The only way you could get on, it seemed to me, was to find your own story. Obviously, I was up there doing football 24/7. At that time, the Edwards family, what they did was they brought forward, essentially, a rights issue in the shares. That had never been done in football clubs, because bear…
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Paul Greengrass reflects on the culture of World in Action
When I went to Granada, which I was very lucky to do… and I owe Granada an equal debt, but World in Action… so I’m not decrying it in any way, but World in Action as the years… I knew none of this then, by the way. This is wisdom that came to me much,…
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Paul Greengrass on the ethos behind World in Action
I’m sure that’s true of Granada as a whole, incidentally. I think one of the interesting things as we sit and talk today is that these kinds of cultural organisations are now few and far between. Organisations where you and I would have come in as young men, and matured and become men, as opposed…
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Paul Greengrass on when he realised he needed to move on from Granada
I think what happened was that, as I say, the me that was the me of my teenage years, which was always wanting to head towards writing and making my own things, and self-expression, began to collide with the World in Action that was about exposing – and not that I didn’t love those programmes,…
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Paul Greengrass recalls Granada as a precious cultural institution
They were all these people, Denis Forman, David Plowright. I went around them all actually, and it left me with an abiding sense of Granada as one of Britain’s great liberal institutions, like a great university, like the BBC and very different in character. One of those precious cultural institutions that, when you set aside…
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Paul Greengrass on the world that was World in Action
So World in Action in that period was very much a closed world. The offices were up there on the third floor I want to say, off to an annexe at the back of the street. They were sort of their own space, weren’t they? They were. I’m not sure, actually, that was the very…
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Paul Greengrass remembers some of his colleagues from World in Action
David (Boulton) was a very gifted man, highly intelligent, thoughtful. I think probably one of their very best executives, but he wasn’t very popular. I don’t really know why. … but he wasn’t popular with the troops, I think because there were people around…now I’m guessing, because the first time he was obviously before my…
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Paul Greengrass on the crew he worked with on World in Action
And then of course the best, George Jesse Turner and Phil Taylor were always shooting wherever you went. It’d be sometimes Alan Bale on sound. Phil Taylor. And we went to many, many places around the world. God, I remember being in Beirut with George Jesse Turner in ‘82, it must’ve been. With George Jesse…
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Jim Grant – Transcript
Interviewed by Stephen Kelly , 12 May 2020 So let’s start about how you came to join Granada. Well, for so many of these answers, it’s important to remember it was a long time ago. My first day of work was September 12, 1977, which was so different in every imaginable way, especially for young people.…
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Paul Greengrass transcript
Interviewed by Stephen Kelly, 5 May 2020. Let’s start at the beginning. Where were you before Granada? How did you come to join Granada? And when? Dates are quite important. I can remember when I joined. I joined in October ’77, and I was at university. I don’t think I was alone, I think, going…
Read MoreTales about Sidney Bernstein from Tim Sullivan
My favourite story of Sidney…tell me if Helen McMurray’s told you this. She was working in Globe & Simpson, which was the building opposite Granada, which, colloquially, used to be known as Pearl & Dean. And we were making a show called Reports Action, with Bob Greaves, first of the local kind of telethon. We…
Read MoreTim Sullivan biography
Tim Sullivan joined Granada TV in 1981 as a researcher initially working on local programmes before move to light entertainment. He became a director in 1984, later specialising in drama and left the company ten years later to direct the film Jack and Sarah.
