Marky B

Richard Brooks once said of the Hollywood moguls:"They were monsters and pirates and b*****ds right down to the bottom of their feet,but they loved movies. Some of the jerks running the business today don't even have faces." A sentmiment appropiate for the time maybe (pre 1978,the publication of my edition of Halliwell's Filmgoer's Book of 'Quotes'),but could it be apt for today's television.
Yes,there are some good television on now (Dr Who,Life On Mars,The Street,Planet Earthetc),but are they enough to restore our faith in British television.
Sir Lew Grade was a visionary,who brought us such great television as the ITC adventure series The Saint,Danger Man,The Man In A Suitcase,The Persuaders and who also had faith in bankrolling Gerry Anderson's puppetoons (in which I believe Thunderbirds was the most expensive British programme at the time). Sunday Night at The London Palladium was perhaps and still is the greatest weekly variety show in British television,which in our household,my late mother used to tick off each artist in the TV Times as they appeared.
In the seventies,he brought British television to a new dimension with Moses:The Lawgiver starring Burt Lancaster and the sublime Jesus of Nazareth with our very own Robert Powell. His rival for Star Trek,Space 1999 is perhaps not remembered with such affection as Captain Kirk's crew,but yet I preferred it,still insisting the acting was less wooden in Thunderbirds than it was on the Starship Enterprise.
His foray into films was perhaps not that successful,but his company did come out with such gems as The Boys From Brazil,On Golden Pondand Sophie's Choice.
Of course let us not forget,he brought to the unsuspecting British public,The Muppet Show.
Sir Lew Grade was a man who believed in British television and we had the resources to make it the best in the world. He once put an advert in a newspaper,telling businessman of his pride in his adopted country (he was born Lewis Winogradsky in Russia) and to go out and invade the world.
So could we do with a Lew Grade today? His nephew,Sir Michael Grade is Chairman of the BBC and was once a successful Director of BBC Television,but should he be the Director-General?
Like Richard Brooks said,those running it today don't have faces,but at least with Lew Grade,his brother Bernard Delfont,they dragged British television from the cosiness of the fifties into a major worldwide force in the sixties and into the seventies.
Alas,a boardroom coup put paid to Lew Grade's dominance of British showbusiness by an Australian businessman,which was well documented in a book written by one of Lew Grade's henchmen,Jack Gill. Until his dying day aged 92,he still remained a busy,working man,seven days a week,fifty two weeks a year.
Ta Ta
Marky B

I once shot an elephant in my pyjamas - how he got in my pyjamas,I'll never know

smudge

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif[/img]-->I'm afraid not, Marky. One only has to look at the amount of LCD dross one would have to sit through if terrestrial was all one had, just to get to see these. These shows are just exceptions. We desperately need another Lew Grade, but we'll never get one as television (like all things these days) is run by the bean counters.

Lew was that rare animal - a showman. All we can do is ejoy his legacy ; strings and all....

SMUDGE

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/vampire.gif[/img]

Welcome to my house. Enter freely, and of your own will...

julian_craster

It was Lew who gave Patrick McGoohan the money to make 'The Prisoner', a big gamble at the time....

John Llewellyn Moxey

[img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cool.gif[/img]-->He was a great man. Even though I was just a Director, he always seemed to remember me. John Llewellyn

Marky B

Thanks for that,John [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/clapping.gif[/img] .
Ta Ta
Marky B [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup.gif[/img]

I once shot an elephant in my pyjamas - how he got in my pyjamas,I'll never know

Marky B

Now that Charles Allen has stepped down as the boss of ITV for losing audiences,advertising revenue and being accused of lacking imagination,relying too much on reality programmes etc (did he sanction that stupid Prehistoric Park - yeah like it was a novel idea,never thought of and so on),perhaps they should start looking for someone with a similiar pedigree of Lew Grade. Okay,someone born in the pogrom strife Russia of the late 19th century/early 20th century might be pushing it,but surely the days of button counters have proved to be nonsensical,instead of giving the job to people who know what they are doing,knowing the business,knowing what the customer wants.
Ta Ta
Marky B

I once shot an elephant in my pyjamas - how he got in my pyjamas,I'll never know