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Post by Michael on Jul 27, 2005 22:16:08 GMT
I'm sure I'm right in saying that one of the Dee Time shows was repeated in the BBC2 One Day in the Sixties strand in the 1990's.
The ep was the one with Lionel Jeffries;was'nt this shown on TV on Trial recently?
The clip from the Robert Morley interview was used in the BBC comp 50 Years of Televison Entertainment in 1986,and has been seen on a number of other occasions.
You don't think Simon Dee's got a few stuffed in his loft?
Mind you,something like this could pop up on ebay.
There would have undoubtably have been guests from the US on the show at various times-would any of the t/rs have been sent to the US networks as they might have been keen to show their celebs being interviewed?
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Post by dubs again on Jul 28, 2005 1:07:21 GMT
I doubt theres much more to be discovered, even up Simon Dee's loft. (or wherever).
Victor Lewis-Smith did do a recent revival with Dee a few years back, what I find mind-boggling is the selection of clips kept.
Obviously these were TR'd for a reason at the time from a live show - but one fails to grasp WHY?
Was Lord Annan on his last legs at the time?
Was Peter Sarstedt held in such high regard at the time that the BBC HAD to retain his interview?
As usual its all quite baffling, I suspect many more interviews and episodes were TR'd at the time for whatever reason, then thought redundant in the prevailing cultural climate of the time of their destruction and sent off for motorway foundations/landfills.
I'd be interested in seeing the WHW clip though - probably just him playing his usual screen persona as usual.
I suspect the remants are all that are left after the 1978 acquisition of the Enterprises collection, alas far too late, it would have been a priceless archive of "Swinging London" at the time.
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Post by Laurence Piper on Jul 28, 2005 15:56:34 GMT
It totally baffles me why certain episodes / segments of lots of shows survive when others don't (and why SOME were even recorded in the first place, although i'm glad they were!) Seems to me that other material was cherry picked and taken away in the distant past. What we have surviving now is the bottom of the barrel (this refers to a lot of shows though and not Dee Time specifically).
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Post by Jon Kyme on Jul 28, 2005 21:19:49 GMT
Laurence, do you think that the selection was made deliberately to annoy you in person?
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Post by Shaun B on Jul 29, 2005 9:07:21 GMT
As far as I can make out, the odd clips were kept for some end-of-year type comilation- I'm sure Andrew Martin would be able to confirm this?
Shaun B.
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Post by Laurence Piper on Jul 29, 2005 15:21:37 GMT
Laurence, do you think that the selection was made deliberately to annoy you in person? Well, obviously, yes! |
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Post by Jon Kyme on Jul 29, 2005 19:17:28 GMT
I can't see the logic in keeping much from 'Dee Time'. He was about as effective at interviewing as Mike Reid in Runaround. These shows were possibly live anyway.
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Post by Simon Mclean on Jul 29, 2005 22:02:31 GMT
As Simon Dee has at certain low points in his life been homeless or in prison, the chances of him still having any Dee Times in his loft are pretty minimal - as are the chances of him still having the loft........ It's a real shame so much Dee Time's been lost, as it seems anyone who was anyone in the late 60s appeared on it - it'd be a really valuable snapshot of the era. If only producer Terry Heneberry had been as scrupulous at preserving it as he was his Jazz 625s! Whatever happened to Graham Leask and his snakes anyway?  |
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Post by Jon Kyme on Jul 30, 2005 0:14:18 GMT
Dee's house was burgled some time ago and I think cleared of just about all his posessions. The valuable sociological value argument is valid, but why are we not all clamouring for comparable (and surviving) interviews on (for example) 80s Wogan. Back to the old, 'it is missing, so it must have been good' argument. Judging by the surviving material, 'Dee Time' wouldn't make it on to DVD.
