Alasdair Lawrance
There’s a nice picture of Bamber Gascoigne interviewing Alfred Hitchcock at Granada in the sixties in the “Observer” …
A version of the picture is here:
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Two Marconi Mk 3s on Huston Fearless pedestals, I think. ( I don’t think they’re Vinten spring peds).
Also a boom with a D12 or D 25?
Talk about the way we were! Even if it does look like a set-up.
Bob Auger
There’s something suspicious about this picture. Even though it could be Studio 2 at Quay Street (or possibly Studio 4), I am fairly sure it was Studio 10 – aka the Palace Theatre, Chelsea. So much for regional television!
If so, they are certainly Marconi Mk III cameras and Fearless peds, though I’m not sure about the D25…
Hitchcock was a good friend and business partner of Sidney Bernstein and he was interviewed on film for "Cinema" by Mike Scott in May 1966. (Fascinating video ripped from DVD on YouTube here http://youtu.be/BwPybA465eE)
Although he was definitely in Manchester in 1964 (http://bit.ly/Hitchcock_at_GTV) it is unlikely that Hitchcock was a repeated visitor. Wherever the picture is taken, it is certainly staged. The cameras in Chelsea were heavily branded (even the peds!) but I don’t remember the same being true of Quay Street. Ever the publicist, Bernstein would have insisted in a picture for the Press and/or TV Times – he was probably behind the scenes to ensure that the peds were correctly positioned…
Alec Bray
We did an interview with Alfred Hitchcock for “Monitor” – the interviewer was Huw Wheldon.
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I can’t remember the exact circumstances, unfortunately, but it must be a similar timeframe to the Bamber Gascoigne interview – how often did Hitch come to the UK and give media interviews?
IMDB gives a Release Date of 05 May 1964, but the (VT) recording would have been some days before this. However, the BBC website says that Huw Wheldon’s interview with legendary filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock dates from 1965. Peartree on the other hand says that the interview between Alfred Hitchcock and Huw Wheldon was filmed for the BBC television programme "Monitor" and was first broadcast on 05 July 1964.
Well, I suppose there could have been two interviews? Probably not.
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There is a YouTube upload of a Wheldon/Hitchcock interview here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j12dyjMkGbY
and via Peartree:
https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Monitor_%28BBC,_05/Jul/1964%29
Interestingly, the orientation of the two people is completely at odds with my recollection – in the interview that I worked on, I am sure that Hitchcock was on camera LEFT and Wheldon on camera RIGHT. Ho hum!
I suppose we must be grateful that this was one recording that did not get wiped or lost!
Anyway, the differences between the interviewer and interviewee were quite dramatic. Alfred Hitchcock sat upright in his chair and hardly moved during the whole of the interview. Unfortunately I was on the camera looking at Huw Wheldon. Wheldon was rolling about all the time, flinging legs here and there, waving arms around – it was a nightmare trying to keep his head in a good position in the frame.
On another Monitor programme – one done (I think) in TC2 – the main bulk of the programme consisted of a single track from one end of the studio (under the gallery) to the presenter, Huw Wheldon, at the other. This must be about the slowest and longest track ever in TV. The crane was a Vinten Motorised (the later version with steering wheel and tracker platform) but it was no use using the motors to do the track – it had to be a slow and steady track. So it was a case of pushing the Vinten all the way across the Studio floor.
