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Granada Days
Kill transmission! Lime Grove? Fill in, will you. I’ll be back as soon as possible. Tell Presentation… My first steady TV job in 1975—my only steady job, ever—was with Granada Television’s Presentation Department. Prior to that I’d put in a few weeks as a researcher for John Willis in Yorkshire TV Documentaries, but I took…
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Fiction Reboot
A couple of weeks ago I answered a few interview questions from novelist/academic researcher/teacher Brandy Schillace, and the results are now online. I spouted stuff like: “Through my teens I read classic science fiction and ’60s British thriller writers. Then I had the advantage of a very solid three years of education in English Literature…
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The Silence of the Witness
A shout-out to David Richards and the crew who today begin shooting on my two-part Silent Witness story for series 16. It’ll air next year. I was told, “Don’t be afraid to make it your own,” and I’ve taken them at their word. It can be tricky, making a contribution to an established and long-running…
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Science and Sensation
I love this. Under the headline, Experts Warn Over Humanising Apes, the Associated Press has put out a lengthy science piece which has been picked up by, among others, The Independent – in fact it’s being reprinted everywhere, from Pravda to The York Advertiser. It begins Action is needed now to prevent nightmarish “Planet Of…
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Saturday Event
On Saturday I’m giving a talk-with-clips about my TV career at the Lass O’Gowrie on Charles Street in Manchester, and as the day gets closer I’m growing convinced that no one is going to turn up. If you’ve an events diary or similar feature and might be interested in giving it a mention, feel free…
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Adding a Character
Searching through some old emails I came across this one, written as part of the to-and-fro when I was finally freed up to be able to contribute to the US version of Eleventh Hour. Just as I started pitching the story that was to become the episode titled Subway, CBS came up with the idea…
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Jacob Hood – the Firefox Theme
Whenever my Firefox browser auto-updates, it always kicks off by inviting me to choose a ‘persona’, which is basically a fancy Bergmanesque name for a toolbar graphic. There’s thousands of the buggers, apparently, nearly all user-generated, and usually I skip on by. But someone’s just added a Jacob Hood Firefox Persona. And before you ask……
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Arise, Sir Hood
Congratulations to Sir Patrick Stewart, knighted today. He used the occasion to give credit to the English teacher who opened his eyes to literature and first encouraged him to perform. It’s no surprise; many a career in the arts can be traced back to the influence of a charismatic and inspiring figure in the classroom.…
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Testing the Audience
We just got back from Las Vegas. It’s a long drive through the desert, with nothing but country music on the radio. If you’re ever thinking about it, you have been warned. The last time we did the trip was around 1980, and that was by Greyhound bus. Back then it was essentially still ’50s…
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Evolution of an Idea
I’ve been organising my files and came across this short piece that I wrote about Eleventh Hour for some purpose or other. With Chimera‘s impending DVD appearance (news on those features soon, I promise) I thought I’d put it out here. It offers a kind of join-the-dots demonstration of how my thinking went over the…
Hauling Like A Brooligan
Stephen Gallagher
