Stewart Morris died on Saturday 10th January 2009. Stewart was one of the Light Entertainment producers of the BBCs great days. Though it’s a cliche, it’s true to to say that Stewart was a larger than life character, a brash showman, loved and hated in equal measures.
Everyone who worked with him has a Stewart story, and here are a few. Stewart stories have been told whenever crews get together for a drink for the last 40 years…
You can’t quite call this a tribute – perhaps a celebration of a significant member of the golden age of British tv.
John Sillitto
I was editing a Barry Manilow concert shot at Wembley which I guess was in the early 80’s.
For the opening sequence Stewart had arranged coverage of Manilow’s arrival at Heathrow. Somehow, Geoff Miles (production manager) had managed to get Manilow miked-up on the plane from New York. Rent-a-crowd of screaming teenage girls had been wheeled onto the roof of The Queen’s building at Terminal 2 where Geoff had arranged for the plane to arrive. Dozens of paparrazi and a huge limo (fitted with a dashboard camera and microphone) had also been organised.
When Manilow arrived the reception was awesome – screaming girls, huge spotlights, flashguns everywhere, the limo driving up, red carpet, the works!
Manilow showed due surprise and flopped into the back of the limo uttering the line, “What the f**k was that!”. That line HAD to go into the opening I decided. Stewart, always sensitive to the viewers feelings, said, “It has got to come out”.
“No”, I said, “It’s a great moment”. “What if I replace the word ‘F**k’ with a loud camera shutter, so you can’t hear him say it?”.
“OK, give it a try”, says Stewart.
The sequence goes, “What the KERCHUNK was that!” “Mmm, still doesn’t work – you can lipread what he is saying”.
“OK”, I said, “I’ll cut a bright white flash over it so you can’t see it either”.
Stewart still wasn’t totally happy with it saying, “You can work out what he is saying”. “That’s the point”, I said.
Anyway, what felt like every hour over the next four days while we edited the rest of the concert, we kept arguing about whether it should stay or not .
Come the final tech review Stewart and I sat through the hour and a half of the show in silence. Stewart’s only comment afterwards was, “Yep, great show, it’s all fine except for that opening!”.
In a desperate attempt to keep the line in the show (I had got quite attached to it by now) I suggested getting Jim Moir down to look at it and offer his opinion. Jim had only days earlier been appointed Head Of
Entertainment.
Stewart telephones Jim, and says, “Jim, I want you to come and look at something, but I want you to look at it as a friend, NOT as Head of Entertainment”.
Jim duly came down and I played him the sequence.
Jim looked at me, looked at Stewart, and just shook his head indicating his dislike.
To give Stewart his due, presumably because he knew I was so keen to keep the line, he did attempt to argue for keeping it by saying, “Jim, come on, I did ask you to look at it as a friend and not as Head of Entertainment”.
Jim’s reply was priceless and typical of his lightning wit. “Stewart, as a friend, I’m telling you, Head of Entertainment won’t like it when he sees it!”.
It came out!
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Peter Neill
My first encounter with Stewart as a TO was when I worked on a Joan Baez special in 1965. The floor of TVT was covered with a copy of the music of “Plaisir d’Amour”. A solitary C30 microphone stood centre stage with its cable neatly taped to follow one of the staves to the wings. The lighting was low key. But, highlighted in the follow-spot, the mic was a very shiny silver.
“I want that mic painted black” said Stewart. “Can’t be done” said the Sound Supervisor. “I’ll do it myself then” said Stewart.
I can’t remember who did actually paint it in the end, but watch (link no longer available) to see the only black C30 in captivity. (We did draw the line at immersing the windshield, though)
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David Plaice
I only saw the end of Stewart’s career, when I was working with Ron Green’s crew and they were lined up to do the new Opportunity Knocks with Bob Monkhouse. When the crew learnt that Stewart Morris was going to produce the series a ripple of dread and anticipation went round the room. I’d never heard of him but I could see the effect his name had on everyone who had.
I think he had mellowed quite a bit by then, and in any case I was operating a crane not a camera and so was to some extent shielded from the outbursts. Even so if you made a mistake it never went unnoticed and you made sure not to repeat it.