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Post by lfbarfe on Aug 19, 2005 0:09:19 GMT
As Simon Dee has at certain low points in his life been homeless or in prison, the chances of him still having any Dee Times in his loft are pretty minimal - as are the chances of him still having the loft........ I can say with reasonable confidence that Simon Dee doesn't have any old footage. He didn't know that BBC4 had shown the 2/11/1968 show until I told him, and when I offered him a copy of it and the clips I have, he replied "Thanks, but I don't need a reminder. I was there". Not really fair to pin the blame on Terry Henebery, Simon. The reason so much of Jazz 625 survives is because most of it was recorded on (and transmitted from) 35mm film rather than VT. It was a simple matter of available resources - VT machines were in heavy demand. Terry's subsequent series, such as Jazz Goes to College, Jazz at the Maltings and Jazz Scene, were all VT, and almost nothing of them survives (thankfully, one of the shows that does is the Tubby Hayes big band's outing on Jazz Goes to College). More detail can be found at: www.transdiffusion.org/emc/screens/jazz625/index.htmAlso, Terry only produced Dee Time for its first year - he had a very nasty car accident in Montreux, and was out of action for the summer of 1968, and by the time he had recovered he was planning Jazz at the Maltings. So Colin Charman took over for a few months, then Roger Ordish. All of the surviving clips - save for WHW - seem to come from RO's time as producer. Indeed the 3/5/69 show, which seems to survive in something like its entirety was Roger's last show (Richard Drewett took over the following week and was in charge to the end of the run). Various directors worked on the show throughout the 2 and a half years, including Sydney Lotterby and Jim Moir. Roger Ordish was the only producer who directed the show himself - because, he told me, he was too junior as a producer to have an experienced director working for him. That's BBC logic for you. He also told me the full story behind the clip of Sammy Davis Jr singing This Guy's in Love with You, which I shall save for my next book... I was wondering the same myself. |
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Post by baz on Aug 19, 2005 13:02:50 GMT
As we all know, Simon Dee was a big name in the late 60s. He then went to LWT but the plug was soon pulled. Why was this and why the sudden complete fall from grace? I know he was a hopeless interviewer but the man must have been popular. What happened? What went wrong?
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Post by Fluff Not Alf on Aug 19, 2005 13:32:56 GMT
As we all know, Simon Dee was a big name in the late 60s. He then went to LWT but the plug was soon pulled. Why was this and why the sudden complete fall from grace? I know he was a hopeless interviewer but the man must have been popular. What happened? What went wrong? It's a long story, covered quite well in Victor Lewis Smith's recent documentary. But I have to question your assertion that he was "a hopeless interviewer". On what do you base that? My memory of his BBC shows is that they were entertaining and ahead of their time, being a template for most chat shows we've had since. Indeed, "Tonight With Jonathan Ross" is almost a clone in terms of the interviewer/interviewee dynamic. |
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Post by baz on Aug 19, 2005 13:48:42 GMT
My opinion of Dees' "hopeless" interviewing has been formed from the few things I've read about him and the few clips I've seen. The infamous Robert Morley clip is teeth grindingly embarassing! I'm sure his shows were rather entertaining and Im sad we cannot see anymore than what there is. Sorry for any offence or misrepresentation of the mans talent since anyhow since sadly I was born in 1972!
Incidentally a couple of extra points to add. The Peter Sarstedt interview - I have read that in addition to having his own BBC show in late 1969, the BBC did make a documentary on him, so that might explain why his Dee Time interview was recorded.
Also in the "History Of The Chat Show" mini series a few years back, there was a clip of Dee interviewing a rather ill Jack Hawkins who couldn't speak properly by then. It was actually rather touching. I haven't seen this mentioned in this thread and presume this is another solitary interview in the BBC archive.
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Post by lfbarfe on Aug 19, 2005 15:01:16 GMT
My opinion of Dees' "hopeless" interviewing has been formed from the few things I've read about him and the few clips I've seen. The infamous Robert Morley clip is teeth grindingly embarassing! How much of it have you seen? The bit where Dee asks the audience for questions is a tiny fragment of the whole clip, in which Dee is more than capable at getting the best out of the interviewee, and Morley fairly sparkles. I was born in 1973. Or was at least kept. I suspect that most of Dee Time was recorded on VT as it went out (indeed, the very earliest Manchester-made editions weren't transmitted live), with any memorable clips being copied across or telerecorded before the original reels were wiped. Otherwise how would anything have been available for the end of year compilations? They could have recorded odd interviews, but how would they have known they were going to be any good before they started? Yes, it's on the compilation of clips - which appears to have been assembled for a 1968 end of year show. I assume that Dee did linking material live or on VT, which no longer survives. As you say, it's rather touching, especially when JH (who had undergone major surgery on his larynx) announces that he's waiting for some clever bugger to invent silent movies. |
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Post by lfbarfe on Aug 19, 2005 15:07:42 GMT
But I have to question your assertion that he was "a hopeless interviewer". On what do you base that? My memory of his BBC shows is that they were entertaining and ahead of their time, being a template for most chat shows we've had since. Indeed, "Tonight With Jonathan Ross" is almost a clone in terms of the interviewer/interviewee dynamic. I was just about to make a similar point. JR goes further than SD ever could (no matter how swinging London was), but in terms of informality and modus operandi, they have a lot in common. However, it seems that Ross has been rather more adept at playing the political game and avoiding confrontation with the people who sign the cheques than Dee ever was. As I see it, Dee knew his pulling power (and let's not be shy about it - he was more famous than anyone coming up to do the same job in the modern, fragmented, multi-channel world can ever hope to be) and thought that he was invincible, but soon found that those who put him on top could bring him back down again. Moving to LWT just as it was imploding wasn't a good move, either. In recent years, there are obvious parallels with Chris Evans, but the ginger one was able to build up a sizeable financial war chest before he pissed everyone off. |
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