Search Results for: Alan Lawson

Born Shepherd’s Bush 1922, went to Latymer Upper School, left in 1938 with 8 credits, wanted to be an architect first choice, second choice Accountancy. Got a job with British Lion as an office boy, volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm, after an accident returned to ‘civvy street’ and British Lion. When Worton Hall came onto the market having been de-requisitioned from the Ministry of Defence he helped recommission it as a working studio. First job as Production Accountant on Candlelight in Algiers, made for £48,000. It came The Bridge over the River Kwai.out £5 under budget. When Worton Hall closed he moved over to manage Merton Park studios The First Gentleman. In 1949 Columbia asked him to join them and find the reasons why, budgeted for £250,000 finally cost £500,000. Columbia made him Production Controller for Columbia British, In 1950 he became the General Manager of International Film Distributors, but by 1953 TV had killed their business. So, he went back to Columbia. The Man for all Seasons;. John Woolf Oliver!, ; Born Free.  In 1960 he became the Vice-President of Columbia International Pictures.His visit to Persia [now Iran] to advise on the possibility of a film industry. He also talks about filming in Turkey for You Can’t Win ‘em All,  He talks about trying to make films with a ‘blocked’ currency and how they always seem to cost much more. In 1976 when Columbia closed down their British and European operations, he became a consultant for them; Harold Wilson asking him to go and talk to the City to try and get help for the British Film industry. In that year he became the President of BFTPA [British Film and Television Producers Association] and also its chief executive. He talks about his attempt to get and get some form of tax relief, which did come into being after the 1979 General Election. behp0255-kenneth-maidment-summarySIDE ONEBorn Shepherd’s Bush 1922, went to Latymer Upper School, left in 1938 with 8 credits, wanted to be an architect first choice, second choice Accountancy. Got a job with British Lion as an office boy, volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm, after an accident returned to ‘civvy street’ and British Lion. When Worton Hall came onto the market having been de-requisitioned from the Ministry of Defence he helped recommission it as a working studio. He talks about his first job as Production Accountant on Candlelight in Algiers, made for £48,000. It came The Bridge over the River Kwai.out £5 under budget. When Worton Hall closed he moved over to manage Merton Park studios The First Gentleman. In 1949 Columbia asked him to join them and find the reasons why, budgeted for £250,000 finally cost £500,000. He talks about that incident after that Columbia made him Production Controller for Columbia British, he talks about Mario Zampi. In 1950 he became the General Manager of International Film Distributors, but by 1953 TV had killed their business. So, he went back to Columbia. Talks about Red Berets, Hell Below Zero, and The Black Knight. He also talks about Sam Spiegel and Carl Foreman andSIDE TWOTalking about Irving Allen and Zarak [Khan]. He talks about Richard Burton in Bitter Victory with Christopher Lee. Has an interesting story about the making of Peter Glenville’s Me and the Colonel and finding a ‘period’ Rolls-Royce. He talks about Suddenly Last Summer, Lawrence of Arabia, and how he suggested Peter O’Toole for the part, having seen him in a West End play, The Long and the Short and the Tall. There is an interesting story about Herbert Wilcox threatening to make a film of the stage play Ross, and release it before Lawrence came out unless they bought him out for £100,000.SIDE THREE1966. He talks about The Wrong Box, The Key. He then talks about the drink problems of some actors. He continues to talk about many of the films he was responsible for including The Man for all Seasons.SIDE FOURTalks about his association with John Woolf Oliver!, [DS1] Born Free. He also talks about studio shooting as opposed to ‘location shooting’. The value of ‘matte work’. In 1960 he became the Vice-President of Columbia International Pictures and he talks about financing films in various European countries.SIDE FIVEHe talks about filming Cromwell in Spain, then his visit to Persia [now Iran] to advise on the possibility of a film industry. He also talks about filming in Turkey for You Can’t Win ‘em All, and how the man who was contracted to supply both horses and men tried to ‘blackmail’ him into increasing the contractual price. He talks about trying to make films with a ‘blocked’ currency and how they always seem to cost much more. In 1976 when Columbia closed down their British and European operations, he became a consultant for them; he also talks about Harold Wilson asking him to go and talk to the City to try and get help for the British Film industry. In that year he became the President of BFTPA [British Film and Television Producers Association] and also its chief executive. He talks about his attempt to get and get some form of tax relief, which did come into being after the 1979 General Election.SIDE SIXBecause of the new ‘capital allowances’ leasing companies came in but as soon as the Inland Revenue realised that these allowances were being abused, they were withdrawn. He then talks about his general thoughts.[END] [DS1]

