North (Mondays to Fridays)

Granada Television is the company which, under agreement with the Independent Television Authority, provides the television programmes in the North of England from Monday to Friday. From 30th July 1968 the Northern area will be divided along the line of the Pennines and served by two seven-day companies: Granada Television will provide the programmes in Lancashire (including Cheshire and parts of other counties), and Yorkshire Television will provide the programmes in Yorkshire.

Granada TV Centre, Manchester 3
Deansgate 7211
The Headrow, Leeds 1
Leeds 33231
St Martin’s House, Bull Ring, Birmingham 5
Midland 4129
36 Golden Square, London W1
Regent 8080

The post ITV 1968 appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

North (Mondays to Fridays)

Granada Television is the company which, under agreement with the Independent Television Authority, provides the television programmes in the North of England from Monday to Friday.

Granada TV Centre, Manchester 3
Deansgate 7211
The Headrow, Leeds 1
Leeds 33231
St Martin’s House, Bull Ring, Birmingham 5
Midland 4129
36 Golden Square, London W1
Regent 8080

The post ITV 1967 appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

North (Mondays to Fridays)

Granada TV Centre, Manchester 3
Deansgate 7211

The Headrow, Leeds 1
Leeds 33231

36 Golden Square, London W1
Regent 8080

St Martin’s House, Bullring, Birmingham 5
Midland 4129

Granada Television is the company which, under agreement with the Independent Television Authority, provides the television programmes in the North of England from Monday to Friday.

The post ITV 1966 appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

North (Mondays to Fridays)

Granada TV Centre, Manchester 3.
Deansgate 7211

36 Golden Square, London W.1.
Regent 8080

The Headrow, Leeds 1.
Leeds 33231

Granada TV is the company which, under agreement with the Independent Television Authority, provides the television programmes in the North of England from Monday to Friday.

The post ITV 1965 appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

The North (Mondays to Fridays)

Granada TV Centre, Quay Street, Manchester 3.
Deansgate 7211

36 Golden Square, London W.1.
Regent 8080

Granada TV Network Limited is the company which, under agreement with the Independent Television Authority, provides the television programmes in the North of England from Monday to Friday.

The post ITV 1964 appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

The North (Mondays to Fridays)

Granada TV Centre, Quay Street, Manchester 3.
DEANSGATE 7211
36 Golden Square, London W.1.
REGENT 8080

Granada TV Network Limited is the company which, under agreement with the Independent Television Authority, provides the television programmes in the North of England from Monday to Friday.

The post ITV 1963 appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

By KENNETH BELL

COMMERCIAL television entered the vault of the Wellington Inn, New Bailey Street, Salford, amid a blue smoke haze and an unbrokern buzz of conversation.

Games of darts and cribbage went on in the background, and for a time nobody seemed to notice that a new era had arrived.

The Wellington was the first Salford inn to be granted a TV licence, and landlord Arthur Marland lost no time in having the set, which stands in a corner of the vault, converted for last night’s Northern TV curtain raising.

When the landlord announced “Time, gentlemen, please!,” the customers who filled the inn were acclaiming the new force in the Northern entertainment world.

Regular customer George Eland of Melville Street, Salford, declared: “If this is ITV I’d rather watch it than the BBC any time — that’s if they can keep it up.”

FIRST-RATE

And sitting beside him, Mr. Joseph Grogan, Short Street, Salford, commented: “The variety and boxing were first-rate — definitely a better programme than the BBC give us.”

Making a wide circuit of the Manchester area to test people’s reactions to the first night of commercial TV I found these verdicts echoed in such diverse suburbs as BRAMHALL and GREENHEYS, DIDSBURY and ARDWICK.

In fact, applause came from all quarters. Criticisms were hard to find. There was just one question on everybody’s lips: “Can they maintain the standard?”

In small terrraced houses and large suburban villas TV parties heralded the beginning of commercial television in the North. Friends and relatives dropped in; cocktail parties were arranged.

Major surprise was the way in which viewers accepted the advertising sequences. Instead of being irritated by them, most of the viewers I spoke to regarded them as a pleasant novelty. Most women said they enjoyed them very much.

One or two people complained of wavering pictures but these complaints were widely scattered and seemed to be mainly due to minor aerial faults.

And in Greenheys Lane, GREENHEYS, Manchester, I found a man who was getting a first-rate picture on an indoor rod aerial — the same one which he uses for BBC reception.

He is Mr. Cyril Mundell who told me: “I think many people have been too hasty in having special aerials fitted. I am getting just as good a picture as they get.” Certainly I could find no fault with it.

While praising the first-night programmes, Mr. Mundell had one complaint: “I didn’t like the advertising between the rounds of the boxing match.”

Here is a selection of comments from people I interviewed during my three-hour tour:

EXCELLENT

Mr. Martin Fleeson, Hawthorn Road, GATLEY: “It has been a pretty good opening. The variety show was at least up to BBC standard. I shall not stick to one programme or the other but shall be selective.”

Mr. Edward Taylor, Blackley New Road, BLACKLEY: “An excellent picture and a very good night’s programme. I found the advertisements interesting and thought they were put in at the proper times.”

Mr. D. H. Harris, Church Road, NORTHENDEN: “I enjoyed the boxing and the variety show. The advertisements didn’t bother me and I thought the opening, showing the people who had done the work behind the scenes, was excellent.”

Miss Shirley Unger, Bury Old Road, CHEETHAM HILL: “It has been a splendid beginning, and if they could maintain this standard I would desert the BBC for ITV programmes.”

Mr. G. T. Pitt, Northenden Road, SALE: “My reception was of mixed quality, but the programmes were very good. The adverts slipped in between the rounds of the boxing were not too bad.”

MILES AHEAD

Mr. W. J. Woodward, Brookdale Road, BRAMHALL: “Very enjoyable indeed. We were very well entertained and, having an American wife, I think we shall probably be looking at ITV more than the BBC.”

Mr. Kenneth Coulbourn, Old Meadow Lane, HALE: “If the programmes keep up this quality the BBC will have to look up. The dancing standards of the Tiller Girls was miles ahead of the Toppers.”

Rosalina, the invisible, steals show

By MALCOLM SCRIMGEOUR

GIRL who stole the limelight INSIDE Manchster’s [sic] Granada TV centre on Northern ITV’s first night was the girl the viewers DIDN’T see.

Startling platinum blonde film star ROSALINA NERI — known as Italy’s Marilyn Monroe – arrived unexpectedly with JACK HYLTON and had the time of her life being photographed and interviewed.

Voluptuous Miss Neri, speaking excited broken English, provided the only frivolous note in the tense atmosphere of the studio.