Read MoreTim Sullivan describes how he joined Granada
The first person that I met from Granada was a chap called Gerry Hagan, who was head of Scripts. He was one of Plowright’s performance appointments. He was head of Scripts in London. I directed a play at university, which we took to Edinburgh in my second year, and I was asked to go for…
Read MoreTim Sullivan describes his early days at Granada
So I came up to Manchester. I knew a couple of people up here already, which didn’t make it any easier. But anyway, so we then went through the induction, then we were put onto Granada Reports, which I just found the most terrifying thing that had ever happened to me. I just couldn’t understand…
Read MoreTim Sullivan on Granada’s regional identity
I thought I had it great identity. Of course, it had two of the worst football clubs in the world. But aside from that, it took a while to get used to because it’s like going to a new school, isn’t it? Before I made friends, I didn’t really understand it. So I would pootle…
Read MoreTim Sullivan on his role as a researcher on Alfresco
I know what happened at the end of entertainment. Some chums of mine from university came up to do a show called Alfresco. And I was the researcher on it, which was very odd because they were a year or so junior to me at Cambridge, but I’d worked with some of them and I…
Read MoreTim Sullivan on his training as a director
I became a director. Did the director’s course, which was fabulous. And then Granada were brilliant because you went through everything. You did live TV with Granada Reports, or a chat show, and then we started in children’s TV, both with Spencer Campbell and myself. He was the other director, trainee director. And then we…
Read MoreTim Sullivan on rejecting the opportunity to produce Coronation Street
I was very sorry to leave it. In fact, when I left – again, this is a classic example of Granada, the paternalism of Granada – after my last week on the Street, I was called up to Morrison’s office, who by now was the director of programmes. And sat down, and he said, “Look,…
Read MoreTim Sullivan on the male-dominated world at Granada
The one thing it wasn’t any good at was women, I think. I’ve written about this actually in this week’s In The Can thing I do, but I think you’ve read it. The great thing about being a trainee director was you got different crews who would come in. You had a real problem and…
Read MoreTim Sullivan remembers directing Coronation Street
Do you want to talk a bit about directing Coronation Street? Oh, wonderful. In the old days there used to be a thing called weekly rep in the theatres where they would do a different play every week, with the same cast. They’d learn, before the advent of great television and stuff. And Corrie are…
Read MoreTim Sullivan’s thoughts on Granada as a company
It was a really good company. It was an innovative company, but it made its mind up about you in a way. It categorised you. Yes, it did. And as I say, rightly or wrongly, I would’ve left Granada after that directors’ board, because what it meant was, it wasn’t that they weren’t giving it…
Read MoreTim Sullivan describes his relationship with Mike Scott
Mike didn’t like me. I never knew why. Probably the pink hair. I think it was also the relationship with Granada. I hear at some point he’d said to someone, “What’s going on? Is he sleeping with him or what?” Because it was quite a homophobic place in those times, I think. Yes, Scott didn’t…
Read MoreTim Sullivan on leaving Granada in 1994
And then really my Granada career came to an end. I was very upset because I left sort of unofficially. When you left, there was this great tradition at Granada. Someone in graphics would do a fantastic picture for you and then someone would go around with a tatty brown, internal envelope and collect about…
Read MoreTim Sullivan
Interviewed by Stephen Kelly, 28 April 2020. Tim, let’s begin at the beginning. How did you come to join Granada? What was the interviewing process like? Well, I initially… funnily enough, I thought the other day about this, actually. The first person that I met from Granada was a chap called Jerry Hagan, who was…
Read MoreAlastair Mutch biography
Alastair Mutch joined Granada in 1965 as an accountant but then moved to the legal side of the company’s operation becoming a member of the Board and Company Secretary before leaving in 1993.
Read MoreAlastair Mutch on how he came to join Granada
The wife’s godmother rang me one day and said, “Granada are advertising for an accountant.” I said, “Ooh, sounds more interesting than Nasmith, Coutts.” So I applied, got an invitation to go in and met the assistant chief accountant, who was Bill Dickson. 1965, so I must have struggled through that bit of the interview,…
Read MoreAlastair Mutch’s memories of Sidney Bernstein
I had my first meeting with Sidney Bernstein at that point. I was working in, in the outer office, two secretaries and me. Must have been the end of the long hot afternoon. I lent back and stretched. Sidney walked in right on cue. “Did I wake you up?” He was God, really. And he…
Read MoreAlastair Mutch remembers ‘drifting’ along at Granada
And then at some point I became office manager, which is not the most exciting job in the world. But you know, I drift along. So I did this for a few years. Trouble with that job, you’ve got a huge number of departments under you, and every time the phone goes, it’s somebody wanting…
Read MoreAlastair Mutch recalls working on Granada’s legal issues
Gradually, I moved on to the legal side if you like, which was fascinating. And I think my first case, as it were, was quite interesting. It concerned a local chap who lived in Chorlton, and there was a stream running through his garden, and quite a bit of land and he wanted to develop…
Read MoreAlastair Mutch remembers the British Steel Papers case and other legal battles
I suppose another very big one was British Steel. But you’ve spoken to David Boltoun about that? I have to say, David made a slight mistake. He said that Lord Denning was for Granada. Now Denning was not for Granada. He was in the Court of Appeal and they unanimously found against us. The situation…
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