Producer/director Peter Morley, scriptwriter John Terraine and a unit have visited Ceylon, Singapore, Malaya, Thailand, Burma and India with Lord Mountbatten to film him at the many locations which played a vital part during his time as Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia, the last Viceroy of India and the first Governor General of the new independent India. Photographs by MALCOLM AIRD.

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The programme does — as it sets out to do — cover every aspect of life among the limelights and the shaded lights. Plays, opera, ballet, actors, playwrights, critics and the audience and the scene-shifters will have their part.

Even “spot news” affecting the theatre as such comes within the magic web that is being woven each week by Norman Marshall, Head of Drama for Associated-Rediffusion, Director Peter Morley and the programme deviser, Henry Kendall.

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Just how lively and widespread is the scope of On Stage I have been learning on a backstage tour of observation with this team. And to pinpoint their determination on topicality whenever the opportunity presents itself, take the spirited discussion over the threat to the St. James’s Theatre in London.

I “sat in” with Peter Moriey and the camera and lighting crew for a whole morning session at the home of Sir Lewis Casson and Dame Sybil Thorndike.

We spent a day in the St. James’s Theatre rehearsing and shooting a specially edited version of the thriller It’s the Geography that Counts starring John Gregson — possibly the last play the theatre will put on.

This sense of immediacy in the approach of On Stage was clearly brought out at the first conference on the programme.

Peter Morley suggested doing something on Oh! My Papa!, which arrived in London only this month.

It was agreed that the show should be got into the studio as quickly as possible so that Ludovic Kennedy could interview the cast and a slice of the show could be introduced into the programme. As a result of fast work on these decisions, viewers will have a front seat for Oh! My Papa! in the July 31 On Stage.

That first conference continued roughly on these lines :

Norman Marshall: Now what about Stratford? I’d like to do the full half-hour on that — give it the full treatment… investigate the commercialism of Shakespeare’s name… talk to the Americans about it… do a real documentary.

Peter Morley: Fine. There’s Covent Garden opera, too. Money troubles there all the time…

While this went on the phone was ringing frequently. Peter Brook, producer of Titus Andronicus, was on one line… someone from the London County Council on another about defending themselves over the sale of St. James’s Theatre…

Norman Marshall’s secretary made arrangements for him to spend a weekend of investigation at Stratford… there was talk of getting Sir John Gielgud to audition some young, aspiring actors before the mike and cameras… suggestions for getting the author of a play attacking Christianity to argue with a senior Churchman.

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Out of all the talk, suggestions and counter-ideas evolved schemes for a whole series of programmes. These included puppet theatres, temperament in actors, training animals for the stage, what goes on in famous drama schools, club theatres — and a host of other plans.

In a series as flexible as On Stage has to be — ringing the changes from live broadcasts, filmed interviews and studio presentations — every man in the unit is continually looking ahead. And none more so than cameraman Harry Hart and sound-mixer Stan Clark. I went out with them in a unit car crammed with equipment. As we drove to our location they were considering the lighting probabilities, the outside noises that so easily wreck the best-laid plans of any production team. AH such possibilities have to be anticipated, emergencies tackled.

One member of the outfit particularly will have to be on his toes — Ludovic Kennedy, the newscaster of Independent Television News who is both compere and interviewer of On Stage and who links the various items in each programme.

With a programme of this kind, topicality is an insistent demand, and preparation is but a short step to action. Cameras, sound equipment, lights, miles of cable have to be transported and installed in theatres, people’s homes — upstairs and downstairs — wherever film has to be taken.

And, remember, a whole day’s exacting work of this nature can result in only about eight minutes’ viewing.

It was like this at the St. James’s Theatre — and at the ticket agency in the second programme. It will be like it at every rush job that is tackled: ceaselessly demanding activity on top of imaginative ideas provocatively presented.

Besides these purely production problems, of course. On Stage must be constantly alive to material for programmes, finding people who are prepared to speak authoritatively and at short notice on matters of the moment.

With these and other aspects of his task in mind, I asked Norman Marshall how long the series would run. Said he:”Providing we’re on the ball every inch of the way, there is no reason why On Stage should not become as permanent as This Week — as urgent, as topical, as entertaining.”

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Next week, with the Thursday programme at its peak, they are to hand over to a new producer, Jeremy Isaacs, so that Bennett, a former national newspaper journalist, can devote all his time to his appointment as head of an ITV company’s feature department, and Morley can concentrate on the production of special documentaries.

Tall, dark-haired Morley, who began his working life in the projection box of a West End cinema, lit a cigar as we talked in his office six floors above London’s busy Kingsway. There was a two-hour delay on the phone to Moscow, no impending Cabinet crisis, and the cigar smelled good.

“These have been two exciting years for us,” he said. “During our ‘reign,’ This Week has visited every continent and has had as guests, world leaders in politics, industry, commerce and royalty.

“We’ve spotlighted race riots in America’s Deep South, troop trouble in Minden, rocket bases in Cuba and conditions under Communism in Poland.

“We’ve had interviews with Mr. Nehru, the Shah of Iran, the Prime Minister, and every member of the Cabinet. And we’ve put out a 45-minute programme with Prince Philip on his tour of America. Without doubt, this was the highlight in our two years with This Week.”

Another programme which brought praise for the Bennett-Morley partnership from both critics and viewers, was one taking the lid off the unemployment position in Hartlepool and the North East.

“This was the first time the public had really been made aware of the poverty and hard times in that area. The programme had a tremendous impact,” said Morley.

“But” he added, “when one has to produce a topical current afFairs programme once a week, one steps unavoidably on a number of toes.

“We had an altercation with the War Office following our coverage of the British troop skirmishes in the German town of Minden. And we were not too popular with the Polish Embassy after our pro gramme on conditions in their country under the Hammer and Sickle.”

Another programme which raised the prestige of This Week was one pin-pointing violence on TV. Naked City, one of ITV’s own programmes came in for criticism. And no punches were pulled.

In recent weeks, This Week scooped Fleet Street with a revealing pre-arrest interview with Dr. Stephen Ward, the society osteopath and friend of Christine Keeler. The following morning, the world’s top newspapers carried the interview on their front pages. A fitting retirement compliment to Bennett and Morley.

Past successes notched by the partnership include Tyranny (the years of Adolf Hitler), Heartbeat of France, Two Faces of Japan — which has been shown by every television network outside the Iron Curtain — and their famous documentary about British trade unionism called United We Stand.

Peter Morley also directed the only full length opera ever to be shown on independent television, Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw.

But both of them are justly proud of the part they have played in raising the prestige of independent television in the field of current affairs. They leave This Week in a position of strength and influence.

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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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