As the studio clock hands stole towards zero hour of 7-30, technicians checked and counterchecked equipment and last minute arrangements, with outward calm and efficiency, but you could feel the nervous tension in the air.

Three worries

There were three big worries.

1 — Would ARTHUR ASKEY arrive in time? Flying up from London by chartered plane, Arthur was an hour later than expected, but still 25 minutes before the opening announcement.

2 — Would No. 2 camera burst into flames as it had done at rehearsal the night before?

3 — Would the unrehearsed interviews over-run their time, and have to be cut short for the link with London at 8 p.m.?

But nothing went wrong.

Granada chief SIDNEY BERNSTEIN, the most openly nervous man there, smiled for the first time that night, and murmured: “Well done, chaps.”

Great job

The journalists came flocking in to talk to Mr. Bernstein, Hilton, Askey, Reynolds, ITA chairman SIR KENNETH CLARKE [sic: Clark] … and, of course, Miss Neri.

“Everything went smoothly. The boys did a great job — they’re a grand bunch,” said Mr. Bernstein.

“Big Hearted” Arthur posed for pictures with Miss Neri — ” She’s just like Sabrina,” he cracked.

“I’m giving her a spot in my next ITV variety show. She may become a regular feature,” said Jack Hylton.

Quentin Reynolds was talking about the decline of juvenile delinquency in Liverpool — “It’s a great story. I’m covering it for an American magazine.”

Jack Hylton paused in front of one of the monitor sets. “That’s a Lancashire girl — great friend of mine,” he told Miss Neri. On the screen PAT KIRKWOOD was singing.

For the technicians it was all bouquets and no brickbats. But there was no celebration.

“I feel so happy I could fly right round the studio,” said 23-year-old floor manager CARL ROBERT.

So Mr. Bernstein gives two parties

By JACK OLDHAM

SIDNEY BERNSTEIN was in great form when I saw him at his Midland Hotel party after the opening night had ended.

Mr. Bernstein, in fact, gave two parties, one in the small ballroom for his advertising staff and friends and a private one for his relations and personal friends in Suite III on the first floor.

Nothing was spared while Mr. Bernstein was away supervising the actual programme at the studios. Champagne flowed, television sets were scattered around so that no one missed a single electronic moment of TV the Granada way.

And later, when Mr. Bernstein himself arrived, we walked along the corridors arm in arm and he couldn’t hide his delight at the way the first programme had gone over.

“We’ve had complaints from Germany,” he quipped, “saying they didn’t receive us very well.”

And Mr. Howard Thomas, managing director of the weekend TV contractors, ABC, seemed well satisfied with the way the Winter Hill transmitter had behaved.

Manchester viewers impressed, but

VIEWERS in the Manchester area are impressed — but they are not convinced commercial television has all the answers.

They believe that by careful selection of programmes they can get the best of both worlds — ITV and BBC.

The Evening Chronicle put several questions to viewers after last night’s commercial television opening. Here they are, with percentage replies:

The post N.-W. gives first night verdict appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

GRANADA has had a good year. Mr. Sydney L. Bernstein, chairman of the company, says in his annual report this week that the net profit of £242,920 [about £5.3m in today’s money, allowing for inflation – Ed] is a record, and an increase of £26,803 [£587,000] on the previous year.

He tells his shareholders that the Granada television interests will not outweigh its kinema [sic – this was the house style for the word ‘cinema’ in this magazine] interests, although TV will represent a very considerable undertaking.

In brief, Mr. Bernstein says that both in America and Britain, while television has been expanding like prarie [sic] fires, the box-office at the kinema has been increasing as well. “Show business never stands still,” he says.

Although Granada has made a record net profit, 65 per cent. of this is taken in taxation.

When all taxes, including entertainments duty and local rates have been paid, Granada has benefited the Chancellor and local authorities by over £1,000,000 [£22m] during the year.

Of the total profits tax paid, £13,500 [£296,000] relates to the fixed dividends on the preference shares.

Mr. Bernstein says there would seem to be no logic in legislation that penalises a company for operating its business on sound financial lines and, at the same time, grants benefits to those who adopt the less sound policy of financing by way of loans.

Mr. Bernstein refers to the Eady levy [a tax, notionally voluntary until 1957, on ticket sales which was paid into the British Film Production Fund between 1950 and 1985] and says that it cannot be the solution to the industry’s problems. Granada has not changed its views that a voluntary levy in support of British film production is wrong. The Government, which received £37,000,000 [£847m] in entertainments duty from kinemas in 1954 should stabilise the position.

The levy should be a statutory one, says Mr. Bernstein, rather than a series of precarious agreements negotiated within the industry.

‘Scope Tests

It is illogical that the levy should be paid by exhibitors under industry agreements, when so great a part of he industry is represented by the major kinema circuits who have considerable interests as producers.

During the past five years Granada has spent £800,000 [£17.5m] on renovating its theatres.

Its experiments with CinemaScope and four-track magnetic sound have proved the wisdom of the company’s decision, and it is equipping the rest of its theatres as quickly as structural alterations can be made and equipment obtained.

The report shows that the trading profit for the group was £372,274 [£8.2m]. Payment of dividends and provision for dividends amount to £42,625 [£934,000].

The consolidated balance-sheet shows total assets of £3,264,607 [£71.5m]. The fixed assets, freehold and leasehold properties, furniture, fittings and equipment stands at £2,039,005 [£45m].

Finally, Mr. Bernstein stated that although the exhibition of films remains the keystone of the business it is increasingly supported by a number of profitable auxiliary enterprises.

Referring to the profits of the past five years which were for 1950, £201,456 [£5.7m]; 1951, £217,661 [£5.7m]; 1952, £212,912 [£5.1m]; 1953, £216,117 [£5.1m], and last year £242,920 [£5.6m – inflation is taken from the date given, which is why these conversion figures may seem odd at first glance] he believed that the figures “indicate the consistency of our business.”

Mr. Bernstein has this to say about the company’s television development:—

“Show business never stands still. In this country and in the United States today material standards are higher and opportunities to enjoy leisure are more frequent than ever before. Thus it has proved possible for a great new form of entertainment to establish itself alongside the kinema and theatre without materially damaging either.

“During the past five years whilst the network of television stations was spreading across America like a prairie fire the gross annual revenue accruing to the eight major American motion picture companies actually increased in volume, and so did their profits.

“Since September last, when the BBC’s viewing figure of over 12,000,000 was topping for the first time the combined listening figures for all three sound programmes, our receipts have shown an upward trend. I believe there is room to develop television entertainment alongside the kinema in this country; indeed not to do so would be to deny the present logic of the show business. And at the same time I would like to reaffirm that this company’s newly declared interest in television does not affect our firm confidence in the future of kinema.

