Syndicated to newspapers on 27 April 1968

MR. PAUL FOX was made Controller of Programmes of BBC-1 on June 18, 1967.

In his new post Mr. Fox has something like £15m. [£223m in today’s money allowing for inflation – Ed] to spend. He is responsible for putting out more TV programmes than any other organisation in the world, and he supervises the production of more hours of entertainment than Lew Grade, Sidney Bernstein, the Boulting Brothers, Darryl Zanurk, J. Arthur Rank and Sir Philip Warter all put together.

What qualifications has he for such a formidable task? He was editor of BBC’s Sportsview for six years, until 1961. He edited Panorama and was head of BBC Current Affairs. Thus, his background has largely been concentrated on sports and news.

When he was appointed, Mr. Fox modestly claimed that his personal influence on BBC-1’s programme schedules would not be much in evidence before sometime in 1968.

Philosophy

He has now had 10 months to assert himself, and I think it is fair to appraise the trends in programming he appears to have set in motion.

Such comments of Mr. Fox’s that I have seen reported would seem to show that the acquisition of viewers plays an exceedingly prominent part in his philosophy of broadcasting.

Soon after he took over he indicated that be would give the ITV a much tougher battle for viewers, and last December, be was concerned about the audience ratio of 60-40 which the commercial channel had in their favour on Sunday nights.

To correct this dire state of affairs, he offered the British public a peak-time fare which began with the Smothers Brothers followed by Dr. Finlay’s Casebook, and ended with a long, feature film.

Since the Smothers Brothers were a disastrous flop, it must be assumed that Mr. Fox’s much-hoped for switch of viewers did not take place.

There has been some more schedule juggling, and BBC-1 now offers us on Sunday night — to woo us away from Channel 9’s delectable treat of The Saint (a repeat), The Big Show (variety) and a feature film – The Andy Williams Show, The First Lady (a series about a female councillor) and a feature film.

The end result of this fierce competitiveness is that there are only a marginal difference in quality of programme between the two major channels and that any discriminating viewer will be driven to the nearest pub or book.

Not content with turning the week-end into a battlefield for ignorant insensitive and complacent scalps, Mr Fox has apparently turned his diligent drive tor viewers to the week-days as well.

It you eliminate the daily 24 Hours programme from BBC-1 (which has a rough equivalent on the commercial channel with the News at Ten), there is practically nothing to choose between BBC-1 and ITV as far as the aim, tone quality and spirit of their programmes is concerned.

Monday’s schedule offered us Z-Cars, The Dick Emery Show, Panorama, Professional Boxing, Dance Date. To-night you have The Virginian, Mum’s Boys, The Wednesday Play (a repeat) and the European Cup. On Friday it’s A Spoonful of Sugar, The Newcomers, Man from UNCLE, Comedy Playhouse, Miss England and Tennis.

Bland

There are 28 hours of peak-time viewing on BBC-1 every weeks (ie, 6-30 pm to 10-30 pm) and, excluding the news and 24 Hours, the proportion of time devoted to what I might loosely call “non-entertainment” programmes (ie, drama, ballet, opera, documentaries, discussions, music, art, social and political comment) is about four hours per week.

In other words, for its mass viewing audiences BBC-1 now feels that 80 pc of its prime time should be devoted to bland, innocuous, unconcerned, uninvolved, soporific, uninformative, desensitising programmes.

Its tendency to move serious programmes to off-peak hours — which has always been the policy of the commercial channel — shows that there will soon be no difference at all between BBC-1 and ITV.

Since Mr. Fox has taken over we have seen the disappearance of the satire snows, the end of controversial comedies like Till Death Us Do Part, more a conventional plays into The Wednesday Play slot and an annual schedule which boasts of 1,000 hours of sport, or almost 25 per cent of its total output.

What seems to be happening is that BBC-1, like commercial TV, is opting out of a responsible position in shaping the taste, values and aspirations of the British public and is contenting itself with playing the role of a national yo-yo.

Deterioration

Its hierarchy can probably rationalise this position by claiming that BBC-2 can offer the more discriminating and more sensitive viewer all the serious, cultural, non-entertainment programmes programmes they want.

One can even envisage that when BBC-2 becomes more popular — when it shares a larger proportion of the audience — it, too, will deem it necessary to cater for bigger and bigger audiences, like its rivals, and eventually succumb to the temptation to become just floss and froth on the fabric of our national life.

