John P. Hamilton
Family name: Hamilton
Work area/Craft/Role: Director, Sports programmes
Industry: TV, Radio
Company: Associated Rediffusion, BBC Light Programme, London Weekend Television
Websites: IMDb, British Comedy Guide, Post Fade, The Goon Show Preservation Society, Thames Today, The Goon Show
The following notes about John's friendship with Peter Sellers were written by John in November 1999.
Peter Sellers and John P. Hamilton.
Part 1
When I moved from Broadcasting House to Aeolian Hall in late 1949 I first met Peter Sellers as he was often around the place and everybody met up sooner later in the 'Gluepot', otherwise known as the Grosvenor Arms just around the corner from Aeolian Hall.
I think I first worked with him on some of Denis Main Wilson's Star Bill shows at the King's Theatre, Hammersmith which was used as an Outside Broadcast venue.
Denis and I had been Recorded Programmes Assistants at Bush House during the early part of WW2 before he went off to the Army and I joined the RAF. We met up again at Aeolian and he asked for me as Gram Operator on his shows.
In those far off happy days we had two lovely bosses at Aeolian, Jim Macahearty and Harry Morris and they saw the wisdom of allocating we studio managers to shows where we got on with the producers and senior SMs.
I had worked with Peter Eton as F/X op on both grams and 'spot' (creating live effects noises on the ‘spot' ) on a number of his light drama series back at Broadcasting House, and he was now with the Variety Department.
Denis wanted me for the early Crazy People shows, but I was already on “Home at 8”, produced by Ronnie Hill and starring Alfred Marks, Hermione Gingold and Dickie Attenborough, which went out live on Sunday nights on the Home Service. I did spot effects for the sketches including Trog the heavy-footed butler in the Doom family macabre satires written by Sid Colin. That was very good training for when I finally got to work on the Goon Show starting with Series Three. The producer was then Peter Eton and the balance and control studio manager John Browell, who eventually became producer of the show for its last few years.
Peter Sellers and I had a number of things in common. We were both ex-RAF, both played drums and both mad about jazz. So, we got on extremely well.
We talked jazz a lot, swapped records occasionally and in the days when he enjoyed fooling around with his cine camera, helped out with a few effects and things for the soundtracks.
After joining the team for the next three series, my Sundays were fully occupied doing grams on the Billy Cotton Band Show, with early morning rehearsals and transmission at lunch time, grabbing a quick bite and charging off to the Camden or Paris cinema or wherever the Goons were being recorded with cases full of bits and pieces from the Spot Effects store. As with Home at Eight, where I had performed my Trog act in full vision of the audience instead of behind a curtained or screened off area, Peter Eton adopted the same system withthe spot noises in full view and they often got prolonged laughs in their own right. We spot ops were not above milking the laughs when we got the chance, Peter Sellers particularly liked this and I sometimes thought he would have liked to be doing those noises as well. The LP cover of the EMI “Very Best of the Goons Vol 1’ gives you some idea of the set-up although that picture was taken in very different circumstances some years later. More of that anon.
Part 2
After I defected from the Beeb in 1955 to become Head of Sound at Associated -Rediffusion, Peter and I met up again on the ”Fred” and “Son Of Fred “ shows directed by Dick Lester. I did the sound balance, assisted by Sheila Blower and David Law, and we had a marvellous time on that very hilarious series. The Reg Owen group who provided the music had some of the best British jazz musicians including the great Phil Seamen on drums. We spent a lot of time chatting with him about drums and drummers, but the schedule was so tight we had no chance of the odd jam session that sometimes happened on other shows during lunch breaks and so on.
In March 1956, between the dates that we did the two “The Idiot Weekly Price 2d. programmes, Peter Sellers, David Law and I went to see the Stan Kenton Orchestra at the Albert Hall. On that evening of March 11th, the band gave the first of its sold-out concerts, becoming the first American Orchestra to play for a civilian British audience in 23 years. I got tickets from Harold Davison, who I knew from my radio “Jazz Club” days, and who was promoting the show with the New Musical Express.
We had seats just to the rear of band and close to the rhythm section. Peter Sellers and I were both knocked out by the superb drumming of Mel Lewis, and the fantastic sound of that great band -despite the awful acoustics of the hall. I still have the programme of that memorable night.
One other tenuous connection I have with Peter Sellers makes me extremely proud.
