The post ‘Fusion’ covers appeared first on THIS IS REDIFFUSION from Transdiffusion.

This is Joan Kemp-Welch’s story. Born Wimbledon 1916. Educated Roedean. Started stage career at 17. Winner of the award of the Guild of Television Producers and Directors for the best producer of light entertainment in 1958. Lively. Determined. Energetic.

Enter room 519, Television House – ‘won’t keep you a moment’, says Joan as she races through a 1959 Show programme with a visitor. ‘I think it’s going to be great’, she ends… ‘all right, thanks very much for coming in to see me, good-bye, see you soon’. Advance to chair in front of desk. Start interview.

‘I always wanted to go on to the stage. But as there was no money to pay for the training, I decided to take up a scholarship I had won to train to be a teacher. Meanwhile I was a member of the amateur society at the “Q” Theatre. Somebody fell ill and I took over the part of a maid. They offered me a year’s contract on the strength of it’. (Aside to her P.A.: ‘Here’s that memo you were asking about’).

‘Just before the war I decided I wanted to produce so I went along to Harry Hanson. I always remember him telling me: “We have enough trouble in the theatre without women producers”. At the beginning of the war I was playing the juvenile lead in “Ladies in Retirement”. That lasted two years. Meanwhile I did two films, one was opposite Bob Montgomery and in the second I was Anna Neagle’s mother in the Amy Johnson film. She has never let me forget that.’

(The phone rings – ‘Miss Joan Kemp-Welch has a visitor at the moment, she will ring you back when she is free’, says her P.A., Gerry Burke.)

Back to Joan: ‘The war brought directors into short supply. I went to Penge for a week to produce for Harry Hanson and I stayed for a month. I have never stopped producing since then. Next I went to Buxton for six months and then on to Colchester for a year-and-a-half. Two of the people I directed there were Dora Bryan (it was her second job) and Paul Rogers.’

(A visitor bursts in to get her to sign some travellers’ cheques. Exit visitor. Back to Joan.)

‘After that came a tour of India and Italy and the end of the war. I went to Scotland to produce for the Wilson Barrett company. I was asked to take over for three weeks from Clare Harris, and I stayed for three years. It was great fun. I produced musicals with a company of sixty artists. We stayed three weeks at each theatre in the circuit at Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh.’

‘Jacqueline Mackenzie was one of the people working in the wardrobe department. I gave her her first break.’ (The phone rings: ‘Of course you can see me in five minutes,’ she says. The phone is put back. The interview goes on.)

‘We did a series of revues which got fantastic notices. Peter Moffatt wrote the revues – he also selected the music for “Rush Hour” and he is working for me on the “1959 Show”.’

‘Before I left Scotland I was asked to do a panto at Blackpool. This was my first real contact with the variety stars. Olga Gwynne was the principal girl and Dave Morris was the comic. Another panto followed at Aberdeen in which Jackie Hunter starred and Dick Emery played the dame’. (Again the phone rings: ‘Oh, you know that sketch, well I want to have a word with you about it. I’ve cast the match girl.’ It doesn’t make sense but it works – the caller goes).

‘Yes and what year were you at Aberdeen’, you prompt her. ‘I’m so sorry I’m absolutely terrible with dates. Never could remember them’, she replies.

‘Incidentally I had any number of letters of congratulation from friends in Aberdeen and Scotland after winning that award. I was very touched. It is heart warming that they still remember me.’

(Again the phone rings: ‘Certainly, I remember I’ve got an appointment to see you at twelve’). Back to her story…

‘Then I came to Town. I went to Bromley where I produced every third play for J. Arthur Rank, who owned the theatre. Meanwhile I put on a panto written by Peter Moffatt. It was “Goldilocks” and it was an enormous success. Tony Bateman of “Cool for Cats” was the dame – it was his first chance – and Duggie Squire was the bear – he did the choreography of “Cool for Cats”.’

‘During this time I did a lot of Sunday shows for the Repertory Players – twelve in all. They included “Serious Charge” with Nigel Stock, “Shadow of the Vine” with Eric Portman and “Annabella” which we televised last autumn.’

(A letter has to be signed. The ink has run out – ‘We never have things like that. There is never the time to go to the stationery department’, she half apologizes.)

‘Next came “Miss Hargreaves” with Margaret Rutherford at the Royal Court. After that there was “Desire Under the Elms” at Hampstead. Then there was “The Vicious Circle” at the Watergate with Faith Brook and Hugh Burden. It had wonderful notices and it meant I had two shows running at once.’

‘Lloyd Williams came to see “Desire Under the Elms” and asked me to go into television. I had never been inside a television studio in my life. I told him this but he said “never mind we are running training courses”.’

‘Then he came to see “The Vicious Circle” and asked me if I had made up my mind. I took the plunge. It was a bit of a gamble as I had made a success in one medium. It was rather a lot to hope I could do the same in another one.’ (This is said in the most modest way possible before the phone again interrupts… ‘Certainly you can go ahead and arrange that’, she says.)

I did five weeks training and then I was thrown into the first regular transmission put out by Associated-Rediffusion on the day after opening. It was called “How to make a Frame for Flowers” with Elsa Court and was in the women’s programme. I did seven programmes a week for women for three months. We did a twenty-minute revue in a studio the size of a pocket handkerchief’

‘Then I had 10 days off during which I directed and produced “Dead on Nine” at the Westminster Theatre. It ran for a year. Later I had another fortnight off to do “Albertine by Moonlight”. It was a ghastly failure and came off after three nights. The critics hated it.’

‘The funny thing is that although my entire life has been spent doing drama the only play I have done here was “The Blood is Strong”. I have got into musicals and stayed there. And I have enjoyed doing them.’ There is no doubt that she means just that.

‘Among the programmes I have done for Associated-Rediffusion are the Lester Ferguson series, the “Dickie Valentine Story” for our first anniversary, “Cool for Cats” and “Answer Please”.’

‘Gerry Burke has been my P.A. ever since we first met on my first musical – “Palais Party” with Lou Preager. We have put on an average of one programme a week ever since we have been together. How I could manage without her I do not know.’

‘The award was for a year’s work and during that year I did three months of “Cool for Cats”, a Christmas Eve show, eight weeks of “Rush Hour”, six weeks of “Free and Easy” with Dickie Valentine and one of the anniversary “Women in Love” playlets.’

‘Now we are doing the 1959 show with the same team who helped me to win that award. As I said when they gave it to me, I feel that the award belongs as much to those who have worked on my programmes as to me. I really mean that.’

‘When you have that amount of enthusiasm backing you up you cannot fail to succeed.’

The post The Joan Kemp-Welch story appeared first on THIS IS REDIFFUSION from Transdiffusion.

Three years ago on June 9, 1960, the first production was transmitted from Studio 5 at Wembley. Since then thousands of people from this country and from all over the world have come to stand and stare.

Advertising agents and advertisers have goggled at the lighting console, heating engineers have marvelled at the ventilation system, architects have wondered at the high degree of accuracy in the floor level, television experts have come from all over the world and few have gone away without learning something. All have been bemused by the giant doors – there is nothing to touch them anywhere else in the world.

When you live with something like Studio 5 you tend to forget that it is a show-piece just as the people in a town rarely visit an attraction which is a focal point for tourists… unless they want to show it off.

Those directly involved with handling visitors know how deeply people are impressed by Studio 5, but we who live with it tend to forget that this happens. We’ve told the story before, but it’s worth repeating, how the Japanese television engineer was told by a compatriot when he said he was visiting England: ‘You must see Studio 5.’

A brochure has now been printed to give away to visitors and the inside pages of this brochure are reproduced here because we feel that the staff might be interested in seeing what others will receive. Most of the photographs were specially taken by Donald McCullin.

A highly technical workshop like Studio 5 must have an equally skilled staff. In Studio 5 the hands of the craftsmen, artists, technicians that fashion every production, are experienced, talented and thoroughly professional. Even the hand of welcome in the reception hall plays its part. The hands that paint the backcloths. The hands that dress the set with properties. The hands of the make-up artists that prepare the cast for their performance. There are many pairs of hands and all of them help to maintain the high standard. So much to be done: a deadline to be reached every day. The set must be designed, then fashioned, then built. The property men must dress it with the hundreds of bits and pieces. The carpenters must modify, improve and alter. The curtains must be hung – but even in this apparent turmoil there is time for a meal, a drink or a quiet read.

The stage is set, the cast is assembled, the Director arrives and rehearsals begin. High above the studio floor he sits, facing fourteen 21-inch monitors, and selects the picture he wants. His word is everyone’s cue. Flanking him are the Vision Mixer (right) and Production Assistant (left). In the early stages of the rehearsals the Director may have a discussion on the studio floor with the Designer, Floor Manager, Senior Cameraman or artists – but for the performance he sits alone. Each of the two sections of Studio 5 has its own Control rooms but when it is operated as a single unit, one half, 5A, becomes the master and 5B, the slave. Studio 5 is equipped to operate on the 405, 525 or 625 line standard. The Vision, Lighting and Sound controls are situated on the first floor with double windows and have an easy access to the studio gantries. Each section is equipped with four 4½-inch Image Orthicon Cameras and 5A can employ all eight cameras at one time. Lighting Control and the Camera Control Unit downstairs on Studio floor level can be likewise divided, or operated as a single unit.

The final ‘take’ – the last performance – the Studio is stilled before the opening seconds. The set is built, dressed and lit – everything is prepared. The Floor Manager, who hears the Director through his headphones, cues the Studio and the production begins. The cameras swoop in and out or crab sideways, peering, staring, prying. The lights beat down, the floor is tense and alert.

The final shots are taken, the performance ends. In half an hour the Studio is empty – to be filled again tomorrow – and the next day and the day after that. Studio 5 has a healthy appetite. But so has television.

The post The world comes to Studio 5 appeared first on THIS IS REDIFFUSION from Transdiffusion.

Bill was young and like many young men he had a keen sense of adventure; a desire to travel. Northern Ireland where he was born and brought up at the beginning of this century held few attractions for him. His Irish father and Scottish mother had not stood in the way of his elder brother when similar thoughts had passed through his mind … when, like many others at that time, his hopes had focused on a new land with new chances – Canada.