This deterioration in the impact and power of TV is just what those with vested interests in the status quo would like.

Politicians, establishment figures, groups opposed to change and reform, have watched with a baleful eye the increasing intrusion of TV in their domains of influence and power.

Nothing would please them better than the cutting back of this involvement of TV in the central issues of our time. And the best way to do it is, of course, to turn the medium into visual chewing gum; innocuous waffle; soporific pap unworthy of the attention of those seriously concerned with our affairs. This has almost been achieved in America.

But TV is, for good or ill, a medium more powerful than any that exists in society to-day. It becomes the duty of those who run it to refuse to have it converted into a national bubble-bath. They must claw, fight, scream and shout for the right to be responsible and involved.

Serious

The BBC — because it is a national institution financed by the people’s money — must always be at least as serious as a popular newspaper. There is not a popular newspaper in the land that does not devote at least 40 per cent its non-commercial space to a discussion of the serious, demanding and involved aspects of the day. And in prominent places like its front page!

If TV is used by governments and those in authority as a new opium for the masses; if it portrays a bland, reassuring, comforting picture of life; if it is not used properly as an outlet for all the doubts, arguments, controversies and fears that rage through our lives, then watch for the explosion when disillusion sets in.

Some of the violence and anger of Negro rioters in America has been attributed to the contrast between the miserable reality of their existence and the chummy, benevolent, affluent, fictitious picture of American life seen on the small screed.

Similarly, the German students have been rioting because they claim that not only the Springer Press, but TV as well has provided the people with a false illusion of what is going on about them.

Mr. Paul Fox and Lord Hill, who joined the BBC as its chairman, have responsibilities towards the British public which, at the moment, they show few signs of either understanding or grasping.

The post A sad, sad look at the sad, sad decline of BBC-1 appeared first on THIS IS MY 1960s from Transdiffusion.

LOOKING back over the achievements of TV during 1965 is like studying a panoramic photograph of the moon. All is a wasteland except for occasional promising shadows which on closer examination turn out to be the Sea of Despond or the Valley of Blighted Talent.

With the exception of Winston Churchill’s funeral I cannot think of a single programme on Channel 9 during 1965 that has advanced or enlarged by an iota the art, the aims, the grasp or the potentialities of television.

In a year which might best be labelled and forgotten, as The Year That Never Was, it is clear that my annual awards will hardly be included in those annual reports which take such pride in listing the prizes won in remote and undistinguished festivals throughout the world.

BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR – This undoubtedly goes to ATV who, under the tireless chivvying of Lew Grade, has finally produced British TV films that have broken into the America TV networks.

From the series The Saint, Danger Man, and the Baron (yet to be seen), it is possible that Britain could earn something in the region of 10 million dollars in the next two years.

This, for the first time, opens up the golden American market to British TV producers and, for the first time, puts TV into the posture of a significant foreign currency earner.

RASPBERRY OF THE YEAR – This award – an Op Art version of the fruit that periodically emits derisory sounds of contempt – has been tidily won by Rediffusion – the London-based TV company.

Not only was it responsible for the three programmes that received the worst critical receptions of 1965 – Groucho, The New Stars and Garters and Riviera Police – but it has confessed to a sterility and rigidity of creative ideas by its apparent inability to think of anything fresh or novel with which to replace its mouldy programme relics – Double Your Money, Take Your Pick and No Hiding Place.

Rediffusion’s board – which has persistently refused to have anyone from the programme side as one of its directors – has finally admitted, by implication, that its thinking on this matter has been wrong.

Within the past few months it has invited five new men to the board – although only three of them have actually produced programmes and it will be interesting to see what difference this will make in Rediffusion’s performance.

I cannot say that the changes announced by their programme chief, Cyril Bennett, have caused any pulses to race in TV circles.

Best Programme of the Year – The coverage of Winston Churchill’s funeral by both the BBC and ITV. This showed what could be done by outside broadcasts when talent was united for one goal, and when when money was no object. This solemn and momentous occasion was enhanced by this great record of it.

Most Noble Gesture of the Year – ITV’s decision broadcast, entirety, the BBC’s obituary of Richard Dimbleby. This was a most fitting tribute to one of broadcasting’s great personalities. The fact that ITV recognised in this way the achievement of the man who symbolised, more than anyone else, their greatest rival, displayed an adult and becoming sense sense of judgment.