In one of the “Fred” sketches Peter did his Richard the Third bit. "Now is the Winter of our discontent made Glorious Summer by this Duke of York......etc". He finished it with one of the great lines in that which went: "And can I do all this, and still not get on “Worker’s Playtime” Well, it was very funny in the context of the age when a lot of people still remembered the war-time radio shows of which Worker’s Playtime” was one. For the part, the Make-up department had acquired the actual wig that Laurence Olivier had worn in the movie of “Richard 111”.
About a year later I played the King in an in-house Pantomime of the Sleeping Beauty and wore the self-same wig which make -up had bought and put into stock. I have a video of that show transferred from 8mm film and when I used to look at it I thought 'Cor, look at me in that wig. Olivier, 'Sellers and me!" What an honour.
The budget was tight on the “Freds” so there. wasn't much money for extras needed for some of the pre-filmed inserts. We members of the crew used to muck in on: days off to help out. So, I was glad to find among a collection of wonderful pictures belonging to Marjorie Graham who was Dick Lester's Production Assistant on the shows - one of me as a soldier of the Raj, with long-johns akimbo, confronting a sword-waving Sellers, as the Mad Mahdi or something, which we shot in a sand pit in Barnet -or somewhere that was free of facility fees. Of course, Equity was not too organised in ITV in those early days, so we got away with our acting bits.
In 1959 I became a Producer/Director at A-R, and our paths did not cross until 1968 when I was about to move to LWT when A-R lost its franchise. I had seen Peter Eton a few times when he left the Beeb and went freelance within ITV. He was at Rediffusion for a short time and we met in the bar now and then and chatted about the old days. Then, I had a call from him in the Spring of '68 to tell me that he had done a deal with the new Thames TV to shoot a visual version of a Goon show for transmission in the first week of the new company’s weekday slots. He asked me if I would like to relive my past and do spot effects for the show. I got the go-ahead from my new bosses at LWT and set about hiring the necessary bits and pieces from my old colleagues at the BBC.
Part 3
So one Sunday in June we all met up again in Studio One at Teddington and got down to rehearsing with Joe McGrath directing. The set-up is captured in a publicity photograph taken by the staff photographer at Thames and used as the front cover - some years later-by EMI when they released the LP The Very Best of the Goons -Vo1 1. The show we recorded is not part of that LP, of course. It was one that I had worked on for the radio series and that Spike had rewritten for this TV version. “Tales of Men's Shirts “was essentially the same as the original, and we all had a hilarious day with everybody on good form. It was helped along by the fact that Peter brought a couple of cases of fine wines with him which we hid behind the central flat seen in that cover picture and which took a bashing throughout the day and right up to recording time. When my wife, Daphne Shadwell, arrived for the show, she knew I had been at it and spent the evening wondering whether I would get everything right! All was well, and the audience was excellent, loving every minute. The show was recorded on video for Thames use and on film for Peter Eton Productions to have a marketable copy for worldwide sales. Without getting too technical, that dual system -known as Gemini - was unique at that time
copy of the show was ordered, some years later. by the then Independent Broadcasting Authority
to go into their archives. I have a treasured video copy of it.
My last meeting with Peter was in the early Seventies when we met by chance in Marylebone High Street, right outside Henekeys hostelry.
It was a Monday morning and I was on my way to my bank, and Peter was on his way to see his agent. On the corner of the street opposite the pub, a shop was being rebuilt, surrounded with scaffolding and a number of hairy workmen. AS we stopped to chat one of the workmen spotted Peter and started bellowing in Goon like voices to the street below.
The others joined in and, I have to say, their impressions were not bad at all.
Peter could not resist the challenge and started bellowing back at them .
This bellowed battle of words went on for some minutes much to the amusement of passers-by, and people in the pub who had came to see what was going on. In the end, and with me in hysterics, we both went into the pub and upstairs to their wine-bar.
We had a half-bottle of champagne and more sane chat, and parted company.
An odd tale-piece to this happened just a few weeks ago.(I am writing this in November '99) when Daphne and I popped into a small Italian restaurant in Dorset Street, just off Baker Street. It was quite late and as we walked to our table a soft Scottish voice called out: "Hey! Good God! I havenae seen you two in years! Remember me? I'm Charles. I used to run the wine bar at Henekeys." And so it was, And he remembered the incident in all its details, twenty --five, or so, years later. But, mine and other's memories of Peter Sellers will last much, much longer than that.
John P-Hamilton
November 1999.
