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David Attwood

‘Keep Smiling’, photo by James French

From Heather Storr, Diana Coxon and Jenny Brewer

It is with great sadness that we pass on the news of the death of David Attwood. David had not been well for the last few years and he died on 21st March 2024. Many of you will remember him from his days in English Regions Drama at Pebble Mill.

Here are some memories from both Heather and Diana. This list of shows that David worked on is not exhaustive but is truly representative of his skills and expertise as a Director.

David joined the Drama Department as an AFM in 1976. He came down from BBC Scotland where he had worked with Alastair Reid. Heather worked with him on OUR FLESH AND BLOOD in 1976 and the next year they both worked on the GANGSTERS series.

A few years later he became a Production Assistant and then Production Manager and worked on OUT OF TOWN BOYS (1978) and KEEP SMILING (1979) before THE BLACK STUFF (1980) and THE MUSCLE MARKET (1981). Then the series BOYS FROM THE BLACK STUFF (1982) and we think DEAD HEAD (1986) as well.

In 1984 he undertook the BBC Directors course and started what was to be his main career as a Drama Director at Pebble Mill. His shows included ALL TOGETHER NOW (1986), a comedy set around a brass band; AIRBASE (1988) which aroused controversy for its unflattering portrayal of life on an American airbase in Britain; and by the time he became freelance KILLING TIME (1990) a dark tale of a killer who befriends a teenager and murders him.

Heather worked with him on the following films between 1992 and 2007.

WILD WEST (1992), SHOT THROUGH THE HEART (1998), SUMMER IN THE SUBURBS (2000), FIDEL (2002), STUART A LIFE BACKWARDS (2007)

His other films/dramas during this time are:

THE FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES OF MOLL FLANDERS (1996) THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (2002) MAY 33RD (2004) TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH (2005) BLOOD AND OIL (2010)

HIs nominations and awards include :

TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH

BAFTA Awards / 2006 Nominee / Best Drama Serial

Biarritz International Festival of Audiovisual Programming / 2006 Nominee / TV Series and Serials

SHOT THROUGH THE HEART

San Francisco International Film Festival / 1999 Winner / Television Drama Feature

BLOOD AND OIL

Geneva International Fim Festival / 2009 Winner / Drama Series

‘The Unborn’ – Michael Custance

Here are some memories from director Michael Custance from 1980:
“‘The Unborn’
A play for BBC2 ‘Playhouse’ series. My first one-off play for TV! A psycho’ thriller. Earlier I had made ‘Empire Road’ for the same producer, Peter Ansorge.
With only two days in the studio it was tough to get all the special effects done in time.
There was one happy, or not so happy fluke.
The pregnant mother played by Mary Larkin, opens a parcel she received and discovers a human heart, beating and alive. Terrified she throws it across the room only for it land stuck up the lens hood of the camera. The brilliant cameraman held it in focus all the way ending with a giant full screen image of a bleeding beating heart which shocked the studio into a horrified silence. It was almost too horrifying for an audience but Peter, the producer, said to keep it in the show.”

Artist’s Impressions of BBC Pebble Mill

Thanks to Richard Grantham for sharing these artist’s impressions of BBC Pebble Mill. They belonged to his late father, John Grantham. I’m told that John was in charge of the move to BBC Pebble Mill in 1971, from the other BBC buildings around Birmingham (Broad Street, Gosta Green, Carpenter Road).

Angels – Michael Custance

A typical soap with a hard edge.  Produced by Julia Smith with story editor Tony Holland and who was story editor on the series ‘Couples’ that I made for Thames TV.  Earlier still  he was the writer when I directed ‘Magpie’. We got on very well so perhaps it was through Tony they called me.

‘Angels’ tackled issues such as contraception, alcoholism and promiscuity as part of the nurse’s lives.  ‘Angels’received criticism for its unglamorous depiction of the nursing profession. Indeed with its sometimes hard-hitting portrayal of young nurses facing up to the demands of the profession ‘Angels’ was grittily authentic.

To this end each actress taking a part was required to work on a real hospital ward to gain experience and thus contribute to the realism of the series.  Great to work on.  Many giggles, just like real nurses.

