Tele-snaps

Recreations

Redvers Kyle opens Rediffusion, London for the day on Christmas Day.

The usual rules about the “grammar” of broadcasting were suspended for Christmas Day and Boxing Day (as well as Good Friday). The daily opening routine, which used the same tune every day over the same sequence of static cards and/or film, was replaced with different music and festive visuals over Christmas week with special effort and a carol being used on Christmas Day itself. The Authority Announcement was the only part of the sequence to survive unaltered – although on ITV stations which did the announcement live, it would often include a nod towards the holiday in question.

1964 start-up audio with thanks to David Heathcote.
Recreations by Dave Jeffery.

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Leslie Mitchell makes the first continuity announcement on Associated-Rediffusion:

A year or so later, Redvers Kyle makes the same announcement:

Jon Kelley does a quick station identification for Rediffusion London in the late 1960s:

Redvers Kyle and Jon Kelley close Rediffusion for the final time on 29 July (early 30 July) 1968:

Rediffusion’s William Squire (using the name Frobisher Collingwood) introduces ABC’s Professional Wresting, taped the previous Saturday and shown on Rediffusion on a Wednesday in 1965:

Rediffusion starts the day in June 1967 in this recreation of the visuals over a real recording of the audio. Redvers Kyle reminds us that Independent Television will be covering the tournament at Wimbledon:

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The first Associated Rediffusion authority announcement, and thus ITV’s very first announcement of any kind.

Noticeable is how the pattern for announcements had not yet been set. A slogan – This is London – gets a look in, but the ITA do not.

The channel gets a mention, but so does the VHF band. Also missing is the word ‘weekdays’ – a word that was not available in English at the time, so the rather longer circumlocution “every week from Monday to Friday” has to be used.

Complete audio for the station’s evening start-up, from which the above excerpt is taken. It begins with variations on the traditional tune British Grenadiers and includes a fanfare by Charles Williams, closing with an excerpt from Elgar’s Cockaigne overture.

Using the same script as the above, the voiceover here is spoken by a female announcer, probably Muriel Young (or possibly Shirley Butler). The opening music is from the Prelude to Richard Addinsell’s orchestral suite based on his music for the 1945 David Lean film Blithe Spirit. This startup was probably used to open afternoon transmissions, but only for a brief period immediately after broadcasts began in September 1955.

A year later, and the announcement has been significantly simplified: the Independent Television Authority receives what is by now its required mention. This announcement preceded Eric Coates’ Music Everywhere, used September 1956 to late 1957.

Another year further on, and the pattern of authority announcements is now set. A-R complies with Redvers Kyle – one of the quintessential voices of ITV – reading an announcement that provides everything the ITA could want. Gone now is the ident in the middle of the announcement, and also – in fallout from the Suez crisis – the some might say militaristic tune that accompanied the first announcement. Instead, this announcement was accompanied by S. Bates’ Associated-Rediffusion March, used from 1958-64.

Several years later, Redvers Kyle (for once again, it is he) adopts the ‘voice of god’ tones of Mitchell for the final version of the announcement.

The whole look of the station has been lightened, the name simplified and the heavy music of the past changed for The Widespread World of Rediffusion, a Dankworth piece which has never dated (except, perhaps, for the ‘summer holidays’ middle) and gives a thrill of anticipation as it builds to a climax.

The Swinging Ident

1964, and a relaunch of station identity – in order to compete effectively with the new BBC-2 – brought A-R firmly into the 1960s and saw the London weekday ITV service itself renamed ‘Rediffusion, London’.

The adastral rotated anticlockwise constantly, unlike the ‘clockwise then stop’ of the A-R idents.

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In April 1961, Associated-Rediffusion, the first commercial television company ever to broadcast in the UK, and on-air since September 1955, maintained a Presentation section comprising the Head, Neil Bramson (ex French horn player in the London Symphony Orchestra if my memory serves me well, and apparently the originator of A-R’s ‘morse code’ ident); three transmission controllers (idiosyncratically called ‘Programme Officers’ or ‘POs’ by A-R), Alec Gunn, Harry Sloan and Wendy Powell; one Assistant Programme Officer, Allen Taylor; and one trainee (myself). There was also Peter Martin, whose function was to ensure that the commercial reel make-up (nearly all film in those days) conformed to the relevant laws, to oversee the slotting-in of community service announcements where necessary, and to provide film cue sheets to help the POs take commercial breaks smoothly. Supporting all these, there was a secretarial staff of six ladies (including, at one time, my wife) to prepare the schedules and to log each transmission shift in its entirety, to the exact second.

To write the link scripts, there was a separate promotions department, which in those days gave work to, among others, Hugh Whitemore, later to become a distinguished playwright. It was then A-R’s policy to use continuity announcers in vision for some early shifts (mostly linking children’s programmes). The three main ‘voices’ of that time were Redvers Kyle, Dick Norton and Tom Glazer, supported from time to time (for example holiday relief) by Dick Graham, Nick Worrall and Mel Oxley, to name a few, who otherwise mostly had full-time careers elsewhere. Later, Anne Aldred was another personality who provided a welcome feminine presence. Yet others included the late Laurie West (Squadron-Leader L.J. West), who prepared the weather forecast; Muriel Young, who had a desk in our office, despite her major role as anchor-woman for a number of children’s programmes; various puppeteers such as Wally Whyton and Ivan Owen (through whom I first met Ollie Beak and Basil Brush); and certain seasonal fixtures who would come into our tiny studio to deliver the latest on the cricket scores, for example.

Head of Presentation reported to Assistant Controller of Programmes (Planning), Cyril Francis in my day, who, with the other ACPs, reported to John McMillan and, ultimately, the Board.

