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Message started by Peter_Neill on Jan 13th, 2009, 11:42pm

Title: Stewart Morris
Post by Peter_Neill on Jan 13th, 2009, 11:42pm

Stewart Morris, a well-known and formidable producer in BBC TV Light Entertainment from the 60's to the 90's died on Saturday January 10th 2009

Title: Re: Stewart Morris
Post by caro on Jan 17th, 2009, 6:22pm

What's your source Peter?  Are you still sat at the back of the theatre on the PA desk?   Some nice bits of Stewart in action on You Tube.

Title: Re: Stewart Morris
Post by Peter_Neill on Jan 18th, 2009, 9:29am


caro wrote on Jan 17th, 2009, 6:22pm:
What's your source Peter?  Are you still sat at the back of the theatre on the PA desk?


Source: Stan Appel via Bernie Newman.
There is also one line in the current Ariel.
I understand that an obit has been written for The Times, but I haven't seen it in print yet.

There are several tech-ops reminicences here:

http://www.tech-ops.co.uk/page154.html    (for those who don't know, www.tech-ops.co.uk contains many interesting photos and anecdotes from (mainly retired) TV operators - cameras, sound, lighting etc.)

I have been to a couple of gigs at the Sheperds Bush Empire since it reverted to an entertainment venue and it's surprisingly unchanged. Well, I suppose, not that surprising as it's a listed building.

Peter

Title: Stewart Morris Times Obituary
Post by caro on Jan 21st, 2009, 1:37am

From The Times
January 20, 2009
Stewart Morris: Head of variety at the BBC


In the golden age of British light entertainment Stewart Morris was the last of the great showman producers. Briefly head of Variety at the BBC, Morris worked with some of the all-time great names of the small screen. In an era that pre-dated the more conservative budgets of modern times, he was a producer for the grand gesture, a director for the spectacular.

Morris had an eye for the breathtaking shot as well as a special talent for working with “talent”. He created landmark shows for the likes of Rolf Harris and Shirley Bassey, and directed stars from Bruce Forsyth to Sammy Davis Jr, from Dudley Moore to Frank Sinatra. Trusted with prestige events like the Eurovision Song Contest and the Royal Variety Performance, he made more than a thousand television shows, many of them seen around the world.

Born in 1930, Morris was educated at Winchester College. Turning down a place at university, he was quickly bored studying accountancy. He managed one of the cinemas in a chain belonging to his father, Southan Morris, but Morris jr was convinced the future lay in television. After numerous failed attempts to get into the BBC, his break came when he was taken on as a producer in November 1958. Television became his passion, and he son mastered all the technical nuances of TV and film. In years to come he would be famed for his mastery of the multicamera shoot. His first big production was a pop-music show called Drumbeat; his biggest early success was Juke Box Jury.

Bigger shows were to follow. Asked to fill the seven o’clock Saturday night slot Morris created The Rolf Harris Show in 1967. He let Harris display his talents as a singer and a painter, and drafted in the Young Generation dance troupe for support, with the help of the choreographer Dougie Squires. Harris recalled that Morris did “everything for the show, the show ruled supreme. He wanted everything to be absolutely perfect. He pushed and pushed you, well out of your comfort zone, and made you lift your game. He changed my life fantastically for the better.” The show ran until 1971.

Morris also created the ground-breaking and long-running International Cabaret, which brought him into contact with Kenneth Williams, and involved tours of Europe, attracting speciality acts such as jugglers, acrobats and unclassifiable curiosities.

Appointed BBC’s Head of Variety in 1973, Morris was, for nearly two years, responsible for the world’s largest output of variety programmes. But he did not enjoy the job because it put him behind a desk, and he wanted to be behind the camera. He returned to the production floor, and the director’s gallery, where he was in his element.

A sense of grand adventure came to characterise much of Morris’s work. He was an innovator and dedicated to original film-making. He filmed Shirley Bassey singing live 5,000 feet above the ground in a hot-air balloon, and on another shoot had the diva in a crane high above a Total Oil rig in the North Sea.

Morris was particularly proud of his production and direction of the 1986 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. Four years in the making, it ended in a 28-camera, 45-minute spectacular involving more than 10,000 performers and musicians.

Morris directed four series of the early version of Britain’s Got Talent, Opportunity Knocks: first with Bob Monkhouse, then Les Dawson. He was also put in charge of four Eurovision contests where he worked closely with Terry Wogan. “As a producer he was in a class of his own, and as a director no one could touch him,” Wogan has said of Morris. “He could organise the most extraordinary things.”

Morris operated in a world unfamiliar with the multi-channel mix on offer today. In a pre-internet age he commanded massive audiences. He directed and produced five Royal Variety Performances, one of which was shown live to 25 million people across the UK, as well as five Royal Gala Performances. His Shirley Bassey series were sold to more than 70 countries.

