A collation of duplicators

These six happy faces (well, Lynda on the left maybe thought it looked more sophisticated not to smile) belong to the girls in the duplicating section at Television House.

They are the ones in the room on the first floor who push through batches of scripts, schedules, memos and other paper work for the whole building. Five Gestetners and one photographic machine help to turn out the work.

‘We use thousands of reams of paper every week,’ says Alma Darby (centre with spectacles) who is in charge of the section. ‘When there’s work to be done we all get cracking on it. We’re a jolly good team.’ Anyone who has seen them work together can tell that … and to watch them whiz around the table collating pages is quite an experience.

Proof that the girls all get on well together is the fact that in the six years she has been in charge, Mrs. Darby has lost only four girls from her staff: three of them got married and left to have babies, and one went to Canada to marry.

Mrs. Darby has been with Rediffusion for 11 years, from its beginning. She joined the duplicating section as an operator, on the recommendation of her daughter who was then a secretary with the company.

‘I’ll miss the place when I retire at Christmas,’ she says, ’but I’ll enjoy spending more time with my two little grand-daughters. ‘The nicest thing about Rediffusion is the friendliness and the freedom. If you’re conscientious and do your work, no one breathes down your neck.’

Life can move at a terrific pace, as happened on the night Churchill died.

‘Three of us worked on until nearly 2 a.m. getting out camera scripts for the funeral transmission,’ the girls recall.

Another long stint came on Election Day, when the section worked on the scripts for ITN; and there often have to be one or two girls in Room 135 on Bank Holidays.

Recent excitement has been caused in the section by the wedding of 22-year-old Anne Chappel (lower right), which was attended by all her colleagues. She gave up the maiden name of Joyce, but not her claim to be related to James Joyce: ‘He was my great-uncle, and my father lived with him for a while. He doesn’t talk about him much.’

Maureen Wood (third from left, above) is the daughter of Rediffusion security officer Albert Wood. Her great hobby is drawing, and she sketches and colours religious figures to be used by Frances Casemore (second from left, above) at Sunday School. Frances, aged 19, has been teaching at Elim Evangelistic Church, Thornton Heath, for two years. She is ‘mad about clothes’ and says she spends all her money on them. ‘I’m the only free one in the section – the others are all married, engaged or going steady,’ she says. ‘I don’t intend to change that yet.’ Lynda French, at 18 the baby of the section, is also keen on fashion – unusual shoes in particular. She keeps house at Thornton Heath for her 22-year-old brother.

Marion Crawley (top right) also lives at Thornton Heath and attends prayer meetings and Bible study classes at the same church as Frances. Until last year she belonged to the London Crusader Choir, of which Ronald Cooper in Rediffusion’s stationery department, is the organist. Now her time is taken up with her architect boyfriend, and she also spends free hours on her hobby of photography.