You talk very fondly there about Granada Television. Was it a company that cared for its employees?
Well, care for its employees, that’s a good question. I think as much as companies do, yes – I think it did. We tended to get whatever we needed to make programmes, so they were fairly liberal with the budget, and you never felt… well, you always felt that people like David Plowright and Sir Denis Forman cared about the programmes, and therefore cared about the people who made them, and they wouldn’t suffer fools lightly, and if you didn’t believe in quality and strive to get it – and indeed, achieve it – I think you wouldn’t have lasted very long; there were some people who moved away quite quickly. But yes, I would have said that they did care about the people that were there, I had many a nice comment sent down to me by David Plowright that I never would have expected, and it’s a huge boost if the top man sends you a note about something you’ve done on television.
