One of the chanciest moments of all for This Is Your Life came in September 1985. The target: William Roache, who plays Ken Barlow in Coronation Street; the location: the Rovers Return public house.

Eamonn Andrews was all set to surprise William but, with just minutes to go, we realised we had lost the Red Book.

I thought Eamonn had it; he thought I had it.

William was on his way when I spotted a large, red accounts book. I grabbed it and handed it to Eamonn just as William arrived. Twelve million people watched those opening moments the one and only time when an accounts ledger has doubled as the Red Book and nobody noticed… not even William Roache.

We found the book in time for the rest of the programme. Someone had picked it up out of curiosity and put it down behind the Rovers bar!

Jimmy Cricket was the subject of what turned out to be one of the last programmes Eamonn presided over before he died in November 1987.

We had smuggled in Jimmy’s sister Evelyn from Australia. The day before the show she asked if we would have any objection to her doing some Christmas shopping in Oxford Street, in London.

The West End was jam-packed and it seemed a 10,000-to-one chance that Evelyn, the last surprise on the show, would run into her brother.

Off she went into the milling throng of Oxford Street – and bumped straight into Jimmy.

Her nerve held. She told him she had come over for a family gathering that was supposed to be a surprise. The real surprise came later, of course.

Maurice Leonard, now the producer of What’s My Line?, used to be a researcher on This Is Your Life and had acquired a bit of a reputation for being accident-prone.

Knowing that actor Anthony Quinn was an essential ingredient of a 1978 programme about Muhammad Ali’s life, Maurice flew to Los Angeles and based himself in Quinn’s Beverly Hills hotel.

Quinn’s filming schedule kept him working until all hours and Maurice, waiting with a film crew, became increasingly anxious as the deadline loomed.

At last Quinn appeared down the main hotel stairway. Maurice jumped and rushed straight into a large plate-glass mirror. Minutes later he woke up to be told by Quinn that they had just finished filming the message to Ali and he had less than 40 minutes to get to the airport so that he could catch his flight home.

Months later Maurice was sent off to collect sexy actress Ursula Andress from London’s Heathrow airport. She had flown in from Los Angeles to appear on the programme we were doing on Charles Aznavour.

Ursula arrived with a very large suitcase and Maurice, being a gentleman, lifted it into the boot of her car. He pulled a muscle and was bent double. When the car arrived at the studios in Teddington we were all treated to a wonderful sight.

Maurice, in the back of the car, was lying face down across Ursula’s lap while she massaged his bare back, a labour of love she had performed all the way from Heathrow. Just one of the perks of the job!

One of the great delights of This Is Your Life is the chance to honour the life of someone completely unknown to the public.

Kitty Wilson has fostered 50 children and in March 1983 seemed to us just such a person who should be recognised.

We persuaded friends to invite her to leave her home in the Midlands for a day’s shopping in London. When she arrived at Liverpool Street station, Eamonn and the film crew were well hidden behind some large packing boxes.

The train pulled in, three hidden cameras rolled, Eamonn pulled a large hat over his eyes and turned up his coat collar. He went up to the lady, put his hand on her shoulder and smiled.

‘Hello, Kitty,’ he said. The woman looked completely blank. Eamonn looked over at me and I shook my head. It was the wrong woman. The resemblance was astonishing, but I spotted ‘our’ Kitty a little further back…

By the time Eamonn had turned and said ‘This is your life’ to the real Kitty Wilson, the other woman had gone, melting into the crowd.

I still wonder who she was and what story she would have had to tell. Perhaps she’s even reading this article.

The Kitty story was another of those incidents that continue to make This Is Your Life one of television’s most excitingly dangerous, unpredictable programmes.

I remember when my son Gregory was born, on 19 December 1972. The obstetrician who delivered him turned to me in one of those quieter moments and said: ‘So you do This Is Your Life. When are you going to run out of people?’

‘As long as you keep delivering them,’ I replied, ‘we won’t.’

Malcolm Morris was talking to STEWART KNOWLES

The post The day we lost the Big Red Book appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

Calamities and confusions are a natural, almost inevitable, part of the general untidiness of This Is Your Life. Far from being neat and orderly, it is a dangerous programme, totally unpredictable. Anything can go wrong and most things have.

Each week, at the start of the programme, I have to ask presenter Michael Aspel to bring us to within seconds of the allotted 25-and-a-half minutes, but he cannot know precisely what people are going to say or how long they are going to take to say it. It is nerve-racking and, sometimes, it shows. In a recent programme, Mich-ael had to introduce one of the guests, Paddy Ashdown, the Social and Liberal Democrats’ leader. In one of those classic moments of mental confusion, he referred to him first as Peggy Ashdown… and then as Paddy Ashcroft.

Mostly, these days, the programmes are recorded but, as far as I am concerned, they might as well be live because, if anything goes wrong, we cannot, as with most taped shows, stop and start again. Once we have started, we don’t stop for anything.

In one programme we will be showing soon, we were almost stopped before we started.

We knew that our chosen subject would be travelling by train from Yorkshire to London.

The idea was for the film crew to get on the same train and hide themselves away in the guard’s van. Then Michael, heavily disguised as a ticket inspector with moustache and glasses, was supposed to get on the train when it stopped at Stevenage.

It started to go wrong when half the film crew got on the wrong train, although, luckily, that was sorted out when they were able to join the rest of the crew at Stevenage.

We already knew where our subject would be sitting but, as Michael approached the carriage, the lights went out and we were in total darkness. One of our engineers helped to restore the lights and we really felt we were ready to go. But no…

As Michael was about to enter the compartment, the cameraman hissed: ‘Stop – the tape has jammed.’

By the time everything was working and the lights were on again, the train was pulling into King’s Cross station. The woman – and that’s all I will tell you about her — was just pulling her suitcase down from the rack when Michael presented her with the red book. That was a very hairy one.

Another that had all the makings of being tricky was Phil Collins, the rock star/actor.

We had decided to do Collins before the present series began but were warned by several people that, at the sight of Michael and the red book, he would run a mile.
Another difficulty was that Collins knew Michael well and had recently been on his chat show.

The plan was to lure Collins to Covent Garden by telling him that an American station – one we invented specially – wanted to do an interview to plug the film Buster.

We decided we would have Michael as a busker and persuaded him not to shave for a few days.

We surrounded him with other ‘buskers’. Phil Collins quickly recognised Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, but Michael was able to get close enough to present the red book and say: ‘Phil Collins, this is your life.’

Collins, as it turned out, was delighted and agreed to do the show. Had he refused or ‘done a runner’, he would only have been the third in the programme’s long history.

Soccer star Danny Blanchflower, in fact, continues to hold the record as the only British This Is Your Life subject who refused to be on the programme when he had been nabbed by Eamonn Andrews.

That was in 1956, a year after the BBC had inherited the series from America, where it originated. The BBC brought the series to an end in 1961 – something I am sure they have lived to regret – after successfully netting about 200 subjects. ITV restored it in 1968, since when we have screened a further 500 programmes.

Author Richard Gordon became the second subject to walk off. His response to being confronted by Eamonn was one five-letter expletive.

It was live then and I was directing. We faded out the picture and screened an alternative, recorded programme on the actor Sam Kydd. While that was going out, Eamonn was able to persuade Gordon to continue with the programme we had prepared and it was transmitted later.

Weeks of work go into tracking down all the people we want to have on a particular programme. Secrecy is of paramount importance.

We even have codewords for our subjects and I’ll let you into the secret of some of those next week.

But every so often, for one reason or another, the programme has to be scrapped because the subject has found out beforehand and the element of surprise is ruined.

The first programme in Britain went out on 22 July 1955, and we learned all those years ago that This Is Your Life rarely runs smoothly it had to be replanned at the last minute.

Ralph Edwards, the American deviser of the programme had flown in from Los Angeles to supervise and the presenter was to be the 32-year-old Eamonn Andrews.

Eamonn, who sadly died in November 1987, was then presenting What’s My Line? and had seen the programme in America. He persuaded the BBC to do a British version.

The first guest was to have been the soccer idol Stanley Matthews. A week before the programme went out, Matthews read in his morning paper – the Daily Sketch – that he was to be honoured by the new This Is Your Life programme and the whole thing was dead from that moment.

Panic. An alternative programme had to be devised. Ralph Edwards told Eamonn the ‘new’ subject would be boxing champion Freddie Mills.

Eamonn brought Freddie to Shepherd’s Bush and sat in the audience with him. Ralph had given Eamonn the red book, which had a cover on it, hiding the name of the subject.

When Eamonn pulled the cover away he read the words outloud: “This Is Your Life… Eamonn Andrews’ and received the book from Edwards, compère of the original US series.

Ronnie Barker and Derek Nimmo were two stars who found out by accident that they were to be the subjects of ‘This Is Your Life’. And so the programmes were scrapped. The same happened to Cyd Charisse, who picked up a telephone extension and heard arrangements being made with her husband.

Incredibly, in all the programmes we have done, only about 20 of our subjects have been lost.

In 1985, when the legendary American dancing star Cyd Charisse was in London, she was staying at a hotel with her husband Tony Martin.

Final details of the programme were being discussed with Martin when Cyd picked up the extension and learned that she was to be the next subject. Another Life had been killed.

In 1979, a researcher telephoned London’s Savoy Hotel, where husky-voiced Elaine Stritch was living with her husband. Perhaps a little overeager, the researcher announced himself immediately. ‘Hello, Mr Stritch, I’m from This Is Your Life and we are thinking of doing a programmes on your wife. What do you think?’

