Mr Flibble Talks To... Flibble-O-Phonic
The ever-intrepid penguin covers his ears and roams through the bowels of the BBC sound department in order to bring you an interview with the man who wants to make a T-Rex chirrup - Jem Whippey.

2 February, 2001

How did you end up working in TV sound?

I've got to go back twenty odd years now, bear with me. Way back when they used to have things called O-levels and A-levels, I did some of them. I think it started when I was a kid, when I was about eleven or something, and my Dad bought me a tiny, tiny reel-to-reel tape recorder for Christmas. And I don't think I'd asked for it or anything, he must have picked up that I was interested in it. I fiddled about with this tape recorder - I only pressed record and rewound it, and it played back, sound came out! I thought, 'This is fantastic, I love this, you can record anything you like with this. This is great!'

I know it sounds crass but I still have that feeling. So now instead of it being a tiny reel-to-reel tape recorder, it's a computer or whatever - but I still find it amazing that we can talk now, you can rewind the tape, and out it comes! But not only that, you can then change the sound and mess around a bit.

So I had that tape recorder and I got into playing in bands when I was a kid, and that was about sound as well, so I liked that, too. I played in various bands, didn't get a record deal, so I went to work for a recording studio - 'music and sound, great.' But that didn't work out, because you have to work for nothing and build brick walls, and I didn't do any sound at all.

Then a job came up, a friend of mine said, 'I'm going for an interview with the BBC for a sound thing.' I said, 'Oh, that's interesting, I think I'll apply for that, too.' And here I am.

Jem Whippey

More Jem Whippey on...

Right hand provided by Andrew Ellard