THE younger generation — often attacked — can take a bow for a change. In fact, one section — the children who appear in Granada’s Junior Criss Cross Quiz — can take several bows.

They have established a reputation for politeness, good manners and, above all, sportsmanship.

About 500 children have been in the programme since it began more than two years ago. What have the people who work on this noughts and crosses game general knowledge learned?

Pam Marsden, head of the contestants’ department at the Manchester studios, said: “Mainly that children are better at taking disappointment than adults.

“In the grown-up quiz programmes, competitors are keyed up all the time. They will retire winning a fairly large sum of money rather than risk losing it on another question or another game.

“But usually the children, who have a large number of points at stake, representing several prizes, press on to the end. They don’t mind a risk. And they are sporting when they lose.

“That characteristic shows in the early stages of the preliminary test. They are set a paper of 25 general knowledge questions.

“The producer interviews them while the papers are being marked. They are given the verdict straight away. It is amazing how matter-of-fact they are.

“I think they are philosophical because they are used to examinations at school and feel that it is not a matter of life and death; just a game.

“We find many adults who see the programme write and say when they think they have seen a particularly well-mannered child in the show.

“This sort of letter usually comes from older viewers conscious of the behaviour of the younger generation.”

Bill Grundy, quizmaster for five months, spoke of a boy in a programme who had won almost 350 points. This entitled him to a canoe or a stereophonic record player.

Said Grundy: “The lad was playing well and wanted a canoe. He accepted a further challenge, played two drawn games.

“On the third, he lost; not only the points he wanted, but those he had piled up. Instead of the canoe he went home with a book token.

“I sympathised. His reply: ‘Oh, that’s all right, Mr Grundy. It was very enjoyable.’ I was most impressed.

“People think girls are bad losers at games. But this is not true in Junior Criss Cross Quiz. I have yet to see a defeated contestant — boy or girl — be unsportsmanlike.”

Over to programme researcher Yvonne Levy. “The children seem to have a leaning towards certain interests.

“‘Pets,’ ‘Is It True?’ ‘Odd Man Out,’ and ‘Nicknames’ are firm favourites with boys and girls. Girls steer clear of engineering, fearing technical subjects. Boys shy off fairy tales. They are keen on science.

“We like letters from children suggesting new subjects, but they must cover a wide field. Pets, say, include all animals, not just one type.

“The contestants like coming to the studio. They enjoy getting stars’ autographs at tea time as much as being in the programme.

“The children, too, get fan mail after the shows. Other youngsters write to I them, and this produces pen friendships.”

The post 500 good sports appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

PAT McHUGH, the vivacious, 22-year-old Concentration hostess, has had a variety of jobs since she left school a little more than six years ago.

She has worked as a dentist’s receptionist, in a cocktail bar, as a policewoman, nurse, shorthand typist (with a bus company, an undertaker and an aircraft firm) and model.

“All good experience,” she says. “But right now I’m concentrating on being my own boss. I hope to be able to go into business at the end of this year. It all depends on how much money I’ve saved by then.”

What sort of business? Pat thought for a moment, then said, slowly: “Well, I haven’t quite made up my mind yet. I feel that I’m pretty good at selling things to people, and I’d very much like to own a gown shop.

“On the other hand, I may just invest my money in some property and leave it at that.”

Pat’s good looks and trim figure have won her a string of beauty titles, appearances in TV’s Holiday Town Parade — and cash prizes, too.

“Twenty pounds here, twenty pounds there … it all helps,” says Pat, who has just won a preliminary heat in another national beauty contest — for “Miss England”—and will appear at the finals in London later this month.

“When I first started on the modelling course I used to wonder if I should ever make it. I used to get up at 7am to go to my job in Chester from my home near Mold, in North Wales.

“Then I went to the modelling school in the evening. After doing all the strenuous exercises, I was almost asleep on my feet as 1 walked the last two miles home—the bus service finished hours before I got anywhere near Mold.

“My mother wasn’t so sure that I had made the right decision, but my father backed me up and now everything’s fine — I’ve no regrets.”

She added: “Of course, there are some days when I wonder whether it’s all worth it … everybody gets a fit of the blues occasionally … but then a nice job comes along and every thing in the garden is lovely.

“I manage to keep busy, and I enjoy life. It’s exciting. A model’s job isn’t a steady one by any means. There’s no wage packet every Friday. But if you like meeting people — and I most certainly do — it is worthwhile.”

Pat’s busy life does not leave her much time for hobbies. But when she is at home in her own three-room flat in Liverpool she likes to read or listen to records.

“I’ve got a very wide selection, but I enjoy the slow and easy numbers most. Music helps to release the tension after a long day.”

Occasionally, Pat goes ice skating. “I’m afraid I’m not good at it. They say it’s excellent for the figure – but I’m not so sure. I suppose it all depends on whether you can stay on your feet or not!”

There was a mischievous twinkle in Pat’s grey-green eyes as she rubbed a recently-bruised elbow.

Then Pat announced that she had just made one of the biggest changes in her life. “My hair,” she said. “I’ve changed the colour from auburn to strawberry blonde — and I have been worried to death.

“It’s a big step for a girl to take, you know. The night before I came to the studios for the show I couldn’t sleep. I kept wondering what people would say.

“A new hair-do is as good as a tonic to a girl, but a change of colour is a bit drastic.”

And do people like it?

“The verdict seems to be about 90 per cent ‘Yes’ and 10 per cent ‘No,’ so I’m quite relieved. Most of those who said ‘Yes’ were men, and I’m very glad about that, because they tell the truth when they are talking about women.

“I think women tend to be dishonest when they are asked to give an opinion about another woman, though I must admit that a hairdresser girl friend of mine said it was marvellous, and that made me very happy.”

What about men and marriage? Pat drew herself up to her full height of 67 inches, looked at me and said: “I’m not interested in men. I’m much too busy working.”

But there was a smile on her face as she said it.

The post Concentrating on Pat McHugh appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

A WELL-KNOWN phrase or saying, the name of a city or country, statesman or TV personality, the title of a popular song, a play or a book — each is a potential picture puzzle for Concentration.

No particular formula is applied in the choice of the puzzles. The only requirement is that they should lend themselves to presentation in words and pictures and that they should not be too easy, not too difficult, for contestants and viewers to solve.

George Cross, producer of Concentration, said: “It is necessary to keep a standard which reaches a general level, but you cannot put a measure on it. Some ideas are discarded because they involve long phrases which would be too unwieldy to present in the available space on the Concentration board.

“On the other hand, if the puzzles were too easy to solve, the show would be lacking in entertainment, for it depends on keen and quick competitors for its appeal.”

Cross finds that almost all his thinking is now in terms of picture puzzles. “The process is almost automatic and has become second nature to me,” he said, and added, “We aim at keeping the drawings uncomplicated so that the puzzles are not cluttered up with too much detail.”

The ideas which have been sketched out roughly as puzzles to be used in the programme are passed each week to Granada graphics artist Bert Harrop.

But the puzzles that Harrop works on are never used in the show the same week for the heavy curtain of security that shrouds the programme ensures that only one man — producer Cross — knows which will be used and when.

To ensure that this strict security is maintained, a carefully thought out routine takes effect from the moment the rough sketches arrive on Harrop’s drawing board.

He marks out the puzzle on the 30 separate pieces of cardboard bearing numbers corresponding to those on the Concentration board.

But there are never more than six pieces of the puzzle on his drawing board at any one time so that anyone looking over his shoulder would see only a small part of the complete picture.

“And that wouldn’t mean a thing to anyone,” said Harrop. “For instance, the vertical stroke of a letter T may coincide with the intersection of four parts of the puzzle and anyone seeing a mark on the corner of one section would have no clue even to the letter, let alone the word which it begins.”

