[BBC General Television Training Course, 1958.] Folder compiled by the producer Charles Chilton, containing documents (typescripts and forms) relating to the course, headed by Andrew Miller Jones, another attendee being the poet Louis MacNeice.

A significant document in the history of BBC Television, casting valuable light on production practices and internal procedure in the years following the end of the BBC's television monopoly. From the papers of distinguished producer Charles Chilton (1917-2013), best known for his radio series 'Journey into Space' and association with the Goon Show. The present item relates to the first of the BBC Television Training Courses. Of the second course Olive Shapley recalls in her 1996 autobiography: 'In 1959 I attended the second BBC television training course, along with a very interesting group of people, some of whom later rose to great heights.' In 1962 the magazine Punch discussed the course, writing that the 'chief instructor is Mr. Andrew Miller Jones, a producer since the early days and founder of Panorama. Throughout, he stresses the sometimes-forgotten fundamentals: that television is not sound with vision added; that it is no use trying to pour information into the ear while offering the eye a busy and perhaps irrelevant picture'. The present item is a collection of duplicated typescripts (the discrete sections of the course) and printed forms, punch-bound into buff wraps with typewritten white label on cover: 'B.B.C. Television Course April-June 1958'. The typescripts total around 75pp, mainly on foolscap 8vo. Occasional pencil annotation. At the start of the file is a TLS to Chilton from Gwen M. George, on behalf of Andrew Miller Jones, 'Chief Instructor, Television, 27 Marylebone Road', dated 22 April 1958, welcoming him to the 'GENERAL TELEVISION TRAINING COURSE: 29th April to 10th June 1958'. There is a full-page alphabetical list of the eighteen men taking part, each with job title, and including two 'Overseas Guests'. The list includes: 'MR. CHARLES CHILTON | Producer, Light Entertainment (Sound), seconded to Television Light Entertainment.' Also on the list is the poet 'MR. LOUIS MacNEICE | Features Producer, seconded to Television Talks and Drama Departments.' The other sixteen are: John K. Body, D. G. Bridson, T. K. Butcher, Patrick Dixon, David Godfrey, Rob Gunnell, S. V. Lotterby, Peter Murray, Rev. C. V. Sproxton, Laurence Stapley, Leslie Wheeler, Edward Wilkinson, Gerald Wiltshire, William Wright, Claude Goretta (Switzerland) and Graham White (Australia). The file starts with a sixteen-page 'Time Table', with pencil annotations, and a six-page syllabus for 'Practical Productions Exercises' (featuring Chilton and the other attenders), followed by two pages of 'Requirements for practical production exercises'. (At the end of the folder are five pages, each headed 'Billing for Practical Production Exercises'. These include 'Empire Games Preview', 'Compere: Charles Chilton | Producer: Graham White'.) Sections include: 'Notes on writing plays for BBC Television (Issued by the Central Script Section)', 'The grammar of television production and the use of cameras | by Ian Atkins'; 'Cuts, Fades and Mixes' by Donald Wilson (dated 8 December 1955), 'Telecine/telerecording cueing at Television Studios', 'Technical Facilities: Electronic “Cue Dot”', 'Inlay and overlay', 'Central Script Section, Television' ('The best introduction to the workings of the Central Script Section is to follow the career of an unsolicited play script from the moment of its arrival at Television Centre to the day of its production, probably many months later.'), 'Standard studio technical facilities', 'Still and moving back projection', 'Requirements for practical production exercises'. With eleven copies of internal BBC forms, a few with pencil annotations, including 'Television Service | Design Department Budget Allotment', 'Programme acceptance sheet', 'Make-up and wardrobe cost', 'Part C – Film requirements', 'Presentation and Technical Cost', 'Casting Form', 'Wardrobe, hair & make-up requirements', 'Graphics requirements', 'Scenery requirements', 'Programme as broadcast'.