Bells and Whistles . . in the beginning . . .

I thought I might show the first bit of hardware I used as a would be editor back in 1988 - have a look THIS:

The Grass Valley GVG300 - something to make your mum proud - isn't she a beauty!

When this baby lit up, the room lights dimmed and weak clients fainted.

People could SEE you were working ferociously as you banged the buttons noisily, lighting the desk up.

You'd hit the red RECORD button on the edit computer and all hell would break loose in the room next door as the tape machines rewound 5 seconds, deafening the assistants. The lights would dim again as all the machines ran into sync in order to show the client a CUT or DISSOLVE or some other Visual Effect.

The Editors I was lucky enough to work with at the time - David Yardley, Colin Green and Tim Greenwood - would produce the most astonishing and creative work with this not so portable telephone exchange.

The kit rarely helped - innovation, lateral thinking and a mind like a telephone exchange were the requirements.

Then these came along in 1992:

WTF, The Earth was saved, climate change was averted, power bills were slashed - but there was a hell of a job persuading the client you were doing anything in the virtual silence of the 'tap . . .'Tap' . 'Tap' .. 'Tap' . .'Tap Tap Tap Tap'.

But then THE GLOVE arrived - speeding things back up immeasurably.

No - that's not my sitting room carpet.