When he has completed a puzzle the 30 sections go back to Cross and are locked away in his office safe … in sealed envelopes.

The steady stream of completed puzzles are stock piled so that if anyone had seen one it would still be impossible to find out when it would be used.

Two hours before the show is due to go on the air he unlocks the safe and takes out five or six puzzles.

The sections of the first puzzle to be used in the show are split into vertical columns and handed to the men who load the Concentration board, so that each has no possible chance of solving the completed puzzle.

The operation begins with only just enough time to complete it before the show is on the air.

At this stage, producer Cross is still the only man who knows the answer to the puzzle because the men work from the rear of the board and see the triangular sections — each carrying a part of the puzzle, a prize and a number — presenting to them the puzzle “face” in a series of back-to-front squares.

When the puzzle is rotated to its correct position for a last-minute check to ensure that it has been properly mounted and that no plus signs have been missed out only Cross and Harrop see it.

Cross makes the final check and Harrop does any necessary retouching.

And, as compere David Gell opens the show, Cross hands out another puzzle which is loaded into a second board. “I always have more puzzles than are needed, so there is never a chance of anyone finding out which one is being used,” he said.

Now concentrate

These four Concentration puzzles were specifically drawn for TV Times. If you can’t solve them, the answers are below.

1. Epilogue to Capricorn
2. Take Your Pick
3. Armchair Theatre
4. Concentration

The post Meet the Concentration puzzle man appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

A PHONE rings in the Northern Newscast office at the Granada TV Centre in Manchester. News editor David Plowright answers it, then turns to reporter Terry Dobson and says: “Four feet snow drifts on the Snake Pass. Take the radiophone car — and hurry!”

Dobson grabs his overcoat; rushes to the waiting car. The engine of the black saloon is ticking over as he slides into the seat beside the driver. Off towards the hills — and another eyewitness story.

Granada’s car was the first in the North to be fitted with the new telephone equipment. It has given on-the-spot communication in remote country districts where telephones are rare.

As the car races along slush-covered roads, Dobson makes his first call to base. “Car A102 calling exchange … car A102 calling exchange.”

Twenty miles away on Winter Hill, only a stone’s throw from the ITA transmitter, stands the GPO receiving station through which Dobson’s call passes to the new Peterloo exchange in Manchester.

Dobson, in the car, and Plowright, in the office, discuss how the story shall be treated. Then Dobson relaxes as the long climb to the snow-clad moors begins.

Another hazard lies ahead — patches of fog close in on the narrow road that twists over the Snake Pass. The car edges cautiously round hairpin bends, bumping along over rutted snow, dodging drifts which in places have hidden the low stone walls marking the roadside.

Suddenly the headlights of a stationary lorry are seen. The car stops and Dobson steps out — into a knee-deep snowdrift. The lorry driver tells him of hold-ups on his run from Sheffield. Back into the car goes Dobson to report progress — by phone.

Farther along the road are more lorries. Some are moving; some have been stuck for hours. Film cameraman Steve Stephens records the battle against the weather as lorry men help each other to dig their vehicles free from snow.

As we watch, Dobson tells me: “This is the sort of story we get right through the winter. The weather is always news.”

Dobson phones his story from the car. This way it can be quickly assessed against other news pouring in.

The typewriters of copy typists Barbara McDonald and Freda Roberts are chattering out more reports from the towns and villages bounded by Carlisle and Middlesbrough to the North and Barmouth and Grantham to the South.

Every correspondent is pinpointed on Plowright’s wall map by flags names and telephone numbers for and easy reference.

On another wall is a chart into 20-year old newsroom secretary Anne Beaty sticks coloured pins denoting the number of times cities and towns have been mentioned in the bulletins week.

“This gives us a picture at a glance of the newsiest spots in our area and the places which might yield good, off-beat stories,” said Plowright.

“We are a team which goes into people’s homes every night to tell them in a simple, but vigorous, manner what has been happening.

“The news we aim at is not all death and disaster. We try to keep a balance by using the lighter, more human items, the stories with a touch of glamour or oddity them.

“We concentrate on getting material which has not appeared in the evening newspapers so that we have a fresh and lively bulletin.

“That is why, each night, we present a tailpiece to the news that is unusual or amusing. These are items which lend themselves to a brief, humorous comment from the newscaster.

“We work to a five o’clock deadline for film and are proud that we have given pictures of an event which has taken only 45 minutes earlier.

“News stories, of course, can be accepted right up to time we go on the air.”

Keeping Northern viewers in the news picture is a tough but exciting job that has taken Dobson and his colleague, Don Kerr, thousands of miles, often in trying conditions.

Dobson and Kerr write the stories the and the film commentaries needed for the six-minute bulletin. “We always write more than are actually needed so that we can pick out the best just before we go on the air,” Dobson told me.

He has checked through the reel of film shot by Stephens on the Snake Pass and decided, in consultation with film editor Dick Thomas, the sequence and running time.

In the newsroom, urgency increases as programme time nears. Newscaster Brian Trueman arrives just as Plowright is shuffling through a wad of stories for a suitable news tailpiece.

The room is now full of people. Final checks and changes are made. Trueman sits in the tiny studio. A red light flashes … and another Northern Newscast begins.

The post Car A102 speeds the news appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

A FIVE-FOOT-NOTHING girl with dark hair and twinkling brown eyes stands in a corner of the studio, her fingers snapping and her feet tapping as the Ted Heath band rehearses.

Viewers will see her next Wednesday as a guest singer in Granada’s Bandstand. Nineteen-year-old Maureen Evans has come a long way from the school plays and concerts in which she appeared at home in Cardiff.

In fact, she has been a success ever since she got her first real taste of show business at the age of 15.

She told me: “I began appearing at local concerts when I was 12. At 15 I was asked to sing two songs at a Lord Mayor’s charity matinee at the New Theatre, Cardiff.

What happened? Maureen scored a big success. The theatre manager signed her up for a week’s variety.

“That was the most thrilling day of my life,” said Maureen, her eyes alight with excitement at the memory.

It was exciting, too. for Maureen’s mother, Mrs Lavinia Evans. She sat in the stalls watching the daughter who had blossomed in three years from just a schoolgirl soprano to “pop” singer.

Maureen switched to “pop” songs because she enjoys them more. It was a switch that led to three summer seasons at Llandudno, many TV appearances and a disc contract.

She confessed: “I suppose it is just as well that I am in show business, because I do not think I could do any other job.

“I got plenty of encouragement from my music and drama teachers at school and produced and acted in a few plays. I enjoyed producing more than acting. But I always wanted to be a singer.”

Maureen loves her work, but she is still a home girl at heart. This commercial traveller’s daughter likes nothing better than to have her family and friends around her.

Travelling about the country is something Maureen detests. She told me: “I have never quite got used to it.

“I was only 15 when I did my first four month summer season.

“Four months! It was the first time I had been away from home, and every night I rang Mother to cheer myself up.

“I love to be with the people I know, and at home I often have my friends in to parties. Sometimes we have three parties in a week.”

She also enjoys lending a hand with the household chores, decorating — “I did out my own room” — and helping her aunt make the dresses she wears on TV.

“If I had not become a singer. I might have gone in for dressmaking,” said Maureen.

For a girl who is only 60 inches high — “I wear 4in heels all the time” — clothes are something of a problem.

Said Maureen: “I have the greatest difficulty when it comes to buying new outfits. That is one reason why my aunt makes most of my dresses.”

The post Home is where the heart is appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

WHEN Hugh David and Wendy Williams, the stars of Granada’s Knight Errant Limited, have any free time they climb into their car and point its nose towards Wales — towards the land of their fathers.