The silence lasted six seconds. A lifetime. ‘I think that’s great, honey,’ came the famous voice. ‘But this is Elaine Stritch speaking. My husband is out at the moment.’

These days, if anybody answers the telephone in the office, they do not announce the fact that it is where This Is Your Life comes from. And that lesson was learned from an incident in 1979.

Ronnie Barker’s wife, Joy, had been putting the telephone down quickly whenever Ronnie happened to appear in the room, telling him it was a series of wrong numbers.

Soon, Ronnie became more and more puzzled. Was it, perhaps, a lover? One day, Ronnie saw Joy hide a card in her underwear drawer. He had to look. On the card was a telephone number and a man’s name. Ronnie called the number.

A man answered. ‘Hello, This Is Your Life office here. Can I help you?’ For us, it was worse than a lover. It was another cancelled programme.

Every so often, the news of our plans gets out and none of us knows how it happens. We planned to ‘do’ Jimmy Young in 1983 and were waiting for a particular head of state to become available to appear in the programme.

We went ahead with the rest of the programme and it was over my morning coffee, days before we were to go on air, that I read in the gossip columns: ‘This Is Your Life sets up to do Jimmy Young.’ I’m quite sure the top politician had been able to keep a secret, but somebody else hadn’t.

Derek Nimmo was another ‘nearly ran’. We did all the research, made all the telephone calls, had a very interesting programme prepared and were just a few days away from telling his story when somebody slipped a note under the door of his theatre dressing-room in London, where he was appearing.

The note read: ‘BEWARE WEDNESDAY… THIS IS YOUR LIFE.’ And it was goodbye to our programme.

Malcolm Morris was talking to STEWART KNOWLES

The post Secrets of ‘Life’ – The ones who got away appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

LISTENERS who tune in to Kenny Everett on London’s Capital Radio are finding it increasingly difficult to listen to his jokes without imagining the facial expressions that go with them. Television exposure can have a strange effect on a radio disc jockey and even on the airwaves frequented by Everett’s opposition, many BBC Radio 1 stars are going through the same audio-visual motions.

After all, who can listen to Jimmy Savile without seeing him wave one of his huge cigars at the microphone? Is it possible to lend an ear to Noel Edmonds without conjuring up a mental picture of bearded elegance?

To be a top disc jockey in the electronic Eighties, you are going to have to be a video jockey as well. Radio stars, it seems, have to be seen as well as heard these days and good jockeys have to be able to change horses in mid-scream.

Kenny Everett is leading the field at the moment and it is becoming difficult to buy a packet of crisps without his face on the packet. Some newspaper critics have even been calling him “the most creative disc jockey in the country”. And yet is he a disc jockey at all? Like Edmonds, Savile, Terry Wogan and Michael Aspel, Everett can spin a disc as well as smile into a camera but he refuses to slot into any kind of pigeon hole. The award winning Kenny Everett Video Show (Monday) is very difficult to describe to someone who hasn’t seen it. It is brilliantly innovative and childishly simple at the same time. The show’s producer/director David Mallet lapsed into silence when asked to describe Everett. “Kenny,” he said after a moment, “is God’s gift to video. What you have to remember.” he advised cheerfully. “is that what he does on television has nothing to do with him being a disc jockey. Come to think of it, what he does on radio has nothing to do with him being a disc jockey either. On the Video Show he is a sort of rock ‘n’ roll Monty Python.”

So he is, but unlike the Python team, Everett merely projects different facets of his own personality. Any of his creations are instantly recognised by people who know him and although his influences are easy to spot he remains a true original. He is a space age Spike Milligan who loves the Beatles’ music and has followed in the footsteps of radio pioneer Jack Jackson. Like Jackson, Everett paints sound pictures on radio, and moving to television was a logical step.

But not every D.J. will adapt so readily. There is a subtle distinction between a D.J. and a broadcaster in the radio world and even the most experienced radio stars can come to grief when they try TV.

NOT SO LONG ago the big four in the D.J. arena were Jimmy Savile, Pete Murray, Alan Freeman and David Jacobs. Although Jacobs did well for a time on Juke Box Jury only Jimmy Savile is still a television star today.

Once upon a time the radio D.J. could be a smooth talking voice in between pop records. But nowadays, a star on a low-budget independent local radio station has to be able to interview famous people, host phone-ins and be seen at local functions. Not every D.J. can become a Jimmy Young and interview world leaders on their “prog.” but the trend is definitely towards broadcasters and away from frenetic D.J.s who send out a stream of cliches.

When Buggles topped the charts recently with their catchy but prophetic Video Killed the Radio Star many people in the radio industry had a good listen to the lyrics. Buggles equated video’s impact on radio with the talkies’ impact on silent movies. As Buggles put it so eloquently: “Pictures came and broke your heart, put the blame on V.C.R.” (video cassette recorder).

But while video will definitely not kill the radio star, it will have an enormous impact on the radio business. The opportunities to cross over from audio to visual broadcasting will increase dramatically in the Eighties and, with the advent of the video disc (essentially, a long-playing record that produces not only sound but pictures as well-via your TV screen) the relevance of playing records on the radio will decrease somewhat.

Last month several events occurred which proved that the writing was on the wall. Pye Records launched the first video sales force, a company called Film-a-Disc started trading and two giant American record companies combined to produce video disc equipment. Pye’s video sales force will be selling cassettes of movies like The Stud and concerts by Elvis and the Beatles. You can now walk into a record shop and buy an hour-long Boney M concert for £37.75 [about £150 in today’s prices, allowing for inflation – Ed]. Before you leave the record shop you can, thanks to Film-a-Disc, watch videos instead of just listening to records. Gone will be the days when you nervously ask the shop assistant to play you a track before you buy the album. Already you enlist the help of sophisticated equipment and watch the artists performing, and equipment for reproducing sound and pictures on video disc is getting cheaper and simpler all the time.

Within 12 months, video disc equipment should be available in this country and some record companies are currently releasing albums on video cassettes while they are waiting for the market to catch up with technology. If you have a video cassette system you can buy Chrysalis Records video cassette of Blondies’ Eat to the Beat album and watch the delectable Debbie Harry singing the 12 tracks on your television. It is in the shops now and it costs £29.95 [£120], but at that price is anybody buying it? Chrysalis’ marketing manager Phil Cokell says that it is doing very well and that his company are planning several more video albums this year.

“With a highly visual act like Blondie, we’re convinced that there is a market for video,” he says, and his company’s huge investment shows they are confident they know which way the winds of change are blowing. The Blondie tape cost 150,000 dollars to film but as Chrysalis are leading the video field, they hope to attract new acts with visual appeal. Eat to the Beat was filmed by Jon Roseman Productions, a leading video company. Appropriately enough the success of the Buggles record was greatly helped by the Roseman-made video promotions film which was shown on television pop shows.

VIDEO promotional films are becoming more and more important in the pop business and although they can cost anything between £6,000 and £20,000 [£24,000 and £80,000] each, the impact on sales is astonishing. I Don’t Like Mondays, Video Killed the Radio Star and Pink Floyd’s Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 were all number ones which would not have been half as successful without their promotional films. It is also worth remembering that the biggest selling U.K. single of all time (more than two million sold in Great Britain alone) benefited enormously from its video. That was Wings’ Mull of Kintyre; the video version of which featured those shots of Paul McCartney and his bag-pipers striding through the heather.

By the end of this decade, many predict, most homes will rent or own video disc and video cassette equipment. You will be able to play computer games, teach yourself to do almost anything, run movies and watch your favourite recording star perform on the screen.

But what about our radio stars? Already D.J.s are appearing on the videos shown in record shops courtesy of Film-a-Disc Ltd. and with Wrigley’s Chewing Gum sponsoring a record last month almost anything could happen in the future.

In the good old days, disc jockeys merely had to be able to talk well and work the equipment, or “drive the desk” as they say in radio circles. Only people with speech impediments were ruled out and many a deep sexy voice was owned by a 5ft. tall, ugly individual with dandruff. Nowadays you have to look the part as well as sound the part because, apart from video and television opportunities, D.J.s are promoted like brands of washing powder.

But if you are not as good-looking as Noel Edmonds, don’t despair. Looking the part doesn’t mean you have to be extremely handsome. Film stars like Lee Marvin and Gene Hackman are not good-looking in the conventional sense and if you want to make it as a disc jockey in the 1980s you will simply have to project a personality that people can identify with in some way or other.

By the middle of the decade, there could be a lot less music on the radio, a booming video disc industry and records that have their own commercial breaks. You just might be able to buy a video album by a top act with links by a famous D.J. and advertisements in between some of the tracks. Every album could become a mini television show.

Pop concerts have become visual events in recent years with top groups using lasers and expensive, special effects. The future will see even more visually-orientated musical acts, an ever increasing use of video in education as well as entertainment and a full-scale revolution in the film and television industries. As far as pop music is concerned, the brave new world pioneered by theatrical artists like David Bowie, Genesis and Kate Bush will soon be here but, ironically, most of the action will probably take place on television screens via videos and not in theatres through live concerts.

But back to radio. Video will not kill the radio star but every D.J. will have to become more versatile and, indeed, more visible. The fast-talking idiot who says nothing for so long in between records will soon be as extinct as the wind-up gramophone. Several radio D.J.s already work as continuity men on their local ITV stations. Before too long the faces behind the voices on the radio could also be seen on video in local shops, hospitals and homes.
hearing their employees referred to as D.J.s Many radio bosses do not take kindly to these days. The personable young man with a good education and a background in hospital radio is becoming a presenter, not a D.J. One day he might be interviewing Margaret Thatcher, the next hosting a phone-in on unemployment and the next introducing the latest Abba album.