We had a week’s filming in Glasgow. A completely different world to London. On a pedestrian bridge over river Clyde we were filming two actors talking and walking towards camera when the cameraman suddenly doubled up laughing.  In the background between the two actors a large lady marched towards camera, stopped, saluted and lifted her sweater to flash two huge breasts.  The policeman with us said “Oh Alice dear, could you go and do it somewhere else the boys are trying make a film. OK?  She does that everywhere. What can we do?  Poor love is a bit bonkers and arresting her would solve nothing and she does no harm anyway.”

When we finished he smiled  “You look cold boys. I wee whisky would do you all good.” Indeed it had started snowing but as it was Sunday the Glasgow pubs were shut. “Follow me lads”.  We walked to the nearest pub and indeed it was shut. He just slid the iron grill gate back and opened the door.. “Come on lads”.  The place was packed full and heaving.   “Right, the first one is on me lads”.

At the end of another day we were taking a taxi back to our hotel.  The next day was a day off for the unit and we were debating what to do in Glasgow for the day when the taxi driver turned and said “Do you want to come salmon fishing with me?  I could collect you at say 09.30.  I go once week anyway so no charge.”   Off we went salmon fishing for the day in a beautiful little valley with rocks and a big stream. I caught nothing but the others did.  Fond memories of Glasgow.

 Michael Custance

 

Empire Road – Director Michael Custance

 My first BBC job.  This series was commissioned by BBC Birmingham drama dept. which was renowned for being more daring and experimental than BBC London. ‘Empire Road’ was no exception and Peter Ansorge the producer was one their most daring producers.

There is a long straight road running up through immigrant area North Birmingham called Bristol Road. All the shops were owned by Asians and all the manual jobs, digging up the roads and council works were done by West Indians. Between the two cultures there was a lot of racist tension.

Written by Michael Abbensetts it was a political series aimed dead centre at the racist problem with the leading family being West Indian and their daughter marrying an Asian.  Michael wrote the series using comedy to attack the racism and by using comedy he could get away with going further into the problem than a straight drama could have done.

Filming on the streets was a bit dangerous but thankfully nothing happened. Norman Beaton the top black actor in the country played the lead role and most of the others were first timers.   Rehearsals with a cast where half were culturally completely different from the other half was lively to say the least.

The series had a huge impact in the national press particularly when the Imans of the local mosque tried to get the series banned because of the mixed marriage.   The producer Peter Ansorge told them to go to the Birmingham marriage registry and see for themselves that there were hundreds of mixed Islam marriages in the district.  They still would not have it and went to their member of parliament and of course got no further with a politician.

The series was hysterically funny and mixed with West Indian music, jam sessions, street dances, singers.  I will never forget the actress that launched into ‘Sitt’n On The Dock of The Bay’ in the middle of a scene completely unscripted and on the spur of the moment yet quite brilliant.  In the studio when shooting a party scene with a reggae band you could have cut the haze of marijuana with a knife. I think we all got a bit high. Illegally, we locked the studio doors to stop anyone complaining in the middle of the shoot.

Getting the mixed race cast to turn up rehearsals at the same time was a battle we never won, despite having two lists of call times, the West Indian list was 15 minutes earlier than the Asian list to try and get them all together at the same time.  A young actor turned up 45 minutes late and I let rip, “Why on earth can you never be on time”.  “I’m never on time man but I am in time”.  Of course he was ‘in time’, because I can not start without him.

In the midst of a studio shoot my gallery was suddenly filled with police coming to arrest  Norman Beaton, the star.  Peter, the producer managed to talk them into waiting till we had finished shooting that day. They sat down and watched the shooting for two hours. Made their day.  Norman was playing Father Christmas and the minute we finished the last shot he was marched away still in his Father Christmas costume.

We needed a really grotty small cafe and found one at the end of Bristol Road yet when we arrived to film a few days later it was totally redecorated and spotless.  The owners wanted their cafe looking “Nice for your film”.  Embarrassing.  We could not say to them we wanted it grotty.  Had to leave and find another in a hurry.