Sadly his bullying side was still evident in the way he treated some of the acts. There was a slapstick act which involved a lot of real face-slapping. I can’t remember the name but one of them shouted ‘Kincaid!’ a lot. Anyway, Stewart kept getting the slapper to hit the slappee harder and harder, just for the hell of it. I was hoping they’d tell him to stuff it and walk off but they just did as they were told.
There was an intensity you didn’t get on other shows. Reversing the Mole back at full speed towards the audience and stopping in the gap within half an inch of the seating frame. It was exhilarating and rewarding and definitely the best time I had in the job.
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Peter Leverick
I worked with Stewart Morris on many LE shows, mostly with Ron Green on Crew 7. Stewart did come across as a bully but it was often accompanied by a wry smile or chuckle. It was his way of getting the best from people, performers and crew alike.
Stewart always appreciated talent but did not suffered fools lightly. He did have a sense of humour but it was well disguised. He was best known for his on-going practical joke with his floor managers at the TV Theatre known to us all as ‘The Man in a White Coat’ spoof. Stan Appel was his main target for this although Terry Hughes was caught out with it more than once. Stewart loved to take Ron’s mole crane upstage to get the big wide reverse shot showing all of the lower & upper circles. He would then bellow “Stanley there’s a man in a white coat in the back of the shot again. Get up there and get his name & staff number”. We never really knew if Stan was wise to this ruse but always dutifully went up there and reported back that he had disappeared and couldn’t find him.
I always loved working with Stewart, he not only refused to accept less than perfect but he was highly innovative. In those days when tape editing was done with razor blades he was able to create the effect of mixing between two separate recording sessions. The technique developed was ‘Roll Back & Mix’. He would play the previous take back through the vision mixer from a point just before the last recorded cut. He would then mix to the live studio camera and cue the action. It only required a simple invisible edit at the previous cut point to make it look seamless. He was the instigator of many BBC firsts, including the use of steadycam in a TV studio. I was privileged to have operated that for him on a Captain & Tennille special. It was absolutely knackering, (it was a 3 tube camera, no lightweight CCD cameras in those days), but great fun, and he actually bought me a drink after the show in the ‘Irish Embassy’ next door. It was rumored that might have been another ‘First’.
I will always remember him fondly.
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John Sillitto
I always remember in one edit Stewart was having difficulty choosing which of three takes to use of a particular sequence, so he got cameraman Ron Green to come down to the edit to give his opinion.
It was, I seem to remember a pas-de-deux, with Fionola Hughes and a well know male ballet dancer and Ron had the whole four minutes or so on one shot on his crane. It was a very soft floaty classical number with black cyc, lots of white nets and drapes, and smoke, beautifully lit. Ron’s first take had, of course, been perfect as he had spent much time in the morning rehearsing it so that he and his crane driver knew exactly what they were doing. That was just Ron’s way of doing things. Stewart however insisted on doing 2 more takes.
Anyway back in the edit Ron couldn’t really find a preferred take as to him they were all as good as each other. Stewart was determined to find the best and got Dickie Higham, his lighting manager, to come and help choose. An hour of discussion later watching the takes numerous times, and a decision was made.
It was only after the session was over (probably 2 or 3 in the morning) that my assistant confessed to me that he had screwed up on his timecode store and had played the same take back every time. Credit to Ron that his work was so good that they had to imagine any errors! Needless to say I didn’t have the nerve (didn’t have a death wish) to tell Stewart.
Another occasion was a Lena Zavaroni series. Peter Fox had a locked-off long shot on his ped of Lena singing. Again black cyc and Lena picked out with a pin spot. Another camera was repositioning and the lens went through the pin spot casting a tiny shadow that no-one noticed in the gallery. As a result there was no retake.
In the edit Stewart was apoplectic saying that this tiny shadow was, “completely untransmittable”. He wanted the name and staff number of the offending cameraman!
Being a locked off shot it was a fairly easy job to paint out the shadow with an earlier bit of the pin spot. Even in 1″ tape days it was fairly routine to paint out booms etc in this way on less professionally produced shows.
Stewart and Ron’s shows were of such a high standard that had never been necessary before and Stewart was not aware of what could be done.
I did the paint and Stewart was suitably impressed, eternally grateful for me ‘saving’ his show, and it earned me a huge amount of brownie points.
A couple of weeks later in the same series, Lena was lit again by a pin spot against a black cyc (it must have been Stewart’s black cyc period!). Ron was doing a nice crane move and unfortunatley went through the key light and cast a shadow of his camera in the pin spot. Lena was probably slightly further downstage than in rehearsals.
