Harman Grisewood
Encyclopedia
Harman Joseph Gerard Grisewood (8 Feb 1908–8 January 1997) was an English radio actor, radio and television executive, novelist and non-fiction writer. He acted as literary executor
to the poet David Jones
, a lifelong friend.
He was educated at Ampleforth College
and Worcester College, Oxford
. He joined the young BBC not long after graduating in 1927.
He was controller of the BBC Third Programme from 1948 to 1952. He is credited with the idea in 1966 for The Money Programme
.
In 1960 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
and also became a Knight of Grace and Devotion (Knight of Magistral Grace) of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
The BBC presenter Freddie Grisewood
was a cousin.
to and Lucille Genevieve Cardozo and Lieutenant Colonel
Harman Joseph Mary Grisewood. His mother was the youngest daughter (3 Aug 1881) of Henry O'Connell Cardozo, C.I.E.
and had been brought up in India. His father was born on 20 Oct 1879 at Gatwick House, Billericay
, Essex, educated at Beaumont, Downside School
, and Christ Church, Oxford
; and served in the Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry
, the Fourth Hussars
and 11th Bn Royal Sussex Regiment
. He served as Aide-de-camp
to George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
in South Africa
in the Boer war
. In 1909 he became Privy Chamberlain of Sword and Cape to HH
Pope Pius X
an honour which is known now as a Gentlemen of His Holiness
. He was a handsome, unreliable, sociable wanderer who Harman described as ‘one of Baudelaire’s true travellers.
Harman had two younger brothers, Peter Henry (15 Jun 1907-1973) and Gabriel Thomas (23 Mar 1910-17 Feb 1986) who was known as Tucks. His younger sister Mary Magdalen Lucy Teresa (11 Dec 1911-1950) was known as Missie. When he was young the family moved to the The Prebendal in Thame
, Oxfordshire, a rambling 13th century house, much of it in ruins, which had its own chapel and resident Catholic
priest - Father Randolph Traill. In his autobiography, One Thing at a Time (1968), he described an outing with his brother, nanny, nursemaid and pram
, when they were stoned by villagers as they approached the Anglican church. The nursery was the centre of the children's world, whilst adults and children were 'on equal terms' in the chapel. A devout Roman Catholic, he bemoaned the demise of the Tridentine Latin Mass
in 1962 but remained loyal to the Church as he explained in Why Am I Still a Catholic, published in 1980.
His grandmother Concetta Messina lived mainly at the Villa Marguerite at Grasse
, France, where she ran an eccentric household. After his Oxford days he spent time at Grasse; in Cyprus
where his family had property; and with an uncle in Malta
.
, along with his younger brothers. The classroom became his refuge and he befriended Father Bernard McElligot who was a key figure in both the monastery and school for over 25 years, and who remained a friend until his death in 1990.
He won a history scholarship to Worcester College, Oxford
and became a leading member of Oxford University Dramatic Society
(OUDS), where he befriended Robert Speaight
, Sir Gyles Isham, 12th Baronet
, Peter Fleming, Rupert Hart-Davis
, Baron John Redcliffe-Maud and Christopher Sykes
. In his last year he shared rooms with Sir Denys Buckley who became a High Court judge
, and to whom Grizewood said he owed a love of English ways. Theodore Komisarjevsky
cast him as King Lear
in his OUDS production.
as bombs fell around them. They then spent their honeymoon at Pigotts, Eric Gill
’s craft community set in the beechwood forest at Speen, Buckinghamshire
. Subsequently they lived at of Field House, Widford
, Ware, Hertfordshire and had one child.
, the last surviving member of the group of Roman Catholic intellectuals and artists that included David Jones, Tom Burns
and Rene Hague, Eric Gill’s son in law. Most of his visitors were half of his age. Grisewood was a worldly ascetic whose changeling quality can be seen in David Jones’s portrait now in the National Museum of Wales.
he spent many of his evenings at Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross’s parties at Yeomans Row, Knightsbridge
.
on The Children's Hour
for the BBC
at Savoy Hill House
. He was paid three guineas
so he resigned from Fortnum and Mason and spent the next four years acting in radio plays with the BBC Repertory
Company.