JOHN P. HAMILTON
12 May 1924 - 11 January 2001
John P. as he was invariably addressed - the "P" was important - was essentially a scion of Victoria's Empire. His grandfather served as a sergeant in the 2/60" Royal Rifles stationed in Bengal in today's Pakistan. His father, born in 1875, followed the tradition of the day into the Regular Army and was attested for the Royal Artillery at Jhansi in
1892. The attitudes, the mores, the disciplines of those times somehow became part of John P.'s character and outlook. He emphatically knew how things should be done.
He was born in Kingston-upon-Hull in East Yorkshire, the youngest of six children, and an early sign of promise when access to secondary education was far from universal was a proud attainment of scholarship to the Marist College in Hull and his resulting five School Certificate credits.
He joined the BBC in 1940 as a Trainee Recorded Programmes Assistant. Based at Broadcasting House in those stirring days he worked at all the London studio venues and was also attached to the CBC War Reporting Unit. Volunteering for aircrew duties with the RAF in 1942 after training in Canada he served variously in Coastal and Bomber Commands finishing up at war's end, boringly, with the RAF Police until his demob in 1947.
Returning promptly to the BBC's Recorded Programmes Department after some refresher courses his career proper now began with the Latin American & Near East Services.
1948 saw him back at BH as a Mobile RPA, which required travel around the country on such programmes as Down Your Way, Top of the Form, and the party-political conferences. When the Engineering and Production departments were amalgamated in 1949 he became a Studio Manager and moved to the Variety Department at Aeolian Hall.
The shows he worked on there are redolent of the vanished age of wireless. Home at Eight, Star Bill, Riders of the Range, Jazz Club, Bedtime with Braden, Stand Easy, Just Fancy and the first series of 'Hancock's Half Hour”. Then there were some of the landmarks in his life - the third, fourth and fifth series of “The Goon Shows”, about which he became an enthusiastic expert. His principal task was to create the "spot effects" and Sunday afternoons, after mornings "doing grams" on “The Billy Cotton Band Show,” he would pack cases with bits and pieces from the effects store and dash off to the Paris Cinema or wherever the show was being recorded and in full view of a delirious audience create those memorable sounds. There, and later at ITV, he enjoyed a rewarding friendship with Peter Sellers.
In 1954 he married Daphne Shadwell, the youngest daughter of Charles Shadwell, the former director of the BBC Variety Orchestra, and together they were offered jobs by Associated-Rediffusion, the founding weekday company of the Independent Television network. John became its Head of Sound on April 1, 1955, recruited a staff of 54 and methodically trained and planned for Opening Night on September 22 that year. This became a calendar date for him and in later years he enthusiastically organised annual reunions of ITV's old girls and boys.
He was made a programme director at the beginning of 1959, cutting his teeth on advertising magazines, epilogues, and the similar detritus then existing, before moving on to Cool for Cats, a proto-pop music and dancing series. Until 1968 when Rediffusion traumatically lost its franchise John worked on every type of show, drama excepted. With the advent of London Weekend he became a producer/director with World of Sport and, as he had at A-R, worked on hundreds of programmes here and abroad across the entire spectrum.
In October 1984 he left programming to become LWT's Company Archivist for which his organisational abilities, his meticulous work habits, and his formidable memory ideally suited him. Having completed that task he retired on October 28 1988 after 48 years of continuous activity.
In those earlier days television was largely ephemeral, and a decreasing number of quondam viewers remembers the way it was but from that foreign country of the past where things were so different a few more titles of John P's shows can be recalled.
Alfred Marks Time, Love of Mike, Three Live Wires, Tubby Hayes Plays, Stars & Garters, The Des O'Connor Show, This Week, Here & Now, Three After Six, Five O'Clock Club. There was then a level of professionalism among media workers and an attitude of responsibility within the ITV companies. It was called Public Service Television.
John was a large man whose size might seem at odds with his goodness, kindness, generosity and unselfishness. Family was important to him, both his own origins and also within the corporate environment. For years he staunchly represented Producer/Director members of ACTT, the technicians' union, both at A-R and LWT and especially enjoyed encouraging young people at the start of their careers.
His interests were many and varied, principal among them a love of his work, football (both as spectator and player - he was goal for Rediffusion), jazz (a fantastic collection), entertaining friends (at which he and Daphne were specialists), and staying in touch. The condition of the country did not sit well with him. He was a patriot who hankered for times of better-ordered existence and accepted self-discipline. He loathed the falling and failed standards of television, both in terms of content and technicalities.
