Graham Roberts

I’m afraid you must prepare yourself for disappointment. It is vanishingly unlikely that any material has survived this long. Film was bulky and storage cost a lot of money; videotape was very expensive and was therefore reused (recorded over). If footage had no reuse or resale valuem then there’s a 99.99% chance it was junked.

The ABC Weekend film archive (aside from entertainment programmes) has passed through very many hands over the years but much of it currently resides with British Pathé. They have digitised a selection of what they have and put it online at https://www.britishpathe.com/ but they are very unlikely to be able to perform a search of their archives to see if they have the particular feature in question, especially since your request is so vague – it’s economically prohibitive to do so. Sorry.

I’m afraid you must prepare yourself for disappointment. It is vanishingly unlikely that any of the material recorded for a farming programme on ABC has survived for 65 years. Film was bulky and storage cost a lot of money; videotape was very expensive and was therefore reused (recorded over). If footage had no reuse or resale value – and factual programmes visiting farms were neither – then there’s a 99.99% chance it was junked by 1960.

The ABC Weekend film archive (aside from entertainment programmes) has passed through very many hands over the years but much of it currently resides with British Pathé. They have digitised a selection of what they have and put it online at https://www.britishpathe.com/ but they are very unlikely to be able to perform a search of their archives to see if they have the particular feature in question – it’s economically prohibitive to do so. Sorry.

Hi Diane, forgive me for commenting on a two-year old comment but I’d be very interested in your time working at the TV Times alongside Derek Meakin, Tony Crossley and others like Norman Frisby. It’s for some research on the magazine, particularly its photographers (trying to identify every photographer for every Christmas issue since 1955), for its 70th anniversary in 2025, and also a book on the subject. Would you be willing to communicate via email?

Empty words as in 1958 ABC Television bought the Teddington Studios ( London Borough of Richmond upon Thames) as a major production center for network program including The Eamonn Andrews Show (1964 – 1968).

“We do not believe that TV is in any way going to replace the kinema,” said Sir Philip.

Well he did have to say that to reassure the movie theater owners.

Roll on the years and Disney owns the network, ABC, for whom they made TV programs (eg Wonderful World of Disney), Universal owns the network, NBC, for whom they made TV programs (eg NBC Mystery Movie), and ABPC has long since disappeared.

The entire ABPC library is now owned by StudioCanal, oart of Groupe Canal+, a subsidiary of Vivend (created from the water utility named Compagnie Générale des Eaux established by decree of Emperor Napoleon III).

Hi Elizabeth. The Morning Service was not on film – it was entirely live. It was also not video recorded, because videotape was expensive and the resulting recording would have no cash or repeat value to the broadcaster.

It is therefore highly unlikely – more than 99% – that no recording was ever made of this broadcast to start with and if any had been made it is similarly unlikely that such a recording would’ve been kept.

If it had been made and had been kept, it is still vanishingly unlikely that the physical tape itself would have survived in the intervening 60 years.

Sorry.

Hallelujah drew an audience of 3.5 million viewers when the Joystrings appeared – amazing for religious programming in the UK.

This Salvation Army beat group was formed in 1963 and exploded onto the scene at a time when church music was very staid and when young vicars were agonising over how far they dare modernise their services. It’s hard to imagine now that there were no guitars in church! The Joystrings barnstormed their way through the church doors and out into the public square to present the gospel to a young generation who were choosing The Beatles over Bach. ABC was quick to spot the trend and gave the entire show over to the group on many occasions.

Reg Presley of the Troggs cited a Sunday evening TV performance of The Joystrings (presumably on Hallelujah) as the inspiration for The Troggs’ song ‘Love Is All Around’, later covered by Wet, Wet, Wet.

I listened to several episodes of Hallelujah again recently and they stand up very well in terms of pace and professionalism. They were of course directed by Ben Churchill who had previously directed Hullabaloo! in the UK.

“grey haired”?? I think you mean “ash blond”! ;-D

I’m glad that was of some help. With the assistance of some friends I’ve found a few more bits and pieces, some with pictures and most of which it would certainly be easier to email than transcribe. Yesterday I did try posting a reply which included a disposable email address in the text, but it hasn’t appeared. It may be that the website filters out such messages as spam. I shall endeavour to find a way…

I’m glad that was of some help. With the assistance of a friend I’ve found a few more bits and pieces, most of which are probably easier to email than transcribe. I’ve created a temporary email account sc.abcatlarge@invisible-technology.co.uk, if you want to email me there, I’ll then reply back from my proper email account. At some point I’ll delete the temporary mailbox so that it won’t matter if any spammers spot it.