In private life they are Mr. and Mrs. David Hughes, but David altered his name to avoid confusion in the world of entertainment with singer David Hughes.

At the Manchester studios, where they were rehearsing for the Thursday adventure series, Hugh told me: “My mother came from North Wales and my father came from the south. I was born in Aberystwyth, Cardiganshire.”

Green-eyed Wendy was born in Surrey, of a Welsh father and an English mother.

“But,” she told me, with pride in her voice, “I went to school in Colwyn Bay in Denbighshire, and I adore Wales. When I hear the anthem The Land of My Fathers it always brings tears to my eyes. My father’s family live in Anglesey and I’ve got hosts of relatives there.

“Hugh’s parents are settled in Cardiff, so it’s natural for us never to think of going anywhere but into Wales when we have time off from the studios.”

“Not always to visit our families,” Hugh added quickly. “Sometimes we go just for the scenery, for the sheer pleasure of driving through the beautiful hills and valleys.”

What is it, I asked them, that makes the Welsh so patriotic?

“Well,” replied Wendy, “I think there is a sense of belonging in all of us.

“People with Celtic blood seem to me to have this feeling more strongly than others. Welsh people seem to be even more patriotic when they are away from home.”

This brought a smile to her husband’s face. “That’s very true,” he said. “I remember a friend telling me about a Welsh stationmaster who was in Manchester a long time ago.

“He wrote beautiful nostalgic poetry about Wales while he was in Manchester, but as soon as he left England and went home he gave up writing.”

Hugh and Wendy first met in Wales. They appeared together in a television play at Cardiff, in February, 1959. A mutual friend, the Welsh actor Clifford Evans, introduced them. They got engaged on St David’s Day last year.

Their marriage service at Surbiton, Surrey, took place only six days before the beginning of the present series of Knight Errant. It was conducted by Hugh’s father, the Rev. J. Williams Hughes, a Baptist minister who was formerly principal of the North Wales Baptist College at Bangor.

I asked Wendy if Welshmen are more romantic than Englishmen. With one of her infectious chuckles she said:

“In my limited experience they are not.

“At least, not in the sense that they shower a girl with flowers and whisper sweet Welsh words in her ear. I didn’t even get a bunch of leeks on St. David’s Day.”

The post Knights errant take to the hills appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

DIRECTOR Chris McMaster was placing chessmen in position on a plan of the set for “The Conspirators,” Thursday’s episode of Knight Errant Limited, when I called to see him at the Manchester Television centre.

“I’m not playing games,” he explained. “I’m just working out some camera moves. These chessmen represent people standing round the bar in a village pub in Ireland.

“And there,” he added, indicating some pencilled squares on the plan spread over his desk, “is the village street. We’re going to have somebody riding down there on a bicycle and a couple of women with shawls and baskets and a donkey to give the place atmosphere. It’s going to be great fun.”

Not so funny, however, for publisher Stephen Drummond (Hugh David) who, with secretary Frances Graham (Wendy Williams), finds himself in an Irish seaside village trying to sort out the ownership of a piece of land and gets involved in some of the local shenanigans.

Chris McMaster is Dublin-born and theatre bred. And this is the first time in the four-and-a-half years he has spent in television that he has worked on a show with an Irish setting.

“We’re going to have a real hooley (that’s Irish for party) with this one,” said 32-year-old Chris, who joined his father’s theatre company in Dublin when he left school at 16.

“To make this as authentic as possible we are using film shot in Ireland,” he added, “and half the cast are Irish, or have a strong Irish connection.”

One is 47-year-old, Omagh-born Patrick McAlinney, who plays barman Sian Kelly. Pat, an actor in Dublin, on Broadway and in London’s West End for the past 25 years, describes Kelly as “a cynical sort of chap, typical of Irish barmen, I suppose.”

Dublin born Harry Hutchinson, who will play publican Joe O’Kelly, has not been home since 1955 when he played in Sean O’Casey’s The Bishops Bonfire, in Dublin

Says Harry, who is 68 and has lived in England for 30 years: “Irish publicans tend to be very friendly, hospitable people. They are well-endowed with the gift of the gab, too, of course.”

The other Irish members of the cast are Michael Golden, Tony Quinn, Howard Lang and Alan Barry.

The post It’s Knight Errant’s move appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

BACK to the television screen next Thursday comes Granada’s Knight Errant Limited, the firm that specialises in solving other people’s problems — and rescuing damsels in distress.

The head of the old firm, Adam Knight, had to rush off to Canada to manage his uncle’s farm after the series ended last June. The new boss is publisher Stephen Drummond, a friend of Adam.

He took over because he thought the project too worthwhile to let die. Helping him are his secretary, Frances Graham, and a member of the “old firm”— “Daily Clarion” reporter Liz Parrish.

Drummond, who, according to the scriptwriters, is 32, intelligent, observant, a ski-ing and Judo enthusiast, is played by actor Hugh David, who is 35.

He matches up well, for, like Drummond, he went to university, took a degree in physics and mathematics and is keenly interested in modern history.

Hugh, his black hair flecked with grey, has the good looks and grooming demanded by the role. He points out that there are other facets of his character which agree with those of the TV hero he will be playing.

He told me: “Ski-ing for instance. Fve been ski-ing on holiday in Austria for about four years. I think I can say I’ve got past the stage where a broken leg is imminent — though I realise it could happen any time. But I don’t fall over so much now, so I suppose I’m progressing.”

Drummond, more interested in people than in books, is the sort of person who wants to help. It was this trait in his character that led him into Knight Errantry.

“That’s me,” said Hugh. “After qualifying as a physicist I worked in industry and did some research on jet engines. But I wanted to work with people rather than machines.

“In 1946 I became a teacher. I enjoyed that very much, but gave it up after two years. I felt there was too much restriction on the individual approach to the task.”

Three years at drama school in London resulted in Hugh winning a gold medal. That was in 1951 and, after a year in repertory at Whitby, he joined the Old Vic in London for three months, then went to Bristol.

Since 1952 he has made countless TV appearances — “playing parts ranging from a Borstal boy to Lord Nelson” — and has scripted schools programmes for television and radio.

His experience of helping people? It was his wife, actress Wendy Williams, who answered that question. Wendy plays the part of Frances Graham, Drummond’s secretary, She said: “He’s a smoother-out of trouble for everybody. People are always coming to him with problems.

“He has a sympathetic approach which makes them want to confide in him.”

But when Wendy and Hugh first met, nearly two years ago, it was Wendy who did the smoothing out! She explained: “We were working together in a TV play and Hugh was playing a love-sick 18-year-old boy. I played the part of his brother’s fiancee, who helps him to come to terms with his problem.”

What sort of girl is Frances Graham? The official description goes like this: Aged 26, gay, vital impulsive, very feminine, has violent enthusiasms which don’t last long.

She looked thoughtful, then said: “Well, I’m 25 and the rest of the description isn’t so far out, either!

“I’m impulsive — most women are, it’s a more feminine characteristic than masculine — and I can’t bear insincerity or incompetence. I’m the sort who must have things right. If they’re not, I want to know why.

“I like to have good things about me — clothes, furniture, food, everything. Enthusiasms? I don’t swing about. If I become enthusiastic about something I usually stay loyal to it.”

Blonde Canadian actress Kay Callard, back in the programme to give a helping hand to the new owner of Knight Errant Limited, married actor-director Jack McNaughton two months ago.

Her role, too, ties in with her own background. Before she became an actress, Kay worked on a small newspaper in Canada as a reporter.

While the show has been off the screen she has been able to spend more time on her hobbies … sculpture, gardening and collecting fine glassware.

