But it was a crucial skill during her time working on top ITV drama The Bill.

A night shoot for a music video in Glasgow – doubling for New York – was one of the many memorable jobs out of the ordinary for Becky.

It gave her the chance to get a bit closer than she expected to JK of Jamiroquai as they made his music video Black Capricorn Day.

Becky said: "I was on playback – which means I had to be there to press the go button for the CD so that JK could mime along to the song at the right speed.

"But when it came to the sequence where he was driving a fast car through the city, I had to be there.

"So I had to hide in the back seat of the car, crouching down out of sight, as JK drove really fast through Glasgow. But he's a racing driver, so it was probably OK!"

And sometimes Becky has had to change her plans at the last minute, dropping everything to hop on a plane when a job comes up.

"Like the time I ended up in Greenland with just 24 hours' notice," Becky laughed.

"I was on a bus coming up to see friends who live in Scalpay when I got a call asking me if I'd like to go to Greenland to work on a feature film – and to camp for two weeks! "I flew out of Stornoway and ended up staying in Greenland for four weeks working on the film called When Children Play In The Sky. That's one of the crazier ones."

As well as working on The Bill, Becky has recorded four feature films – including BAFTA-winning Scottish movie Afterlife – plus many short films, TV documentaries and as a boom operater on commercials.

As part of the Inverness Film Festival, Becky is running a masterclass next Saturday afternoon revealing everything you ever wanted to know about how sound works on film and TV – and how to get the best sound on a budget on your own camcorder productions or watching movies on your home cinema!

"I'll be telling people that simply with certain adjustments and with a couple of cheap purchases you can have sound as good as any feature film," laughed Becky, who is asking those with camcorders to bring them along.

Back in the 80s, Becky started work at Moray Firth Radio.

And it was during her time there that she realised she loved the technical stuff – driving the recording desk and getting the sound right.

Training courses were thin on the ground then, though because of her radio experience, Becky was advised to go straight to on-the-job training, and started working on sound at Shepperton Studios in London and for an American series about the spooky side of life, called Worlds Beyond, made on film.

"It was a fantastic thing to work on because it was full of special effects – and it was made on film the way films had been made for the last 50 years. But that was around the time of the collapse of the British film industry, when everyone moved on to filming on video."

In 1993, Becky decided to concentrate her career in drama and chose to boom operate on both film and video productions. Soon, she was working on the fast-moving peak-time police series The Bill.

Becky Thomson on location in Greenland.

Becky's experience in films, documentaries, commercials etc meant she was able to think about living back in the Highlands, and for a few years she based herself in Stornoway working on Gaelic TV documentaries, as well as Gaelic soap Machair.

"I'm seeing some of those documentaries coming up again now on BBC Alba," she laughed.

"The interesting things tend to be not terribly well paid. So you end up walking a tightrope between bread and butter jobs such as current affairs and documentary and the work I really enjoy, such as feature films. But feature films – unless you're getting James Bond – tend to pay less. There are books for producers about how to make feature films for nothing and they say things like 'You'll get film crews so desperate to work on films that they will work for nothing'. So then people ring you up and ask 'Would you do it for £100 a week?'."

After a time in London and Stornoway working in Gaelic TV, Becky is back and based in Ullapool.

"I've been picking up work with Mac TV and BBC Alba and it's wonderful to be able to drive around the Highlands in wonderful scenery, visiting people to record an interview. It's quality of life and that's the reason we are all here.

"I don't make as much money, but I'm a lot happier."

As well as bringing her passion for salsa to Ullapool, where she's teaching it, Becky's also become involved in helping out at the town's Lochbroom FM radio station. And Becky's also proud to be producing the standard students should reach in sound recording for colleges and universities.

"I had a great time in London, but feature films mean you're away from home for 12 weeks at a time and it tends to be 12-hour days, six days a week, so you give your entire life over to it and you just get to a point when you want to be going home at night."

Becky thoroughly enjoyed her work on The Bill, both as a boom operator and then later as sound recordist.

"It's a privilege to work on a series like that," she said.

"You learn a lot – things like running fast backwards down corridors recording the actors as they walk. For some reason I seem to be quite good at that, though I'm not a sporty person. And when they find someone they can work with, they're very happy to hang onto you."

Becky remembers her first day after being elevated to sound recordist.

"My first episode started with the character Reg Hollis having to collect things up in a bin bag – there was all this rustling going on through the entire bit of dialogue. The actors are all such professionals that I felt awful having to ask them to rustle the bag more quietly!"

* For more information on Becky's Inverness Film Festival masterclass, go to www.invernessfimfestival.co.uk

entertainment@highland-news.co.uk

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