"I was a
copytaker and I used to have to run into the printmachine room quite often, where Frank spotted me - that was 70 years ago.
Each one would have an open telephone line to a
copytaker (a fast typist in layman's terms) and would dictate their report line by line to Deansgate.
The ear-splitting noise after a try made it well-nigh impossible to hear the
copytaker on the other end of the line.
I found it virtually impossible to hear my
copytaker on the other end of the line as I phoned in my match report to the Sports Gazette.
"I'd write my report in longhand and he would run down to a phonebox and phone it over to a
copytaker in Newcastle.
"My later experience came when I joined the Chronicle in 2005 and I found myself sending live rolling copy down the phone to famous
copytaker, Sandy, at Thomson House.
It reminded me of the old days in journalism when reporters had to phone copy over and there was no more withering insult than hearing the bored
copytaker ask: "is there much more of this?" A short, sexy postcard is much more likely to do the trick.
Sweating like the pigs at the show, I got through to a cheerful
copytaker who told me Gaynor, Athena and Joan were busy and she had been drafted in.
Having spent three hours in Kinshasa trying to get through to his newspaper to file copy he finally got connected to a
copytaker in London.
I got a
copytaker who was obviously tired and was also a West Ham supporter and he took great pleasure in laughing at the result.
These days she dictates what she's writing, which is more difficult for the
copytaker (again, son Sean) than it is for her.
MONDAY: The Field of Blood (BBC1, 10.15pm) stars Peter Capaldi and David Morrissey in a two-part drama about a newspaper
copytaker's attempts to solve the murder of a boy in 1982 Glasgow.