At the end of the take Stewart said, “that is OK let’s move on”.
Ron, as diplomatic as ever, pressed his reverse talkback and said to Stewart that they had had a technical problem and needed to do the shot again. Stewart’s reply was, “What problem, it was fine here, moving on”.
Ron insisted explaining that there was a shadow on his moving shot.
“Yes I know”, said Stewart, “but we can fix it in the edit, John Sillitto can do anything in the edit”. A case of ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’.
Come the edit, having picked myself up off the floor, I had to tactfully explain to Stewart that because the shot was quite a complex move in 3D space it was far from trivial to fix it. Several orders of magnitude more difficult than the previous locked-off shot of Pete’s ped.
Anyway, a lot of help from Dave Jervis in video effects solved the problem for me, and as often happens I earned even more brownie points on the back of other colleagues’ brilliant talent.
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Bill Jenkin
Stewart was always one to put you at ease as in:-
“We’re coming up to that whip pan Dick Greening and you better get it right this time Dick Greening”
Tom Jones special 1971
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Les Thorn
Whenever I watch something like “Strictly Come Dancing” I can imagine Stewart shouting, “KEEP THEIR FEET IN” and other such helpful phrases.
I remember on one show, probably “Vall Doonican” when a harpsicord was needed for one item. The instrument that was provided was a very modern light oak model that Stewart took an instant dislike to. Stewart had seen a recent programme featuring a replica harpsicord that someone had built, and he wanted that one. The Production Manager was adamant that there was no way the chap who owned the harpsicord would let it into the BBC, as it he was sure that it would come back damaged. Stewart was used to having his way and insisted that he wanted that harpsichord. There was much trading of abuse over talkback between the two which lasted for most of the morning. Eventually Stewart said he would speak to the chap, and instantly he changed from the loud bully into someone who could charm the birds from the trees. “Good afternoon, Stewart Morris here ”
The harpsicord was on stage when we came back from lunch!
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Doug Coldwell
I suspect that our first thought on seeing a SM show on the upcoming schedule was “not that arrogant bully again”. There was much that was inexcusable in Stewart’s behaviour especially to those that he deemed expendable such as artists and production managers. I recall a TV Theatre show in the mid sixties hearing that Mr. Morris was at the stage door. Stewart left the gallery and showed his father to a seat in the stalls where he could watch proceedings. Rehearsal continued for half an hour and then the event that we all expected occurred. Down on to the stage came Stewart to give a theatrical performance of “Look at me I’m the big
producer”. I found it deeply embarrassing, but that was Stewart.
I think that as a cameraman I had the power to compromise Stewart’s show and so was treated with a certain respect and I have to say that by pushing the limits he did innovate. The results were not as polished as the might have been but at least they were interesting to watch. Despite his faults I was never bored working for him.
I too have a “herogram” in my personal file but I’m not convinced it came from the heart.
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Tony Grant
Crew 7, and I can’t remember which artist fronted the series, maybe Vince Hill (although I remember having guests Gladys Knight and the Pips on one show, and they were simply terrific, far better than their records) but CSO was all the rage. Stewart wanted the next to impossible, and you didn’t tell him how difficult it was to synchronise moves with foreground and background cameras. We also used scene-sync for some numbers, which made life a bit easier, but could take a while for Reg King to get working perfectly.
Anyhow, one particular number, and I was on one of the CSO backing cameras, probably Ron providing foreground, we got to the end and Stewart immediately said, ‘Right, we’ll have to do that again, and next time camera 4, LOOK IN THE VIEWFINDER!’.
Similarly, on a separate series, Tony Poole tracking Ron on the Nike, and having to snake round the orchestra on a podium, only just enough space at the edge of the podium and the studio wall to squeeze through, and then on round in front of the orchestra and into main artist (sorry, can’t remember who!). Well, I could see that Tony had the Nike going full tilt, and Stewart was still urging over talkback to ‘Get your foot off the brake!’.
And yes, I heard him on the phone to someone outside the Beeb when he wanted their cooperation, and you simply wouldn’t believe it was the same man, he could charm the birds out of the trees, and no mistake. Such a shame about the nasty side of his character.