The post In a TV year That Never Was these were my worst programmes appeared first on THIS IS MY 1960s from Transdiffusion.

This week my 1965 ITV programmes are coming from Westward and ATV Midlands.

28th April
The Fugitive ‘Somebody to Remember’
Westward

For reasons I forget, we watched the film version of The Fugitive in RE at school. Having spotted it in the schedules, I’d been intrigued what the television version would be like. I gathered from the synopses that they follow the same plot of a man falsely convicted of murdering his wife, escaping and going on the run, planning to try to catch the real killer and thus clear his name. I love shows that neatly explain their premise to viewers in the opening titles (The Prisoner being one of the best examples) and The Fugitive does just that, showing how Dr Richard Kimble escaped with a voice over filling in the rest.

In this episode, Kimble is working in a warehouse. His Greek boss discovers he is dying and, revealing that he has always known who Kimble really is, concocts a plan. They will trick the police, making them believe Kimble has escaped to Greece under his boss’s name. But really, Kimble will still be in the US and so he will have some time to get a few more steps ahead of the police. Unfortunately, someone else has also found out who Kimble is and the police are soon in town.

The episode is tense as the plan so very nearly works and it all builds to an exciting climax, with the police pursuing Kimble and his boss from the airport. Those opening titles ensure we have firm belief in Kimble’s innocence and I was willing him on to get away!

Stingray ‘A Nut For Marineville’
Westward

I haven’t seen ATV/ITC’s Stingray before and it must have some of the most thrilling opening titles of any television programme. A voice tells us to “Stand by for action!” and then something explodes out of the sea. Our characters and the Stingray ship are introduced and then we are told that “Anything can happen in the next half hour.” Anything? Like what? I don’t know but we’ve had a crash zoom, Stingray has just fired into the ocean, then leapt into the air, some planes have soared overhead and a giant fish has been blown up. I’m firmly convinced that anything really could happen.

Some baddie aliens have got a ship they believe is indestructible. I’m not sure what their long-term plan is but I’m just going to assume it’s to take over the Earth. That seems to be standard. The aliens’ design includes silver faces, high foreheads and what I can only describe as face fins – I love it. They also have some cracking evil dialogue. One admits of their plan, “Yes it’s crazy,” but then adds, in a lovely cheery tone, “Crazy enough to succeed!”

29th April
The Saint ‘Marcia’
Westward

With the third series recently finished, Westward are repeating the second series of ITC’s The Saint, which has numerous single word episode titles including, ‘Judith’, ‘Teresa’, ‘Iris’, ‘Luella’ and ‘Sophia’. Have you spotted the theme? Marcia herself doesn’t make an appearance in the episode. After having acid thrown in her face, the film actress committed suicide and now an unknown, Claire Avery, has been brought in to replace her in a film. Claire starts getting threatening letters, saying that unless she pays up, she’ll face the same fate as Marcia.

This isn’t the only Saint episode to be set in a film studio and I always think it must have made it easy for them to source props. Simon Templar himself features relatively little in this episode, with the focus given over to the rest of the cast much of the time. The only one I recognised among them was Johnny Briggs, who plays the third assistant director. By the time of this repeat he was a regular in No Hiding Place and in the next decade would join Coronation Street for a thirty year stint as Mike Baldwin.

Gideon’s Way ‘To Catch a Tiger’
ATV Midlands

Thanks to the magic of time travel, I’m able to watch Westward and ATV Midlands at the same time tonight. I’ve only seen one episode of ITC’s Gideon’s Way before and it didn’t particularly impress me but I head in open-minded.

A woman is killed after a car accident and uses her dying breath to say that John Borgman murdered his wife. Soon afterwards we see John Borgman sacking an employee, Samuels, who has been fiddling the books so he can afford to care for his sick wife. The old guy goes home, poisons his wife and shoots himself. Borgman has another wife now and a mistress in his secretary. His new wife is suspicious and convinced he’s having an affair. The married couple aren’t getting on well and Borgman is horrible to her throughout the episode. Gideon has looked into the first wife’s death and discovered she had an enormous amount of morphine in her. I become desperate for Borgman to be the killer, especially after he viciously calls his current wife a “fat, drunken slut”. He is (hooray!) and following a tense courtroom scene in which one of the coppers nearly cracks under the pressure of Borgman’s top solicitor, the evidence wins through.

