Notes on Forsyte Saga Pictures taken by Mike Minchin
The Forsyte Saga was a 26-part serial, shot in Black and White, mostly in TC4. Donald Wilson, the Producer, told us that he had wanted to shoot in colour, but it would have meant hiring a film studio for a whole year – way out of budget. There was a fortnightly turn-round, 12 days rest and outside rehearse, 2-days in the studio, recording in the evening of day 14. We would record each scene in sequence (just possibly, occasionally, a sequence of scenes) to be assembled on a master transmission tape. VT veterans claim this was one of the last major shows to be edited by razor blade, but the last episode must have been “dub edited” involving 3 VT machines.
To start with, I was on the Camera Pool, and missed the first 3 episodes, but then I got very involved with the show. Senior Cameraman, Crew Ten, was Peter Grainger, but his no.2 was Geoff Feld, and I got the impression that it was very much Geoff’s show. Geoff had been under-impressed by the No.4 and he persuaded the Office to replace him with me (I had worked with Geoff earlier, on Crew Two – certainly in 1963). I had wanted to do the show because there were a number of people involved that interested me.
After a few shows, I started taking my camera in and sneaking shots of people either side of the camera who were involved. I think the first “show with camera” was Episode Nine. Strictly speaking, this was illegal, but I came to an understanding with the Lady who was in charge of the Publicity Photographers (they always got under our feet/in our way during the Dress Run – but were always ready to get out of our way when we pointed out that we had a move to make). I agreed with this lady that I would not publish my shots – and, up to a point, I stuck with that. But one actor did like one of his pictures so much that it appeared in Spotlight for some years after.
All in all, I worked on 19 episodes – the highest equal count for a cameraman; I think it was Geoff also did 19 shows. I could have done one more, but I took Leave to look after my elder daughter (Jo) while my younger one (Rebecca) was born.
This collection is now of all of my shots of the show, though I have suppressed a few that I felt were unflattering, or technically low quality. I digitised some photos some 30+ years after taking them, and enlarged these notes over 50 years after the show was in the Studio. My memory is not that great! Character names are lifted from the DVDs of the series. I use the term “Junior Cameraman” to indicate the person may have been a qualified Cameraman lower than me in the pecking order, but may also have been a Dolly Op (Tracker)
For the technically minded they were all taken on my Edixa Camera (with it’s Pentax lens thread) mostly by available light (in the studio) using my 135mm lens, wide open. I used Tri-X film forced in the processing to 1000 ASA. I notice (anew – I had thought about it at the time) that most of my shots are vertical framing – a reaction against the persistent 4×3 television format.
Angela Gordon (Floor Manager) Eric Porter “Soames”
Margaret Tyzack. Actor: “Winifred”.
I had seen her in another play, which impressed me, but in the flesh she was rather the “grande dame”.
Dallia Penn. Actor: “Annette”
Nyree Dawn Porter : “Irene”.
Lovely lady, lovely to look at. What we didn’t know at the time was that she had back pain throughout the series.
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Ann de Vigier. Actor: “Imogen”
Nora Nicholson. Actor: “Aunt Juley” in the clutter of television.
Derived from previous) Nora Nicholson : head & hands – all else blacked out.
(ditto, enlarged) Nora Nicholson : head alone
The two Noras (N&S). Nora Swinburne played “Aunt Hester”
Chris maybe. Junior Cameraman?
Geoff Feld. Cameraman – no.2 on Crew 10
Donald Wilson. Producer
He liked to visit the floor, where we learnt from him that he would have preferred to make Forsyte Saga in colour.
Kynaston Reeves. Actor: “Nicholas”
David Giles. Principal Director.
He directed 19 Epsodes (with a gap in the middle). Geoff Feld was quite dismissive of him, and I remember having to dig him out of a situation where my solution was to duck behind another camera and shoot over his cable (a real no-no in those days) to get the right eye-line.
Terence Alexander “Monty”; John Barcroft “George”. Actors
Eric Porter, Dallia Penn. Actors.
Eric Porter played Soames Forsyte from quite young (as here) to Old Age. Dallia Penn: “Annette”. In foreground an EMI 203 camera.
Nyree Dawn Porter, through lights
Nyree through lights, with A.N.Other (unknown) plus EMI Camera & cameraman.
Forgotten, unknown, More. Kenneth More played Jo.
He was actually 2 years older than Joseph O’Connor, who played his father! TC4 cameras : EMI 203
Margaret Tyzack.
Sarah Harter. Actor: “Francie”
Floor Assistant (ie. Call Boy) : name forgotten
John Welsh. Actor: “James”
Fanny Rowe. Actor: “Emily”
Angela Gordon. Production Manager/Floor Manager.
Frances Alcock+. Director’s Assistant (“Secretary”).
I felt she was the best. I had worked with her before this, and she was one reason I wanted to work on the show. She had a very clear voice, and her camera cards were elegantly typed. On this occasion she was walking the floor before the show – and I was in the gantry!
