Australian TV Plays: Interview with Sydney Newman (19 June 1990)

British history project see here.

Tape one - never went to high school! Worked with Stanley hawes and co. Worked at NBC. Read book by Rudy Bretz.

41 mins Tape one talks about Arthur Hailey, did his first five plays inc Flight into Danger.

Tape two talks about offer to take over Armchair Mystery Theatre. It was after he'd seen Look Back in Aner and loved it. Got two year contract. Admits to being left wing when did theatre in the 1930s though never joined the party "thank god".

Influenced by making documentaries in Canada at film board under Grierson... he was making propaganda films... need to do it to to make audience do something - "we'd joke there was no time for nuancne under Grierson" - crystallised in his mind "art that had to lead a residue of conscience thinking on part of the audiences to stir them into action the following days" (15 mins) - took this attitude when start working in drama, didn't want to do Ibsen or Shakespeare as fine as they were because they wouldn't touch his Canadian audiences, wanted Canadians to see things that affected them - got Canadians to write about the Canadian experience

That was the genesis of his philosophy at Armchair Theatre

16 mins arrived in England - watched dramas on TV thought they were lousy, slow, Noel Coward - appointed head of drama and he agreed provided he could still produce Armchair Theatre.

They had BBC drama on Sunday. Three or four single play drama slots. Newman felt they didn't know who audience was - mix up Ibsen with Jack Pulman and Terence Rattigan. All that stuff is confusing can't build audience loyalty. He wanted cameras to move, big close ups, quick editing. see people's eyes. "The next day every fucking newspaper said this guy's going to revolutionise television".

Had Ted Kotcheff, Phil Saville, John Burtman. He told them no more dramatisations of stage plays wantde to do do originals, had to be contemporary. Scripts came in and weren't good. But said do it anyway... writers have to see how bad they are on screen. Critics kicked the shit out of me, he says. Ran out of plays. Had to take scripts from America and rewrite them. After 4-5 months ratings began to build.

Ratings went up. Then discovered Alun Owen (was recommended, saw theatre). Wrote No Trams to Lime Street which was a big success. There was a lot of push back at the time about the accents. Then Harold Pinter. They had a good timeslot after a show at the Palladium. Often number two in the ratings. Top ten 37 out of 41 dramas of the year. He said knew his audience - avoided things that smacked of culture. He rejected many good plays bc he felt didn't relate to audience. Tells a story about Grierson.

Tape 3 - talks about offer from BBC to be head of drama. ITV wouldn't let him go - BBC agreed to wait 18 months. Disliked Michael Barry's organisation. Everyone had to deal with him Rutherford did administration,Elyn Jones helped, but Barry responsible for it all. Barry had 250-270 dramas a year. Got more money bc of BBC2 and split dept into three, serials, series and plays. Got rid of script dept run by Donald Wilson. They would buy scripts and directors didn't like them and scripts wouldn't be taken. "All plays had to reflect the reality of Britain today. He says it was the single play that was close to his heart. Says Carol White nothing but a "titty starlet" when cast in Cathy Comes Home.

Tape 4 - talks about BBC plays inc musical His Polyvinyl Girl (by Carl Davis) and Dr Who. Talks about making mini series based on classic books. They restricted it to books written after 1900. Had rule no serial last longer than 4-6 episodes in case they weren't good (in which case would last too long). Forsyte Saga broke two rules but Newman liked it. Was pushed by Donald Wilson. Left BBC for three year contract with Assoc British. Talks about when hired at BBC the head guy (16 mins in) HUgh Greene said all the writers on ABC started on BBC radio "and we want them back". Says joined Assoc British under Clarke, was there a year, about to start a film based on story by Peter Luke starring Michael Caine. Then EMI bought up studio. Delfont appointed Bryan Forbes over Newman. Said Newman would make movies for television then changed his mind and was told to settle up contract. Went back to Canada.

Tape 5 - Says single play is dead. Need to build audience loyalty with a regular timeslot. Need to do it continuous shooting with multi camera. Talks about Dr Who and the Avengers.

Newman philosophy quoted here

    One must know who the audience is and, when dealing in millions, this is no easy thing. A tiny part of this mass audience who know something of the theatre, who have some knowledge of art, literature and history, would not be hard to please. When in doubt, give them Ibsen.

    “From the director’s point of view, Ibsen is a piece of cake. He has seen his plays performed many times before. And of course, so have the critics. But this is academic because, in fact, I have to win and hold a vast audience from every walk of life and that is a far greater and more exciting challenge. To win approval without pandering to ‘idiot’ level is achievement enough for any man, particularly because the majority of this audience (12 million average) would never go to the theatre even if it were gratis with free beer in the intervals.

    “This vast audience may not have time to wait for Godot (no offence to Beckett), but those who would call them unintelligent on this count would be making a mistake. In fact, intelligence may have little to do with the enjoyment of a play. To satisfy the television audience may be a lot harder than to amuse pleasure-seeking and uncritical goers to a West End play. The theatre and cinema public, having made the effort to be parted with their money, become part of a captive audience. But the great TV audience is held by nothing but its own likes and dislikes. By the twist of a knob they can remove themselves from the ‘theatre’ without the embarrassment of a stumble over feet and a whispered “Excuse me!”

    “In one of our recent plays, owing to a flubby opening, 2,700,000 people from Land’s End to John O’Groats, gave us ‘the bird’ by flicking off within the first seven minutes. No captive audience this!”

    - Sydney Newman writing in “The Armchair Theatre” 1959.

Birmingham Weekly 1 Aug 1958

Birmingham Pst 17 Nov 1958

The Guardian 22 Jan 1960

North Bya Nugge 17 March 1960

The Observer 22 April 1962

North Bay Nuggett 15 Jan 1963

Sun Times 3 March 1964

Montreal Star 26 Sept 1964

Montreal Star 5 Nov 1966

Montreal Star 23 Sept 1967

The Age 19 Feb 1959