A General amongst men... Nurturing the stars and the industry

 This week has seen the death of television producer Michael Hurll. From the tributes from my fellow tweeters in particular Mike Smith, a man who worked with Hurll on Top of the Pops and The Late Late Breakfast Show who said 'RIP Michael Hurll. TOTP & Light Ent legendary producer. A mentor to me and many. He let us be us. And he led like a General.' and also broadcaster Greg Scott said 'Television producer, Michael Hurll has died... The behind the scenes equivalent of a Wogan or Forsyth passing away. What a legacy.'

Hurll was born in 1936 in Twickenham, South West London. Educated at St Paul's School in Hammersmith, where one of his earliest directing jobs, you could say was directing future 'Beyond the Fringe' performer Jonathan Miller in a school revue. But it was when joining the BBC as a "call boy" later to known as a runner on the Billy Cotton Band Show that the start of his long career in television was to begin, though he was in good company on that first job with future film director Michael Winner as a fellow "call boy" on the same series. 

His touch for variety and also music was apparent, working with the likes of Roy Hudd, Ronnie Corbett, Ronnie Barker, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, Noel Edmonds and Cilla Black. The list goes on and on, with each new series came a new set of challenges as he said himself in a 2007 interview to The Independent "I'm one of those people like the TV doctor: when the patient needs a bit of TLC I'm brought in," he says. "It's about trying to convince the performer they should be going in a different direction - or making them bloody well work. So many of them take it easy once they've made it. It's hard to get to the top but it's even harder to stay there." His guiding hand to productions from the late 1960's all the way through to the new millennium, his style of directing may seem out of place today but his style was the right one for the shows he did. For example, with the reboot of the Top of the Pops during the early 80's, the show itself seemed unchanged from the mid 70's onwards and though it had survived disco, punk and new wave, the show was looking out of place for the early 80's. With the atmosphere outside the studio in the nation less then a party, Hurll made it look like a party, so whenever viewers switched on a Thursday night, it looked like a neon wonderland.

Though one of his biggest experiences both technical and with the Radio One disc jockeys came through Seaside Special. With a weekly travelling show coming to town, the venue as such was a circus big top. The challenges of that, trying to set up a show in a venue which would test the best of producing talent, seemed like an easy task for Hurll. The stars were a part of the show, the disc jockeys were a part of the show, but it was the venue was the major star. Guaranteeing a summer season show coming to the resort, gave it prestige and the public from all around would always fill up the BBC1 Big Top. Coming from a place myself which had regular visits from Seaside Special during the 1970's and early 80's, this was entertainment coming out from London, Manchester, Birmingham and other major network centres to the coast, it was an experience and Michael Hurll always guaranteed a line-up of stars which the public was deserving of from the latest chart acts, big name comedians and the brightest new talents as well.

But his knowing as a young producer would give him one of his longest relationship with a performer, when relatively unknown Cilla Black turned up late for the Billy Cotton Band Show by his own words he gave Cilla 'A bollocking..' for doing so. Though it could be said that shake-up would make her more professional and by the end of that decade she would have her own Saturday night variety show and with only one condition with it, she wanted Hurll to produce it having seen he had dealt her in the same way as he had with Bill Cotton Snr. if guests were out of order on that show. It was this way which made the show a success for both Black and also for Bill Cotton Jnr. as well. For eight years he brought Cilla into living rooms all over the country, though at the same time he was in charge of some of the BBC's biggest one off events too.

In 1972, he produced the Two Ronnies in Christmas Night with the Stars, but such a big event meant that he had to organise other comedic efforts from other shows, such was the broad depth of the programme he recognised that the Two Ronnies being the centrepiece, was a good base to build the programme around. His dealing with the two Rons, Barker and Corbett was a good one, it was Barker who taught him the nuances of comedy, the timing and the rhythm such where Hurll had a firm grip over other shows he realised that Barker would have a firm grip on the show he was performing in and as such Hurll went along with what Barker wanted. By doing this, it allowed Barker and Corbett to perform tightly and work like clockwork with each other. Though seemingly this was good training for the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest held in Brighton, which he was charged with producing, in lesser hands the contest could have flagged at any stage, but to be chosen amongst all his peers like Stewart Morris and Yvonne Littlewood was a great honour to be bestrode upon a person. Though now it those images of that contest are the most famous one, for not only launching ABBA onto the world stage but the style of the contest which had grown over the years to something bigger then ever before.