He performed with Peggy Ashcroft
, John Gielgud
and Ralph Richardson
when Val Gielgud
had just taken over the drama department. His most taxing effort was in Christopher Marlowe
’s Edward II
when, during the interval, he rushed to the Variety Studio to perform a Vaudeville
song in John Watt's show.
first chairman of Any Questions. He embarked on an arduous self-education plan catching up on T.S. Eliot and Christopher Dawson
whose Progress and Religion had great influence on him. Jacques Maritain
's neo-Thomistic
Art and Scholasticism became the central text for Grisewood and his Catholic friends. Like Eric Gill, who they admired they redefined the autonomy of art, denying the conventional distinction between the sacred and profane. Grisewood wrote we do not believe the art of Salvator Rosa was religious because he painted so many pious Madonna’s and the art of Renoir
was not because he painted none. They believed that lowly practices such as plumbing and feeding pigs were not to be despised and that the BBC announcing was part of the scheme of things.
Disillusionment set in over Edward VIII's abdication crisis
. In September 1936 he was involved in anxious discussions about what would happen if the King decided that he wished to broadcast without the previous knowledge of the government and the Director General. Grisewood felt that The King should be able to broadcast whenever he liked without any consultations and resolved that if he were on duty and received a telephone request from the King he would give him full facilities. The King’s broadcast was transmitted from Windsor Castle
with Lord Reith
in attendance, a watershed, and Grisewood knew that many of the values he believed in had been defeated permanently.
From 1936 until 1939 he was 'Assistant to the Programme Organiser'. From 1939-41 he was 'Assistant Director Programme Planning'.
to become second in command to Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick
at Bush House, London. Kirkpatrick, a career diplomat, had been transferred by the Government using its wartime powers, from the foreign Office to the new post of controller of the European division, responsible to the Director-General. Grisewood was appointed as a balancing influence with broadcasting skills. He was acting controller from 1945–1946.
Later in 1946 he was demoted to 'Director - Talks Division' (or Assistant head ) where he was restless, disliking the departmental in-fighting and what he saw as an increasing left bias and in July 1947 he resigned.
, the newly appointed head of the new BBC Third Programme
, persuaded him to return and within two months he returned as planner. Then from 1948-1952 he was controller of a Third Programme that became aligned so closely with his interests and attitudes as to be almost an extension of himself. Christopher Sykes worked as his assistant controller on the Third Programme, arousing suspicions of the 'Catholic Mafia'.
He saw the Third Programme as fundamental to our civilization as it was then on the great classical repertory of literature and music. Its finest hour was the Festival of Britain
in 1951. He was an unrepentant elitist, if elitism means grappling with the not immediately obviously. He believed that difficulty had a value, both in creative and in personal terms and eagerly accepted his role as defender of the highbrow in early post war Britain. The third programme should intensify or refine culture in an age of mass participation. He was aware of the dangers of cultural fragmentation between ‘experts’ in increasingly specialised academic and professional disciplines.
Grisewood was not especially surprised or disconcerted when, in 1948, there began to be reports of a downturn in the audience with only two third programme listeners per 1000 population. Indeed he enjoyed the denigration of the Programme by the ‘ hunting men and brigadiers’ The concept of “dumbing down” always appalled him and he write a very caustic and persuasive paper De procliviate ad levitatem ( “ of a propensity towards shallowness”) during the later part of his life.
and then Sir Hugh Greene. His close connection with Sir Hugh Greene involved him in the arguments surrounding new progressive policies at the BBC. Mary Whitehouse
, founder of the National Viewers and Listeners Association, inveigled him to a ‘a little supper party’ in a suburban semi-detached
house where five schoolgirl
s were present to demonstrate the damaging effects of sex on the TV screen.
of 1956 as a national war. Grisewood claimed that this included a plan to take over the BBC completely quoting Eden’s press secretary William Clark. Clark later maintained that the plans had never been so drastic but there was a buzz of scandal and the story was debated in the House of Commons.
At the time in question Sir Ian Jacob
, Director-General of the BBC
, was absent abroad. Grisewood insisted that differing views of the crisis taken by public and press must be reported in both overseas and UK broadcasts, and that the opposition had a right to reply to Government broadcasts. His influence was crucial in the Governor’s decision to resist pressure from Eden and to protect the BBC's tradition of impartiality.
