BOB HERRICK was Head of the Film Unit at Tyne Tees Television in its glory years when he helped to make some outstanding television documentaries.  He became Chairman of our regional RTS centre, as I remember, at a low ebb in the region's RTS fortunes.  We held our committee meetings at  Tyne Tees Television where there were always refreshments and a drinks trolley including a choice of spirits!

 

This was before our annual awards ceremony started.  Our only regular activity was monthly meetings.  Bob, I recall, suggested two of the most successful — talks by Julia Quenzler, the BBC's court artist, and by David Croft of Dad's Army, who had earlier in his life worked with Bob at Tyne Tees.

When Bob became ill I reluctantly took over the Chairmanship, and again remember the Centre as rather limping from event to event.

It was only when the late John Frost came up from BBC South to the role of Regional Television Manager at BBC North East that a bomb was put under us — it was John who suggested we start the Annual Awards.  Although I was nominally the Chairman, it was John who organised things.  The ceremony began upstairs at the Tyneside Cinema and went from success to success until its full flowering in recent years at the Sage, Gateshead [and this year at the Hilton, Gateshead — Ed]. Bob kept in touch for many years but had recently dropped out.  Only last year, ironically, he had been back in touch with the Centre.

Bob and I were also regular judges at regional Amateur Cine Club competitions.  Bob continued to send me his beautiful black-and-white photograph Christmas cards.

His wife of 52 years, Karin, died a few years ago and Bob reluctantly sold their house in Ryton and moved into residential care. I am sad that we have lost both Tony Gaw and Bob Herrick in the last 12 months. They will be fondly remembered by us older members of the RTS North-East Centre.

 

 

[Roger also reported that Bob had sent him an email, proudly reporting that his son had won a prize as an RAF photographer... just as Bob had been 50 years before!]

 

 

Bob was for many years Head of Film at Tyne Tees Television.  He was a man who carried his immense knowledge and experience of cameras lightly — always knowledgeable, always helpful and unduly modest. He was a very loyal Head of Department who always kept his head when others' were rolling on the floor like marbles. 

 

He used his skills as a photographer to record his love of wild-life and the countryside, and his Christmas cards were a delight — beautiful images captured with the love and attention to detail which marked his personal and professional life.  He was deeply affected by the recent death of his wife, but had settled well into a new life at Pilgrim's Court, where he immediately became a great favourite with the other residents.  His work and affection for the RTS was considerable and we have all lost a good friend.

 

 

Graeme Aldous remembers 'tagging along' behind Bob:

 

Bob was my 'first cameraman' when I went freelance in 1985. Tony Gay needed a freelance team to put together a video production for Teesside University, and brought a group of his professional friends together — he produced, Roger Burgess directed, Bob was on camera, and I was presenter and editor.  After that, Bob and I worked a lot together, mainly on safety and training films for various areas of ICI Wilton, which were shot on Bob's pro-quality VHS camera, and edited on a 3-machine VHS suite at the University.  The captions were prepared on an Amstrad PCW... those were the days!

 

Bob taught me a lot about the craft of filming and (as suited his news film background) how to be economical with the shots.  It's his skill with a film camera that we should all be remembering... but I, too, must mention his marvellous Christmas cards.  It was always a joy in December to receive an envelope with his distinctive handwriting in bold black, and to open it to find the superb monochrome snow scene, often taken in the garden of his and Karin's very characterful cottage outside Ryton.

 

Sadly, Karin became very ill, and Bob rather dropped out of his social circles while he tended her.  She volunteered for some very dramatic (and scary!) pioneering heart surgery at Papworth Hospital, which she bravely underwent, and which Bob (equally bravely) supported.  Sadly it wasn't to be a success — Bob found that the cottage had too many memories after 52 years of marriage, and moved into sheltered accommodation in Jesmond.

 

Which led directly to the last time that I saw him.  The North East & The Border Centre held a very successful 'Behind The Scenes at the Olympics' event at the Royal Grammar School, and being just round the corner, Bob signed up for tickets.  It was a chance for old friends to meet him again, and many said how good it was to see him.  He arrived with a young lady beside him, who he introduced as "My dentist".  I have no doubt at all that she was his dentist, and had purely come along with him to an interesting event.  But it was typical of Bob that his eyes twinkled considerably as he introduced her so enigmatically, and I know he was enjoying the speculation that was going on behind our eyes.

 

I'll return for a moment to those days in the late 80s, when Bob was 'my cameraman'.  As was normal then, his VHS camera had a separate recorder, connected by an umbilical.  As he took the shots, I carried the recorder and monitored the sound.  Filming alongside Scaling Dam reservoir on the North York Moors, Bob's photographic eye saw a good shot developing with a sailing yacht, and he set off at speed along the side of the water to get into the right spot to capture it.  On the other end of the umbilical, I had no option but to follow him — being taller, he could move faster, and took no heed of the terrain.  I had to hurtle behind him at breakneck speed, through tussocky grass, mud and even marsh!  He got the shot.

 

And on one of those ICI shoots, we were asked to document a major incident exercise for debriefing purposes.  The incident began with a 'chlorine tanker accident' — a redundant articulated trailer had been overturned alongside one of the site roads, and we were to film the reaction to it, both there and in the Incident Room.  We rode in the emergency ambulance as it was scrambled, and the idea was that they would open the rear doors as we arrived, and we would film on the run as we got out.

 

Bob, of course, shot out enthusiastically, and I had to follow him with the recorder.  Unfortunately my headphone cable caught on a drip stand, and halfway out I was jerked back, with my cans around my neck.  But Bob was going full speed, and I had no alternative to follow him, dragging the drip stand with me.  Ever after that I incorporated a break jack in my headphone leads.

 

The resulting film never made the light of day.  I think it's long enough ago now to say that, after a reporting mistake where the true wind direction was confused with the 'incident scenario' wind direction, the handling of the emergency descended into farce (which would not have been the case in real life).  Faces were so red that our offer to edit the footage was not taken up, and the film was quietly forgotten, drip stand and all.

 

That I can remember these amusing aspects of a way of making television that's now long gone is a direct result of having worked with Bob Herrick.  I shall miss him... and his Christmas cards.

 

 

From Christine Llewellyn-Reeve

I knew Bob back before even my heady days as a trainee Floor Manager at Tyne Tees, when I first joined the company in 1979 and started in television working as PA to the now sadly-missed James Whitley when he also had just become Head of Promotions.  I worked in this entirely new field to me (my background was in the theatre) for eighteen months, before moving on into the Studio environment.  In Promotions we had to produce all the continuity scripts, trailers, graphics and slides for the daily output, to a deadline, timed down to a 60^th of a second and all mechanical with no high-tech help at all!  If we got it ‘wrong’, it would be logged in THE BOOK by the T.C., and woe betide you if you got more than three logs over three months! 

I remember Bob as being incredibly helpful and generous in giving me confidence in dealing with the Film Department when getting material at short notice, and in helping with the process of producing photos and slides every day for our station output.  I have never forgotten his kindness and interest in what we were trying to achieve.  His support continued throughout the difficult marriage of the Film Department and the Studio Camera department, and those fraught ‘multi-skilling’ days of the eighties.

I was so pleased to see Bob again at the Behind the Scenes of the Olympics Event at the RGS recently.  He seemed to be even taller than I remembered and yes, had an intriguing female guest with him, and better still, he remembered and recognised me too!  He will be sadly missed, and I will always remember his warmth and generous support of newcomers to the industry.

CHRISTINE LLEWELLYN-REEVE

 

[Further memories of Bob will be gratefully received.  Email your tributes to the Webmaster.]