…In this interview, conducted in 1991, Vorhaus talks extensively to Sid Cole and Alan Lawson about his film career. He gives a vivid and engaging account of the British Quota industry in the 1930s (and…

Head of Design BBC.  Married to Patricia Foy, producer Born 21 Dec 1910. . Father a dentist. Ambition to be Film Director. Got job in local boat house. Went to Whartons looking for film job. Apprentice with Gaumont British. 1927 first Motor Car. 1928 talkies came in went to decorating Gaumont Dance Halls with Herbert Mason. 1932 started freelance working. Applied in Baird Studios to be designer visited the early set of Television. Then went to BBC Radio Times office and designed the cover for 10th anniversary of the BBC. Visited BBC publicity and designed exhibition set for BBC .  His design was approved by Lord Reith in his office after brief interview. Continued freelance work for BBC. Joined Air Force as civil attachment in 1939 as camouflage officer. Joined MOI as designer . After war joined BBC .Designed sets for BAFTA Awards . Discusses problems at the Albert Hall and other venues. Left BBC 1958 and joined Crown International as a Producer. Back to freelance as designer and portrait photographer. 

Technical Manager, NFTVA

Naturalist

Patrick Carey (1916 – 1994) was an Irish–British filmmaker. His mother, May Carey, was a well known actress. His siblings were sister, Sheila Carey, brother Denis Carey and twin brother Brian Carey (actor). The family moved back to Ireland in 1923 when his father, William Denis Carey, took up a government post in the Department of Finance. Carey became well known in the genre of short documentary films, with a lyrical gift for dramatic visualization of natural scenery: his two most well known films being Yeats Country (1965),] exploring the relationship between the vision of poet W.B. Yeats and the landscape of Co. Sligo, and Oisin(1970)[2] a film which focuses entirely on the imagery created by the natural world, without either words or music. Both films were nominated for an Academy Award In Errigal (1970) a brilliant weave of folklore and narrative is set against the stunning dominance of the Donegal mountains. Of Errigal, Carey wrote 'The mountains are the characters in the story, the drama is in the battle of the elements. I have tried to convey the feeling of personality in a landscape, supported only by music and natural sounds'.Carey had earlier achieved considerable success with his Journey into Spring (1958) which was set in England, with a commentary by Gloucestershire poet Laurie Lee, for which he was nominated for two Academy Awards, and which earned him a BAFTA. He went on to work for the Film Board of Canada; memorable is the lyrical realism of The Kid from Canada (1958) and the haunting textures of Arctic Outpost: Pagnirtung, N.W.T. (1960). Perhaps, most outstanding was his documentary short on the Inuit people, The Living Stone (1959), also nominated for an Academy Award.Carey's poetry is evident in the minimalist title of the wonderful Sky (1963), which he shot in Canada. He returned to Britain where he made the magnificent Wild Wings (1965), in the Gloucestershire Wildfowl Trust Reserve, which won an Academy Award. His last documentary short was Beara (1979), depicting the rich desolation of the barren West Cork peninsula.Much of the dramatic cinematography in the film Ryan's Daughter (1970), directed by David Lean, is due to Carey's work on the film. In the early 1970s Patrick Carey returned to live in Canada. He died in 1994.From Wikipedia Behp0188-patrick-carey-summary SIDE ONE Born London 1917. Father in the Irish Civil Service, returned with his family to Dublin in 1924. Educated at a catholic school, went to Trinity College Dublin but failed his second-year exams and went to Dublin Art School. Later set up a photographic studio with a friend, also acted professionally. His mother was also an actress, as was his twin brother and his eldest brother. Toured Europe in 1939 with the Dublin Gate Company. Together with Brendan Stafford opened a stills studio in Dublin but Stafford left and the amount of work wasn’t great – mostly stage people. Married an actress in 1942 and came to London in 1943, working for Charlton Studios in Kingsway, mostly “fashion photography.” Joined Film Producers Guild as an assistant cameraman to Bob Walker and later with Jimmy Rogers. He then talks about various documentary films he photographed and worked on as an assistant SIDE TWO Started working for Greenpark, working in Iran for the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company; tells of how he filmed the Shah’s wedding, worked with Ralph Kean and Dylan Thomas; photographed a recruiting film for the WRENS and WAAF, working with a director who was an engineer, with no experience of filming. Joined Countrymen Films in 1952 as a director/cameraman. Plenty of stories here. SIDE THREE Tells an amusing story about a butcher who lives in Chester-le-Street, who owned a lioness, a coelacanth and an alligator; he then talks about going to Nepal to film the triumphant return of the Hillary Everest expedition, with detailed amusing stories. He then made Journey into Spring for the World of Life series, then to Indonesia with Guy Brenton, not an easy man to work with. He met Kay Mander and Rod Baxter out there while they were teaching film making- then to Kenya then the Arctic, with very slow Kodachrome commercial. He then backtracks to talk about Journey into Spring, which was directed by Ralph Kean, and tells an amusing story about shooting in a “hide”. He then talks about Wild Wings, again with Ralph Kean, and made with Peter Scott, all for Transport