But, as the decade progresses, what will happen to Kenny Everett, the man who is God’s gift to video? Well, he will probably be entertaining billions through his own system of inter-stellar, communication satellites. He is already enlisting the help of the intrepid Captain Kremmen and our two cuddly heroes plan to conquer the galaxy by next Tuesday. Video might well kill the old-style radio star but it looks like making an intergalactic celebrity of Kenny Everett.

The post Why video disc jockeys need to change horses appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

Villains cross the street or swing a pick-axe handle when they run into Regan and Carter of The Sweeney, which returns for a new series this week. But off-screen, John Thaw and Dennis Waterman, who play the tough Flying Squad colleagues, are greeted by their fans like old friends

THE BACK STREETS of Baron’s Court in London could hardly be described as a tourist attraction. Even on a sullen Monday morn- ing, you’d have to be charitable to pick out the area’s redeeming features. Milk bottles line the steps of faded terraces, and “Abandon hope all ye who enter here” is daubed aggressively on a peeling front door. The streets around here wake up slowly and painfully. Only the activity outside number 11 has brought a dishevelled couple to an upstairs window to see what’s going on.

A large television company truck squats in the street, and several early- morning strollers are dragging dogs slowly past the house.

“What you doin’, mate?” one of them asks a cameraman.

“Rentokil,” he says, straightfaced. “We’re doing a film on urban wildlife.”

But it’s more likely to be a villain who crawls out of the woodwork once the cameras start to roll – the villain The Sweeney are here to put the finger on. They’re back for a new series.

The house is just one of the locations in “alternative” London which gives the series an air of seedy authenticity.

On the doorstep, the ritual lighting of cigarettes precedes a brief discussion on the next shot between the director, John Thaw, and Dennis Waterman. Lights flood the inside of the house; people, sound-equipment and a haze of cigarette smoke fill the narrow hall. And Regan and Carter proceed to feel the collar of another “blagger.”

Waterman and Thaw finally finish the scene and emerge into the street. It’s now past opening time. “There must be a pub round here somewhere,” insists Waterman. So they set off to “suss out” the area.

“When we walk in,” says Waterman, “someone will say, ‘Ello, The Sweeney’s in’.”

“Ello,” says a boiler-suited Guinness drinker as they walk into the pub, “backs to the wall, lads, it’s The Sweeney.”

Waterman grins. “We never have any trouble in pubs. Perhaps it’s because neither of us is a muscle man – they know they won’t get much pleasure out of hitting us. What I like is that we’re always called John and Dennis, never Regan and Carter.”

Thaw has barely got his vodka to his lips when a character unhooks himself from a bar-stool and approaches. Is he a “snout”?

“I just wanted to meet you, John,” he says, “and to say I think the show’s great.”

Thaw shakes his hand. “It’s nice of you to come over, mate. Thank you. Like a drink?” Regan would probably have pinned him up against the wall.

We discuss the heavy schedule they keep – Dennis Waterman talks about his dual career as singer and actor, and John Thaw explains the difficulties of being married to a successful actress. His wife, Sheila Hancock, is starring in the musical Annie, and he is feeling tired after a night out celebrating yet another acting award. “When Sheila’s working in the evening, and I’m filming all day, we don’t see much of each other,” he says, “and that can’t be good. I couldn’t play the chauvinist and insist she stay at home. Regan might try it, but if I was like him, I wouldn’t be married to Sheila; she wouldn’t have had me.”

Waterman makes derogatory comments about Thaw’s desirability as a husband, and one-line jokes whizz back and forth.

Waterman signs autographs on the way to the bar. “He’s just learned to do joined-up writing,” says Thaw. “Dennis and I get on very well and I think that comes across. You can’t define it. You just know Regan and Carter are mates.”

They see themselves as “part of a matey team, where everybody works for everybody else”, and believe that is a major factor in the series’ success. They actually enjoy getting up at dawn to go to work. “That has to be the clincher,” says Thaw.

We leave the pub and on the way back to the scene of the fictional crime, Waterman shadow-boxes a lamp-post and explains why The Sweeney fights can look heavy.

“The fights can be dangerous if the other guy doesn’t know the routine. I can move a bit because I’ve done some boxing.” (His brother, Peter, is a former British and European professional champion). “But the good fights are usually with minor villains, played by stunt-men who know exactly what they’re doing.”

Later in the week, the unit will be filming a car chase.

“People think the car chases are speeded up,” says Waterman, “but nothing is. In four years, there have been only two occasions when the driver has said, ‘I don’t trust this, I don’t want to do this with John and Dennis in the car’.”

Their driver, Frank Henson, a man who has been known to catapult a car through a plate-glass window, park it neatly and then stroll back to demand “a fry-up with all the works”, was at the wheel during a car stunt they filmed in Wandsworth one Sunday morning.

By the time the director was ready for action, an audience had gathered. “Listen,” an assistant shouted through a megaphone, “we’ve only got one take. I don’t want a load of ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ and definitely no applause!”

You could never accuse The Sweeney of playing to the crowd.

The post We’re no bright-eyed super heroes – we’re The Sweeney appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

One of ITV’s best-known and most popular networked series for children, Magpie (Thames), has now been running for more than nine years. The programme’s informative magazine format allows for the coverage of a wide range of diverse topics, the boundaries of which are stretched even further by extensive use of outside broadcasts. But the most notable feature about Magpie is that unlike most television programmes – which, being steeped in the sophisticated technicalities of modern television, are often pre-recorded – it is still transmitted live from its studios in Teddington.

Tim Jones, Mogpie’s producer, reflects that: ‘Back in the good old days of black and white when to edit you needed a pair of scissors and a secret fluid, which I never knew the name of, the one thing all studio or outside broadcast based programmes had in common was that they were live and the viewers saw everything, including all the fluffs.’ Today, however, no TV station exists without its sophisticated video-tape operation and few programmes are, in fact, planned to be live.

Not so with Magpie. Twice a week, every week, for nine months of the year, the red light outside Studio 3 at Teddington means ‘On Air’. Of course, the whole programme isn’t live – recorded studio and outside broadcast inserts and film are used, but the presentation is live and, quite often, the whole programme has no recorded material at all.

Magpie consumes 42 hours of original material each year so, since it started on the ITV network in 1968, it has gobbled up over 350 hours of original thought. Being a programme for children there is no way of getting away with ‘making do’. Children are the most discerning of viewers, and maintaining the high standard of the series demands the involvement of many dedicated and specialised production team members.

Magpie is first and foremost an entertainment and the programmes always aim to be as lively as possible. However, most items are designed to provoke more than just a passive response and where possible children are stimulated into doing things for themselves. For example, cookery has become a very popular subject and the programme has recently taken an interest in the local fare prepared in different parts of the country.

There is also scope for dealing with current topics of interest in the news and Magpie has been able to relate to children the significance of such national crises as the 1976 drought or the deteriorating economic situation.

The presenters, Jenny Hanley, Mick Robertson and Tommy Boyd, get very involved in the studio activities and they also regularly travel with film crews to locations of special interest to the programme’s networked audience. Apart from the summer trip each year, which provides film inserts for a number of editions of the programme, the team also manage to fit in other occasional visits abroad and have already explored such countries as Egypt, USA and Kenya. These films show young viewers cultures and ways of life different to their own and give them a chance to see places they may themselves be fortunate enough to visit one day.

Competitions always create a favourable response from Magpie viewers, but here again they are designed to stimulate the child and to increase his interest, knowledge and general awareness. A road safety poster painting competition, organised in collaboration with the Department of Environment, not only encouraged thousands of children to be creative with a paint brush but also made them think about the whole question of road safety. Magpie then took things one stage further and, instead of offering a prize of material value, invited the winners to see their entries pass through all the processes of printing. Naturally, the camera team were there to record the event and a further film was made to show the printed posters being hung on hoarding sites all over Britain.

Of course, linking all these items together with the live presentation from the studio does present problems. But, as producer Tim Jones points out, ‘when that “On Air” light goes on the pulse moves a little faster and one is that much sharper’.

The post Live from studio 3 appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

BROADCASTING licences are reviewed every six years by the Independent Television Authority. The major shake-up, which comes into effect today, 13 years after the start of ITV, is a severe warning to the various independent companies that there is no room for complacency.

The very fact that the oldest independent company of them all, Rediffusion, has not retained complete control of London’s weekday programmes is an indication that licences will not automatically be renewed.

Today, it has merged with ABC TV, and as from now your programmes from Monday to Thursday [sic] inclusive are coming to you by courtesy of Thames Television

At a Mansion House luncheon, the service was launched in the presence of figures prominent in London’s Government and business, in London’s music, art and sport, and in the nation’s Press and Parliament which reflect the life and power of the capital.

Speakers included the Lord Mayor, Lord Aylestone, chairman of the ITA, Sir Philip Waster [sic – Warter], chairman, and Howard Thomas, managing director of Thames Television.

Eamonn Andrews introduces recorded highlights of the luncheon at 11.30 tonight. Andrew Gardner describes the scene and talks to some of the distinguished guests present at the Mansion House.

At the weekend – Friday [sic] through to Sunday – programmes will be controlled by the London Television Consortium (London Weekend). This is the company that attracted Michael Peacock away from the BBC and has David Frost as one of its star men.

Then, as in the past programmes made by regional companies will be fed into the schedule for the London area.

Coronation Street, for instance, will continue from Granada, as will University Challenge, What the Papers Say and other well established programmes.