Though a private person he loved feeling in the thick of things, the novelist in him revelling in complex narratives and intrigues. In retirement he reminisced about discussions with Harold Wilson
in the dead of night. He published three novels, The Recess, The last cab on the Rank, and a spy story Stratagem as well as The Painted Kipper. He possessed a writer’s itch producing stories, poetry and long observant funny letters in a lovely flowing hand.
in the 2008 TV programme Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
.
Literary executor
A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of a literary estate. According to Wills, Administration and Taxation: a practical guide "A will may appoint different executors to deal with different parts of the estate...
to the poet David Jones
David Jones (poet)
David Jones CH was both a painter and one of the first generation British modernist poets. As a painter he worked chiefly in watercolor, painting portraits and animal, landscape, legendary and religious subjects. He was also a wood-engraver and designer of inscriptions. As a writer he was...
, a lifelong friend.
He was educated at Ampleforth College
Ampleforth College
Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, England, is the largest Roman Catholic co-educational boarding independent school in the United Kingdom. It opened in 1802, as a boys' school, and is run by the Benedictine monks and lay staff of Ampleforth Abbey...
and Worcester College, Oxford
Worcester College, Oxford
Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in the eighteenth century, but its predecessor on the same site had been an institution of learning since the late thirteenth century...
. He joined the young BBC not long after graduating in 1927.
He was controller of the BBC Third Programme from 1948 to 1952. He is credited with the idea in 1966 for The Money Programme
The Money Programme
The Money Programme is a finance and business affairs television programme on BBC2.It was first broadcast on 5 April 1966 and presented by "commentators" William Davis, Erskine Childers and Joe Roeber. At this time David Attenborough was the controller of BBC2...
.
In 1960 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
and also became a Knight of Grace and Devotion (Knight of Magistral Grace) of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta.
The BBC presenter Freddie Grisewood
Freddie Grisewood
Frederick Henry Grisewood, known as Freddy Grisewood was a British broadcaster, who had a long and varied career with the BBC...
was a cousin.
Personal life
Harman Grisewood was born at Wormleybury ManorWormleybury
Wormleybury is a landscape park of 57ha and house near Wormley in Hertfordshire, England.The house, "Wormleybury Manor", was built by Robert Mylne in 1767-69, and embellished by Robert Adam in 1777-79.In 1825 the parish records from the Parish Church of St...
to and Lucille Genevieve Cardozo and Lieutenant Colonel
Lieutenant colonel
Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...
Harman Joseph Mary Grisewood. His mother was the youngest daughter (3 Aug 1881) of Henry O'Connell Cardozo, C.I.E.
Order of the Indian Empire
The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1878. The Order includes members of three classes:#Knight Grand Commander #Knight Commander #Companion...
and had been brought up in India. His father was born on 20 Oct 1879 at Gatwick House, Billericay
Billericay
Billericay is a town and civil parish in the Basildon borough of Essex, England. It lies within the London Basin, has a population of 40,000, and constitutes a commuter town east of central London. The town has three secondary schools and a variety of open spaces...
, Essex, educated at Beaumont, Downside School
Downside School
Downside School is a co-educational Catholic independent school for children aged 11 to 18, located in Stratton-on-the-Fosse, between Norton Radstock and Shepton Mallet in Somerset, south west England. It is attached to Downside Abbey...
, and Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...
; and served in the Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry
Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry
The Royal Buckinghamshire Yeomanry was formed in 1794, when King George III was on the throne and William Pitt the Younger was the Prime Minister, of Great Britain. Across the English Channel, Britain was faced by a French nation which had recently guillotined its King and which possessed a...
, the Fourth Hussars
4th Queen's Own Hussars
The 4th Queen's Own Hussars was a cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1685. It saw service for three centuries, before being amalgamated into The Queen's Royal Irish Hussars in 1958....
and 11th Bn Royal Sussex Regiment
Royal Sussex Regiment
The Royal Sussex Regiment was an infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 to 1966. The regiment was formed as part of the Childers reforms by the amalgamation of the 35th Regiment of Foot and the 107th Regiment of Foot...