Films, which he says was a good place to work. Then comes his trip to Canada and the films he made about Eskimos. SIDE FOUR Now working for the Canadian National Film Board, and he talks about the various films he made there, as well as working on the second unit of a feature film, made in Technirama, Savage Innocents: this also produces some excellent stories. After leaving Canada he went back to Ireland and tried to get the Dublin government to set up a national film unit; he was able to get sufficient support to make Yeats Country, in 1965 and then with BBC and Irish TV money to make another film, Mists of Time which cost £8000. SIDE FIVE He continues to talk about Mists of Time and how he decided to make films without commentaries such as Errigal edited by Ann Chegwidden and Oisin, also edited by her; he then talks about working for Fred Zinneman on A Man for All Seasons, shooting the title backgrounds where he was obviously very much appreciated. The Second Unit cameraman on Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, and then talks about working for David Lean, shooting title backgrounds for Ryan’s Daughter, Lean having seen or been told about a time-lapse film, Sky, shot by Paddy for the Canadian Film Board. He tells of his interview with David Lean. SIDE SIX He talks about working with Robert Bolt on Lady Caroline Lamb and then goes on to talk about making a film for the BBC, Waves (£8000) which had no commentary, and then for the BBC Flamingos, which only had music. He talks about working for Natural History Films, and then about a film he made for the Irish Tourist Board and Irish TV, Reflections of Ireland. He then returned to Canada, but it wasn’t a great success. SIDE SEVEN [Second Session] Bessie Bond suggested he should meet John Taylor, but before this could be achieved John turned up on the doorstep – they both lived near Windsor. Prior to their meeting Paddy had been working for Film Producers Guild for six years but due to cutbacks he was now looking for work. He worked first as an assistant cameraman and then cameraman (1943-49). John Taylor used to frequent The Highlander pub in Soho on a Friday and pass on any job prospects he had heard about. After working on a few productions, he began to be well known and the experience was useful. Then Taylor started up his World of Life series and asked Paddy to join him – it was a very low budget series, about £1000 per reel but good fun to work on, mostly based in Britain. As he gained experience he occasionally combined the role of director/cameraman. John Taylor now became involved with the Conquest of Everest film, but because Paddy was not a climber, he could not go on the expedition so he was sent to Kathmandu to cut film. Some details of the personalities and production. After that Paddy did a children’s feature called Kid from Canada. As television began to knock shorts out of the cinema[?] Paddy’s wife who was a Canadian suggested they go to Canada (1957-62). Before that he did Journey into Spring for British Transport Films (1956). In Canada the Film Board sent him on location to the Arctic for the whole of the summer to do a film about Eskimo carving – interesting production details: it was shot in colour, on 16mm film with an ASA rating of 6, using the available light in an igloo augmented by a couple of photo floods. He talks about a production with Guy Brinton in Indonesia with similar low lighting problems using slow Eastman colour stock. Interesting discussion about low light filming. A second film for the Board followed, about a settlement in Hudson’s Bay where he picked up a little of the language. He did five films altogether and some wide-screen experimental format work. He also saw a great deal of mainland Canada during this period, when he also talks about working on a documentary in Newfoundland. Film – the ideal art form for nature: he went to Ireland to develop his own kind of film – the first was Yeat’s Country, and formed his own company, Aengus Films. He recounts the early history of film in Ireland starting with a German pilot who landed with an Arriflex camera during the war but he was really a wartime newsreel cameraman who had never made a film that told a story. Ann Chegwidden was the editor on Yeats, and he talks about the production and how she gave it shape. He then made another called Mists of Time, sponsored by Irish TV on a small budget. Oisin, another film was made for European Conservation Year in 1970. There was no commentary, just natural sound, something Paddy had always been aiming for. Altogether three films were made. SIDE EIGHT Although these films were scripted for the sponsor, Paddy probably didn’t shoot them this way – they were very personal. In between he worked for British Transport Films. Wild Wings was left for Paddy to finish when John Taylor, who was working on it, got mumps! More details about his association with Taylor and railway films. When he returned to Canada in 1980, he made three films and it took a couple of years to raise the money – they were made for TV which is why they were in a bunch of three. He specified no commentary, and natural sound. When they were viewed by CBC they insisted on commentary or no deal! So a commentary was added, spoiling Paddy’s effort completely. In Canada he was appalled by the commercial breaks on PBS – a better bet. He philosophises on nature films, and nature in general terms, and he thinks the environmental movement in the USA has not taken off and what is needed is a new way of thinking about nature which he discusses at great length. He mentions his age at this point – 76 years. [David Robson 23rd April 1993]  