But there will be additional material from the north – from Yorkshire Television. For the territory up there has been divided down the Pennines: Granada hold the rights for the county of the red rose, Yorkshire Television – the company that attracted Alan Whicker away from the BBC – for the county of the white.

It was 18 months ago that Lord Hill, then chairman of the ITA, announced plans to change the face of ITV.

The richest and most sought after prize was London. The contract winners were announced first over a year ago.

Lord Hill said of the London weekday contract “With our principle of programme quality in mind, we felt that Independent Television would gain benefit if the abilities of ABC and Rediffusion were to combine in providing the weekday service. The combination of these two companies seemed to ihe Authority to offer the possibility of a company of real excellence.”

Unlike Thames Television, there will be no opening ceremony for London Weekend Television. And unlike other companies there will be no station symbol – just the name.

London Weekend Television is backed by an impressive line-up of television professionals: men such as Aldan Crawley, Michael Peacock and David Frost.

Of this company Lord Hill said: “Of the applicants for the weekend, the London Consortium impressed us most, particularly because of its creative talent.”

At a recent luncheon in London, managing director, Michael Peacock promised: “There will be a lot of charges in your weekend viewing. New shows, new faces and new times to remember”

Well, what is in store for the viewer?

Thames Television

DRAMA

Frontier: New adventure series set in the North West Frontier when the British Army kept the peace in the Asian equivalent of the Wild West.

90-Minute Dramas: Three plays adapted by William Marchant from short stories by Noel Coward. Already in production, Star Quality, starring Glynis Johns and Robert Hardy, to be followed by Bon Voyage and The Kindness of Mrs Radcliffe. A new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s famous Frankenstein by Robert Muller and an adaptation of Uncle Silas the ghost story by Sheridan Le Fanuare planned.

Premiere: Live, one hour television dramas will be presented through October with top directors, distinguished casts and writers.

The Sex Game: Romantic 60-minute plays. Trials and tribulations of lovers who ultimately merge to live happily ever after.

The Mind of Mr. J. G. Reeder. Adaptations of Edgar Wallace stones starring Hugh Burden and Willoughby Goddard.

CHILDREN

The Tyrant King: A London adventure for children. The first modern colour film TV serial made in Britain for children.

The Queen Street Gang: A new children’s adventure series in which a professor is captured by criminals and rescued by the Queen Street Boys, a highly organised gang, led by his own son.

Once Upon A Time: A series of 15-minute programmes in which celebrities will tell classic or original stories to a children’s audience.

The Sooty Show: Harry Corbett, Sooty, Sweep and the rest of the gang in a children’s entertainment series recorded at The May Fair Theatre.

Pinky & Perky: A series of 15-minute shows featuring the famous puppets Pinky and Perky and their colleagues.

COMEDY

Best of Enemies: Situation comedy written by Vince Powell and Harry Driver about two members of Parliament: a young Labour newcomer to the House of Commons and a wily old Tory. Tim Barrett and Robert Coote star.

Father, Dear Father: Patrick Cargill stars as the divorced father of two very highly nubile mini-skirted teenage daughters with Sally Bazely as his literary agent and good friend.

Comedy Tonight: A season of six new comedy plays written by top authors including Ronald Wolfe and Ronald Chesney, Vince Powell and Harry Driver and Dave Freeman.

Sid James: A new series, as yet untitled, written by Vince Powell and Harry Driver, starring Sid James.

Horne-a-Plenty: Comedy-Revue starring Kenneth Horne assisted by Sheila Steafel and Kenneth’s friends, which might well bear an amazing resemblance to the radio series Round the Horne.

SPECIALS

Already announced are two one hour specials starring Tommy Cooper; The Max Bygraves Show; Liberace in London; An Evening with Jack Benny, in which comedian Jack Benny conducts and stars with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall; a comedy concert with Victor Borge; The Frankie Howerd Show and, of course, The Goons, a half-hour radio show for television starring Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Harry Secombe.

Hughie Green’s Opportunity Knocks! returns for a new season and The Eamonn Andrews Show takes a completely new look when it comes from the May Fair Theatre in the heart of the West End.

FEATURES

Today: A live, dally topical entertainment and information show about people and places in and around London with Eamonn Andrews.

Robert Kee Reports: A series of monthly 45-minute documentaries on important issues of the day.

Applause! Applause! A series of six documentary programmes on great stars of variety and the music hall including Grade Fields, Max Miller, George Robey, Sid Fields, George Formby and Lucan McShane.

Magpie: A weekly magazine programme for children, Forty minutes of information and entertainment plus the serial story of Captain Fantastic.

ADULT EDUCATION

Ballet For All: A series of six half-hour programmes to help bring appreciation of this unique art to a wider audience.

So You’re Going on Holiday: An in-depth appreciation of the countries of Europe – the historical and cultural background behind the holiday facade.

The Tools of Cookery: A new series in which top TV cook Philip Harben demonstrates the importance of using the right tools for the job in the kitchen, from knives and saucepans to ovens and mixers.

World of Crime: Eight new programmes which examine specific cases of the victims of crime in Britain and North America.

RELIGION

A new ten-minute series entitled Last Programme – this will be shown seven nights a week, London Weekend Television will show the series on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

THE AVENGERS

A new series starring Patrick Macnee and introducing Linda Thomson [sic – Thorson] as John Steed’s new partner, Tara King.

Among the successful programmes which will carry on in the new schedules are This Week, Armchair Theatre, Hullaballoo, Callan, The Eamonn Andrews Show, Sexton Blake, Opportunity Knocks!, and Public Eye.

So far as London Weekend Television is concerned plays return to Sunday night; David Frost has three shows; and there is an abundance of comedy to suit all the family. Concerts by Leonard Bernstein, Yehudi Menuhin and Benny Goodman are planned. So are productions of the Beggar’s Opera and Benjamin Britten’s The Golden Vanity.

Saturday specials are planned to broaden the range of cultural programmes. And sports fans are catered for with Sports Arena on Fridays and World of Sport on Saturdays.

All we have to do is wait and see.

The post The new look appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

This feature is about ‘Curse of the Mummy’ – about the people who produced it and the work entailed by each department.

The Producer

The Producer of this particular series of ‘Mystery and Imagination’ is Reginald Collin. He is the man who has overall responsibility for the entire series.

At the start of a production, the Producer discusses the play with the Director and then remains available from the outset for consultation on all matters from interpretation to budgets and casting. It is the Producer who has the last word on any decision and it is the Producer who carries the can if any of these decisions prove to be misguided.

When the Director has done his job and the play is ready to be recorded, the Producer sits in the Control Box and, with the Story Editor, makes notes for the benefit of the Director, who is usually pleased at this stage to have comments from another practical television man on aspects of the production he may have missed.

Reginald Collin is very pleased with this particular combination of plays for ‘Mystery and Imagination’. ‘Curse of the Mummy’, ‘Sweeney Todd’, which he directed as well as produced and ‘The Suicide Club’, apart from being exceptionally well written, all have the same basic underlying theme in that they concern people who turn out to be not quite what they seem to be. This gives the series as a wholesome kind of unity.

The Director

Before describing the function of a Director – in this case Guy Verney, it may be useful to explain the difference between a Director and a Producer. The Producer is the man in charge of the programme and the Director is the man, who, under the Producer’s supervision, controls the cameras and the people taking part, i.e. selects the camera shots, the positioning of the actors, their interpretation of the script and the special effects necessary.

Special effects were an important and difficult feature of ‘Curse of the Mummy’. For example, there were scenes where no specific activity was taking place but the illusion had to be created that an evil, eerie kind of atmosphere was pervading a room. The difficulty lay in the fact that there was no tangible way of suggesting this. Finally, after consultation with the Designer, they hit on the solution of photographing, slightly out of focus, some tightly crumpled cellophane. This was then recorded on video tape, played back and gently superimposed over the scene. The result was a silver-mottled effect that kept appearing and disappearing.

This evil atmosphere was supposed to emanate from a mummified cat. To convey this, a special model of the cat was made through which smoke could be piped. Using the vision mixer, a green effect was superimposed over the smoke, which helped to intensify the suggestion of something evil entering the room.

The essence of a well directed play is good teamwork. Casting, design, technical people must all work well together as a team. Once that relationship has been established any production is guaranteed success.

The Story Editor

When a Producer has chosen a theme, the Story Editor must find a play to convey it. ‘Curse of the Mummy’, which is based on Bram Stoker’s story, ‘Jewel of the Seven Stars’, was Brian Brooke’s responsibility.

I spend a lot of my time saying “No” to writers, practising or would-be. Occasionally I allow myself a cautious “Maybe… – the jubilant “Yes!”, and the jubilation is heart-felt, believe me, is an historic rarity. I can’t, however, recall many occasions when my response has been a genuinely puzzled “Eh…?” But puzzled “Eh…?” it was, when John Russell Taylor suggested ‘Jewel of the Seven Stars’ as a follow-up to his highly successful dramatization of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’.

‘Jewel’ is the most neglected product of Stoker’s teaming imagination (if one excludes his first work in a rather different vein ‘The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland’) I’d never even heard of it, to my lasting shame.

I read it, all 250 microscopically printed pages of it, and, amid a welter of plot and counter-plot involving an army of characters, numerous exotic locations, flash-backs historical and otherwise, dream sequences, etc., began to see what John was driving at. So the writer – story editor creative process began i.e. we spent a lot of time shouting at each other.

When the smoke of creative battle cleared the next step was obvious. John retired, regrouped and reappeared clutching a synopsis. A critic by profession, his great advantage, where a story editor is concerned, is his sense of dramatic structure. His synopsis was a near miracle of time-scale reduction, plot-pointing. location elimination and character amalgamation. Wisely he had followed some, if not all, of my advice – or so I shall continue to insist in the teeth of all opposition.