This is absolutely wonderful. Thank you so much for taking the time to produce such a detailed biography. It is fascinating to read. I have no doubt that Mum would have continued to climb the London ladder if Vance hadn’t ruined her career. Somber musings.
This information is so useful to me as I write obituaries etc. I am so sad that Mum could not bring herself to write an autobiography or to revisit her early career. Clearly if was all too painful for her.

I would love to have the TV Times photos you mention. I’m happy to give you my email address, but presumably I shouldn’t post it here?
Thank you again most sincerely.

In May and June 1956 she was at ABC Television producing ABC Family Hour, which was a wrap-around show in which actress Hazel Court introduced programmes mostly aimed at children of various ages. These other programmes weren’t things your mother would have made, just whatever kids’ programmes ABC wanted to show at the time, and would include things like the long-running The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Adventures of Noddy, the American series Wild Bill Hickok and many others. As a strand, ABC Family Hour ran for quite some time, but I’m not sure for exactly how long your mother worked on it. I think because it wasn’t quite a programme in its own right, TV Times often fails to credit any producer or director.

In August 1956 your mother directed one Armchair Theatre play in a double-bill, hers being called “Bid for Fame” which was written by Duncan Greenwood and starred Robert Brown, Billie Whitelaw and Hilda Barry.

By November 1956 your mother was producing and directing State Your Case, a kind of game show in which contestants had to ‘prove’ that they could make good use of £100. If they convinced the viewers after being quizzed by two ‘counsel’, who were played by actors, then they won the money. It sounds small now, but it was a fair sum then: the inflation calculator I used suggests that hundred pounds would be worth around £1750 today. The series ran for 32 weeks, through to June 1957, but your mother didn’t work on the whole run and there were other producers / directors on the show. Of course, it was during her time on this programme that that TV Times feature quoted above appeared.

In the late 1950s and the early 1960s independent television had a style of programme known as an Advertising Magazine or ad-mag. These were generally 15 or 20 minute programmes, usually themed in some way, that would look at and promote a variety of products, in some ways quite similar to some of the extended features you get on teleshopping channels nowadays, though you didn’t get the option to ring-up and order products on the phone. Instead, they would just direct the viewer to products and services available in local shops.

One of ABC’s was Where Shall We Go?, a seasonal offering running weekly in December and January for a few years, looking at the kinds of holidays that were on offer. The series seems to have had different producers and directors in each new ‘season’, and your mother seems to have been in charge of it during its December 1957 / January 1958 run.

After that she moved on to two other ABC ad-mags, the long-running What’s in Store? as well other titles including Let’s Go Shopping and Looking Around. While she’s working on What’s in Store? in TV Times there’s a very nice photograph of your mother surrounded by female colleagues. I don’t think I can post pictures and attachments here, but if there is a way I can get this to you, I’d be very happy to do so.

That takes this up to the end of 1958.

In early 1959, she was the director of ABC’s The Sunday Break, described by TV Times as “The Sunday Club for Teenagers” and “A window on the world of young people, and their approach to religion and living.” This was another long-running programme on ABC, and your mother took over from Ben Churchill as the series’ director in March 1959, and continued with the series until September of that year. Because there are many gaps in my knowledge, I can’t swear that this was the definitely the first, but this may have been the first fully-networked series (i.e. one that was shown across the whole of the ITV network, not just locally by ABC) that your mother was responsible for.

From November, your mother became the studio director on a new Saturday afternoon sports and entertainment programme Let’s Go – something of a forerunner to World of Sport, if you remember that. This was jointly produced by ABC and ATV from their studios in Birmingham.

After two or three months on Let’s Go, your mother returned to The Sunday Break and directed most new editions of that series until October-ish. She took a break from this to direct a couple of episodes for ABC’s annual ‘Preview’ series of pilot episodes for potential new series. Both of her episodes are for an academic sit-com entitled Mortarboard which was written by Leonard Webb and starred Mary Peach.

From October or early November 1959 she re-joins Let’s Go as studio director and again stays with the series for two or three months before returning to direct more editions of The Sunday Break from late January 1960.

However this run on The Sunday Break is quite brief and in March 1960 your mother makes a move into music and variety. She directs and Ernest Maxin produces Make A Date for ABC. Maxin had been producing and directing light entertainment shows for both the BBC and ABC for some years. This series was one of the first, if not the first, to put Maxin in front of the camera, which is presumably why he felt he needed to work alongside an experienced television director – your mother – and not produce and direct himself.

