Phil Thickett, African World Rally
Photo by Jim Knights, no reproduction without permission.
The photo is from the first of four World Rally series produced by BBC Pebble Mill. It was taken on 13 April 1995 in Kenya.
Jim Knights (camera) and Gordon Nightingale (sound), from Magpie were part of the crew on all the World Rallies done at Pebble Mill.
The vehicle was a hired 4 X4 with a wireless intercom, so that Phil Thickett, the task force producer could to talk to other three crews. The four crews produced all the on road material for the World Rally series.
They would shoot during the day and then edited in Niarobi in local production house . The crews wre responsible for 10 mins of world wide rally news each day, which was sent by satellite to Reuters for onward distribution. The production was a co-production between the BBC and Formula 1 Promotions.
There were 10 rounds of the championship – this was the 3rd – the Safari Rally. Each Rally lasted three days. The crews were on location for four days, the first being a Press Day. The recce team came a week in advance.
There were four World Championship teams: Ford, Toyota, Mitsubishi, and Subaru, with rallies taking place in all continents.
Locations included: Monte Carlo, Sweden, Kenya, San Remo, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, UK, and Corsica.
The production team included Jacque Brown as the base PA, Phil Thicket and Andrew ? co-producers. The editing was done by Pete Shannon.
