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)
