A little background information
Sample London schedules: October 1955, December 1956, December 1957, November 1958, August 1959, July 1960, October 1961
Midlands schedules: March 1957, March 1958, March 1959, July 1960, June 1961, March 1962
A touch of the reality- October 1959
Some ATV Production Staff
For background on Bill Ward, Bill Lyon-Shaw, Albert Locke, John Irwin, Jack Barton
Francis Essex (1929-2009)
Perhaps the crown of his career was receiving the Laurence Olivier Theatre Award in 1996 for Best Musical - 'Jolson'. He is rightly considered a "pioneer" in the development of the art of television.
He started his career studying music under Frieda Khuna. He then joined Eclipse Film Productions as musical director in 1948 before joining BBC TV in 1954 where he made his name as their "wonder boy", before being lured to the independent network, where he spent, off and on over 10 years at ATV. His first achievement for this company was to rejuvenate their Saturday Spectacular, one edition of which which featured Anthony Newley and Shirley Bassey and was described in these glowing terms-
"this is how variety shows should be produced. ... Essex, with some clever camera tricks, produced what I can only describe as a surrealist juggling act with medium and long shots superimposed on one another and then obtaining a black and white effect by turning one picture into negative."
Dinosaur TV Main Menu
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Bill Ward (1916-1999)
was once described by Lew Grade as "the only man in the country capable of directing this greatest company of actors and actresses." He was referring to Bill Ward's directing The Golden Drama in 1965 for ATV, but he also produced and directed many other shows, from The Royal Variety Performance to the first studio variety performance attended by the Queen, in 1953.
He had started working for the BBC in his native Plymouth as a trainee engineer. His break into telly came when the director of Terry-Thomas' How Do You View? was called to jury service, and Bill took over. One of his legacies, which was much maligned was his introduction of miming into live shows.
Bill worked for ATV from 1955 to 1976, directing their opening night variety show, then shows like Sunday Night at the London Palladium, eventually rising to the post of ATV executive programme controller. Comedy, he always said, was the most difficult tv to make, "it's the timing, the timing of a camera shot, a piece of business, a pause... the slightest mis-timing can turn a huge laugh into nothing."
Maybe his finest achievement was his pioneering satellite transmissions on ITV, starting with the 1964 Olympic Games coverage.
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Albert Locke
He was born in London and started his career with Italia Conti. When he became too big for boy parts, he filled in until being appointed stage manager the The Palace in Shaftesbury Avenue. Then he was Director of Production at the London Coliseum, before he moved to Australia to work for JC Williamson.
During the war he ran an RAF Entertainment Unit. After the war, he worked for Emile Litler and then studied television techniques at ATV under Bill Ward. The first show he produced was a Startime with Gracie Fields. Success lead to his becoming one of ATV's top producers, working with stars such as Guy Mitchell, Johnnie Ray, Cliff Richard, Benny Hill, Arthur Haynes, Des O'Connor and Lena Horne.
He is pictured here in 1957 with his assistant Audrey Maclean working on a Startime show.
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Bill Lyon Shaw (born 1913)
Born in the Potteries of Scottish parents, Bill started as an amateur actor before running and acting in his own repertory companies at Southend and Margate. He took a chance with a revue purchased for the princely sum of £80, and said this gave him an experience of professional life he never forgot. The show did OK, and he was able to organise a second revue, with Nor Kiddie as principal comedian, and this proved something of a success.
After war service in the RAF he worked for George and Alfred Black, then for Jack Payne, producing For the Fun of It with Nosmo King, Max Bygraves and Frankie Howerd. The BBC asked him to produce two summer shows productions and this led to him being appointed a member of the BBC staff, for whom he produced various shows with the likes of Frankie Howerd. This post he relinquished when he joined ATV at the start of its operations in 1955.
In this role he produced variety, drama, orchestral concerts, ballet in the South of France, opera in Naples and a floor show at the Pigalle.
He joined Tyne Tees Television as Programme Controller in 1959, later returning to his tv roots at the BBC.