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Louis Barfe (writer)
. the one about the skydivers on the opening ceremony of the 1986 Commonwealth Games. Here’s the
version he heard. If anyone here was there, feel free to correct or clarify:
Well, obviously the story probably grew in the re-telling, and enjoying the joke depends on knowing Stewart, but the gist of it was something like:
One of the highlights (literally) of the opening ceremony was to be a team of precision parachutists with a flag landing in the stadium. Stewart had put a camera with a live microwave link in the jump plane, together with an OB SM who was in communication with the Jump Master.
So, Stewart can see the parachutists all ready to go, on one of his OS feeds in the scanner. As the ceremony – this grand ballet of sporting celebration – unfolds, Stewart becomes more and more carried away, and grandly calls “stand-by parachutists”.
Thumbs up from the OB SM. The camera frames up on the parachuting team ready by the door. “OK. Cut to the plane and: cue the parachutists.”
Up comes a shot of the parachutists, but nothing happens. “Cue the parachutists!”
Still nothing, and still on the shot of the team by the door. “Cue them! Cue! Cue!”
Nothing. All Stewart can see is the parachutists ready to go but not doing anything, just waiting. He’s apoplectic by now. Worse than anyone could ever remember.
“Just get them to fucking jump! Tell the c…s to jump! Now! Jump… Jump… JUMP! Fucking JUMP! I want to see them JUMP!”
Nothing. The SM leans into shot on reverse talkback:
“er… we’re still five miles from the stadium, Stewart. Do you still want us to jump?”
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Jeff Naylor
I think SM had done so many shows in the TV Theatre that he knew he had no need for a Camera 5. On one show transplanted to TVC, I had the task of trying to find shots that weren’t being offered up by Ron Green, Peter Fox, Gerry Tivers or Tony Poole. I was in everyone’s way, as well. Finally, on rehearsal, I offered a Close Up of Randy Crawford at the top of a flight of stairs. “Mix to 5”. and then she started to walk down the steps.
Somehow I kept her in frame and roughly in focus as I tracked back. “If you can do that tonight, I’ll use you, Five.” Offering a Mid Shot on the night, I was pushed into a Close Up.
How the viewer knew she had walked down the steps, I’ve no idea. How I got a transmitable shot, I’ve no idea, either. Adrenaline is the only explaination.
I’d never have fun at the expense of a nervous and inexperienced cameraman in the way Stewart did. Not that much, anyway
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Fiona Naylor
My first crew as a new trainee was crew 7 with Ron Green et al (end of 1983), so I encountered Mr Morris very early in my career. He rarely spoke to me directly as I was usually on the back of a crane, but he often told Ron to ‘tell that woman to get her foot off the brake’, along with numerous gags about women drivers (not all of them unwarranted, sadly, I was very new!). I was quite intimidated to be begin with until I saw the big grin on his face as he said them.
My favourite memory is coming back from supper break one evening to find my mole crane was not on line-up where I had left it. Casting around, I couldn’t see it anywhere so I followed it’s cable to track it down. I found it in tech stores, clumsily wedged in behind the door. I started to track it out again, cursing my fellow crew members for winding me up (not an uncommon occurrance!). As I was doing so, with much to-ing and fro-ing, I heard lots of wheezy giggling coming from behind the audience ros. It was Stewart and Bruce Millar, grinning from ear to ear like a pair of naughty schoolboys. I never knew how they got it in there as it was quite firmly wedged, it must have taken them ages…but I took it as quite a compliment that they had gone to so much effort on my behalf!
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Bernie Newnham
The Young Generation were Stewart Morris’s dance group. They backed anybody who happened to be the featured artist for this months series (I wonder why?), and even had a series of their own. Nigel Lithgow and Lesley Judd were their best known products.
One Easter Stewart had them do a special of their own in TC1 called “Jesus” (a word often heard from Stewart, but not in this context). It was a pretentious religious musical piece, and required an enormous Chapman Hercules crane, normally used for such delights as Lawrence of Arabia. It came with it’s own driver, who was pretty used to steaming through the desert, but not pretending to be an overgrown Mole in TC1.
Brian White was the cameraman, and it had a team of swingers, including Bill Jenkin, I think. The cameraman had a chap with him to wind a handle to rotate his seat and the camera, which was me.
