Jack Hollinshead died recently at the age of 104. Jack was a stalwart of the Audio department in Manchester for a long time.


Here is part of the tribute read by Ian Reed at Jack's funeral.



Jack started his career in the BBC at the age of 14 as an ‘FX boy’ - looking after the library of effects disks on 78s.
He was there 8 years after the start of broadcasting in Manchester, when the medium wave transmitting aerial was at Portland street, and broadcast under the call sign 2ZY.
In 1939 although not required to sign up for the war effort, he did do, and spent a large amount of the time in Aden as a wireless operator / mechanic in the RAF.
After the war Jack returned to BBC Manchester to continue his career.
He was responsible for an expanding FX library, and later mixing Drama and current affairs programmes in the studios in old Broadcasting House.

One of the earliest programmes he supplied the sound effects for was ‘Out with Romany’ - broadcast between 1932 and 1943, when most programmes went out live due to lack of tape recording facilities in the BBC. Only one ‘Out with Romany’ programme has survived, and is now available on CD,

Jack was an inspiration to us all at BBC Manchester, he was the longest serving Audio engineer and the oldest Pensioner.

Jack never made a crisis out of a drama. At work he just never had a crisis.
His kind, laid back approach to life was reflected in his work—he was simply adored by all of those who worked with him for his kindness and humility, and he never said an unkind word about anyone in the whole of his career.

We had some wonderful moments together, like the time we were working on the Charlie Chester radio show live from Manchester’s Old Broadcasting House—Mary his wife, insisted on baking cakes for all the crew, and on this particular occasion Charlie had taken a bite of one of these delicious cream cakes when the music track ended and Jack cued him—the result was coughing and spluttering from Charlie live on air, much concern and then laughter in the cubicle, and when Charlie recovered his composure, a very nice credit to Mary for her baking prowess.

What always singled Jack apart from others was his care for his junior staff—indeed many who were posted to Manchester, including myself, remember the kindness Jack gave them on arrival.

Jack was an inspiration to us all, and his many friends at the BBC share the loss of this very special person.
 

When he was 101, Jack was interviewed by John Forrest of "The British Entertainment History Project".

The brief video interview lasts nearly 4 minutes, in it Jack describes his initial job interview, and then how programmes were made in Manchester when recording facilities did not exist.

The interview is here.



BBC Manchester Staff were very lucky to have Jack as their mentor and friend.