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    All Creatures Great and Famous: Interviewing Stars of the '70s
    All Creatures Great and Famous: Interviewing Stars of the '70s
    All Creatures Great and Famous: Interviewing Stars of the '70s
    Ebook110 pages1 hour

    All Creatures Great and Famous: Interviewing Stars of the '70s

    By Graham Higson

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    About this ebook

    Meeting them was like stepping through the television screen...

    A childhood fascination with television and radio turned into a teenage reality when Graham Higson began writing celebrity interviews for his school magazine.

    Would his lack of years and experience be a drawback or advantage in getting to the real people behind the public façades?

    This little book reveals all.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGraham Higson
    Release dateNov 30, 2015
    ISBN9781310534737
    All Creatures Great and Famous: Interviewing Stars of the '70s
    Author

    Graham Higson

    I live in an outlying Pennine village and share this blustery environment with a growing collection of books, my understanding wife and a workshop piled high with offcuts of oak. Our two grown-up children are among my best friends.I've been interested in writing since I was at primary school and began interviewing celebrities when I was 15, going on to write professionally on many different subjects for various magazines over the following years. Oak Seer: A Supernatural Mystery was the first of my published novels, followed by Flither Lass, a historical novel set during the First World War. My fictionalized memoir How Much for a Little Screw? – Tales from behind the counter and its "equel" All Mod Cons are based on many years working as a hardware man. My biggest critic is my technical manager, Gerald the cat.I'm a member of the Open and University College Falmouth alumni, and my hobbies include woodworking, reading, watching lots of screen drama, and publishing books for the Walmsley Society. Oh yes, and searching for that elusive moment of self-discovery. Hmm, no sign of it yet.

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      Book preview

      All Creatures Great and Famous - Graham Higson

      ALL CREATURES

      GREAT AND FAMOUS

      Interviewing Stars of the '70s

      By

      Graham Higson

      PUBLISHED BY

      Old Barsey Press

      SMASHWORDS Edition

      Copyright © 2015 by Graham Higson

      Original photographs © 2015 Graham Higson

      Cat. 00260916

      http://www.grahamhigson.com

      To my English teacher, Gordon Normanton, for his encouragement.

      Contents

      A bit of an intro

      Part One

      Zoe Spink

      Austin Mitchell

      Gilbert O'Sullivan

      Part Two

      Noel Edmonds

      Anne Aston

      Dana

      Esther Rantzen

      Final words

      Thanks

      Further interest

      Connect with Graham

      Also by Graham Higson

      About the author

      Also available

      The big boys are intent on world domination in this amusing tale of running a small town DIY shop. Packed with anecdotes, larger-than-life characters and oodles of camaraderie, this chronicles one man's struggle to keep his head above the leaking water of life.

      A bit of an intro

      THIS LITTLE BOOK was inspired by a 2-part article I wrote in 1979 that told about my behind-the-scenes exploits whilst interviewing famous UK celebrities. Some readers of my novels (well, two of them) have suggested that I make these stories public again, which gives me the opportunity to include stuff that there just wasn't room for in the original magazine articles.

      These are just the memorable meetings, particularly those which helped shape my development as a feature writer. You'll be relieved to know that this isn't a thesis on changing technology and its effect on societal attitudes over the past four decades. Oh no, it's not my intention to reduce readers to a wilting bunch of overripe daffodils, but when some people look back to the 1970s it's usually with a mixture of smugness and shock horror, partly because of the flared trousers, high heels and permed hair – and that was just the men. Yes, things were different back then.

      When Austin Mitchell, well-known television personality and later MP, read my article about him, he said:

      If you can get that much sense out of an idiot like me, you should do well with real people.

      It was only my second interview and this particular celebrity had identified the very aspect that I'd touched upon in that second article. He must have been a very perceptive gentleman because I have to admit that, up to that point, I wasn't even aware of it. I only wanted scoops, but from then on the search for real people was to form the premise of all my future interviews. In fact, it was Esther Rantzen who expanded on this when she told me:

      An awful lot of the entertainment industry is devoted to making so-called stars into remote, glamorous, exotic creatures.

      Hence the title of this book.

      I saw it as a challenge to demolish any façades that my subjects may have been hiding behind. Okay, so perhaps demolish isn't the right word; maybe gently break down is better because I wanted to discover the essence of their true characters, if they'd let me. But I didn't want to be awkward, aggressive or upset them just so they'd become angry and allow me to make a killing in the nationals as I showed them in contradiction of their public personae. Nor did I want to pretend to be their friend and trick them into dropping their guards. I certainly didn't relish the thought of being chucked out of places, or being pursued across car parks by hefty security men. I wanted them to be honest with me, and I'd show them in as honest a way as possible. That was the deal.

      So, what exactly made them different to the rest of us – the celebrities, that is? They were, when it came down to it, just people, like you and me – but ones who were in the privileged position of being well-known through entertainment and television. And celebrity status carried with it a great responsibility – more so than today.

      If this may seem a little unlikely, here and now in the twenty-teens, we need to rewind to the 1970s when there were just three television channels in the UK, and programme viewing figures could easily run into many millions because the audience wasn't squandered and lost amongst the hundreds of satellite and Freeview channels that we have today. Playing a film at home from a tape or disc wasn't yet possible, nor were there any games consoles, so for moving picture entertainment in the household there was the telly in the corner, and that was your lot.

      In fact, there was a body of thought that said watching TV could be damaging, both culturally and to one's eyesight! Fancy that! There were no domestic video cassette recorders, so viewers either watched a programme when it was being broadcast or they missed it and waited for the repeat. Viewers often complained there were too many repeats. Ha! If only they could have glimpsed into the future and seen just how many TV series are endlessly repeated on satellite channels and also purchased on discs and downloads, fuelling an industry that now is worth millions. Some programmes were never repeated, so there was a strong emphasis on not missing something you were interested in. So in 1977, when The Morecambe and Wise Christmas Show was watched by over 28.8 million

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