Stewart, in typical form, set up a fast track back down the studio, with a right-angle turn by the control room window. The driver, eager to please, zipped along, and performed the track and the turn perfectly. Unfortunately, the massive weight of the arm just picked up the swingers as the base turned the corner, and it continued in the direction it had been going.
“J***s, where the **** are you camera 1?”, quoth our director.
The answer was very close to “Right behind you, Stewart”, as Brian and I missed crashing through the gallery window by about half an inch!
Many years later, as a senior Pres producer with the run of the library, I booked out the original 2″ transmission tape of the show and watched it one Saturday afternoon – probably the first person to see it in 15 years. It looked as cheesy as ever, and it turned out to have been cut-edited – ie the tape had been physically cut. As the splices went through the heads there would be a great thump, and the picture would fall apart, because the joins had stretched over the years of storage.
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Hiugh Sheppard
Hugh Sheppard remembers the most famous Stewart story, of the Eurovision Song Contest which you can find on Youtube
…and Chris Eames, whose voice you hear on the recording –
I was Camera 8, Paul Graham was camera 6. The full story as I remember it is as follows. Stewart did not trust rollers. To make sure he had a running roller at the end of the show he had two. About the time the roller was due he screams run REVOLVE, (the scenery on stage), both Paul & myself hear it as rollers, and cue our ops to run the roller – notice no talkback for the operators, we have to cue them ourselves! When the mistake is realised my op.reverses the roller and manages to reset it, Paul I think gives up. On the second cue my roller refuses to start, faulty forward/reverse switch – hence the second failure
Notice ,however that when Stewart realises that he had been misheard by 2 separate people, he immediately calms down and (grudgingly perhaps) accepts that he caused the problem. I did dozens of shows with him before I joined OBs and they were never boring. You may have hated his guts at times, but looking back his output was prodigious. Often 2 1 hour shows a week. His staff was 1 assistant producer, usually Chris Breeze, and a couple of production secretaries. Compare that with today. He was always eager to try any new equipment, and any new effects available. Television needed, and still does need people to push the boundaries, even if you only realise it 30 years later! I have a good deal of respect for the old b*****r!
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Roving Eye (?)
During the Commonwealth Games show from the TVT-
After the traffic had been held up around Shepherd’s Bush Green…. Addressed to the lighting TM……
“Who the **** said that the Queen could wear that tiara? It’s flaring!” Love or loath he was a character.
As a poster on a different forum says:-
“he was willing to trust his crews and back down when appropriate.” This is the way I found him.
His talkback clips which may be found around the ‘net are not fair to him. You can’t hear the smile nor can you
see the sparkle in his eye
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Gerry Tivers
I first worked with Stewart in 1970 when I joined Ron Green and crew 7 as Camera Assistant 1 and eventually became his Camera Supervisor when Ron retired in 1990. Therefore Stewart’s shows were a major part of my working life. I have many happy memories of those times and they were certainly the ‘golden age’ of television.
One moment that I recall was on a series in the TVT where the Mole Crane had been removed and Camera 2 was on a ped on a platform half way back in the stalls. Peter Fox was operating it using a tight lens borrowed each week from Tel. OB’s. On this particular occasion the artist, I can’t recall who, was to be lowered in on a Kirby wire. Stewart called Peter into a close up but as the Kirby operator was having a bad day the lowering was very jerky and Peter was unable to hold the CU. The exchange when like this –
Stewart: That’s not very good Peter you will have to keep him (her) in frame. Peter: This is a very difficult shot Stewart.
Stewart: Not for a cameraman of your calibre Peter. Peter: That just goes to show how difficult it is Stewart.
. Pause
Stewart: Good answer! Just get it right. Of course Peter did!
How many of you remember – “Two tight. NO – TOO TIGHT.”
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Chris Wickham
Stewart produced and directed three recordings of Berry Manilow concerts at the Wembley Arena. A briefing was held by Stewart before the first recording. Everyone was hanging on his every word when a sound assistant arrived late and flustered. He apologised, saying that he had trouble getting in to the venue owing to not having the right pass. Stewart gave him a withering look and said “I don’t want anyone working for me who needs a pass to get in”.
Stewart produced the opening ceremony for the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth Games. The complexity of the coverage meant that everyone anticipated a disaster in the making, and they were not disappointed. However, the first cockup was not of our making. In the last seconds before going on air Stewart’s assistant Lydia was counting down –
Five, Four Three….