Then came The Lull; a period only too familiar to every story editor: the first draft was awaiting… Resisting, as Mr Stoker would say, “with every fibre of my being” almost hourly temptations to phone him in his Welsh retreat on the most trivial of pretexts to remind him of “this” or suggest “that”, I waited.

Patience, faith, fortitude, all were rewarded. Our final rehearsal script scarcely differed at all from John’s first draft. We – and I know I speak for Reg Collin, Producer, and Guy Verney, Director, as well as myself – were delighted. I hope you and our viewers will share our enthusiasm.

The Designer

Mike Hall explains some of the problems of designing for Television melodrama.

In the past few years, many attempts have been made – some successful and some not – to reproduce sets for Fort Knox, the Oval Cricket Ground, the Eiffel Tower, the Front Line Trenches and so on. Some of these sets, when written in scripts, are laughable but when analysed on paper, by a Director and Designer, their dexterity enables them to visualise ways of creating the required effect. Alternatively they can, to coin a phrase, “shoot it tight” or decide “Let’s say it happens at night and we won’t see it!”

‘2001’, a masterpiece of illusion and cinematic art, had the problem, amongst many, of building a two-hundred foot high revolving Hilton. “Surely this was an illusion – photographic tricks”, you say. Not so – they built a two-hundred foot high revolving Hilton.

Melodrama on Television has to face up to these problems. The public must surely have rumbled now, the commonplace dodge of shooting it tight or using back-projection. If one elects to do a melodrama for Television, then the gigantic wide shot i.e. the Mummy’s Tomb, cannot be achieved by trickery. The tomb has to be built for real as the importance of the large dramatic shot is one of the underlying visuals in a melodramatic piece. The shot of Frankenstein standing on top of the mountain, Silas sitting in his large drawing-room, Dracula appearing in the church – are all visuals that cannot be shortcut. The sets for these sort of shots must be real, dramatic and overpowering. This is the demand, basically, for a Set Designer working with melodrama. His greatest challenger is the horror feature film and he has to create designs for Television that will not look like a poor man’s version, despite the fact he is working with a much smaller budget. If we are to compete with the horror feature film, huge sets are essential.

The huge set for the Mummy’s Tomb produces all the required effects. It looks both dramatic and authentic. The authenticity was acquired by studying colour photographs in magazines, purchasing books and articles on Egyptology and consulting an authority at the British Museum about weapons, lamps and other objects that were typical of the period.

The Costume Supervisor

All the costumes for ‘Curse of the Mummy’ were designed by Jill Silverside.

One of the most interesting designs is the rather spectacular and elaborate Headdress worn by Queen Tera. This evolved from visits Jill made to the British Museum and research from various books on Egyptology. The design had to combine the symbols for both Upper and Lower Egypt and, of course, be wearable in both a standing and prone position, which entailed having the head-dress and collar made in sections.

To cut down on bandaging time for the mummy, Jill decided to make a cast of Isobel Black’s figure. She was enclosed in a tube of mutton cloth and then brown sticky-tape was used to build up the cast. The back was cut away so that Isobel could get out and, after trimming, this shape was used to support the wrappings. An incidental advantage, apart from speeding up the dressing, was that it also eliminated all signs of breathing.

All the Egyptian costumes were made in Wardrobe by Jill. Several of these had to be transparent. After testing many materials for transparency in front of the colour cameras, Jill decided that the one which produced the nearest effect to the original and was most acceptable to the cameras, was pure silk chiffon, which had to be sunray pleated.

It is easy to see, by the original designs illustrating this page, that Jill’s costumes look authentic, dramatic and add as much credibility to the theme of the play as the performance of the actors who wear them.

The Production Assistant

If a Drama PA was photographed in a setting that adequately conveyed the nature of her work, she would probably be seen surrounded by a huge mound of lists, schedules, memos, scripts, tranquilisers and overworked typewriters.

From the start of rehearsals for ‘Curse of the Mummy’ through to camera-script stage, Betty Kenworthy’s job was mainly one of liaison i.e. making sure that everything murmured at odd moments by the Director, finally reached the people who needed to know about it. During the rehearsal week, Betty talked to the Graphic Artist about the style of lettering to be used, ordered captions and other graphic work; passed on to Props the Designers’ Prop List plus the Stage Manager’s additional props; ordered all practical water, gas or electrical requirements; ordered technical requirements i.e. cameras, microphones and extra lights; arranged dressing rooms for artistes; kept Wardrobe and Make-up closely informed of any changes or new ideas; booked recording and dubbing sessions; ordered effects and music and re-typed altered pages of script, changed at rehearsals.

Once in the Control Room, during camera rehearsal, the P.A. follows the blocking of shots – confirming over the microphone, the camera and shot number; times the production; rolls in film or VTR inserts and generally tries to keep ahead of the Director’s needs.

When the play is recorded, payment of artistes must be organised; lists compiled of all music, film, photographs or anything else used and a coherent editing script made up for editing and dubbing sessions. After timing the final edited version of the play, all the relevant information is sent to Transmission Control and the P.A. must start from the beginning The First Rehearsal, again on the next script!

The Casting Director

“A successful Casting Director must have a genuine knowledge of, and feeling for actors – he must know their work and know them.”

One such man is Keith Andrews, who was Casting Director for ‘Curse of the Mummy’.

A Casting Director is involved very much at the beginning of any production, when ideas are exchanged with the Producer and the Director about which actors seem right for the various roles. As soon as a list of suggestions is compiled, the Casting Director rings the agents of the actors concerned to check their availability. If the first name on the list is not available, the second name on the list is tried and eventually a complete cast is assembled. Apart from the ‘rightness’ of a particular actor for the part, choice is largely governed by budget and the availability of the people selected.

From a casting point of view, ‘Mystery and Imagination’ is a particularly fascinating series. The cast have to play extremely intriguing characters in great depth. Faces are very important if the actor is to convey the sinister quality of the plays convincingly. Even the extras, who are normally supplied by reliable agencies, must be chosen carefully. A scene set in an inn, for example, which requires a dozen extras, can only have the right atmosphere conveyed if the agency produces people of the right age, with the required physical characteristics. A batch of serene, genteel ladies, who look like left-overs from a vicar’s tea-party, are unlikely to evoke the same impression of debauched revelry as effectively, say, as a group of broken-nosed ruffians of the type Hogarth could have painted.

Casting ‘Curse of the Mummy’ was relatively simple as we were lucky enough to get all the actors we specifically wanted. There were no awkward parts to cast, as in ‘The Suicide Club’, which requires “a hunched-back dwarf, who plays the violin”.

Choosing Isobel Black to play Queen Tera was Guy Verney’s idea and the decision was unanimously approved. She read the script, liked it and agreed to play the role.

When you eventually see the play and observe the faces of the actors it should be easy to see why each one was an ideal choice for each part.

Credits

In such a limited space it is impossible to cover every aspect of a production and several areas of work have not been mentioned. The technical side of the play was the responsibility of Peter Howell, Cameras; Andy Andrews, Lighting; Ron Ferris, Sound and Del Randell, Technical Supervisor. Carol Bright supervised Make-up, the Floor Manager was Denver Thornton and the Stage Manager, Betty Crowe.

The post Curse of the Mummy appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

So how do the people who actually make children’s television programmes set about it? How do they deal with their awesome responsibility, not only to please all the adults (or at least not offend them too much) but also entertain, inform, interest and stretch the vast number of children for whom their programmes are intended?

The Children’s Department of Thames Television is the largest in ITV, supplying an average of 142½ hours of networked programmes each year. It caters for children ranging from the very young (Rainbow for the under fives) through to the 5-6 year olds (Paperplay, Issi Noho, King Wilbur III, …And Maisy Too), the 7-8 year olds (The Sooty Show, Michael Bentine’s Potty Time), the 9-12 year olds (Magpie, All Together Now), teenagers (You Must Be Joking!), and it hopes that its drama appeals to children of all ages (The Tomorrow People, The Molly Wopsies, The Feathered Serpent, Shadows, Horse In The House).

Not only is this output geared across a wide age range, but the types of programme are also immensely varied. Sue Turner, Thames’ Controller of Children’s Programmes comments: ‘Children are, after all, simply people who have not been alive very long. They have as much (maybe more) intelligence, imagination, enthusiasm and eagerness as adults. All they lack is experience (and the prejudices that often come with it). They are also a demanding audience – unrestrained by the social politeness of adults, they write and tell us precisely what they think of us and our programmes!’

Magpie, twice a week every week (except for a short summer break), is probably the best known of Thames’ children’s programmes. Transmitted live, Magpie aims to be an all round magazine programme, with items of topical interest for children of approximately 6-12 years. It began in 1968 with the start of Thames Television itself. Its award-winning documentaries have given it an international as well as a national reputation.

The pre-school programme Rainbow (winner of the British Academy Award for the best children’s programme in February 1975) aims to help children below school age to expand their experience of the world and the people around them. Rainbow is believed to be unique in the world, in that it began in 1974 making full length documentaries specially for the under fives. Dealing with potentially traumatic experiences for the very young child, so far ‘Rainbow goes to Hospital’ and ‘Rainbow Starts School’ have been presented and work is beginning on a ’Special’ which will deal with the arrival of a new baby.

