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.

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

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.