And so Bill’s brother sailed away. Bill was not long in joining him in Canada. There he soon found work. First he helped to make chocolate sweets. Then he worked in a Toronto biscuit factory. Bill might have become a prosperous Canadian but in Europe at that time factories in Germany were turning out arms not biscuits.

German troops were marching. War was declared and Bill, like many others who had sought fresh chances in new lands, decided that patriotism was a call he had to answer. He threw up his job, returned to England and volunteered. His brother clung to their newly-found country but also answered the call. He joined the Canadian Ambulance Service.

Soon, by some strange coincidence, the two brothers found themselves near to each other again in France. Bill, instead of packing biscuits into boxes, spent his time packing shells into gun barrels on the Somme not far from Ypres.

Five 100-lb shells screamed off towards the German lines a minute. The Germans replied and instead of 10 men manning each gun there were, more often than not, only four. But still the guns were fired. And still the German shells burst around them. Twice Bill had to be sent home with shell-shock. Twice he went back.

Then an offensive started against the Italians. They retreated and Bill was sent with the 29th Division in a bid to stop the advance. He helped to see that a fair proportion of shells were sent in the right direction before he, too, was injured. Ironically it was not a piece of shrapnel which pierced his leg, nor a stray bullet. A gun fell from its carriage on to him. And that was Blighty and the end of the war for Bill. Like thousands of others he had done his bit.

And so, in 1918, he was demobbed. Canada was a long way away. Bill’s brother went back. But perhaps the shellshock, the dreary days of hospital, had blunted Bill’s enthusiasm for a new country and a new life. Like thousands of others he did not find the transition from the Army to civilian life an easy one. He rejoined the Army.

As an experienced gunner they sent him to Shoeburyness, the Royal Artillery experimental depot. They made him a wine waiter to the 150 officers. He learnt a lot about wine and served many V.I.P.s when they came to see new weapons tested.

And there he met the girl who was to become his wife. She was governess to an Army officer’s children. In her younger days she had been an actress, once appearing as the principal boy in a Leeds pantomime. After their marriage Bill decided to leave the Army. They moved to Southend and Bill became a traveller to a firm which made umbrellas and walking-sticks. He tramped around Westcliff and Southend seeking orders. But his firm was a small one and not very prosperous. One morning Bill found himself out of a job. Luck was with him, however, for a dockers’ strike was on.

The same afternoon he was back in a job – working on the lighters unloading cargo from liners anchored oft Southend.

But that did not last long and soon Bill found new work – doing a milk round in Camden Town. Times were bad. He was forced to sack the boy who helped him. The boy retaliated by stealing the milk which Bill had left on the doorsteps. His pony had a long journey each day and dashed for his stable as soon as the last milk had been delivered. Perhaps there is a, by now, elderly policeman who remembers that pony’s attempt to knock him down in Trafalgar Square.

Bill began to prosper by taking over poor milk rounds, working them up into good ones and selling them. He soon knew Brixton, Victoria and Pimlico extremely well. Then he decided to stay put for a while and took over a dairy in Dorset Road, Clapham. He built it up until a bigger firm bought him up. Then the United Dairies bought up the firm which had taken him over.

Bill worked for United Dairies for a number of years – 400 customers a day, 3,500 stairs to climb each round. He became district manager – seven shops and 16 rounds: 12 shops, 43 rounds.

Then German troops marched into Poland. Bill’s world crumbled around him again much as it had done 15 years earlier and much as it did for thousands of others.

He returned to a milk round, this time in Kensington. Twice his home was blitzed. Once his wife was buried in the wreckage. Twice blast shattered his windows.

Meanwhile his brother’s son had followed their example in the First World War and joined the Canadian Army. Outside Rome Bill’s nephew won the M.C. for gallantry. He died there.

Back in England fate played another trick on Bill. In the First World War a gun had fallen on him. Shortly after the Second World War a crate of milk fell and split open his stomach. Bill still carries the scars. After that he was not quite so good at lifting things. He had to leave his job.

Just over three years ago Bill got another job – with Associated-Rediffusion.

You’ve probably seen him many times and he’s probably smiled at you and said ‘Good morning’ many times. For Bill, now white-haired, always has a cheery smile, much as he did for housewives on their doorsteps in days gone by.

Bill enjoys life as a labourer in Television House, shifting goods and furniture, restocking toilets with towels, soap and toilet rolls, clearing out wastepaper.

He thinks you all are wonderful people. ‘I do honestly believe that. Everybody is so considerate, patient and tolerant. I’m grateful to all I come in contact with.’

It was nice meeting you, too, Bill Shaw.

But Bill nearly always has a companion on his work around Television House, as most of you will know.

He is another Bill – Bill Farrell. Grey-haired and broad faced, this Bill also enjoys working here. For him, too, life here is quite a contrast to previous days.

Many are the times that his hands have been stained red by the Rowley Red Clay from Staffordshire. For Bill Farrell spent 35 years working for the Royal Doulton Potteries at Lambeth as a plaster model maker and a mould maker.

From his moulds were cast the terra-cotta façades for many of the buildings in London. Thousands of Scotch whisky flagons have also passed through his hands – he helped make them, not drink the contents.

Beer is his drink. During the war he was holding a pint of bitter in the ‘Prince of Wales’, Stockwell, when the place was hit by a bomb. Sixty people were in the pub at the time. Six got out alive. That’s about the only pint of bitter Bill Farrell has never finished.

Another time in the war he was going down to the cellar during a raid when a bomb dropped near by. The cellar door came away in his hands.

But that sort of thing does not happen around Television House these days. ‘It’s a change working here, wandering around the building all day, after 35 years shut up in one room at the pottery.’

Bill Shaw and Bill Farrell may not have the most glamorous of jobs in television but it is interesting to reflect that they are probably one of the best-known pairs of people in Television House.

The post Feature billing for a pair of Bills appeared first on THIS IS REDIFFUSION from Transdiffusion.

The post Focus on faces at Wembley appeared first on THIS IS REDIFFUSION from Transdiffusion.

‘The tension was built up ingeniously with the suspense evenly distributed amongst the various subjects so that one remained entirely in the dark until the end.’

The Times on ‘Someone We Know’.

‘It is difficult after all these years of television plays to imagine anything more amateur than last night’s TV Playhouse production of “Someone We Know” … nothing rang true … It came as no surprise when Thomas Harris came out as the murderer.’

Daily Mail

‘Pleas send us two of your free photo bookie and address from your Company, because we wanted to join your Company. Try to write our names on your Company book.

‘We will send you monkey skin, parrot feathers and old stamps.’

Letter from two schoolboys in Ghana.

‘Whilst reading my paper this morning something set me thinking. It is the everlasting brickbats thrown at the programmes televised by commercial television. As a humble housewife may I give some praise for the many, many evenings of pleasure afforded to me on television. I am not a TV Zombie, because some shows I do dislike, but I realise that everyone has his own taste.

‘We have only had a television now for less than a year but I shall always be grateful for the many hours of pleasure it has given me, in an otherwise rather drab life.

‘Good luck to you and all who make it possible.’

Letter front an Eltham viewer.

GALA

‘As compilations of bits and pieces of culture go, this was a distinctly superior compilation.’

Philip Purser, News Chronicle.

‘As a job of offering culture to the mass audience without appearing to use force, Associated-Rediffusion’s Gala, a concert programme by leading international artists, deserves encouragement.’

Peter Black, Daily Mail.

‘My mind boggles at the thought of what ITV must have paid out to get together last night’s amazing array of international talent for Gala, the first programme in a new musical series … I had to settle for that discredited old adjective “fabulous”.’

Phil Diack, Daily Herald.

‘I am eighty years old and practically an invalid. I find the ITV programmes so varied. They certainly make my life (I live alone) 100 per cent more interesting.

‘I love the African series and the television games, “Green”, “Miles” and others, the plays and films. But please don’t have too much sport, education and such. The BBC have that in abundance and it makes me tired. Your programmes arc so right and friendly. I speak not only for myself, but many who visit me.’

Letter from Mr A. M. Wilce, Bridgwater, Somerset.

‘All the same, I believe the common man has a perfect right to enjoy himself in his own way. If superior persons dislike his tastes (and they do), then they must lump it.

‘More than that: they had better stop going on and on and on with their wailings against TV. For they have become a bore.

‘The fact is that most people, grown-ups and kids alike, watch the telly, on the whole, for fun.

‘They want to be entertained. It does not corrupt them, or debase them either. Nor do they take it as solemnly as the superior persons suppose.

‘For the common man with all his limitations, has a large supply of horse-sense. So has his wife. And they are perfectly capable of taking care of their own kids.’

Charles Curran, Empire News.

The post They Say… December 1959 appeared first on THIS IS REDIFFUSION from Transdiffusion.

‘I read in the national Press that Val Parnell and ATV are against Associated-Rediffusion’s suggestion to the ITA that the third network, if and when it comes off, be a cultural one.

‘The reason suggested for this was that AR-TV is frightened of opposition. How can it be when it made more money than any other commercial TV company last year? It has fought through and triumphed against the opposition to date. So why should a commendable suggestion to support a cultural network, sharing the costs with other companies, be interpreted as a case of “nerves”?’

Letter from a Swansea viewer.

‘Sir Ian Jacob, BBC Director-General, said in London yesterday any new television wave-band should be shared by the BBC and ITA. Both organizations should be allowed to transmit two services, giving viewers a choice of four programmes.

‘Each of us could start a new service, but it has to be something new and not a duplication of what is going on in the present services.’

Daily Telegraph – June 10, 1959

‘Both ITA and BBC should be provided with an additional service solely for educational programmes (I use the word “educational” in its broadest sense) and specialized programmes with minority appeal. Such services would make it possible to provide more programmes for minorities, covering for example opera, ballet, and classical music, apart from which there might well be distinct commercial advantages in helping to make these specialized activities financially more self-supporting. We should be willing to participate in such a service, notwithstanding that it would have to be subsidized by our existing service.’