. He served as Aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
to George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
George Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston
George Nathaniel Curzon, 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, KG, GCSI, GCIE, PC , known as The Lord Curzon of Kedleston between 1898 and 1911 and as The Earl Curzon of Kedleston between 1911 and 1921, was a British Conservative statesman who was Viceroy of India and Foreign Secretary...
in South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
in the Boer war
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
. In 1909 he became Privy Chamberlain of Sword and Cape to HH
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X
Pope Saint Pius X , born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, was the 257th Pope of the Catholic Church, serving from 1903 to 1914. He was the first pope since Pope Pius V to be canonized. Pius X rejected modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, promoting traditional devotional practices and orthodox...
an honour which is known now as a Gentlemen of His Holiness
Papal Gentlemen
The Papal Gentlemen, also called the Gentlemen of His Holiness, are the lay attendants of the pope and his papal household in Vatican City. They serve in the Apostolic Palace near St. Peter's Basilica...
. He was a handsome, unreliable, sociable wanderer who Harman described as ‘one of Baudelaire’s true travellers.
Harman had two younger brothers, Peter Henry (15 Jun 1907-1973) and Gabriel Thomas (23 Mar 1910-17 Feb 1986) who was known as Tucks. His younger sister Mary Magdalen Lucy Teresa (11 Dec 1911-1950) was known as Missie. When he was young the family moved to the The Prebendal in Thame
Thame
Thame is a town and civil parish in Oxfordshire, about southwest of the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury. It derives its toponym from the River Thame which flows past the north side of the town....
, Oxfordshire, a rambling 13th century house, much of it in ruins, which had its own chapel and resident Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
priest - Father Randolph Traill. In his autobiography, One Thing at a Time (1968), he described an outing with his brother, nanny, nursemaid and pram
Baby transport
Baby transport consists of devices for transporting and carrying infants. A "child carrier" or "baby carrier" is a device used to carry an infant or small child on the body of an adult...
, when they were stoned by villagers as they approached the Anglican church. The nursery was the centre of the children's world, whilst adults and children were 'on equal terms' in the chapel. A devout Roman Catholic, he bemoaned the demise of the Tridentine Latin Mass
Tridentine Mass
The Tridentine Mass is the form of the Roman Rite Mass contained in the typical editions of the Roman Missal that were published from 1570 to 1962. It was the most widely celebrated Mass liturgy in the world until the introduction of the Mass of Paul VI in December 1969...
in 1962 but remained loyal to the Church as he explained in Why Am I Still a Catholic, published in 1980.
His grandmother Concetta Messina lived mainly at the Villa Marguerite at Grasse
Grasse
-See also:*Route Napoléon*Ancient Diocese of Grasse*Communes of the Alpes-Maritimes department-External links:*...
, France, where she ran an eccentric household. After his Oxford days he spent time at Grasse; in Cyprus
Cyprus
Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the...
where his family had property; and with an uncle in Malta
Malta
Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in...
.
Education
In 1918, aged 10, he was sent to Ampleforth CollegeAmpleforth College
Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, England, is the largest Roman Catholic co-educational boarding independent school in the United Kingdom. It opened in 1802, as a boys' school, and is run by the Benedictine monks and lay staff of Ampleforth Abbey...
, along with his younger brothers. The classroom became his refuge and he befriended Father Bernard McElligot who was a key figure in both the monastery and school for over 25 years, and who remained a friend until his death in 1990.
He won a history scholarship to Worcester College, Oxford
Worcester College, Oxford
Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in the eighteenth century, but its predecessor on the same site had been an institution of learning since the late thirteenth century...
and became a leading member of Oxford University Dramatic Society
Oxford University Dramatic Society
The Oxford University Dramatic Society is the principal funding body and provider of theatrical services to the many independent student productions put on by students in Oxford, England...
(OUDS), where he befriended Robert Speaight
Robert Speaight
Robert Speaight was a British actor and writer, and the brother of George Speaight the puppeteer.He was an early performer in radio plays. He came to prominence as Becket in the first production of T. S. Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral. He went on to Shakespearean roles, and to direct.He also...
, Sir Gyles Isham, 12th Baronet
Isham Baronets
The Isham Baronetcy, of Lamport in the County of Northampton, is a title in the Baronetage of England. It was created on 30 May 1627 for John Isham, High Sheriff of Northamptonshire. He was succeeded by his son Justinian, the second Baronet. He fought as a Royalist in the Civil War and sat as...