John had not always in recent years experienced the best of health but of late his old brio had returned. On the first day of this year, having bought a new typewriter, he settled down to write his autobiography. It was called - provisionally at least - My Life and all that Jazz and two thirds of a page had been composed when almost immediately a sudden catastrophic event, not speedily diagnosed, resulted in his death in St. Mary's Hospital Paddington on January 11. Cremation at Golders Green on January 24 followed a hugely
attended service at the Church of Our Lady on Lisson Grove where some 47 years earlier Daphne and he had embarked on such a rewarding marriage.
Roy Fowler: 5-2-2001
JOHN P• HAMILTON
BIOGRAPHY ( Written By John P. Hamilton)
Born: Kingston upon Hull, East Yorkshire 12.5.1924.
Youngest of six children (One brother, four sisters).
Education: ST. Charles School for Boys, Hull 1929-1935.
Scholarship to the Marist College, Hull 1935 - 1939.
Northern Universities School Certificate (5 Credits) 1939.
Employment:
Joined BBC as Trainee Recorded Programmes Assistant
on Sunday August 4th 1940.
Based at Broadcasting House but worked in all London studio venues with attachment to CBC War Reporting Unit.
Service record:
Volunteered for aircrew duties with RAF 1942.
Accepted and did flying training in UK then Navigation course at 7 Air Observers School, Portage La Prairie:, Manitoba, Canada.
Joined Coastal Command as Metrological/Navigator.
Based at Goose Bay, Labrador. Returned to UK to Bomber Command to No 1 Bombing Development Unit, and later to 617 Squadron, Woodhall Spa, Lines.
Later transferred to Beaufighter squadron, Leuchars, Fife. Converted to Mosquitoes for intruder missions. At war's end became RAF police at 13 Group Fighter Command, Acklington, Nr. Newcastle.
Got Bored. Did Safety Equipment Course including
Training and finished RAF career at
54 OTU, Leeming Nth. Yorks as Safety Equipment Officer. Played a lot of Soccer and., first, drums then Bass with station band (Jazz, that is.)
Demobbed March 8th. 1947.
Post RAF employment;
Rejoined BBC in revised Recorded Programmes
Department on April 1st.1947. Refresher courses in Production and at Technical Training School, Wood Norton , Evesham.
Based at Aldenham House, Elstree with Latin American and Near East Services 1947 - 1948. Returned to BH as Mobile RPA travelling the country on such progs as Down your way, Top of the Form, paarty political conferences etc. etc.
On the amalgamation of Engineering and Production departments in 1949 became Studio Manager and moved to Variety Department at Aeolian Hall.
Worked on all the best showssuch as : Home at Eight, Star Bill, Billy Cotton Band Show, Bedtime with Braden, Journey into Space, Riders of the Range, Jazz Club (Home and Overseas) versions, Stand Easy, Just Fancy,
'Ancocks 'Alf 'Our (first series), and the Goon Show (Series 3, 4 and 5) And all the bands of the day.
ITV Career:
Having married Daphne Shadwell in 1954, she being the youngest daughter of Charles Shadwell, former musical director of the BBC Variety Orchestra, we were offered jobs with Associated-Rediffusion, the founding weekday company for ITV. I joined as Head of Sound on April lst.1955.
Worked very hard to recruit, train and prepare staff for Opening Night on Sept.22nd that year. With a staff of 54 we then got on with it. I did most of the early big shows myself, including of course, the Fred shows, and “Son of Fred” that followed directed by Dick Lester.
Became Programme Director on Jan 1st, 1959, and cut teeth on advertising magazines, epilogues and the like. Daphne was already a Producer/Director and I inherited “Cool For Cats” the pop music and dancing show. It ran until 1968 when Rediffusion lost its franchise. I worked on every kind of programme except Drama.
July 1968 I joined LWT on demise of Rediffusion with World of Sport. Having done hundreds of OBs at most of the Racing, Football, Boxing, Wrestling and Greyhound racing venues in the South my experience was invaluable to this new group under Jimmy Hill and John Bromley. There were many foreign assignments such as World Cup skiing, Football World Cups, and other international events around Europe.
In 1984 the company asked me to become the Company Archivist.
I spent the next four years building the archive from scratch, but then decided I had done my bit and retired on October 28th 1988.
