Brian Tesler (born 19 February 1929) is a British television producer and executive. His career encompassed British television's post-war evolution from a single-channel BBC to the beginning of today’s multitude of cable and satellite channels. He worked as a producer for Independent Television, as well as the BBC.
Tesler joined
BBC Television
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 193 ...
as a trainee Light Entertainment producer in 1952 and was put in charge of the Department's output of panel games, both finding and producing them, which he proceeded to do by introducing ''Guess My Story'', ''Find the Link'', ''The Tall Story Club'' and ''The Name's the Same''. He devised the ''
Billy Cotton Band Show
The ''Billy Cotton Band Show'' was a Sunday lunchtime radio programme broadcast in the BBC Light Programme from 1949 until 1968.
The band leader, Billy Cotton, was a larger-than-life Cockney character who started each show with the cry "Wakey-Wa ...
'', inventing
Billy Cotton
William Edward Cotton (6 May 1899 – 25 March 1969) as Billy Cotton was an English band leader and entertainer, one of the few whose orchestras survived the British dance band era. Cotton is now mainly remembered as a 1950s and 1960s radio a ...
's "Wakey! Wakey!" catchphrase, and worked with
The Television Toppers
The Television Toppers, sometimes known as The TV Toppers was a female dance company who performed mostly on BBC TV variety shows but were associated mainly with ''The Black and White Minstrel Show''.
History
Formed in the early 1950s by Leslie ...
who were the dancers on the early series of the show. He devised British Television's first request show ''Ask Pickles'' with
Wilfred Pickles
Wilfred Pickles, OBE (13 October 1904 – 27 March 1978) was an English actor and radio presenter.
Early life and personal life
Pickles was born in Halifax in the West Riding of Yorkshire. He moved to Southport, Lancashire, with his family i ...
. He worked with stage and screen stars such as
Gracie Fields
Dame Gracie Fields (born Grace Stansfield; 9 January 189827 September 1979) was an English actress, singer, comedian and star of cinema and music hall who was one of the top ten film stars in Britain during the 1930s and was considered the h ...
,
Julie Andrews
Dame Julie Andrews (born Julia Elizabeth Wells; 1 October 1935) is an English actress, singer, and author. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Fi ...
,
Tony Bennett
Anthony Dominick Benedetto (born August 3, 1926), known professionally as Tony Bennett, is an American retired singer of traditional pop standards, big band, show tunes, and jazz. Bennett is also a painter, having created works under his birth ...
,
Bob Hope
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was a British-American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer and dancer. With a career that spanned nearly 80 years, Hope appeared in more than 70 short and feature films, with 5 ...
and
Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza (, ; born Alfredo Arnold Cocozza ; January 31, 1921 – October 7, 1959) was an American tenor and actor. He was a Hollywood film star popular in the late 1940s and the 1950s. Lanza began studying to be a professional singer at ...
. As a technician, he worked with The Leslie Roberts Dancers which became
The Leslie Roberts Silhouettes
The ''Billy Cotton Band Show'' was a Sunday lunchtime radio programme broadcast in the BBC Light Programme from 1949 until 1968.
The band leader, Billy Cotton, was a larger-than-life Cockney character who started each show with the cry "Wakey-Wa ...
after technology on which he had been working.
With fellow ex-trainee
Ernest Maxin
Ernest Maxin (22 August 1923 – 27 September 2018) was a British television producer, director, dancer and choreographer. He is best known for his work in the 1960s and 1970s with Kathy Kirby, Dick Emery, Dave Allen, Les Dawson, and Morec ...
he co-produced and directed the first television comedy series by
Frank Muir
Frank Herbert Muir (5 February 1920 – 2 January 1998) was an English comedy writer, radio and television personality, and raconteur. His writing and performing partnership with Denis Norden endured for most of their careers. Together they wro ...
and
Denis Norden
Denis Mostyn Norden (6 February 1922 – 19 September 2018) was an English comedy writer and television presenter. After an early career working in cinemas, he began scriptwriting during the Second World War. From 1948 to 1959, he co-wrote the ...
, ''And So to Bentley'', starring
Dick Bentley
Charles Walter "Dick" Bentley (14 May 1907 – 27 August 1995) was an Australian-born comedian and actor of radio, stage and screen. He starred with Jimmy Edwards in ''Take It From Here'' for BBC Radio. He was a staple of and pioneer of radio, ...
,
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...
and
Bill Fraser
William Simpson Fraser (5 June 1908 – 9 September 1987) was a Scottish actor who appeared on stage, screen and television for many years. In 1986 he won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy Performance for his stage role in the play ''W ...
. He produced series with
Bob Monkhouse
Robert Alan Monkhouse (1 June 1928 – 29 December 2003) was an English comedian, writer and actor. He was the host of television game shows including ''The Golden Shot'', ''Celebrity Squares'', ''Family Fortunes'' and '' ''Wipeout'.