, Peter Fleming, Rupert Hart-Davis
Rupert Hart-Davis
Sir Rupert Charles Hart-Davis was an English publisher, editor and man of letters. He founded the publishing company Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd...
, Baron John Redcliffe-Maud and Christopher Sykes
Christopher Sykes (author)
Christopher Hugh Sykes FRSL was an English author. Born into a wealthy north-of-England land-owning family, he was the second son of the diplomat Sir Mark Sykes ....
. In his last year he shared rooms with Sir Denys Buckley who became a High Court judge
High Court judge
A High Court judge is a judge of the High Court of Justice, and represents the third highest level of judge in the courts of England and Wales. High Court judges are referred to as puisne judges...
, and to whom Grizewood said he owed a love of English ways. Theodore Komisarjevsky
Theodore Komisarjevsky
Fyodor Fyodorovich Komissarzhevsky or Theodore Komisarjevsky, as he is better known in the West, was a Russian theatrical director and designer. He began his career in Moscow, but had his greatest influence in London...
cast him as King Lear
King Lear
King Lear is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. The title character descends into madness after foolishly disposing of his estate between two of his three daughters based on their flattery, bringing tragic consequences for all. The play is based on the legend of Leir of Britain, a mythological...
in his OUDS production.
Marriage
Grizewood married Margaret Clotilde Bailey in 1940. They spent their wedding night under the kitchen table in Chelsea with the essayist David JonesDavid Jones (poet)
David Jones CH was both a painter and one of the first generation British modernist poets. As a painter he worked chiefly in watercolor, painting portraits and animal, landscape, legendary and religious subjects. He was also a wood-engraver and designer of inscriptions. As a writer he was...
as bombs fell around them. They then spent their honeymoon at Pigotts, Eric Gill
Eric Gill
Arthur Eric Rowton Gill was a British sculptor, typeface designer, stonecutter and printmaker, who was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement...
’s craft community set in the beechwood forest at Speen, Buckinghamshire
Speen, Buckinghamshire
Speen is a village in the parish of Princes Risborough, in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located in the Chiltern Hills, about three miles south east of the main town.The village name is Anglo Saxon in origin, and means 'wood chips'...
. Subsequently they lived at of Field House, Widford
Widford, Hertfordshire
Widford is a village and civil parish in the East Hertfordshire district of Hertfordshire in England. After the Second World War it was the home of Arthur Ernest Percival.The "Apostle to the Indians," John Eliot was born in Widford....
, Ware, Hertfordshire and had one child.
Final years
He lived alone for his last decades in a little gothic house at Eye, SuffolkEye, Suffolk
Eye is a small market town in the county of Suffolk, East Anglia, England, south of Diss, and on the River Dove.Eye is twinned with the town of Pouzauges in the Vendée Departement of France.-History:An island...
, the last surviving member of the group of Roman Catholic intellectuals and artists that included David Jones, Tom Burns
Tom Burns (publisher)
Thomas Ferrier Burns , publisher and magazine editor, was an important figure in mid-20th-century Catholic publishing in Britain.-Life:...
and Rene Hague, Eric Gill’s son in law. Most of his visitors were half of his age. Grisewood was a worldly ascetic whose changeling quality can be seen in David Jones’s portrait now in the National Museum of Wales.
BBC career
He left Oxford with little sense of direction and took a job writing labels at Fortnum and Mason in London where he earned £3 per week. Very much part of the Brideshead generationBrideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred & Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder is a novel by English writer Evelyn Waugh, first published in 1945. Waugh wrote that the novel "deals with what is theologically termed 'the operation of Grace', that is to say, the unmerited and unilateral act of love by...
he spent many of his evenings at Patrick Balfour, 3rd Baron Kinross’s parties at Yeomans Row, Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
.