Gideon’s Way reminds me a lot of No Hiding Place. This episode even has a similar opening to the No Hiding Place I watched in 1961 – there too a police investigation begins because someone has reported suspicions about a man murdering his wife. Both focus more on the guest cast than the recurring characters and while I enjoy this novelty, it does mean needing consistently good casting throughout the series. When there is a weaker episode in terms of casting or plotting, you don’t have the leads there to carry the episode and I worry that it would be hard to maintain that consistency. The other similarity is that they are both very slow. As much as I have enjoyed the episodes of No Hiding Place I’ve seen, there is no way I would use it or Gideon’s Way to introduce someone to 1960s’ television. Even for me, the pace is only just about still acceptable.

30th April
Burke’s Law ‘Who Killed Cop Robin?’
Westward

Captain Amos Burke is the ladies man of the Los Angeles Police Department. His vast personal wealth probably helps in this but he is also a rather suave fellow. We see little of this tonight though as he shows a more severe side while hunting down the killer of his old mentor. If my years of watching police shows have taught me anything, it’s that no one likes a cop killer and appropriately Burke takes no messing around from the suspects tonight. We get a fantastic fight in a warehouse so they can take full advantage of the potential of toppling boxes. They are a lot cheaper than smashed glass and furniture.

1st May
Dr Who ‘The Dimensions of Time’
BBC-1

This is episode two of the serial that has come to be known as ‘The Space Museum’. I don’t remember this story very well but once I’m watching, bits come back to me. The Doctor has dumped his granddaughter by now and picked up another young girl, Vicki. Along with Ian and Barbara, they land on a planet with a museum containing all sorts of things from other worlds. From the dialogue in this episode, we learn that the travellers have seen themselves as exhibits in this museum. They must find a way to change things and avoid that happening.

Despite the serious nature of this problem, the episode manages its lighter moments. The Doctor hides inside a Dalek casing, which is also a good reminder that the Daleks are not the machines but the aliens that usually inhabit them. The Doctor also tricks a machine designed to display images of his thoughts. The Doctor simply imagines ridiculous things instead.

One of the things I have come to love about Dr Who’s early years is its sheer ambition. They have a tiny studio space to work with but decide to present an entire museum. We’re over a year into the show now and this is the first story that actually uses time travel as part of the plot – it has always just been a way of getting somewhere before.

2nd May
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
Westward

Electricity pulses and the camera pulls back to reveal a man strapped to a chair with electrodes on his head. He’s being brainwashed but we can’t be sure who by because they are simply a booming voice, insisting he pledge allegiance. It was such a gripping opening. The brainwashed man (David Hedison) is captain of a nuclear submarine and upon return to it, begins sabotaging the mission. He’s been told he’ll be watched because he’s not the only one onboard who has pledged allegiance to the organisation. This was so intriguing and the submarine sets are fantastic. I’m left still wondering who the mysterious villains really are.

3rd May
Tales of the Riverbank
BBC-1

This short programme from the Watch with Mother strand was wonderfully laid back and relaxing. It features real animals, with the story narrated by a voice over. Hammy, a hamster, is new in town and meets Roderick, a rat, who takes him on a boat trip. They also meet some ducks. I was impressed by the animal actions and, to enable me to sleep easy, will assume they were all treated well.

4th May
Association Football
BBC-1

Liverpool are playing Inter-Milan in semi-final of the European Cup, which was eventually replaced by the UEFA Champions League. While European football gets prime time live screenings in the present day, I feel sorry for 1965’s viewers who get a mere half hour of highlights. Liverpool won 3-1 in this home match, but would lose in the second leg and Inter-Milan eventually went on to be the tournament’s victors.

What you could have won – missing and unavailable

Here are some of the listings that intrigued me but I was unable to watch this week.

MISSING Public Eye ‘Have It on the House’ – ‘Hired to track down a military man who has duped a woman out of £700, Marker’s instinct tells him he’s being taken for a fool – but conning an expert can prove dangerous.’ I adore Frank Marker in Public Eye. He’s such a wonderful down-trodden character. This is the final episode of the programme’s first series.

MISSING The Bed-Sit Girl ‘The Last Half Inch’ – This Sheila Hancock sitcom follows a young woman dreaming of something more – oh aren’t we all? I don’t know of any earlier sitcoms with a woman as the main lead and every episode of this is missing.