Married Sydney Box, producer; Gerald Gardiner, Lord ChancellorBIOGRAPHY: One of Britain’s few female film directors, Muriel Box entered the British film industry working on continuity and scriptwriting in 1932. During the war she worked for Verity Films – a documentary company set up by her husband, Sydney Box. She won an Oscar for her script The Seventh Veil (1945) and later became the scenario editor at Gainsborough Studios. She directed her first feature film, The Happy Family, in 1952 and worked consistently in a variety of genres until 1964. Additional directorial credits include Street Corner (1953) and Too Young to Love (1959).  SUMMARY: In this interview recorded four months before her death in 1991 Muriel  talks to Sid Cole, chiefly about her directing career, particularly her work on The Happy Family, The Beachcomber, To Dorothy a Son, Simon and Laura, and The Truth About Women. She discusses the difficulties she encountered as a female film director in a male dominated industry, and remembers several of her stars, including Robert Newton and Kay Kendall.  

former professional boxer behp0170-brian-shemmings-summarySIDE ONEBorn 1935, Richmond, Surrey. Moved to Stockwell, London; educated locally and at Henry Thornton Grammar School, left 1952 with 4 [GCE] ‘O’Levels; went into insurance as a clerk; 1953 Royal Ordinance Corps until 1956, local labour exchange directed him to a job at Pathé labs, 109 Wardour Street where he was taken on as a Positive Examiner; recalled to Army Reserve (Suez crisis), October 1956, demobilised later that year and went back to Pathé labs and became the ACT [Association of Cinema Technicians] ‘shop’ secretary. He talks about his family involvement in trade union activity and how he became the Deputy to the Chief Shop Steward, then joined ACT as an organiser in 1960, under Paddy Leach, looking after the labs and ITV; in 1961 he moved to take over the Features and Shorts division, where he stayed until 1966. He then backtracks to talk about the ACT ‘shop’ at Pathé Labs and the wage scale, negotiating with the Lab employers.He talks about working with Monica Toye, Daphne Ancell [BEHP Interview No 80] and Alf Cooper [Interview No 62] on ACT committees. He talks about the most outstanding negotiations when they were able to ‘tamper’ with the differentials, when they met three from each side to consider the problem and when the results of their deliberations were put to a mass meeting, at the ABC Cinema in Hammersmith. He also talks about the relations with the AEU [Amalgamated Engineering Union] and the ETU [Electrical Trades Union] (1966). In 1979 the FLA broke up and then it was back to ‘plant by plant’ agreements – he stresses that National agreements are important. He next talks about the various new technologies, the speeding up of printing, less staff, the regional laboratories. He then talks about his experiences between 1961 to 1966 in the Shorts and Documentaries field, about Ken Gordon, Gloria Sachs, Terry Trench, The [British] Transport film Unit etc., etc.SIDE TWOContinues to talk about Shorts and Documentaries, Ralph Bond[ Interview No 18], John Taylor, Steve Cox, and about negotiating with ASFP, Neil Brown, the Film Producers Guild at Merton Park [studios]. He then talks about his time with Feature Studios and Productions; he also talks about Frank Kelly, Bill Rule, Charlie Wheeler. The unions are now under heavy pressure