Association of Directors and Producers – Michael Custance

A.D.P: Association of Directors and Producers

From when ‘Jimmie’ Cellan Jones was directing ‘Jennie, Lady Randolf Churchill’ and told me he was part of a group of directors fighting the managements to get paid for repeats and foreign sales, known as director’s residual payments, matters had progressed and A.D.P., The Association of Directors and Producers had been formed. I joined, was co-opted onto the board of ADP management and created a monthly ADP newsletter. I stayed on the board and edited the newsletter until I started to make ‘Spyship’ three years later. With its 46 location all over the UK and the North Sea and the Arctic and over a year of production there was not time to do both so I resigned from the board and editorship.

ADP had gone from strength to strength and had won the battle. Since then all directors and producers receive a percentage of their fee for all repeats and sales worldwide. ADP was was also very influential in forcing the govt. to design the future new Channel 4 TV not to make programmes but to commission programmes from Independent Producers. This changed the face of UK TV by allowing producers to create their own programmes and sell them to the TV channel. Now that method applies in whole or part to every UK TV channel.

Whilst setting up ‘The Unborn’ there was a daring homosexual play being shot in the studio called ‘Solid Geometry’ by Ian McEwan. It was creating furious complaints from the costume and make-up depts. So much so that the technical head of the studios pulled all of his staff out of the studio and paralysed the shoot. The problem, there was a pickled erect penis in a jar on the mantelpiece in the set. The producer and director came to me asking for help from the ADP. I said I would call the president immediately but was not sure if ADP could help as it was in place to fight for working conditions and not bottled penises which is a censorship or public decency issue. This proved to be the case. I think the shooting went ahead minus one glass jar.

[N.B. the shoot of ‘Solid Geometry’ was actually halted, and the production cancelle].

Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration

IMG_1374 IMG_1378 IMG_1379

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are some grabs from Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration, a Second City First transmitted in April 1976. It is a very strange and disturbing play by Ian McEwan, about the oppressive relationships that both Jack Flea’s mother and partner, have with him. It was shown in April 2016 at the mac, as part of the Flatpack Film Festival.

Here is the entry from the Radio Times, courtesy of the BBC Genome project, http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/689430d99ef64c58a1b6c3c947b854fc 

“A series of new plays from Birmingham
Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration by IAN MCEWAN
Jack Flea finds himself living with a woman nearly twice his age, who decides to make him her fantasy child. It is a role our young hero cannot resist.
Script editor PEDR JAMES
Designer MALCOLM GOULDING. Producer TARA PREM. Director MIKE NEWELL

Cast:

Ruth: Sara Kestelman, David: David Wilkinson, Mrs Lee: Eileen McCallum, Mr Lee: Ivor Roberts”

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Flatpack Film Festival – Second City Firsts

A Touch of Eastern Promise

A Touch of Eastern Promise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Flatpack Film Festival are going to be screening six 30 minute dramas made at Pebble Mill by the English Regions Drama Department, in April 2016 at the Midlands Arts Centre, Edgbaston:

“SECOND CITY FIRSTS

During the 1970s, a key strength of the drama department at BBC Pebble Mill was its ability to unearth new talent; not just through flagships like Play For Today, but also the entry-point offered by the likes of Second City Firsts. Running from 1973 for ten series, this half-hour slot took a chance on a spectacular range of ‘regional talent’ including Willy Russell, Julie Walters, David Rudkin, Brian Glover and many others. Just as importantly, it offered a diversity of representation that often compares favourably with today’s TV drama.

 

Volume One:

A Touch of Eastern Promise; Girl; Early to Bed

A Touch of Eastern Promise (1973), is not officially a Second City First, though it emerged from a very similar slot. Written by Tara Prem, it’s the tale of a daydreaming shop-boy who has the opportunity to meet his favourite star. Partly shot in Balsall Heath, all the cinema scenes were captured at the now-demolished Imperial on Moseley Road. To follow, an Alison Steadman double-bill: studio-shot military drama Girl (1974), which features the first lesbian kiss seen on British TV; and then Early to Bed (1975), with Steadman smouldering on location in a depressed mill town. This claustrophobic tale of infidelity was the first television script by Alan Bleasdale, who later went on to Boys From the Blackstuff and GBH.

 

Volume Two:

The Permissive Society; Club Havana; Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration

It was at the Midlands Arts Centre where Mike Leigh first embarked on his unique approach to devising scripts, and Pebble Mill which commissioned much of his early TV work. Made a year before camping comedy Nuts in May, The Permissive Society (1975) is an overlooked gem. Also confined to a single set, Club Havana (1975) is a tense portrait of a Handsworth speakeasy by playwright Barry Reckord, featuring Don Warrington as the landlady’s son newly arrived from Jamaica and an incredibly young Julie Walters as the barmaid. We conclude with Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration (1976), a psychosexual nightmare from the pen of Ian McEwan which is very much in keeping with his short stories of the time.”

 

 

Early to Bed + Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration

The BFI are screening two Pebble Mill Second City Firsts, Early to Bed and  Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration as part of a series of forgotten dramas. The screening is to be held on Tuesday 3rd February, at 6.10pm at the BFI Southbank, NFT3. You can book tickets online: https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=CBAD85AB-44CD-4D30-ACE5-F25672CFAB42&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=4159993E-A281-42E4-A299-3431E39987B4

Early to Bed. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

Early to Bed. Copyright resides with the original holder, no reproduction without permission

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early to Bed was Alan Bleasdale’s first television play. It was directed by Leslie Blair, and starred David Warwick, Alison Steadman, Johnny Meadows and Patricia Leach. The 1975, ‘Second City First’ is set in a Lancashire mining village, it tells the story of an eighteen year old, played by David Warwick, who has an affair with his married, next door neighbour – Alison Steadman. Bleasdale thought that Blair’s direction turned an average script into a very watchable play.
Jack Flea's Birthday Celebration
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the link to the synopsis of Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration from the BBC Genome project: http://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/689430d99ef64c58a1b6c3c947b854fc

Synopsis

Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration by IAN MCEWAN
Jack Flea finds himself living with a woman nearly twice his age, who decides to make him her fantasy child. It is a role our young hero cannot resist.
Script editor PEDR JAMES
Designer MALCOLM GOULDING Producer TARA PREM Director MIKE NEWELL

Contributors

Editor: Pedr James
Designer: Malcolm Goulding
Director: Mike Newell
Ruth: Sara Kestelman
David: David Wilkinson
Mrs Lee: Eileen McCallum
Mr Lee: Ivor Roberts