Early ...
,
Petula Clark
Petula Sally Olwen Clark, CBE (born 15 November 1932) is an English singer, actress, and composer. She has one of the longest serving careers of a British singer, spanning more than seven decades.
Clark's professional career began during the ...
, and ''Bathnight with Braden'', starring
Bernard Braden
Bernard Chastey Braden (16 May 1916 – 2 February 1993) was a Canadian-born British actor and comedian, who is best known for his appearances in UK television and radio shows.
Life
Braden was born in Vancouver, British Columbia, and educated ...
and written by Muir and Norden, which was BBC Television's first weekly comedy series, such shows until then only being broadcast fortnightly.
At
ATV from 1957 to 1960, Tesler took over ''
Sunday Night at the London Palladium
''Tonight at the London Palladium'' is a British television variety show that is hosted from the London Palladium theatre in the West End. Originally produced by ATV for the ITV network from 1955 to 1969, it went by its original name ''Sunday ...
'', with
Bruce Forsyth
Sir Bruce Joseph Forsyth-Johnson (22 February 1928 – 18 August 2017) was a British entertainer and presenter whose career spanned more than 70 years. Forsyth came to national attention from the late 1950s through the ITV series ''Sunday Night ...
as host. He produced specials built round such international artistes as
Rosemary Clooney
Rosemary Clooney (May 23, 1928 – June 29, 2002) was an American singer and actress. She came to prominence in the early 1950s with the song "Come On-a My House", which was followed by other pop numbers such as " Botch-a-Me", " Mambo Italiano", ...
and
Johnnie Ray
John Alvin Ray (January 10, 1927 – February 24, 1990) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. Highly popular for most of the 1950s, Ray has been cited by critics as a major precursor to what became rock and roll, for his jazz and blu ...
, devised and produced series of
Val Parnell
Valentine Charles Parnell (14 February 1892 – 22 September 1972) was a British television managing director and presenter, actor and theatrical impresario.
A former staple of stage production, his career in television started with the launc ...
's Saturday Spectaculars with
Max Bygraves
Walter William Bygraves (16 October 1922 – 31 August 2012), best known by the stage name Max Bygraves (adopted in honour of Max Miller), was an English comedian, singer, actor and variety performer. He appeared on his own television shows, s ...
,
Dickie Henderson
Richard Matthew Michael Henderson, OBE (30 October 1922 – 22 September 1985) was an English entertainer.
Early years
He was born in London. His father, Dick Henderson (1891–1958), was a music hall comedian and singer famous for his ...
,
Arthur Askey
Arthur Bowden Askey, (6 June 1900 – 16 November 1982) was an English comedian and actor. Askey was known for his short stature (5' 2", 1.58 m) and distinctive horn-rimmed glasses, and his playful humour incorporating improvisation ...
,
Harry Secombe
Sir Harold Donald Secombe (8 September 1921 – 11 April 2001) was a Welsh comedian, actor, singer and television presenter. Secombe was a member of the British radio comedy programme ''The Goon Show'' (1951–1960), playing many characters, m ...
and
Dave King, and devised and produced ''New Look'', a revue with a team of new performers including
Roy Castle
Roy Castle (31 August 1932 – 2 September 1994) was an English dancer, singer, comedian, actor, television presenter and musician. In addition to being an accomplished jazz trumpet player, he could play many other instruments. Following a vers ...
, whose television career the series began. In 1957, he received BAFTA's first award for Light Entertainment Production when the Academy was still the Society of Film and Television Arts. His last production was
Sammy Davis Jr
Samuel George Davis Jr. (December 8, 1925 – May 16, 1990) was an American singer, dancer, actor, comedian, film producer and television director.
At age three, Davis began his career in vaudeville with his father Sammy Davis Sr. and the ...
's first show for British TV in 1960.
As Director of Programmes at
ABC-TV and
Thames Television
Thames Television, commonly simplified to just Thames, was a Broadcast license, franchise holder for a region of the British ITV (TV network), ITV television network serving Greater London, London and surrounding areas from 30 July 1968 until th ...
during the 1960s and 1970s, he oversaw the first British television shows of
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Chairman of the Board" and later called "Ol' Blue Eyes", Sinatra was one of the most popular ...
,
Jack Benny
Jack Benny (born Benjamin Kubelsky, February 14, 1894 – December 26, 1974) was an American entertainer who evolved from a modest success playing violin on the vaudeville circuit to one of the leading entertainers of the twentieth century with ...
,
Peggy Lee
Norma Deloris Egstrom (May 26, 1920 – January 21, 2002), known professionally as Peggy Lee, was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, over a career spanning seven decades. From her beginning as a vocalis ...
and
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...