Said Kay: “The garden is only the size of a pocket handkerchief, but it had become a little overgrown so we had to chop down the weeds and rescue a grapevine that was being choked.”

The post A new knight for the old firm appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

LEARNING to drive a motor car can be a nerve-shattering experience in itself but, when Richard Carpenter takes to the road with L plates, he finds he has an additional hazard to overcome.

Hazard? “Yes,” says 28-year-old Richard. “I keep hearing the Voice of Conscience. But it sounds so much like part I play of Peter Parker, Adam Knight’s assistant in Knight Errant ’60, that I could swear he’s sitting in the back seat, chunky grey sweater and all.”

Or perhaps it is just that Richard, who for six days a week is Peter Parker as he rehearses for the show at the Manchester studios, finds it difficult to forget him … Anyway I went along with Richard on one of his driving lessons to get the whole story.

As he drives away from the motoring school, he explains: “I start off brimful of confidence. But by the time I’ve turned a couple of corners and made three or four gear changes it happens.”

It? As he pulls up to allow a pretty redhead right of way on a pedestrian crossing, Richard gives a demonstration. He bawls: “Keep to the left, man! You’ll get us all killed!” And explains this is what nosey-Parker conscience says.

There is an immediate but unexpected reaction.

The redhead stops. Obviously she has heard. She stares. Obviously she is scared. She rushes on. Obviously thinking she is lucky to get away.

“See what I mean?” says Richard, looking unhappy and jerking his head in the direction of the fleeing female. “She thinks I’m a nut case. And when I’m out driving I almost convince myself.”

But there is nothing crazy about Richard when he is off duty at his flat in Hampstead, London where he lives with his actress wife Annabelle Lee.

He admits he is a handyman around the flat and enjoys painting, decorating and assembling electrical gadgets.

His collection of jazz records ranges from the early discs of King Oliver and Louis Armstrong to the latest issues of Duke Ellington. On the serious side, he likes Bach and Vaughan Williams.

There are some interesting sounds coming from the gear box as Richard juggles with the lever and returns to the subject of Peter Parker.

“It’s difficult coping with the gears when you’ve got a pest like Parker nagging at you. The trouble with him is that he knows all there is to know about the theory of driving a car, but put him behind the wheel and he would probably go speed mad or something.”

Richard glances out of the window. It is a sympathetic glance. An L driver has stalled his engine at the traffic lights and is being driven to distraction by the blast of hooters from other cars.

There is a thoughtful look in Richard’s eyes as he turns and says: “Hear that? Parker would be one of those people who are making all the noise. He regards car ownership purely and simply as a means of getting quickly from one place to another.

“My interest goes further. When I’ve passed my test — if I ever do with Parker breathing down my neck — I shall use every spare moment to drive out into the country to explore.”

Richard is particularly interested in architecture, and likes to visit churches and old buildings.

He was a painter in oils before he turned to acting, went into repertory at Chiswick, Dundee and Chesterfield, and toured the Middle East with the Old Vic. Now, he paints a word picture of the failings of Peter Parker…

“His head is like a junk shop of knowledge that needs sorting out. Each new thing he becomes interested in absorbs him completely for a time. For instance, he was writing a book on ‘What’s Wrong With Britain Today.’

“What happened? Why, it petered out, of course. Now he’s engaged on ‘An Analysis of Human Behaviour’.”

And Richard Carpenter, the motorist, gets tangled up in it?

“I don’t know about that,” says Richard as we pull up outside the driving school. “But I do know this: Parker gets tangled up in my motoring — and it’s driving me round the bend!”

The post The back seat voice of conscience appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

WHEN I met John Turner at the studios he had just finished an episode of Granada’s Knight Errant ’60, the series in which he plays Adam Knight, champion of the wronged.

“How does it feel to be a modern St George?” I asked.

I expected his eyes to shine with fervour. They did not.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said, “but I believe it’s not a bit of use dashing to the rescue of the modern maiden in distress. For instance, if you give up your seat in a bus to a woman, the odds are that she will refuse it. You insist. She still declines. And before you know what is happening, some unscrupulous male slips into the seat.”

A good talking point. Before I could reply, we were joined by Richard Carpenter, who plays John’s assistant, Peter Parker, and Kay Callard, Liz Parrish in the series.

Said Richard, taking up the theme: “Chivalry has been dead for years. Old women tend to expect it, probably a cause they were brought up during a period when life was more leisurely and there was more time for gallantry.”

Kay decided it was time to put a woman’s point of view.

She said: “Surely, the original meaning of chivalry, if you forget the romanticism of the writers, was the strong and idealistic individual fighting the battles of the weak and oppressed and rescuing the unfortunate and wrongly persecuted?”

“But the knights of old were men who went about the country simply looking for trouble,” said John. “They fought for milady’s honour just for the sake of fighting.”

Richard backed him up. “If you tried to do that now you would find yourself in jail. Really, the knights have been replaced by the police.”

Kay agreed that there were fewer damsels in distress. But she still thought there was a lot to be said for the old-fashioned male. “He treated women as the weaker sex and was much more thoughtful than the young man of today,” she said.

John wasn’t going to let her get away with that. “That’s just a lot of nonsense!” he said as he went into the attack.

“The modern young man is every bit as thoughtful as those in the days of old. Women are always the same. They expect chivalry and then demand equality.”

Kay countered with: “Why not? There are still parcels to carry, doors to open and chairs to set to the table. Aren’t men gallant enough for these courtesies?”

Said Richard: “These courtesies, as you put it, Kay, are just basic good manners not chivalry.”

But Kay was not going to be put off. “According to my dictionary the modern definition of chivalry is ‘Gallantry of spirit, bravery and courtesy.’ Men can be chivalrous by being courteous. Aren’t you courteous at home?”

Richard retorted; “If my wife is working, I do the housework. If I’m working she does it. But let’s get back to Knight Errant ’60. We’ve done a lot in the name of chivalry in this series, John. What would you say are the modern dragons?”

John thought hard, then said: “The physical dragons are people like the blackmailers, confidence tricksters and thieves from whom we’ve rescued Sally Smith, Shirley Laurence, Carol Wolveridge and Marianne Benet in the programme. But some of the dragons were in our own minds. Or they were disguised.”

The mention of disguise appealed to the Peter Parker in Richard. He suggested that Moira Redmond, who appeared in the Mediterranean cruise episode, was an example of the dragon in disguise.

“Do you mind,” said Kay, “if I come I back into this discussion? What it amounts to is that there are still just causes to be fought, if not by knights in armour then by scientists and politicians.”

John agreed, with the reservation that there were still many dragons at large in the community, perhaps not so important, but which ought nevertheless to be put to the sword. “For instance, overbearing matrons who charge to the front of the queue at the shops,” he said. “What is a mere man do?”

Kay sympathised. “Put it down to bad manner. I‘m ashamed of my own sex I when I see things like that.”

“Good for you, Kay,” said Richard.

John was more cautious. “Not so fast,” he said. “What Kay would like to see is every man falling over himself to dance attendance. Call it the Continental touch if you like, but really, it’s just a paradeof little tricks and flattering phrases.”

“Continental men tend to put women on a pedestal more than Englishmen do,” replied Kay. “And that makes a woman feel good. But I wouldn’t say women are fooled by it.”

It was time, thought Richard, to call a halt. “How about coming down off that pedestal you’ve just been talking about? Then we can all go for a drink.”

Said Kay: “Good idea. And if I may I say so, very chivalrous of you gentlemen.”

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NOTHING captures the imagination of children more than playing detective. But after Granada’s It’s Wizard on Thursday at 5p.m., they will be able to play the game with much more assurance.