Morris had a special gift with the big names. He took Tom Jones and Miss World to Barbados, introduced the Osmonds to the UK — he had to smuggle them into the BBC in a furniture van to avoid the crowds — and worked with, among many others, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Spike Milligan, Cliff Richard, Harry Secombe, Ella FitzGerald, Michael Caine, José Carreras, Peter Sellars, Gladys Knight, Louis Armstrong, Barry Manilow and Peter Ustinov.

The BBC allowed Morris to stay on two years beyond the retirement age of 60. When he finally left, Sir David Frost and Carlton UK Television asked him to produce a Royal Gala in the presence of Prince Charles to commemorate VE-Day. The show was transmitted live around the world. He also produced four series with Michael Barrymore on LWT before finally retiring at the age of 68.

He is survived by his wife Hazel Morris and by his four children.

Stewart Morris, television producer, was born on March 30, 1930. He died after a short illness on January 10, 2009 aged 78

Title: Re: Stewart Morris
Post by Forum Admin on Feb 2nd, 2009, 8:29pm

This is taken from the Daily Telegraph:

Stewart Morris
BBC producer who worked with Rolf Harris and Bob Monkhouse and had fun at Shirley Bassey's expense
Last Updated: 5:05PM GMT 02 Feb 2009


Stewart Morris, who died on January 10 aged 78, produced some of the best known and most innovative shows in the heyday of BBC TV light entertainment.

Physically imposing and utterly fearless, Morris had a barking voice, a cutting wit, a way with talent and superb technical expertise. Above all, he was prepared to take risks. It was he who, on a live show, had the singer Susan Maugham make her entrance from the Thames in an amphibious vehicle, straight up a ramp into Riverside Studios.

More of a circus ringmaster or variety impresario than a typical corporation man, Morris none the less spent 24 happy years with the BBC, creating The Rolf Harris Show, producing numerous series and specials for Shirley Bassey, Bruce Forsyth and Sammy Davis Jr, and reviving Opportunity Knocks with Bob Monkhouse and Les Dawson. He was also behind major events such as The Royal Variety Performance, Eurovision Song Contest and the opening ceremony of the 1986 Commonwealth Games.

Stewart John Southan Morris was born in Luton on March 30 1930, the son of William Southan Morris, who owned SM Associated, a chain of cinemas. Stewart was educated at Winchester, after which he trained as an accountant and worked briefly for his father. In November 1958 he joined the BBC, serving his apprenticeship on pop shows such as Drumbeat and Juke Box Jury before beginning on the spectaculars that were to become his speciality.

His closest professional association was with the affable Australian entertainer, Rolf Harris, who had been born on the same day. Shirley Bassey was another recurring collaborator. Once, when filming for one of her shows on a North Sea oil rig, he persuaded the singer to climb into a flimsy basket, assuring her that it would be lifted no more than a few feet off the ground, camera angles giving the impression that she was high over the water. Once she was in, Bassey was swung out over the lapping waves. "We did the biggest edit job in matching the effing and blinding to the song," he recalled in 2005. "She came back, landed, and said: 'You dangerous bastard!' But it looked good on the end product."

The quality of Morris's programmes earned him much goodwill from hard-worked crews. Although those perceived to be slacking could be expected to feel the lash of his tongue – one cameraman was told: "Listen to the music, cloth ears!" – Morris was also quick to praise. On one occasion, when told by a favoured cameraman that a shot was impossible, Morris asked: "Surely not to a man of your calibre?" The cameraman replied: "That's how I know it's impossible." Morris gracefully conceded: "There's no answer to that."

Technical limitations were not the only problems. When Toni Warne, the child singer who won Bob Says Opportunity Knocks, sang Michael Jackson's Ben (a love song by a small boy to his pet rat), supported by a live hamster, the rodent disgraced itself down Warne's dress. Morris was forced to "fire" the animal, replacing it with a stuffed fox.

With the support of his friend and mentor, Bill Cotton Jr, the head of BBC light entertainment, Morris became head of variety for two successful years in the early 1970s – but he preferred studio life, and returned to production.

It was a measure of the esteem in which he was held that the normally inflexible BBC allowed him to stay on until 1992, two years past the retirement age of 60.

He was then enticed to LWT on the South Bank, where he worked until finally retiring at the age of 68.

Stewart Morris is survived by his fourth wife, Hazel (née Barry), and by four children from his second marriage.

Title: Re: Stewart Morris
Post by LFBarfe on Feb 9th, 2009, 8:11pm

I wrote the Telegraph obit and "24 happy years" should read "34 happy years". I sent an email correcting it, but it appears not to have reached the subs.

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