Later on during the 1980's, Hurll went freelance as a producer but coming back to produce the Late Late Breakfast Show. At that time from humble beginnings, the show was turned around into one of the BBC's best rating winners of the early 80's. With his tight leadership, allowed it to grow and grown making bigger stars of all who were involved in it. He had taken on ITV with Game For a Laugh and managed to spear it, much like Game For a Laugh had done to the Generation Game at the end. But Hurll did have links to Game For a Laugh, he had filmed a different version of it for the BBC at which time it was rejected and one of the presenters of the pilot by the name of 'Gotcha' took it away to redevelop it after Bill Cotton Jnr. said he didn't want anything as vulgar on his channel. That man from the pilot was Jeremy Beadle, later to become one of ITV's biggest stars. When Bill Cotton Jnr. got together some of his Light Entertainment department's bright brains to come up with something to rival Game For a Laugh, Hurll reminded that they did have 'Gotcha' and Cotton Jnr. had rejected it. 

Hurll set up his own production company, Michael Hurll Television later to merge with Unique Communications. But it was the setting up of the British Comedy Awards which was his legacy and by setting it up creating some of the most remembered moments from it including Julian Clary at the 1992 awards making a joke about the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont, plus when receiving his lifetime achievement award, Spike Milligan calling Prince Charles 'A grovelling little bastard..' Thus moments are made when live television is made, from that Hurll made sure that the event was to become one of the biggest watched of each and every year owing to the reactions of the comics and also jokes being told not only by them by also by Jonathan Ross as well.   

Even after his passing, Michael Hurll's legacy will live on through the programmes he produced, the ones he set up and also the performers he helped nurture as well. No doubts, he will be remembered for years to come by not only those in the television industry but those who watched one of his shows, neon and balloons or not... He nurtured a whole world of entertainment and put the words into other people's mouths... Well, in the case of Bono and Paul Weller that is... But just those few seconds will be remembered by the people who watched that 1984 Top of the Pops Christmas Special. But his like were special and may he be remembered a general amongst men.

Michael Hurll (7th October 1936 - 18th September 2012)

"I wanna tell you a story... about a man who started out as a carpenter and carved out a long and varied career.." Max Bygraves - A Tribute

So another light in the galaxy of stars has been extinguised, with the passing of Max Bygraves on Friday in Australia, saw another performer of the variety theatres and also at the early age of Independent Television exit the stage. Bygraves who had moved to Australia to live with his daughter had been diagnosed with Altzheimer's disease in later life. As earlier this year his family put out in the press appeals to send Max postcards from fans of his work and general fans as they would remind him of his career and what he done.  late October, he would have been 90 and for nearly fifty years Max performed on stage at the leading variety venues throughout the country, also on television with various series through out his career as well as guest spots on other shows.

Max himself has born Walter William Bygraves in Rotherhithe, London in 1922 to his father a professional flyweight boxer Battling Tom Smith and his mother as well. He grew up in a council flat with five siblings, his parents and a grandparent. Attending St Jospeph's School in Rotherhithe, his talent of singing was apparent when singing with his school choir in Westminster Catherdral. 

After leaving school at 14, Max went and become a pageboy at the Savoy hotel, but this didnt last long as he was thrown out for being too tall. So he went and became a messenger for a advertising agency in Fleet Street, surrounded by the national press, this seemingly seemed like a fitting place for Max to start his working career with the fame he was to achieve. With the outbreak of World War II, he became a fitter in the RAF and also working as a carpenter, but it was here where Max met WAAF Sergeant Gladys 'Blossom' Murray in 1942 and they got married in that year, having three children Christine, Anthony who followed his father into showbusiness and also Maxine as well.

It was around this time, that Max put his talents for singing to good use by becoming a performer touring around the variety theatres of the time, as he went he added more comedy into his act with nod to comedian Max Miller, where he had taken his name to use as a stage name. Going from town to town, his popularity grew and grew before with the advent of commercial television that the huge variety performers of the day, combined touring with appearing on television. Appearances on Sunday Night at the London Paladium and also Crackerjack cemented with popularity to no end, so much that he appeared on no less then twenty Royal Variety Performances added to any number of appearances on The Good Old Days and other variety shows. But he had grown to one of the top performers in the country when television came calling again for him to be the star of his own shows and specials.

