Wargaming Media: Battleground - Part 6, Final thoughts and reflections.

Origins:

Whilst I don't know whose idea Battleground was, or who originally commissioned the series, the most obvious roots of the show would appear to derive from the Edward Woodward/Callan/Peter Gilder links. 

Callan was a British TV series, in which Edward Woodward portrays a reluctant hit-man, working for a shady quasi-governmental espionage unit called 'The Section'. I don't know how far back Gilder's involvement went - I've seen credits for the old black and white TV series that mention Hinchcliffe (was Gilder already involved at this stage?) - but he certainly supplied figures, terrain, and advice, to the production team that subsequently made the 1974 spin-off movie Callan, based on the first episode of the TV series, A Magnum For Schneider. 

Going back a stage further, as to whose idea it was to have Callan and other characters in the series interested and involved in wargaming... well, once again, I don't know! If anyone does, I'd love to hear from you! As mentioned above, Callan the TV series spawned Callan the movie, the picture below capturing a time-out moment where the crew relax on set with the stars.

On the set of the Callan movie: There's one figure I'd love to add to my wargaming collection... the delectable Catherine Schell! Left to right beside her are, director Don Sharp, Woodward as Callan, and Peter Gilder, in a nice checquered sports-jacket and kipper-tie combo, with super-seventies 'tache and sidesweep! Is it any surprise he's beaming so beatifically as Schell handles his geni... sorry, generals?

Making The Programmes:

As part of my research for these posts I tried to track down any members of the production team I could find. Several key figures, like director Gavin Taylor and script-writer and researcher Barbara Sinclair have, sadly, passed away. But I did manage to find a couple of the team, one of whom was Robin Sinton, VTR Editor of the show. 

An associate of Gavin Taylor, Sinton worked with Taylor on many programmes, with an accent upon musical projects, amongst the most famous of which (and occasionally infamous) would be the Legendary Channel 4 music show The Tube! However, Battleground predates The Tube!

Here's a partial transcription of relevant extracts of Robin's portion of our telephone conversation: 

RS: 'We were pioneering ... Many years later we produced a series called 'Sheds', which was basically about what men get up to in their sheds ... that was picked up on later by Channel 4. It was the same with Battleground, we did it first, and then later Channel 4 did their version [Game of War, 1997] ... We'd had the [beautiful] figures and scenery, they did theirs with these ... little plastic counters .... Ours was the first and ours was the best!'

'At the time I did enjoy it... I found it fascinating ... Of course, there was the use of dice, to represent the element of chance, but I was surprised at how closely it followed historical events ... Everybody knows that Waterloo could've gone either way! ... I didn't find them [the players] nerdy at all, their background knowledge was quite amazing. And, of course, the models were absolutely magnificent.'

'Because of the physical size of the models, and needing to get sufficient depth of field, we needed three times as much light on the table as you would need in, say, an ordinary drama. And the result, with the cameras working with close-up lenses, was that not only did the table warm-up, but so would the players. We'd have to take a break, so everything could cool down.'

Battleground was filmed in the main Tyne Tees studio, which was 'big by regional television standards... at the time it was the biggest studio we had ... Editing was starting to seriously influence how programmes were made ... It's difficult to remember [how long was spent editing, but] it was time consuming ... I remember burning the midnight oil... The actual editing didn't take too long; schedules wouldn't allow it... it was the pseudo-animated parts that would take the real time...'

'Battleground was recorded on two-inch Ampex 'Quadraplex' video tape ... it was a transitional period ... we were using a primitive time-code ... The filming was done in sections .... in-between times we would film the pictorial interludes ... there were parts of near-animation - we were trying to make it visually interesting ... We were doing a lot of things for the first time ... '

I asked if Robin he knew about a fire destroying any of the archival film stock - a rumour I pickd up somewhere whilst reading about the series elsewhere - but he wasn't aware of such an event. He did, however, have more general observations about the practices of the time:

'Tyne Tees [were] very, very bad at archiving. Some of the stuff went to the University of Teesside. When one-inch [video-tape] came in, around '79/'80... the storage problems ... a 90 min reel weighed over a stone! ... We heard from the structural engineers... 'You need to move that [the film archives on the 1st floor] before it goes there [through the floor] of its own accord! An awful lot of stuff went into a skip! ... London Weekend lost an entire drama series!' 