John Spencer Wills, company chairman, Nov. 25, 1958.

‘The Age of Juliet’. . . was fascinating to watch and a great exercise for our wits.’

Nancy Spain, Daily Express.

‘Ones fears for ‘The Age of Juliet’ adapted from the French on Independent Television last night, were only too well founded.’

L.L., Daily Telegraph.

‘This is the first time I have ever commented publicly about a televised programme, but I feel I must tell you how much I appreciated, enjoyed and admired your initiative in flying over so promptly the filmed interview with Lord Montgomery by Morrow and Colinwood. In particular did I appreciate the value of this following the criticisms which appeared in the British Press by people who obviously had not seen the film, but quoted excerpts of the interview, which gave erroneous impressions.

‘It was really excellent, but if there is a next time with another interview with Lord Montgomery by two such first-class interviewers, please do try and make it earlier in the evening, as I feel many people probably missed this beneficial programme by going to bed. I like to think the advertisers would understand – !

My very sincere congratulations.’

Letter from a Beaconsfield viewer.

‘May I slap you on the back for “Motoring Club”? I do not drive, never owned a car, but you set me thinking. The whole fifteen minutes was fascinating and the script very understandable. More power to your elbow!’

Letter from a Twickenham viewer.

‘My little boy of five has been very ill since before Christmas. During his long stay home from school we bought a TV set. Believe me, the different programmes have done more to buck him up than any doctor ever could. He is not only interested in the programmes but asks no end of questions about the studios and cameras, etc. I feel that I would just like to thank you all for unknowingly giving my son a great deal of entertainment during his illness and convalescence.’

Letter from Chelmsford viewer.

‘My husband and I look forward to seeing Jim’s Inn. We both think that Jim’s Inn is the best Advertising Magazine on television. Let us hope we will be seeing Jim’s Inn for many more weeks to come.

Postcard from Fulham viewer.

The post They Say… November 1959 appeared first on THIS IS REDIFFUSION from Transdiffusion.

Rediffusion Television’s production of ‘The Caretaker’ earlier this year won an International Emmy award for the best entertainment programme made outside the United States. In this article director marc miller talks about the problems of production. Obvious congratulations are due to Harold Pinter for writing it, Marc Miller for directing it, Peter Willes for producing it, and Roy,Dotrice, Ian McShane and John Rees for acting in it. Congratulations are also due to all those who had a hand in the production and their names are listed at the end of the article.

Making ‘The Caretaker’ into a television play created one or two unusual problems the solution of which added, I think, to the production’s effectiveness.

I felt that we should make no concessions towards accepted studio practice; that the play should only be broken where Pinter had originally made scenes end; that the actors must only work in one area; and that I should be able to shoot from every side of the room.

Designer Fred Pusey solved the last two problems brilliantly by splitting the four walls of the room into six trucks and putting the whole set on a 2 ft high rostrum. This created some problems concerning camera movement but it gave the cast a working area quite independent of the machinery. This independence added to the confidence of their work as they did not have to compete for floor space with pedestals, etc. Bill Lee, lighting supervisor, saw the designer’s rough plan and quietly pointed out that he could not light a 360 degree area but he would do his best to illuminate it. Bill’s concept of lighting and illumination is his own affair, but I have made a point of asking for the illumination technique several times since ‘The Caretaker’. Jeff Shepherd (senior cameraman) and Alan Evans (sound balancer) gave a qualified blessing to the early plans and the play was ready to start rehearsal.

To lessen the break caused by moving from the rehearsal room to the studio, Fred Pusey set up the entire rostrum area in the room, filling the spare space with junk to build into the play as it was needed. Michael Baldwin, costume design, arrived on the first day with cases full of old clothes which were sorted out to provide Roy Dotrice with his rags and John Rees with his doubtful, mid-forties pin-stripe suit. Ian McShane elected to provide his own wardrobe.

From here on, at the start of each day, ‘Pet’ Wilcox, stage manager, and Michael Mollan, assistant stage manager, had a full props setting job to do while Roy Dotrice and John Rees had to change into full costume. In this way each day’s work was done in the conditions of a final dress run and the transition to the studio was a natural extension of the rehearsal.

Rehearsals were watched at every stage by practically everyone who was to be concerned in the studio operation. This resulted in a complete understanding of exactly what we were trying to achieve.

All of which should indicate the sort of total unity and teamwork that backed the production. Perhaps the point could be more emphatically made by saying that the play, which ran for 92 minutes, was recorded in one take. Further the whole period of the recording had an incredible ‘first night’ feeling that I have never experienced to that extent before or since.

It is unnecessary to talk more about the play and the performances. They were seen and judged. Pinter is a great writer and Dotrice is a great actor. But these talents could not have fused without the teamwork and dedication of all concerned.

Those involved are listed below. There is no significance in the order.

Designer: Fred Pusey; production assistant; Anne Taylor; stage manager: Pet Wilcox; assistant stage manager: Michael Mollan; costume design: Michael Baldwin; casting director: Muriel Cole; senior cameraman: Jeff Shepherd; camera crew: Colin Hopkins, Sid Turrell, Peter Wickstead, Peter Bond, Andrew Vale, David Taylor, Vernon Layton; sound balancer: Alan Evans; grams operator: Tim Jaggard; sound crew: Mac McLoughlin, John Hoare, Fred Varley, Don Hawkins, Tom McIntyre; lighting director: Bill Lee; electrician chargehand: Bob Burns; console operators: Alf Lilley, Harold Titmus, Mike Sutton; vision mixer: Kaye Stromqvist; make-up: Mary McDonough, Lilia Lennox; senior engineer, control: Peter Hart; assistant engineers: Ray Nicholson, Brian Aylard; floor manager: Eric Cooper; assistant floor manager: Nigel Warwick; setting assistant: Pat Benson.

The post The Caretaker wins Emmy appeared first on THIS IS REDIFFUSION from Transdiffusion.

‘My wife and I would very much like to get tickets to see one of your programmes as we are trying to be in London for our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary on a second honeymoon. When we got married the only way we could get the family car for our honeymoon was to take my mother and family along, which consisted of a pet monkey and seven children. Most of our honeymoon was spent looking after the seven children and chasing the monkey who was always getting loose. We do hope if we can make it that the second honeymoon will be less eventful than the first.’

Letter addressed to ‘Commercial TV London, England’, from Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S.A.

‘A massive slice of ham was cut off by Associated-Rediffusion last night in the play “Family on Trial’’.’

Nancy Spain, Daily Express

‘“Family on Trial” was one of the most worthwhile ITV plays I have seen for a long time.’

Phil Diack, Daily Herald

‘Your programme is a very good one. I like it very much. I enjoy the music page best. Will you have some more animals because I like animals. I enjoy your programmes because there is a lot of variety in them. The programme is not too long. That is why I like it.’

Edenbridge, Kent, viewer, aged 9, on ‘Lucky Dip’.

‘I would be very interested to know who are the twelve most popular BBC television actresses considered by the BBC, in order of popularity and, also, I wondered if you could tell me if there is a new panel game to take the place of “What’s My Line?” If so when is it due to start.’

South Devon viewer’s letter addressed to Associated-Rediffusion – one of the few which we couldn’t answer

‘Surely the oddest thing about television is the fear, prejudice and open hostility which it seems to arouse. There is a widespread feeling among educated and responsible people that it is something more than a new means of communication; that it is a sinister influence undermining educational standards and social life.

‘I believe this to be nonsense, and I am certain that the same things were said about the printing press and other inventions in their nursery days.’

L. Marsland Gander, Daily Telegraph

‘As a member of Associated-Rediffusion’s Educational Advisory Council and a headmaster who has been using television programmes for schools since their inception in 1957, I was interested in your readers’ letters on schools TV.

‘It was reassuring to see that most of them agreed with the policy adopted in this country; namely, that at present television programmes for schools should be supplementary to the work of the teacher and make no attempt to replace him.

‘There is no danger of standardization, because teachers receive sufficient advance information – by means of Teachers’ Notes – to enable them to select and use programmes according to the particular needs of each class.

‘I, too, am “cool” about the closed-circuit “master-teacher” technique sometimes used in America. In this country the teaching profession still has a big job to do in making fuller use of the existing service and helping the two broadcasting organizations to produce the best possible programmes for schools.

Letter to News Chronicle from Fielden Hughes, Wimbledon

‘I should like, now that our bookings have temporarily come to an end, to thank you all for your most valued support and co-operation.

‘There is no doubt at all that this particular department is still fired with the old “pioneering” spirit, and the manner in which you nurse such a diverse range of peculiar products in each programme fills me with admiration.’

Letter from an advertising agency to advertising magazines.

‘Despite the slight discrepancies, Cyril Coke’s production extracted every ounce of entertainment from a smooth plot and a neat, if not witty, dialogue.’

Neville Randall – Daily Sketch, on ‘Skyline for Two’

‘By handling the main idea respectfully and playing down the marginal incidents, the director, Mr Cyril Coke, made something stilted and humourless of the whole.’

The Times

‘We have had our TV set for four months now and after looking in at your programmes almost every evening I thought I would like to thank you for such good entertainment. One hears people criticise television but I can only think they must be very hard to please. We have three young children so can very rarely go out of an evening. We think the children’s programmes are very good, our children will never miss any of them. Please thank everyone concerned for giving us such good viewing in such a friendly way.

Letter from Thornton Heath, Surrey, viewer

‘When I grow up I would like to be the mother of eleven athletic boys. Then I could start a football team of my own and sell them to Gateshead, because they need some help.’

Letter from 12-year-old Blaydon-on-Tyne viewer.

‘I would like to make a suggestion about the programmes when you get the extra viewing time. Is it possible to have a record programme similar to the one Joan Edwards used to introduce in the early days of commercial TV? There have also been some really good shows that could bear a repeat. How nice it would be to see the “Father Knows Best”, “Sir Lancelot” and other series we enjoyed so much over again.

‘I must be one of your most devoted TV viewers as I am handicapped and I pass many a happy hour watching TV. So you see I for one would welcome the extra hours of TV.

