Review
On the 50th anniversary of Ulster Television, Paul Clements browses through two books that are certain to stir many memories.
- 50 Years of UTV / Standby Studio
- Gill & Macmillan / Shanway Press
Ulster Television at 50
Half a century of broadcasting is explored in these two very different books dealing with life at Ulster Television.
At the end of October, UTV celebrated its 50th anniversary and, as is reflected in both books, huge changes have taken place since those early happy-go-lucky, seat-of-your pants days at Havelock House.
50 Years of UTV by Don Anderson is a mostly chronological account of the company since its formation. The book deals with many of the big issues that faced UTV over the years: its struggle to build up advertising, its battle to remain independent, and how it reported the conflict on its doorstep.
The 14 chapters take the reader from the early days up to the present and a vastly different broadcasting landscape in which UTV has reinvented itself as a media company. One chapter, ‘News to a Divided Audience’, reflects the humour of the times within the Fun Factory as it was known. Some of the most engaging stories cover the period when Robin Walsh was the news editor and involved lively exchanges with the managing director Brum Henderson – notably when Henderson had been in court on a drink-driving charge and tried (unsuccessfully) to stop the story being run on Ulster Television news bulletins.
The second book, written by former presenter Anne Hailes deals with the early years from the excitement of the opening night up until 1966 when she left the company. Joining as a clerk typist on a salary of £320 a year, she became a production assistant and later a freelance presenter. Her book is laced with vivid memories reflecting the fun, drama and energy. The pages bristle with a cast-list of the famous and the eccentric including Brendan and Dominic Behan, the musical dynasty of the McPeake family, Barney McCool, Frank Carson, Gloria Hunniford, Harold Robbins and Bruce Forsythe.
Standby Studio is a chatty, engaging omnium gatherum of titbits, gossip, bricolage, long-lost stories and long-forgotten presenters. But the author enlarges the scope to incorporate her later journalistic life giving the book a wide appeal.
Don Anderson’s more formal but nonetheless highly readable and entertaining account will stand as an historical record. He points out in the preface that although he had the goodwill of the company management, it is not the book they would have commissioned. He indulges in a long preamble to the start of broadcasting and it is 51 pages before we reach the opening night. By contrast Anne Hailes adopts the technique of in medias res taking us straight in with little background.
50 Years of UTV is a glossy hardback packed with colour as well as black and white images; curiously there are few overlaps between the two books in terms of reproducing similar images. One quibble with Don Anderson’s book is the lack of a bibliography or any references to the sources that are cited. Standby Studio leans heavily on black and white photographs. It offers the lucky dip pleasure of serendipity at the turn of every page on a personal trip down journalistic memory lane in the company of ‘Teatime with Tommy’ and ‘Romper Room’.
50 Years of UTV by Don Anderson, is published by Gill & Macmillan, £21.99; Standby Studio by Anne Hailes is published by Shanway Press, £10.00.
Paul Clements