Living Tomorrow and Tomorrow Today In 1969 the outcome of the Samples Committee Report (see London Line -colour) into the Overseas Television Services in the autumn of 1968 resulted, over a relatively short period of time, in a number of changes of program production.
The proposals for a new pattern of production were put to the Foreign Office by Film Division in late 1968. The proposals were discussed over a period of four days at meetings in the FCO in January 1969. The Chair for the meetings was the Head of Information Policy Department at the Foreign Office Caroline Petrie, with seven of her colleagues. Film Divisionwas represented by Frances Cockburn, Director of Films and Television Division, and John Hall, then Head of Overseas Television Production. The Film Division proposals were largely accepted.
The proposals were extensive and attempted to consider the impact of the changes on a variety of Posts. The proposals also had to take into account a requirement for some financial savings that were coincident with the Samples Report and were part of some overall financial savings that FCO were required to make.
The agreed pattern for future production is set out below:
This Week In Britain (TWIB) that had commenced production in 1959 was retained and was to continue in production. (it did so until issue 1127 in late 1979) Two versions of This Week In Britain were retained, the first for Mexico and other Latin American Countries as 24 Horas. The second was for Australia where it had a prime time slot on ABC Television and was also transmitted inNew Zealand and the Caribbean
London Line (Africa) that had commenced production in 1964 was also to be continued albeit in a single subject 5-6 minute format much in the manner of TWIB with distribution across Sub-Saharan Africa. The decision to retain the series reflected its popularity with television stations and the value of retaining these outlets. It was to continue until 1979.
The ending of London Line -colour in 1969 lead to a re-structuring of the television production operation to provide programs which would replace London Line -colour in all the countries to which it had been distributed together with AcquiLondres and Adwa Wa Aswat.
It was also decided to stop Calendar. In effect this meant moving away from programs that were produced each week (apart from This Week In Britain), to the production of packages of programs which would not be time sensitive.
In the first instance there were to be two strands, a 13 part program package of single subject profiles of interesting people together with packages of programs centered on science and technology. The latter reflected a growing policy pressure to produce programs that would support British exports.
The new series of science programs were Living Tomorrow and Tomorrow Today with a Latin American edition Hacia El Manana . These were to be produced in packages of 13 programs with a target of making a total of 39 programs or three packages of 13 programs each year.
Tomorrow Today and Hacia El Manana were both presenter led programmes, the former for English speaking audiences and the latter in Latin American Spanish and Portuguese. Living Tomorrow was a narrated series that enabled it to be offered widely in different language versions in the manner of Calendar. For the most part the three programs shared the same subjects though the presentation and style was unique to each program.
While science oriented, the objective for each program was clear, it was support of "the export trade", concentrating on new technological products together with industrial and scientific developments. Each program consisted of around 3 -5 items designed to support the UK export drive as well as the image of Britain as an innovative and inventive nation with a solid basis in scientific achievement. The series were very much in line with government policies to drive the export trade.
Evidence of the success of the series continued to be derived from letters from viewers responding to a caption at the end of each program inviting people to write to a PO Box number in London if they wished to know more about any item they had seen. It was a similar caption to that which had been on the end of each issue of London Line. There was a considerable flow of letters. Eventually success was also measured through sales of programs though this came in the late 1970s.
In putting forward proposals for these two strands COI believed they would appeal to managers of television stations since without clear “program appeal” the possibilities of transmissions would be that much less. Experience of the production of London Line had shown that interviews with interesting people doing interesting things almost always resulted in good programs. It was also the case that programs about science and technology also made for good viewing. Hence the proposals.
Thus, in summary, the production program was now to be:
Tomorrow Today that commenced production in 1969 and continued until 1974 for non-English speaking countries using voice over narration.
Living Tomorrow commenced production in 1969 and continued until 1983 with distribution to the English speaking countries of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean . This version used presenters. For the most part Tomorrow Today and Living Tomorrow covered the same subjects.
Hacia El Mananacommenced production in 1969 and continued until 1983 with distribution in Latin America in Spanish and Portuguese.
The Enthusiasts and Pacemakers were produced between 1969 to 1971 for distribution to Canada, Australia and other English speaking countries. They were essentially portraits of successful and interesting personalities. They were also to be produced in packages of 13 programs
No Two The Samewere foreign language versions of Pacemaker were made between 1969 to 1971 for distribution across the Arab world (a sort of replacement for Ad WaAswat), Francophone Africa and Latin America.
London Television Service (LTS) that was a generic title for the increased production of news items that became known as London Television Service News Features.
1970 Living Tomorrow, Tomorrow Today and Hacia El Manana Adam Leys recalls: Around this time John Hall was moved became Head of Home Film Production. I applied for his post and became the Head of Overseas Television Production or executive producer for a group of programs which were well established and running strongly.
