And... action!

An interview with Luke Skywalker, a recipe for jam sponge, a report on the Iranian Embassy siege and an investigation into the strange sounds emanating from underground tunnels on the South Ken campus. What’s the link? All these things – and much, much more – were caught on camera by the Student Television Society of Imperial (STOIC) which, for 50 years, compiled a unique record of life at Imperial.

The STOIC videotapes offer a history of Imperial that doesn’t exist elsewhere,” explains Colin Grimshaw, who worked as the TV Studio Manager until 2007 and now oversees the video archive and associated Imperial blog. “Students in STOIC could go out and shoot whatever they wanted to. Every time I go through the tapes, I’m finding all manner of things that I didn’t even realise had been recorded. Many things they captured on video no longer happen at Imperial.”

This includes long-forgotten RAG week activities, a raft race across the Serpentine and a summer concert tradition in which the 1812 Overture was performed on the Queen’s Tower lawn. “They used to ring the bells in the tower to coincide with the music. Then they went one better and set off cannon fire from the tower. It no longer happens – but we’ve got it on video.”

The 1812 overture recorded in 1979

Grimshaw recently discovered a short clip of former Professor and Nobel Prize-winner Abdus Salam giving a lecture. He’s also unearthed the only known Imperial-made video of Lord Penney, Rector from 1967 to 1973, who led the development of Britain’s first atomic bomb. “There’s some pretty damn good stuff in the archives,” he says.

STOIC was formed in 1969 when it was suggested that students from the Electrical Engineering department – which owned and ran the university’s TV studio – could help operate the cameras to film weekly 20-minute talks. This group of student volunteers soon morphed into a society that started producing an experimental news magazine programme, called IC Newsreel.

The first episode was broadcast in February 1970 and included a lengthy piece on Imperial’s Pro Rector Lord Jackson of Burnley, who had died the day before. “I had to very hurriedly try to get someone to do an obituary,” says Andy Finney (Electrical Engineering 1971), STOIC’s first Chairman, who convinced the Head of Electrical Engineering, Professor John Brown, to record a straight-to-camera tribute.

Around 100 people watched the first show, with numbers somewhat limited by the technology. “We basically wheeled the videotape machine and monitor on a trolley down into the nearby junior common room (JCR) and played the programme back at lunchtime,” says Finney. STOIC would later be linked to the JCR by cable, and then the Southside Halls and Students’ Union. In future years it extended further across campus, and was even screened in other London universities via a cable network.

Episodes of IC Newsreel were often delightfully eclectic. The second edition included a report on a visit by the President of Yugoslavia, featuring footage of his motorcade leaving – though with no portable camera, the students had to improvise. “We had a long lens pointing out of the window,” says Finney. In a later episode, he managed to secure an interview with Radio 1 DJ Mike Raven. “He was a very eccentric character and turned up in a black cape looking as if he should be in a horror film. In fact, he eventually gave up on DJ-ing to become an actor in horror films.”

Filming Tiddlywinks on Oxford Street, 1980

There was no means of editing footage at first, so if anyone made a mistake they had to start again at the beginning or just keep going. “I was there very much in the rudimentary phase before the equipment and the programming improved dramatically, but it was great fun,” says Finney, who went on to work for BBC radio and have a long career in broadcasting. “We were making it up as we went along.”

With a few exceptions, much of the existing STOIC archive is confined to the period between 1980 and 1986. Before that, video tapes were so expensive that they had to be reused. (After 1986, STOIC got their own studio in the Students’ Union and stopped using the university’s TV studio.)

“1980 was crucial because we went on to a different videotape format and started to record in colour,” says Grimshaw. “At that point the cost of videotape dropped dramatically. We also had the ability to edit, so you got a much more sophisticated result.” Other notable advances included an on-location camera, meaning students could go and report on outside events.

Filming more tiddlywinks

Filming more tiddlywinks

The equipment progressed a little faster than the gender ratio of the society. “When I joined there were no other women involved,” says Tracy Dudley, née Poole (Life Sciences 1982), a STOIC member from 1979 to 1982. Still, she found the society a welcome distraction. “When I arrived at Imperial I felt out of my depth and was quite stressed about my course,” she says. “Funnily enough, the only time that I wasn’t feeling anxious was when I was at the television studio in front of the camera. Just having that break on a Wednesday afternoon and evening when I could forget about everything else was great.”

She remembers reporting on student elections, the Lord Mayor’s show – and the launch of the Austin Mini Metro. “We went to the Design Centre to film a piece about it and there was a display model that I sat in,” she says. “And I just could not get the words out in the right order. It became so funny. I think I must have had nine or ten attempts to get it right, all caught on camera.”

STOIC members admit that capturing mistakes on camera was all part of the fun. But there were serious stories to cover, too, including in 1980, the Iranian Embassy Siege in Princes Gate. University buildings backed onto the embassy building, so the STOIC team headed out to do some live reporting from the scene – though they were swiftly moved on by police. “It was a big thing because it was very close by, and I think I was quite nervous,” says Dudley.

Dame Edna Everage in the studio

Dame Edna Everage in the studio

STOIC also became an unlikely stop-off on the publicity tour for British and Hollywood actors and celebrities. “The film companies were keen to promote films to students,” says Grimshaw. “We had all sorts of people, including Mel Brooks, Malcolm McDowell, Leslie Phillips, Christopher Lee, Michael Palin, Andrew Sachs and Terry Jones.” There was also an appearance from Barry Humphries, who arrived at Exhibition Road in full Dame Edna Everage costume.

In 1978, Mark Hamill stopped by the studio to promote Star Wars. He was gifted an Imperial T-shirt which he wore on Blue Peter later the same day. “A lot of the interviewees let their guard down with us and were surprisingly candid,” says Phil Claridge (Electrical Engineering 1982), who mostly stayed behind the camera.

“In retrospect, I wish I had done more in front of the camera, but as an electrical engineering student I was rather timid and in those days the idea of being in front of a camera held more concern than it probably does today.” Richard Copnall (Electrical Engineering 1986) was a STOIC member from 1982 to 1986. “It was my main excuse for missing labs and tutorials,” he says. “But it gave me a great understanding of the importance and techniques of visual communication, and I think the teamwork was more effective than anything we did as part of our courses. There was lots of joking around, and always a drink at Southside Bar when the show was finished.”

Colin Grimshaw on camera and Tracy Dudley (right) at the Imperial Field Station

Colin Grimshaw on camera and Tracy Dudley (right) at the Imperial Field Station

Like many STOIC alumni, Copnall has been enjoying taking a trip down memory lane with clips Grimshaw is posting on his blog, covering the footage he finds as he digitises the collection. “It’s a bit embarrassing to see the old footage, but it’s a primary source of history that Colin is preserving.”

Despite the fact that STOIC (later ICTV) hasn’t re-emerged after its COVID-enforced hiatus, the archives live on – though only thanks to Grimshaw, who, shortly before he retired in 2011, rescued them from being thrown into a skip. “They needed the space and asked me if I was interested in some tapes held in a small room under a staircase. If not, they would throw them away. They didn’t realise the importance of what was on them. The next day we went and boxed up the entire archive and shipped it to the holding store. Thank goodness we rescued them – we would have lost so much history.”

Check out Colin’s blog at blogs.imperial.ac.uk/videoarchive/author/cgr/ and email alumni@imperial.ac.uk with your memories.

Imperial is the magazine for the Imperial community. It delivers expert comment, insight and context from – and on – Imperial's engineers, mathematicians, scientists, medics, coders and leaders, as well as stories about student life and alumni experiences.

This story was published originally in Imperial 56/Summer 2024.

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