In the closing months of the Second World War Frank Gillard
found himself at the centre of history in the making when General Montgomery
insisted that he be present in his tent to witness the unconditional surrender
of the German armies in Europe. As one of the BBC's war correspondents Gillard
would broadcast on the nightly War Report
mapping the progress of the liberating Allied Armies in north-west Europe.
After the hostilities had ended he enjoyed a long career both on-air and behind
the scenes at the Corporation where he oversaw events that would help reshape
the broadcasting landscape of the post-war radio service. He espoused the
principles of public participation in broadcasting and respected regional
loyalties, a combination of views that led him to champion the cause of local
radio.
Born in Devon in 1908 and educated in Somerset and Exeter
Frank Gillard drifted into sound broadcasting quite by chance. He'd become a
school master in his native Devon but by the late 1930s was making occasional
broadcasts in the West Region. In 1941 he was asked to join the BBC full time
though he was initially reluctant to do so until he was told that the
government could direct people to join the BBC as part of the war effort. He
was appointed as a Talks Assistant and then a War Correspondent (Southern
Command) based in Bristol.
Gillard had an eventful war witnessing the raid on Dieppe,
following the Eighth Army as they moved northwards across the Mediterranean where
he built up a friendship with General Bernard Montgomery, at one point even
having to procure a puppy for Monty, which he named Hitler! Frank tried on
several occasions to reclaim the £25 cost of buying the dog on his BBC expenses
and only finally succeeded when he told the accountant that it was a payment in
lieu of all the broadcasts that Monty had made on the BBC for which he'd not
been paid.
He was on the front line with the Fifth Army for the
invasion of Italy and spent six months covering the Italian campaign. In 1944 Gillard
covered the Normandy landings and the momentous entry into Berlin. In May 1945
he covered the signing of the German surrender.
It had been in May 1943 that the BBC's front-line unit, of
which Gillard was a member, was christened the War Reporting Unit and later
that year took part in the full-scale invasion practice, Operation Pirate, and
special training courses held at Wood Norton in March 1944. Before D-Day plans
were already in motion to implement War
Report with BBC engineers perfecting the new midget-recorder weighing 40
pounds and carrying twelve double-sided discs.
War Report was broadcast
nightly between 6 June 1944 and 5 May 1945 and provided a rapt audience with
first-hand accounts of events during the final year of the war. The team also
included Chester Wilmott, Howard Marshall, Stanley Maxted, Guy Byram, Wynford
Vaughan-Thomas and Richard Dimbleby. The broadcasts still make fascinating
listening and in 1985 Frank Gillard revisited France and recalled the War Report programmes in two
documentaries broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
After the war Frank Gillard returned to Bristol where he
would soon become the Head of Programmes for the West Region. One of the first
issues facing him was the threat of a merger of the West and Midland regions, a
recommendation in the 1946 White Paper on Broadcasting Policy and tied into a
post-war shortage of wavelengths. The then West region director Gerald Beadle
and his staff set about mobilising public and political support. Eventually
after a brief but vociferous outcry a compromise was reached involving the
re-use of an ex-German wavelength by the BBC's German Service. Beadle, backed
by Gillard, congratulated West of England people in the way they had
"served their own broadcasting service"
At Bristol Gillard would oversee one of the BBC's most
popular and long-running programmes, Any
Questions? Gillard's policy was to "get away from the artificial
atmosphere of the studio as much as possible and take the microphone among the
people." He first set out to achieve this with the touring programme Speak Your Mind in which chairman Gordon
McMurtrie put a number of questions (sent in by listeners) to a representative
audience in whatever town it was visiting. Audience members were encouraged to
express their views openly and spontaneously at the microphone.
Whilst heading up the West Region Gillard was still heard on
air. He introduced Country Mixture
billed as "the a programme of facts and fancies, legends, stories, and
songs from the Counties of the West." He also covered major state
occasions such as the 1947 Royal Tour of South Africa, the wedding of Princess
Elizabeth and Prince Philip later that year, the Commonwealth tour of 1952
which ended abruptly with the news of the death of King George V and the
Coronation in 1953.