This is borne out by the fact that we have this year added three new theatres to the group, are negotiating for others and acquiring sites where we think there is demand for the type of luxury theatres we operate.

Last year I told you of our application to the Postmater-General for a television licence: this year the Independent Television Authority, appointed under the Television Act to control commercial broadcasting, awarded the Granada group one of the first three licences to broadcast, in our case from Monday to Friday from the north region station. This region, for which we applied expressly, will eventually serve a population of over ten million.

“There is little doubt that this region comprises the most closely knit section of the industrial population and that it has traditions in entertainment and culture which are unique in Britain. It is too early to announce our plans in detail, but already the prospect of working with Granada has attracted a number of intelligent and suitable people and we are rapidly building an organisation of which viewers will hear much and which we are confident will do its job to the satisfaction of the Independent Television Authority, the public — and in the best Granada tradition.”

The post Good Year for Granada – Record Profit appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

YORKSHIRE will have an Independent Television service from Emley Moor, near Huddersfield, in October. The Lancashire station at Winter Hill will open at the beginning of May, and the two stations will together serve more than 12m. viewers in the North Region, of whom nearly 5m. will receive Emley Moor transmissions.

Details of the new ITV service were given at a Press conference in Manchester yesterday by the Director-General Sir Robert Fraser, Mr. Howard Thomas (managing director. ABC (Television) Ltd., in which “The Yorkshire Observer and the “Telegraph and Argus” are minority shareholders), and Mr. James Phoenix (Northern Administrator, Granada TV network).

The primary service area from Emley Moor will extend in the North to Harrogate (about 30 miles), in the East to Hull (about 55 miles), and in the South to Newark (about 50 miles).

The secondary service area extends in most districts to places between five and ten miles beyond the primary areas, reaching Ripon and possibly Northallerton in the North and Driffield and Grimsby in the East.

IN SECONDARY AREA

Keighley and Ilkley fall in the secondary area for Emley Moor transmissions, and Earby, Skipton and Linton in the secondary area for Winter Hill.

Moot viewers in primary areas (unless in specially unfavourable positions immediately behind high ground or screened by high buildings) will get satisfactory service

In secondary areas a substantial proportion of viewers will get satisfactory service, but in some local areas reception conditions will be poor.

Outside both these zones some favourably situated viewers will obtain a reasonable service.

REGIONAL EMPHASIS

As regards programmes, emphasis will be on the regional.

At the outset the Yorkshire and Lancashire programmes will be the same, but it is expected that a logical development will be the opening of studios in Yorkshire with a different Yorkshire programme.

A.B.C. will provide the week-end programmes, in which newly-signed MacDonald Hobley will visit a “Home Town” every Saturday and present the town and its folk.

LEAGUE CRICKET

One of first places visited will be Morecambe, and the programme will include Janette Scott and her mother Thora Hird.

Lancashire league cricket is promised and the possibility of televising Bradford League cricket will be considered when the Yorkshire side of the region is developed.

Granada will provide the Monday to Friday programmes.

The post ITV for Yorks in October – with a regional “accent” appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

VIEWERS in Lancaster and Morecambe will be able to receive a television service from the Independent Television Authority (Northern Region) transmitter at Winter Hill, south of Chorley, which is expected to begin sending out programmes early in May.

The city and Morecambe are in the secondary service area which extends in a narrow belt from North Wales, through the Midlands south of Manchester to parts of Yorkshire, where it links with the other transmitter at Emley Moor, and to the Ulverston and Barrow districts. Carnforth lies on the outer fringe of this area.

Within these zones a substantial proportion of viewers will receive a satisfactory service, but there will be some local areas in which reception conditions will be poor.

The area inside the secondary service zone is the primary service area. [or, to put it in a way that doesn’t require mental gymnastics, the secondary service area surrounds the primary one – Ed]

NEW AERIALS

Reception depends on the correct type of receiving aerial being used for the various: localities and the appropriate conversion of single-channel receivers to obtain the alternative programme.

The programmes broadcast from two Northern transmitters will be provided on Mondays to Fridays by Granada T.V. Network. Ltd., and on Saturdays and Sundays by Associated British Cinemas (Television). Ltd.

The Winter Hill transmitter will have an effective radiated power of approximately 100 kilowatts and signals will be transmitted from a 16-stack high-gain omnidirectional aerial which will be carried on a 445ft. self-supporting tower. As the site is 1,450ft. above sea level the total height of the tower above sea level will therefore be 1,895ft.

VIEWERS’ SURVEY

At a press conference in Manchester recently, Mr. James Phoenix, Northern Administrator of the Granada TV Network, said that a detailed survey of what the North wanted from television had been carried out and to get the facts, research workers had been in many hundreds of homes to find out how people in the north spent their time.

Conversion of sets in the north, he said, were far higher than the figure just before opening date in London and appreciably higher than in the Midlands and it was a figure which was rising all the time. Mr. Phoenix declined to give details of Granada’s plans but he said this did not mean that they had not been laid.

REGIONAL TALENT

Sir Robert Fraser, director general of the I.T.A., stressed that programmes would be on a regional basis. One of the worst things of the past 30 years had been the over-concentration of all kinds of talent in London, but they were hoping to widen the field with television in the North.

Mr. H. Thomas [Howard Thomas], managing director of A.B.C. Television, said the local accent would be on sport, entertainment, personalities, and writers but outstanding London shows would be relayed to stations in the North. Local week-end programmes would include a “home town” show which would visit various cities and towns, a Lancashire serial and visits to repertory theatres.

The post Second TV programme to begin early in May appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

BY OUR LONDON STAFF

EVENING ITV shows in Manchester are to start earlier than in London. The reason: Northerners go to bed earlier than Southerners. Programme contractors are now working out the broadcasting hours.

Associated-Rediffusion, one of the London contractors, wants to start with a children’s hour (from 5 to 6 p.m.) and evening viewing from 7 25 to 10 30 p.m. with certain morning programmes designed for set-testing purposes.

But a spokesman for Granada Television, the Sidney Bernstein organisation, which will be responsible for Manchester midweek programmes, said to-day it was anticipating an earlier start and finish to evening viewing.

“LOST” VIEWERS

This move is expected to be opposed by the B.B.C. There is a possibility the corporation will ask the Postmaster-General to force ITV to keep to B.B.C. viewing hours.

It fears people switching on to commercial television before the B.B.C. goes on the air might be “lost” to B.B.C. programmes for the rest of the evening.