(Stewart) Cue the piper ( lone piper on ramparts of Edinburgh Castle )
Two, One….
(Stewart, much louder ) CUE THE PIPER
On air…
(Stewart, shouting ) PLAY YOU BASTARD He will be remembered.
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John Barclay
We were filming an insert for a a Shirley Bassey Show on the side of a snow clad Austrian Mountain. Stewart was getting frustrated that skiers kept getting into shot. So he said to me, “John, get over there quickly and STOP THEM COMING DOWN”!
Stewart always got very annoyed when the talkback to the gallery from the Production Manager kept breaking up. Stewart would always shout “Keep your finger on the button when you are speaking”. After a few more failures, the frustrated person from the floor would shout via the boom “I have been Stewart”, and proceeded to show, via an available camera, a red thumb with a large indentation in the centre.
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Graham Giles
I remember in July 1965 when Stewart Morris brought a then unknown singer, Vikki Carr, to the UK to record a show at short notice, for a small fee and the price of her air ticket. As there was some shortage of budget there would be little rehearsal, just a band call. To cope with this it was arranged to have two gantry cameras in TC3 (or was it 4) and four others on the floor with an apron type rostrum for the artist to walk up and down. This ran into the band area. There was no camera script so Stewart arranged for the BBC mixer to be split to provide two outputs to feed two separate VT machines. I was the second person and given a free hand to create a show ad lib on the ‘B’ side whilst Simon Wadleigh worked to Stewart’s direction. At one stage I remember all the camera cue lights were on at once as we did mixes and superimpositions.
For maximum flexibility Stewart wanted a radio mic to do the show but at that time BBC did not possess one, so he borrowed one from Teddington ‘out of the back door’. He was used to getting what he wanted. The day overran by one and a half hours so it was well after midnight when I got home !
Some time later it was found that edits between the two recordings were very difficult and we ended up in November with a studio gallery patching operation to put it together. This was because crystal lock had not yet been invented. After that it soon was !
I have always remembered a Hugh Barker story. He worked a great deal with Stewart. One day he stopped to fill up at a petrol station in North London when out from behind the pumps stepped an embarrassed Stewart with a nozzle in hand. At this time the BBC had parted company with this arrogant young talent and he was helping out a relation of his wife, Sylvia Sands. She had featured on one of his earlier shows called ‘Flying Standards’ which many cameramen will remember pushed the boundaries of what could be done with unwieldy and heavy machinery ! A colleague of mine was once doing a Seaside special or similar. Stewart liked to be on the floor for this. So as he left the scanner he shouted his order – ‘Give ’em hell’ – meaning the crew !
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Roger Francis
Sometime around 1980 I acted Video Effects Supervisor on a part time basis.During this period I became Stewart’s chosen one to do some effects work in post production on the Shirley Bassey series .These had been recorded as 60 minute shows and Network decided after recording that they wanted them shortened to, I think
,to 50 minutes.
The only way to do this was to do some fancy effects to cover changes of lighting etc.
Anyway,in post,Stewart was very relaxed as he completely trusted his VT editor,John Sillitoe. Whilst we were getting on with the work Stewart would sit and tell stories.
On one show he suddenly told us that he “had made the no 4 cameraman’s life a misery”. “Why Stewart?”
“Because though he was doing a good job,I knew he could do better ”
On every edit session he treated us (me, John, the assistant editor and the PA ) to a meal in the Waitress
service restaurant.
I worked on “Captain and Tennille” as a VO. What Peter didn’t tell you is that with his hand held camera with steadycam he started the show at the back of the circle,had to run down a ramp onto the stage,continue upstage ( by which time the dancers were coming downstage ) ending up panning around to see the audience and a neon sign across the front of the circle with the show’s title.I may have a VHS copy of this show somewhere.
I think it was on this show that we did a production number the previous evening (as was common).It was dancers to the Star Wars theme with lasers. It was the first time that I knew of lasers being used on a TV show. To make them show up the TV Theatre had to be filled with haze. The haze set the smoke alarms off . We did something like 2 hours recording with the alarms running continuously .Stewart had foreseen this and the place was filled with fireman (the BBC staff variety) just in case. There was no live sound from the studio floor of course.
Nowadays, Health and safety would have a fit at the above.