Letter from Dalton-in-Furness, Lancashire, viewer

‘Having viewed television both here and in Canada I have come to the conclusion that your network cannot be surpassed and I must thank you for the fine plays that we, the viewers, appreciate.’

Letter from viewer in Hyde Park Gate

‘As a play it held me just about as closely as an animated story in an American magazine and, oh, so seldom animated.’

Nancy Spain, Daily Express, reviewing ‘ The Winner’

‘“The Winner”, directed by David Boisseau, turned out to be one of the smoothest plays of the year.’

Richard Sear, Daily Mirror

‘Why must such delectable programmes as “Private Secretary”, “Dick and the Duchess”, and “African Patrol” be screened at such unreasonable time as 6.10 p.m.? They are fresh and amusing and such a change from the eternal westerns. At 6.10 p.m. housewives like myself are cooking dinner with one hand and putting the youngsters to bed with the other. It makes me hopping mad to have to miss them, just catching a glimpse in passing. Surely programmes such as “This Week” or “What the Papers Say” could be switched to this time instead. After all, although these programmes are interesting, I do not think it would seriously upset anyone to miss them.’

Letter from Leyton viewer

The post They Say… August 1959 appeared first on THIS IS REDIFFUSION from Transdiffusion.

‘I believe you are the right person I should write to on the following matter. It concerns the film entitled ‘Christmas in Cyprus’, which as you know was made out here largely under the direction of Peter Hunt, and shown over your network on Christmas Day in England.

‘You have very kindly sent us a 35 mm copy of the film and this has been seen by a large number of the security forces in Cyprus. I would like you to know what a very good impression indeed this film has made; it does not overstate the case and it shows very vividly the part played by the Security Forces. I am sure that it has been a big factor in raising the morale of the soldiers.

‘I would, therefore, like to thank you very much for all the trouble taken in preparing this film and for your kindness in letting us have a copy.’

Letter to Captain Brownrigg from Major-General Kenneth Darling, Director of Operations in Cyprus.

‘It is so very nice of you to reply to my letters. I expect you think it is quite mad for a happily-married mother to be writing after photos of TV heroes. But at least it proves what a good job you are all doing. Keep it up!’

Jean Swain, Coventry (Viewer’s letter to programme correspondence).

‘Congratulations and thanks for these very fine programmes. Daniel Farson’s interview with (R.C.) Fr. Christie; “The Killing of the King” – First Class!!!’

Edward O’Hara, Yorks. (Viewer’s postcard).

EXPRESS LIFT

‘Yet for all the fortune he has made in Associated-Television he is still a man of the people. His humour is lusty. His manners are adequate, but not impeccable. When he goes up to his close-carpeted suite in Television House he will still pat the lift boy on the back and know his Christian name.’

Extract from Daily Express story on Mr Lew Grade. We have been asked to deny reports that as a result lift boys are now going to be employed.

‘I would like you to know how much I appreciated your “Hallé at Work” programme. I thought the sound was handled particularly well.’

Viewer’s ‘phone call to Night Duty Officer.
Director: Cyril Coke; sound balancer, Tony Couch.

‘The lady in the programme should be shown off a bit more because she is good looking.’

A 14-year-old boy’s comments on Muriel Young’s appearance in ‘Lucky Dip’.

‘As it turned out we were given a production which can truly be called distinguished. Ronald Marriott directed with the deftest blending of sensitivity and passion, and the acting was good down to the humblest member of the 40-strong cast.’

Denis Thomas, Daily Mail on ‘The Killing of The King’.

‘Please forgive this rather long letter, I know you are busy, but being a strong supporter of commercial TV long before it became a reality, I feel I must let you know my observations of the viewing public.

‘I am an insurance agent and have to call on people in their homes and as my pet subject is TV I know you would be pleased to know that 90 per cent of the people who have a choice of programmes choose ITV. But the biggest let down is the much vaunted ‘‘Play of the Week”’.

‘In contrast, “Film of the Week” is very popular and the general opinion is a film is better than the average play…. So take less notice of M.P.s and enemies of ITV, many of whom haven’t a TV set.’

Letter from Tooting viewer.

‘Being a young housewife whose main pleasures are derived from a three-year-old son and a one-year-old TV set, you may be sure that my choice in programmes is confirmed to those which give the highest degree of entertainment.

‘Therefore, although I have never in all my days written to any personality (not even in my film-struck teenage days) I felt that I must write to you on a superb programme “Look In” which has only one fault – it is too short! Hoping you will continue indefinitely to give myself and others so much pleasure for many a Tuesday evening to come.’

Letter to Michael Ingrams from Mrs Lois D. Morris, Middlesex.

‘Why not have a separate channel for kids. That would suit everybody and please all of us. If that fails, the other alternative rests with the parents. Why do they allow the kids to sit up? They seem to be allowed to do as they please. That is why there is so much delinquency about.’

Letter from Redhill, Surrey, viewer complaining about ‘Mark Saber’ being taken out of the early evening because of the large number of children viewing.

‘I like “Lucky Dip” because you get so many personalities.

I have never written to “Lucky Dip” before because today was the first time I have seen it.’

Young Isle of Wight viewer.

‘Usually the show succeeds: it has some of the drive and guts of Fleet Street, and is not afraid of being brash now and again. I think most viewers would welcome a quarter of an hour’s extension here.

Henry Turton, Punch, on ‘This Week’.

“This Week” turned from men to rabbits and gave us one of those cleverly-cut interviews with children which grip the heart.’

Colin Frame, The Star.
Director: Sheila Gregg; interviewer: Michael Nelson; scriptwriter: Colin Willock.

‘… the people who put on television entertainment have a sense of responsibility appropriate to those who pour shows nightly into the home, where children may be watching. After inquiry into current stage plays I reject with scorn all complaints about TV violence and puerility.’

L. Marsland Gander, Daily Telegraph.

‘I want to hand a belated pat on the back to Associated-Rediffusion…. Associated-Rediffusion was the first company to transmit commercial television programmes in Britain and it has been well aware of its responsibilities in the field of culture from the start. One of its first acts was to place the Hallé Orchestra under long-term contract and for nearly five years it has featured this orchestra in televised performances and on the concert platform. AR-TV also embarked on the ambitious scheme for staging classical plays at the Saville Theatre and, after short runs, transferring them to the television screen. The company is now offering more life drama than any other programme contractor.

The half-hour news feature programme, ‘This Week”, has been maintained in a peak-hour time every week since January, 1956. AR-TV also introduced the first regular television broadcast for schools ever seen in Great Britain, but the Beaverbrooks and the Mayhews prefer to forget about the good things and think only of the Westerns, the variety shows and the advertisements.

‘The Beaverbrook Press has backed many losers in its time but its campaign against television may well turn out to be its biggest failure.’

Ernest Kay, Time and Tide.

With all these faults the play still had some highly entertaining moments. Gladys Young (Aunt Ben) was a delight, and the meetings of the Irish M.P.’s full of life. Costumes and camera work excelled.’

Dick Sear, Daily Mirror, on ‘Parnell’, Play of the Week.
Director: David Boisseau; Costumes designed by Ernest Hewitt; Cameras manned by Vic Gardiner, Jeff Sheppard and the rest of crew 1.

Illustrations by Geraldine Spence

The post They Say… April 1959 appeared first on THIS IS REDIFFUSION from Transdiffusion.

TWO double-decker buses rolled over my head. They were followed by three taxis, two cars and a lorry. I didn’t feel or hear a thing. But then I had just walked from outside Television House to Waterloo Bridge without crossing a road or dodging any traffic.

The answer to these feats is, of course, the ‘Strand Underpass’ which is due to be completed by the end of this year and which will take light traffic from the end of Waterloo Bridge and disgorge it just a little way up Kingsway from Television House after passing under the Strand and Aldwych.

Up above the sun was shining, but down there in the nearly completed tunnel it was cool. In Aldwych the traffic ground through its gears. Underneath a pneumatic drill clattered into the sides of the old tramway tunnel.

Down there a lot has been happening since work first started on September 8 last year. Apart from the ramps at each end and the arrival of the two-storey wooden building for offices in the road outside Television House not much has shown on the surface.

But by now the old tram tunnel from Kingsway to the Embankment (opened in 1908) is nearly ready for modern traffic. One of the biggest problems was tearing out a central wall which split the tunnel into two for the trams and which helped to support the road. This central wall ran under the curve from Kingsway into Aldwych where the tram tunnel follows the bends in the road.

As this supporting wall – 8 ft thick in places – was demolished (see picture), so girders had to be built into the roof and then the gap between them and the ground holding up the road was filled with concrete poured in under pressure. In some places this ground had also to be frozen chemically to prevent any chance of movement.

Meanwhile around 1,000 tons of concrete were used on the ramp in Kingsway alone. This ramp (heated to prevent icing) will bring traffic up from the tunnel to ground level at the corner of Kemble Street – the old tramway tunnel continues up to the top of Kingsway.

The walls of this one-third mile long under-pass will be lined with panels of aluminium with a backing of light grey which can be easily cleaned and which will provide the maximum reflection of light. The roof has been lined with asbestos to reduce fire risk and will have a suspended acoustic ceiling to reduce noise.

At the Waterloo Bridge end the ramp carrying traffic down has a gradient of 1 in 12. This comparatively steep descent (in Kingsway the ramp has a gradient of 1 in 15) is due to the fact that the ramp could not start descending until clear of Waterloo Bridge and it had to pass a few inches under a 4 ft 6 in diameter, main sewer below the Strand. The maximum headroom possible as a result is 12 ft 6 in, so precautions will have to be taken to stop tall lorries or vehicles entering the tunnel. This will be done by installing a photo-electric device. If a vehicle more than 12 ft high tries to enter, a warning light on overhead gantries will go on instructing the driver to rejoin the usual traffic lane.

Nothing of interest was discovered while building the underpass certainly nothing like the bodies which came to light when the original tram tunnel was being excavated. A short way up Kingsway from Television House an old plague pit was discovered where the victims of the plague had been hastily buried.

This story does not appear in the records of the time but was told by one of the two engineers who worked on the original tram tunnel and who came to see it before the walls were hidden by the new underpass.