All contractors seem to be agreed that women’s afternoon programmes are not likely to start until ITV has mastered its initial difficulties.

SEARCH FOR SITE

Mr. Bernstein was in Manchester again to-day and he cleared up what he called a “misunderstanding.”

Earlier reports said he was seeking a building as a temporary home for his administrative and studio staff.

He said: “There is no question of using a temporary building. We shall build headquarters and use part of them until they are complete.

“To-day we’re looking at sites. Evaluating them. They are narrowed down now.”

The post ITV will start early in ‘sleepy’ N.-West appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

WERE you one of the viewers who last night switched over for your first look at commercial television when Granada TV, who provide the week-day programmes, opened the North’s commercial programme?

Reception, let me say first of all was excellent on my set, but not on all, I understand. There were no vision breakdowns during the evening, but some little trouble with the sound from Liverpool during the Stadium boxing.

To launch the new service Granada brought in from America commentator Quentin Reynolds, who introduced some of the men who have helped to create Granada Television.

The first commercial “plug” — a chocolate advertisement — came after 15 minutes — and was followed by Arthur Askey, who quipped: “It’s not all as bad as this.”

Few Celebrities

This opening half-hour in the Granada Studio was not particularly original, but it was casually bright and was aimed fair and square at the very ordinary viewer. Few celebrities! Just ordinary men in overalls and pullovers who told how they did their various jobs to bring the studio into being.

The lion’s share of the first programme, Parnell’s “all star” variety from London, went to comedians Bob Monkhouse and Dennis Goodwin. They played energetically to the gallery, but as laugh-raisers took second place to Sid Millward and his eccentric orchestra.

And, since it seems traditional that no big Lancashire occasion is complete without Miss Gracie Fields, there was a short film of her in Dallas. Texas, telling us a funny story with whiskers on it a foot long.

By this time the “plugs” were coming thick and fast … soap flakes, self-raising flour, tea … and, after the admirable Lena Horne, cheese, beef-extract, and a cake-mix.

Sound Defect

Liverpool Stadium maintained its reputation for always giving viewers a good fight when Granada’s “Travelling Eve” unit brought us the featherweight bout between Hogan Bassey and Aldo Pravisani. It was good television, marred only by a brief sound defect (“We’ve lost the sound” is the I.T.V. equivalent of the B B.C.’s “Normal service will be, &c.”) But it will probably take usa little time to become accustomed to seeing the fighters stagger back to their corners to be followed by some such announcement (as last night) as – “To-night you must rest. To-night you must sleep like a child. Drink so-and-so.” Then back into battle again.

I liked the Douglas Fairbanks play, “Blue Murder,” although the margarine advertisement in the middle of it interrupted the flow of the very slender plot. But even that could not spoil a typically smooth Fairbanks performance, with a good supporting cast. Our old friend Roy Rich was the producer.

Tribute To B.B.C

The most provocative programme of the evening was Granada’s tribute to the B.B.C., presented by Aidan Crawley, a man who left the B.B.C. for ITV and is now going back to the B.B.C. The B.B.C. won lavish praise in this item and in return TV’s Sir George Barnes warned ITV that the B.B.C. could compete with them on any terms.

Then came Mrs. Unsworth, of Atherton, Lancashire, to detail some of her likes and dislikes in the matter of TV entertainment. She doesn’t like opera and she doesn’t like “Look.” “It’s about birds and animals,” she remarked suspiciously.

Sir Mortimer Wheeler, who earlier in the evening had been entertaining B.B.C. viewers in “Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?” was seen on film extolling the merits of television, and Gilbert Harding, who is on B.B.C. contract, added a few encouraging

The evening ended with a rather dull news bulletin, presented by Chris Chataway, another man who is leaving ITV to join the B.B.C.

Everything considered, it was a very modest first night. Did you find the advertising spots irritating? Or did you find them entertaining? For the life of me at the end of the evening couldn’t remember more than a couple of them.

The post Opening of Commercial TV in The North appeared first on THIS IS GRANADA from Transdiffusion.

Adjust Sets, Say Dealers

Radio engineers on Merseyside were inundated with calls to-day from TV owners complaining about imperfect reception of last night’s opening programmes on the Northern ITV channel.

“But in nearly every case,” said a Liverpool dealer this morning, “the complaints could have been put right by a twist of a knob.”

Most of the viewers who had trouble complained that when they switched from the BBC channel to ITV, they could receive a good picture but the sound was dead.

Throughout to-day, TV engineers have been answering telephone calls and patiently explaining to viewers that when switching from one channel to another they have to make a slight adjustment to the “fine tuner” control.

This control, in most types of receiver, takes the form of an inner or outer knob incorporated in the “13-channel” switch by which the channel is selected.

NO CHANGE

A Liverpool engineer said to-day: “All this could have been avoided if ITV had put out a full strength signal earlier. By delaying it until this week, TV engineers have had no chance at all to instruct viewers on how to tune in correctly on channel nine.”

Reception of ITV in Liverpool was generally described very good. “There was much less interference in some city areas than has been the case on BBC TV,” said a dealer. “The only areas reporting ‘ghosting’ are those blanketed by very large blocks on buildings or those on the blind side of a hill.”

In many areas of Merseyside, viewers with 13-channel sets and no special aerial reported that they were nevertheless able to receive ITV fairly satisfactorily.

NOT SO GOOD

Reception in the Birkenhead area was not quite as good as that of the B.B.C. There and in other Wirral areas, particularly in Hoylake, dealers received complaints that on channel nine viewers had sound but no picture, or alternatively a picture but no sound. Some discovered that by tuning to channel eight [ATV’s transmitter in Lichfield – Ed] viewers they were able to get a fair picture but again no sound.

Bebington and Rock Ferry reported generally good reception. At Wallasey some indifferent periods were reported.

The ITV programme was seen as far away as Llandudno, when an Echo Correspondent reported: “The quality of the picture was equal to that of the B.B.C. transmitter.”

At Wrexham there were mixed comments. Within five miles radius of the town reception was good, but other places, notably in the Dee Valley, reported only “fair” reception.

In Chester and on Deeside, “fair” reception was reported but with picture quality not so good as the B.B.C.

Russ J Graham writes:

Newspapers did not welcome the arrival of Independent Television. For a start, it would be directly competing with them for advertisers. It would also directly compete on news – removing one of the main reasons for the public buying a newspaper. It might also kill the cinema industry, leaving empty space when once there were advertisements for film show times and cheap filler article on movie stars. This was particularly acute for the publishers of the large regional evening papers, like the Liverpool Echo, whose business model was based on people buying a newspaper on their way home from work to read whilst they had their tea. Now they might eat their food in front of the TV instead. Imagine the consequences.

