Bryan Harris

Mr Bryan Harris

I was born in 1964. I began working at the BBC in 1988, my final year at the BBC was 2011.

Education

Grammar School to 'A' Level, 6 'O' Levels, 3'A' Levels. HNC in Business Studies. On the job training to ROTSI/TOTSI standard - apparently, I never did get any certificate though, by BBC.

Previous Jobs

Dispatch Rider, Shop Assistant, Local Gov. Office Clerk.

How I joined the BBC

My sister noticed an advert in the local paper for VT Operators. As I was into Hi-Fi, photography and messing about with anything electronic it seemed the perfect job. The only downside was moving to London.

My first impressions of the BBC

Awesome! My interview at TVC, and a subsequent tour of the building, convinced me that this was for me. It was exciting, but also very laid back. No one seemed to panic, even when things went wrong there was an efficient solution and that was that. What I liked the most was that you could screw something up and nobody punished you for it. As I became more experienced I would tell people "It's just television, if you f**k up nobody gets killed"

Broad BBC career

Videotape operations. Recording and playing back video recordings on both old and current formats. I started on (mainly)1" C-format open reel recorders, then progressed through the subsequent cassette formats, and up to disc based recorders. I did some simple editing (repairs etc) and for a couple of years I worked as a technical co-ordinator for sport. For most of the '90's I played the opening VT for Grandstand at least every other week (famously never had a cock-up that was due to me!)

My training at the BBC

"Intorduction to Television Operations" (ITO) 10 week course at BBC Wood Norton, then on the job training, followed by a 2 week "Q" course at Wood Norton. There was always something new to be getting to grips with, be it a new tape format, or digital effects device or routing equipment, all the way to computer based editing equipment. All learned on the job.