Former chairman of Granada Television

Photo: Ged Murray

A triumvirate of British broadcasting giants led Granada in its glory days – its founder and president for life, the cinema and television tycoon Lord Bernstein, its chairman, the patrician and charismatic Sir Denis Forman, and David Plowright, the canny journalist, then MD, bestrode the corridors and studios of Quay Street as their representative on earth.

The team of talent they attracted produced the finest of  British TV drama, current affairs and light entertainment.

From its determinedly northern fastness, Granada secured a worldwide reputation and market for its potent mix of quality, originality, heroic risk-taking – and an unflinching determination to challenge the status quo.

University Challenge

Programmes ranged from award winning drama, notably Brideshead and The Jewel in the Crown, to the pioneering investigative journalism of World in Action (which Plowright saw as ‘shining a light into the darkest corners’) through to long-running favourites like University Challenge and What the Papers Say. And, of course, Coronation Street.

The company’s slogan We Make Television Worth Watching was no ad man’s glib hyperbole – just plain matter of fact. Plowright was a mighty proponent of the ITV regional system over the “metropolitan bias” of the BBC. He believed in “Britain talking to Britain” rather than London preaching to Britain.

When a Financial Times writer observed that Granada was “the best commercial television station in the world” (a conclusion separately arrived at by the New York Times) Plowright regarded this as a simple statement of the obvious – but was quick to ensure that the accolade became a permanent feature of every advertisement and press release.

Sir Laurence Olivier

He was born in Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, one of three gifted children of Leslie and Daisy Plowright. His elder brother, also Leslie, became Professor of Music at the Trinity College of Music in London and his sister, Joan, was to be a grande dame of the theatre and wife of England’s greatest actor, Sir Laurence Olivier (who was later to have a central role in some of Granada’s biggest drama successes).

There was, naturally, some sibling rivalry. When asked: “Are you Joan Plowright’s brother?” David would respond “No, she is my sister”.

As the journalist son of a journalist father (editor of the Scunthorpe Star where David learned his craft – including football reporting under the pseudonym Jack Steel) he demanded absolute accuracy in the marshalling and presentation of the facts.

But, for those who met his high expectations (those who didn’t would not tarry long in Quay Street) he was a forgiving boss who quickly forgot the mischief and misdemeanours that were a commonplace in the work-hard, play-hard creative powerhouse that was Granada.

Riveting

His own manner – when he wrote and spoke – was riveting, original and contained to the point of terseness.

If a memo had to be sent, then it should be brief, pertinent, amusing. He was the exemplar and his team followed where he led. A dispute between a manager and the producer of a religious programme over whose budget should pay for the watering of the plants that adorned the set, ended with a note that simply stated: “Thou shalt or they wilt”. Plowright, always on the side of the creatives against the ‘suits’, disagreed with the decision but liked the memo.

He dispatched three of his team on a ten day fact-finding tour of US broadcasting stations to discover which of the competing computerised TV news systems should be bought by Granada. Their report was drafted on a tired and emotional delayed return flight from Dallas. He put down to jet lag the fact that it was written in the style of Wind in the Willows, accepted the recommendations and authorised Granada’s move into the computer age.

Rather shy

Behind his commanding public presence and formidable, sometimes intimidating, persona was concealed a private, rather shy man with a generous and caring nature. This was readily apparent to members of his team when they were visited by illness or other misfortune.

His mood was revealed by his eyes – dark and piercing when he was displeased, but more usually glittering with eager excitement and good humour.

When he spoke there was still a trace of the cadences of Lincolnshire and of the flat vowels of Yorkshire. He had worked on the Yorkshire Post as feature writer and Equestrian Correspondent. He found that his expenses allowed him to own a horse, so when reporting local gymkhana he would turn up and compete as well.

Fortifying drink

Plowright was never happier than in the presence of his creative team – arguing over ideas, often until late into the night, usually with a fortifying drink or so and always with much laughter.

Once, in a London hotel room, discussing at length a programme proposition with Peter Eckersley, the head of drama, the conversation was drawn to an end by the discovery that the only drink still remaining in the mini bar was a crème de menthe. It was consumed.

In the aftermath of the inner-city riots of the early 1980s, Michael Heseltine, appointed by Margaret Thatcher as Minister for Merseyside, visited Granada bearing the message that they should not only report the problems of those communities but should also use the power of television to help promote their regeneration.

Local business leaders agreed. In a steamy meeting with a group of them, Plowright seemed almost on the back foot as he faced their barrage of criticism over what they saw as negative reporting.

Sustainable employment

But he then silenced them by outlining plans for a major TV series to help small local businesses to grow in the impoverished areas of the North West and so to create sustainable employment.

The programme would take the form of an enterprise competition with an award fund of £100,000. The winner would receive £25,000 – the biggest prize on any UK TV show. And it would go on air within the next two months.

When the guests had departed into the night, one of the team unwisely said to Plowright: “I didn’t know we were doing that”. He replied: “Neither did I until I said it – now you better go and work out how you will raise £100,000 sponsorship in four weeks.”

The show, Flying Start, ran for eight years, channelling over £2m public/private funding into regional SMEs and creating several thousand jobs.

Genuine commitment

As an adopted son of the North West – he worked and lived here for almost 50 years – Plowright had a genuine commitment to aiding the region’s economic recovery and backed that with Granada’s cash, corporate muscle and programme-making clout. But he sometimes became exasperated at the plethora of new initiatives.

After Business Opportunities on Merseyside, known as BOOM, was set up, he was on his way to yet another meeting (not his favourite way of spending his time) and asked rather tartly “So what is it today, BOOM, BANG or BASH?”

When he did have to attend meetings, he could be depended upon to liven things up: “Time to throw a fire-cracker in,” he would murmur to himself.

Part of Granada’s contribution to regeneration was the restoration of largely-unsuitable Victorian industrial buildings for the purpose of TV programme making.

Technically advanced

Granada was first into the derelict Albert Dock in Liverpool where the dock traffic master’s office building was adapted to become the HQ of Granada TV News and, in its time, the most technically advanced TV news station in the world.

Smaller news units were set up in equally old buildings in Chester, Lancaster and Blackburn. It was all a brilliant success.

In Manchester, Granada owned several decaying warehouses on a site alongside the TV Centre in Quay Street. Plowright invited successive ministers of tourism to lunch in the penthouse flat and would then take them out onto the roof, and with an expansive sweep of the arm would gesture to the uninviting vista, bounded by a sluggish, brown, evil smelling river, declaring confidently: ‘Hollywood on the Irwell’.

It became the Granada Studios Tour – a UK Top Ten attraction, whose visitors included the Queen and Margaret Thatcher.

Mersey Television

Towards the end of his tenure at Granada (although he was not to know it) he secured a new franchise from the Independent Television Commission with an audaciously low bid of £9m (Phil Redmond’s rival Mersey Television bid for the commercial licence for the North West was £35m).

Plowright had prepared the ground by fostering the Campaign for Quality Television, a pressure group set on persuading the ITC that commercial TV licences should be awarded not solely on the size of the financial bid but also on the quality of programming.

It was a famous victory followed, all too soon, by a calamitous defeat. New blood on the board of Granada Group, of which he was a director, were demanding cuts in overheads which, in Plowright’s view, would lead to cuts in his creative team, and cuts in what was spent on programming – with a consequent impact on quality.

It was an impasse and David Plowright was the loser. His many admirers across the span of broadcasting, theatre, the arts and public life protested but to no avail.

So he left Quay Street, remarking with characteristic understatement: “I am not an easy man to tell what to do.”

David Highet was head of regional affairs at Granada  

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