Operationally, the Presentation Control Room was staffed by a Programme Officer, a secretarial assistant (to log the output), a vision mixer and a sound balancer, with a duty announcer to make all scheduled announcements and, importantly, any unscheduled ones that might be necessary. This crew worked closely with engineers in the Master Control Room, Central Control Room and/or Central Apparatus Rooms, with their attendant line/link operators, who were the final liaison with the engineers at the transmitter.

One aspect of the operation that kept us busy was that, as well as having the responsibility of providing a full television service for the London area from Monday to Friday, A-R was also ‘Nominated Contractor’ for that same period. This meant that, should anything arise to necessitate changes to the published programme timings, the whole commercial television network had to be informed so as to reorganize their schedules to conform to network requirements, or make their own individual arrangements. A conference call would be made on the ‘red phone’; the roll of the entire network was called; and negotiations would begin. For much of the 60s that would have involved A-R, ATV, Granada, Anglia, Southern, Television Wales and West (TWW), Wales West and North (WWN), Border, Tyne-Tees, Scottish Television, Grampian, Westward and Channel. ATV, who took over responsibility for the London area at weekends, became Nominated Contractor for Saturday and Sunday.

Mistakes were rare. Broadcasting regulations at that time were stringent, and we were acutely conscious of our station output being closely monitored for abuses. But I can confidently report that the ethos of the company kept us on our toes; the procedures handed down to us from our ex-Royal Navy masters (in Office Organizational Memoranda, or OOMs), although sometimes rather quaint, were always explicit, rather like Queen’s Regulations and Admiralty Instructions in the Navy itself.

Inevitably, though, freak events would sometimes occur. Once, during a race meeting outside broadcast somewhere up-country, the microwave link was momentarily broken. It was only for a second or two, but the receiving equipment did what it had been designed to do, making a quick search to find the signal again – and found the BBC instead! A most unsettling experience. I seem to remember hearing that favourite expression from the engineers: “OK leaving me, mate!”

There were also times when it paid to have some local knowledge. John McMillan, who had a razor-sharp mind and always seemed to know exactly what was happening, also had the unfortunate drawback of sounding intoxicated and slurring his words when on the telephone. Whereas certain other senior executives had been known to take a sudden dislike to some programme you were busy transmitting and, in their cups, would demand it be taken off, with John Mac you had to listen carefully – and do what you were told.

For years, ITV was not permitted to transmit the Queen’s Christmas message: that always came from the BBC. The first year the ‘ban’ was lifted, I was on duty on Christmas Day and I decided I would rehearse the BBC’s tape for duration and any technical problems. Just as well I did: the Beeb, whether accidentally or by design, had left an unusable Take 1 on the front of the tape – where Her Majesty dried! Had I transmitted that, there would have been hell to pay.

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What about the unknown laws? Science itself is still seeking the true answers to many questions.

People who know more about the spiritual world than I say I am psychic. I prefer to keep an open mind. But a few strange things have happened to me.

Last Boxing night I arrived home about midnight. Going to my bedroom I became aware of a perfume in the passage… a strong, sweet smell, unlike anything I have known.

An ordinary scent would have got weaker. But this remained very strong — and moved about. It moved round the passage and went into my bedroom. I followed. I had the feeling it was looking round my room… searching… seeking.

I went round the flat trying to find an answer for the scent. Perhaps it was a vase of flowers, a cake of soap, a bottle of after-shave lotion… But nothing smelled like this.

It remained in my room for several minutes.

Then, as quickly as it had come the scent disappeared. And I was left with the feeling that ‘somebody’ had come to see me. Someone gentle, harmless and extremely kind.

That was not the first time I had experienced the world one step beyond the ordinary. One night last year I awoke to see a faint red light hovering above my bed.

It was like a long tube, similar to a one-bar electric fire.

The light quivered back and forth, and I heard a strange humming sound.

At first I was afraid… but a remarkable feeling of peace came over me. Within seconds I was asleep again.

A few years ago the landlord of a pub I used to visit showed me round his flat behind the pub. I was shown into a large bedroom.

Suddenly a cold feeling enveloped me. Not like the coldness of winter or lack of heating. A vibrating, enshrouding coldness seemed to play round my body. I told the landlord and not until then did he say that the room was supposed to be haunted.

Was this chance or make-believe? I’m not keen on trying to imagine experiences like this. They are far too disturbing.

In the summer of 1928 a friend of mine dreamed that her dead mother asked her: “Did you know Ellen Terry was dead?” The following morning she spoke of the dream to her husband. They laughed about it.

Then she opened the morning paper which announced the death of Ellen Terry. She died the day before and my friend knew nothing about it before going to bed.

Most of us have had strange experiences of one kind or another. Are they imagination? I don’t think so.

What do you think? I should be interested to know.

And here is the story of today’s One Step Beyond:

Haunted by a recurring dream, a man becomes obsessed by the face that keeps appearing in his dream. The face is that of a seaman who approaches the dreamer with a knife.

There is the sound of creaking timber, like a ship at sea.

The haunted dreamer gives up his work and spends his time hanging around the Liverpool docks in the hope of recognising the face. One day he gets drunk and wakes up on a Spanish ship. And one of the seamen has that face…

This true story happened in Liverpool in the 1880’s.

Derry Quinn, who scripted the programme, said: “I believe the original incident was studied by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who was interested in psychical research. It is one of the strangest, most haunting psychic stories that has ever appeared.

“The story develops along classical lines. It is a tragedy of human destiny. A man tries to avoid his fate and by trying to avoid it he brings it about!”

Quinn added: “Of the 35 TV film scripts I have written this one is undoubtedly my favourite. I’ve got it out and re-read it several times. If I’m not careful I shall find myself haunted by a script!”

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