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Jack Barton
(born 1918 at Leigh-on-Sea, acc to a 1958 report.
He died in 2002)
Jack was one of the first producers of the Beat the Clock segment on Sunday Night at the London Palladium. He also produced other ATV material such as David Flame Secret Agent.
He had started out as a general factotum at Bertram Mills circus. He sang and danced in travelling revues and said he learned a great deal from Robert and Sonnie Hale- "I owe all my experience and whatever success I may have achieved to them." After serving in the RAF for six years, Jack acted in plays such as A Woman of Forty with Phyllis Neilson Terry. A different role followed when he took over a company in Ayr, being the producer at the theatre there for seven years. But when he took the company to Paris he found Scottish kilts a complete flop there, and he had to return to Britain, to Bournemouth joining Nat Mills. This gave him his break and he joined ATV in 1956, later best known for his involvement with ATV's legendary Crossroads. In 1963 he was living on The Island at Thames Ditton.
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John Irwin (1912-1976)
Born in Dublin, and educated at Trinity College, John was acting Shylock at the tender age of 17 under direction of Frank Fay. He was in at TV from the beginning producing film magazines Picture Page and after the war Kaleidoscope. He also directed six films including Badger's Green (1949) for Rank, "a minor classic." His work on six thousand programmes, he claimed, with BBC radio and television ended not on exactly the best of terms, for he described the BBC as a "deliberately inefficient set-up in order to maintain a smooth running organisation." He spoke out against their "pettifogging supervision." He worked freelance before joining ATV in 1956, producing various light shows such as The 64,000 Question, Bury The Hatchet, Dotto, Pencil and Paper, and Tell The Truth. He was long associated with Free Speech with Edgar Lustgarten (with whom he had earlier worked at the BBC on In the News) and in 1960-2 produced the Alan Taylor Lectures. Surprisingly, he rejoined the BBC in July 1961 and later worked for NBC.
In the 1950's he described one fascinating hobby. He would play back on a tape recorder all the shows he worked on- now that would be an interesting find! A man of many parts, he wrote two books Sweet Themmes and My Time is My Own. His voyage as a deckhand in an Australian windjammer, and his training as a civilian by the RAF to fly, formed the subject of a radio series.
Perhaps the notice above his door in his ATV days sums up this individual man, "If you are sensitive, talented or kindly, relax because you are welcome. If you are none of these, go away."
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Associated TeleVision First Chairman- Prince Littler. Deputy Chairman- Norman Collins.Originally the company started broadcasting as ABC (Associated Broadcating Company), but were early forced to change this for obvious reasons.
From the start the company espoused film series as the mainstay of their output. After all, argued Collins, "nobody has ever come out of a cinema saying 'what a pity that film was filmed.'" In Charge of Production was Val Parnell. Oh, and in 1955 "Associates" were Lew and Leslie Grade, who were to really become ATV, and were to be inextricably 'ATV.' In April 1966 ATV Network was formed, following criticism that ATV had become too widely diversified in areas outside of television. This ATV Limited became a non-trading holding company, in 1967 renamed Associated Television Corporation Limited. In September 1978 it was renamed the Associated Communications Corporation. ATV Network sadly ceased its operations at the start of 1982 when it was replaced by Central Television, which was 51% owned by ACC.
ITC (Incorporated Television Company)- ATV's most successful subsidiary!
This tribute appeared in 1995 in publicity from Bravo TV: "When they come to write the history of television, a special place is assured for ITC, the entertainment group founded by Lord Grade. Just a glance through the back-catalogue of 10,000 hours is enough to realise why the company is regarded with such respect."
In fact ATV's original subsidiary was ITP (Incorporated Television Programmes) which they bought out in October 1958. ITC actually began in America, half-owned by Jack Wrather and half by ATV, and TPA Television Programmes of America) whose logo appears on series like Charlie Chan was bought out by ITC in September 1958. Then in early 1960 Wrather was bought out by ATV, and the British legend was really born.
My thanks to Alan Collins for some of this information
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ATV (London) schedule for Saturday October 1st 1955