Brian Tesler's father David came to Britain at the age of 15
in the middle of the First World War, not speaking a word of English. It
was a long journey for David from the little village of Baremel' in the
Ukraine to the tranquil West London suburb in which he died in 1972. He
accomplished it with style, ending up a proud Englishman, a successful man
of business, the founder of a synagogue, the Worshipful Master of a Masonic
Lodge - and the father and inspiration of a major figure of British
Television, whose professional career encompassed TV's entire post-war
evolution from a single-channel BBC to today's explosion of satellite and
cable channels.
in the middle of the First World War, not speaking a word of English. It
was a long journey for David from the little village of Baremel' in the
Ukraine to the tranquil West London suburb in which he died in 1972. He
accomplished it with style, ending up a proud Englishman, a successful man
of business, the founder of a synagogue, the Worshipful Master of a Masonic
Lodge - and the father and inspiration of a major figure of British
Television, whose professional career encompassed TV's entire post-war
evolution from a single-channel BBC to today's explosion of satellite and
cable channels.
This memoir reflects Brian Tesler's career throughout, but is not a record
of it. Before I Forget is a very personal account of Tesler's family, of
the East End's vibrant Jewish community in the early decades of the last
century, and of the life of a youngster in London in peacetime and in war,
immersed in the radio, theatre, movies and music hall of the 1930s and
1940s that led him to his career.