A department of this size has plenty of opportunity to experiment. You Must Be Joking! (of which two series have now been made) was entirely written and performed by a cast of East End children, ranging in age from 11-17. It has been both hailed as a new departure in ‘access’ programming and condemned as giving children false ideas of their own importance. Following this programme, work is in hand on Pauline’s Quirkes, starring 16-year-old Pauline Quirke (known to adult audiences for her outstanding performance in Jenny Can’t Work Any Faster). This time Pauline and her friends take a swing at the remaining male chauvinist bastions in the name of girls’ lib!

Last year Thames launched a series of seven plays with a linking theme of ghostliness, under the title of Shadows. They included a play specially written by J B Priestley. The second series of Shadows, with an over-all theme of fantasy and including specially commissioned plays by such outstanding writers as Joan Aiken, Susan Cooper and Ewart Alexander, was transmitted this summer. The Molly Wopsies (transmitted in Spring 1976) was entirely shot with Thames’ small mobile outside broadcast unit on location in Henley; and this same unit is being used to shoot Horse in the House (adapted by Rosemary Anne Sisson from the book by William Corbin).

Sue Turner says her team had a great deal of fun and raised a lot of eyebrows by demonstrating that an all-action adventure series, set in ancient Mexico, could be shot entirely in Studio 2 at Teddington. The end result was The Feathered Serpent, transmitted this summer – with music specially written by David Fanshawe, sword fights and a great deal of ritual and splendour. She also hopes it helped to make viewers aware of the rich and fascinating history of pre-Columbian America.

This is a brief outline of just one Children’s Department – using film, studio and outside broadcast to make documentaries, current affairs, drama, light entertainment and comedy programmes. Did you know that children have such a wide choice of programmes available to them?

The post Making children’s programmes appeared first on THIS IS THAMES from Transdiffusion.

The Design Department at Thames is one of the responsibilities of the Controller of Programme Services, whose deputy is in charge of administration for all areas of design. The Head of Design is responsible for creative control and his department is divided into four main sections each with its own supervisor.

The Department has fifteen administrators, managers and secretaries, making a total permanent staff of 112. Backing this design group are a large number of wardrobe personnel, property and scene men, carpenters, painters, drapesmen and drivers.

Creative Function

‘The television production designer’s function is creative and interpretive’ writes Patrick Downing, Head of Design at Thames Television. ‘His job is to clarify the director’s and his own impressions of a writer’s intentions into an amalgam of physical shapes and colours. He designs pictures – not sets, shapes and movement in a framework, not a series of still lifes.’

Downing believes that a designer’s work is realised by the individual and that it cannot be handed out as a brief. ‘A programme concept does not determine the designer’s approach to a problem or his method of solving that problem. It does not tell him what to do, or how to do it, just as it does not tell an actor how to interpret his role. The actor, director and designer will assimilate from a script or a programme outline their own conception of what they do and how they do it. With luck the designer will interpret the author’s and the director’s intent about fifty per cent of the time.

‘The Designer works as a contributor to the whole concept, with producers, directors, lighting cameramen, camera operators, costume designers and sound mixers. This does not mean that the designer’s work is done in conference and is therefore the combined work of all the participants. It is the total programme that is their combined work. ’

The designer will produce plans of action, shapes of scenery, and storyboards of ideas which will be considered and accepted by the director or producer with few if any modifications. There is no one solution to the realisation of a production designer’s work, in the translation from the written or spoken word to the creation of visual symbols. Given the same project, the same director, the same facilities, time, and budget, three designers would produce three entirely different solutions to a single programme concept.

The designer has to satisfy his own sense of fulfilment and the requirements of the author and director. He attempts to produce work that will create the largest possible audience, and at the same time fulfil his own sense of achievement and satisfaction.

Film/Videotape

There is little difference between television and film design except in the most minor mechanics. Film design is usually less confined in terms of locations, studio space and budgets.

Television ‘sets’ are designed to accommodate five or more electronic cameras and an infinity of variable positions and heights. Film ‘sets’ are designed to accommodate one film camera with the same number of variable positions. Television is more and more combining both videotape and film as a means of expression, and videotape is being shot and edited more and more in a filmic manner.

Certain disadvantages exist for the designer working with film: on videotape each shot can be seen on monitor screens as it happens and necessary corrections made; on film nothing can be seen until the ‘rushes’ are viewed after the film has been processed – too late for any adjustments.

A distinct advantage of working on location with film is that one starts with a real environment, and whatever may be added in the way of colour and properties, cobwebs or paint, one is building on a foundation of reality. In studio work the designer starts off with a basis of cardboard and recreates an extension of reality.

Most television designers’ work is still in a studio environment, and for non-contemporary drama this has become almost essential, since this field requires an ambience and setting that often exists only in museums, or is in reality now covered by a welter of traffic meters and television aerials.

These ‘extensions of reality’ in a television studio, a kind of synthesis of a style or a particular period are, hopefully, accepted by the viewer as ‘real’ – accepted, that is, if the designer’s and lighting director’s contribution can stand up to scrutiny. Graham Greene, reviewing a film in 1937, wrote: ‘All the actors work hard to give the illusion that the whole of life is symbolised in an Arizona filling station, but life, embarrassed by hearing itself so explicitly discussed, crept away, leaving us only with the pasteboard desert and the stunted cardboard studio trees’.

The Work Pattern

All designers work in entirely different ways and use different methods; and all television programmes make different demands upon the designer. However, the following notes describe a possible five or six week work pattern a production designer might adopt for the production of a drama made almost entirely in the studio.

The designer starts with the first draft script. The effect of this script, the knowledge of who is to direct, and the possible size of the budget, colours and determines his approach to the play. From the first script to the final recording the designer is continually changing and modifying his basic original ideas.

After he has digested the script the designer and the director meet, and argue. They achieve, hopefully, a creative rapport; and, with luck, the designer assimilates the emotional and visual needs of the director and the production. The director accepts the designer’s as yet basic visual ideas and imagery and together they translate into describable visual terms the intentions of the author.

The designer then creates rough plans, sketches, suggested camera movements, and occasionally storyboards for some particular sequence.

All the decisions the designer now takes will have a far-reaching effect on the whole production and will wholly dictate the visual ambience of the play. With his rough sketches, notes and ideas in a vague lump, the designer at this point receives from the producer a budget for the design of the production. ‘It’s never enough,’ says Patrick Downing, ‘and by tradition the designer spends an hour or two arguing about its inadequacy.’ At this point the designer has been working on the production for about ten days.

Now he starts on reference books, films, reference libraries and historical research. Of course much more time, energy, and research is needed if the play is historical than if it is one of those ‘three people in a camp apartment overlooking a London skyline’ play.

Then the director and designer climb into a car and search for film locations (most videotaped dramas have three or four minutes of filmed inserts, often lots more). This usually takes a couple of days. The designer now has a lot of vague ideas, sketches and polaroid photos of the film locations (or the exteriors that may appear on film which have to be matched in the studio interiors.)

The designer and the costume designer discuss basic colour tones, and work out a visual relationship between the sets and the costumes. A further afternoon and evening with the director polishes up the rough visuals.

Now the designer starts on a first search for major properties (props) that will play an integral part in his sets and in the production, and finds appropriate textures and architectural detailing.

For three or four days the designer is chained to a drawing board and with an assistant designer produces final plans, elevations and details which are then estimated for cost, found to be expensive, fiddled with, altered and put back again. Finally they are sent to the construction shop and the painters and carpenters start work.

The designer (or his assistant) makes a rough model – ‘or a nice finished one if he has the time and feels narcissistic,’ remarks Downing – and then he and the director, costume designer and lighting director sit round it, argue about it, and spill coffee over it. By this time the graphic designer has storyboards for titles and other graphics to be filmed on the rostrum camera. The designer and graphic designer meet and work out a cohesion between the designer’s by now more or less concrete forms and the graphic designer’s ideas. They sort out all the graphic minutiae of the programme. Shop signs, imitation passports, packaging, photographs, etc.

Thames design personnel

Production Design

	Head of Design
21	Designers
8	Assistant Designers
7	Production Buyers
2	Cost Estimators

Graphic Design

	Head of Graphics
11	Graphic Designers
5	Assistant Graphic Designers
4	Graphic Technicians
2	Photographers
6	Photographic Technicians
2	Rostrum Camera Unit

Scenic Art

	Supervising Scenic Artist
8	Scenic Artists

Costume Design

15	Costume Designers
4	Assistant Costume Designers

Another meeting takes place, this time with the lighting director to agree on a lighting style to fit the mood and texture of the production. The designer wants it dark, moody and atmospheric like a silent German movie; the lighting director wants the viewer to see the production – they compromise.

The designer and the scenic artist allocated to him get together to sort out the requirements of scenic cloths, painted perspectives, stained glass windows. The drapes department start making curtains and similar furnishings.

Then – the technical production meeting. The director, designer, lighting director, costume designer, technical supervisor, chief cameraman, sound and other technicians surround the designer’s model of the sets and discuss the relationship between cameras, actors, sound and design.

Somehow all this gets sorted out and the designer concentrates on the filming requirements: props and scenery, transport, permissions for filming. What kind of car is smashed in the action, and can it be afforded? Has permission been received to paint someone’s front door a dirty orange? How can that nasty lamp-post be disguised?

The designer stands by the director’s elbow throughout the filming period and then about ten days before the final recording date of the programme the director goes into rehearsal with the cast. The stage-manager lays out the designer’s studio plan on the rehearsal room floor with different coloured sticky tapes. And there is a first total read-through of the script with all the cast and everybody else concerned sitting round a large table. At the end of the read-through, final costume measurements are taken and the cast briefed on their basic movements and positions from the designer’s plans, sketches and models. Meanwhile the scenery is nearing completion.

