Armchair Nation (69 page)

64
. Graham McCann,
Morecambe & Wise
(London: Fourth Estate, 1999), p. 140.

65
. John McGrath,
A Good Night Out: Popular Theatre: Audience, Class and Form
(London: Eyre Methuen, 1981), p. 56; Maria DiCenzo,
The Politics of Alternative Theatre in Britain, 1968–1990: The Case of 7:84 (Scotland)
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 143.

66
. Harry Thompson,
Peter Cook: A Biography
(London: Sceptre, 1998), pp. xi–xii; T. C. Worsley,
Television: The Ephemeral Art
(London: Alan Ross, 1970).

67
. Humphrey Carpenter,
Dennis Potter: The Authorised Biography
(London: Faber, 1998), p. 202; Dennis Potter, ‘Poisonous gas',
New Statesman
, 28 May 1976, 725.

68
. Gerald Priestland,
Something Understood: An Autobiography
(London: André Deutsch, 1986), p. 206; Dick Fiddy,
Missing Believed Wiped
(London: BFI, 2001), p. 10.

69
. McCann,
Morecambe & Wise
, p. 311; Steve Bryant,
The Television Heritage: Television Archiving Now and in an Uncertain Future
(London: BFI, 1989), p. 17; Graham McCann, ‘Duo in the crown',
Observer
, 20 December 1998.

70
. Stephen Smith, ‘Bringing back the sunshine',
Evening Standard
, 15 November 2001; Paddy Shennan, ‘Is Xmas telly a turn-off?',
Liverpool Echo
, 8 December 2003.

71
. Dacre, ‘Why I want to cut the comedy'; McCann,
Morecambe & Wise
, p. 231; ‘Does that mean there'll be no more magic?',
Daily Mirror
, 29 May 1984.

72
. N. Ratcliffe,
Guardian
, 14 March 1979.

73
. Fergusson,
George Mackay Brown
, 249; Brown,
Under Brinkie's Brae
, pp. 173, 125.

74
. Fergusson,
George Mackay Brown
, 249; Ferguson,
George Mackay Brown
, pp. 245, 250–51, 116.

75
. David Attenborough,
Life on Air: Memoirs of a Broadcaster
(London: BBC, 2002), p. 280.

76
. Brown,
Under Brinkie's Brae
, p. 206.

77
. Dennis Potter, ‘Trampling the mud to the wall',
Sunday Times
, 6 November 1977.

78
. Kevin O'Lone, ‘BBC? It drives you to drink!',
Daily Mirror
, 5 September 1979.

79
. Viner,
Nice to See It, To See It, Nice
, p. 65; Letters,
Radio Times
, 8–14 September 1979, p. 83; Michael Parkin, ‘And lo, ITV did rise from the dead',
Guardian
, 25 October 1979.

80
. Stanley Reynolds, ‘Tellyless in Camberwell',
Guardian
, 1 September 1979; Keith Waterhouse, ‘All on the card',
Daily Mirror
, 11 October 1979; ‘ITV viewers do switch over, BBC claims',
Guardian
, 17 September 1979.

81
. Stewart Lee, ‘And now this …',
Guardian
, 15 July 1995.

82
. Peter Hooper, ‘Where has central heating gone wrong?',
Guardian
, 7 October 1971; Stephen Games, ‘Is your central heating really necessary?',
Guardian
, 14 September 1982; ‘Double-glazing also cuts the bills',
Guardian
, 2 April 1982; Nick Cole, ‘Save it – with insulation and double glazing',
Guardian
, 3 March 1979.

1
. Laurie Taylor and Bob Mullan,
Uninvited Guests: The Intimate Secrets of Television and Radio
(London: Chatto and Windus, 1986), p. 44.

2
. ‘Wives rush to bet on J.R.',
Daily Mirror
, 27 May 1980.

3
. Mick Brown, ‘Oil in the family',
Radio Times
, 2–8 September 1978, 14; Jane Root,
Open the Box
(London: Comedia, 1986), p. 55.

4
. Paul Rixon,
TV Critics and Popular Culture: A History of British Television Criticism
(London: I. B. Tauris, 2011), pp. 56–7.

5
. Mike Poole, ‘The cult of the generalist: British television criticism 1936–83',
Screen
, 25, 2 (March 1984), 55.

6
. Clive James,
North Face of Soho: More Unreliable Memoirs, Volume IV
(London: Picador, 2006), p. 46.

7
. Clive James,
Visions Before Midnight: Television Criticism from the Observer 1972–76
(London: Jonathan Cape, 1977), p. 14.

