TV Century 21

I first met Gerry Anderson before he was universally well known, and gained his international reputation for those brilliant puppet series, which he directed with such style and flair. On meeting him, one was soon aware of his natural ability as a Director, in spite of his quiet and very modest manner. At one time we worked very closely together on three unusual commercials for Blue Cars Travel, which he directed at his studios, A.P. Films, in Slough, and which became very successful both commercially and artistically. In fact, one of these commercials won the Grand prix Award at the first British Television Awards in 1961, which were then organised by "Television Mail".

How we came to be associated working on these commercials, and producing them together, as well as another film for Blue Cars Travel, is one of those unusual and chance situations that seem to arise in our profession, and which contribute so much to the glamour of the world of entertainment. Gerry had made a puppet series for Independent Television called "Twizzle" in which my wife, whose professional name is Denise Bryer, had supplied a number of the voices. He had managed to sell a new and unusual puppet series to Granada Television called Four Feather Falls It was a western, and starred Two Gun Tex of Texas. It was a most delightful and inventive story, which had a modest success on ITV, but I still think was one of the best things that Gerry has ever done. It had all the ingredients that a successful children story should contain - a dashing hero, with magic guns, a horse that could talk in certain situations, as well as a highly intelligent dog whose bark could be understood by the horse and Tex. There was a small boy called Jake, a loveable old man, and other attractive characters, as well as the usual 'baddies'. Not to mention the signature tune, which was sung by the late Michael Holliday and became very popular.

Gerry, with his wife Sylvia, who was working on the series, came to our small cottage in Hampstead to discuss with Denise certain voices they wanted her to do in the series, and they brought a tape recorder to do some test runs. They needed someone to read the part of Tex, since he appeared in all the scenes on which they were experimenting voice-wise. I offered to help, and read the part in the voice that I thought suited the character. At the time I was known as a character actor and had not yet been typecast into the role of a straight man, which occured, with Arthur Haynes, and long before the arrival of "Sale of the Century", which typecast me in a very different mould.

At the end of the session experimenting with the different voices that Denise might use for the other characters, Gerry said, "I think we've found the person to play Tex. I like that voice, it seems just right for the character." I had most unexpectedly, and without looking for it, landed myself with a delightful and interesting job. The recordings of the series, with Kenneth Connor, David Graham, and Denise supplying the voices, were most enjoyable and I also got to know Gerry well and became a great admirer of his talent.

While the series was on the air, Gerry had been told that a further series was not required, and he began work with his team on a new idea which later became Supercar. It was an expensive Project, since they were making the models before the idea had been sold to television. He told me later they were on the point of closing down the studios, and that any offer that came along was of tremendous value, whatever the budget, just to keep them ticking over.

The previous year I had written and appeared in some unusual commercials for Blue Cars Travel, and as a result the Managing Director of that Company, Ken Fox, invited me to write and produce, for my own Company, three commercials and an advertising magazine for them the following year. I presented him with two or three different ideas for the commercials, and he chose the one I liked the best, which was not only unusual but, for its time, extremely experimental. The commercials were not only unusual, but also funny, and Ken Fox was one of those clients who not only backed his judgement, but was not afraid to try something different. The only problem was that the ideas for the commercials and magazine were expensive to produce, and there was a strict limit to the budget that Blue Cars could provide. I had only recently started my own production company, and wanted to gamble on these ideas, so was prepared to put in some of my own money. I approached Gerry, and told him the situation quite frankly, and explained the dilemma with regard to budget. I was fortunate that Gerry not only liked the idea, and was fascinated to try something so different, but also he was anxious for any income that would keep the studios from being closed. We agreed to halve the modest budget from Blue Cars, and take our respective production costs out of the money which was available. This budget was 38OO pounds sterling, which meant a lot more in 1960, but it was still 'peanuts' for the scale of production that was necessary to make the three commercials, advertising magazine film, and travel film.

The making of the commercials, and the subsequent success they enjoyed, is one of those 'Showbiz' stories that people inside the profession as well as outside seem to enjoy hearing, and the situation that the success gave rise to could only happen in the entertainment industry. The commercials ran one minute each, and for two of them I devised a dramatic scene for two characters that looked and sounded like part French and German. The dialogue 'as an unintelligible gibberish' of a language, which sounded authentic, and was based on a technique that I had evolved in cabaret where I took off various foreign films in a similar way. On this occasion my wife, Denise, making one of her rare appearances before the camera, played the part of the other character in each commercial. Her ability as a voice expert meant she could master the technique of speaking in a foreign language convincingly in gibberish, which was fortunate for me since I could not have afforded to employ an actress outside the family! As in a foreign film, there were sub-titles which were an apparent translation of the dialogue. The scene depicted in each commercial was very dramatic, and the pay-off to the situation was about "those incredible Blue Cars holidays".

The third commercial in the trilogy was even more off-beat, and in a way was a parody of the convention of the other two. A writer friend of mine, David Ellis, and I had set the commercial on Mars, and two Martians were looking through an incredible telescope, and were fascinated by a tremendous interest and activity on earth. The two Martian characters were chatting away in a Martian language, discussing uhat they were seeing through the telescope, and discovering that the interest was all to do with blue Cars' holidays. The Martian gibberish was again interpreted with sub-titles, following the convention of the other two commercials. When it came to the making of this commercial Gerry Anderson and his team had been most inventive with the Martian clothes and headgear, to try and turn two earth humans into creatures from another planet.