The science series of Tomorrow Today and Living Tomorrow were interesting and varied, and revealed the differences between scientists, some of who would harrumph that their important life’s work could not possibly be shown in a sequence of only four or five minutes, and others who would get the point and talk clearly and concisely about the key importance of what they did – how we loved those men and women.
Altogether nearly three hundred editions of these programs were produced. They continued the magazine genre but were focused on science and technology. This focus obviated any discussion about hard and soft information since the programs were all moving to the same purpose and direction. As an example watch the following program.
Living Tomorrow Tie and Dye (click here to view from BFI) join Anne Maile, author of Tie and Dye as a Present Day Craft, for a snazzy introduction to the ancient fabric-dyeing technique sweeping the fashion scene. Can't afford the ready-made versions sported by the energetically flailing models? No problem, Anne is on hand for a no-fuss demo of this most democratic of crafts, beloved of 60s psychedelics, 90s ravers and countless junior school art classes in between. Filmmaker Peter Greenaway was on editing duty - one of several jobs for the COI early in his career.
The series definition as programs about science and technology made them appealing to television stations since it was common practice to have air time space for specific genres such current affairs, sports programs, travel programs and very likely, science and modern living programs as John Hall confirmed when visiting Australia and Canada in 1969 with “ paste up” versions of the proposed series.
For a flavour of the subjects and their production writer/researcher Jenny Lucas provides some memories:
In 1978 I joined the science magazine program, Tomorrow Today, produced at that time by Richard Reisz.
Living Tomorrow - Premature Babies One of my first stories was a single subject program concerning advances in the treatment and care of extremely premature babies. We filmed at University College Hospital, London and our story focused on a nine year old girl Antoinette, who was one of the first low-weight premature babies whose survival was determined by a new technique of measuring and delivering oxygen to a tiny baby’s immature lungs. This technique, devised by Professor Osmond Reynolds, dramatically raised the survival rate from about 10% in the early sixties to over 70% at the time of filming’ and with a greatly reduced risk of brain damage. We filmed babies in the neonatal unit and then Antoinette being regularly monitored by the UCH medical team and celebrating her ninth birthday at home.
That Living Tomorrow film was reborn about ten years later when I was asked to work on a half hour film about the latest advances in premature baby science for the Perspective series. I returned to University College Hospital where advances in oxygen delivery had enabled them to successfully treat even tinier babies. Our young star of Living Tomorrow continued to be monitored by UCH and I asked if we could film Antoinette again. She came with us to the neonatal unit and saw, for the first time, very low-weight babies in their incubators. We captured her reactions intercut with the Living Tomorrow footage of her shot a decade earlier. She appreciated the extraordinary science that had secured her life, and we could show viewers a delightful young woman just beginning her studies at college and looking with true wonder at the tiniest of babies clinging to life and surviving, just as she had.
The fast developing technology of the computer naturally played a large and important part in our programs. Towards the end of the seventies and early eighties if the subject matter was in the least scientific our interviewee was invariably positioned by us next to or in front of his (it was usually “his”) computer. As it achieved iconic status, the computer might be also there for no other purpose than to lend high-tech design status to the story. In the early days this resulted in an unfortunate visual side-effect. If the camera rate of 25 frames a second did not precisely match the refresh rate of the computer imaging the computer screen would appear to go berserk. It took ages to position interviewee and flashing screen in such a way as to minimise the flashing, jiggling distraction. So it was a happy day, some time in the 80s when our cameraman David Chilton brought along a “gismo” that stabilised the situation and the poor demented screen was cured of its madness.
Another Living Tomorrow story filmed at the end of the seventies (directed by Eddie Newsted) was about the difference the computer had made to the rigorous tests all airliners had to undergo to keep them safely in the air. At British Aerospace we filmed part of the regular “D-Check” in which over 100,000 rivets embedded in the plane’s wing were checked for signs of metal fatigue. This used to be done by manually removing and checking individual rivets and then putting them all back again. New technology made it possible to use an ultrasound probe to “see” below the surface of the wing. The rivet was imaged on an adjacent screen where even the slightest fault in any rivet could be seen without the need to be removed from the wing. This was stunning science, but what was also interesting with the passage of years is to be reminded of how huge these early computers were. The technician is seen kneeling on the wing using a small hand-held probe. Then the camera pans from the wing to the large, washing machine sized computer and screen resting on a nearby gantry. Now, thirty years later, the electronics are miniaturised within the hand probe or even a robot scanner.