8
. Clive James,
The Crystal Bucket: Television Criticism from the Observer 1976–79
(London: Jonathan Cape, 1981), p. 13; Clive James, ‘The Pinter sisters',
Observer
, 24 September 1978.

9
. Taylor and Mullan,
Uninvited Guests
, p. 21.

10
. Barry Took (ed.),
Points of View
(London: BBC, 1981), pp. 12–13.

11
. John Ellis, ‘TV pages', in Bob Franklin (ed.),
Pulling Newspapers Apart: Analysing Print Journalism
(Abingdon: Routledge, 2008), p. 236.

12
. Clifford Davis, ‘Noele Gordon sacked!',
Daily Mirror
, 22 June 1981; Dorothy Hobson,
Crossroads: The Drama of a Soap Opera
(London: Methuen, 1982), pp. 18, 15; Rosalie Horner, ‘All cloak and dagger as we wait for Meg to peg out',
Daily Express
, 22 October 1981.

13
. ‘Who's cross about
Crossroads
?',
Daily Mirror
, 1 November 1978.

14
.
Sunday Telegraph
, 6 April 1975, quoted in Charlotte Brunsdon,
Screen Tastes: Soap Opera to Satellite Dishes
(London: Routledge, 1997), p. 22; Jack Waterman, ‘“Crossroads” – en route to nowhere',
Listener
, 15 January 1976, 48; Michael Grade interviewed by Philip Dodd on
Nightwaves
, BBC Radio 3, 21 February 2011.

15
. Hobson,
Crossroads
, p. 49; Lewis Chester,
All My Shows Are Great: The Life of Lew Grade
(London: Aurum, 2010), p. 119.

16
. Charlotte Brunsdon and David Morley, ‘Introduction', in
The Nationwide Television Studies
(London: Routledge, 1999), p. 4.

17
. Charlotte Brunsdon,
The Feminist, the Housewife, and the Soap Opera
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 10; Hobson,
Crossroads
, p. 119; John W. Pettinger,
From Dawn Till Dusk: A History of Independent Television in the Midlands
(Studley: Brewin Books, 2007), p. 71.

18
. Pettinger,
From Dawn Till Dusk
, p. 64.

19
. Hobson,
Crossroads
, p. 120.

20
. Tony Hatch, ‘The
Crossroads
theme tune' at crossroadsnetwork. co.uk/oldsite/themetune.htm (accessed 11 June 2011).

21
. Robert Low, ‘“Down-market” BBC for Breakfast TV',
Observer
, 2 January 1983; Hobson,
Crossroads
, p. 113.

22
. Hobson,
Crossroads
, p. 117.

23
. Hobson,
Crossroads
, pp. 108, 118.

24
. Hobson,
Crossroads
, p. 139; Brunsdon,
The Feminist, the Housewife, and the Soap Opera
, p. 80.

25
. Ray Gosling, ‘Friends and neighbours',
Listener
, 12 January 1978, 47–8; Hobson,
Crossroads
, p. 146.

26
. Hobson,
Crossroads
, pp. 172–3; ‘Obituary: Peter Ling',
Daily Telegraph
, 3 October 2006.

27
.
The Kenneth Williams Diaries
, ed. Russell Davies (London: HarperCollins, 1994), pp. 686, 492, 505, 771, 475, 250–51.

28
. Christopher Stevens,
Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams
(London: John Murray, 2010), pp. 311, 293;
The Kenneth Williams Diaries
, pp. 533, 681.

29
. Derek Cooper,
Hebridean Connection
(London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977), p. 21; ‘Top of the Pops for Tony',
Daily Mirror
, 31 October 1978.

30
. Kenneth Gosling, ‘Christmas TV viewing shows big decline',
The Times
, 11 January 1983; Peter Lennon, ‘How will the liberated viewer swing?',
Listener
, 3 March 1983, 5.

31
. Michael Poole, ‘Failing to rate',
Listener
, 9 February 1984, 14; Robin Stringer, ‘Recorded TV is often never seen',
The Times
, 1 February 1984; Peter Fiddick, ‘TV's missing millions',
Guardian
, 11 February 1983; Ann Gray,
Video Playtime: The Gendering of a Leisure Technology
(London: Routledge, 1992), p. 169.

32
. Chris Horrie and Steve Clarke,
Fuzzy Monsters: Fear and Loathing at the BBC
(London: Heinemann, 1994), p. xiv.

33
. Michael Tracey,
The Decline and Fall of Public Service Broadcasting
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), p. 108.

34
. Nancy Banks-Smith, ‘Blessed release',
Guardian
, 23 January 1984;
BBC Annual Report and Handbook 1984
(London: BBC, 1984), p. 285.

