With a less
colourful and much longer time at the BBC was his eldest brother Roger. (1) Details
of Roger’s early life remain sketchy other than he was Charterhouse educated,
failed at the law and had worked for the Foreign Office. By the time he’d been
recruited to the BBC by his brother Peter in February 1924 (a case of nepotism
that would send the current Minister at the DCMS into a frenzy) he’d had a
spell as secretary of the Littlehampton Golf Club and a failed attempt to be a
chicken farmer. Ideal BBC administrator material it seems.
Eckersley
rose quickly through the ranks, starting as Assistant Controller (Programmes)
where he also had responsibility for some early Outside Broadcasts, taking over
chairmanship of the Programme Board in May 1926, appointed Director of
Programmes in 1927 and, after a management re-organisation, Director of
Entertainment in 1933. Subsequently he was Assistant Controller (Programmes),
Director of Regional Relations and Assistant Controller (Regions). During the
Second World War he headed up the American Liaison Unit.
Another
string to his bow was as a composer with his best known composition being It’s Just the Time for Dancing (2), the opening
theme used by Henry Hall’s band that was, rather neatly, the first piece of
music heard from the newly opened Broadcasting House in March 1932.
During his
tenure at the BBC Eckersley was instrumental in some of the decisions that set
the template for British radio broadcasting. When the General Strike was
bringing the country to a halt he’d argued for the creation of a news team
rather than exclusively rely on the news agency reports; he was part of the
Pronunciation Committee alongside playwright George Bernard Shaw and poet
Robert Bridges; he held protracted negotiations with Sir Thomas Beecham on the
formation of a permanent orchestra for the corporation (this was to be the BBC
Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Adrian Boult following Beecham’s
withdrawal) and he helped persuade the theatre owners and entertainment agencies to let their
artistes appear on the radio. On the
other hand, showing something of a detachment from the majority of listeners, he
did express the view that broadcasting should cease between 7 and 8 pm because
everyone would be dressing for dinner.
Eckersley
was highly valued by Director-General John Reith. One of his contemporaries
(speaking anonymously to Reith’s first biographer Andrew Boyle) said “he was a
marvellously smooth operator in the field of social and public relations. He
even taught Reith how to fasten a bow tie without turning a hair, and nobody
resented his position as one of Reith’s favourites for several years. A select
house at No. 21 Thurloe Square was leased, equipped, maintained and run at the
expense of the BBC so that Roger could deploy his social graces officially and
to the full.” Not all agreed with this practice; one of the BBC governors, Mrs
Ethel Snowden, was of the opinion that “our employees should not be exposed to
the danger of constant entertainment of people of artistic temperament.”
The early
development of the BBC had seen the growth of regional broadcasting – partly
out of a necessity due to the limitations of technology and transmitters. Chief
engineer Peter Eckersley was particularly keen on developing this service to
ensure that listeners could enjoy alternative programmes to the main radio
station. Conversely his brother Roger was a proponent of greater
centralisation, which is indeed what happened in the 1930s, and he was more
metropolitan in his outlook. He wrote:”More has been made of civic pride and
amour proper than has been necessary.” In a memorandum to station directors of
November 1928 he argued: “Take from London what you cannot do better yourself,
and do yourself what London cannot give you.”
In the view
of David Cleghorn Thomson (Scottish Regional Director), Roger was “the greatest
enemy of regional initiative and independence, and an enthusiast for just the
bloated centripetal ‘mugwumpery’ that his brother feared.” Despite this, or
maybe because of this, Eckersley became Director of Regional Relations in 1937
and Assistant Controller (Regions) the following year.
With the
outbreak of World War II the National and Regional Programme were combined into
one Home Service. Eckersley was put in charge of an American Liaison Unit and was
therefore the man having overall responsibility for censoring American
broadcasts, although he spent much of his time lobbying for greater access.
That access included supporting Ed Murrow’s famous rooftop London After Dark broadcasts during the Blitz.
Eckersley
retired from the BBC in 1945 and the following year wrote about his time with
the Corporation in The BBC and All That.
(3) For the BBC’s 90th anniversary extracts from this book were
abridged by Neil Cargill and read by James Fleet.
Broadcast on
23 November 2012, in the first programme we hear of the rapid expansion of the
BBC, why the performers in radio drama should remain anonymous and how to
pronounce acoustics.
In the
second programme, from 30 November 2012, we take a tour of Broadcasting House, hear
about audience research and how not to address the Queen.
Roger Huxley
Eckersley 1885-1955
(1) There
was also a third middle brother Tom who was also partly involved in radio as a research
engineer at Marconi.
(2) Other tunes
he wrote include The One in the World,
Blue Lagoon, Pigtail Alley, Sentimental Moon, Just a Voice, Lake Isle of Innisfree, Deep Depression over Iceland Blues, Shopping, Three Encore Songs and a couple of two-step
pieces Fire Flies and Gnats.
(3) Published by Sampson, Low, Marston & Co Ltd in 1946. I’ve been unable to source a reasonably priced copy so if you happen to have this book and are willing to sell it (for a reasonable price!) please contact me. The following year Eckersley published a book of humorous verses titled Some Nonsense. With rhymes like “She reads him naughty bit from Byron. That stimulating little siren. She says there’s something mute in him. And longs to rouse the brute in him,” it is perhaps best avoided.
(4) Roger’s son Timothy also worked for the BBC and helped found the Sound Archives. He became Head of Recorded Services, was a Governor of the British Institute of Recorded Sound and founded the International Association of Sound Archives.
