BRIGG ON TV

Hopefully many readers of the Scunthorpe Telegraph will have enjoyed the excellent, illustrated feature about the Caine family of photographers, penned by Hazel Tomlins.
Founding father of this dynasty of devoted snappers and cameramen - known nationally and internationally - was Harold Caine, one of the pioneers of short news items of very local interest on regional TV.
Brigg was featured from time to time, as Scunthorpe-based Harold would ring us at the Lincolnshire Times office, in Wrawby Street, to see whether we could pen a short script to go with one of his films on our patch.
Yorkshire TV paid very well for what amounted to three or four paragraphs of copy to be read out as Harold's short film played. Usually such an item went out on Calendar in the evening; occasionally it also gained an airing on the lunch-time bulletin.
The first script I recall doing for Harold relates to the tiny watercourse pictured above, near the last of the council-built houses in Grammar School Road.
A nearby resident got very hot under the collar over what he claimed was raw sewage flooding into this ditch after heavy rainfall.
It was certainly very smelly, and some of the unmentionable items you could see floating in the murky depths seemed to support his theory.
The worried complainant's reference to a feared killer disease of Victorian times prompted the headline "Typhoid Beck fears" in the Lincs Times. And you didn't get many interesting, never mind sensational, headlines like that in the much-loved local weekly!
Harold's eyes fell upon the word "Typhoid" and he popped down to compile his film for which I think a tenner came my way for penning the script. Very good money more than a quarter-of-a-century ago for five minutes work!
At bank holidays, Harold liked to film Wrawby postmill as the sails turned once more, which was even easier work. For the script was the same on each occasion.
Today, websites like www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk and www.thisisbrigg.co.uk offer localised video films, perhaps showing Harold Caine was years ahead of his time.
Sadly he died from cancer in March 1985, aged just 56.
And as Hazel Tomlins so rightly says in her article: "The newspaper and television industry lost not only a staunch friend but a man of great professional stature."
To access the Caine family feature from the Scunthorpe Telegraph, follow the link below:

http://www.thisisscunthorpe.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=152576&command=displayContent&sourceNode=152559&contentPK=19466824&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch

FOOTNOTE: The watercourse on Grammar School Road looked fine, and was giving off no bad odours, when we visited yesterday to take the photo. It seems likely the issues highlighted in the early 1980s were soon sorted out.