One – an 84-year-old – came from Dublin especially and the other, who is now 82, came up from Surrey. ‘The younger one nearly cried when he saw the old tunnel walls upon which he had worked,’ recalls Mr R. Godfrey, site inspector for the consulting engineers.

More than 1,000 men worked on the tramway tunnel – practically all the excavation work was done by hand – whereas the conversion has been carried out by a labour force of around 150.

The figures are not quite the same when it comes to costs. The tram tunnel cost about £190,000 but the tender to the LCC for the underpass was £1,025,000.

For this sum London will get a bright, new underpass which should greatly ease the flow of traffic from Waterloo Bridge to Kingsway. At present it is intended that it shall function in this direction only but it will be possible to modify the approaches to allow for a ‘tidal’ flow in the reverse direction or even a two-way flow if necessary, but this will allow very little room between the two lanes of traffic in the tunnel.

But what happens, somebody will probably be thinking, when a grand, modern traffic jam sets in at the top of Kingsway and the whole tunnel snarls up? They’ve thought of that too. When the carbon monoxide level reaches a certain height an automatic detector will cause ‘switch off engines’ signs to be illuminated, the fans will work at maximum capacity and a ‘tunnel closed’ sign will operate.

Acknowledgements:

Thanks are due to the following for their help in compiling this article and for allowing our photographer to take pictures: The LCC; John Mowlem & Co. Ltd, the constructors; Frederick S. Snow and Partners, the consulting engineers.

Photographs by Jack Emerald.

The post T.V. House by-pass appeared first on THIS IS REDIFFUSION from Transdiffusion.

It is with a great sense of sadness that Fusion records the death of Capt. T. M. Brownrigg, general manager of this company from its start in November, 1954 until his retirement in December, 1964.

Only in the last issue did we print extracts from a letter he had written to The Times about the merger of Rediffusion Television and ABC Television. In this letter he defended the record of the company and its staff, a staff, he said, which was never baffled.

That his death should occur while the company he helped to create was, itself, facing a form of death sentence makes the event even more tragic. He would have been glad to be sure that the future of those who worked for him was secure.

That his death has to be recorded in Fusion, the magazine he launched for the staff, is also sad. He always took a keen interest in each issue but never interfered in its production. Occasionally there would be a suggestion but never an instruction. He defended the freedom which enabled it to be a magazine created by the staff for the staff.

He was proud of his motto for the staff — never baffled.

Yet near the end of his life be had to admit in his letter to The Times about the merger: ‘It is sad and I am baffled’.

Maybe the staff will continue to live up to their reputation of never being baffled. But about his death, less than four years after his retirement, they can only echo bis words and say: ‘It is sad’.

The editor

More than 300 colleagues from the Royal Navy, the world of television and Rediffusion Television attended the memorial service last month to Captain Brownrigg at St. Martin-in-the-Fields. The lesson was read by Admiral Sir David Luce and the service was conducted by the Rev. Austen Williams. The address was by Robert Everett, a man who served under Capt. Brownrigg in the Royal Navy and at Rediffusion Television. His address, which was widely praised, is reproduced here.

In the lesson, from the Book of Wisdom, which Sir David Luce has read, there is that phrase:

‘as sparks among stubble…’

I do not think that, in so few words, there could be a better epitaph for our Tom Brownrigg.

I use the word our in this somewhat proprietary sense because I believe that that is how many of us here would feel about him.

As a ‘spark among stubble’ indeed because, having known him as it were in two lives, I certainly knew that spark – and I have been a small part of the stubble.

It seems to me that this church is absolutely the right place in which we should come together to remember Tom; the man and his achievements. And, therefore, to feel sad, but not to be dismayed.

For those of us from Rediffusion, St. Martin’s has been virtually our parish church to which, upon so many occasions, we have brought our cameras.

St. Martin’s is also known as the parish church of the Admiralty and, thus, the altar is flanked by the White Ensign and the Admiralty’s flag.

It is very much, then, the proper place in which to remember the man who was our so redoubtable general manager having already had a distinguished career as a sailor.

I am not going to recite a catalogue of almost unattainable virtues. Tom Brownrigg was not a great national figure – nor was he a saint. He had no desire to imitate one.

But I look back at the man I knew and served; whom I admired and greatly liked. Therefore, I grieve but I am also grateful.

I shall not embark upon a series of naval anecdotes. I would, however, recall my very first encounter with Tom when, having just been appointed to a brand new aircraft carrier under his command, my admiral commented:

‘Congratulations, with Tom Brownrigg as your captain you will have an exciting time … I would give you about a fortnight before you are sacked…’

Curiously enough, it wasn’t so, but most certainly we had an exciting time; because he was an exciting man to know and to serve.

What, then, were the qualities and characteristics which made it so? As a seaman he was a master craftsman. He could handle an awkward heap of aircraft carrier as if it were a sports car; and he did.

He was a brilliant navigator; and that is why he was Master Navigator of the Mediterranean fleet during the most crucial and precarious time in our naval history. He commanded a war-time cruiser; he was twice decorated for distinguished services. He was Director of Plans at the Admiralty and, subsequently. Chief of Staff in the Mediterranean.

Then he ‘retired’ … but, when thinking in terms of Tom Brownrigg, the word retired is almost a joke. Having ‘retired’, he became the driving force in the creation of the post-war Bracknell new town.

He became the founder general manager of Associated-Rediffusion and carried us through eight hectic years of what I would claim to be extraordinary endeavour and achievement.

He ‘retired’ again.

In the intervals of being chairman of the Berkshire council of St. John’s, on the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council – and so many other activities – I suppose that his time was his own.

When I think of Tom Brownrigg, I think of the essential qualities of leadership; of command. Of command, one demands justice. He gave it. One needs decisions; he made them. Above all, I believe that in command there must be a basic, rock-like integrity. He had it.

Tom was not an easy man. Very often, he could be downright ‘difficult’. He was not everybody’s ‘cup of tea’. Most certainly, he could be almighty ‘difficult’ with those who were found wanting. To those who might try to conceal their ignorance in waffle he applied a mind and technique like a surgeon’s scalpel. He was certainly allergic to yes-men.

He could be very tough, haughty and seemingly implacable. Yet, he would be surprisingly compassionate, even sentimental. He was absolutely loyal to trusted subordinates – whether they were right or wrong.

To some people he could be frankly alarming; yet he was a gay character. He dearly loved a party and liked nothing better than to play the host, at the centre of the stage and surrounded by people. He liked people.

He had a strong, endearing and infectious sense of humour; and the blessed capacity to laugh at himself.

In this day and age, when we seem to be set about with people of empty aims and phoney values, I think that we should mark well men like Tom; the things he thought mattered and his spark of unquenchable enthusiasm for the job to be done, to be done well, to be thoroughly finished, whatever the difficulties.

And so, here we are today; all of us for the same reason. Each of us with personal memories, and personal reactions to the man. We have come together to pay our respects; to give a farewell salute – sadly but without dismay – to the man whom we had to admire, having travelled with him just so far.

To achievement; to the memory of Tom Brownrigg; most truly and surely a very remarkable man.

A third man’s view

There are two views about him and mine is neither of them. I remember him as a professional affliction and then with personal affection. Professionally, he was very tough on me: on reflection, I care nothing about that. He fired at me, as he did at all of us. There are so many ‘Tom’ stories. Mine are no better than so many. The story about the cats is true.

There were two pug-dogs wandering about in features, which should not have been there. I got word that the GM was on his rounds. There was no place to hide the dogs and the owner resolutely refused to shove them into a filing cabinet.

‘What are these cats doing in the building?’

‘They are not cats, sir, they are pug-dogs.’

‘They must be cats. Dogs are not allowed in the building.’

Shortly afterwards I allowed the young son of a well-known personality to sit-in on a ‘This Week’. On his rounds the Captain nearly had a fit. Lacerated, in shreds I took the boy to the guest room, where orange squash can just be found. There, Captain Brownrigg made him his guest of honour. The mistake was mine. The boy was in the technical area and that was not allowed. However, he was a guest.

Later, also on ‘This Week’, a well-known journalist fell into the guest room and fell asleep during an anniversary programme. ‘Who is that?’

‘That’s XY, sir. He’s had pneumonia.’

I reckoned that was my good deed for the night by XY.

Later the familiar tinkling of glass galvanised the recumbent XY towards the Scotch. Tottering towards the Captain he intoned … ‘Are you here for the free drinks too?’

When the Captain left he turned to me and said ‘You must look after XY. Pneumonia is a terrible disease.’

For some people on ‘This Week’ he had a personal dislike amounting to incivility. There was the case of a scriptwriter who shall he called Can Can. It would be difficult to forget such a name.

There was a fearful row. The subject hardly matters.

Next morning the Captain was in the lift on his way to the invincible Fourth Floor. Can Can stood silently beside him. When both reached the fourth the Captain said, as the doors opened, ‘Good-morning, Wharburton.’

He admired efficiency. On one of his trips to America his agent so confused American time scales that he was caused to arrive for urgent appointments hours too early, which was boring, or hours too late, which was intolerable. On his return to civilisation (UK) he posed before a do-it-yourself photographic machine in an attitude of extreme ferocity, which was not difficult. The result he had sent to the agent with a note to the effect that this was what he thought about the arrangements made for him.

He admired and respected straight talk, though curves and mazes in his own conversation went unnoticed, by him. Lord Birkett once told us, at a programme planning meeting, the story of two workmen ‘who became inebriated, I am sorry to say, near Liverpool. Later, both men found themselves, I know not how, crawling late at night along some railway lines. One said – “I find these stairs (meaning the railway sleepers) very steep.” The other said – “I don’t mind the stairs being so steep but I cannot abide the bannisters being so low.”’

When Lord Birkett had gone the Captain sent for me and said: ‘What do you think the fellow was getting at?’

The notion that Birkett was merely telling us a story for its own sake, in working hours, eluded him.

One day he invited us to the theatre; his secretary, Liz, could see anything she liked. So we went to ‘Make Me An Offer’.

During an interval I asked him how he was enjoying the show. ‘Don’t tell Liz’, he said, ‘but we saw it last night.’

