Everything – Page 4 – Granadaland

Barry Bowmer remembers working with Tony Wilson

I did lots of documentaries, not complete ones but ones to go into other shows etc. Having said that one of them was So it Goes with Tony Wilson, which was a music programme in the Seventies, Eighties was it. And did Tony get involved? Yeah. Oh yeah, once we’d got, again that was a…

A donkey, Derek Hatton and Custer’s Last Stand!

Several things happened which would never have happened at the TV centre in Quay Street in Manchester. One I remember was when Shorty (Mike Short, GTV Producer) brought a flock of sheep (or a number of sheep) in. I can’t remember the nature of the story he was running but it caused no end of…

Barry Bowmer’s impressions on Granada as a company

So when did you finish at Granada? 1991. When they were cutting back and a good few others had finished when they were 48 and times were changing there and it wasn’t a good feeling, you know, as people were leaving. I mean we’d had the best times in London, at Golden Square, at Chelsea…

David Highet remembers Mike Short’s innovative programme ‘Under Fives’ – and the challenges it presented!

Mike Short had an idea, which became the bane of my life and I think it was to do with under-11s football. Granada was to sponsor this and I was to be the Administrator of it. Why on earth I agreed I have no idea! Anyway this went ahead and was, it turned out, a…

David Liddiment’s impressions of Steve Morrison

Steve is a force of nature. He’s indefatigable; he’s not easily deflected from a course of action. All these are strengths. Granada needed – people forget this – Granada was a great company, but there was an element of atrophy creeping into the place. And that’s not a criticism of the people involved, it was…

David Highet on how Granada’s coverage of the Toxteth riots was never screened

Several things happened around that story. One was that because we were a studio set-up, we had no cameras to take out so a news team was sent from Manchester for the riots but John Toker and Mike Short went out into the streets with the crew and they were short-crewed but it was what…

David Liddiment on the strengths and weaknesses of GTV

Okay. Granada Television – strengths and weaknesses, looking back, as a company. Well, I think it’s great strength was its singularity as a company, its willingness to go out on a limb for programmes – legally and creatively – famously over British Steel and so on… and also singular because of the way it…

David Highet describes how the programme ‘Flying Start’ came about

Flying Start was the notion of David Plowright. What happened after the riots is that Michael Heseltine came to Liverpool. He’d been appointed by Margaret Thatcher as Minister for Merseyside and I have to say he did an extraordinarily good job and that was a view shared by politicians of all complexions. Heseltine came and…

David Highet on the origins of Granada’s office in the Albert Dock

Yes, well one thing that you might want to think about discussing – or for me to remark on – is what Granada’s lasting legacy was in Liverpool and later in Manchester which brings me to the decision to open a News Centre at the Albert Dock in Liverpool. The Albert Dock had been derelict…

David Highet remembers the importance of Barnum!

I became Head of Public Affairs for the company in Manchester. I’d say that Sidney Bernstein, Denis Forman and David Plowright were three of the most charismatic, impressive, creative, commanding, engaging people I’ve ever met and ever worked for. They became mentors and heroes for me, particularly David with whom I worked very closely when…

David Highet on working as Head of Public Affairs

I moved from that (General Manager at Granada, Liverpool) when David Plowright became Chairman, I think it was 1986. I’d become very ill in the middle of 1986, which is unlike me because I don’t do illness and I managed to get back in time for the Christmas party – we always had a huge…

David Highet describes how he thinks Granada changed in the late 1980s

Things began to change towards the end of the 1980s. It’s a question of ethos and I think I would just like to quote from Ray Fitzwalter’s book – The Dream that Died, the Rise and Fall of ITV – and there’s a quote here quoting Bob Phillis, who was the Chief Executive of Carlton…

Bob Greaves – Presenter

Bob Greaves was one of the most recognizable and best loved of Granada’s presenters. He joined the company in 1964 as a reporter and editor for the regional news magazine programme Scene at 6.30 and went onto work for Granada for 35 years, mainly in local programmes. He sadly died in 2011 and his obituary…