For the next few days or so, the designer and the production buyer tour round and select all the properties, furniture, drapes, carpets and all the other bits and pieces that contribute to the ambience and atmosphere of the sets. Most of these are hired from specialist suppliers, although occasionally it is necessary to buy or make something specific or rare.

The point is now reached where the designer fills the role of a supervisor, covering the setting up of the sets on the studio floor and the arrangement and positioning of all the furniture and properties. The next two days or so are filled with rehearsals on the sets with cameras and actors, or rehearsing and recording in short sequences, much like traditional filming – a synthesis for the designer of all his work for the past six weeks. Actors, cameras and sound are working under the director. Between each section of videotape recording there is a period of minor adjustments, small changes of camera angle, lighting and mood, the repositioning of an actor or a vase of flowers.

Then the final videotaping of the programme. The designer sits in the control room watching five or six screens, all of which show a collage of images on which he has impressed colour, texture and form.

Television production design at its most basic is an out-of-focus scrap of wallpaper seen occasionally between the heads of two actors. At its best it is the creation of a mood, and a sequence of pictures to illuminate a story, that can make a good programme better.

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The subject is then brought on stage and Eamonn begins the show proper in front of an audience of about 150 to provide a reaction as the story unfolds and each guest makes his or her contribution to it.

Eamonn Andrews successfully hosted this series on BBC Television for many years. The series finished on BBC Television five years ago when Eamonn signed a contract with ABC Television, a contract which has carried him through to Thames Television. Throughout those five years Eamonn has received a lot of letters from viewers asking for the return of the series and suggesting people who could feature as This Is Your Life’ subjects. Says Eamonn, “I think ‘This Is Your Life’ is a very interesting project and the time is right for it to return to the screens. It isn’t a very safe programme to work on. A lot of research is involved preparing the show. You assemble the guests and then you are totally dependent on one person showing up, taking the surprise in his or her stride and agreeing to go on stage.”

In the following articles Eamonn reflects on some of his experiences during the original series, Robert Tyrrell, Producer, accounts for the series’ former success, and Nina Powell, Programme Organiser, explains how the show is put together from the early planning stage through to transmission night.

Eamonn Andrews

Eamonn Andrews has had the unique experience amongst those associated with the ‘This is Your Life’ team of having actually been one of its subjects in the original series. This situation arose when the ‘Daily Sketch’ broke the story that Stanley Matthews had been chosen for the programme. Although Matthews was on a fishing holiday at the time there was no way of ensuring that he had not seen the article. With only days left before they were due to go on the air an emergency conference was called to discuss an alternative subject. During this, unbeknown to Eamonn, Ralph Edwards walked behind his chair and indicated to the others that Eamonn would be a good choice. Hastily they got rid of Eamonn on the pretext of having to attend another meeting elsewhere and arranged to see him later. Immediately they started to research into Eamonn’s background and then told him that Freddie Mills, a friend of his, had been chosen. A dummy sports programme was arranged and Eamonn instructed to keep Mills occupied for the whole day. Mills was, of course, let into the secret and the two of them spent the entire day trying to keep a straight face, each believing that the evening programme was about the other.

One incident that almost gave the game away was when Eamonn invited Mills back to his home for dinner – Eamonn’s wife was in the process of getting ready to appear on the show and half an hour before the programme was due to begin a car arrived to take her to the studio. She had to go to the door, send the car away and then hastily concoct a story for Eamonn about who had called.

Finally, it was time for the confrontation scene. Eamonn sat beaming in the audience beside Mills anticipating with amusement the surprise awaiting his friend. Ralph Edwards walked through the audience, stopped beside Eamonn and asked him to read out the name on the book. Smiling, Eamonn looked at his friend and started to read aloud – “‘This Is Your Life’ … Eamonn Andrews!”

I asked Eamonn what his reaction was. “It was a big surprise – and a shattering experience. I’d no sooner absorbed the shock of meeting one person when the next was brought on. My entire family had been flown over from Ireland – even my Mother who’s terrified of flying. To this day I’ll never know how they persuaded her to get on a plane!”

A series such as this always provides a fund of stories about awkward or amusing incidents. They are funny on reflection but at the time one can imagine what a source of anxiety, frustration and strain on the nervous system they could cause. Eamonn recollected one incident when the subject chosen had to arrive at the Shepherd’s Bush Television Theatre. As the programme was ‘live’, timing was crucial. The subject was attending a conference nearby and at a prearranged secret signal by telephone he was to be brought to the theatre. Instead of leaving instantly, as was expected, quite a hiatus arose when the decoy said “Let’s go” and the subject decided to go to the loo first – a reaction no one had anticipated and consequently allocated no time for!

One of the most amusing subjects Eamonn ever dealt with was the actor, A. E. Mathews. Although well into his nineties he kidded Eamonn throughout the entire show. “He walked off the stage, returned, lay down on the couch and did everything he could to put me off balance.”

The best story, however, concerns Stephen Behan, father of Brendan Behan. The programme was done in Dublin as there was no way of making him leave the place. He had never been seen anywhere without his pipe and before the show began, someone had removed his overcoat, in which he kept his tobacco. A Researcher realised that he wasn’t smoking and went through his pockets looking for the tobacco. He found a white paper bag and proceeded to crawl across the stage, out of the range of the cameras, to hand the package to him. Stephen Behan was a house decorator and the Researcher was unfamiliar with that profession’s habit of carrying supplies of tea and sugar mixed together to use during tea-breaks. It was this concoction the Researcher had handed him – not tobacco, and Behan consequently filled his pipe and tried to smoke it.

In the few minutes before Eamonn is to announce to someone – ‘This is Your Life’ his reaction is one of ‘sheer terror’. “It is a terrific strain on the nerves – so many things can go wrong – the timing, the fact that they may say no, or just respond in a totally unpredictable way.”

Eamonn emphasises what every person on this team has engraved on their hearts – that the most important part is the maintenance of secrecy. “No person must suspect they have been chosen or they lose half the fun. The surprise element is an essential ingredient and no matter what the cost in terms of money or weeks of preparation, a programme is immediately cancelled if this element is lost.”

On a personal basis, Eamonn has gained much from his association with ‘This Is Your Life’. “I have seen a side of certain people that would not have been possible under any other circumstances, made many friends and enjoyed evenings that have been great socially, both during and after the show. ‘This Is Your Life’ is, I think, the only really natural television programme – nearly all the others could be done just as well on radio, in newspapers or through any other media.”

Robert Tyrrell

If you want to make your fortune, think of a better idea for a television series than ‘This Is Your Life’. Mr Howard Thomas and sundry other gentlemen will welcome you with open cheque books.

But the chances are you will fail for ‘This Is Your Life’ is probably a unique classic in the history of Television. No other show combines so much under one umbrella – surprises, drama, laughter, pathos, sheer human story-telling. Even after years off the air it still sparks off instant response from both viewers and professionals.

When we began to think of it, we tried to pull it apart and see what else we could do with it, but like the little boy with the alarm clock we discovered that it didn’t tick any more. So we’ve put the works back together the way they always were.

The big difference between our show and the BBC’s will not be in the mechanics – they’re near perfect – but in the choice of subject and the presentation. Wild horses would not drag from us the names of the subjects, because the old rule still applies. If the secret gets out to the subject in advance, we cancel the show -and nobody wants to see all those weeks of investigation go down the drain. That’s why if you overhear our conversation in Betty’s Bar (now one of our chief conference rooms) it is peppered with code names, hints, nods and winks. We don’t even tell our wives, lovers or mothers.

Apart from that the team (most of us new to Thames) are talkative enough. Jack Crawshaw and John Stapleton, late of Fleet Street, do our interviewing and report-writing; Mary McAnnally, late of BBC ‘Man Alive’, does research; Nina Powell, from Anglia Television, organises, administrates and looks after guests, while Tom Brennand and Roy Bottomley edit the scripts. Marjorie Baker directs and Margaret Thistle is PA.

Oh, and there’s a chap called Andrews comes into it somewhere…

Our moment of truth will be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday 19 November, during the first week of colour transmissions. On that day, someone will walk blinking into the lights to be told ‘This Is Your Life!’ Next week, who knows – it might even be you!

Nina Powell

The CIA, FBI, MI5, Special Branch and any similar organisation could learn a great deal from the maintenance of security by the ‘This Is Your Life’ team.

Programme Organiser, Nina Powell, plays an important role in connection with security. Because, for obvious reasons, the security of a programme of this nature is so tight, it was difficult to obtain detailed information about what goes on behind the scenes. However, after knocking three times, asking for Nina, inventing a password and swearing on oath that my great-greatgrandfather was not a ‘Commie’ or in any way connected with the ‘other’ channel, I was eventually allowed into their inner sanctum and given an outline of how the team operates.

All planning starts with a regular Thursday meeting in the Board Room behind locked doors, having previously ascertained that the room has not been bugged and any unwanted intruder has been removed from under the table. At the meeting possible subjects are discussed with emphasis placed on choosing a balanced selection of people, i.e. they don’t do ten shows on pop singers, followed by ten shows on actors, followed by ten shows on comedians. When a possible subject has been chosen as much information as possible is obtained from back issues of newspapers by Mary McAnnally. From these she compiles a skeleton biography. Then the Investigators take over and without referring to the programme by name, they ring up the people closely associated with the subject. From these enquiries the most suitable guests are chosen and sworn to secrecy. To add an element of surprise a guest is sought, close to the subject, but who has not been seen for many years; on alternatively a person much admired by the subject but one whom he has never had an opportunity to meet.