Twenty-nine-year-old Gordon Luck, who presents the science-with-smiles show, thought back to his own schooldays (“I always enjoyed going round the house with a magnifying glass, trying to spot fingerprints”), and decided that an edition of It’s Wizard devoted to criminology would be just the thing for his millions of young viewers.

So, on Thursday, Gordon, the scientist-turned-actor, plays detective with his schoolboy assistant, Jeremy Purser. At the beginning of the programme Gordon will appear in traditional Sherlock Holmes garb, complete in every detail from deerstalker hat and Inverness cape to magnifying glass and “curly” pipe.

The idea came to Gordon while he was spending a holiday with friends in Newcastle upon Tyne. “They arranged for rhe to have a look round the police headquarters’ crime laboratory there,” he said.

“The detectives were very helpful, and I really enjoyed my visit.” He was so impressed with his back-room research that I thought a little more on-the-spot information would not go amiss and arranged for him to see the fingerprint department at Manchester City Police headquarters — only a few hundred yards from the Granada studios.

When we arrived, CID Superintendent Frank Williamson took Gordon straight to Inspector Trevor Green, who runs the fingerprint bureau for the Greater Manchester area. His “beat” extends from Rochdale and Oldham to Stockport and Salford.

Although it was only nine in the morning, Inspector Green’s staff were already bustling about checking bottles, vases and clocks brought in from the scenes of recent crimes.

But Gordon was the first “live” customer of the day when he light-heartedly agreed to have his own fingerprints taken by Sgt. Roy Jarvis. Said Gordon: “Anything in the cause of science!”

“This won’t hurt a bit,” said Sgt. Jarvis as he placed Gordon’s fingers firmly on an inked plate.

Then Gordon got the full treatment — individual rolled impressions of each finger, plus separate thumb-prints. Sgt. Jarvis reproduced them all, with the care of a real craftsman, on an official record form — which Gordon kept as a souvenir of his visit. Inspector Green, 21 years in the Manchester fingerprint department, told me: “A fingerprint officer’s evidence is never acceptable in court until he has had at least seven years’ experience classifying and comparing prints. And, of course, in each case there is a double check safeguard.

“An officer, comparing prints on record with those brought in from the scene of a crime, must always have the independent opinion of another member of the department before he can say with authority that they are one and the same.”

What are the chances of two people having identical fingerprints? Said Inspects Green: “In practice it is impossible for two people to have identical prints. There are no known cases in the world.”

As we left police headquarters, Gordon told me of his plans for the programme.

“Now that I know just how it’s done, I shall be taking Jeremy’s fingerprints. Then, having already set up some booby traps I shall leave the laboratory for a couple of minutes and let Jeremy wander around.

“No doubt he will be tempted to take a swig from a bottle of lemonade which I shall leave for him, and he will go around opening drawers and cupboards. And he’ll pick up coins and other articles which will have been specially treated with the dye used to detect thefts.

“It should be an interesting experience for Jeremy.”

Interesting for the millions of would-be amateur sleuths, too. For apart from hints and tips on how to be a detective. Gordon will also be telling his young viewers how to avoid the attentions of burglars when going on holiday.

The last word comes from Manchester’s Chief Constable, Mr. John McKay. He told me: “With special propaganda films and programmes like this, television is doing a wonderful job in helping the police to prevent crime.”

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THE Northern magazine programme People and Places little show that features the big names – stars of stage and film as well as top personalities from the worlds of music, art and sport.

The list of people who have appeared in the programme, which comes from Granada’s Manchester studios and is one of the company’s longest-running shows, is peppered with celebrities.

Here are some of the names: Lord Harewood, Henry Sherek, Katherine Dunham, Sheila Buxton, Tessie O’Shea, Dickie Henderson, Alfie Bass, Ted Lunee and Bill Fraser.

It is the sort of programme which presents the people who produce it with a never-ending streams of problems.

A phone call – sometimes just 10 minutes before the programme is due on the air – tells the producer that one of the artists has been held up and cannot get to the studio on time.

That is the kind of situation the presents a challenge to researchers like Jim Coburn, who are continually at the producer’s elbow.

The last time it happened he grabbed a taxi and drove three miles from the studios in the City Centre to the lodgings of comedian Freddie Earle. Freddie was making an omelette when Jim rushed in and said: “You’re on TV.”

Freddy [sic] dropped his fork, climbed into the taxi with Jim, and rushed to the studio as fast as traffic-choked roads would allow. He faced the cameras on an almost empty stomach and without a touch of make-up. There had been no time even for that.

“This sort of thing has happened a number of times,” said Jim. “We have had people rushing through the studio doors even during the 10-second count down to ‘on the air’ – and you can’t get much later than that!”

It happened again when Michael Holliday missed his train. The result was a frantic telephone call to jazz singer-trumpeter Leslie (Jiver) Hutchinson, who was appearing that week in Manchester.

Leslie was asked to jump into a taxi and head for the studios immediately!

Last-minute illnesses, late trains and planes, mechanical breakdowns. These are hazards which face the team that bring People And Places to the screen.

Under the heading of breakdowns comes the story of the luxurious taxi – the last word in comfort – that was sent to Blackpool to bring Dickie Henderson to Manchester for an appearance on the programme.

In Blackpool, the car developed engine trouble. So Dickie had to make the trip in an old-fashioned “boneshaker”.

The story of People And Places is not without its lighter moments, for the programme has always been liberally sprinkled with humour.

Interviewers Bill Grundy and Chris Howland started a gag with ran for weeks. It was the now-famous joke of long series of incidents carefully contrived to prevent Chris Howland singing on the programme.

It began, almost by accident, when Chris was given a singing spot – right at the end of the show. But because times ran out, the singing spot had to be cut. And on each occasion afterwards, something happened to prevent Chris being heard.

Letters began to roll in demanding that Bill should let Chris sing. But the joke went on.

Lord Harewood, who was in the programme to talk about the opening of Harewood House to the public, helped to keep it running. He told Chris: “You be down at Covent Garden at 10 am tomorrow for an audition.”

Later, Gary Miller, who was also in the conspiracy, asked Chris to sing with him in the show, but he said Chris would have to have a straw hat and cane if he wanted to take up the invitation.

Everybody thought that Howland would at last be heard. He dashed away for the vital hat and cane. But when he got back – breathless, and consequently unable to sing – only two bars of the number remained.

Chris continued to “campaign.” In a demonstration in which he was seen accompanied by about two dozen girl supporters, he carried a large board bearing the demand: HOWLAND MUST SING.

And Howland did. Standing beside a fountain in the studio grounds, he sang The Rain Falls On Everybody. It certainly on Chris, for Bill was seen busy at a tap. Chris got drenched.

There have been moments of unintentional humour, too. One of these came when the Spanish guitarist Pepe Martinez had to be coached to answer two questions in his very limited English.

The questions were: How long have you been in England and how long does it take to become a good flamenco dancer?

The answers, in the correct order, were six weeks and 25 years. Pepe gave them the wrong way round!

The People And Places team recall the time, too, when things got really hot, at the end of a demonstration of action painting. Part of the action was to set fire to the painting. The artist did. And because the show was under-running its time limit, the cameraman had to hold the shot as the flames leapt upwards.

A studio fireman stood by with an extinguisher, powerless to act because if he had done he would have put himself between in the line of the camera.

Said producer David Main: “Though we like to be up to the minute with items of interest to our viewers, we do not aim to be quite so hot on the trail as we were on that occasion.”

The post Getting people and places together appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

PAUL RYCROFT’S working day starts when most other people are thinking of having lunch, and he is often still working when they are going to bed.

The topsy-turvy world of television has turned his life upside down. But Paul would not have it any other way, for he has one of the most exciting jobs in Granada’s Manchester studios — playing host to visiting VIPs.

