David Liddiment – Granadaland

David Liddiment on how he always wanted to work in TV

As you started university, what did you want to be? I wanted to work in television, and I had wanted to work in television since I had been a teenager. I loved the telly – I was born in 1952, I am a child of the television generation in the way that kids born today…

David Liddiment describes how he joined Granada TV

I joined Granada as a promotions scriptwriter. Joe Rigby hired me, and the only reason I got the job was, having applied for it before, I decided to apply for it again because I didn’t get it the first time round. Unbeknownst to me, I had narrowly lost it the first time around, so…

David Liddiment on moving from promotions to being a researche

I decided, having been there a brief while, the thing I wanted to do was direct, you know, sat in the back of the gallery producing a promo session – we used to run the trails through the gallery and we used to put the captions on with a manned camera crew on the studio…

David Liddiment on working on local programmes

So what was your experience of working on regional programmes? I did everything on regional programmes. How did you find it? I loved it. Because one, Granada regional programmes was a very vibrant place, it was led by Steve Morrison, it was the first time I got to work with Steve, Steven Morrison… you know,…

David Liddiment on working in drama-docs

Then I got a big break because David Boulton phoned me up one day out of the blue and said, “David Plowright has asked me and Leslie Woodhead to set up a drama documentary unit to develop some of the skills and things that Leslie in particular has been doing on World in Action –…

David Liddiment talks about moving into management

For someone of your background as a promotions scriptwriter and a researcher and director and producer, you had done a lot of making, but you ended up a suit. Yes. How did you feel about that? I loved it. I loved it. I have been very fortunate to have the opportunity to have my eyes…

David Liddiment’s memories of the soap Albion Market

I loved directing. When I was in it, in the middle of it, I couldn’t envisage doing anything else – but bit by bit I started to get a bit frustrated, because you are… you are inevitably directing other people’s visions, things they want to do rather than things you want to do, and I…

David Liddiment talks about ‘Stars in Their Eyes’

Stars in Their Eyes, am I right, it was Granada’s first big entertainment hit for a while at that time? Yes. But it wasn’t a home-grown show. No, it was a Dutch show, it was a Dutch format – in fact it was Steve Leahy who, you know, was a genius in spotting these formats…

David Liddiment’s thoughts on World in Action

Let me talk about World in Action. Because others have said that you didn’t like World in Action. I loved World in Action. ….. This was when you were head of… controller of programmes? At ITV or Granada? At Granada. Well, don’t forget, this was a muddy time, Charles Allen had come in from group,…

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 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…