each production when finished was played to a professional radio producer or similar who gave us their critical appraisal. We could get tickets to TV show recordings so I went to early Parkinson’s, saw Billy Connolly early in his rise to fame. And witnessed what a great magician Tommy Cooper was. Mum and Dad got to see a recording of Dad’s Army too.
My pop music claim to fame was based on a visit to Broadcasting House, where I sometimes went on business as well as to get lunch in the canteen. As I was leaving one morning I met in the doorway ABBA, as they emerged from a car looking tired, and presumably going to Radio 1 meeting. They ignored me unsurprisingly, clearly that level of fame which was at its 1970s height allowed such behaviour.
By The original uploader was Briantist at English Wikipedia. - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons. (Original Image), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6702133
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