When the Researchers and Investigators have completed their work, the information is passed to the Scriptwriters. His draft script is discussed and when finally approved, Mary McAnnally searches for stills or any other material required to illustrate the final story.

This is a fairly superficial outline of how the operation works but because of the stringent security precautions imposed there was little else Nina could reveal. It’s a bit like the man in the commercial for a drink that shall remain nameless, who clambers into a telephone kiosk and starts to whisper, “The secret of Sch… is…” and is suddenly whisked away to an unknown destination by a mysterious enemy. In dealing with this department, a little knowledge is a dangerous thing so if you are unfortunate enough to discover something you shouldn’t, keep quiet about it – and stay out of telephone kiosks!

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Bryan’s day starts with an alarm call at 7.45 a.m. when he staggers into the kitchen, falls over the cat, turns on Tony Blackburn, hastily drinks his coffee and makes an early departure to search for the first available parking meter.

Before going into the office he visits the nearest tobacconist to stock-up on the day’s supply of cigarettes and cigars – how substantial a supply you can judge from the photographs.

The day begins with the morning papers, a large intake of nicotine, five cups of coffee and a conference with Producer, Nicolas Mellersh. Bryan is responsible for all the Light Entertainment items of ‘Today’, and much of the morning is taken up with booking people in advance for future programmes.

After a final conference with Tom Steel, Associate Producer, Bryan retires to the White Horse for fortification – if desperate, other alternatives are sought and Reg, pictured below, must guard his refreshments with zeal.

The afternoons are spent in the studio when the pace becomes much more hectic.

According to Bryan, a director’s most essential quality is the ability to con people – to convince them that you know more than them, that you are in complete control and know exactly what you are doing. “If I wasn’t a Director, I’d make a super con-man!”

“A Director is responsible for presentation. If we compare a Producer to the manager of a shop, a Director would be his window-dresser. The Producer decides what goods are to be displayed and the Director decides how they are shown, where they are shown and what lighting effects should be used.”

For Bryan, the most rewarding aspect of directing is editing: “I adore editing because when all your material is there you can retire with a Film Editor, select all the best bits and put it all together in a creative, imaginative way. I hate ‘live’ television as it is impossible to attain the same standards of perfection.”

His greatest compliment to date came from a Light Entertainment Producer who said, “You’re too much of a perfectionist, Bryan.” The most constructive comment, however, came from his doctor, who said, “You smoke too much Bryan!”

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• 1:30 Closedown till 1:55

Looking back from today’s perspective it seems hardly worth closing down for only 25 minutes.

Surely a caption and music would suffice? But no, we must look at it from the point of view of the perceived corporate needs of Thames.

An interlude would have no dramatic or iconic import. Things would merely carry on where they left off. A closedown however, required a start up to resume the programmes.

This was an opportunity to promote the corporate identity of the (new) station, to show off the newly composed Salute to Thames march, and oddly to remind the cognoscenti of the ABC heritage of the company, with continuing use of the ABC startup theme Perpetuum Mobile – selected by Thames for a further ‘life after ABC’.

In this instance the next programme was the Grand Opening Luncheon of Thames Television – live from the Mansion House – something that would be at its most resonant after playing of the new Salute to Thames march just beforehand.

So the trivial “1.30 Close down until 1.55” was no minor coincidence. It was very much part of the plan…

• 4:40 Children’s Television – The Sooty Show

The legacy of Rediffusion can be easily discerned within the Thames output – for the early years at least. In this particular even the TV Times entry is pure Rediffusion thinking.

It was only in the London area that kids programmes had been traditionally grouped separately in the TV Times under the general heading “Children’s Television” and it seems that this was the first of many Rediffusion traditions that Thames carried forward.

Indeed it may even have been unthinking continuation by a sub editor of a habit long established. It may not have been Thames policy at all.

The Sooty Show, perhaps only a footnote in television history now, was at the time a legendary and wildly popular part of the junior culture. Sooty had appeared on BBC television since the fifties.

When it transferred to ITV it was a national newspaper story of supposed cultural significance. It was treated by the press as something of a coup for Rediffusion to have brought the glove puppet star across from the BBC and as of this date it appeared that Thames would continue to exploit the property.

The show is here produced by Daphne Shadwell, a long standing Rediffusion producer (and daughter of the ITMA radio band leader Charles Shadwell), and came from Television House.

• 5:10 Magpie

Magpie had been trailed in the press, well before the launch of Thames, as the ‘new look’ ITV’s response to the long standing Blue Peter on BBC Television.

With Blue Peter owning Mondays and Thursdays, Thames chose Tuesdays (and later Fridays as well from 1969) for their new show. From the outset the programme was conceived as a more hip, adolescent and indeed “laid back” event than the earnest middle England tone of Blue Peter could ever allow.

The tabloids liked to imply a class rivalry between the viewers of the two shows but many children watched both shows. Some adults later claimed to have been “Blue Peter children” or “Magpie kids” but the tribalism was undoubtedly exaggerated.

The engagement of more youthful figureheads than the BBC was using in children’s programmes was a revolutionary start. The new faces were hardly teenage but opposite the ‘mumsy’ tones of Valerie Singleton and Christopher Trace on Blue Peter, they probably seemed very young.

To bring real novelty to the programme, one of the presenters was ex-pirate DJ and Canadian (wow!) Pete Brady – though he had already earned some respectability with his new Radio One and Two afternoon show which had followed on after his career on the offshore Radio London had ended, along with the station.

One regular item within Magpie was the spin off feature “Captain Fantastic”. This was a character from the former Rediffusion show Do Not Adjust Your Set, a surreal forerunner of Monty Python.

• 5:50 News

The long standing eleven minute news bulletin at 5.55pm on weekdays was brought forward to 5.50 and extended to fourteen minutes as part of the ITA-led commitment to expanding ITN’s bulletins.

This followed on from the successful development of News at Ten, which had started during Rediffusion’s final year, with the transfer of the main evening news from seventeen minutes at 8.55 to half an hour at 10pm.

On this day, the lead story of the 5.50pm bulletin was the launch of Thames Television. Yorkshire TV had premiered the previous day and Harlech Television earlier in the year – London Weekend was to come later in the week – so Thames remained a solo launch story.

Local viewers had seen the Lord Mayor’s welcoming luncheon from the Mansion House that afternoon and would also be treated to recorded repeats of the speeches at 11.30pm in a round up called “London’s New Television Service”.

This was perhaps misleading as it was a new contractor on an existing service – but the TVTimes was playing the ‘Outside Broadcast’ (still then an exciting phrase) for all it was worth.

Viewers in the regions had not seen the Outside Broadcast from the Mansion House and so the ITN bulletin included clips from the speeches and a commentary for the innocent provincial viewer outlining the media excitement of the London event. And this was reasonable enough.

In our modern multi-channel society, these matters would be assumed of little interest to the viewer – but in an age with just three television services being available to the majority of viewers, the launch of a new ITV contractor for London, even ‘just’ two former contractors with a new name, was considered worthy of being the lead story on the national bulletin. Even the BBC covered it.

How times change.

• 6:04 Today with Eammon Andrews

Under Rediffusion, the space between the news and the programme that followed was filled by Commander Laurie West presenting a full, informative weather forecast with maps and charts and statistics. Thames replaced this with the duty announcer reading a headline forecast over a caption, and the weather bulletin disappeared as an item in its own right from the pages of the TVTimes.

Thames Television’s new Today programme was conceived as the jewel in the crown of their local programming – it was one of the items specified in advance in the original ABC franchise application for the weekend contract.

It had originally been imagined as a Saturday roundup of past and future London events and was modelled on the erstwhile ABC Weekend magazine programme previously seen on Saturday nights in the Midlands and North.

The formula was to be the same – a roundup of cultural and personality-led events from the area, with an avoidance of the sort of mundane “warehouse fire in Salford” stories that had dominated regional news in the past.

When ABC found itself rather unexpectedly in bed with Rediffusion to provide the weekday service in London, the local news commitment was “buffed up” into a planned daily show – on weekdays at least – and the advance publicity stressed the “news for London about London” approach.

Exactly what this amounted to was not made clear. The point was made that the show was intended to avoid the trap that Rediffusion had fallen into with their long lived Three After Six local programme – packaging national stories into a local show on the excuse that the capital city was not the equivalent to a provincial region.

Rediffusion had always claimed in their defence that the then VHF signals covered the whole South East and so London local news would be of little interest in Bedford, Guildford or Oxford.

The option of doing a show for the whole south-east region did not seem to have occurred to them. It was only some years later with the slow transfer of viewers to the smaller region UHF coverage that the London ITV area became a true service for London alone.

Thames’s early period in black and white is often overlooked by media historians – but coverage differences between traditional VHF and the new UHF were as much of an issue at the time as the introduction of colour after 1969.

Sales of colour sets were initially slow and the majority continued to watch on VHF for several more years – it was 1975-6 before the number of colour TV licences issued was greater than the number of monochrome ones.

Thames seem to have painted themselves into a corner with Today in their desire to achieve more for London than Rediffusion had done with Three After Six. From the word go, the new show interviewed stars, musicians and actors, previewed West End hits and reviewed the culture of the capital.

This was probably more to do with the presenter being Eamonn Andrews, a stalwart of ABC ‘sports and celebs’ shows for many years past, who created a more personality-oriented atmosphere than Thames had planned for its main news magazine. The show became a modern version of BBC radio’s famous In Town Tonight of the forties, at least until Eamonn Andrews moved on, tempered only by news of the odd warehouse fire in Wapping….

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