Therefore it’s not a surprise that articles about the new ITV stations coming on air in each region were lukewarm to say the least. The papers piled on, accusing ITV of being too light or too dull or whatever came to hand as a way of bashing it.

Granada had done their homework on this, and their short first night was very carefully tailored to make sure there was something for everybody and even a programme paying tribute to the BBC.

With no ammunition available to them, the Liverpool Echo resort to saying that the picture isn’t very good, or there’s no sound, or that television sets are big, complicated things that are far too difficult for the average person to use effectively.

They don’t quite pull it off. Problems are not unexpected, and the ones here are strange: it’s very unlikely you’d get a picture with no sound – you’re far more likely with VHF television to get the sound fine but no picture; it’s quite weird to tune into the DX signal on channel 8 – the Echo seem unaware that it’s a different company, farther away – and get a picture and no sound: Transdiffusion was in Hoylake at this exact time and could only get the ATV sound, with the occasional very grainy picture in hot weather.

All in all, a good attempt at a hatchet job on the new ITV service from Winter Hill, but one that doesn’t quite work.

 

The post How ITV Was Received on Merseyside 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/granada-tv-chelsea/ https://granadatv.network/granada-tv-chelsea/#respond Wed, 24 Apr 2024 12:36:53 +0000 https://granadatv.network/?p=1639 Practical Television in 1958 looks at Granada's branch studio in London

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]]> SOME INTERESTING DETAILS OF THE CONVERSION OF THE OLD CHELSEA PALACE MUSIC HALL, NOW USED BY THE GRANADA ORGANISATION



When it was announced a couple of years ago that Sydney Bernstein’s Granada group of entertainment enterprises were venturing into television, it was expected that something original, bold and adventurous would develop – in premises as well as in programmes. It did. The Granada Television Centre in Manchester quickly arose and has turned out to be one of the best-planned television headquarters in Britain. Its design allowed for extensions and additions to stage space to be made as required, without destroying the balance of the original compact layout. Long-term planning was preferred to improvisation and expedients. The extensions are, in fact, already in hand.

Policy Change?



Surprise was, therefore, my first reaction to the news that Granada was going to turn the old Chelsea Palace music hall into a television theatre. First, it seemed to be a deviation from Granada’s original policy of centralisation, and, secondly, it seemed to be following the paths of the BBC and the other I.T.A. programme contractors, which have occupied and converted quite a number of London and provincial theatres. True, Granada had used the Chelsea Palace and other theatres for occasional outside broadcasts – but now they were converting it for television use exclusively.

The Old Music Hall

Chelsea Palace was one of the London Syndicate music halls, built about fifty years ago and “booked” in conjunction with Brixton Empress (now a Granada cinema), Walthamstow Palace (closed, but in very good condition), Metropolitan Theatre, Edgware Road (still going strongly), Tottenham Palace (now a cinema) and Watford Palace (now running rep.). All of these halls, excepting Watford, now belong to the Granada organisation, which runs an important cinema circuit, a few West End and other theatres, promotes films and live plays and is interested in almost every branch of the entertainment business. The “Stage” year book for 1912 informs us that the Chelsea Palace “bars” Battersea Palace; Grand, Clapham; Granville, Walham Green and Empire. Shepherd’s Bush. That means that artistes booked at Chelsea Palace were not permitted to accept “dates” at the other named theatres within a certain period of time before or after appearing at Chelsea. So far as the Granville, Walham Green – now owned by Rediffusion and closed at the moment – and Shepherd’s Bush Empire (now belonging to the BBC) are concerned, we should not be surprised if the tradition of the barring clause for star acts was not reintroduced.



Stars

Big star names have been a feature of the shows so far put out from the Granada Theatre, Chelsea – particularly in “Chelsea at Nine” – and there is no doubt that this London outpost of the Manchester television organisation has been set up mainly to enable London and international stars to be used without having to take them up to Manchester.

Auditorium

Many years ago I had visited the Chelsea Palace and remembered its auditorium and stage facilities. It was a well-appointed music hall with a good frontage on Kings Road, Chelsea, and a seating capacity of 1,624 persons. I expected to see many changes when I took my seat for one of the television shows. The audience is now restricted to circle and gallery, which accommodate 669. From the circle there is an excellent view of the enlarged stage, which has been made level and extended over the old orchestra pit and the first few rows of stalls. The old stage area of 2,373 sq. ft. has thus been increased by an apron stage in front of the proscenium of 870 sq. ft. for camera tracking, the total stage area now being 3,193 sq. ft. Several large television monitor sets and a number of small loudspeakers are strategically placed in various parts of the auditorium, so that everyone can see and hear what is being transmitted, including the commercials during the breaks in the programme.

Stage Lighting

Major changes have taken place behind the footlights (which no longer exist) and on the ground floor. The old pit bar is now a maintenance workshop, the carpenters and paint shops are below the stage and the old band room has been turned into a dressing room. The old gallery bar is now a wardrobe. The lighting arrangements have been extenively changed. As a music hall, the total lighting load was 50 kVA. This has now been increased to 150 kVA, with 20 kW available in direct current for arcs. That famous old museum piece the liquid dimmer pot switchboard has been superseded by a Strand Grandmaster switchboard and a modern saturable reactor dimmer board. This gives a total of 60 dimmable circuits so arranged that lighting plots may be pre-set and brought up as required. The lights used are almost wholly Mole Richardson incandescent units, both spots and floods.

Television Equipment

Pye 3in. Image Orthicon cameras are used, three being operational and one spare, with a fifth retained for maintenance rota. Houston pedestal camera dollies and a camera crane are used. Sound channels are by Pye, with an assortment of different types of moving coil and ribbon microphones of various makes. There is no telecine or slide equipment. A high quality cable route is utilised (not coaxial) to the Museum Telephone Exchange for connecting vision, sound and control circuits with Granada’s Manchester headquarters and also the ].T.A. network.



The Television Staff at Chelsea

There is now a permanent staff of over 70 at the Granada, Chelsea, and the production departments have spilled over into eight additional offices at No. 5 Chelsea Manor Street, close by. The engineering staff includes Mr. T. A. H. Marshall (engineer-in-charge). Mr. R. Cumner (supervisory engineer). Mr. M. Roberts (senior sound engineer) and Mr. J. Racket (senior vision engineer). The house manager is Mr. D. Williams and a frequent visitor is Mr Simon Kershaw, the general manager of the Manchester headquarters of Granada, and Mr. R. Hammans, chief engineer of Granada Television Network. As is usual with every Granada establishment, it has the very personal attention of Mr. Sydney Bernstein, whose interest in the smallest details of organisation, presentation and facilities is famous. I suspect that the smart grey-shirted “uniforms” of the camera and floor crews are his inspiration, just as impressive in their way as the immaculate appearance of the front-of-the-house staff and the spick-and-span brightness of paint, plaster and brass of the traditional variety theatre decor.

