The new Millenium

The Naughties

Flash and Trash

• Having arriving just in time to catch Broadcast television at its height, Richard had a very varied decade. There was a lot of Moving Light Programming and Operation on a wide mixture of Light Entertainment and Children’s shows for Broadcasters big and small, across pretty much every major - and many minor - Televisino and Film Studio in the UK; together with a random smattering of Outside Broadcasts from Hospitals to Stately Homes and Castles.

James Campbell

• For a good chunk of the naughties, Richard worked closely with LD James Campbell (…RIP), intiially just a moving light programmer on long-running household names such as Mastermind, Question of Sport, and even, oddly Crimewatch. Over time, as Production requirements and Technology evolved, and shows started to shrink from full-size to fun-size studios, he also started opeering the Key (face) lighting on show such as Morgan & Platell, The Golden Lot, etc. James gently imparted his great skill and craft for portraiture in a multi-camera enviroment, vital skills that have stood him in great stead ever since.

Corporate Events

• Away from Television, there was an eclectic mix of Live Events - mostly Corporate, many still involving video elements. Apart from the usual Conferences etc, the highlights ranged from opening the Mercedes-Benz world at Brooklands (an intersting cooincidence, see later), to 7 successive seasons of Xmas Parties at The Brewery, a historic venue next to the Barbican in the City of London. These end-to-end themed events ran daily for 1 to 2 months each, with custom-produced video content created each year, all played back from Hippotizer media servers controlled by Richard’s lighting console, to ensure perfect synchronisation between the lights, the video playback, and the desert.

Childrens TV

• two notable series in 2007, this time with LD Geoff Thonger, who was a joy to work with. Space Pirates for CBBC was shot in Elstree Film Studios, next door to Who Wants to be a Millionaire - although not working with their budgets, and a vision gallery that was literally the back of a small van, rabbits were pulled-out of the proverbial hat, thanks to great team work and helpful suppliers. It also was the first time Richard encountered the brilliant work of Set Designer Jason Underwood, who later designed many of Richard’s favourite sets at Sky.

2008 - Starts Freelancing for Sky

• Intially brought in to help program the lights for the refurbishment of Studio A for Sky News, this expanded into being asked to come back to provide ad-hoc relief cover for the staff Lighting Technical Operators. And, not long after, being asked to light various of their other in-house products, the first of which was, of course - Football First (Sky Sport’s version of Match of the Day, except with an actual Match not just bits of Matches.)

His Biggest Show - Ever

• Miss World. Earls Court, 2011.

Stuart Gain as LD. Another loverly man to work with!

Would have been even loverlier to have heard Sound that wasn’t delayed by 0.5sec due to sitting at the back of the auditorium, especially when trying to do snap cues for the dance group Diversity. Hey ho…

Also notable for the totally unexpected great (and free!) decorative lighting given by the House lights behind and above the stage - as soon as saw these on camera the Alpha-Beam movers were rapidly re-pointed up into the air as much as possible!

Not the biggest and bestest, but his biggest-eve audience for a single live show.

Only about 30,000 of them were in the UK though.

Also its alleged to be the biggest annual TV show in the world.

Gallery