A Most Remarkable & Unexpected Pleasure

[gamba]

During the 1960s, whilst still on the staff of BBC TV Film Studios in Ealing I was asked to contribute to a film being made in Manchester which had the story of relationships developing between two families working in the cotton mills. The whole project ultimately turned out to be extremely disappointing. ( That is an extremely kind remark ! ) It would be wrong to explain in detail & only applied to circumstances existing at that time in Manchester. I ended up being responsible for just about everything, almost total absence of the director, no producer, one lighting electrician, on almost continual strike because I wouldn't allow him to use the van as ' personal ' transport, my asst. cameraman with an eye problem resulting in being unable to see properly, no proper shooting script etc. etc. - I could go on.

However, something very special made it all worthwhile. Arrangements had been made to employ two people to provide the music. We travelled with each other on many occasions & as circumstances demanded. Whilst in the car, should we halt for a while at traffic lights they would be quoting the words from a poster on an old building & setting them to a newly made-up song. Almost eveything we witnessed, people, places, things became subjects for improvised songs.

A totally unforgettable & much treasured experience.

I almost forgot to mention their names;

Ewan McColl & Peggy Seeger

[amateur51]

Great story gamba, what a privilege to work with them

[Sydney Grew]

. . . It would be wrong to explain in detail . . .

Never having heard of these people, I looked them up in the Wiki-pædia. I found the first under "MacColl" with an "O":

MacColl was born as James Henry Miller . . . In 1932 . . . MI5 opened a file on MacColl, after local police asserted that he was "a communist with very extreme views" who needed "special attention". For a time the Special Branch kept a watch on the Manchester home that he shared with his wife Joan Littlewood. MI5 caused some of MacColl's songs to be rejected by the BBC, and prevented the employment of Littlewood as a BBC children's programme presenter.

I have never heard of Miss Littlewood either, but what interests me is the way political interference at the B.B.C. continues in much the same way to this day.

And perhaps - even probably - the same MI5 had a finger in the frustrations so vividly recounted by the Member.

[Richard Tarleton]

Never having heard of these people, I looked them up in the Wiki-pædia.

Sydney, to appreciate Gamba's experience to the full it probably helps if you've followed this thread - Peggy was the half sister of the more famous Pete. If you haven't heard of him.....

This may not be to your taste, but in 1957 Ewan MacColl wrote a song for Peggy called The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, which many years later became a worldwide hit in a cover version by Roberta Flack.

I have never heard of Miss Littlewood either

Oh What A Lovely War, A Taste of Honey...Joan Littlewood a fairly unavoidable figure in British theatre around the middle of the last century. And where she and the MacColls fell foul of MI5, (great story by the way Gamba ), Pete faced McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee, which he did with great courage.

[gamba]

Thank you Richard. An excellent assessment with much to meditate upon. I don't think the film was ever transmitted on TV, not something I would be glad to be associated with.

Also, I expect Sydney may have a point on some issues. many strange events occurred.

To me, " Singing the Fishing " will remain the supreme visual monument to the quite remarkable man that made it & those that took part.

[gamba]

Thank you Sydney, you too have given me much to think about.

May I ask if it would be right to associate your name with that of someone who ' knows his Bach ' & has said so in print ?

With good wishes from gamba

[Sydney Grew]

I have just now been reading in the Wiki-pædia an article about the B.B.C.'s weekly magazine The Listener (which folded in 1991).

"In 1981 Richard Gott . . .," it says, "was chosen as editor but his appointment was blocked because MI5 declared that he had 'ultra-Leftist' sympathies." So much for the much vaunted "freedom and democracy" of British broadcasting and publishing! Original thinkers cowering in their homes expecting a knock on the door at any moment.

[gamba]

My Dear Sydney,

This discussion is becoming perilously close to involving me & my own experience of the behaviour of those ' upstairs '. Ultimately resulting in a ' whispered ' apology to me from the head of my own dept. regarding the unfair behaviour towards me by some unnamed person, right at the ' very top.' Wish I could say more.

Kind regards, gamba

( it was not a political matter )