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Scratching Shed Publishing

Television

Revelations of a TV Director – Royston Mayoh

by Royston Mayoh

Royston Mayoh was – and by reputation remains – one of the biggest names in British television production. In a career spanning seven decades, this writer and director turned actor and performer went from sweeping the studio floor at ABC TV studios in Didsbury, Manchester, to being recognised as one of the most prominent producers of his generation, responsible for such household names as Opportunity Knocks and This Is Your Life, earning the friendship and respect of their hosts, Hughie Green and Eamonn Andrews, in the process.
Later, his expertise was in demand in such countries as Belgium, Japan, India, Australia and the USA. He was a force behind Tommy Cooper shows, The Kenny Everett Video Cassette series and many major events.
Having found late-life fame in front of the cameras as a star of the ITV hidden camera show Off Their Rockers, nowadays he is most likely to pop up on screen in numerous commercials and cameo roles in such audience-pullers as Emmerdale and Death Comes To Pemberley. Here for the first time are his memoirs, a treat for any television aficionado. Lights! Camera! Action…
With a Foreword by Freddie ‘Parrot Face’ Davies

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Wrestling in Honey

The Selected Writings of Martin Kelner

With an introduction by Gary Lineker

‘By popular demand’ is one of those phrases like ‘we must do lunch’ and ‘your delivery will arrive between 9.00am and 10.00am’ that we have learned to take with a pinch of salt.
But in the case of the pieces in this book it is arguably true.

Admittedly, we only have the author’s word for it, but he swears that barely a week goes by – okay, a fortnight – without him receiving an email or a Tweet asking why an adoring public can’t enjoy his gimlet-eyed take on broadcast sport and addiction to half-remembered street jokes in the press or online these days.

The answer is that the current broadcasting landscape means we are all streaming madly or scrolling through our phones at different times, meaning a joke about the late football commentator John Motson’s jacket, which might have played to an appreciative audience of millions a decade ago, might now evince no more than a puzzled frown.

However, on rescuing these pieces from the dustbin of history – Martin’s laptop actually – there seemed merit in the view that a half-decent joke is a half-decent joke whenever it’s told. We think there are a few in this collection.

Where possible we have tried to supply a bit of context, and there are fragments of memoir too, previously unpublished, for anyone interested in the author’s ‘journey’ – as publishers seem contractually obliged to call everybody’s life these days.

We need a laugh in these difficult times – unless there’s been a recent economic miracle, in which case disregard. The good news is that age has not withered those in this long-awaited volume, nor custom staled their not quite infinite variety.

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