Review
'Plenty of gripping anecdotes' -- Sunday Times 'Kate Dunn has compiled a valuable and necessary work of oral history! She has mapped out a world of television that has been comprehensively lost' -- Independent on Sunday
Product Description
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.
From the Author
It has been a great privilege to be able to interview some of the most illustrious actors and actresses of our age and I am grateful to the scores who were kind enough to share their memories of what the early days of live television were like. "Do Not Adjust Your Set' includes reminiscences from a number of stars who cut their teeth in the early days of the medium, including the late Sir Nigel Hawthorne, Dame Eileen Atkins, Peter Bowles, George Cole, George Baker, Wendy Craig, David Jacobs, Maurice Denham, Christopher Lee, Peggy Mount and many others.
My intention was not just to collect funny stories, although there are hundreds of those. What I set out to do was to preserve first hand accounts of the formative period in a medium that now touches all of our lives. Conditions were challenging - one of my interviewees said it was like going over the top in the trenches - and the achievements were considerable. With the high technical standards of today's television, it is easy to forget how crude the early equipment was and as there was no scope for recording programmes until the late nineteen fifties, I didn't want the fantastic work done by those early pioneers to be forgotten.
My intention was not just to collect funny stories, although there are hundreds of those. What I set out to do was to preserve first hand accounts of the formative period in a medium that now touches all of our lives. Conditions were challenging - one of my interviewees said it was like going over the top in the trenches - and the achievements were considerable. With the high technical standards of today's television, it is easy to forget how crude the early equipment was and as there was no scope for recording programmes until the late nineteen fifties, I didn't want the fantastic work done by those early pioneers to be forgotten.
About the Author
Kate Dunn comes from a theatrical family that spans four generations. As well as working extensively in repertory, Kate has appeared in the West End, on television and on tour both nationally and internationally. She has recently completed a Ph.D in Drama. She lives in Bristol.
