And so I gave up entertainment and I did a show called September Song with Russ Abbot and Michael Williams. And then, again, the great thing about Granada was – I ended up, because the producer of Prime Suspect, Paul Marcus, also late, wanted to, he got given a chance to direct, so they needed a producer that would sort of keep the show on the road, so I did Prime Suspect. I think that would have been around 1994 or 1995.
I remember I remember you saying to me that you were going to shift to doing drama and that you really fancied doing drama, September Song you mentioned.
I think it’s a great testament to Granada in those days and that it wasn’t too big that they’d go, no if you haven’t been, gone up by being a script editor, which is the BBC way, if you reached a certain point, and there had been precedents in that before. I think people like Brian Armstrong had worked… everybody had worked on World in Action at one point and then they all shifted, and you know, people like Michael Apted cut their teeth as directors doing documentaries, so there was a good history there, and you know, I think I was so lucky that I worked at Granada that they would slightly indulge you.
Did you produce September Song?
Yes.
Within the drama department?
It was a sort of hybrid in a way, if I remember correctly. It came out of David Liddiment had sort of pushed the boundaries. He had done Coronation Street, and Coronation Street had this strange genesis that it was never within, as far as I remember, it was actually outwith the drama department, and by the time we were there, there was a sort of… The drama department went off, but drama serial, as it were… So Liddiment had done that, he had done Watching, which was very successful, and he had done September Song. They evolved out of the entertainment department / drama serial or whatever. So when he took over Coronation Street, he was allowed those areas or those areas evolved but they weren’t part of the drama department. OK. That’s the mid-90s you’re talking about.
Mid coming onto late 90s, yes.
September Song was transmitted over three series between 1993 and 1995.