SIC TRANSIT GLORIA SWANSONG.
Programme Credits of John P. Hamilton
Television Programme Director
January 1st 1959 – August 1st 1967
A)
LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT PROGRAMMES
The 1959 Show - New Year Spectacular (as co-director)
Swing-a-song - Band Show
Blue Mood -Jazz Show
Cool For Cats - Record Show - 62 Editions
Look! Hear! - Record Show - 2 Editions
Alfred Marks Time - Comedy and Musical Spectacular - 2 Editions
Love of Mike - Domestic Comedy Series of 13
Three Live Wires - Domestic Comedy Series of 13
Summersong - 0.B. Variety Spectacular - 3 Editions
Needle Match - Record Show - 16 Editions
Julie Andrews and Carol Burnett at Carnagie Hall -USA edited for G.B. »
Tubby Hayes Plays - Jazz Series of sıx
White Wedding - Ice Spectacular 0.B.
Stars and Garters - first 2 Series of sixteen
Stars and Garters - "Weekend Magazine' Award Special
Stars and Garters Summer Outing - 0.B. Special
Miss Universe Contest - USA edited for G.B.
The Child's Guide to Screenwriting - Special for Screenwriters Guild
Buddy Greco Entertains (SPECIAL)
The Jazz Girls - Series of 6
HMS Paradise Meets HMS Eagle - O.B. Christmas Special aboard HMS Eagle
Don't Say a Word - 0.B. Christmas Special
Hippodrome -Circus/Variety in Colour and Black and White - 10 Editions
David Jacobs Words and Music - Series of 12
The Des 0'Connor Show - Series (for Associated Television Ltd.) of 6
Where did that Come From? - Panel Game Series of 12
B)
FEATURE AND DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMES
The Runaway Flag - Special on Flags of Convenience
This Week - 26 Editions
Here and Now - 32 Editions
The Budget - 0.B. Coverage - 5 Editions
Election - O.B. Coverage - 2 Editions
State Opening of Parliament - ITV Liaison with BBC
Three after Six - 26 Editions
The Lightning War - This Week Special on War in Israel
C)
OUTSIDE BROADCAST PROGRAMMES
COVERAGE OF THE FOLLOWING SPORTS :
Polo
Fashions
Ice Skating – inc World Championships
Netball
Association Football
Basketball
Professional wrestling
Amateur Boxing
Ten Pin Bowling - inc Championships
Horse Racing - Epsom / Sandown /Newmarket
Tennis - Wimbledon /Cumberland Club
Golf - Sunningdale/Moor Park
Cricket - Lords
Member of ITV Team for 18th O1ympiad, 1964 - 20 hrs. of Transmission
ALSO (DEVISED+ DIRECTED)
"BY EXAMPLE, WE LEAD” - 60 Min O.B. DOCUMENTARY FROM KENSINGTON BARRACKS ON THE WORK OF W.R.A.C.
"MILITARY MUSICIANS" – 60 MIN O.B. DOCOMENTARY CELEBRATING BI-CENTENARY OF ROYAL ARTILLERY BAND FROM ROYAL ARTILLERY H.Q., WOOLWICH.
"VENTURE, ADVENTURE “- 90MIN OB DOCUMENTARY ON WORK OF ALL FLYING BRANCHES OF TRANSPORT COMMAND THROUGH THE EYES OF MEMBERS OF AIR TRAINING CORPS FROM R.A.F STATION, BENSON. INCLUDED DISPLAY BY ‘RED PELICANS’ AEROBATIC TRAM OF CENTRAL SCHOOL OF FIDING.
"HORSE GUARDS" - 60 min 0.B. DOCUMENTARY ON THE WORK OF THE MOUNTED SECTIONS OF THE BRIGADE OF GUARDS, AT KNIGHTSRIDGE BARRACKS.
D)
CHILDREN'S PROGRAMMES
“Small Time” - 10 Editions
“Five 0'Clock Funfair “- 16 Editions
“Five 0'Clock Club”- 22 Editions
Disney Wonderland Special - Christmas Edition
SING ALONG WITH SANTA
CHRISTMAS SPECIAL WITH JIMMY HANLEY.
E)
RELIGIOUS PROGRAMMES
“Epilogues “ - Lost Count !!
Milestones - 6 Editions
Science versus God - 5 Editions
OTHER PROGRAMMES
Advertising Magazines - 64 assorted programmes
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