In July 1955 Frank moved to London as Chief Assistant to the
Director of Sound Broadcasting. Already he was considering what was beyond the
horizon. In 1954 he'd been able to tour the United States and Canada to look at
their radio operations and what he saw - detailed in his management report Radio in the USA: A Visitor's View -
spurred his interest in promoting local radio. In February 1955 he wrote a
report on The Extension of Regional
Broadcasting that recognised that the coming of VHF transmissions would
make it technically possible for the BBC to have as many channels as it
required. Meanwhile, following his appointment as Chief Assistant he was asked
to chair the new Sound Co-ordinating Committee to look at the future of the
existing radio services as well as considering any response to the large
audiences that Radio Luxembourg enjoyed. Gillard was also part of a BBC
delegation that travelled to Moscow to look at the Russian radio and TV
operation. Discussions on future co-operation foundering when the subject of
Soviet jamming of BBC programmes came up but they did secure the names of two
Russian broadcasters who spoke excellent English and would take part in radio
hook-up discussions of current affairs.
In 1956 Frank Gillard was back in Bristol as Controller, West
Region when Gerald Beadle was promoted to become Director of Television in
London. He took an executive role in the closed circuit local radio trials in
1961 and 1962 and was key in persuading the Pilkington Committee on
Broadcasting of the value of local radio.
By 1963 he was back in London as Director of Sound Broadcasting.
The 1960s saw a massive increase in the influence of television at the expense of radio audiences and Gillard was instrumental in steering through many of the changes that sound broadcasting needed to make.
The BBC's Features Department had been responsible for some
remarkable radio productions since its formation in July 1945. It had been the
home of creative types such as Dylan Thomas, Louis MacNeice, D.G. Bridson,
Charles Parker and Douglas Cleverdon producing pure radio art forms such as the
award-winning radio ballads. However by 1964 it was thought that the department
had lost its way and was proving expensive to run. "The reasons for
closing the department", said Gillard, "lay in the direction of good
organization and the achievement of high professional standards." He
thought them "amateurish" and undisciplined" and as "taking
the BBC for a ride". The Features Department was closed in March 1965.
A Children's Hour favourite was Toytown |
During Gillard's tenure BBC radio was able to extend the
hours for the Light Programme - something it had to get permission to do by
going cap in hand to the government - and introducing the Music Programme, a
daytime service of classical music using the Third Programme's unused
wavelengths. But of course the biggest change facing BBC radio was one that was
foist upon it.
It's possible that the corporation may have chosen to
operate a popular music service even if the offshore pirates hadn't come along
but a full head of political steam set the pace and by 1967 Gillard was
publicising the introduction of Radio 1 and the re-numbering of the existing
Light, Third and Home as Radios 2 to 4; something that was his idea by all
accounts. (see Radio 1 at 50 - The New Popular Music Service).
Around the same time as the national changes Gillard was
putting the final touches to the new BBC local radio stations that would launch
that year. Whilst he'd managed to sway the Pilkington Committee to see the
benefits of local services it would take a few more years of behind the scenes
persuasion and negotiation, led by Gillard, to obtain agreement in a 1966 White
Paper for an experimental roll-out and to get local authorities onboard to
secure funding. (see The People's Radio).
The Gillard Awards inaugurated by the BBC in 2000 |
In 1997, as part of the BBC's 75th anniversary celebrations,
David Dimbleby introduced an appreciation of Frank's career in Frank Gillard's BBC. This programme was
heard on Radio 2 on 19 October 1997.
Almost a year after this broadcast Frank Gillard passed away
aged 89. Two years later the BBC inaugurated the annual Gillard Awards for
those working in local radio that would recognise the achievements and encourage excellence in
programming. They are a fitting tribute to a man who did so much for local
broadcasting.
No comments:
Post a Comment