Mike Todd: Sound&Vision, a Computer Wizard, Researcher, and Musician – a real ‘Mr Fixit’!

Mike is well known and appreciated by volunteers at the Coquetdale Lunch Club, and the church and community magazine, Over the Bridges. Mike is also appreciated in our local schools for supporting musical and theatrical performances. He does the sound and lighting

He produces videos for another Coquetdale Creative; James Tait.
Mike is a computer expert, and has done a great deal of programming work from his earliest days.
The late Michael Hodgeson set up the Rothbury website, Mike took over this project in 2014.

I was delighted to be able to spend some time with this generous, talented and knowledgeable man, to discover how he gained all the skills to be able to support so many within our community

Dominating the lounge, in Mike's house, is a beautiful Grand Piano. Above this beauty, are a a line of violins of different sizes, displayed on the wall. The scene is set for a fascinating conversation with a man of many talents.

Mike's father, Robert Todd, owned and ran a butcher's shop, firstly on Woodbine Street, and latterly, on Sunderland Road, in Harton, South Shields.

Robert also was a musician; he taught violin using the 'Suzuki method'. This was a new violin teaching method which likens learning music to learning a person's mother-tongue - daily listening, repetition, parents being part of the process, learning and supervising at home every day. How the Suzuki method works.

I am keen to know what it was like growing up in the Todd household.

Mike tells me: The household was always busy, mostly because of the work involved by my father's butcher's shop. I would often help him (or more often hinder maybe?.) He worked all hours - for not much money.

How about music, though, was it a musical household?

Music was everywhere - my grandfather started teaching me piano when I was 5. My father and I would occasionally play together.
On one occasion this happened to be at a small regular music gathering in the front room of the local cardiologist “Dr Mannie Anderson” where I called in on my way back from piano lessons. I was asked to accompany my father on the piano. We played Fritz Kriesler's “Praeludium and Allegro” - easy for piano - virtuoso for violin. On that occasion I was introduced to Dr Anderson's houseguest. I didn't know who he was - he was introduced as Yehudi Menuhinwho, as you will know, is one of the world's greatest violinists (my cousin actually became his producer).

I admit I am quite stunned to hear about Mike's early musical life, casually mixing with such incredible musicians.

Mike loved and played music; but he was also always wondering about how many everyday objects worked. He loved photography, electronics, and electrics.

“Whether it was how Christmas Tree lights and my train set worked, through to fixing old televisions and indulging in Amateur Radio. This led to several rather nasty incidents including electric shocks!”

In the 1980s Mike was the UK editor of 'The Transactor for the Amiga.' This was a highly technical Canadian computer magazine which started in 1988. This magazine was famous for in-depth developer-level hardware and software information, and so on. Mike was responsible for all of the page layouts and designs, he wrote articles, edited, and laid out guest contributions.

Mike explains that, in the mid-1970s, he made a huge decision to leave his beloved TV camera work, to pursue a career with BBC Radio.

I decided that the pictures were better on the radio, and so were the people. So, I moved to BBC Radio, based in Broadcasting House, and became a Technical Operator in the main Control Room. Here we switched audio circuits, tested outside-broadcast lines, managed the transmission distribution, did the technical operation of all the BBC's national radio networks and balanced DJ programmes.

What did you most like about this work, I ask, and what do you remember best?

We got involved in many big events, and during that time I worked as the International Technical Co-ordinator at Broadcasting House for the Pope's pastoral visit to the UK in 1982, and during the wedding of Charles and Diana I worked with a colleague in the Control Room setting up and feeding the radio and television sound to the entire world.

I was promoted to supervisor and, following a major reorganisation within BBC Radio, I was appointed to be one of the newly formed team of Broadcast Duty Managers in 1988, and took up the post in early 1989.

This new job was an interesting one in many ways. We were put together as a team of five, providing "operational management" cover 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The role was to make sure that BBC Radio kept broadcasting no matter what - from technical faults to terrorist attacks, from war, to DJs turning up late.

I ask Mike to give me some examples of the emergencies he had to deal with. He remembered particularly the great storm of 1987. Power was lost in London, with wind speeds reaching 94 mph. Broadcasting House's generators kept failing.

