'Stage, Screen & Radio' magazine: History Project contribution - December 2015
Over recent months the BECTU History Project has been busily continuing its interviews with women and men from across the UK film and television industries. With nearly 700 recordings so far, it is one of the most extensive audio-visual archives in the world.
Recent interviews have included:-
John Henshall
John Henshall is an acknowledged expert in electronic photography and digital imaging. He started at the BBC in the 1960s, and left in the mid-1970s. As a DoP in the following years he helped establish the new genre of music videos, and did innovative TV work such as ‘Spitting Image’ and ‘Network 7’.
By the 1980s he was predicting a digital future for TV camerawork, and since then has helped define the craft of digital imaging. In addition to acting as CEO and Managing Director of Electronic Photo-Imaging Ltd., he is a regular conference speaker and consultant in the UK and abroad.
Hazel Ascot
In the late 1930s Sound City Studios – the forerunner of Shepperton Studios – faced bankruptcy. Their saviour was Hazel Ascot, a seven-year-old champion tap dancer. She made just two films, 'Talking Feet' (1937) and 'Stepping Toes' (1938), but they were enormously popular. A third (colour) film was planned for 1939, but was stymied by the outbreak of War, when the film industry temporarily closed down.
During her brief career, Hazel was billed as Britain's answer to Shirley Temple. Looking back, she disagrees: she was a better dancer than Shirley, but she didn’t have the American’s all-round cuteness. In Hazel’s own words: her talent was below her knees.
Chris Strachan
Chris Strachan led the fund-raising team which prevented the Harwich Electric Palace cinema from being demolished in the 1970s.
The Palace is an early example of a British purpose-built cinema. Erected in 1911 for £1,500, it operated through both silent and sound periods until 1956, when a combination of entertainment tax, television, and the 1953 east coast floods, forced its closure. But the 1970s public campaign to save and restore it was successful, and the Palace re-opened in 1981, fully restored to most of its original structure and decor. Reconstituted as a charity, the Palace is now a successful, fully operational cinema.
Jenny Barraclough
Jenny Barraclough’s career in documentary television goes back fifty years. Starting as the only female reporter at ITN in 1963, she moved on to work as Producer/Director on ‘World in Action’ (Granada), ‘This Week’ (Rediffusion), and ‘Man Alive’ (BBC). Desmond Wilcox of ‘Man Alive’ once said that she had transformed documentaries by talking to ordinary people rather than experts.
Jenny rose to become BBC1 Head of Documentaries, but she chose programme-making over further corporate promotion. She left the BBC and in 1988 set up Barraclough Carey, a highly respected independent production company, supplying documentaries to international broadcasters. She says “It’s the best job in the world”.
Doug Allan
Doug Allan is one of the world’s great wildlife filmmakers. With a degree in marine biology, professional accreditation as a diver, and the skills of an accomplished cinematographer, his screen firsts include orcas attacking gray whales off California; polar bears trying to capture belugas in a frozen hole in Arctic Canada; and killer whales washing seals off ice floes in Antarctica.
Throughout his working life Doug has been attracted to these ‘extreme environments’ – for several years he worked with the British Antarctic Survey – and he regularly brings back images not only of life on the frozen surface, but also life underwater and below the ice. Flagship natural history series on which he has worked include The Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Life, Human Planet and Frozen Planet.
In his History Project interview Doug reflects on his own career, the impact of changing technology on wildlife filmmaking, and its broader educational role in alerting us to the realities of climate change and environmental degradation.
David Francis
David Francis OBE was the second curator of the UK’s National Film and Television Archive, leading it for 15 years from 1974 until 1989, during which time key developments included a new television collection, the John Paul Getty preservation centre at Berkhamsted, the nitrate film preservation plan, and – working with Lesley Hardcastle – the Museum of the Moving Image at BFI South Bank.
When pressure mounted for commercial exploitation of the archive David moved on, crossed the Atlantic, and was soon heading up the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division of the Library of Congress, in Washington, D.C., developing the USA’s National Film Registry legislation and its new National Audio-Visual Conservation Center.
The History Project interview covers David’s childhood interest in film, and his early employment with the BFI and BBC, before taking on his curator role. It includes his reflections on key players and archive policies in the UK and elsewhere.
Simon Rose
Simon Rose is a highly experienced Editor and Director whose career spans both in-house and freelance work on documentary and current affairs programmes, corporates, and more besides.
After starting out in a facilities house, by the late 1960s he was working at the BBC and by the early 1970s was editing on the high-profile current affairs series Man Alive. Also active as local shop steward, he found himself redundant around 1973 and went freelance. Like many freelances he had to take what work he could, and projects in the next few years included BBC contracts, corporate work for an arms firm, and starting to learn the craft of Director.
Perhaps his key breakthrough was the film ‘Simon’s War’ about the Falklands hero Simon Weston, which he directed and edited. Following this he worked regularly on programmes for Horizon (BBC), Equinox (Channel 4), Nova (US PBS), and others. Among his recent projects were three episodes of the Channel 4 series ‘Britain: My new home’.
Simon is now active in the History Project himself, and in his interview he reflects on the changing culture of the industry including encounters with the trade union closed shop in the ‘60s and ‘70s; changing technologies, as the Steenbeck gave way to digital editing; and good ideas gone bad, with Channel 4 as a key exhibit.
Nigel Mantel
When Nigel Mantel started work in the 1940s he trained as an Electrical Engineer, but when the opportunity arose to move into the entertainment industry he took it with both hands.
From the 1930s Granada Theatres was acquiring and building venues for use as cinemas, theatres, and sometimes both. Granada’s trademark was cutting edge design and unashamed opulence, and Nigel’s main base at the Granada Walthamstow was very much in this vein. Built in 1930, designed by the Russian designer Theodore Komisarjevsky, seating almost 2,700, it was like Granada’s Tooting and Woolwich cinemas a “cathedral of the movies”. Here he worked for over thirty years as a Projectionist, and also on live stage shows as a Sculptor, Artist and Illustrator.
Now retired, Nigel is still an active supporter of the Cinema Museum at Kennington, and the History Project.
The History Project is entirely voluntary and is always looking for new members. It meets monthly at BECTU Head Office, usually on the second Monday of the month. If you’re interested, contact the Secretary, Sue Malden, at sue.malden@btinternet.com.