because of the state of the nation. He talks about BFPA, about Jobfit [ a skills training initiative], the Shop Stewards Training Courses. He then backtracks to feature films.SIDE THREEHe continues to talk about MGM Studios and about the Lee Brothers, Brent Walker, and Cannon. He then talks at some length about various of the ACT officials and in particular about George Elvin; he also talks about Anthony Asquith and about the amalgamation between ACT and BETA [Broadcasting and Entertainment Trade Alliance].SIDE FOURHe reflects on the various moments throughout his career and how he hopes to continue after taking early retirement from ACTT.[END]

Johnny Speight (2 June 1920 – 5 July 1998) was an English television scriptwriter of many classic British sitcoms.He emerged in the mid-1950s. He wrote for radio comics Frankie Howerd, Vic Oliver, Arthur Askey, and Cyril Fletcher. For television he wrote for Morecambe & Wise, and Peter Sellers, as well as The Arthur Haynes Show. Later, he began to write Till Death Us Do Part, which included his most famous creation, the controversial bigot Alf Garnett. His shows often explored the themes of racism and sexism through satire.   Johnny Speight gives a forthright interview complete with some strong language and political views, as well as his views on "class" and how it showed itself in the workings particularly of the BBC. He covers his East End upbringing, and how he got into radio writing as well as TV and stage drama. There is a great story about his encounter with the tramp that inspired the Arthur Haynes character, and of course he talks extensively about Till Death Us Do Part and its successor, as well as overseas versions.Though interviewed in 1990 much of what he says resonates down the years including the hate mail which both he and Warren Mitchell were subjected to.

Stephen Hearst CBE (born Stephen Hirshtritt; 6 October 1919 – 27 March 2010).Born in Vienna, the son of a dentist who was close to the Mahler family, Hearst had begun to study medicine, but fleeing from the Nazis became imperative after the Anschluss in 1938 had driven him underground because of his Jewish background and anti-fascist activities.The family settled in Britain, and after a brief period studying horticulture and being interned, Hearst served in the Pioneer Corps during the war. After demobilisation, he studied history at Brasenose College, Oxford.After working freelance on newsreel scripts, Hearst joined the BBC's staff in 1952,and moving over to documentaries where he continued writing their narration.After two years writing for programmes involving Richard Dimbleby, he was a writer-producer from 1955 to 1965, becoming executive producer of arts' programmes under Huw Wheldon, and then deputy to Humphrey Burton. In 1965.Hearst was responsible for developing the 'personal view' documentary format with Sir Compton Mackenzie's The Glory That Was Greece (1959) and several projects with the archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler, In 1967 he became head of television arts features producinnnng Kenneth Clark's Civilisation (1969) and Alistair Cooke's America.He remained the controller of Radio 3 until 1978, and then joined the BBC's Future Policy Group. In 1982, he was appointed as the special advisor of the new Director General Alasdair Milne, He became a Visiting Professor at the University of Edinburgh.. Stephen Hearst died in London.