{"id":46661,"date":"2024-02-27T09:00:13","date_gmt":"2024-02-27T08:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1995736"},"modified":"2024-02-27T11:01:49","modified_gmt":"2024-02-27T10:01:49","slug":"on-the-60th-birthday-of-vision-on-we-celebrate-a-creative-powerhouse-that-inspired-a-generation","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/on-the-60th-birthday-of-vision-on-we-celebrate-a-creative-powerhouse-that-inspired-a-generation\/","title":{"rendered":"On the 60th birthday of Vision On, we celebrate a creative powerhouse that inspired a generation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The BBC’s weekly wonder wasn’t just a much-loved entertainment show, it also launched countless careers and gave us Pat Keysell and Tony Hart and Aardman and Sylvester McCoy… <\/p>

By Mark Braxton\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Tuesday, 27 February 2024 at 08:00 AM<\/p>

\n\n

Vision On was always a gem in the children\u2019s TV schedules \u2013 and now it\u2019s a diamond, 60 years old on 6th March. Between 1964 and 1976 it entertained children \u2013 and let\u2019s face it, their parents \u2013 with a quickfire and visually exhilarating mixture of comedy, creative ideas, multi-format animations, mime and viewers\u2019 artworks.<\/p>\n

It was also (full disclosure) this writer\u2019s favourite show as a youngster. For my short-trousered self, Tuesdays were the highlight of the week. In school break times, my best friend and I would draw pictures related to, and inspired by Vision On, in excited anticipation of that day\u2019s new episode. In later years other friends and I would try to mimic the show\u2019s high-speed comedy hero, The Prof (more of whom later), and his gag-packed comedy adventures, in our own Super-8 films.<\/p>\n

No two episodes were the same, and each one was lapped up by its eager audience, but it wasn\u2019t just viewers who appreciated the series\u2019 genius. It sold all around the world, from Australia to America, and from France (where it was called D\u00e9clic) to Israel (where its title translated as \u201cMagic Magic\u201d). It won the Prix Jeunesse International award in 1972, as well as BAFTAs for children\u2019s programmes in 1971 and for specialised series in 1974.<\/p>\n

Joan Bakewell, writing in Radio Times<\/strong> in 1976, said the programme was proof that \u201cgrown-ups don\u2019t need to be confined to an adult ghetto. I find Vision On one of the most upbeat, original and refreshing things I ever see on television.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
Tony Hart and Pat Keysell in the Vision On studio in Bristol in 1970 \u2013 along with the puppet Prof.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

\u201cIt was a wonderful programme to work on,\u201d says Vision On cornerstone Clive Doig, who adds, \u201cWe were a very happy team.\u201d A friend of Radio Times<\/strong>, and supplier of the magazine\u2019s Trackword puzzle since 1980, Clive worked on 96 episodes of Vision On plus some specials, mostly as a director but on the final series as producer.<\/p>\n

\u201cBack then quite a lot of people didn\u2019t know how television was made,\u201d says Clive, 83. \u201cAt the time a chap I was speaking to over the fence at the bottom of my garden, said, \u2018I love that programme, I watch it every week.\u2019 I said, \u2018Actually I direct that\u2019 and he said, \u2018What do you do for the rest of the week?\u2019 He thought I only worked for half an hour a week!\u201d<\/p>\n

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Clive Doig at home in Kew, south-west London, with the BAFTA he won in 1981 for Jigsaw, a children\u2019s series he created and directed when Vision On came to an end. Clive Doig<\/em><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Clive is steeped in classic British television. He joined the BBC straight from school in 1958, operated a camera on Hancock\u2019s Half Hour and was a vision mixer (an \u201cinstant editor\u201d cutting between the different cameras) on the first series of Doctor Who and Dad\u2019s Army, and also The Likely Lads. He joined Vision On when he was on attachment to children\u2019s programmes.<\/p>\n

