It’s virtually impossible to watch British TV for an evening without seeing the name of Ken Morse appear in the credits as rostrum cameraman in at least one programme, and usually more.
The IMDB attributes only 13 films and TV programmes to him, which clearly doesn’t even begin to do justice to the prodigious output of this god of rostrum photography.
I have always been curious about Mr Morse and in particular I have often wondered:
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What is a rostrum camera and what does a rostrum cameraman do? I’m guessing that he operates the rostrum camera, but some more details would be nice.
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How is Ken Morse able to dominate the UK rostrum camera market so effectively? Is rostrum camerawork so laughably easy that one person can cover virtually the entire UK workload? Or is Ken Morse a Stakhanovite on speed? Or is it so difficult that only a man of rare ability is able to learn to do it at all (will we be rostrum cameraless when he retires)?
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Does anyone know anything about him? The IMDB contains no biographical information. A search of the BBC website turned up a page about “Y newyddion diweddaraf am raglenni Radio Cymru” which may or may not contain tantalising biographical nuggets about the great man, but did contain a cryptic reference to a “Gang Bangor” – presumably somebody who performs drive-by shootings on sheep. He’s not in Who’s Who, either (thought the two Morses who are in there make up for the omission by having four entries between them).
I’m guessing that somebody on the boards knows about rostrum cameras and will be able to answer question 1 pretty comprehensively; and maybe even have a specualtive stab at question 2. But I would be surprised and delighted if somebody was able to tell me something, anything, about the man himself.