This is taken from the Daily Telegraph:

Michael Mason
6:53PM BST 03 Jul 2014

Michael Mason, who has died aged 89, was a pioneering BBC radio producer best known for the 1974 Radio Four documentary series Plain Tales from the Raj, which was later turned into a bestselling book, edited by Charles Allen.

Mason achieved a unique, authentic and intimate portrayal of the British in India through a blend of music, sound effects and “vox pop” recordings of people who had lived and worked in British India. Contributors included Spike Milligan, whose father had served as a soldier, and Sir Claude Auchinleck, the last Commander-in-Chief of the pre-Independence Indian Army. According to a review in The Spectator, “survivors from the Raj were simply invited to talk into tape recorders, which is of course a method of literary compilation utterly deadly unless great cunning and care is taken with the editing.” The outcome, however, was “an unqualified triumph”.

Plain Tales from the Raj was just one example of the sort of programmes which set Mason’s work apart from the “talking head” style that had been the traditional model for the BBC’s history output. It was an approach he had pioneered in 1966 for a programme about the Bayeux Tapestry, made to mark the nine hundredth anniversary of the battle of Hastings, which, besides a literate script, featured “Saxon” war cries yelled by an impromptu gathering of BBC secretaries and studio staff; the Song of Roland chanted by an expert in Norman French; arrow barrages consisting of an ingenious arrangement of linked rubber bands, and the sound of swords slicing through flesh (Mason hacking away at a dozen cabbages using a sword borrowed from the props department).

Michael Mason was born on December 4 1924 in Maida Vale. His father, Herbert Mason, had been an actor and stage manager before the First World War and later moved into film-making, first as a director and, after 1945, as a producer. His mother Daisy, also had a background in the theatre, working as a chorus girl before 1914. She was later a novelist and playwright.

Mason was educated at Haileybury and was still at school when war was declared in 1939. Putting his plans to go to Cambridge on hold, he volunteered for the Army aged 17. Selected for officer training, he failed the final examination in mathematics and opted to serve in the Royal Artillery as an ordinary gunner. Posted to the 13th (Medium) Regiment, RA, soon after the Battle of the Bulge, in 1945 he was wounded by enemy shrapnel while scrounging for lanterns for his battery position with a fellow gunner.

After demob, Mason went up to Jesus College, Cambridge, to read English and, while there, converted to Roman Catholicism. Towards the end of his time at university, he met Frank Sheed who, with his wife Maisie Ward, had founded the Catholic publishing house Sheed & Ward. For several years Mason worked there as an editor and also wrote the first of several books The Centre of Hilarity, followed by a children’s adventure story, Captain Whackamore.

During his time in publishing he began scriptwriting for the BBC, work which broadened into occasional forays into recording studios. In 1965 he applied for a job as a radio producer in the BBC’s Home Service, and got it, beating some 200 other applicants.

After A Bayeux Tapestry, Mason’s programmes ranged from one-offs such as The Marriage of Freedom and Fate, featuring a youthful Anthony Hopkins as Beethoven, to more ambitious undertakings such as The British Seafarer (1980) and the 26-episode series The Long March of Everyman, (1971-72, made in collaboration with Dan Snowman), a landmark “pictorial history of the British people”. Other broadcasts included Tales from the Dark Continent and Tales from the South China Seas, both inspired by Plain Tales from the Raj.

In 1954 Mason married Pamela Greig, who survives him with their daughter and two sons.

Michael Mason, born December 4 1924, died June 14 2014

Our forum has been contacted regarding two programmes associated with Michael Mason.



" We have located copies of 26-parter 'The Long March Of Everyman.' I
need to post to the above thread to ask what to do with them.

Also a group are seeking 'The British Seafarer' - we would like to ask
member apcwmwl if he knows if there are any copies anywhere.

BTW the British Library does not appear to have the above. I can make
a CD available to the BBC &/or the BL is required. "

If anyone is interested, please post a reply here and we'll put you in contact.

Admin

Good quality recordings of "The British Seafarer" by Michael Mason are now being searched for as some existing copies are in a poor state.


"The Battle Of The Atlantic" is of particular interest, as the only existing copy is missing the last 20 minutes.

Please let 'Admin' know if you can help.

We have received the folowing information:-

The British Seafarer (1980/82)

At last this major project is available.