It is a job that calls for a great deal of general knowledge, diplomacy, tact and organising ability.

“General knowledge because people show a tremendous interest in everything they see and I have to answer a lot of questions,” he said. “Diplomacy and tact because I can’t let groups of people go barging into a studio while a programme is being transmitted. It wouldn’t do to get visitors tangled up with the cameramen and the actors while we were actually on the air.” This handsome, greying ex-actor is equally at ease and poised entertaining a Nigerian chieftain or a Russian TV technician.

He has, in fact, had experience of showing both round the studios. And people in many other walks of life, too, from peers of the realm to Scandinavian teenagers.

During the past 18 months the list of names is impressive – it includes Lord Morrison of Lambeth, the Earl of Harewood, Dame Margot Fonteyn, Peter Thorneycroft, Dr Ramsey, Archbishop of York, Dr Heenan, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, and American TV commentator Ed Murrow.

Visitors come from every country in Europe and every part of the Commonwealth. “From all over the world, in fact,” said Paul. Then he paused and added: “Except Bulgaria. I don’t remember meeting any Bulgarians. But I suppose I will eventually.”

When Paul took on the job more than three years ago, he was looking after as many as 800 visitors a month. “They included almost anybody and everybody who wrote in, and I was nearly on my knees. Now the figure has dropped to something like 300 a month because, apart from VIPs, we confine it mainly to people from overseas and scientists, technicians and educationists.”

He meets trains and planes, arranges taxis, lays on refreshments, cigarettes and drinks, makes sure everybody is in the right place at the right time.

Paul, 43, is married to an ex-professional ice skater from Brighton, where he was born. They have a two-year-old son. He was five-and-a-half years in the RAF during the last war. “It’s a long break for an actor, and when I came back I found it tough going,” he said. “I suppose that really set the ball rolling and led to me giving up the stage for good.”

Paul glanced at his watch and said he was sorry but he really must dash off to meet Lord Montagu, who was arriving to appear in People and Places. Another personality to add to the important and distinguished names to be found on the pages of Granada’s visitors’ book.

Dramatis personæ

• Paul Rycroft (1912-1987) – his only credited role on the Internet Movie Database is in the 1938 BBCtv dramatisation of the play Libel.
• Lord Morrison of Lambeth (1888-1965) – deputy leader of the Labour Party and wartime Home Secretary Herbert Morrison.
• Earl of Harewood (1923-2011) – George Lascelles, 7th Earl of Harewood, son of the Princess Royal, an aunt of HM Queen Elizabeth II.
• Dame Margot Fonteyn (1919-1991) – Margaret Evelyn de Arias née Hookham, prima ballerina.
• Peter Thorneycroft (1909-1994) – later Lord Thorneycroft, had recently become Minister of Aviation at the time of this article.
• Dr Ramsey (1904-1988) – [Arthur] Michael Ramsey, later archbishop of Canterbury 1961-1974.
• Dr Heenan (1905-1975) – John Heenan, later archbishop of Westminster and a cardinal.
• Ed Murrow (1908-1965) – head of CBS News, later director of the United States Information Agency.
• Lord Montagu (1926-2015) – Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu, 3rd Baron Montagu of Beaulieu, Conservative politician imprisoned for 12 months for the “gross offence” of kissing another man at a party.

 

Russ J Graham writes: The internal workings of television are just as much of a mystery to us now as they were in 1960, only now we tend to think we all know everything about how shows get to air.

Earlier in television history, people could admit to ignorance and curiosity about how studios worked. Indeed, such curiosity was encouraged, with TV companies producing book and booklets about their facilities that people rushed to buy: Rediffusion, TWW and Granada itself spring to mind.

Beyond buying the booklets, people also wanted tours of the studios, and most companies were willing to provide at least something. Granada did too but sought to limit the numbers, as the TVTimes points out. A requirement was an invite from a staff member, for the general public, but the great and the good could arrange visits – and enough visits were arranged to employ Paul Rycroft full time to do the job of marshalling them and taking them around bits of Quay Street that weren’t doing live programmes right at that moment.

The two senior archbishops’ interest was likely stimulated by them both, separately, going on ABC’s special course for priests and ministers which was mainly designed to make them all look less awkward on TV during the Epilogue or the Morning Service on Sundays. Ed Murrow would obviously be interested to see how it was done across the pond. The others listed must have known their way around television studios – Fonteyn and Morrison had both been televised before the War – but were obviously still interested.

The modern public seem not to be. After all, we know exactly how television makes it to air. If that were actually true, a trip to a television studio would comes as something of a surprise.

 

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]]> https://granadatv.network/poise-in-a-topsy-turvy-world/feed/ 0 https://granadatv.network/people-and-places-collects-collectors/ https://granadatv.network/people-and-places-collects-collectors/#respond Sat, 18 Nov 2023 16:25:27 +0000 https://granadatv.network/?p=727 People and Places meets members of the public – and some Granada stars – with unusual collections

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A TEAM of People and Places researchers and correspondents are scouring the north for interesting people who collect unusual objects. Each week the owners of articles ranging from handcuffs to cricket caps are being brought to the studios to tell viewers the story behind their hobby.

Programme producer David Plowright said: “People who collect unusual items have appeared in the show many times, but during the past two months we have been presenting one collector each week.

“We are looking for people who not only have an unusual collection but can tell an interesting story about it as well. We have in mind people who are well-known in some walk of life and have a hobby of which the public know little or nothihg.

“Many people have written in teiUng us about their collections, but few are suitable for the programme because they are the sort of things thousands of people collect — like foreign stamps.

“For us, it must be something out of the ordinary.”

The programme researchers did not have far to go for four people who have appeared in the show in the past few weeks.



Ernest Thompson, who is a technical editor with an engineering firm, went to the Manchester studios from his home four miles away to talk about his collection of religious figures.

Antique dealer Harold Gilbert and his collection of handcuffs were found at a shop only half a-mile from the studios, and David Drummond, who appears in the Biggies series as Lord Bertie, walked in from the studio next door, where he was rehearsing, to show his collection of walking sticks.

Drummer Amos Smith left his place in the People and Places Derek Hilton Trio to go before the cameras and discuss his coin collection.

Thirty-year-old Amos, who started his collection of more than 1,000 English and Roman coins 10 years ago, said: “I have had many letters from other numismatists since my collection was seen in the show.”

Has he been able to obtain any rare coins as a result?

“No.” Amos told me. “But I’ve heard from two dealers who want to buy the collection, which I insured for £2,500.

“The only coins I’m really interested in are about half-a-dozen English crowns. They are held by people not prepared to sell. But even if the crowns came on the market I wouldn’t be able to buy them. They would probably cost as much as my whole collection is worth “

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]]> https://granadatv.network/people-and-places-collects-collectors/feed/ 0 https://granadatv.network/people-on-the-pier/ https://granadatv.network/people-on-the-pier/#respond Sat, 18 Nov 2023 16:14:15 +0000 https://granadatv.network/?p=714 People and Places goes out on the road

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WATCH out … People and Places is coming your way. From next week, thousands of Northerners on holiday at seaside towns in the region will be able to see how this Granada show goes on the air.

Twelve on-the-spot editions, under the title “Pier to Pier,” are planned for a four-week tour of the resorts.

The tour begins on Tuesday at Skegness. There, the 50 strong production and technical staff will work at top pressure to set up their mobile studio and put over the show before moving on to Mablethorpe and Cleethorpes on Wednesday and Thursday.

Then on to Bridlington, Filey, Scarborough, Morecambe, Blackpool, St. Annes, Rhyl, Colwyn Bay and Llandudno.