1978/9: LIVING TOMORROW INK-JET PRINTING Producer: Richard Reisz, Director Peter Greenaway This was about the new electronic technique of printing from computers and some of the pioneering science was happening at Cambridge Computers, an applied research company attached to Cambridge University. It was the first major development in printing since Caxton’s printing press. Thin jets of ink were vibrated into tiny droplets which could be programmed to any configuration required, from alphabet letters to decorative shapes These were hurled onto a surface material of almost any texture or shape at the rate of fifteen hundred characters a second, and without the need for any kind of contact pressure; an end to hot metal pressed hard onto flat paper. This is now standard in our computer printers and for the retail packaging and printing industries. In the late seventies it was an astounding concept and one that Cambridge Computers was just about to launch on the world.
Richard Reisz sent Peter Greenaway and I to recce their prototype ink-jet printer in action. I remember the train journey from London to Cambridge and the scope of Peter’s imagination as we explored ideas about how to convey visually to our viewers the significance of this invention. We drew up a list from corrugated cardboard or soft tissue paper to silk scarves and flower petals. I added fried egg yolks (I lived to regret this). And then we arrived in Cambridge.
The research scientists listened patiently to our ideas although they were probably a little underwhelmed by the film makers’ fantastical plans for the story of their research.. We needed their total cooperation and some preparation on their part to see if silk scarves and knife handles and corrugated cardboard and egg yolks could be successfully printed on. They showed us ink-jet printing on paper and cardboard and on some kind of dress fabric and promised to experiment with other materials before we returned for filming. We realised when we saw the experimental unit that we would have to find a way of visually explaining how thousands of droplets a second were programmed to form words something an ordinary camera could not capture on film.
Richard Reisz, who always knew as much, or more about our film subject than we did ourselves, spent some hours with us and a graphic designer to plan a short animated sequence which worked very well.
The shoot day was very busy. Peter had also wanted to see if we could print onto a live butterfly wing. This proved impossible, but the egg yolks were promising. I had brought a frying pan and about 18 eggs with me that morning (more than plenty I thought) and using a hotplate in the lab’s coffee room I kept a regular production line on the go. But it wasn’t easy to land the ink-jetted word “egg” dead centre of the yolk. Even with computer adjustments the word would persist in sliding to one side, and the eggs were running out! Round about the 16th egg we achieved a satisfactory take, and then one more for luck. It was fascinating but complex science to explain. Neither Peter nor I had a scientific background. After one specially difficult session trying to make sense of a particular computer instruction in relation to the ink droplet formation Peter announced with a despairing sigh that he had come to believe this level of impenetrable science must simply be accepted as an act of God.
I have mentioned Peter Greenaway in several pieces. This is probably because years later he may became known to film historians as one of the great film-makers of this age, but film historians may not know much about this very early stage of his career. Apart from all that he was a strikingly unusual character. In my first year or so I would sometimes glance out of our open office door around lunch-time and see across the landing two figures talking and walking circuits at some speed, like Elizabethan courtiers exercising in a Long Gallery. One was tall and thin and seemed to do most of the talking, his listening companion was much shorter. I later found out the tall young man was Peter, an editor, with his assistant (name unknown). When he came to work with us he was quite unlike anyone I had ever known. He had piercing eyes and the look of a puritan or a self-denying hermit. In the summer his austere look, was occasionally relieved by a wide-brimmed straw hat worn with some flair.
Some people, usually those who had never worked with him, spoke of him as “full of himself”. To work with he was courteous and appreciative unless aroused by stupidity when his steely authority would be evident. He never wasted a minute with small talk or, it seemed with any thing not directly material to the work in hand.
To follow Jenny's memories here are a few indicative programs from the 300 or so programs that were produced. As with other series information about many of the programs nonexistent. Four examples of programs follow:
Living Tomorrow 144: consisted of three stories. The first was a story about a new “active suspension” for motor vehicles. The second was a new device for monitoring the level of mosquito infestation that would valuable in many of the countries to which the program would go. The third story was about the use of cobalt in new precision treatment of cancer cells.
Living Tomorrow155: consisted a program based on a single theme of renewable energy. It demonstrated several new ways of harnessing energy from renewable sources.
Living Tomorrow 268: looked at the work of the Intermediate Technology Group who research devices to assist the developing world to avoid waste of precious natural resources.
Living Tomorrow 273: this three part program demonstrated solutions to technical problems. The first was a new plastic wound dressing that behaved like real skin that improved the rate of healing. The second was a corrosion free plastic water pipe strong enough to support a heavyduty pump in subterranean wells and a new computer system which codified pictures and symbols into a form of morse code enabling Open University students to exchange ideas.
Such information that exists about other programs in the series can be found under the heading "The Films We Made" on the Navigation Bar. If anyone has any more information about the series please make write in using "Contact Us" on the Navigation Bar.
In 1983 the three science programs were subsumed into a new series called Perspective. This series were produced as 30 minute programs. It was the first series to be made in this longer format. The decision to move to this length of program was heavily influenced by feedback from the Marketing and sales team. Again it was made in packages of 13 programs and became the final iteration of science programming.