On one of the Lenna Zavoroni shows, Stewarts favorite vision mixer, John Barclay, went sick on the second day.A very junior Duty Standby vision mixer (just out of training) appeared . We all had our hearts in our mouths wondering how badly Stewart would behave. In fact he was very gentle,telling the guy not to worry and that he (Stewart) would guide him through it,which he did.Of course he was his normal self with the rest of us.
And another one –
The artist was, I think, Sacha Distel anyway,Stewart came back from lunch with a bright idea.This was to
open this show with Sacha arriving outside the TV Theatre on a bus(This was the days when all buses in Shepherds Bush had open rear platforms ). This would be done as a pre record that afternoon.
Camera 4 ( EMI 2001 ) was rigged on an OB tripod on the pavement outside the theatre.
The poor production manager was sent with Sacha to next bus stop down Shepherds Bush Road to wait for a bus and negotiate with the conductor to allow Sacha to stand on the open platform round to the stop outside the TV theatre. Unfortunately,we all had to wait 20 minutes for a bus to turn up but once it did everything went OK.
I can’t imagine any one nowadays taking this sort of risk with their star.
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Bernie Newnham
Roger asks that someone who was there tell the story of Shirley Bassey and the hot air balloon….
Stewart’s then assistant producer, former senior cameraman Geoff Feld, toured Television Centre one day looking for people who wanted a day out. The deal was expenses, a free lunch, and a day at Old Warden helping to blow up lots of hot air balloons. Shirley would ride in one, singing Up, Up and Away.
Quite a few of us turned up, mid morning I think, to find that the wind was too strong for flying, and we’d have to wait for evening. So we sat around in a field enjoying the sunshine and the location catering. At some point a helicopter turned up, which would carry Stewart and the camera later. Stewart decided to go on a recce (joyride), and off the helicopter went. After ten minutes or so, we heard it returning – it zoomed over us, climbed steeply and did a stall turn, then landed. Stewart got out, not quite as bouncily as he had got in.
The afternoon gently went by. There was a balloon basket set up on top of a van. Shirley managed to get in to it, dressed in her sparkly ball gown, and mimed to the song on various sized shots.
Finally, as evening came, the balloon pilots decided it was ok to fly. Our job turned out to be holding open the base of a balloon whilst someone shot a huge sheet of flame a few inches from our faces. Gradually, the balloons were all inflated and released into the sky. We went home.
Apparently – what happened next was, they filmed the air to air stuff for a while, then it was time to descend. Shirley’s balloon also held a pilot, a cameraman and Geoff Feld. Balloons don’t have huge control about where they land, and this one came down close to the railway line from Euston with its overhead cables. Luckily there
was a pub nearby, so the team retired there to await pick up. You can imagine the scene – quiet country pub, not much happening, a few locals – when in comes Shirley Bassey dressed in sparkly ball gown and buys a pint (or whatever).
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Peter Cook
There was a Royal Gala Performance at the Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh on July 3rd 1985 to raise awareness of and funds for the 1986 Commonwealth Games. Two OB units stuffed with cameras arrived from London and Glasgow. I was in the second wave of crew arrivals and was given the task of rigging an EMI 2001 on a Plover gas ped (with pneumatic tyres) on the Prompt side of the stage. I duly rigged it to make sure it was all there and promptly derigged it as, being a huge unweildy beast it completely blocked all the available space in the corner and there was no chance of moving it or getting shots. There was a certainty that someone would trip over it and get hurt.
I found the EM, John Livingstone, usually fastidious about safety, but when I remonstrated he mumbled about Stewart insisting that it would be OK. During this time I was on radio talkback and heard that 4, yes 4, Ikegami hand helds were being hired and flown up from London to cover the Royal arrivals. Putting on a virtual flack jacket and turning up the adrenaline, I sprang into the scanner and got Stewart’s attention. I told him that I had derigged my camera, because it would be impossible to get shots from 3 feet high and 6 feet back in the wings, and that BBC’s insurance might not cover the inevitable injuries to his stars if it was left rigged. Before he had time to reply I said “just give me one of those hired IKEs when it’s finished outside and I will get you shots”. I got my IKE and was able to poke its lens unseen from under and around the set. If I say so myself, some of the backlit shots against the limes of artists such as Shirley Bassey were well worth the gamble. Stewart shouted at me on every conceivable occasion, but that was all huff and puff. I could have done nothing on a ped and he knew it.
