In May I wrote a little about a mentor of mine, Roy Walters, who had died aged 91. Sadly, his BBC Radio Newsroom sidekick, a considerable figure in his own right, has also gone. John Williams has died aged 84, after time in a hospice in Eastbourne.
For around three years from 1979, John's yearn for travel was helped by pairing with Science correspondent James Wilkinson for a series of features and 'International Assignments' for Radio 4, with John as producer. In one programme, The Making of M*A*S*H in Hollywood, John took the microphone and James produced. Jealous subs looked on in envy as dapper John, a pioneer of man-bags, set off yet again for Heathrow.
His rise to Assistant Editor (one of three) was swift; unlike many in that newsroom, John was calm, helpful, and decisive. His people skills and technology bent lead to a role as Managing Editor, and patient yet effective supervision of the introduction of Basys, the greenish-yellow-screen mainframe newsroom script system, a major task in the face of a newsroom of serial eccentrics used to standing over typists and dictating. He was also there for the arrival of digital audio system, D-Cart, again, a seismic shock for subs accustomed to hovering around razor-blade-wielding Studio Managers cutting clips from quarter-inch tape.
He and Roy Walters delighted in the travel afforded by membership of the US Radio and Television News Directors Association, and were often pleased and surprised to note that Radio News was often ahead with new technology.
Under big boss Jenny Abramsky, there would be monthly gatherings of Radio News and Current Affairs departmental heads, for an early evening review (sometimes with white wine) of finances. When it came to John's time, his poker-faced opening line was always the same: "Jenny, things are not as they seem..."
John took early retirement from the BBC in the 1990s, but didn't slow down. He had a spell (with other ex-Beeboids) in CNN's London Newsroom. And he wrote. There was a series of authoritative books about Maseratis, MGs and Rileys; he became a member of Society of Automotive Historians in the US and the Guild of Motoring Writers in the UK. He wrote a scholarly piece on Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney, deliverer of the R100 airship and pioneer of car streamlining, for "Dirigible - The Journal of the Airship Heritage Trust" in 1998; he reviewed new sports cars for motoring magazines; he described himself as addicted to Lancias, but settled down to a 1999 MX5 'for fun' and a VW Scirocco 'for serious stuff'.
He researched and wrote the story of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, writer, artist, dandy, swindler and alleged poisoner in Georgian London. As daughter Sian says, 'a man with a zest for life, and endless curiosity.'
That's sad news. John was a lovely man, a steadying influence and always very forgiving to us juniors, as I once was many years ago.
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