BBC Drama
In 1929 a friend from his Oxford days invited him read a chapter of IvanhoeIvanhoe
Ivanhoe is a historical fiction novel by Sir Walter Scott in 1819, and set in 12th-century England. Ivanhoe is sometimes credited for increasing interest in Romanticism and Medievalism; John Henry Newman claimed Scott "had first turned men's minds in the direction of the middle ages," while...
on The Children's Hour
Children's Hour
Children's Hour—at first: "The Children's Hour", from a verse by Longfellow—was the name of the BBC's principal recreational service for children during the period when radio dominated broadcasting....
for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
at Savoy Hill House
Savoy Place
Savoy Place is a large red brick building on the north bank of the River Thames in London, England. It is on a street called Savoy Place and Savoy Street runs along the side of the building up to the Strand. In front is the Victoria Embankment, part of the Thames Embankment. Close by are the Savoy...
. He was paid three guineas
Guinea (British coin)
The guinea is a coin that was minted in the Kingdom of England and later in the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom between 1663 and 1813...
so he resigned from Fortnum and Mason and spent the next four years acting in radio plays with the BBC Repertory
Repertory
Repertory or rep, also called stock in the United States, is a term used in Western theatre and opera.A repertory theatre can be a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation...
Company.
He performed with Peggy Ashcroft
Peggy Ashcroft
Dame Peggy Ashcroft, DBE was an English actress.-Early years:Born as Edith Margaret Emily Ashcroft in Croydon, Ashcroft attended the Woodford School, Croydon and the Central School of Speech and Drama...
, John Gielgud
John Gielgud
Sir Arthur John Gielgud, OM, CH was an English actor, director, and producer. A descendant of the renowned Terry acting family, he achieved early international acclaim for his youthful, emotionally expressive Hamlet which broke box office records on Broadway in 1937...
and Ralph Richardson
Ralph Richardson
Sir Ralph David Richardson was an English actor, one of a group of theatrical knights of the mid-20th century who, though more closely associated with the stage, also appeared in several classic films....
when Val Gielgud
Val Gielgud
Val Henry Gielgud was an English actor, writer, director and broadcaster. He was a pioneer of radio drama for the BBC, and also directed the first ever drama to be produced in the newer medium of television....
had just taken over the drama department. His most taxing effort was in Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe
Christopher Marlowe was an English dramatist, poet and translator of the Elizabethan era. As the foremost Elizabethan tragedian, next to William Shakespeare, he is known for his blank verse, his overreaching protagonists, and his mysterious death.A warrant was issued for Marlowe's arrest on 18 May...
’s Edward II
Edward II (play)
Edward II is a Renaissance or Early Modern period play written by Christopher Marlowe. It is one of the earliest English history plays. The full title of the first publication is The Troublesome Reign and Lamentable Death of Edward the Second, King of England, with the Tragical Fall of Proud...
when, during the interval, he rushed to the Variety Studio to perform a Vaudeville
Vaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
song in John Watt's show.
Announcer, Abdication crisis
In 1933 he joined the BBC staff as an announcer and continued until 1936, his voice becoming as familiar as that of his cousin Freddie GrisewoodFreddie Grisewood
Frederick Henry Grisewood, known as Freddy Grisewood was a British broadcaster, who had a long and varied career with the BBC...
first chairman of Any Questions. He embarked on an arduous self-education plan catching up on T.S. Eliot and Christopher Dawson
Christopher Dawson
Christopher Henry Dawson was a British independent scholar, who wrote many books on cultural history and Christendom. Christopher H. Dawson has been called "the greatest English-speaking Catholic historian of the twentieth century".-Life:...
whose Progress and Religion had great influence on him. Jacques Maritain
Jacques Maritain
Jacques Maritain was a French Catholic philosopher. Raised as a Protestant, he converted to Catholicism in 1906. An author of more than 60 books, he helped to revive St. Thomas Aquinas for modern times and is a prominent drafter of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
's neo-Thomistic
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
Art and Scholasticism became the central text for Grisewood and his Catholic friends. Like Eric Gill, who they admired they redefined the autonomy of art, denying the conventional distinction between the sacred and profane. Grisewood wrote we do not believe the art of Salvator Rosa was religious because he painted so many pious Madonna’s and the art of Renoir
Renoir
-People with the surname Renoir :* Pierre-Auguste Renoir , French painter* Pierre Renoir , French actor and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir* Jean Renoir , French film director and son of Pierre-Auguste Renoir...
was not because he painted none. They believed that lowly practices such as plumbing and feeding pigs were not to be despised and that the BBC announcing was part of the scheme of things.