MISSING Orlando ‘Humpty Dumpty’- Remember Crane from 1963? This is a spin-off starring Crane’s friend. While Crane’s survival rate of two episodes (out of 39) is poor, at four (out of 76) Orlando’s isn’t much better. Crane was shown later in the schedules but Orlando was specifically styled as a children’s serial and as a result gets an early evening slot.

The post Back in time for TV: 28 April-4 May 1965 appeared first on THIS IS MY 1960s from Transdiffusion.

But a swashbuckler has to indulge in violence. And for 6 ft. 2 ins. London-born Roger Moore violence is something he abhors.

So when he decided to make a third bid at achieving an international television reputation what probably attracted him most to the title role in The Saint series was that here was a part in which he had to use quick wits in place of guns; stealth and shrewdness instead of fisticuffs. For Leslie Charteris’s famous character is a past-master at getting himself into dangerous situations with the greatest of ease — and getting out of them, thanks to cool thinking and cunning — even audacious talking. Playing such a character is heaven-sent for Roger Moore.

When it was announced in May of this year that he had been cast for the part he said simply. ‘This modern Robin Hood appeals to me.’

On previous occasions this son of an ex-London policeman, who first tried to earn his living as a commercial artist, had commented in this way on his roles as a TV hero. Of Ivanhoe, in which he played the title-hero, he said: ‘I felt like a complete Charlie riding around in all that armour and that plumed helmet. In fact, I felt like a mediaeval fireman.’ And when he had allowed a few centuries in time to slip by and he was seen next in programmes set in the American West of the last century he had this to say about his reactions to being Beau in the lighthearted Maverick series: ‘I can’t stand the noise of guns going off. I hate wearing cowboy boots, and my gun bruised my side.”

Third time is different. For someone who likes well-cut suits, ties that are at the height of fashion, and comfortable — mostly suede — bootees, the wardrobe chosen for The Saint is right up Roger Moore’s street. He’s honest about this: he likes good, expensive clothes.

But it hasn’t always been that easy for him to command a wardrobe which measures up to his fastidious taste…

Ten years ago he could see that cartoon drawing wasn’t going to be his line — nor was it going to bring in the kind of money that he wanted to earn. So he set down his pencil and brushes and attended classes at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. From this training he went on to small parts in London stage productions, augmenting this sporadic work by doing some modelling. The money was good
— but not enough. He turned his eyes West — towards America, and Hollywood.

Within months his £20 a week British pay packet had risen to £120. In the film capital he was to make his name in such pictures as The Miracle, The Sins of Rachel Cade and Gold of The Seven Saints.

He was also to earn the reputation of being one of the film capital’s best-dressed men. And Hollywood publicity writers were toying with such phrases as ‘the successor to Errol Flynn’. Roger secretly liked the tag; still does. But if he was being likened to Flynn, so he must allow himself to be considered for the hell-raising type of role which made the boisterous fighting Flynn famous.

But Roger Moore just doesn’t have the luck of the Irish to protect him when he is around a fight — even one staged in a film studio, or on location in front of a camera.

Bad luck seemed to dog him every time he walked into a film studio, where the word ‘action’ has more than one significance. In Ivanhoe his luck was right out.

In one episode of this series, when he clashed with a knight, an over-enthusiastic serf slashed his hand with a sword. When Roger broke off the fight to examine his wounds the knight crowned him with a battle-axe. Roger landed among the horse’s hooves. He was carried off the set unconscious. In a jousting scene he cracked three ribs because ‘someone was careless with a lance’. He was also kicked by a horse.

In Maverick he had a round of knocks, bruises, cuts and sores — the result of over-enthusiastic and or under-rehearsed fights in bar-room scenes, open-prairie chases, rooftop pursuits.

Little wonder that the smooth and sophisticated roles which he had played with some of screenland’s most famous first ladies — Liz Taylor, Lana Turner, Hazel Court among them — is more to his liking.

In The Saint this favourite Moore formula is basically available. The dialogue is crisp and intelligent. There are more than sufficient attractive young actresses—with good acting qualities as well as good looks—to offset his fetching mid-Atlantic accent and essentially English type features. And the whole character of ‘The Saint’ relies on speed of mind and tongue rather than endless brawls and feats of great physical courage.

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