To emphasise my point let me tell you the story of a very ‘dull and undemonstrative’ audience I once had when producing an Arthur Askey comedy series.

For the first programme in the series we had a studio audience of about ninety people.

Immediately the show was over, Arthur came to me, a very worried man. “Why did we get no atmosphere Bill?” he said. “I don’t know” I replied “the script was funny enough — let’s ask them.” So, although nearly all of the people were on their way out, a ‘phone call to the front door stopped them and brought them back to the studio. I talked to them and asked why they hadn’t laughed — didn’t they think the show was funny — why? They had liked the show well enough, they told me, but they were so intrigued with the way a television show went together, the movement of cameras and booms, sets being changed, artists taking up their positions in other parts of the studio to where action was taking place, ready for the next part of the show, that they had no time or thought to laugh because their mind was not fully on being an audience — as it were.

I told them that we had been disappointed and that at home the viewer also might not have liked the show as well as he might if there had been more laughter, and they understood then how much we of the show needed our audience to be a part of that show, as necessary an ingredient as a camera or an artist or a writer — or dare I say it — a producer. So I struck a bargain with them, and asked if they would be our audience for the rest of the series, and come every week for the remaining five weeks — and they did — and a wonderful audience they were.

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That is the lot of a television director; he never stops talking while the programme is on, and contrary to popular opinion, he doesn’t stand in a little corner in the studio, but sits in a control room surrounded by engineers and screens watching hundreds of different pictures that are never seen on the home set.

Many young people ask how I ever became a director. The qualifications I had when I first went into television were ten years of acting, writing, stage management and production, for both theatre and radio.

This background is essential, for it would be impossible for me to walk into a studio and tell an artist who has acted for many years, how to do her job, if I didn’t understand it myself. The director also needs to understand the many problems encountered by cameramen, sound engineers, designers, wardrobe, make-up, properties, scene staff, floor managers and lighting technicians, because it is to these people he must turn when he is planning his programme, and after the original planning for his show, they then put the machinery into motion to ensure that when the programme is ready for rehearsal in the studio, every facility he requires from a match to an elephant is available to him.

No one person makes a television show; it is team work and team spirit that brings to your homes a programme that is polished, enjoyable and laden with atmosphere.

When viewers see television productions from the studio itself, they invariably say “We would never have thought that people worked so hard to put a programme on our home receiver.” We do work hard, and every day we learn something new from this fantastic medium, and as soon as we have learnt, we endeavour to perfect it. If you are an avid viewer, you have possibly noticed new techniques being employed almost every week from our studios here in Birmingham.

Whilst we have young, creative people working here, our one ambition is to continue improving shows simply to enable you to kick off your slippers, relax in your lounge, and enjoy yourselves.

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