In November we were treated to a talk by Will Lower. Will worked for the BBC for over 30 years so was able to give us a potted history of ‘Auntie’ interspersed with many humorous anecdotes.
He took us from its beginnings at Alexandra Palace, to Lime Grove, TV Centre and to its current location in Manchester. Much of Will’s time was spent at TV Centre, ‘the concrete doughnut’ where, on average, 8,000 people worked on any one day, their aim to make ‘the world’s finest television’.
Will took us back in time to revisit some of the televisual highlights and landmarks of that output, which included:
Cathy Come Home – a hard-hitting drama highlighting homelessness. It lead to questions in The House and coincided with the launch of homeless charity Shelter.
The Forsyte Saga – a drama following the fortunes of the Forsyte family which, when broadcast on Sunday evenings, resulted in changing the times of some church services to allow parishioners to get home before its start time.
Pennies From Heaven, Abigail’s Party and When The Boat Comes In were also mentioned, the latter for its early use of regional accents. Will also highlighted The Shakespeare Collection, a series of plays which are still used around the world today to illustrate the work of The Bard.
Moving on to Light Entertainment, Will looked at the Beeb’s output from The Black and White Minstrel Show, through to Morecambe and Wise and The Two Ronnies. By some estimates, the 1977 Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special was watched by over half of the population.
We reminisced about Saturday evening television: The Generation Game which, at its peak pulled in over 23 million viewers, would start the evening and grab the audience. Subsequent start times would be set so as not to clash with ITV, to avoid a loss of viewers.
1969 saw the start of a new wave of comedy when The Pythons launched onto our screens. The era of the sit-com had also arrived with the likes of Til Death Us Do Part, The Liver Birds, Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em, Porridge and Butterflies. ‘Allo ‘Allo! and Are You Being Served? were also highlighted, as were the 12 episodes of Fawlty Towers and the longest running sit-com in the world, Last of the Summer Wine. No look at BBC comedy would be complete without reference to Dad’s Army which, even now, is usually being shown somewhere around the world at any time of the day or night.
Will made reference to music on the BBC, with Top of the Pops, Andre Previn (or Mr Preview!) and The BBC Proms being mentioned. Those concerts, which now number over 70, are sold around the world.
Many a chuckle was raised as Will detailed some of the insider stories from his time at the BBC. These included the lengths staff would go to in order to placate A-list diva celebrities; an actor who was somewhat too willing to use his fist on a member of staff who was deemed to be acting inappropriately; and the lengths Will and his fellow behind-the-scenes staff went to in order to avoid conflict between different departments at the height of union powers.
Will left us with the question of whether the ‘Golden Years’ would ever return. Maybe programs that we now watch will, 30 years from now, be considered classics.
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Report by Helen Stenhouse