This meet-the-people series of outside broadcasts aims to provide something for everyone.



Holidaymakers will see and hear the programme personalities — interviewers Bill Grundy and Gay Byrne, singer Marion Keene and the Derek Hilton Trio — as the show goes on the air.

Viewers will also see show-business stars appearing in the seaside summer shows, a film of the town from which the programme is transmitted and they will meet some of the interesting people who live and work in the towns.

Cameras will be perched on piers and promenades, in pleasure grounds, on harbour walls and beside boating pools.

Interviews by Bill Grundy and Gay Byrne will present current news stories against a background of yachts, sand, sea and fairground bustle.

Marion Keene gets a num her of unusual settings for her songs. At Mablethorpe they pop her on top of a helter-skelter and at Morecambe on board the schooner Moby Dick, the one that was used in the film.

Producer David Plowright told me: “The content of the show will be the same as it is in the studios. The difference is that all the items in ‘Pier to Pier’ will have a holiday flavour.

“We shall be doing all the shows out in the open — whatever the weather!

“We intend looking at the main sport in each resort — water ski-ing, sand yachting, and so on — and see some kart racing.”

The double decker, open-topped People and Places bus, which will be heading Granada’s Travelling Eye fleet, will become a familiar sight to holidaymakers.



Last year the People and Places team faced a number of hazards — including the bad weather — that they hope they will not have to cope with this year.

One was the gremlin that turned up at Bridlington in the shape of a gust of wind. It blew the programme caption cards into the sea minutes before the programme was due to go on.

They were retrieved, dripping wet, with only seconds to spare, by three men in a small boat.

When the show visited the Quarry Hill Flats, at Leeds, some of the intended camera shots were obscured by an army of children.

Closer and closer came the children until the camera crews and artists — among them singer Marion Ryan — were surrounded.

And at Carr Mill, near St. Helens, the Derek Hilton Trio went adrift. The anchorage of the raft on which they were playing broke and they began to float out into the lake as hydroplanes whizzed past them at speed.

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]]> https://granadatv.network/people-on-the-pier/feed/ 0 https://granadatv.network/oh-for-the-days-of-the-knights/ https://granadatv.network/oh-for-the-days-of-the-knights/#respond Tue, 01 Aug 2023 11:49:37 +0000 http://granadatv.network/?p=294 Kay Callard on the men in her life

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BLONDE Kay Callard was quite emphatic. “Men,” she said, “are the limit. Why do they have to be so patronising when they meet a girl who has looks and intelligence?”

Canadian-born Kay, who plays Liz Parrish, John Knight’s “Girl Friday” in Granada’s Knight Errant ’59, pursued the point.

“It’s a tousand pities there aren’t more knights in shining armour around these days,” she said, referring to men who aren’t patronising to girls who have taken their education seriously. “Maybe it’s a thing with me but I hate patronising men. Why do they have to be so supercilious?”



Kay is in the mood for talking and she goes on speaking for a long time and says a whole lot of things that are most interesting.

Like how her boy friends react when they find out she goes in for sculpture.

“They pat me on the head,” said Kay, “as though they think there might be something mistaken in the works, or they look all sympathetic and say something like ‘Oh well, if it pleases you, my dear… It makes me so mad.”

There was an angry glint in the Callard eye, but she brightened as she added: “That’s why when I meet new boy friends I always talk to them about their business rather than mine. I find it saves a lot of eyebrow-raising.” She laughed.

Kay laughs, too, about the crazy situations in which she finds herself. “They seem to crop up frequently at my flat in Chelsea,” she said. “Mainly because I am probably the world’s most untidy person.

“When I am going out, I can never find anything I want. The dress I decided to wear is always at the cleaners.”



Kay claims she lives in “an almost perpetual state of panic stations.” Evenings that begin quietly at home are apt to have a different ending.

She explained: “My friends and I take it in turn to meet in our own homes. I remember not so long ago one of these so-called quiet evenings ended up with Scotch and strawberries in Covent Garden and a stroll through Hyde Park at the crack of dawn.”

Kay, who started her career as a writer on a Toronto newspaper and ran her own advertising agency when she was only 19, has made many television appearances and has been in a dozen films since she came to England six years ago. Six years of crazy situations. And improvisations. Like the evening she had been invited out to cocktails.

“I was at my wits’ end for a hat,” said Kay. “Then I came across an old black sweater and thought it might be a good idea to cut off the sleeve, wind it round my head and stick a pin in it ”

Was the hat a success?

“I suppose it was really,” replied Kay. “But I don’t think it wise to admit authorship of anything until you know how the land lies.

“I was asked where I got the hat so I said it was just a little something I had picked up on my travels. They seemed quite impressed, so I thought it best to leave well alone.”

Our conversation drifted back to men. Said Kay: “When it comes to picking my man I shall look for a sense of humour. That’s very important because he will have to put up with my peculiarities.

“He will have to be a good listener, too, because I talk a lot.”

She laughed and said she was firmly convinced men were here to stay and she believed the situation was not really so terrible after all.

Patronising on the part of Kay?

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]]> https://granadatv.network/oh-for-the-days-of-the-knights/feed/ 0 https://granadatv.network/the-silent-shadows/ https://granadatv.network/the-silent-shadows/#respond Fri, 21 Jul 2023 11:32:51 +0000 https://granadatv.network/?p=149 Chinese, Indians, Africans… they all join the silent shadows

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A TELEVISION studio is the crossroads of the world — a meeting point of people from every nation. Here, for instance, Chinese, Indians and Africans meet to life and movement to the sets of Skyport and Knight Errant ’59.

They have no lines to speak, these silent part-time actors.

They earn the £3-a-day fee by merely hovering in the background or pacing unobtrusively across the set, giving the show the all-important stamp of a authenticity.

The task of finding them falls to Jose Scott, assistant to Margaret Morris, who is head of Granada’s casting department in Manchester.

Said Jose: “Some of the people I find are professionals, but many are part-timers specially engaged at short notice. I get them through an agent or our contacts in various schools and colleges.



“There are plenty of professionals available who have the facial characteristics of Europeans and most other whit-skinned foreigners.

“But when we need coloured people we run into difficulty in the North, because normally we can get hold of only a handful. Recently we needed 30 coloured men and women for a play. In desperation I rang Manchester University and asked them to put up a notice saying that any interested students should contact us.

“We didn’t have to wait long. Soon the phone was ringing — and it went on ringing and ringing and ringing. We had more than needed in the end.

“When we met them in the reception lounge, we found some of the men who had promised to come had brought their wives, too. And a woman who could not turn up at the last moment sent along her next-door neighbour.

“Although they speak English, many have a strong accent which we had difficulty in understanding and caused chaos when it came to getting their names correct.

“And when we asked them to write down their names, we couldn’t read their handwriting. But we got it sorted out eventually.”

Researchers for Granada’s People And Places magazine programme often provide leads to foreigners available for walk-on parts “And,” Jose told me, “once someone has made an appearance, he usually says ‘I have a friend who would be able to help…’ So the whole business works on a sort of snowball principle.

We have never been asked to find a Japanese, an Eskimo or a dwarf, but I’m sure we could. In the case of an Eskimo, we probably use a person with similar features, then dress them up. It’s amazing what a few clothes will do.”

Talking of clothes reminded Jose of an incident during rehearsals for a play. A group of Indians wearing saris were told the producer to turn up the next day in their “everyday” clothes.

So the next day they left their best saris at home and arrived on the set in their week-day saris! They didn’t that they were meant to wear Western dress.

At the studios, everybody speaks highly of the co-operation and friendliness of future doctors, lawyers, secretaries, teachers and engineers.