‘Well, why didn’t you say so? We could have seen something else.’ ‘No. This is what she wanted to see.’

His attention to detail sometimes came unstuck. On the occasion of the visit of a Prime Minister to the studios he issued one of his second-by-second calculated instructions. Only one function had been forgotten. The Prime Minister wanted to wash his hands. The Captain leapt forward to lead him out – to the ‘Ladies’.

He did not appear to be very musical. Visiting the rehearsal of a full orchestra in a serenade for strings he complained that the brass wasn’t working.

Normally meticulous when it came to rank and station, the uncouth world of show-biz sometimes defeated him. In the very early days he was discussing, at one of his superbly stage-managed cocktail parties, his appointment of a senior drama executive. He had to choose between two people, he told his guest; one was ‘Harold Hitler’ and the other was ‘Sir Francis Drake’. He had chosen Harold Hitler because Sir Francis Drake was quite unsuitable.

His guest said nothing: he was Sir Francis Drake.

Peter Hunt

Filed. This anecdote of Capt. T. M. Brownrigg is told by Neil Bramson:

‘I was once unwise enough to ask for an extra filing cabinet. Nothing happened for a day or two, then, without warning, the Captain entered himself, followed by business manager, office manager and purchasing officer. Unerringly he went to my existing filing cabinet and selected, equally unerringly, the third drawer down. Opening it, without even looking, he triumphantly produced a pair of ladies’ high-heeled shoes.

‘Deadpan he turned to the business manager: “Requisition these, Elms”, he said and walked out with a gleam in his eye.’

His farewell

Four years ago in December, 1963 an article appeared in Fusion under the heading ‘The general manager’s farewell’. In it Capt. Brownrigg revealed some of his memories and philosophies about television. This article consists of extracts from that piece.

‘On Wednesday, November 24, 1954 I walked into the offices (two rooms) of Associated-Rediffusion in Stratton House as the third member of the staff: the company secretary, Arthur Groocock, and his personal secretary, Fay Caddy, were already there. The company’s name was fixed – an accountant in Rediffusion was presented with a gold watch for having thought of it, especially the hyphen – and the Board of Directors had been chosen: the chairman from B.E.T., three directors from Rediffusion and four from Associated Newspapers (hence Associated-Rediffusion – ed.). Nothing else was fixed.

‘I do not propose to trace the build-up of the company, nor to describe the intriguing excitement with which I entered, for me, the unknown worlds of entertainment and advertising. Suffice it to say that the company went on the air on Friday, September 22, 1955 with a crashing and most expensive programme, and will end its present Licence period on Wednesday, July 29, 1964 with, I hope, another outstanding programme: and that between these two dates, the company has been so successful financially as to become the envy of many people, and so successful programme-wise that it is the provider of the majority of live/taped hours to the network. Some call us doggedly decent; I say we are reliably good.

‘Most people think of a general manager as a man in command, even at times as a dictator, but in fact no one is a successful general manager unless he serves. In our case he has to serve the viewers, the staff and the shareholders. Also, of course, he has to manage.’

About serving the staff he said: ‘Firstly, he must establish an organisation which is clear and workable, so that everybody knows who does what. Nothing is more frustrating than not knowing who deals with what and who can give a decision. Secondly, he has to create a staff relationship in which the staff feel that promotions or demotions are fairly done, that discipline is tempered with understanding. Nothing can engender bitterness more than a feeling that something has been decided unfairly or ruthlessly and, in this connection, the same ill feeling can be caused if the general manager allows one person to get away with something – bad time-keeping or excessive expenses – whilst his colleague has abided by the rules. Thirdly, the general manager must see that conditions under which the staff work, and the equipment that they operate are the best that can reasonably be provided. It may be the creative freedom given to the programme directors, or it may be the vision mixing panel in master control, but whatever it is, it should enable the creative staff to be creative and the servicing staff to be able to do their job efficiently.’

Later on he made this point: ‘You will observe that there is a very fine dividing line between the object of satisfying the viewers with better programmes which might be achieved by extra expenditure, and the object of preventing the shareholders’ money being wasted. The general manager never has an easy life and very rarely does he have easy decisions to make. (“Problems only reach the general manager when they are insoluble elsewhere”.)’

About his retirement Capt. Brownrigg wrote: ‘As planned long ago, I am retiring from my job as general manager before the start of the new Licence period; firstly, because I think that after 45 years of full-time work I am entitled to take life a bit easier and, secondly, because I believe that television is a young man’s job: new ideas should be bubbling up and new techniques tried (always provided they are not to the detriment of the viewers). When you are over 60 there is a danger of thinking that old and tried ideas are necessarily the best.’

His article ended: ‘I would like now to thank you all for your loyal support through the years, and for never allowing your jobs to get you down. I hope, when the station clock is redesigned, it will contain the company’s motto “Never Baffled”.’

With the death of Rediffusion Television that clock will now never be redesigned.

The post A very remarkable man appeared first on THIS IS REDIFFUSION from Transdiffusion.

In this and the following columns are the answers to a questionnaire sent out to a group of features directors. The head of features, Peter Hunt, says:

A long time ago, in 1955, a founder member of the programme department said: ‘the word “documentary” makes me think of cranes and things….’ Hence ‘Feature’, which is determined by Chambers as a programme ‘that reconstructs dramatically the life of a prominent person, or an important event, or gives a dramatic picture of an employment or activity.’

I have taken Chambers as a reasonable platform for framing these questions.

Which is worth most: a personality talking at you or over relevant pictures of what he is talking about?

John Frankau: This must depend on the subject, envisaged audience and the personality. There is room for both, and a combination of the two.

John Phillips: I favour him talking over relevant pictures every time. Television already consists of quite enough faces on the screen, any opportunity or reason to cut away to something else must be seized with both hands.

Peter Morley: The question is the answer – whichever is worth more, you hold on the screen. If you are putting across the character of a person you must see the face. If this person is talking about ‘things’ you must show these ‘things’. The test is relevance.

Geoffrey Hughes: Both. The personality must first be established. Then it is a question of whether the pictures of what he is talking about are stronger and more relevant than his ‘personality’ or his interest as a man.

Sheila Gregg: It is impossible to answer this question. If the programme is about people it is probably better to see their faces, especially if they are good characters, and also that you may try to judge their sincerity from the emotions on their faces. But if the subject is more important than the people, obviously you should see the relevant pictures.

Can the dramatised feature do anything our current forms cannot do?

Geoffrey Hughes: Yes, it can put over an emotional state of mind in a way that our present feature programmes cannot. And emotional states of mind are as much part of people’s reactions to the real world as they are to (say) drama.

Sheila Gregg: Yes, I think so, as there are always subjects which are extremely difficult to bring to life in a non-dramatic form. On the other hand, as soon as dramatisation and actors are brought in, the authenticity of the whole thing is weakened, and I think people might find it difficult to distinguish between dramatised documentary and straightforward drama.

John Frankau: Yes, the dramatised feature can do something in addition to our current forms. Apart from more easily catching the attention of most sections of the public by presenting facts in a more digestible way, often they can be more succinct and possibly more accurate than programmes which use a few individuals putting forward their own isolated views. As a form of entertainment they should not be neglected.

John Phillips: Yes, by attracting the viewer who switches over or off whenever he feels he is being talked ‘at’.

Peter Morley: A dramatised documentary produces an atmosphere of the theatre – a performance which can make some feature subjects more palatable to a mass audience. It can in many cases simplify a diffused collection of facts by making these facts fit the story, and not the story fit the facts. But this theatrical atmosphere is the weakness of the dramatised documentary, reducing its authenticity and credibility, and therefore its viewer identification.

How should the features personalities we need in the future be found and trained?

Sheila Gregg: It takes a long time to train a television interviewer, and the only real training he can get is to work on actual programmes over a considerable period. I think the essentials for a television interviewer are: intelligence, good general knowledge and a certain experience of life. An interviewer should also be able to ask questions because he genuinely wants to find out for himself, and because he is interested in people and ideas, not simply because the questions have been written in a script.

John Frankau: There is no golden rule. They may be found almost anywhere it’s possible to find the combination of an interesting personality and an enquiring mind. The particular type of mind required might be most easily found in the world of journalism. As well as experience, the only training should be that of theatrical professionalism.

John Phillips: By the same methods that are used to get the right people for any skilled trade or profession – lengthy and patient search for suitable types, imparting of expert advice and knowledge based on experience, encouragement of expansion of personality and ideas.

Peter Morley: I haven’t the faintest idea.

Geoffrey Hughes: I believe they should first be significant in their own right. If we look for people who are immediately available and unemployed, they are likely also to be unemployable – or, in short, no-goods. So, having been snatched from their jobs (and properly paid) they can only be trained by practice – and production.

Why are features necessary?

John Phillips: Assuming the basic premise that television is necessary and presumably we all do that, then surely features are necessary because they exploit most fully television’s greatest accomplishment (that of projecting sound and vision simultaneously to millions of people) to the common good by making them aware of themselves and the world they live in.

Peter Morley: They are not necessary. They are highly desirable. The entertainment pattern of a television network would be incomplete without them. Feature programmes satisfy a thirst for knowledge which all viewers think they have or would like to think they have. The feature is not always considered as ‘entertainment’ but I believe that the successful feature must be as entertaining as any other programme.

Geoffrey Hughes: They aren’t necessary. Features should only be put on if they are entertaining. But I believe that they can be entertaining, as a genuine interest in current affairs does exist. It is up to us to exploit it.

Sheila Gregg: Apart from entertainment, I think television has a duty to inform people (in as entertaining a way as possible). Anyway features are the thing that television can do better than any other medium.

John Frankau: They are a valuable form of entertainment and as such must take their place in this, the entertainment business. Unlike other programmes, they can survey topical subjects at short notice, floodlight social or world events and sometimes peep through keyholes.

Should features set out to influence public opinion?

Peter Morley: If you set out to influence, you distort. But if you set out to inform you can’t help but influence.