. He introduced ITV's first weekly series dedicated to the arts with ''Tempo''; British television's first late night chat show with
Eamonn Andrews
Eamonn Andrews, (19 December 1922 – 5 November 1987) was an Irish radio and television presenter, employed primarily in the United Kingdom from the 1950s to the 1980s. From 1960 to 1964 he chaired the Radio Éireann Authority (now the RTÉ A ...
''Live from London'' and its first hidden camera show ''
Candid Camera
''Candid Camera'' is a popular and long-running American hidden camera reality television series. Versions of the show appeared on television from 1948 until 2014. Originally created and produced by Allen Funt, it often featured practical jokes ...
'' (based on the American original) with Bob Monkhouse. Programmes he commissioned included ''
Thank Your Lucky Stars'', ''
Callan
Callan is a given name and surname of Irish and Scottish origin. It can derive from Ó Cathaláin, meaning ''descendant of Cathalán''. Callan can also be an Anglicized form of the Gaelic Mac Allin or Mac Callin. Notable people with the name includ ...
'', ''
The Benny Hill Show
''The Benny Hill Show'' is a British comedy television show starring Benny Hill that aired on the BBC and ITV (from 1969) between 15 January 1955 and 1 May 1989. The show consisted mainly of sketches that were full of slapstick, mime, parody ...
'', ''
Public Eye
Public Eye or The Public Eye may refer to:
* ''Public Eye'' (TV series), a British television series that ran from 1965 to 1975
* ''The Public Eye'' (TV series), a Canadian television public affairs television series which aired on CBC Televisio ...
'' and ''
The World at War
''The World at War'' is a 26-episode British documentary television series that chronicles the events of the Second World War. It was produced in 1973, at a cost of £900,000 (), the most expensive factual series ever produced. It was produ ...
''.
Tesler was a founder-director of both Thames Television and
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
; managing director and then chairman and managing director of
London Weekend Television
London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 unt ...
; and the founder-chairman of ITV's first venture into satellite broadcasting with
SuperChannel. During his career, he worked for four superiors:
Ronnie Waldman
Ronald Hartley Waldman (13 May 1914 – 10 March 1978) was a British radio presenter and television executive for the BBC.
Biography
Born in London, he was the eldest son of Michael Waldman OBE JP, a sometime Mayor of Hackney, and was educat ...
,
Lew Grade
Lew Grade, Baron Grade, (born Lev Winogradsky; 25 December 1906 – 13 December 1998) was a British media proprietor and impresario. Originally a dancer, and later a talent agent, Grade's interest in television production began in 1954 ...
,
Howard Thomas
Howard Thomas CBE (5 March 1909 – 6 November 1986) was a Welsh radio producer and television executive.
Early career
Thomas began his career typing invoices for a firm of wire-drawers in Manchester. While doing that job, he taught himself to ...
and
John Freeman; and when he became a broadcasting boss himself he appointed four future significant figures:
Jeremy Isaacs
Sir Jeremy Israel Isaacs (born 28 September 1932) is a Scottish television producer and executive, opera manager, and a recipient of many British Academy Television Awards and International Emmy Awards.
He won the British Film Institute Fellow ...
as his Controller of Features at Thames;
Michael Grade
Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth, (born 8 March 1943) is an English television executive and businessman. He has held a number of senior roles in television, including controller of BBC1 (1984–1986), chief executive of Channel 4 ( ...
,
John Birt
John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944) is a British television executive and businessman. He is a former Director-General (1992–2000) of the BBC.
After a successful career in commercial television, initially at Granada Television an ...
and
Greg Dyke
Gregory Dyke (born 20 May 1947) is a British media executive, football administrator, journalist, and broadcaster. Since the 1960s, Dyke has had a long career in the UK in print and then broadcast journalism. He is credited with introducing ' ...
successively as his Directors of Programmes at LWT.
Tesler retired in 1994, and has written two books about his life and career. The first, ''Before I Forget'', published in 2006, described his family life, growing up in London's East End Jewish community before and during the Second World War. The second, ''The Best Of Times'', published in 2016, is an in-depth account of his professional career as a producer of light entertainment in the 1950s and 1960s and then as a senior executive in independent television from the 1970s until 1994.
In December 2019 he was presented by Lord Michael Grade with the Television and Radio Industries Club's Special Award for his contribution to British television.
Bibliography
* ''Before I Forget: A Personal Memoir'
* ''The Best Of Times: A Personal History of British Television 1952-1994'
References
* https://web.archive.org/web/20150415181640/http://www.tric.org.uk/membership/brian_tesler.html
* http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/2496_brian_tesler_intervi.htm
* http://www.78rpm.co.uk/atv.htm#bb7
* https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-30333533
* https://web.archive.org/web/20150415180311/http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/billy_cotton.htm
* Turned Out Nice Again: The Story Of British Light Entertainmen
* The Making of Channel Fou
* Armchair Theatre: The Lost Year
* The World At Wa
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tesler, Brian
1929 births
Living people
BBC television producers
Channel 4 people
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
English Jews
Place of birth missing (living people)