The Conversion

Chelsea Palace was converted from a music hall into a permanent television theatre in little more than three weeks. Work still goes on with modifications and improvements, but so do daily rehearsals and frequent transmissions. The nine dressing rooms have never been occupied by so many top-line star names before. Life is hectic for the production staff and technicians. Granada producers prefer to have a variety of small sets in their programmes rather than one large permanent set-piece for each show. Consequently, the audience in the circle can watch set-pieces, large and small, silently wheeled on and off during action, with cameras pointing in various directions, property men moving furniture or operating smoke effects, heavenly choirs chanting in one corner while a skiffle group gets ready in another. It all looks quite crazy, but it winds its way to the television screen with extraordinary smoothness. The audience leave the theatre with their heads in a whirl and sticks of peppermint rock in their hands, presented to them by genial Granada commissionaires. This was just another bright idea of Master Showman Bernstein – the name printed inside the rock was GRANADA.



Costs

The cost of running an isolated single-stage television theatre must be quite high. My guess is that the local overheads of staff salaries, heat, light, insurance, etc., of theatres like the Chelsea Palace must be around £1,000. Add to this the costs of individual shows, scripts, actors, scenery, wardrobe and music and you can very quickly run up a bill of several thousands for a one-hour programme. If the output is one big show per week, then the financial returns from the commercials or from networking the show to other I.T.A. contractors must be correspondingly enormous. Of course, other programmes of less ambitious character might be worked into each week’s schedule, but it is important that these do not encroach on the rehearsal times of the big show. This, therefore, is a measure of Sydney Bernstein’s confidence in the future of commercial television. He entered the fray with his Granada Television Network at a time when the future seemed to be highly speculative. Now the tide has turned, and backed with the high rating audience figures for the Lancashire and Yorkshire areas, he can plan even bigger and better shows from the Granada Television Centre, Manchester, and also from the London branch studio at Chelsea. Programme policy is to draw on as wide a range of entertainment as possible for the enjoyment of viewers.

A typical early programme from Chelsea included Menuhin, Charles Laughton, Zsa Zsa Gabor, a skiffle group, Edgar Bergen, and Charles Macarthy, choristers, chorus and ballet. This is certainly a wide range of artistes of top-line star quality. What home viewer could grumble at such prodigality? There will be grumblers, of course – probably those viewers who think that they, too, should have some Granada Peppermint Rock sent to them by post!

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]]> https://granadatv.network/granada-tv-chelsea/feed/ 0 https://granadatv.network/granada-tv-chief-on-production-problems/ https://granadatv.network/granada-tv-chief-on-production-problems/#respond Tue, 16 Apr 2024 13:27:48 +0000 https://granadatv.network/?p=1605 A Granada man addresses the Heywood Round Table in 1966

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MR PETER CUFF, production manager of Granada Television, outlined some of the problems of producing a television programme when he addressed last week’s meeting of Heywood Round Table.

He began by stressing the fact that in his job he saw none of the “glamour” of television but was concerned for the most part with paper work and preparation for programmes shown six months later. Programmes were usually made in groups of 13 and each television company agreed to change their programmes at approximately the same time. The second changeover of the year was taking place at about this time.

Mr Cuff explained that the independent television companies could not survive if they did not buy programmes from one another and the four major independent companies, Granada, ATV, Rediffusion and ABC, produced only about a quarter of their own material.

He passed round documents showing floor plans and rosters to give the members an idea of the second-by-second schedule to which a programme had to work. He said the programmes were planned six months in advance and producers had to be engaged and budgets drawn up before rehearsals took place.

Videotape was a great asset to television companies as whole programmes could be bought and stored without the complicated procedure that had to be completed when a company produced its own programmes. Granada Television alone had 19 tons of videotape in store.

TAM ratings

The speaker then turned his attention to TAM (Television Audience Measurement) ratings. Granada’s system was to place a small device in a certain number of television sets each week and at the end of any week they could study these devices to discover which programmes had been seen.

To illustrate the huge number of people watching television on any evening. Mr Cuff said that when the BBC and ITV had two popular programmes showing at the same time, power stations and waterworks authorities up and down the country had to be informed. The reason for this, he explained, was that when a programme finished millions of households turned on extra lights and made cups of tea!

The speaker was thanked at the close by Mr David Wilkinson.

Transdiffusion says…

Russ J Graham writes: A charming article from a small newspaper, showing the PR job that television companies were willing to do even to the point of talking to a small group of local residents.

We’ve previously discussed how the Independent Television Authority and the ITV companies had a fear that ITV looked too complicated, with 15 companies dropping in and out of a network – a procedure that ITV viewers actually seemed to take in their stride.

Mr Cuff has gone into more detail on how this works, seemingly aware that the ITV viewers in his audience knew what networking was, but assuming, correctly, that they didn’t realise that money changed hands as part of the process. He’s also right to tell people that programmes are often made 6 months in advance of their debut, something that people even nowadays often don’t understand.

The TAM figures show us just how dominant ITV, in the midst of its golden age, was against BBC-1. Auntie scrapes in 2 entries in the national top 20, for Comedy Playhouse (The Mallard Imaginaire, which became the short-lived and now wiped sitcom The Whitehall Worrier) and This is Petula Clark, tying for 17th place with This Week from Rediffusion.

In the Westward, Granada/ABC, TWW, Southern, Tyne Tees, Grampian, Border, Ulster and ATV/ABC regions, the BBC doesn’t make the top 10 – Pet Clark squeezing in at joint 9th in the STV region and really hitting the mark with East Anglian viewers at 3rd place. The region also sees the BBC trouncing Anglia for 5th (Comedy Playhouse) and joint 7th (the cricket, Adam Adamant Lives! and Not Only… But Also).



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]]> https://granadatv.network/granada-tv-chief-on-production-problems/feed/ 0 https://granadatv.network/royal-pageantry-comes-north/ https://granadatv.network/royal-pageantry-comes-north/#respond Sat, 13 Apr 2024 10:47:36 +0000 https://granadatv.network/?p=1466 The Queen visits Manchester in 1961

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At 11.50 a.m. on Wednesday Granado presents a live out-side broadcast of the opening by the Queen of Manchester’s new Courts of Justice. On Wednesday and Thursday the Northern newscast will include film of other highlights of the two-day tour.