In 2010, three of Max's entertainment specials made for Thames Television were released onto DVD after many years of being in the archives. The first of which shows the pulling power of a star of Max's quality including George Burns, Jim Backus and Judith Durham from Australia as well. Add in Geoff Love and his Orchestra plus The Mike Sammes Singers, this entertainment of huge quality as well. Max starts off the show with great song introducing the participants in that week's show one by one, before going into a comedy routine, it may seem out of place today but Max's style keeps the audience laughing along with asides and silly jokes as well. This also gives Max the chance to perform some schitck with Geoff Love usually referring to his speech impediment or skin colour, considering the time that it was made in which was a different one to today which is just part of his act. But Geoff always dukes it out with Max to hold his own, now this takes the form of any front of curtain comedy which Max would have been used to on the variety stage whilst scene hands changed the scenery behind the curtains. But it takes his comedy and gives a use to hold the programme together and make it more then just a man singing for an hour on stage.

His friendship with Judy Garland shows Max's appeal not only here but in America plus with quality of George Burns appearing on his specials shows made them special in themselves, allowing the vaudeville stars from Hollywood to come over to London and do their act sometimes for the first time on British Television. But this led to Max going to America going to to perform his act over there, but it was Britain was his bread and butter. Max's series of this style of this show lasted for just over a decade from 1969 to 1980 in many forms and with many titles. During this even supplimenting this with many album releases to tie-in with the television series and apart from them. One of the most, not strangest album one which is a lot different from Max's usual ones is Disco-a-longa Max, trying to capture the disco wave that was taking place during the late 1970's with him performing several of his standards but with a disco beat behind them. Well, I susposed if Reginald Bosanquet can just speak over a disco track, then sure Max can have a go himself as most people had tried themselves.

Come the early 1980's the specials and series had dried up, but Max continued to record albums and make guest spots on other shows, when in 1983 a opportunity came up which not many people were to see coming at all. When Bob Monkhouse left Central after launching Family Fortunes in 1980 to go to the BBC in 1983, there was a host shaped hole in the middle of Family Fortunes and with Jon Scoffield, the head of Entertainment at Central had to fill it. Now William G. Stewart who had done the early Family Fortunes had left the show but when Bob Monkhouse left he had first refusal to come back to produce the shows, so he did but with an idea of who to get to present. William G. Stewart later on went onto The Price is Right where he used another variety performer whose career was bubbling under and bring them back to where they should be with Leslie Crowther, but before that he used the trick first with taking Max Bygraves who after his Thames shows had finished wasn't doing much and put him forward to be the new host of Family Fortunes, where Crowther had worked well, this was not to work as well.

From the first programme, where Max seems to be in his element, slowly over time that with the requirement to be a more straighter host then a entertainer, he does seem to be out of his depth a little. As the game slows down, he doesn't remember prize cues and seeming going too slow and costing the family the big money prize at the end. Although not a great host, Max was give three series and over time he did get better, but he is remember as the host on the now infamous 'Turkey' episode with Bob Johnston in the Big Money game the answer 'Turkey' to each question. But even before then, with the strange and silly answers flowing about more freely then usually, its little wonder that Max could keep the show going along at his steady pace. Though remembered for all the other reason, this is where he reaches his zenith as having finally settled into the role at last, Max just lets the game flow knowing that how bad it can get it will still make for a good television and great laugh for the people at home watching. 

After three series, Central decided to give Family Fortunes a break before coming back with Les Dennis in 1987, but Max kept the show going along when it could have easily been cut from the schedules when Bob Monkhouse left and did a decent job of presenting. 

Even after leaving Family Fortunes, Max kept on appearing on other television programmes as a guest and sometimes even singing as well, but he was never to have another weekly show ever again, but the story doesn't end there though. He kept on recording right into his 70's and even in 1999, tried for the Christmas Number One spot with Milly the Millenium Bug, sadly it didn't get there or even chart but this was a throw-back to Max's older songs but it sounded fresh and new, even though he wasn't on television any more and living his life down in Bournemouth, it gave a reminder of why Max was so good at his peak and brought some fun once again.

Max was sadly not to make his 90th birthday later this year, but the memories of his days as variety performer, singer, television star and gameshow host remind us of why he was one of the great performers to held up there with Morecambe and Wise, Bruce Forsyth, Des O'Connor, Jimmy Tarbuck etc. He memories live on through records, CDs, DVDs and through old recordings as well, he wanted to tell us a story and he did do and one of the greatest ones told of one of the great performers. So thanks for the memories Max, your place has been assured that your name will always go in up lights...

(Max Bygraves 1922-2012)