Stourbridge Memories I
It's been a while since I've been to an archive television event, so I was very happy to get an invitation from parrot_knight to join him in a trip into the West Midlands for Kaleidoscope's 20th anniversary get-together.
It's basically a mini-convention with a couple of guests, lots of rare TV, and a friendly, lo-fi, home-made feel to the proceedings - admission is free (all proceeds go to the RNLI), cake is provided, and there's even a box of 70s and 80s TV tie-in paperbacks free to a good home following a charitable donation. I made off with John Brason's 1977 prequel to "Secret Army", and parrot_knight took a copy of "Raffles", a novelisation of the Anthony Valentine series based on Hornung's short stories, but not, as far as we could make out, featuring a word of Hornung's originals.
The two guests were Darrol Blake and John Bruce; I knew that Darrol had directed "The Stones of Blood", I didn't know that he started his career as a designer and had worked on "Quatermass II", "Adam Adamant Lives" and had shared a flat with Ridley Scott. He's a patrician, cultured type (imagine Preston Lockwood's younger brother.) He had a wonderfully, typically eclectic BBC career in the 1960s - at one point he was producing "BBC3" and "Not so much a programme, more a way of life" under the wing of Ned Sherrin. We were treated to a clip of "The Late Show" from 1967, featuring John Wells introducing John Bird pretending to be George Brown playing Fanny Craddock.... "John Bird, a complete professional", mused Darrol, "and John Wells, utterly hopeless."
He had made the break into directing by applying to work on Arts and Features when Huw Weldon was in charge ("Indulgence Corner, as it was known at the time"). In the 1970s he went free-lance, working mainly for Thames, and gained a reputation as a quick, efficient drama specialist with an affinity for studio drama. "Whenever I could, I insisted on using OB video" (as he does on 'The Stones of Blood') "because I hated the piebald look of film/tape productions."
John Bruce began as an actor - he was at the RSC during the Age of Kings cycle in Stratford in the 60s, and broke into TV when he asked if he could help with the BBC's adaptation of it. He then took the classic career path of production assistant, AFM, Floor Manager, before getting a break when his Director's Course drama (solely intended for internal consumption) benefitted from having all the talent that was on strike at the time at the BBC keeping their hands in by designing the sets, lighting and costumes for it. As a result "The Cornet Lesson" (as far as we could tell a two hander about the Sally Army, with Gerald James and Angela Pleasance) was picked up for transmission and shown on Christmas Eve, 1973. He has a terrific, baritone, radio voice, and was bubbling with enthusiasm.
Darrol Blake, having retired, was the less discreet of the two interviewees. He took over the producer's role on series two of "Tucker's Luck", having been told by the Head of Drama that Todd Carty couldn't really carry the series, and could he do something about it?
So he cast Adam Kotz as 'Creamy', a musician manque', and potential series lead, and shortly afterwards Todd Carty started taking rehearsals a bit more seriously.
John Bruce's credits included Z-Cars, the 1982 adaptation of "The Woman in White", "Parnell and the Englishwoman" and many late 80s - mid 90s episodes of "The Bill". He also directed "Article Five", a 1976 BBC drama about torture by Barry Phelan that was recorded but never transmitted - unlike "The War Game" or "Scum" this has never escaped from the vaults. Christopher Morahan, head of department at the time, had OKed the production without clearing it with the Sixth Floor; in the end the cast performed the play, for a limited engagement, at the ICA.
Darrol Blake barely mentioned Doctor Who, except to say that it was a job like Emmerdale, Crossroads or Coronation Street - a long-running drama serial with fixed limitations in terms of cast and production teams. He told two cracking anecdotes about Quatermass II:
1) How to create the surface of an alien planet - you will need a rock, as many nesting chairs as you can find, and a tarpaulin.
2) How to create a puff of smoke coming out of alien 'cornish pasties' as they possess people - you will need a table, cigarettes, and Paddy Russell.
It's basically a mini-convention with a couple of guests, lots of rare TV, and a friendly, lo-fi, home-made feel to the proceedings - admission is free (all proceeds go to the RNLI), cake is provided, and there's even a box of 70s and 80s TV tie-in paperbacks free to a good home following a charitable donation. I made off with John Brason's 1977 prequel to "Secret Army", and parrot_knight took a copy of "Raffles", a novelisation of the Anthony Valentine series based on Hornung's short stories, but not, as far as we could make out, featuring a word of Hornung's originals.
The two guests were Darrol Blake and John Bruce; I knew that Darrol had directed "The Stones of Blood", I didn't know that he started his career as a designer and had worked on "Quatermass II", "Adam Adamant Lives" and had shared a flat with Ridley Scott. He's a patrician, cultured type (imagine Preston Lockwood's younger brother.) He had a wonderfully, typically eclectic BBC career in the 1960s - at one point he was producing "BBC3" and "Not so much a programme, more a way of life" under the wing of Ned Sherrin. We were treated to a clip of "The Late Show" from 1967, featuring John Wells introducing John Bird pretending to be George Brown playing Fanny Craddock.... "John Bird, a complete professional", mused Darrol, "and John Wells, utterly hopeless."
He had made the break into directing by applying to work on Arts and Features when Huw Weldon was in charge ("Indulgence Corner, as it was known at the time"). In the 1970s he went free-lance, working mainly for Thames, and gained a reputation as a quick, efficient drama specialist with an affinity for studio drama. "Whenever I could, I insisted on using OB video" (as he does on 'The Stones of Blood') "because I hated the piebald look of film/tape productions."
John Bruce began as an actor - he was at the RSC during the Age of Kings cycle in Stratford in the 60s, and broke into TV when he asked if he could help with the BBC's adaptation of it. He then took the classic career path of production assistant, AFM, Floor Manager, before getting a break when his Director's Course drama (solely intended for internal consumption) benefitted from having all the talent that was on strike at the time at the BBC keeping their hands in by designing the sets, lighting and costumes for it. As a result "The Cornet Lesson" (as far as we could tell a two hander about the Sally Army, with Gerald James and Angela Pleasance) was picked up for transmission and shown on Christmas Eve, 1973. He has a terrific, baritone, radio voice, and was bubbling with enthusiasm.
Darrol Blake, having retired, was the less discreet of the two interviewees. He took over the producer's role on series two of "Tucker's Luck", having been told by the Head of Drama that Todd Carty couldn't really carry the series, and could he do something about it?
So he cast Adam Kotz as 'Creamy', a musician manque', and potential series lead, and shortly afterwards Todd Carty started taking rehearsals a bit more seriously.
John Bruce's credits included Z-Cars, the 1982 adaptation of "The Woman in White", "Parnell and the Englishwoman" and many late 80s - mid 90s episodes of "The Bill". He also directed "Article Five", a 1976 BBC drama about torture by Barry Phelan that was recorded but never transmitted - unlike "The War Game" or "Scum" this has never escaped from the vaults. Christopher Morahan, head of department at the time, had OKed the production without clearing it with the Sixth Floor; in the end the cast performed the play, for a limited engagement, at the ICA.
Darrol Blake barely mentioned Doctor Who, except to say that it was a job like Emmerdale, Crossroads or Coronation Street - a long-running drama serial with fixed limitations in terms of cast and production teams. He told two cracking anecdotes about Quatermass II:
1) How to create the surface of an alien planet - you will need a rock, as many nesting chairs as you can find, and a tarpaulin.
2) How to create a puff of smoke coming out of alien 'cornish pasties' as they possess people - you will need a table, cigarettes, and Paddy Russell.