Forum for former BBC staff

Forum for former BBC staff
http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> Notices, obituaries and tributes >> Roger Hill http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1116071588 Message started by Forum Admin on May 14^th, 2005, 11:54am

Title: Roger Hill
Post by Forum Admin on May 14^th, 2005, 11:54am

Roger Hill, who worked for the BBC for many years, mostly in the Bush newsroom, died in Torquay in December, 2004. He also worked for a time in the TVC newsroom and before that, for the Daily Express.

One of his colleagues recalls: "His judgments, if shall we say controversial, were always considered. Roger took great pride in what he did and was a bloody good journalist, particularly so in his latter years. A splendid drinking companion, he one of a regular trio who would comtemplate the sun climbing high into the sky over Smithfield after the last "dawn shift".

Another colleague writes: "He was an enthusiastic supporter of the IOJ which made him deeply unpopular during the series of strikes we had in the eighties, and he did, indeed, refuse to join the NUJ and insisted on crossing picket lines -- but at least he was honest about it.

"Lots more anecdotes -- like his idiosyncratic dictation style, in the days when we had typists. When writing a cue he would prescribe exactly the number of dots there should be after the in words and before the out words, and if they were out by a single ellipsis they had to be done again; or the unfortunate typist would be sent to paint one out on the stencil, or put one in with that pointy thing they had in distribution...

Or the trouble he caused when he ran a Newsroom newsletter, which nearly led to a libel case. Or the time he rang me, after his retirement, wanting me to do some research for him to prove Hitler had not died in the bunker, but had gone to live in the Canary Islands. Or the time an unfortunate new sub attempted to grow a moustache. I arrived in the Newsroom to find Roger at the door, gathering members of the incoming shift around him. 'What are you doing?' I asked. 'Oh,' he said innocently. 'I'm taking people on trips to see **** *****'s moustache...'