Everything went quiet - and two of us kept all BBC National Radio services running by plugging a portable cassette recorder into the post office line that fed our emergency distribution in order to have at least something until we got the generators back.

Being a Broadcast Duty Manager is quite a wide-ranging role, and is quite different from being a Camera Operator. I ask Mike to tell me more about the role and was quite stunned when I began to realise just how significant this role was.

Mike described a couple of incidents, one involving John Major:

As Broadcast Duty Managers, we were responsible for the security of all the Radio networks, our studios and their guests, although general security was looked after by the Premises Duty Manager. When high profile VIPs were guests, we would often get involved - pop stars, celebrities, politicians etc. When John Major became PM, he came in to be interviewed. Going down the long corridor to the Today programme, his team went on ahead and he got separated. I was left with him - when he went passed the gents, he suddenly decided he ought to pop in. I went in to check there was nobody in there, then stood outside to guard the PM!

There is also an earlier story concerning Hillary Clinton.

On another occasion, Hillary Clinton came in to promote her new book over three days doing "down the line" interviews with numerous radio stations. Knowing the area well, I was the operational liaison and worked with the US Secret Service agents on security arrangements. I spent time with them in their basement studio over the three days - including having coffee with her and her agents. As part of the "presidential protection detail", I was given (palmed discreetly through a handshake) awarded a special and fairly rare "Trip Coin".

Mike explained to me that each of the Broadcast Duty Managers had their own specialisation. Mine was emergency & contingency planning.
Emergencies could be civil, local, or national.
In an emergency the BBC had and has an important role to play.

"Do you remember the fear surrounding The Millenium Bug"? He asks me.

I do! The Millennium Bug (or Y2K bug) was a massive computer flaw caused by programmers abbreviating four-digit years to two digits to save memory in early systems. It was feared computers would mistake the year 2000 ("00") for 1900, causing software and infrastructure failures globally.

Well, In 1999 I was part of the BBC's team setting up the contingency arrangements to see the BBC and the British Government through whatever Y2K would present us with. And where did I spend the 2000 New Year?
In a nuclear bunker, helping lead a small team... "just in case".

Not exactly and award, but definitely a welcome recognition, was when Mike was acknowledged by Melvin Bragg in his book The Adventure of English.

OKAY
I've always been fascinated with the differences between British and American English - so, back in the 1990s I did a lot of research on the origin of "OKAY" as there seemed to be no consensus on its real origin. I eventually put my research online.
Unknown to me, Melvyn Bragg found this and referenced me and it in his 2003 book "The Adventure of English". I was only alerted to this by one of our staff, so I got a copy and Bragg signed it "Thanks for help with the book" Over the years I've had a number of people (including a university in Russia, and the French Embassy in the USA) asking if they can use the material.

He has become known as 'Mr Fixit' to many, helping with all manner of projects and subjects. He is the person behind the informative CoNet screens which you can see around Coquetdale. Mike regularly updates these screens with community information.

Mike is digitising the archive of our church and community magazine, Over the Bridges. He is a key member of the Coquetdale Lunch Club, and went, with Vikki Ewen, to the King's Garden Party, after the Group received the prestigious King's Award for Voluntary Service in November 2025.

Mike has designed and printed A2 and A3 posters. He has helped groups with all things media-related. He helped produce Thropton WI's Cookbook, and Rothbury WI's Calendar Promotion video. He has produced videos of James Tait with Viktoriia and so much more, all voluntarily. He works in local schools supporting any audio or visual needs for productions.

Mike has been making stained glass items, for his own enjoyment, on and off for over 20 years. Looking at the pieces, it makes me feel that some of his mother's creativity is showing itself here.
His father, and grandfather's musical influence is evident in his personal playing, and his love of musical shows

It was a privilege to spend time with 'Mr Fixit' and learn a lot about his life and background. If you would like to know more about Mike, visit his website. You will be, I am sure, fascinated to discover the strange and - gruesome(?) - coincidences he uncovered about his long lost Rothbury relatives!