The funniest thing was after the show Stewart had to get down to the stage for the Royal presentation. He relinquished his seat in the scanner at the last possible moment to a deputy and so arrived in the line, short of breath, just before the royal party got there. He was still wearing his massive shiny plastic backstage pass. I reached out and grabbed it moments before my shot was cut up, handing it to the OB Stage Manager standing next to me as I needed both hands for the camera. Afterwards Stewart very pointedly thanked the OBSM for saving his embarasssment. I know that he had seen me take it and pass it on, but he was not going to let me score any more points!! The irony was that without the hand held camera he would not have been on-shot.
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Dick Blencowe
I worked over the years on many of Stewart’s shows and I particularly recall being SA2 on Ron Green’s crew with Julian Tolkien as SA1. We were doing a Shirley Bassey show at the TV theatre and the set comprised numerous rectangular blocks to raise up the level of the floor in various steps going back to the rear cyc.
Depending on the songs different arrangements of the blocks were used. Julian was in charge of vocal mic placing with me on the boom to cover Shirley’s intro’s between numbers.
Rehearsal progressed well and Julian marked on the blocks, as we progressed, the position of the mic stand for different songs. The scene crew were a bit cheesed off with all the block moving and although the overall arrangement of the blocks was replicated correctly individual blocks were not necessarily in the same place as rehearsal.
During the recording with Shirley linking on the boom in close up Julian had to place the mic stand on a particular mark. Unfortunately the mark was not where is should have been as the blocks have been muddled up and he spends time trying to work out where the mic should be. Stuart can see Julian in the wide shot he wants to cut to but Julian didn’t move. The talkback went something like this “What is Julian doing? Get him out of shot!!” Julian has no talkback and caries on looking for the mark “Chris, get Julian of of shot!!” This was so loud that the audience probably heard it. The PA, Chris Breeze I think, tries to get Julian to move by gesticulating wildly under the close up camera and Shirley stops her link as she thinks Chris is signaling her. By this time Stewart is having apoplexy and the show grinds to a halt.
While we have stopped Julian finally finds what he thinks is the mark and places the mic stand. Stewart
sarcastically says “Is Julian ready now?” and we resume recording. The mic was not however where it had been at rehearsal and Ron could not get the shots Stewart wanted so we stopped again and Julian wanders back into shot and negotiates with Ron where to place the mic so that the shots will be ok. There was a lot of muttering from Stewart about giving Julian a Zimmer frame and pensioning him off!
My second memory is on The Lena Zaveroni show. Stewart used to sit on a high stool on the studio floor for the production number rehearsal using a switchable radio mic in to talkback (called a Humperdinck switch). Sound provided this and I gave it to him just as rehearsals were about to start. On this particular day Julian had gone sick and the standby SA1 (who was not known to Stewart) had taken his place. Stewart tried his talkback and nobody responded so he assumed it wasn’t working. He saw the visiting SA1 carrying some sound gear so said him “my talkback isn’t working.” The SA1 replied “sorry I haven’t got time to worry about that now” Stewart was speechless. Having observed this exchange I waited a few moments and then went to see what the problem was, Stewart said “A’h Dick I’m sure you can sort my talkback out (it was working anyway) and when will Julian be back?”
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Paul Kay
I worked with Stewart very early on. I believe that he had two BBC careers. He used to work on small LE shows and was not a favourite (someone named him Schwinehund which fitted), he was always rather loud! He complained bitterly that he was never given a decent show to work on, and consequently Albert Stevenenson was removed from the very excellent Mantovani Show and it was given to SM. He once in a loud voice called ‘Monty’ a f****** band leader.
Stewart left the BBC, there was talk about him being a Cinema manager. After a few years he returned. My first experience as Senior Cameraman with him was during an a long afternoon show shot live in Riverside using both studios, shortly after his return. Crew 9 were in R2, were there were televising ‘side shows’ including magical acts, Tommy Cooper, Al Koran and other top magicians, I did a couple of largish LE shows with him over the years no problems atall! However he was beginning to get a bad reputation, and it unfortunately followed him. Whatever is said Stewart did produce some excellent shows, and he should perhaps be remembered for these rather than his rather loud and at times unpleasant manner.
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