35
. Michael Grade,
It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time
(London: Macmillan, 1999), p. 92.

36
. James Murray, ‘The Forsyth saga',
Daily Express
, 7 October 1978; Rosalie Horner, ‘Press blamed for Brucie flop',
Daily Express
, 9 November 1979.

37
. Mihir Bose,
Michael Grade: Screening the Image
(London: Virgin, 1992), pp. 157, 165; Esther Rantzen, ‘The tough TV lessons Michael has taught me',
Mail on Sunday
, 4 April 2004.

38
. Michael Grade, ‘What TV in US taught me',
Observer
, 26 August 1984; Bose,
Michael Grade
, pp. 159–60, 162–3; Grade,
It Seemed Like a Good Idea
, p. 186.

39
. Peter Anghelides, ‘Overrated ratings',
Listener
, 22 January 1987, 28;
Daily Life in the 1980s, Vol. 1: Broadcast Media Use and Associated Activities, Summer 1983
(London: BBC Data, 1984), p. 3; Bose,
Michael Grade
, p. 159.

40
. Jill Hyem, ‘Entering the arena: writing for television', in Helen Baehr and Gillian Dyer (eds),
Boxed In: Women and Television
(London: Pandora, 1987), pp. 153–4.

41
. Phil Drabble,
A Voice in the Wilderness
(London: Pelham Books, 1991), p. 86; Graham McCann,
Only Fools and Horses: The Untold Story of Britain's Favourite Comedy
(Edinburgh: Canongate, 2011), pp. 94, 126;
Michael Grade: On the Box
, Episode 1:
New Dawn
, BBC Radio 2, 2 April 2012.

42
. Bose,
Michael Grade
, pp. 172–3; Spike Milligan, ‘Soap bubbles',
Guardian
, 28 January 1985.

43
. Donald Trelford,
Snookered
(London: Faber, 1986), p. 75; Mike Cable, ‘Ray, reared on snooker',
Radio Times
, 31 January 1974, 6; Gordon Burn,
Pocket Money: Bad-Boys, Business-Heads and Boom-Time Snooker
(London: Mandarin, 1992), pp. 166–7.

44
. Trelford,
Snookered
, pp. 67–8, 78–9.

45
. Peter Fiddick, ‘Top of the pots, the new television spectacular',
Guardian
, 29 April 1978; Frederick Forsyth, ‘Foreword', in Pete Scholey,
Who Dares Wins: Special Forces Heroes of the SAS
(Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2008), p. 11.

46
. Trelford,
Snookered
, pp. 72–3.

47
. Trelford,
Snookered
, p. 33; Gordon Burn, ‘There's nothing normal about snooker',
Listener
, 28 April 1983, 7.

48
. George Mackay Brown,
Rockpools and Daffodils: An Orcadian Diary 1979–1991
(Edinburgh: Gordon Wright Publishing, 1992), pp. 120, 146; A. S. Byatt, ‘I was a Wembley virgin',
Observer
, 30 June 1996.

49
. Clive James,
A Point of View
(London: Picador, 2011), p. 324.

50
. Burn,
Pocket Money
, pp. 29, 65.

51
. Mordecai Richler,
On Snooker
(London: Yellow Jersey Press, 2001), p. 49.

52
. Trelford,
Snookered
, p. 187; Eamonn Andrews, ‘Taylormade on cue',
Catholic Herald
, 15 November 1985.

53
. Sarah Boseley, ‘Domesday 900 Project: kids' stuff of which history is made',
Guardian
, 7 February 1986.

54
. ‘Television Programmes', 1986, D-block GB-320000–540000; ‘Television', 1986, D-block GB-424000–402000, BBC Domesday Reloaded Site at bbc.co.uk/history/domesday (accessed 9 January 2012).

55
. Raymond Williams, ‘Impressions of U.S. television', in
Raymond Williams on Television: Selected Writings
, ed. Alan O'Connor (London: Routledge, 1989), p. 25.

56
. Raymond Williams,
Television: Technology and Cultural Form
, ed. Ederyn Williams (London: Routledge, 1990), pp. 78–118.

57
. David Hendy,
Life on Air: A History of Radio Four
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), p. 140.

58
. Peter Fiddick, ‘A breakfast toast with jam on both sides',
Guardian
, 16 July 1983.

59
. Lynn Barber, ‘The vision of Bruce',
Independent on Sunday
, 18 August 1991; Maggie Brown, ‘Not everyone's cup of tea',
Independent
, 24 February 1993; Andrew Lycett, ‘The day of the panther',
The Times
, 26 August 1987.