When we came to make this commercial, however, which was filmed in one day, after the other two had been completed, we began to experience difficulties. The other two had gone quite smoothly, and Gerry was confident he could edit them into an effective shape. We suddenly became inhibited by the format of this Martian commercial, and I began to think that we had been too clever, and was convinced that it was not working. Gerry was beginning to have the same feeling, but then showed his astuteness as a creative director and said, "Before we all become overwhelmed by this, let us go back to first principles. When Nicholas first dreamed up this idea and he discussed it, we all thought it was funny and original. Let us get that feeling and confidence back and go from there." I remember the moment very well, and I replied, "Gerry, you're right. Let us do another take and we will throw ourselves into the scene, believing this is the funniest thing we've ever done." The cameras rolled, and Denise and I went into the scene talking in our idea of what the Martian language might be, with all the animation and excitement we could muster, until Gerry said, "Cut!" Then, moving over to us, he said, "That's it. We've got it. It works."

The three commercials were then edited, timed and dubbed. The carefully composed sub-titles were added. The client viewed them and liked them immensely, and they were ready for delivery to Associated Rediffusion, who were transmitting them. My favourite of the three was always the French one, and I felt that the Mars one was not perhaps quite as effective as the other two. I think perhaps the client agreed with me, but I remember Gerry saying, "We must not under-rate the originality of the Martian one." The commercials were transmitted over the Christmas period and during January, which is the peak time for travel firms to promote their products and services. From the reactions, comments and criticisms in the trade press, as well as the public response in the form of holiday bookings at Blue Cars, it seemed that the commercials were effective and achieving their purpose. The public certainly found them entertaining, and their attention was held by something which was different in those early days of Television Advertising.

About this time "Television Mail" announced that they were going to present the first British Television Commercials Awards in the Spring of 1961 at London's Hyde Park Hotel. Since the commercials had made some impact, I had been asked to write an article for "Television Mail" about the making of them, and this made me think that it might be worthwhile entering them in these Awards. I did not think we had much chance of winning anything, but hoped we might get a mention in one of the categories, which could be helpful to a young production company which had just started to make its way. As the date of the announcement and presentation of the Awards approached, one of the Directors of "Television Mail" telephoned me to ask if I was going to the banquet. I told him I had not thought about it - actually I was trying to economise after the heavy expenditure in which the company had just been involved. He suggested that it might be a good idea if I did attend, and also added that it might be nice if Gerry Anderson could be present as well. He obviously could not tell us what he already knew, but I had the impression that he was hinting that it might be in our interest if we were there.

The banquet was enjoyable, and there was that slightly over- animated atmosphere which seems to exist on these occasions when Awards are going to be announced, and a large number of people connected with the entertainment industry, most of whom know each other, are gathered together. The presentation of the awards was very well handled, with the chairman of the judging committee announcing the first three in each category, and an award given to the advertising agency and production company responsible for each winning commercial. We were already in a slightly embarassing situation, since there was no Advertising Agency involved in the making of the Blue Cars commercials. It was a direct contract between client and production company, which is perfectly all right, but not popular in the industry, since advertising agencies quite naturally like their clients to think that it is their experience and knowledge which is going to produce a winning commercial for them.

You can imagine, therefore, that an individual who has had the presumption to step into their world and make not one, but three, commercials through direct contract, on a shoe-string budget, without any previous experience in that field of creative activity, is not exactly setting out to win friends and influence people ! In fact, in retrospect, it was probably rather tactless to have entered the commercials in the first place. In spite of this, the applause was very generous when it was announced that the French commercial had been placed third, and the Martian commercial was the winner in the Consumer Services category. Gerry and I went up together to receive the plaque as joint producers, excited and surprised by our success, and thinking that was the end of our triumph for the evening.

After all the category winners had been announced, the chairman of judges made a brief speech to introduce the Grand Prix Awards, beginning with number ten, and working up to number one, the Grand Prix winner. As each top commercial was shown on the film screen in a continuous run, one mentally eliminated those that had made an impression and already won Awards, wondering what was left to take third place, then second and, finally, a pause while the chairman of the judges made the most of the occasion in announcing the overall winner. The moment is indelibly printed on memory as I was still thinking what other winning commercial I had already seen that would be taking this prize. It seemed unbelievable, like a dream. The unexpectedness of the result surprised us so much that Sylvia Anderson gave an audible gasp, Gerry Anderson's jaw dropped visibly, I stared ahead thinking there must be a mistake, our client Ken Fox started to clap and my wife actually slipped off her chair on to the floor!

When the commercial finished, instead of the usual tumultuous reception that is accorded to winners, the applause was subdued and Gerry and I remained glued to our seats. The Chairman had to invite us to come and receive the plaques. We rose sheepishly, and went to receive the Grand Prix Award. Talent did not come into it; we had done the unforgiveable and had taken the major prize. How tactless! How unfortunate - for us ! They say winning Awards is the 'kiss of death'. This certainly turned out to be true for Gerry Anderson and myself. Flushed with the success we had gained from these Blue Cars commercials, we both hoped that other work in this field would follow. I spent a fair amount of time and money endeavouring to build on what I had gained. Nothing happened. Tbe company did not receive a single enquiry or request of any kind, and even Blue Cars decided to trade on the success they had gained, and cancelled their plans for new commercials in 1962. Such is the irony and the unpredictability of the entertainment profession. Nothing in Showbusiness is ever lost or in vain. I pursued my interests in making industrial films, which turned out to be quite profitable, and later moved on to documentaries and some entertainment shorts for the cinema - which are not so profitable!

Gerry Anderson's company survived and Supercar was sold to ATV shortly after this time, and we all know the success that series achieved - and his subsequent success. It was great to be associated with Gerry professionally for a short time, and a pleasure to have the opportunity to write this article in praise of his work and talent.