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Do Not Adjust Your Set
In a world where most programmes are recorded and perfected before they reach our screens, it is hard to imagine an era when every radio and TV programme went out live. The actors and actresses who worked in the BBC's first television studios at Alexandra Palace had - literally - to think on their feet, running from set to set, often while changing costume and making cuts to their scripts at the same time. In "Do Not Adjust Your Set", Dame Eileen Atkins, Wendy Craig, the late Sir Nigel Hawthorne and other old broadcasting hands recall the frenetic conditions in which such television classics as "Dixon of Dock Green" and "Z Cars" were made and the extraordinary hazards they had to deal with.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published July 17, 2003
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December 2, 2024
This is a great fun read, which could also be titled Everything that went wrong on the TV sets. From the pre-WW2 early days of TV broadcasting at Alexandra Palace in London, to the later heyday of drama series like Z Cars and Coronation Street, with independent studios, life was busy. The TV was on hiatus during the war, radio being the strongest medium.
Actors from rep were the TV actors, as they were used to quick changes, adapting scripts and winging it when things went wrong, because every show was live. When a play was repeated, the actors had to act it again. Often the scenery was being changed around them as the camera zoomed in close.
There are not nearly enough photos, but maybe there weren't any left.
We learn about the makeup of the studio, with several sets around the edges and the cameras in the middle, wire and cables across the floor. There were twelve people hired just for cable pulling in one studio.
Women had good jobs in this new world, from acting to announcements, makeup and costume, commercials, props, and - presumably - typing up all the scripts. We only hear of men in the most important roles and the technical roles like cameraman, lighting, even floor manager. Men also acted as policemen. In one memorable snippet, a woman playing the policeman's wife had to sit monologuing and eating breakfast as though her husband was opposite her, because he hadn't arrived yet from the previous scene's set. Women could be production assistants, which might mean welcoming guests and getting them where they needed to be on time, or lying on the floor reading prompts. They could do the latter because if an actor dried, the sound was cut.
List of contributors starts on page 209. Index 231. Contributors include Christopher Lee, Peter Bowles, Dame Eileen Atkins, George Baker, Margaret Tyzak OBE. This book will be excellent for film and drama students, media students and anyone who likes a laugh.
I read a hardback from the RDS Library. This is an unbiased review.
Actors from rep were the TV actors, as they were used to quick changes, adapting scripts and winging it when things went wrong, because every show was live. When a play was repeated, the actors had to act it again. Often the scenery was being changed around them as the camera zoomed in close.
There are not nearly enough photos, but maybe there weren't any left.
We learn about the makeup of the studio, with several sets around the edges and the cameras in the middle, wire and cables across the floor. There were twelve people hired just for cable pulling in one studio.
Women had good jobs in this new world, from acting to announcements, makeup and costume, commercials, props, and - presumably - typing up all the scripts. We only hear of men in the most important roles and the technical roles like cameraman, lighting, even floor manager. Men also acted as policemen. In one memorable snippet, a woman playing the policeman's wife had to sit monologuing and eating breakfast as though her husband was opposite her, because he hadn't arrived yet from the previous scene's set. Women could be production assistants, which might mean welcoming guests and getting them where they needed to be on time, or lying on the floor reading prompts. They could do the latter because if an actor dried, the sound was cut.
List of contributors starts on page 209. Index 231. Contributors include Christopher Lee, Peter Bowles, Dame Eileen Atkins, George Baker, Margaret Tyzak OBE. This book will be excellent for film and drama students, media students and anyone who likes a laugh.
I read a hardback from the RDS Library. This is an unbiased review.
Displaying 1 of 1 review