Devised in 1964 by BBC producers Ursula Eason and Patrick Dowling, Vision On evolved from a series called For the Deaf, which had run for 12 years from 1952. \u201cThe resident director did his back in so Patrick asked if I would like to direct the fourth episode of that series,\u201d explains Clive. \u201cI said yes I would, and he then said you can direct the lot. I directed every one since then.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat first series that I worked on in 1971 won a BAFTA, and then in 1974 for the best specialised series, beating Dr Jacob Bronowski\u2019s The Ascent of Man, which was quite extraordinary!\u201d<\/p>\n

Though originally intended for the hard of hearing, it was also, as Clive puts it \u201cfor everybody else because it was so visual\u201d. As Radio Times<\/strong> described the programme on day one, it was a series \u201cwhere pictures speak louder than words\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Presenter Pat Keysell photographed in 1972, with the \u201cBurbles\u201d clock in the background.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Input came from far and wide. \u201cWe had a little cottage industry of regular contributors: animation artists, film directors who made little visually interesting films, many stop-motion film contributors\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cOne film source was a couple of students and their names were David Sproxton and Peter Lord. Patrick and I saw their output, a line-drawing animation of a kind of Superman who did all sorts of surreal things like moving a manhole and then, having moved the manhole, he just falls down it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe said, \u2018Yes, please be regular contributors.\u2019 When I was watching one of their rushes of this Superman, at the end of it they\u2019d tagged on another little bit of film. It was stop-motion of a cube of plasticine that turns into a cat, which then ate its own tail and disappeared. So I really loved that. They did a few more and one was a character that became Morph\u2026 And of course the superhero was called Aardman. They were super, super-brilliant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aardman Animations, as they became, would be the world-conquering producers of Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep and many other hits.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
The incomparable Tony Hart pictured in 1980 with Morph, whose creators Peter Lord and David Sproxton made their name with a series of animations on Vision On.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Other fixtures of Vision On included comic-strip-style mini-stories involving captioned conversations between Humphrey the Tortoise and a little girl called Susanne; or between The Burbles, invisible creatures who lived in a grandfather clock; the animated unearthings of The Digger on a construction site; and a cartoon cuckoo who was always losing the numbers from its clock.<\/p>\n

For the hearing demographic of the audience, all of these were enlivened by clever use of signature tunes. \u201cGillian Rose was in charge of music,\u201d says Clive. \u201cShe was one of the PAs and she chose most of the music for all the little bits of film we had, so we had a music PA, we had a props PA, we had all sorts\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

And so to the core team of Vision On\u2026<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot\n<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n<\/div>
The fantastic four\u2026 Vision On\u2019s core quartet in the early days: from left, resident artist Tony Hart, main presenter Pat Keysell, mime artist Ben Benison and inventor Wilf Lunn.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Pat Keysell had made her TV debut on For Deaf Children. Having trained in mime at the Central School of Speech and Drama, she introduced that art form to the show. And she resigned as a production assistant in the BBC drama department so that she could go freelance to present Vision On, for which she used sign language as well as speech to bridge the gap between hearing and non-hearing viewers.<\/p>\n

If Vision On had catchphrases, Keysell delivered them both: \u201cNow, it\u2019s time for The Gallery\u201d before the popular two-minute exhibition of viewers\u2019 art, and \u201cI\u2019m sorry we can\u2019t return any of your pictures but we give a prize for all those we show\u201d after it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWonderful Pat Keysell! Pat was terrific as the front presenter,\u201d says Clive. \u201cWhen I was first assigned to Vision On, she had been there for many years. I think she really enjoyed breaking away from a rather plodding, stultified programme [For the Deaf] into a madcap programme of surreal ideas and visual comedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was basically \u2013 maybe in a motherly sort of way \u2013 taking the viewing children on a journey of visual delight. Her manner and presence, with the slight madness of the rest, was reassuring to the viewers. She was a delight to work with, never upset or having thespian needs of favour or grandeur.\u201d<\/p>\n

#OnThisDay<\/a> 1972: Tony Hart, Pat Keysell and the ‘Vision On’ team celebrated their 100th episode.The programme was made for deaf and hearing children, and featured art, mime, music and animations. pic.twitter.com\/V3B9k28CTG<\/a><\/p>\u2014 BBC Archive (@BBCArchive) March 7, 2021<\/a><\/blockquote>