Granada were starting a new soap opera called Families. And I was one of the first PAs to work on that, three or four of us. And that was the first soap opera to do four episodes a week. And it was the first one at Granada where we were using a computer to type…
Read MoreAnthea Boulton biography
Anthea Boulton joined Granada in 1964 as a Call Girl liaising with artistes. After writing her first play that was produced by Granada, she became a Coronation Street storyline writer in 1968. Anthea left the company in 1970 but continued to do some freelance work there in the 1970’s.
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Paul Greengrass
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 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 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 on programme budgets
A bit later on, I got put on the board. And then as company secretary, you did a legal report every board meeting, once a month, and you did a little piece, and spoke to the board about what was going on. It would be the late 80s by then. It was a fascinating time.…
Read MoreAlastair Mutch reflects on his Granada years
I think, overall, I was born at the right time. I think I was extremely lucky. Apart from the first few years of bombs, we had a long era of peace.I ended up at Granada, which was a fabulous place to work. Then three or four years with Ray (Fitzwalter) and Luise (Nandy) (at Ray…
Read MoreAlastair Mutch transcript
Interviewed by Geoff Moore, 6 May 2019. So take us back to your early life and where you grew up and so on. Early life was a long time ago! I was born in Wembley, right at the beginning of the war, so it was a fairly lively upbringing. Not that it bothered me at the…
Read MoreAndrew Quinn describes how he became managing director of Granada
After the satellite thing, I’d been on the group board for just over a year, with a division called Services to Business, which was a group of companies, one was Computer Field Maintenance, mending people’s computers, and frankly, I wasn’t very thrilled with it. And then I was approached by head-hunters, on behalf of Central…
Read MoreDaphne Hughes – biography
Daphne Hughes joined Granada in Liverpool in 1980 as a secretary on Granada Reports, based in Exchange Flags before becoming a crew co-ordinator. She subsequently worked on This Morning in both Liverpool and London as programme co-ordinator. She later returned to Manchester to work on Tonight with Trevor McDonald before retiring in 2007.
Read MoreDaphne Hughes on the lure of the Crooked Billet pub
A lot of life went on in The Crooked Billet. One reason being that it was a shortcut to the car park, but inevitably, you didn’t always make the car park. You just stayed in The Crooked Billet, but for one or two or three and your car stayed in the car park. There was…
Read MoreGlenda Wood – biography
Glenda Wood joined Granada TV as a make-up artist in 1966 from Tyne Tees Television. She worked on a wide range of programmes including Coronation Street, Who Bombed Birmingham? and The Sign of Four. Glenda won a BAFTA in 1993 in recognition of her work on Stars in Their Eyes, one of Britain’s most popular…
Read MoreGlenda Wood describes preparing for a drama
What would be involved in working on a drama? Well, you get the first script – the first one was the white script, then the pink script came, then you got the blue script, which was the final one, and then you wrote down – they do it on a computer now, I believe –…
Read MorePete Terry on leaving Granada
I didn’t decide to leave. The writing sadly was on the wall. I took a redundancy, but it was becoming quite evident that finances were playing an important role, and it had become an unrecognisable company in many ways. We were then under the auspicious ruling of, I think, Charles Allen, and I think Gerry…
Read MoreLuise Fitzwalter describes how Ray Fitzwalter managed World in Action
And then they had an election for the editor of World In Action because there had been trouble – it’s all in Ray’s book. Oh, I don’t think it is, actually. Well, there had been trouble, there had been a rebellion in the ranks about the way they had been treated. So the way to…
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Dorothy Byrne on working on Granada Reports
Granada Reports… was really, really a good programme, and within a very short number of weeks I was out making 10-minute films myself, and I just thought it was absolutely fantastic, and because we made, in Granada Reports, investigative films. I did a film investigating how bed and breakfasts in Blackpool were taking money from…
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Dorothy Byrne on the Channel 4 programme ‘Union World’
Then I went to work on Union World, and I had to pass a test to work on Union World. So I was called in by David Kemp – many people said, “I don’t know why you don’t work on Union World, because you’re Scottish,” and there seemed to be at Granada, as they called…
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David Bernstein on his father’s ethical and political beliefs
One of the things that is his legacy, I think, which he was… he created an atmosphere where the successes at Granada Television could take place. The quality of the people that he brought into the company, the standards that he set, the ethos of fierce editorial independence for all the programme makers… all of…
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Sidney Bernstein’s later years
Well, I think it was as well that a lot of that happened after he was really aware of what was going on. I think, you know, all good things come to an end. There were lots of external factors that were involved in the changes to the independent broadcasting scene. Not all of it…
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Sidney Bernstein’s legacy
One aspect of his legacy which I have been personally involved in is the completion of restoration of the film that he began making in 1945, a documentary about the concentration camps, and there’s an extraordinary story there which is well covered in Andre Singer’s interesting documentary Night Will Fall, which was part-funded by…
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David Bernstein talks about the penthouse at Granada.
Yes. So if there was a board meeting or something happening up there, he wouldn’t be with us in London, he wouldn’t be with us in Kent – Jane and I went to school in London from the age of seven or eight. So I was both in 1955, so… 1963, we would have been…
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Andrew Serraillier recalls producing This Morning
Coming up to around 1988, that’s when Granada was commissioned to make This Morning, which was a 2 hour 10 minute live middle-of-the-morning programme. I don’t know if it’s just because I wasn’t doing anything at the time, but they made me the producer on that. Probably technically acting producer, but producer none the less.…
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Andrew Serraillier on Granada as a company
What I did find is that all the individuals I met might be divided into people who would encourage young people and others who’s kind of rough them up or resent them a bit. There were very few of the latter. I only met people who I thought were trying to help me. And the…
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Brian Park describes how he came to join Granada
I was at Edinburgh University. I had started a life as a perpetual student; I had done two degrees and was starting a PhD, but then I thought maybe I should try and get a proper job. In those days, the Guardian on a Monday had a strange thing called “Creative & Media Recruitment” and…
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Brian Park on the role of the promotion scriptwriter
So when you went for the Manchester interview for the promotion scriptwriter, what did they ask you and how did that go? It was very casual. I think in those days they prided themselves on- they wanted to see a sparkle of personality or individuality, someone who’d fit rather than… Because you couldn’t really… you…
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Brian Park remembers some of the programmes he worked on as a researcher
I was a researcher from 82 I think to 88, when I went up to be a producer at Tyne Tees for two years. So I had a gap in my long career at Granada for two years when I went up to join Trish Kinane and then I came back in 1990 to be…
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Brian Park on returning to Granada as a Light Entertainment producer
So you’re back in 1990. What did you do then? I did a number of shows. I did Remote Control, I remember, with Tony Wilson. I’d forgotten. Well remembered, that, because nobody’s mentioned that show. It’s a forgotten show. It’s a forgotten show that we did for Channel 4. And it was an American format,…
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Brian Park on moving into drama, producing September Song
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…
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Brian Park describes the ethos of Granada
The canteen was the great democratisation. You would see Denis Forman with his tray looking like one of the doorman. And they would make a point of sitting next to plebs and we would then have indigestion for half an hour! There was a feeling of a slight democracy about it, whether that was true…
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Brian Park on Granada’s legacy
I think Granada’s legacy as a television company… you were very aware of its history and its achievements. ….I think it imbued a certain esprit de corps that… you certainly were proud to have gone through the ranks, and you know, I was there for 18 years, so this was quite a long time. Again,…
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