Richard Baker

The often-hilarious stories of the BBC's first 50 years. The corporation's pioneers describe its evolution – which was often by accident rather than design.

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This Shiver (ITV Studios) documentary reveals what happened behind-the-scenes on some of the most momentous breaking news events in our lifetime - as told by those caught up in the real-life drama, those in the newsrooms and those responsible for delivering these newsflashes into millions of people's homes. News stories covered include the death of Diana, Princess of Wales (1997); the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas (1963); the coal-tip landslide in Aberfan (1966); the Lockerbie Air Disaster (1988); the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York (2001); the start of Operation Desert Storm during the Gulf War (1991); the dramatic end of the Iranian Embassy siege in London (1980); and the announcement of the death of the Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (2002).

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Commissioned by BBC TV as the unannounced opening piece for their Arena video art programme, March 1976. Programme produced by Mark Kidel, conceived by Anna Ridley and presented by David Hall. 'Richard Baker [the well known newsreader] describes the essential paradoxes of the real and imagined functions of the TV set on which he appears. The second shot is taken optically off a monitor, the third copied from the second, and so on, until there is a complete degeneration of both sound and image, removing the newsreader from his position of authority...' - Tamara Krikorian, Art Monthly, February 1984.

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Story of a summer day on the oldest narrow-gauge passenger railway in the world. Richard Baker narrates as the locomotives of the Ffestiniog Railway in North Wales are prepared for the summer tourist traffic. Now retired, Driver Bill Hoole of the crack East Coast expresses can be seen preparing Prince for the sedate and leisurely journey to Porthmadog.

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