The Cine Technician (1953-1956)

100 CINE TECHNICIAN July 1955 Book Review LUNCH WITH SIR WILLIAM " My Time Is My Own," by John Irwin. Max Parrish, 8/6d. JOHN IRWIN is an Irishman, which, maybe, partly explains why in a little over one hundred pages he can cover sixteen years' experience in television and films, and dispose, with an authoritative air, of the shortcomings of the British Broadcasting Corporation, the apparent virtues of commercial television, what's wrong and what should be right with the approach of the political parties to television, various current issues such as telemeter television, and old thorny subjects such as employer-trade union relations. If there is a criticism, it is just that. His programme is overcrowded. Whilst an anecdote can pin-point a criticism — and almost everyone is a bull's-eye — it is impossible to dispose of more controversial and conjectural matters in a couple of sentences. Having made my main point as to its shortcomings, let me make clear that they little diminished my pleasure at reading such a witty and pungent gem of a book. I, as A.C.T. secretary, have been getting the reactions from the outside to the warpish, out-of-thisworld policy of the B.B.C. which John irwin learnt the hard way, from the inside. Listen to this, for example. John Irwin tells how he was commanded to have lunch with the Director-General, Sir William Haley, who had calculated that if he lunched with eight new people every Monday he would have met the entire staff in x years, y months and z weeks. John Irwin continues : " I arrived at the Council Chamber at ten minutes to one, looking and feeling as best-suited and unnatural as my seven colleagues. We drank the one glass of rather sweet, warm sherry handed to us by a maidservant, and waited until the Great Man entered on the stroke of one. He shook me coldly by the hand and said, ' Ah, Glyn-Jones, and how are you? ' I have never been so suddenly embarrassed by anybody in my life " Some soup was laid on the circular table and without a word Sir William flew to his chair and gulped his down at enormous speed. Nobody spoke. When he had finished his soup Sir William drew a copy of The Times from his pocket and cast a malevolent glance at Sir Noel Ashridge, Deputy D.-G. and presumably deputy host on these occasions. Then we had some fish and water. Nobody spoke. Our hosts were busy with their papers and pencils. Fish was followed by steak and kidney pie with cider. Nobody spoke. Icecream and coffee, and thank Heaven it was five to two. At two precisely Sir William bounded to his feet, glowered at Sir Noel and said, ' I've finished — and you?' Rather sulkily Sir Noel replied, ' All except thirteen down.' Sir William glanced at his paper. ' Thirteen down^PRELATE ', and he left the room as hurriedly as he had entered." But there is one story John Irwin does not tell, the nearest A.C.T. got to calling a strike at the B.B.C. As an A.C.T. member, he came to me when all the main people concerned, except himself, were being paid repeat fees for " In the News " which he was producing. W. J. Brown, Bob Boothby, Michael Foot and A. J. P. Taylor had promised their full support if, in support of our member, we asked them not to appear. But instead of calling on them, we chose the path of diplomacy and negotiation. We lost. But whilst all A.C.T. members will welcome the well-merited and long-overdue public exposure of the many shortcomings of the B.B.C. I think the author is over-optimistic in anticipating the corrective influences which will flow from the introduction of commercial television. Indeed I think he is wrong in over-assessing the virtues of the commercial corporations themselves. As our members know we had our first strike with one of the programme companies almost as soon as it had been formed. On another matter, however, John Irwin very much hits the nail on the head in his forthright denunciation of the main political parties in breaking up the original " In the News " team because they were not good enough party-liners, and in the failure of the same parties to use television effectively for political purposes, mainly because they are unwilling to use technical experts to shape their programmes. We all saw the result of such a jaundiced policy during the recent General Election. A.C.T. then offered its help to the Labour Party. All we were in fact asked to do was to get a unit to obtain a few establishing shots in one of the programmes, incidentally the one which was generally acclaimed as the best. Transport House can provide the politicians but it can't produce the production experts. Until it learns that lesson — and the same goes for the other parties — the politicians are largely bound to waste their television time. But read the book yourselves. It is an admirable blend of meat and good fun. G.H.E. NEW ACT APPOINTMENTS YVriTH the current issue " Cine »» Technician " comes under new editorship. The Executive Committee has appointed Mr. Martin Chisholm, a journalist of long and varied experience, as the journal's editor. Mr. Chisholm, who has been a trade unionist for many years, and is a former member of the National Executive Council of his own union, the National Union of Journalists, is a well-known freelance writer specialising largely in radio and television documentaries. At the same meeting the Executive Committee appointed Mr. Wyndham Thomas to fill the vacancy for an additional Organiser. Mr. Thomas, who takes up his duties this month, has been studying at the London School of Economics under a scholarship in Trade Union Studies. He served for five-and-a-half years in the army, being commissioned in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and, after the war, transferring to the Education Corps. He has been a Labour Borough Councillor since 1952, stood as parliamentary candidate for Southwest Herts in the General Election, and is at present Chairman of his local Constituency Labour Party. George Elvin.