Disillusionment set in over Edward VIII's abdication crisis
Edward VIII abdication crisis
In 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire was caused by King-Emperor Edward VIII's proposal to marry Wallis Simpson, a twice-divorced American socialite....
. In September 1936 he was involved in anxious discussions about what would happen if the King decided that he wished to broadcast without the previous knowledge of the government and the Director General. Grisewood felt that The King should be able to broadcast whenever he liked without any consultations and resolved that if he were on duty and received a telephone request from the King he would give him full facilities. The King’s broadcast was transmitted from Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
with Lord Reith
John Reith, 1st Baron Reith
John Charles Walsham Reith, 1st Baron Reith, KT, GCVO, GBE, CB, TD, PC was a Scottish broadcasting executive who established the tradition of independent public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom...
in attendance, a watershed, and Grisewood knew that many of the values he believed in had been defeated permanently.
From 1936 until 1939 he was 'Assistant to the Programme Organiser'. From 1939-41 he was 'Assistant Director Programme Planning'.
Wartime - Assistant Controller, European Division
From 1941–1945 Grisewood was 'Assistant Controller, European Division'. This was major leap from a relatively obscure post in Broadcasting HouseBroadcasting House
Broadcasting House is the headquarters and registered office of the BBC in Portland Place and Langham Place, London.The building includes the BBC Radio Theatre from where music and speech programmes are recorded in front of a studio audience...
to become second in command to Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick
Ivone Kirkpatrick
His Excellency Sir Ivone Augustine Kirkpatrick GCB, GCMG was a British diplomat who served most notably as the British High Commissioner in Germany after the war, and as the Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office -Summary:Kirkpatrick left school to join the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers...
at Bush House, London. Kirkpatrick, a career diplomat, had been transferred by the Government using its wartime powers, from the foreign Office to the new post of controller of the European division, responsible to the Director-General. Grisewood was appointed as a balancing influence with broadcasting skills. He was acting controller from 1945–1946.
Later in 1946 he was demoted to 'Director - Talks Division' (or Assistant head ) where he was restless, disliking the departmental in-fighting and what he saw as an increasing left bias and in July 1947 he resigned.
Third Programme
Sir George BarnesGeorge Barnes (BBC)
Sir George Reginald Barnes was a British broadcasting executive, who was a station Controller of both BBC Radio and later BBC Television in the 1940s and 1950s...
, the newly appointed head of the new BBC Third Programme
BBC Third Programme
The BBC Third Programme was a national radio network broadcast by the BBC. The network first went on air on 29 September 1946 and became one of the leading cultural and intellectual forces in Britain, playing a crucial role in disseminating the arts...
, persuaded him to return and within two months he returned as planner. Then from 1948-1952 he was controller of a Third Programme that became aligned so closely with his interests and attitudes as to be almost an extension of himself. Christopher Sykes worked as his assistant controller on the Third Programme, arousing suspicions of the 'Catholic Mafia'.
He saw the Third Programme as fundamental to our civilization as it was then on the great classical repertory of literature and music. Its finest hour was the Festival of Britain
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition in Britain in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote good quality design in the rebuilding of British towns and cities. The Festival's centrepiece was in...
in 1951. He was an unrepentant elitist, if elitism means grappling with the not immediately obviously. He believed that difficulty had a value, both in creative and in personal terms and eagerly accepted his role as defender of the highbrow in early post war Britain. The third programme should intensify or refine culture in an age of mass participation. He was aware of the dangers of cultural fragmentation between ‘experts’ in increasingly specialised academic and professional disciplines.
Grisewood was not especially surprised or disconcerted when, in 1948, there began to be reports of a downturn in the audience with only two third programme listeners per 1000 population. Indeed he enjoyed the denigration of the Programme by the ‘ hunting men and brigadiers’ The concept of “dumbing down” always appalled him and he write a very caustic and persuasive paper De procliviate ad levitatem ( “ of a propensity towards shallowness”) during the later part of his life.
