Mike Viney, news cameraman, has died suddenly at his home in London.  More details to follow.

This tribute to Mike was written by Chris Morris:

MIKE VINEY, A TRIBUTE

Mike Viney was unassuming, hard-working, never complained in the direst of circumstances – and there were plenty of those on the road with BBC TV News – and a very fine cameraman.   Proof of that was in 1983 when he won the prestigious Royal Television Society’s News Cameraman of the Year Award.

There are two major stories I recall in particular when Mike excelled back in the eighties.  

In the first, we’d been filming in Bilbao, northern Spain, where the West German consul had been kidnapped by ETA Basque terrorists.  With the story stalled waiting for the diplomat’s release, I convinced Rick Thompson, then Foreign Editor, to let us drive to Madrid ostensibly to report the opening of a new parliamentary session but in reality for a night out in the Spanish capital before returning to London.

Somehow we managed to bluff our way into the Cortes, Spain’s parliament, when we arrived that evening.  And, half-an-hour later after filming politicians in the chamber and boring parliamentary procedures, we prepared to leave.  Suddenly, though, we heard angry shouting in the corridor outside and gun-toting Civil Guards burst in.

Ours was a grandstand view of history in the making.  And Mike, the only TV cameraman present, filmed it all.  “What’s happening?” he asked.  “I think it’s a coup!” I replied as the guards opened fire, the bullets ricocheting off the marble ceiling.

Mike left the film camera running on the tripod as he and sound recordist Steve Morris dived for cover behind a pillar.  But it wasn’t long before the pistol-waving leader of the attack, Col. Antonio Tejero, spotted the BBC crew and ordered his men : “Get the camera!”

For the next two hours along with the entire Spanish Cabinet and more than 300 MPs we were held hostage at gunpoint before our unexpected release just in time for an exclusive scoop on the Nine O’Clock News.  No pictures that night as we were not allowed to take any equipment out of the building, but all next day Mike kept a vigil outside the Cortes as the siege went on.

When the plotters finally surrendered after a successful broadcast appeal by King Juan Carlos urging Army generals not to join the coup attempt, Mike was finally able to re-enter the building and retrieve the camera and film intact that he’d hidden underneath a leather-bound chair.

Mike’s historic film has since been shown all around the world and is testament to the night when supporters of the dead Spanish dictator, General Francisco Franco, were doomed in the only real attempt of the past 25 years to overthrow Spain’s fledgling democracy.

Surprisingly, perhaps, Mike won no awards for his brilliant coverage under fire that night.   But he did two years later on assignment in Africa when almost two million immigrants were expelled from Nigeria.

On that occasion with sound recordist Dougie Dalgleish we found ourselves surrounded by hundreds of thousands of starving and thirst-craved refugees in a jungle clearing in the tiny West African state of Benin.  They were trapped, barred from crossing the border into Togo and then home to Ghana.

Mike filmed the ensuing panic and pandemonium that threatened to engulf us.  People were trampled to death as we awaited a crisis meeting between the presidents of Benin and Togo.

We feared for our lives as a helicopter eventually clattered into view over the palm trees with the flamboyant President of Togo on board - Gnassingbe Eyadema, later to become the longest serving leader in African history.  “Wouldn’t it be great if we could get some pictures from the helicopter?” Mike surmised.

As the only three white faces in the steamy jungle heat, the president waving a fly swatter, strode menacingly towards us and then in perfect English asked : “Would you like a ride in my helicopter?  There are some amazing scenes with all those people stranded in the jungle below.”

We needed no second bidding.  And from the helicopter Mike directed the pilot on half-a-dozen runs to film the chaos in the jungle below.  OK, so we kept the president waiting for a while but Mike’s pictures were truly remarkable and won a plethora of awards from the Monte Carlo Golden Nymph for news coverage to Mike’s RTS News Cameraman of the Year.

Christopher Morris, former BBC TV News Special Correspondent