Farewell, Bush House

by Faith Simpson Ratnayake

In 1959, I embarked on my first job, after leaving school at age 19. Radio broadcasting then was firmly established, and my parents subscribed to the Radio Times published by the BBC. Television was still a novelty. My father purchased our first television set in 1952, a small ten-inch screen Bush model, in a beautiful polished wooden cabinet, especially to watch the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

In the Radio Times was an advertisement for employment in the BBC. After a short interview, I joined the new recruits, all females, on a tour of Broadcasting House, given a reading test on the mic, and an induction course in the various aspects of BBC work. This gigantic organisation covered the high-profile radio broadcasting side, nationally and internationally, and management, administration, engineering and maintenance, catering, transport and other multifarious tasks.

My first assignment was in the production office of ‘The Week’s Good Cause’, highlighting persons from various charitable organisations. Then I was transferred to the engineering division. My boss covered maintenance of the vast array of buildings and their equipment, including the lifts, which the BBC owned or rented, including Broadcasting House, Langham Place, many Victorian edifices and theatres. I started learning the Japanese language, and a position opened at Bush House, the hub of the Overseas Service.

Impressive

The imposing building was truly impressive, housing a multitude of divisions and nationalities. The Japanese Program Section was on the 4th floor, with the Far Eastern, South East Asian and East Asian Services, and the Audience Research Section.

I worked there from 1960 to 1962. The exposure and experiences were unique. I handled some program work, and correspondence from listeners, who sent requests written in hiragana and katakana scripts. I was then familiar with these syllabaries, and replied, and selected the music they requested in the daily programs. One young woman made a request which stays in my mind – for a song by Napkin Cole – better known as Nat ‘King’ Cole.

Our Japanese Program Organiser Trevor Leggett was a renowned Judo master, and wrote several books on Eastern philosophies and religion. Our Japanese staff then were David Iwama and Mrs Amy (Emiko) Arab, both settled in England, Nakamura, Otohiko Otani of Tokyo Broadcasting System and other seconded staff. They translated news bulletins and prepared and presented individual programs, ranging from Music Album to Topical Events and Actualities.

Many distinguished Japanese visitors came and gave interesting interviews. One visitor who became a cherished friend – with whom I have sadly lost touch – was Tony Toshiyuki Hagiwara, a journalist who lived in America.

He did a program on the move towards South East Asian studies in the North British Universities. I was interested in furthering my studies, and was applied and took up a post in the newly established Japanese Studies Centre in the University of Sheffield. This meant my leaving home to live in Sheffield. I always remember the beauty of this industrial city, which was then the steel manufacturing centre, now sadly gone. The countryside was magnificent.

At Bush House, I had met my future husband, Dr Hema Ratnayake, then the voice behind the Sandesaya Program from 1960 to 1964. His immediate predecessor was Prof Tennakoon Wimalananda, and H M Gunasekara from SLBC took over from Hema, followed by Sunanda Mahendra. We married in 1965 and came to Sri Lanka in October 1966 to settle down permanently.

It was with deep nostalgia that I heard the news of the final bulletin transmitted by BBC World Service on July 12, 2012, after 71 years. The early years seem so far gone. The programs went out from studios with a studio manager, massive microphones, and other equipment, a far cry from the sophisticated multi-media communications systems of today.

The departing BBC Director-General Mark Thompson’s recorded voice depicted Bush House as ‘this benign Tower of Babel’ and ‘a unique icon of authority and trustworthiness in news to millions of listeners around the globe’.

The old order has passed, and a new, streamlined and much reduced 27-language service ranging from Arabic to Vietnamese, is now housed in Broadcasting House, in a vast floor of the upper regions, with the different sections housed in glassed-in cubicles.

I did count it as a privilege to have served the organisation, even in a minor role and for such a short time, and the Japanese Service closed down in 1993. It was the start of a lifelong love affair with Japan, which sadly I have never been able to visit or take up the offer of a Japanese Government scholarship to live and study in that country. But my loyalties lay in this small corner of South East Asia, where I have lived and worked for 46 years, although in the field of human development and not in broadcasting. I paid a visit to Bush House in 1977, my first trip back to my native land, but it is said that you can never return. There is always sadness when a great influence in your life changes or vanishes.