Said Jose: “The students are able to get a couple of days off without much difficulty, and they are always glad to do this sort of work. They have a reputation for being conscientious and hardworking.”



Akitoye Akiwumi, 24-year-old engineering student from Sierra Leone and Ali Mazrui, who has come from Kenya to study philosophy and politics, both appeared in a Granada play.

Said Akitoye: “We spent three days at the studio and found it very interesting to see things from the other side of the camera.” Ali told me: “I have done radio broadcasts in Mombasa, but this was he first time I had been inside a TV studio, a thrilling experience.”

Clarice Boyle, who is 25, and 22-year-old Marjorie During, both from Sierra Leone, got time off from their secretarial studies to become Skyport “travellers.”



When Jose was asked to find a Chinese family for Skyport, she called on a Chinese couple who run a Manchester restaurant, Maw Man and his wife Ah Sing. But their children, Ken, 13, and Linda, 12, were not able to appear because of restrictions concerning the employment of child actors. So Jose asked a London agency for two Chinese children.

When Ah Sing and her husband met the children from London in the studio, they discovered they were their niece and nephew — children of Maw’s elder brother.

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]]> https://granadatv.network/the-silent-shadows/feed/ 0 https://granadatv.network/the-street-where-they-live/ https://granadatv.network/the-street-where-they-live/#respond Wed, 19 Jul 2023 10:56:44 +0000 https://granadatv.network/?p=73 Tony Warren on how he got his inspiration for his new 13-part serial

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TONY WARREN toured pubs in greater Manchester for two months. It was in the cause of television. He even worked as a barman. The result of his researches can be seen in a new fictional serial, Coronation Street, next Friday.

“Apart from listening to people in pubs and clubs,” Warren told me in his office in Granada’s Manchester studios, “I also ‘kept observation’ in an off-licence, talked to people in buses and trains, wandered through street markets, made three trips to Blackpool illuminations and went on a ‘mystery’ coach outing, which turned out to be a fourth visit to Blackpool.”

“Coronation Street” – four miles from Manchester in any direction – is a collection of seven terraced houses, an off-licence, a little general store on the corner. The back wall of a raincoat factory, a pub called “The Rover’s Return” and the Glad Tidings Mission Hall.

The houses of “Coronation Street” are representative built more than 60 years ago, with no gardens. They have six rooms… parlour, living-room, scullery, and three bedrooms, one of which has been converted into a bathroom.

Yet it is home to the 20 people who live there, and most of them would not like to change their worn surroundings for something new but less humanised.

Like all communities, the people of “Coronation Street” have their problems. There is the young man who has won his way to university and now finds his background something of an embarrassment.

One of the characters will be as new as viewers to “Coronation Street.” She has just taken over the shop on the corner, and, like viewers, she must get to know her rich assortment of new neighbours.

“The Rover’s Return” is like any pub that serves a small close-knit community.

It is not so much a pub as a communal parlour where people can tell each other their troubles, joys and hopes, as well as have a drink.

To the garrulous Ena Sharples, the kindly ex-barmaid who looks after the Mission Hall, “The Rover’s Return” is more like home. She does her job at the Mission Hall, but she is not wholly in character with the place, and, off duty, she much prefers the easy, comfortable atmosphere of “The Rover’s Return.”

The truth is that Ena is a bit of an embarrassment to the Chapel Committee but, at 70, she is the only person who will look after the hall in return for a free house and coal supply.



Warren, slim and 6ft 1in tall, paced his office, paused to stub out a cigarette and said: “Three months ago, I decided to write a serial about the North.

“I started with one household. It became two, then three, and then a whole street, and I had to add a pub, an off-licence and a place of worship.”

He emphasised: “I am not having a joke at the expense of the people in the North. What I have aimed at is a true picture of life there and the people’s basic friendliness and essential humour.”

Warren is a Northerner himself. He was born in Eccles, and has lived in Pendlebury all his life, apart from five years in London as an actor.

The acting phrase of his career ended when his height increased and he was no longer suitable to play the son of the house. “Nobody wanted a son towering above them,” he explained.

A producer described him as “a bean-pole with a baby face.” So Warren took up writing. Now 24, he is still boyish-looking.

He lit another cigarette, and said: “I knew what I wanted to write, but going into pubs and clubs was the only way I could check its authenticity.

“Northerners have an enormous curiosity about everything. They’ll also tell their life story – as long as the listener is prepared to do the same.”



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NEVIL WHITING, the 35-year-old actor who plays Biggles, in Granada’s Friday series of that name, has been asking himself many questions during the past few weeks. And he has been giving himself all the right answers.

“I feel that I’m so much like Biggles that I think of him as my twin, rather than as a fictional character,” says Nevil.

The questions?

Well” says Nevil, “as a result of playing this part, I find that whenever I’m intent to do something or go somewhere I ask myself whether it is the sort of thing Biggles would do or the type of place that he would be likely to go to… I find that the answer is ‘Yes’ every time, so I’m quite satisfied.”

From the beginning Nevil set out to “get inside” Biggles and to compare the character, personality and interests of Capt W. E. Johns’ famous air ace with his own.

How has it worked out?



“Very well indeed,” replied Nevil as we relaxed between rehearsals at the Manchester studios. He stroked his fair, wavy hair and added: “I think Biggles and I have a great deal in common.

“I see him much as his creator sees him – a man with a strong sense of justice and a clear picture of the difference between right and wrong.

“I hate injustice, and when I see someone trying to ‘put one over’ or ‘pull a fast one’ I immediately want to fight it. I can’t stand cheats.”

The 6ft-tall actor, who as a youngster, like millions of other schoolboys, read about and hero-worshipped Biggles, brings to his television role the sincerity and enthusiasm he applies to all his interests.

Like Biggles, Nevil would never consider using physical force unless it were absolutely necessary, though he once battled his way to the semi-finals of inter-unit boxing tournaments while in the Army.

“Biggles can be tough when the situation demands it,” said Nevil. “But he’s not a brutal man by any means.”

Like Biggles, Nevil is greatly interested in flying. He is currently impressed by his first trip in a helicopter.

To add emphasis to his description of the experience, Nevil shot his arms upwards. “Whoosh,” he said. “You go up just like that. It’s marvellous! They’re very manoeuvrable machines. You can almost turn them round on a sixpence.”

Like Biggles, Nevil loves the outdoor life. “I like swimming, and I go sailing on the Thames whenever I can,” he said.

Nevil became interested in “messing about in boats” when he was in Germany during the war, and now, when on holiday, he likes to go dinghy sailing off the Cornish coast.

Nevil looks back on his days in the Army with some affection. For it was then that his acting career took shape.

Said Nevil: “I produced gramophone recitals and little variety shows and out of that grew my leaning towards the theatre.

“I don’t know what I would have done otherwise. Perhaps become a sleuth like Biggles.”



He added: “When I was demobbed in 1947 the Government gave me a gratuity and paid for my theatrical training in London.”

After that, Nevil spent five years in repertory at Northampton, doing “almost every job in the theatre except that of box-office cashier.”

Then Whiting the baritone emerged, and with Biggles-like determination Nevil “burnt his boats” in repertory, went to London and landed a part in the Drury-lane production of South Pacific.

He spent several years playing in musical shows in the West End and in touring productions before taking over his own television children’s programme two years ago.

Nevil’s current problem is to find a second car.

“My wife has the family car at home in London and I need one to run around in while I’m in Manchester,” he said.

What sort of car has he in mind?

“Oh, a Biggles-type, of course,” he replied unhesitatingly. “An old drophead sports two-seater is the sort of thing that Biggles would probably go for… and that’s just what I have in mind.”

And with that Nevil said he was sorry but he just had to fly…

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