1950s - Director of the Spoken Word
In 1952 Grisewood succeeded George Barnes as 'Director of the Spoken Word'. With responsibility of news, religion, talks and education, the job was powerful although as Grisewood commended “ the title was absurd” Here he was at the cutting edge of controversy since the most persistent complainants about the BBC policy were educationalists, politicians and clergy. The post was abolished in 1955 in the reorganisation that followed the setting up of a television news division.Assistant to Director General
He later became chief assistant to two director generals, first Sir Ian JacobIan Jacob
Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Ian Claud Jacob GBE, CB, , known as Ian Jacob, was the Military Assistant Secretary to Winston Churchill's war cabinet and later a distinguished broadcasting executive, serving as the Director-General of the BBC from 1952 to 1960.-Early life:Jacob was born in 1899 in...
and then Sir Hugh Greene. His close connection with Sir Hugh Greene involved him in the arguments surrounding new progressive policies at the BBC. Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse
Mary Whitehouse, CBE was a British campaigner against the permissive society particularly as the media portrayed and reflected it...
, founder of the National Viewers and Listeners Association, inveigled him to a ‘a little supper party’ in a suburban semi-detached
Semi-detached
Semi-detached housing consists of pairs of houses built side by side as units sharing a party wall and usually in such a way that each house's layout is a mirror image of its twin...
house where five schoolgirl
Schoolgirl
A schoolgirl is a girl attending either primary or secondary school, generally aged between four and eighteen years old.-Academic performance:This has led in some countries to calls for greater equality for education in the school system...
s were present to demonstrate the damaging effects of sex on the TV screen.
Writing
After his retirement Grisewood was at the centre of a major sensation. His autobiography One Thing at a Time (1968) described the conflict over Sir Anthony Eden’s attempt to force the BBC to treat the Suez CrisisSuez Crisis
The Suez Crisis, also referred to as the Tripartite Aggression, Suez War was an offensive war fought by France, the United Kingdom, and Israel against Egypt beginning on 29 October 1956. Less than a day after Israel invaded Egypt, Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to Egypt and Israel,...
of 1956 as a national war. Grisewood claimed that this included a plan to take over the BBC completely quoting Eden’s press secretary William Clark. Clark later maintained that the plans had never been so drastic but there was a buzz of scandal and the story was debated in the House of Commons.
At the time in question Sir Ian Jacob
Ian Jacob
Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Ian Claud Jacob GBE, CB, , known as Ian Jacob, was the Military Assistant Secretary to Winston Churchill's war cabinet and later a distinguished broadcasting executive, serving as the Director-General of the BBC from 1952 to 1960.-Early life:Jacob was born in 1899 in...
, Director-General of the BBC
Director-General of the BBC
The Director-General of the British Broadcasting Corporation is chief executive and editor-in-chief of the BBC.The position was formerly appointed by the Board of Governors of the BBC and is now appointed by the BBC Trust....
, was absent abroad. Grisewood insisted that differing views of the crisis taken by public and press must be reported in both overseas and UK broadcasts, and that the opposition had a right to reply to Government broadcasts. His influence was crucial in the Governor’s decision to resist pressure from Eden and to protect the BBC's tradition of impartiality.
Though a private person he loved feeling in the thick of things, the novelist in him revelling in complex narratives and intrigues. In retirement he reminisced about discussions with Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...
in the dead of night. He published three novels, The Recess, The last cab on the Rank, and a spy story Stratagem as well as The Painted Kipper. He possessed a writer’s itch producing stories, poetry and long observant funny letters in a lovely flowing hand.
Works
- Broadcasting and Society: Comments from a Christian Standpoint (1949)
- David Jones, Epoch and Artist: Selected Writings (1959) editor
- The Recess (1963) novel
- The Last Cab on the Rank (1964) novel
- David Jones: Writer and Artist (1965)
- One Thing at a Time (1968) autobiography
- The Painted Kipper: A Study of the Spurious in the Contemporary Scene (1970)
- David Jones, The Dying Gaul and Other Writings (1978) novel
- David Jones, The Roman Quarry and Other Sequences (1981) editor with René Hague
- Strategem (1987) novel
Media representation
Grisewood, in his position as Assistant Director General of the BBC, was portrayed by Nicholas WoodesonNicholas Woodeson
Nicholas Woodeson is an English film and television actor.-Education:Woodeson attended Marlborough College and studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.-Film:...
in the 2008 TV programme Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story is a 2008 BBC Television docudrama written by Amanda Coe, telling the life story of the British morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse...
.