Here TV TIMES looks at some of the Northern Royal tours of the past.



MILLIONS of Northerners will be able to see the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh being received on the steps of Manchester’s new £1,250,000 [£23.5m in today’s money, allowing for inflation – Ed] Courts of Justice by the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Alderman Arthur Donovan, on Wednesday.

Among the people they will see in Court dress, robes, or ceremonial uniforms, will be the Earl of Derby (Lord Lieutenant of Lancashire); Dr. Charles Hill (Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster); Lord Parker (the Lord Chief Justice); a number of High Court judges; Col. W. M. Musgrave-Hoyle (High Sheriff of Lancashire), and civic heads from many parts of the North.



It will be a brilliant occasion as the long procession moves to the great hall inside the building, where the Queen will unveil a commemorative tablet.

Granada cameras will be strategically placed to bring viewers close-ups of the Queen and other members of the Royal party as commentator Bill Grundy describes the ceremony.

This will be a vastly different Royal visit to those made by the Queen’s ancestors.

Until Queen Victoria’s visit in 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, Manchester — and Lancashire generally — had been sadly overlooked by England’s monarchs.

True, Manchester can claim to have had a visit from King Ina of Wessex and his Queen, Ethelburga, in 689 (he made it his headquarters for several months while repelling Irish and Welsh foes) and Canute the Dane marched in on his way to Cumberland in 1031, but the first real visit as such by a reigning sovereign was that of Henry VII in 1495.

James I passed by on his way from Edinburgh to London and Charles II is said to have slept at a house just off Market Street, Manchester, in 1651 while journeying to battle at Worcester.

But these were only fleeting glimpses of Royalty and it was Queen Victoria’s memorable visit that set the pattern of Royal visits as we know them today.

Queen Victoria was most impressed, too, for she wrote in her diary: “The day was fine and mild. The mechanics and workpeople dressed in their best were ranged along the streets with white rosettes in their button holes.

“We went into Peel Park before leaving Salford and saw a most extraordinary and, I suppose, unprecedented sight — 82,000 schoolchildren.

“All the children sang ‘God Save The Queen’ extremely well together.

“The streets were immensely filled and the cheering and enthusiasm was most gratifying.”

When the Queen wrote of the 82,000 children in Peel Park singing the National Anthem she was not quite correct. It was intended that they should and they did, in fact, get through the first verse.

But at that point their surging enthusiasm broke free and, completely ignoring the conductor, they cheered the Royal party until they were hoarse.





It was the sort of enthusiasm, affection and loyalty that has marked every Royal visit since and for which Lancashire is now famous, for since the turn of the century, Manchester has many times welcomed Royal guests and can no longer complain of feeling neglected.

Now excitement is in the air again as Lancashire prepares for next week’s two-day tour by the Queen and Prince Philip, a tour that has links with visits made by the Queen’s grandfather, King George V, and her great-grandfather, King Edward VII, at the be ginning of the century.

The Queen’s first engagement when she arrives in Manchester on Wednesday will be to present a new guidon to the Duke of Lancaster’s Own Yeomanry at a ceremonial parade at Belle Vue Stadium. This replaces the old guidon presented to the regiment by King Edward VII at Worsley Park in 1909.

Another link is provided by the Queen’s visit on Thursday to a vast glassworks at St. Helens, for King George V toured the plant in 1913 and in the powerhouse started the 6,000 H.P. turbo generator which was named the King George.

These events, the opening of the new Royal Technical College and the Dockers’ Social Centre in Salford and the Royal visit to a charity theatre performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs on Ice in Liverpool, will be covered in special Northern newscast reports.

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]]> https://granadatv.network/royal-pageantry-comes-north/feed/ 0 https://granadatv.network/instant-news-for-yorkshire/ https://granadatv.network/instant-news-for-yorkshire/#respond Sat, 13 Apr 2024 08:57:12 +0000 https://granadatv.network/?p=1422 Granada opens a remote studio in Leeds

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GRANADA Television have opened a news studio right in the heart of Leeds.

And that means a vast improvement in news coverage in an area where reporters and cameramen have previously had to race the clock to get material back to Granada’s Manchester TV Centre.

The accent is very much on speed and efficiency. Granada are right now installing automatic equipment which will enable them to control the studio from Manchester.

A programme director sitting at a control panel 40 miles away in the TV Centre, will be able to operate the studio lights and a remote-controlled camera by the flick of a switch.

Then, by pressing one of 10 buttons, he can control the position of the camera during an interview or news bulletin. This will give him 10 different camera shots ranging from a close-up to a profile or a shot of two or three interviewees.

This studio, in Headrow House, is part of Granada’s national TV link-up. They have a similar automatically controlled studio in London, which is operated from Manchester.

The Leeds team will contribute directly to programmes like Scene at 6.30, and Granada in the North.

It will improve election coverage from Yorkshire and be available for national use.

Executive producer David Plowright told me: “The Leeds project is something which we have wanted to launch for a considerable time.

“It will enable us to bring news and interviews from Yorkshire at any time of the day, instead of sending outside broadcast crews there, or having to rush film back to Manchester.

“We have always attempted to give Yorkshire comparable coverage with Lancashire. But in the physical sense, the people of Lancashire have been much more aware of our presence because of the Manchester TV Centre.”

Granada’s robot eye in Leeds is watching Yorkshire closer than it has ever done.



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]]> https://granadatv.network/instant-news-for-yorkshire/feed/ 0 https://granadatv.network/living-with-modern-art/ https://granadatv.network/living-with-modern-art/#respond Fri, 12 Apr 2024 13:37:24 +0000 https://granadatv.network/?p=1409 The paintings from Granada's corridor walls go on display at the Whitworth

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Eighty modern paintings from the combined Granada and Bernstein family collection, are on exhibition at Manchester University’s Whitworth Art Gallery. Normally, the Granada collection, comprising 25 paintings, hangs in the corridors of the TV Centre in Manchester — accepted by the staff as part of the surroundings. Here
JOHN WHITE
Professor of the History of Art, and Director of the Whitworth Gallery, tells how this unusual form of art patronage is catching on



Television is both an industry and an art. In both capacities it aims at bringing pictures — moving pictures — to the family at home.

Its profit lies in interesting and entertaining the leisure man. It is therefore revealing to find that Granada also finds it worthwhile to bring pictures — still pictures — to the office.

This is becoming a common practice in many of the great commercial enterprises on both sides of the Atlantic.

The exhibition of modern pictures from the Granada collection shows some of the paintings seen by everyone who works in, or who visits, the studios and offices of Granada in Manchester.

