Richard Greenough spent 35 years working for the BBC and ATV, between 1948 – 1983, now in his 80’s he has written his memoirs about his life working in the fledgling years of our great industry. This is the latest part of our serialisation of his professional life as a designer.

On the 22nd October 1949, I designed what I believe to be the first Saturday night series (or situation comedy) “Family Affairs”, with Heather Thatcher and Michael Shepley as the mother and father, which was done in Studio B and produced by Michael Mills. It ran for 14 episodes until the 18th February 1950. Another series, “The Inch Man”, ran for 8 episodes from the 8th December 1951 to the 26th January 1952, again in Studio B. “The Pickwick Papers”, a Saturday night serial in seven episodes, was produced in Studio A by Douglas Allen, from the 6th December 1952 to the 17th January 1953. This had a number of pre-filmed inserts. I have in my possession all the scripts, prop lists, working drawings for the scenery, studio camera plans etc. for this series, including the Design and Supply Allotment forms which ranged from £60 to £80 per episode (but sadly I have no photographs).

The best remembered Saturday night serial and the last I was to do from Alexandra Palace was “The Quatermass Experiment” which was done live in six episodes in Studio A from the 18th July to the 26th August 1953 with Reginald Tate, Duncan Lamont and Isabel Dean, produced by Rudolph Cartier and written by Nigel (Tom) Kneale. My assistant on this production was Stewart Marshall who took the design credit on episodes 2, 4 and 6. On the 13th August 2003, the National Film Theatre showed the first two episodes, which had been “tele-recorded”. This was a process, I believe, of using a film camera and filming off the face of a television screen. The quality was very poor and certainly not good enough to use for transmission at that time. A play “It Could Happen Only In Paris”, which went out live on 1st May 1955, was tele-recorded and this was used for the repeat on the 1st June 1955. I believe this was the first time.

At the end of 1950, the BBC started to use Lime Grove Studios, Shepherds Bush, which had been film studios. The BBC converted them to Television Studios, putting in control rooms and technical areas. I designed the first show out of Studio G, and I think the first out of Lime Grove. This was “Gala Variety”, which included Tommy Cooper, on the 23rd December 1950, directed by Michael Mills. His P.A. was Yvonne Littlewood, who went on to be a light entertainment producer and director in her own right.

The next show in this studio, which I also designed, on the 26th December 1950, and repeated on the 1st January 1951, was “Cinderella”, with Jack Hulbert, Sally Ann Howes and Kathy Moody (Lady Grade), produced by Walton Anderson.

At Lime Grove, we had four studios. G, on the first floor, used mostly for light entertainment, was 104 feet long and 43 feet wide, but for threequarters of its length only 34 feet wide (it was slightly ‘L’ shaped). This was a vast improvement on the studios at Alexandra Palace. The other studios at Lime Grove were, on the second floor, D, 74 feet by 55 feet maximum, E, 57 feet by 61 feet maximum and a small studio, H, on the first floor opening off Studio G, where “The Grove Family” was produced, 60 feet by 30 feet, with a small additional area at the door end. All dimensions given are the usable setting area.

There was also on the first floor Studio F, which had a water tank (floored over) around which on the ground floor were the dressing rooms. This studio, which was the biggest, as it was under both Studio D and E, was now used as a scenery store. The designers and producers had their offices in houses in Lime Grove, which backed onto the studio. We continued to use the studios at Alexandra Palace until at least October 1953 and I think we must have continued to use the scenery workshop and store scenery there until late 1953 or early 1954 when we moved into a purpose-built building which was the first phase of New Television Centre on Wood Lane, White City, built on part of the site of the 1911 White City Exhibition. Here the designers and producers had their offices, also the scenery workshop, scenery store and the scenic artists’ paint frames for backcloths. In May 1955, when I left the BBC, they had not started to build the Studios. At Lime Grove we now had room to use Back Projection so it was often no longer necessary to have blown up photographs for backgrounds for documentaries such as “London Town” and “About Britain”. Projection was often used in Light Entertainment shows in place of painted backcloths.

In late 1953, the BBC took the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, designed by Frank Matcham, and opened in 1903, to be used as a television studio, known as the Television Theatre. The first show I can find to be transmitted from there was Jimmy Jewel and Ben Warris on the 14th November 1953. At that time, only the stage was used, which had a rake with a run-out for the camera over the stalls. The proscenium is 30 feet wide with a fairly deep stage. The dress circle and upper circle (?) were used for the audience. The stage was about six feet below street level which meant that all the scenery had to be dropped down from the dock doors.

The first series of six Morecambe and Wise shows, called “Running Wild”, started on the 21st April 1954. I designed the fourth on the 2nd June. They were not the success they were to become later on. Early in 1955, in the Television Theatre, I designed a Bob Hope Show. As it was for transmission only in America, it was shot on film cameras. Note the television technique of using three cameras on Bob, also the two men holding a large ‘Idiot Board’ on which the script was written and from which he read. His technique was so good that the viewer at home did not realise he was doing this. Part of the reason for this was that the scriptwriters were re-writing up to the time of recording, so Bob would not have time to learn it. Frequently, instead of one board in the middle, there would be two sets placed each side. It was directed by Bill Ward. In 1956, when Bill and I had moved to the Commercial company, ATV, we there made the next Bob Hope Show.

Sadly, in November 1952, Peter Bax, Head of Design, died. He was replaced in 1953 by Richard Levin who had worked with Hugh Casson designing the 1951 Festival of Britain. I resigned from the BBC on the 31st May 1955 to go to Commercial Television, ATV, as Head of Design. Michael Yates left to go to Associated Rediffusion (AR) and Timothy O’Brian to ABC, both as Head of Design. During the seven years that I was with the BBC, I designed, or was responsible for, over five hundred productions. They were all transmitted live, as were the shows I later did for ATV, and I did not believe that any of them had been recorded. However, I now discover that some were, such as the first two episodes of “The Quatermass Experiment”, the Gala Variety, December 1950, the rehearsals for which had been recorded on a 16mm film camera by one of the engineers, and then later at least two of the Sunday Night at the Palladium shows.