After the six editions of Make a Date, your mother directed a couple of editions of the religious features programme Living Your Life (there’s a TV Times feature on this series too, with a picture of your mother at work). After these, she returns to The Sunday Break and this seems to occupy her fully all the way through to April 1961, and the attack by Dennis Vance.

I’m not sure how quickly she moved to Border Television, I only have a copy of one TV Times from that region during the right period. As well as Lookaround, which I mention above, she also directed Time for Sport, a round-up of the weekend’s sport.

In December the same year, she directed a Border production which was, unusually for Border, taken by the whole ITV network. This was No Star on the Way Back. According to TV Times, this was an allegory in verse, music and narration designed to convey the feelings of contemporary man when brought face to face with the story of the Nativity. The Wise Men represent three ways of life, three continents, three outlooks, and each is motivated by his own personal reason to follow the star. Maurice Lindsay produced this programme, the script was by Norman Nicholson and cast included, as the Wise Men, Wolfe Morris, Ronald Hines and Mark Heath.

One last programme I can find was Lighthouse a filmed documentary on “the life and work of men in a lonely lighthouse on the Mull of Galloway in Scotland”. This was another production for Border Television, this time from 1964.

That’s the last thing I can find in TV Times, so I’m not sure how much of a gap there was between that and her arrival at the Central Office of Information which Russ mentions.

If I can help with any further information on the above, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’ve had to input an email address in order to post this and I’m quite happy for the people running this site pass it on to you so you can take any further conversation off-line if you’d prefer.

Hi Russ
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply.
No wonder my Mum didn’t talk about this. It must have been devastating to her. I am so proud that she carried on her career in any form. Just a hideous injustice. How trying to kill a human being can in any way be justified is mind blowing! No wonder Vance got through 6 wives!
I know more about her time at COI and other various independents where she won many awards for her work.
I can only imagine what her career would have been without this violent attack and deformation of character. She was a pioneer and so many women owe their careers to her bravery, though they may not know it.
Thank you again.
Serena

Hi Serena. Sorry for your loss. Janice was a television pioneer, working in factual programmes for ABC Weekend TV, the ITV company that had Saturdays and Sundays in the Midlands (with ATV having weekdays) and the North (with Granada having weekdays). ABC had studios in Didsbury, Aston and Teddington, and Janice worked at Teddington, which were the main studios and also the most technologically advanced.

The details about the sickening attacks by Vance come from the newspapers of the time, which covered the case salaciously at first, but then joined in with general view – typical of the time – that Janice was responsible for what happened to her at the hands of Vance. In a more just world, she would’ve had the towering career in ITV and he would never have been heard from again. But we’re not in a just world and we certainly weren’t then.

My gut reaction is that she fled to Border Television in Carlisle to get away from the toxic atmosphere at ABC in Teddington, where most of the staff were on Vance’s side. I’ve spoken to various former ABC staffers, and they all admit that she was loathed for having “led him on” and created a mess that almost – almost – ruined the career of “a good man”. However, when faced with the actual details, every one of them has admitted that they judged her by the standards of the time and would look on the matter differently now, which is progress, I suppose.

I don’t know much else about Janice’s work, beyond this article from the TVTimes and the newspaper reports of the day, so I’m sorry Transdiffusion can’t assist further. However, for her eulogy you can confidently and accurately say she was a pioneer in television in the UK, and a pioneer in factual programming on ITV; her work at ABC was important and respected; and she opened doors for women in the television industry because of it. We television historians are grateful to her to this day.

Hi. Do you have any more information about Janic please? I am her daughter, Serena

Can’t have been long – she was at the CoI by 1966.

Julie Stevens was also in The Avengers as John Steed’s occasional partner, Venus Smith during 1962/63. The last time I saw Bob Hatch in caberet was at a pub near the Black Country in the late 1970s and was he ‘near the knuckle.

Yes , same man!

TWW made a speciality of mateur swimming coverage in the early sixties , I recall.

Thanks!
Yes it’s the same Michael Crawford! 🙂
Do enjoy all our collection of sites at
http://www.transdiffusion.org

Wonderful actor, always much underrated.

Hi Majorie! Wow!!

The article from the TVTimes for 13-19 August 1961, so the photograph is probably from July of that year.

Note the incorrect spelling of ‘Emley Moore’ too…

The opening was not telerecorded. However, British Pathé did send a camera crew to Didsbury and the raw footage they recorded of their sister service’s launch, mostly behind-the-scenes stuff – does survive. Watch here and here.