Next to them, on the exhibition walls, are the results of a much more familiar type of art patronage. These are pictures from the private collections of four members of the Bernstein family.



The two sections of the exhibition are a sign that art is about to become what it once was. It will again be part of life as a whole.

It will not just be something clinging precariously to the edges of existence, a sort of fringe benefit.

Banks and factories, shops and businesses, all over the world, are finding that it is not enough merely to put up fine buildings.

It is a waste to enliven a city skyline and then face men and women with blank walls and bare corridors throughout their indoor working day.

The Inland Steel building in Chicago; the Pilkington Glass Works in St. Helens; the Granada studios themselves, are all signs of the future.

The business and industrial world is already a major patron of modern architecture. Design in packaging and advertising, as well as in the goods themselves, is, of course, a major concern.

Progressive firms encourage the best of every kind of applied art in furniture and fittings, carpets and fabrics.

It will not be long before they begin to challenge private and municipal patrons in the so-called fine arts of painting and sculpture.

This, after all, is only sensible. Automation or not, we still spend the greater part of our waking lives at work.

If life is worth living, and art is part of it, it seems ridiculous to confine painting and sculpture to our homes and public buildings and museums.

If good surroundings matter, they matter most where we are most intensely occupied, and for ffie greatest length of time.

A TV company has special reasons for making modern art part of modern working surroundings. I am, for instance, often lost in admiration for the ingenuity with which period settings of every kind are reconstructed for TV dramas.

This is all the work of expert researchers. But what about the innumerable modern interiors, tycoons’ offices and rich homes that continually appear in plays and serials?

We far too seldom see in them the kind of fine contemporary sculpture and painting which is increasingly to be found in the real thing.

A couple of prints of vintage cars is not enough.



The set of It’s Dark Outside (Friday) is one of the exceptions. Have you noticed the very modern-looking painting on wood, hanging in reporter Fred Blane’s (John Stratton) flat?

This is not a studio prop. It’s an original painting by Harry Thuron, called “Japanese.” One of the Granada collection of paintings, it was “borrowed” by set designer Roy Stonehouse for the duration of the series. You can see it in the Whitworth Exhibition.

There is a townscape by Utrillo; there is a nightmare study for a Pope by Francis Bacon. There are pure abstract paintings by Ben Nicholson and Alan Reynolds. There is something for everyone who enjoys today’s modern art.

In the end, it will only be when people have grown used to seeing art as part of life, and working life at that, that we shall automatically glimpse such works on our screens in the background of the TV office or down the TV corridor.

In real life, at Granada, they are there already.

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]]> https://granadatv.network/living-with-modern-art/feed/ 0 https://granadatv.network/british-tv-through-moscow-eyes/ https://granadatv.network/british-tv-through-moscow-eyes/#respond Wed, 19 Jul 2023 11:38:50 +0000 https://granadatv.network/?p=95 George Ivanov, director of the Moscow Television Studios, who has been visiting the Granada studios in Manchester

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THE question I have been asked more than any other during the short time I have been in Britain is: what are the differences between Russian and British television?

I have not seen enough to give a balanced answer, but generally what surprises me is how similar they are.

In Britain you have programmes about serious subjects – what we would call social-political subjects – so do we.

You have dramas: so do we. You have quizzes: so do we. You have spectacular shows: so do we.

You have a programme called The Army Game, which laughs at Army life: we have humorous films in which army characters fall into comic situations.

Now I won’t say they are quite the same as The Army Game, but I should like to have a script of one of the programmes so that we could show it in the USSR.

It was easy for me to understand The Army Game, for its characters are international. I have had more difficulty with other programmes because of the language problem.



But the programmes transmitted by Independent Television in your country are obviously acceptable to the public. And that is the thing that counts. Television must give the people what they want.

At the same time, the tastes of the minorities must be catered for, and this we attempt to do in Russia.

In Russia we have no organisations to give us “ratings” for different programmes. So how do we find out what the people do want? We find out in a variety ways. Firstly, if a programme is liked very much – or is not liked very much – viewers telephone us as soon as the programme is finished, and sometimes in the middle. We also receive between 3,000 and 4,000 letters a month.

But we do not rely on views which are sent in: we hold regular viewers’ conferences at which both past and forthcoming programmes are discussed, and in addition we have a Council of Viewers, composed of about 100 people.

On this council we have factory workers and professors, doctors and housewives, all sorts of people. When they meet twice a month they give their views of the programmes as well as the opinions of people they know and work with. In this way, it is easy for the central studios in Moscow to get the opinions of a good cross-section viewers.

From my observations, one thing seems it is safe to say that no country has yet produced a programme which has satisfied everyone.

Which brings me to another question I have been asked: do you have television critics in the Soviet Union? This question was asked with feeling. My answer is: “Yes, indeed, we have critics, lots and lots of them; and they can be very stringent in their criticism.”

In the Soviet Union, television is looked on as a baby that is growing up and needs an occasional reprimand.

The critics demand good television. But I what is good television? That is the most difficult question to answer, but I would say this: whatever the type of programme, the aim must always be to keep the quality high. It seems to me that Granada is doing this, for I was particularly impressed by the way they handled coverage of the Trades Union Congress meeting. This was a model of how such a programme should be covered.

I have also seen rehearsals for a television version of Dickens’ “Old Curiosity Shop” (The Small Servant), and, as a former actor, I was struck by the high level of this production. This would be a popular play in Russia.

My visit has really been to study technical methods, and in some ways you are ahead of us, notably in the videotape field, in which programmes are transcribed into electrical impulses and recorded on tape.

The Granada Convertor was also most impressive, for it solves the problem of “translating” the British line system into the different systems used by other countries.

My colleagues and I were also interested in the “Travelling Eye” Outside Broadcast Units and other production methods.

However, we are ahead of Britain in the colour television field. Already, we are transmitting one and a half hours of colour television a week. Of course, the programmes can be picked up in colour only on special sets, but they can be received in black and white on normal sets. From the great interest shown in colour work, it is obvious that colour television is going to be developed quickly, but I do not think that it will ever entirely replace black and white, any more than colour has ever done in the cinema.

We also have two other black and white channels, both, of course, run by the State. There are 4,000,000 television sets in the Soviet Union, and this, considering the large population, is a small percentage. We are rapidly increasing production of sets, and this year we shall have made another million.

My visit has been short and, of necessity, much confined to technical matters, but it has emphasised how much television can be a common language.

Language barriers can be broken, but there have also been certain technical barriers. Now these, too, are falling to inventions such as the Granada Convertor. This sort of machine can play a great part in making television truly international.

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