David Thacker was on the production team of Apple TV+’s irreverent historical comedy series The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin, and Episode 4 ends on a somber note with a tribute to the boom operator, who tragically lost his battle with cancer during the production.
Who was David Thacker in The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin?
David Thacker worked behind the scenes on The Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin but sadly did not make it to the end of the project. The team dedicated the fourth episode of the series to his memory.
David Thacker had a lot of experience working on shows and was a boom operator who specialized in the sound department. He was hired to work on the show while receiving treatment for cancer but sadly he lost the battle with the condition and passed away in October 2023.
David Thacker’s Just Giving Page
A JustGiving page was set up for David’s family when he was forced to stop working, and the total amount raised was over £25,000. The campaign closed on November 29, 2023, having achieved 5121% of the initial target. The love for David is clear to see in the many touching and heartfelt messages from people who knew and loved him, as well as contributions from people who had worked with him throughout his career.
His Work
David had worked in many TV and film productions, and he went to the University of the West of England, studying Media Practice, before working on various short films and eventually finding a position in the crew of the TV movie Life Out There in 2012.
His work would continue, specializing in sound, and seeing him on set for films such as Cal in 2012, with Wayne Virgo, and The Conjuring 2 in 2016. TV series that David worked on included shows such as Broadchurch, A Very English Scandal, Doctors, Father Brown, and Beyond Paradise.
David was a freelancer, and his work involved projects with the production companies Big Talk and Red Planet. He was also a member of The Association of Motion Picture Sound. David’s work proves that he was a well-respected worker within film and TV and his contribution to the industry will be sorely missed.
What does a Boom Operator do?
If you read the credits after a film or TV show, you will no doubt see many terms that are mysterious to an outsider. One of them may be the role of Boom Operator, the job that David performed on set.
The job of the Boom Operator is to capture the actor’s dialogue, and other sounds, on the set. Boom Operators will ensure that the sound recording equipment is correctly positioned, and is vital to the filmmaking process. Most Boom Operators will also help with all aspects of sound on a job, ensuring that microphones are in working order and positioned correctly. The operators also need to know the script of a project and are expected to have a working knowledge of the planned shots for each day of filming.
Of course one of the main problems with the boom mic is keeping it out of shot, and it would surprise you how many times, particularly in older TV shows, you can often see the boom somewhere on screen.
