AVOIDING THE TRAPDOORS

Okay, I know what you're thinking. Do I really believe my life has been any more adventurous and interesting than anyone else's? Or is it pure ego that moves my fingers across the keyboard in a quest to tell the world about my exciting odyssey of discovery? Perhaps. But I was fortunate to have enjoyed a hugely privileged career and to meet some influential and truly inspirational people on my journey; exceptional human beings who made me count my blessings and to think seriously about the world around me. TRAPDOORS is as much their story as it is mine.  

  

It wasn’t all plain sailing, naturally, and although I was lucky to survive many of the situations I found myself in, the experience did help me to create an angle: not just a series of diary entries recording names and places, but a narrative based around the inescapable fact that I am severely accident-prone. Humour, therefore, had to be the key, and clearly unavoidable, because in the real world you just couldn’t write the script.

And so I set about writing it all down, hampered by the occasional memory loss that comes with the blurring of time, ever mindful that offending or misrepresenting those I had met had to be avoided at all costs, and setting out to make even the bizarre and the unbelievable an accepted and entertaining part of my erratic and eventful career. 

It had not been my initial intention to publish the stories in one hit. I tested the water with abridged versions in periodicals and newspapers and in this endeavour I was helped enormously by the online webcast Broadcast Freelancer and The Veteran magazine, a quarterly publication sent out to several thousand members of the TV industry, my stories rewritten for short-form consumption, complete with photographs and illustrations that would not appear in the finished book due to copyright restrictions (For my COPYRIGHT blog click on the Older Posts link below). 

The feedback from these publications encouraged me to finally publish, after a ten-year period of writing, rewriting and re-juxtaposing various chapters (whilst staying true to the chronology), followed by an intense marketing phase, targeting the informed and the famous, radio stations and the press (most notably a mention in Villages in Focus and an article in The Chichester Observer), and by immense good fortune attracting five-star reviews on amazon, which I sign off with in the hope that the spreading of word, will, in time help to reach a wider audience and make the whole journey even more worthwhile. 

  

5.0 out of 5 stars A really enjoyable read of the ups and downs in television

6 June 2019

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

Bob's book is a fascinating journey through the ups and downs of many years in broadcasting. Beautifully written with humour and jeopardy at every turn. If you want a flavour of life behind the camera on many ambitious well-known TV series, then this book provides a real insight. The only downside is yet again I feel I was obviously born too late to enjoy the 'glory years' of working at a time when there were so many exciting companies around.

SD

5.0 out of 5 stars A very enjoyable book

14 June 2019

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase

An entertaining and well written account of a talented life in broadcasting. A very enjoyable book.

JOHN R LANDON

5.0 out of 5 stars Such fun!

27 February 2019

Format: Paperback

This was a very easy read. Bob Harvey’s trip through the history of his career in film, video and TV production is a very engaging insight for anyone wanting a glimpse behind the scenes as an industry (and the author’s career) evolved over three decades. It helps to know a little of the jargon that he uses freely - as he does the names of companies, locations and fellow professionals – along with many of the celebrities with whom he has worked. Great fun – top marks.

IS HUMOROUS NARRATIVE BECOMING A LOST ART?

If recent experience is anything to go by, the answer for me, unfortunately, is yes. As a reader I want to be entertained. That doesn’t mean I have a desire to shun communal responsibility, close my eyes to the troubles of the world, be they social or political or involve dire injustice. Writers are supposed to draw our attention to these things, heighten our awareness of the planet’s troubles, reinforce the notion that love is blind and sure to leave us heartbroken, or that might is right, or that taking to a life of crime and drug addiction will result in the most tragic of consequences. 

Yet there is a difference between changing our perceptions of the world around us and filling our minds with constant dread. I’m relentlessly bombarded with the darker side of humanity's existence; in the daily news, in documentaries, in the newspapers, in films, and In books. I want occasionally to enjoy life; to watch a play or a film or read a book that lifts my spirits without sending me scurrying to some dark corner in despair.

In the 1920s and the depression years that followed, people flocked to the cinema to see the likes of Harold Lloyd, Charlie Chaplin and Laurel and Hardy as a respite from their troubles. The last thing they wanted was to be confronted with their problems on a giant screen, yet people like Chaplin were able to mix humour with pathos; to make people laugh while they reflected on the more serious issues, such as how we can often misjudge people and jump to false conclusions (City Lights), how love and companionship can be found in the most unlikely of situations (The Kid) or how it’s possible to look tyranny defiantly in the face no matter how grave the threat (The Great Dictator). Many films made during the war years, in fact, were designed to lift people’s spirits and keep them motivated, even in the midst of the most horrific and frightening of circumstances.

I recently watched a raft of films, littered with profanities, the majority of stories focusing on corrupt politicians, sex addicts, a suicidal woman caught in a hopeless love triangle, a mother driven mad by her psychotic son, two couples arguing non-stop in an apartment, a wife beaten senseless by her husband and then finding solace with another violent man, a variety of macho-men wandering around beating people senseless, and a scientist who creates a synthetic skin for a woman who turns out to be a former man. 

Many television writers understand that stories often work better at two levels. Steptoe and Son is a comedy, yet it features two penniless rag and bone men, one an aged father, the other a son who is unable to break away and find a life for himself because of his parental ties. Darlene Hunt’s scripts for The Big C tackle the serious issue of cancer head on, pulling no punches but always holding out the hand of hope. And its one-liners hit home whilst making us smile: When Cathy’s estranged husband asks why she has thrown him out, she puts a hand on her son and says, ‘I couldn’t cope with looking after two children, so one of you had to go.’ It’s a funny line but the arrow finds its mark and the situation resonates with millions of people.

There is also much to enjoy and celebrate and I’d like to spend some of my time immersing myself in an imaginative, well-plotted story or unashamedly having a good laugh. So a big thank-you to Bill Bryson, Sue Townsend, William Goldman, Woody Allen, Muriel Spark, Galton and Simpson, Tom Sharpe, Nora Ephron, Charlie Kaufman, Billy Wilder, Douglas Adams, Patrick Campbell, Kingsley Amis, John Sullivan, Mel Brooks, Neil Simon and David Nicholls for lightening my load and giving me food for thought whilst ENTERTAINING ME.