Geoffrey Hughes: No. We re not allowed to by the Television Act anyway; and I don’t agree with the missionary attitude formerly adopted by the BBC under Lord Reith. We can and should, however, stimulate people to think for themselves.

Sheila Gregg: They should not necessarily set out to influence public opinion. Some programmes merely inform (and in that way they may help people to make up their own minds). However, there are some subjects – Apartheid is an obvious example – on which we should take sides and try to influence opinion, although I think we should give a fair hearing to both sides.

John Frankau: No, but in either presenting facts or a point of view, it would be unlikely that some of the audience would remain uninfluenced.

John Phillips: No – they should set out to inform accurately and fairmindedly so that public opinion may be responsible and enlightened.

Summary

Peter Hunt: ‘I make no comment. I merely take relevant refuge in this pregnant extract from Shepherd Mead’s brilliant text book – ‘How To Get Rich In TV Without Really Trying’.

‘We can’t use the script’, he said, his voice vibrating by force of habit.

‘What’s wrong?’ I said. ‘Not dramatic enough?’

‘It isn’t – me,’ he said. ‘I take a universal point of view.’

‘There is no such thing’, I said, ‘as a universal point of view. You are for this or you are against it – you cannot be universal about it.’

‘I must see both sides of every question.’

‘Listen,’ I said, ‘if you take both sides of every question you will be a skyrocket that is shooting off at both ends. You will make a lot of fizz-fire and go no place.

‘So the way it worked out, I was the one who went someplace. Out on my ear.’

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The year 1966 started with political praise being heaped on the head of ‘This Week’ when the programme celebrated its 10th anniversary on January 6. A publication to mark the event carried messages of goodwill from the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Leader of the Liberals. Later that night a programme title ventured into the realm of the astrologer with what at that time seemed an amazingly rash prediction… The World Cup – England to Win?’ Then on January 31 the first of a new series called ‘The Rat Catchers’ started to win predictably high ratings.

In between, however, had come the death of a member of the board of directors – Sir Bracewell Smith, a former Lord Mayor of London, chairman of Wembley Stadium and an honorary vice-president of the Football Association. February brought yet another award to the company when ‘Children of Revolution’, the Intertel production on young people growing up in Czechoslovakia, won a Silver Dove from the International Catholic Organisation for Radio and Television (UNDA) at the sixth Monte Carlo International Television Festival. Another award came the next month when Hughie Green and Michael Miles received a joint special award from the Variety Club of Great Britain at the Show Business lunch on March 8 for the continuing popularity of their programmes.

March 31 once again saw Studio 9 as the hub of the ITV network when everybody went into action to cover the General Election.

Mr Wilson was given ‘A View from the Bridge’ shortly after on April 4 with the transmission of Arthur Miller’s play. Meanwhile the ITA announced that its present three-year contracts with the programme companies would be extended until the end of July, 1968, as no decision had been taken on whether to extend the ITV service.

A flurry which was to extend for quite a few weeks hit the Wembley studios when the first of the colour ‘Hippodrome’ series went on the floor on April 19.

In the business world, company chairman John Spencer Wills became the chairman of The British Electric Traction Co. Ltd, on April 21, following the death of Harley Drayton.

On May 9 the first of the ‘Seven Deadly Sins’ series was transmitted. Pride, gluttony, sloth, avarice, lust, envy and wrath subsequently achieved the distinction of all getting into TAM’s Top Ten.

Three days later the first of the adult education series ‘Royalist and Roundhead’ was screened. While not hitting the Top Ten, it rose high in the opinion of educationalists.

May also saw the drama section of the club take over Studio 9 to stage ‘Ring Round the Moon’ and achieve high audience ratings. Meanwhile Fusion made its own dent in the award stakes by receiving a certificate of merit in the British Association of Industrial Editors’ contest, a top award of excellence in the International Council of Industrial Editors’ competition and the Block and Anderson Cup from the British Direct Mail and Advertising Association.

The International Television Federation – Intertel – reached the fifth anniversary of its foundation on June 14. Behind it were 34 programmes and a coveted 1965 Peabody Award for making ‘the first continuing contribution towards international understanding through television.’

Also in June came an award for ‘Stage One Contest – Caroline’. This children’s programme won the Munich Prix Jeunesse.

The Mountbatten series also made news in June when it was announced that this exclusive story of the life and times of Lord Mount-batten would be made in colour.

July started with the news that the first episode of the ‘Hippodrome’ series on July 5 had gone straight to the top of Neilsen coast-to-coast ratings when screened by CBS in colour.

This was the month of the World Cup which England won on July 30 and which stretched the joint resources of BBC and ITV in providing coverage for the world. Rediffusion contributed its share of equipment and executives.

The day after the final at Wembley historians gathered at Television House for a conference with ‘History on TV’ as its theme.

August 1 brought the first programme in ‘The Informer’ series which regularly knocked on the doors of the Top Ten during its run.

The month was shadowed by the death of Bernard Rickatson-Hatt on August 7. He had been on the board of the company since July, 1958. A former Guards officer, he had been editor-in-chief of Reuters, adviser to the governor of the Bank of England and to the Bank of London and South America on public relations.

In September came two club events. On the 10th there was the annual sunlit sports day for the children of club members at Shepperton and on the 17th the football team took part in the TV Cup knock-out competition. For the second year running the Rediffusion XI lost to Scottish, the eventual winners.

On September 21 it was announced that Sir Richard Thompson was joining the board. A former M.P., he has held various government appointments.

A conference for educationalists was held at Wembley on September 22 at which, for the first time, teachers were allowed to produce their own programmes in a television studio. September 26 saw the start of the new autumn schedules with 15 new programme presentations, the sequel being six out of TAM’s Top Ten for the week. As part of this schedule the first production of the new Rediffusion Films Ltd was transmitted on September 28 – ‘Dare I Weep, Dare I Mourn’ with James Mason and Jill Bennett. The Frost Programme’ series also started later that night.

Appointments in features came in October. First there was the announcement of the appointment of Barry Westwood as producer of the networked Thursday edition of ‘This Week’. Then, on October 27, it was announced that James Butler had been appointed head of features from November 1.

During October and November, three joint Rediffusion/Talent Association productions under David Susskind passed through Wembley to be recorded in black-and-white and colour for America.

On November 8, it was announced that the present series of ‘Ready, Steady, Go!’ would end on December 23.

On November 11, the announcement came that managing director Paul Adorian had been appointed managing director of Rediffusion Ltd. John Spencer Wills, chairman of both companies, relinquished his managing directorship following his appointment as chairman of The British Electric Traction Co. Ltd upon the death of Harley Drayton.

The annual general meeting of the company was held at Wembley on November 28 and at it, the winners of the 1965-66 Golden Stars were presented with their awards. Independent Television presented ‘A Royal Gala’ before the Duke of Edinburgh at the Palladium on November 29 in aid of the CTBF and the Bowles Rocks Trust.

From December 7-16, an exhibition of the work of graphic designers was held at the Upper Grosvenor Galleries.

Finally – and still to come – is ‘The Royal Palaces of Britain’, the joint Independent Television and BBC production on December 25.

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1. a bennett: a top 10 programme list, 2. a bowles: a quick round of drinks, 3. a bultitude: a multitude of wires, 4. a butler’s tray: a features schedule, 5. to cadle: to subject to severe scrutiny, 6. to coke: to go away (generally abroad), 7. a cole: fifth floor inhabitant of long standing, 8. a davey: special accounts, 9. to decoke: to come back to Television House, 10. to elkan allan: to ride a bicycle, 11. to elman: to vet, 12. to everett: disappear on an OB, 13. to gee-emm: to run to the fourth floor, 14. to groocock: to prepare minutes, 15. to hoskins: to release, 16. kemp-welch: lavish, 17. a lee: a dazzling array of lights, 18. a maynard: an unlockable lock, 19. moirish: comparative of donnish, 20. to morley: to mingle with the famous, 21. paine: climbing sales, 22. willes: full of virtue or sin, 23. a wills: a large group of companies, 24. a yates: special cigarette holder.

Should these words come into wide use you might hear conversations among staff something like this… The experienced, willesed secretary was typing out a davey sheet. ‘Can’t hurry, my boss will cadle and elman them tomorrow before he gee-emms,’ she told her cole boy-friend on the phone. ‘That’s all right. I’ve still got to groocock a meeting. What about going out for a kemp-welch meal first then we’ll decoke.’

‘Hoskins the lee switches and break the door’s maynard. We must get the butler’s tray into the bennett or there will be no paine for the wills.’ He clutched his yates between his teeth and surveyed the bultitude. ‘Come and have a bowles before I tackle that lot,’ he said to his moirish companion. ‘Sorry, old man. I must everett,’ his friend declined. ‘I’ve got to morley on my elkan allan. Tomorrow I coke.’

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‘Local calls – Dial 9 first to obtain line, then the number required, i.e. HOL 1234.’ So goes the second instruction. So we did what we were told and what did we get? Somebody who said what sounded like: ‘Sweetie, here’ but who turned out to be answering for A. F. & R. W. Tweedie, solicitors. Interesting.

From Fusion 31, published August 1963

In fact the publication is one of the most interesting pieces of literature yet to be produced by Associated-Rediffusion. Whose is the mind that decides, for some devious reason, that a certain chosen few members of the female staff should be granted the honour of having their Christian names printed? ‘Allaby, Mrs Ailsa M.’ – whereas above her on the list lies poor, plain ‘Adams, Miss M. A.’ Worse still whose ruthless hand deprives some of the ladies of any Christian name at all? Witness ‘Ager, Miss’.

And what terms of familiarity have you to reach with the compilers before a male is blessed with his Christian name? . . . ‘Allan, Elkan’; ‘Briggs, Ricky’; ‘Butler, James’; ‘Colin, Sid’; ‘Kyle, Redvers’; ‘Moir, Guthrie’; ‘Shulman, Milton’ and ‘West, Brian’ are the only ones to be given this high honour. A distinguished gathering, everyone will agree, but why them? What about the Toms, Dicks and Harrys?

