Richard T. Russell

Richard Thomas Russell is the creator of the BBC Basic for Windows programming language and the author of the Z80 and MS-DOS versions of BBC BASIC.[1][2][3]

He was educated at Gravesend Grammar School and Hertford College, Oxford graduating with a degree in physics in 1973.[4] The same year he began work at the BBC as a design engineer.

During his career with the BBC he was involved with several high-profile projects including the BBC Microcomputer [5][6] and the BBC Domesday Project.[7] He retired from the BBC in 2006.

His "2D DVE for Virtual Studios" won Video R&D Achievement of the Year at the International Broadcasting Awards 1996, and his hardware implementation of the BBC's patented Transform PAL Decoder[8] has been acclaimed as probably the best PAL decoder in the world.[9]

In 2008 he developed a technique for recovering the colour from the black-and-white telerecordings of TV programmes, making it possible to restore full colour versions of some programmes for which no conventional colour recordings exist.[10][11] He is featured in the documentary "The Story of Are You Being Served?" talking about his work on the colour restoration process.[12][13]

In addition to creating BBC BASIC for Windows, Russell also runs a Yahoo! support group for the language to which he regularly contributes tips, advice and comments on other users' code.[14] He is also active in several Usenet newsgroups.

He is married and lives in Norfolk in the United Kingdom.

Notes

  1. ^ Barry Collins, BBC Basic: the people's language,PC Pro, September 2006, pp140-141, ISSN 1355-4603
  2. ^ Douglas J Mounter,The BBC BASIC (Z80) Reference Manual for the Z88, February 1989, ISBN 1 871 89500 6
  3. ^ Doug Mounter and Richard Russell,BBC BASIC (Z80) Reference Manual for the Tatung Einstein, 1984, ISBN 1-85086-015-7
  4. ^ "RTR's career in Designs Department". www.bbceng.info. http://www.bbceng.info/Designs/designs_reminiscences/Richard_Russell/rtrdd.html. Retrieved 2010-01-06. 
  5. ^ John Coll, BBC Micro User Guide, British Broadcasting Corporation 1982, page 2, ISBN 0 563 16558 8
  6. ^ Carol Atack, , Acorn User, October 1988, ISSN 0263-7456
  7. ^ Andy Finney, The BBC Domesday Project, 2007 (bottom of page)
  8. ^ Jim Easterbrook, The BBC transform PAL decoder, February 2008
  9. ^ James Insell, From Videotape-based to File-based archives, DCC/LUCAS Workshop, December 2006, Frame 10
  10. ^ Mark Nelson, Colour conundrums, Everyday Practical Electronics, September 2008, page 16, ISSN 0262-3617
  11. ^ Charles Norton, Unscrambling an army of colours, The Guardian, 11 December 2008, page 3, ISSN 0261-3077
  12. ^ BBC Two, The Story of Are You Being Served?, 01 January 2010
  13. ^ Cast list for The Story of Are You Being Served?, The Internet Movie Database, 01 January 2010
  14. ^ bb4w: BBC BASIC for Windows, BB4W Yahoo! Group, Yahoo! Groups

External links