In a Rut (The Ruts)

 

When I got my first proper job in Radio I was employed as a researcher by the Religious Broadcasting Department!! Even in those early days I was provoking conflict and being the subject of comments like ‘How can he make a valid contribution to the work of our department when he’s not even a committed Christian?’ Fortunately the department head, a man called Colin Semper, was a toff and one of the people I have always regarded as a role model. Colin stood in my corner on more than one occasion when the guns were out for me and once launched an all-out attack on Radio 1 Controller Derek Chinnery when completely untrue allegations were made about me. Colin said that he thought the very fact that I wasn’t a committed Christian (more a raving hedonist actually) was the very reason why I COULD make a valid contribution, as I would bring some balance to things in a Devil’s Advocate kind of way. I hope I rewarded Colin’s faith in me when I contributed significantly to a series which won the department a very prestigious broadcasting award; their first in many years. I can remember reading a listener letter complimenting the series, which was called ‘God in My Language’ and was all about immigrant religions in the UK. The listener said something like ‘It’s a shame the Religious Broadcasting Department of the BBC can’t put out programmes of this quality’. The fact that he had thought the programme was so much better than the usual output, for him not to have realised it’s source, made me feel I was making a difference, even if I wasn’t.

My next programme called ‘On the Square’ was made with a lovely man, now sadly departed, called Robert Foxcroft and was, not surprisingly about Freemasonry. As far as I am aware it was the first radio programme which had to face Review Board BEFORE it was transmitted. As the name suggested Review Board usually looked at programmes after they had been broadcast, examining content, balance and structure etc. Senior Producer David Winter told me that the board had said things like ‘Do you really think the public will be interested in such a programme?’ and ‘Do you think it is responsible of you to waste BBC money on such conjecture?’ (in response to a wall of silence from most of the Freemasons to whom we tried to speak). After much wringing of hands they decided to let the programme go out but David told me NEVER to mention I had worked on the programme in any future BBC job application, as Freemasonry was rife amongst BBC upper management and it would have a significantly adverse effect on my job prospects if i did.

The greatest mystery we revealed about the Darkness Visible was that it had no mystery and was basically a conglomerate of overgrown Boy Scouts, with too much time on their hands. I’m not sure that is an accurate summary, but it was hard to tell when none of them would speak to us.

Anyway I digress

The Head of Admin in the department was a lady called Doris English. Doris was nearing retirement and had the ability to strike fear into the hearts of most people who worked there, in particular the Freelances like me. Doris presided over all matters admin in a similar way to how Maggie Thatcher presided over Her Conservative Party. Doris wielded an awful lot of power over us, because she signed-off (or didn’t sign-off, if you upset her) your expense claims and your work contracts which entitled you to get payment from the BBC Cash Office, for work you had done or were about to do.

For some reason Doris took a real shine to me which was very surprising as I was the department’s resident punk and most people would have thought I was anathema to all Doris stood for. She managed to get me my own desk, which Freelances never got and a permanent BBC ID card with a staff number, even though I wasn’t a paid up member of staff. My contracts and expenses were always authorised immediately on presentation and Doris would frequently have me in her office for a cup of tea. I rewarded her with gifts of band memorabilia and fruitcake. I will never forget the day I gifted her a t shirt promoting the album ‘The Crack’ by The Ruts, which included the gutsy punk rock anthem ‘In a Rut’. I had presumed she would take it home and present it to some young aspiring punk in her family, but much to my surprise when I went back to her office later in the day, she was sat in the middle of her admin domain, belligerently wearing a t shirt promoting one of the most arch bands of the period. The other members of her section, as well as the rest of the department were quite frankly astonished!

We even invented an imaginary punk group for Doris called ‘Doris and the Germans’ although I can’t for the life of me remember why.

I think that Doris had a bit of a crush on me in a strange sort of way. She had never married and had spent her life as a pillar of the establishment, but I think there was a seriously rebellious and romantic person, under the stern exterior and she saw in me, the sort of person she may have liked to have been had times been different.

The last time I saw Doris English was on a train back to her beloved Durham. She had retired from the BBC and was going home to see out her autumn years. I was on my way to Glasgow to interview Status Quo (well somebody had to!) and Doris made me promise to get her an autographed album and t shirt. I did and sent them to her but it is to my great shame that I failed to keep in contact. Sometimes you come to miss the most unexpected people.

richard pearson – November 27, 2008 at 4:59 pm