Things become even more sinister in the world of the armed forces. Retired members of the Army and the Air Force get the respect to which they are entitled: ‘Harris, Col. J. C. Q.’ and ‘West, Sqd. Ldr. L. J.’ But what happens to Her Majesty’s Royal Navy? ‘Everett, Commander’ … ‘Young, Commander’. Initials sunk without trace. Perhaps this is to make up for the fact that it is ‘Everett, Commander’, not ‘Everett, Cmdr.’ while the Army and the R.A.F. are squeezed into ‘Col.’ and ‘Sqd. Ldr.’

We also note that above the rank of Commander people have the best of both worlds … ‘Brownrigg, Captain, T. M.’ and ‘Northcott, Captain R. W. F.’ But even here there is discrimination. Note the additional comma after ‘Captain’ in the first name.

Talking of the Navy a perusal of the directory reveals, for some unaccountable reason, that the staff includes a ‘Nelson’ and a ‘Neptune’ in neat juxtaposition. There is a ‘Cox’ to man the ‘Helm’ and a ‘Boatman’ for crew. There are even two ‘Crafts’, some ‘Wood’ with which to make them and a piece of ‘Sands’ from which to launch them in a ‘Gale’. Unfortunately, while there are umpteen ‘Wards’, there is not one ‘Room’.

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From Fusion 41, the house magazine of Rediffusion, published at Christmas 1965

The board made the following £1,000 Golden Star Awards for outstanding creative contributions to the TV programmes of Rediffusion, London during the previous 12 months:

Basil Rootes and Freddie Slade jointly (they received £500 each) for their work on the sound recording for the documentary ‘The Grafters’ which dealt with street traders;

Cyril Coke for his work on ‘Crime and Punishment’ and the ‘Four of Hearts’ series;

Robert Kee for his script for the ‘Children of Revolution’ Intertel documentary about young people growing up in Czechoslovakia and for his script contributions to ‘This Week’;

Philippa Gail for her part in ‘Summertime Ends Tonight’, the last play in the ‘Four of Hearts’ series.

Each were presented with their cheque and their Golden Star trophy by chairman John Spencer Wills at the company’s annual meeting.

The Guild of Television Producers and Directors made their awards on November 11. Rediffusion, London received more than all the other ITV companies combined.

Craft Awards for production went to:

Peter Morley, outside broadcasts, for his work on ITV’s coverage of the State Funeral of Sir Winston Churchill and for his documentary ‘L.S.O. – the music men’;

Charles Squires, documentary, for his work on ‘The Grafters’ and ‘Paradise Street’;

Jeremy Issacs, factual, and the production team of ‘This Week’;

Cyril Coke, drama, for his work on ‘Crime and Punishment’, ‘The Rules of the Game’ and ‘Four of Hearts – Tilt’.

In addition the actress of the year, Gwen Watford, and the actor of the year, Alan Badel, had also worked on Rediffusion, London productions. Gwen Watford was in ‘Take Care of Madam’ and ‘The Rules of the Game’ while Alan Badel had appeared in ‘A Couple of Dry Martinis’.

(Joe McGrath who worked in graphic design some years ago won a Craft Award for light entertainment for his work on ‘Not Only… But Also’ and ‘The Big Noise’.)

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Cyril Bennett, director of programmes. A 37-year-old Londoner and former producer of ‘This Week’, he was editing his school magazine at 13, and a year later, on impulse, he telephoned the Evening Standard to ask for a job. He was delighted on hearing he could start the following Monday at 27s 6d a week in the ‘Correspondents’ department. After a happy weekend envisaging himself as Foreign Correspondent and mulling over the pros and cons of being Moscow or Istanbul based, the Monday anticlimax of having a filing tray thrust in his hand, was acute. Undaunted, however, he found an outlet for his ideas during the following nine months in the ‘Correspondents’ department, by sending memos to Michael Foot (then writing for the Standard) suggesting subjects for the following day’s leader. His enthusiasm won attention, and despite his youth, gained him a reporting job with the Bedfordshire Times at 15½.

On returning to London he worked for a group of Dominion journals and at 19, as a result of a ballot run by the Empire Press Union, became the youngest lobby correspondent. Later, on the strength of a successful interview with Frank Sinatra, he started freelance work for Odhams Press, writing on entertainment for Illustrated, Picturegoer and John Bull.

In 1956, after seeing one of Rediffusion’s ‘This Week’ programmes, he applied for a job with the editor. During the interview he was asked if he had any ideas for ‘This Week’ and suggested the entertainment tax which he had been covering for Illustrated. He was invited to prepare a script, and was included in the following Thursday’s programme. He continued to contribute to ‘This Week’ on a freelance basis, until he was invited to join the Rediffusion staff, collaborating with Peter Morley to produce feature programmes – this took him to Israel, France and Japan. In June he became co-producer of ‘This Week’ and in 1963, as joint-producer, received the Guild of Television Producers’ and Directors’ Annual Merit Award for Factual Television. He was appointed head of features in the same year and in 1964 became executive producer in charge of features and children’s programmes.

He is married to a former photographic model, who now has a full-time job looking after their two daughters.

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Lord Windlesham, deputy general manager, was born in London in 1932 and educated at Ampleforth and Trinity College, Oxford. He was President of the Oxford University Law Society in 1933 and became chairman of the Bow Group in 1959-60 and again in 1962-63, having been Conservative candidate for Tottenham in the 1959 general election. From 1958-62 he was the youngest councillor on the Westminster City Council and was a member of its Housing and Public Libraries Committees.

He joined Associated-Rediffusion in 1957, and in 1959 was appointed assistant head of features at the age of 27. By 1961 he was head of features and two years later became an executive producer. He has been responsible for many features programmes including the parliamentary series ‘Questions In The House’ and ‘The Common Market and You’.

Lord Windlesham worked with Independent Television News on several occasions in 1962 and 1963 being responsible for London Government election results, the Budget Day news coverage 1962 and 1963 and the planning of Independent Television’s coverage of the general election results in October 1964.

In 1963 he produced ‘One Man’s Hunger’, film on problems of malnutrition in India. Made as a contribution to the Freedom from Hunger Campaign ‘One Man’s Hunger’ was screened at a special session of the United Nations World Food Congress in Washington DC and later shown on television in many countries throughout the world. He was also executive producer of cChildren of Revolution’.

Lord Windlesham spent the summer of 1963 in the United States studying the mass media of communication under the Foreign Leader Program of the Department of State. He visited television stations and newspapers in seven states and lectured at Stanford University. A follow-up of this was an invitation to take part in the first Stanford Television Seminar at Asilomar two years later, one of the only two sent to overseas television executives.

In November, 1963, Lord Windlesham became chief programme executive of Rediffusion Television.

In 1965 he married Prudence Glynn, fashion editor of a mass circulation women’s magazine. They live in London.

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Guy Paine, director of advertisements, was born in London in January, 1926. His preparatory school was Salisbury Cathedral School, where he was a chorister in the Cathedral. He won a scholarship to Ardingly College. Before joining the R.A.F. to train as a pilot, he worked with Standard Telephones and Cables as a trainee in the test development laboratory.

After demobilisation, he joined the advertisement department of the Spectator, becoming mainly concerned with the contact of publishers.

In 1950 he joined the sales promotion department of George Newnes Limited as space buyer, while having promotional responsibilities for a group of Newnes and Pearson publications. These responsibilities widened to include some Country Life and Collingridge magazines and Woman’s Own and Modern Woman.

In 1995 he joined Associated-Rediffusion as a sales executive, became assistant advertisement manager in 1957, and advertisement manager in 1958. In 1961 he was appointed controller of advertisements.

From 1962 to 1964 he acted as chairman to the Copy Committee of I.T.C.A., and has been chairman to the Advertisement Committee of I.T.C.A. since 1964. He represents I.T.C.A. on the council, and on the executive committee, of the Advertising Association and is a member of the Board of Advertising Education. He is a director of the British Bureau of Television Advertising Limited. Married with four sons, Guy Paine lives in Sussex and is particularly interested in fishing.

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Arthur Groocock, company secretary, is 58 years old, a native of Northampton, and was educated at Northampton Grammar School.

He became an associate member of The Chartered Institute of Secretaries in 1934 and was elected a fellow of the institute in 1935.

In 1943 he joined the staff of The B.E.T. Federation Ltd and acted as secretary of a number of associated companies. He was appointed assistant secretary of The British Electric Traction Company Ltd in 1949.

On the formation of Associated-Rediffusion Limited in 1954 he was appointed secretary and he has acted as secretary of the Television Programme Contractors’ Association from its formation until a full-time secretary was appointed in August 1955.

He was appointed secretary of Rediffusion Television Ltd on its formation in 1964 and is financial director of the recently-formed British Bureau of Television Advertising. Arthur Groocock, who is married with four children, lives in Tunbridge Wells.

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John McMillan, general manager, was born in Sydney, Australia on January 29, 1915. He was educated at Scots College, Sydney, in which city he began work after leaving school.

He has successively been engineering draughtsman, magazine publisher, author, radio announcer, salesman, radio programme producer, gramophone record manager, film producer, soldier, sound broadcasting executive, television producer, programme controller and general manager. His first broadcasting job was on Station 2GB in Sydney. He emigrated from Australia to England in 1934 and joined the International Broadcasting Company Limited as a sales executive and later managed its programme production subsidiary – Universal Programmes Corporation Limited. After leaving that company he managed a gramophone recording subsidiary of Electrical and Musical Industries Limited and produced a film for Warner Bros. He joined the horse cavalry as a trooper and was later commissioned as an infantry officer in the 2nd Battalion The South Wales Borderers. In 1944 he was transferred to the War Office as a staff officer (Broadcasting). Subsequently he planned, mobilised and commanded No. 1 Field Broadcasting Unit which operated in north-west Europe and eventually established the British Forces Network in Germany.

On being demobilised in 1946 he joined the BBC as an assistant to the controller of the light programme and then became chief assistant until he resigned in 1952. He spent some time in American television and has been with independent television in this country from the beginning. He was general manager elect of Kemsley-Winnick Television and joined Rediffusion late in 1955. He became controller of programmes early in 1956, and general manager on January 1, 1964. He is now a citizen of the United Kingdom.

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