What do you think made Granada so distinctive at that time? I think they gave you confidence. It was distinctive, because we worked on really good quality shows. We did experimental stuff as well. We worked across the board, so we understood documentary making. We understood religious programmes. We understood What the Papers Say. We…
Read MorePriscilla John on casting for Jewel in the Crown
So Jewel in the Crown comes along. Oh, yes. So then they needed a second casting director, and I hopped on to help Susie Bruffin. She was the lead casting director. And they hadn’t cast Daphne Manners. And I was working with Susan Wooldridge on a comedy called Repertory, about a repertory company. And we…
Read MorePriscilla John remembers the 1979 ITV strike
Tell me about the strike. A lot of us were badly paid, and there was a section of us, and I still can’t remember the term, what was the term? It was called the thinking in the bath time that designers, casting directors… none of us earned overtime. Production designers, costume designers. We didn’t earn…
Read MorePriscilla John on why she thought Granada was a left-wing company
We were a very left-wing company. Tell me about that. Because obviously, people have said that, particularly when we’ve talked to people who’ve been involved in World in Action or political programmes, but it’s interesting what you’re saying, it infused into drama as well. Yes, most definitely. We were all left-wing. We were all Labour…
Read MorePriscilla John on the responsibility for casting Crown Court
You had to do Crown Court. Oh, my God, Crown Court was another huge learning curve. And the actors, we used to cast them two weeks in advance, and we get the most brilliant, brilliant casts for that. There used to be long lists of actors who wanted to be the judge, or wanted to…
Read MorePriscilla John describes casting for the docu-drama Three Days in Szczecin on the Polish shipyard workers’ strike in 1971
I did the extras on Three Days in Szczecin. We needed a load of Polish dock workers, so I went around all the Polish clubs in Whalley Range, and everywhere, gathering up the Polish… who could sing the Polish national anthem, or whatever it was. It was one of those historic moments where, one by…
Read MorePriscilla John on casting Wood and Walters
Tell me a bit about Wood & Walters and how that came about? Well, that came about because I had cast Happy Since I Met You. And that was another umbrella screenplay. It came under the umbrella title of Screenplay. This was directed by Baz Taylor, written by Victoria Wood. This is one of her…
Read MorePriscilla John describes casting for All for Love with Frank Finlay
I did All for Love with Frank Finlay and a very young Rupert Graves. All for Love was under the PBS umbrella of several plays. I can’t remember the names of all of them. But All for Love, this one was directed by Rob Knights, who was fantastic. It was produced by Roy Roberts. And…
Read MorePriscilla John describes the training needed to work in Casting
First of all, I learned from John and Doreen, systems, so you always could double check everything. And how to deal with agents, how to negotiate fees with agents. And in that respect, Granada eased us in, because on Crown Court, you either wanted to do it for a fee of £34 or bugger off.…
Read MorePriscilla John describes how she introduced new actors to Coronation Street
I was assigned to Coronation Street, and that was my first true love. I was more or less told, “You are totally, for the next year, you are working with us and no one else. These actors, the producer Bill Podmore, these people, they are working to keep Granada going. Coronation Street is our bread…
Read MorePriscilla John on how to talent spot
How do you know someone is good? Is it a gut feeling you build up with experience? I think it’s a combination of things. But mainly, it’s because they will be playing the role as if they are that person, they’re in the moment, and they haven’t come out of it once, even if they…
Read MorePriscilla John on the Manchester casting department that she joined in 1975
There was the amazing Jose Scott, Judi Hayfield, and an assortment of assistants. I went up there to be a booking assistant, and I had an assistant. It was quite a responsibility! Booking assistants meant that it was your responsibility to gather all the extras for various programmes. And if you were doing a series,…
Read MorePriscilla John describes how she joined Granada
I joined in 1972. In London. I was working at the Royal Court Theatre for a casting director called Gillian Diamond for a year, and she fired me, which as Lindsay Anderson said several years later, was “the best thing that ever happened to you, whether you choose to acknowledge that or not, but it…
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