John Arthur Franklin, my dear father, passed away in his sleep on the 27th of September aged 85. I found this site as he told me about it in an email to me.
John was an engineering manager in OBs who ended his career with the BBC in Acton in 1980. He joined the BBC in 1947 and was involved in bringing TV to the Manchester region . He was also one of the engineers who were involved in the very first link up to the mainland of Europe (France).  Other specials that come to mind are the Queens Coronation , the Olympic Games in munich 1970 , not to mention all the great sporting events in the UK.
Between 1960 -1962 my father went to Cyprus to help them establish the CBC.. the Cyprus Broatcasting Corporation after the country gained its independance ,setting up the TV studios and tv masts.
Back in England he was involved in the first colour OBs and enjoyed almost every minute of his job which was also his hobby. He was in the manchester region until he moved down to London OBs based at Acton.
The "Sea-side special" series was great fun for him as was Jerry Cottles circus  
Dad kept busy after his retirement and worked for some time at the Catholic Radio and Television centre in North London where he taught  catholics from around the world about TV and broadcasting.  
He enjoyed the internet and computing and one of his hobbies has been the restoration of very old wireless sets.
John spent many months per year in his holiday house in Spain where was nearly always  tuned in to  the BBC World Service.
Most of his old friends from the BBC have  sadly now passed away but I would love to hear from anyone who knew or remebers my dear father.

Johns son, Peter John Franklin  
My email is pjfrank@tiscali.dk

P.S. A  funeral service will be held within the next week  information can be obtained from Neville funeral service tel 01582 493525