'I imagine if I was to see it now it would look phenomenally dated. To be quite honest, we [Tyne Tees TV] produced some absolute crap! ... At the time it was fun... and I think Battleground was amongst the good stuff.'

At the time of posting Robin has a landscape photography exhibition showing at Joe Cornish's gallery, in Northallerton, which runs for about 3 months. Sinton still does occasional video editing work, as well as acting as an advisor to NCFE (Northern Advisory Council for Further Education) on video-editing training standards. His photography website can be visited here.

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A cropped portion of the 1978 Battle magazine feature on the show is the only thing I could find to illustrate the lost episodes.

The Missing Episodes:

I can't recall where I first read it, but, as already alluded to above, I did read somewhere that there had been a fire at a storage facility, and that as a result the original film stock for - and here I'm not sure - either the whole series, or perhaps just the two missing episodes, was lost... probably forever! [1]

If this is true this is a terrible pity. One might live in hope that, as the digital age really sets in, old programmes like this might, like the books made available by the Gutenberg Project, gradually come online, as part of a vast cyber-cultural archive.

The two episodes not preserved on home-made copies on video (or subsequently transferred to DVD) are:

Episode 3 - Battle of the Nile, 1798. A naval battle set during the Napoleonic Wars.

Episode 5 - France, 1944. An imaginary game set in Northern France after D-Day. [2]

Gavin Lyall, author of thrillers such as this one, pictured above, played his son Bernard in episode 5.

At the time of writing all I can say about the Nile battle, presumably based on the naval affair between the British and French fleets at Aboukir, is that 1) it was the only naval engagement featured in the series, and 2) the players were Steve Birnie and John Harrison.

It is a shame that these two are missing, as they both have unique qualities: the first (or rather 3rd, episode wise) because it's the only naval scenario, and the second (in fact the 5th), the France 1944 WWII battle, being the only imaginary scenario. 

The latter game was a battle between thriller author Gavin Lyall and his son Bernard, who also co-authored a book on wargaming WWII, Operation Warboard, pictured below. I'm not certain of this, but one respondee to my posting about these articles (on TMP) has suggested that they used their own rules in this lost episode.

It would've been fascinating to see a father and son battle! I've tried to reach Bernard Lyall, but it's not been easy, and so far I've not heard anything back. But, perhaps, at some future point, he might be able to tell us a little about this episode? I secretly hope that he might have it on video, or something, as a keepsake, in which case an interesting historical gap might perhaps be filled.

Working together: as well as fighting each other - hopefully mostly over the wargaming table - the Lyall father and son team also published this book on WWII wargaming (on the same imprint as dad's thrillers!).

Where Are They Now?

As I said in my introduction to this series of posts on Battleground, I share Terry Wise's view that we owe the production team a debt of gratitude, for what they did in publicising our hobby. Also, in preparing historical pieces of research like this - and up until very recently I was writing a monthly 'classic album' column for UK mag Drummer - I always wind up thinking 'Where are these people now? And what, if anything, are they up to?' So I set about looking into everyone involved; sadly some are now departed, and of others I could find practically no trace in cyber-space, but here's what I did find out.

Leslie Barrett - Exec. producer: - I've not been able to find anything on Leslie Barrett, even to determine if they were male or female!

David Chandler - Historical consultant: (Jan 15th 1934 – Oct 10th 2004): 'David Geoffrey Chandler was a British historian whose study focused on the Napoleonic era.' (Wikipedia) A prolific author, Chandler is probably best known for his three volume epic, The Campaigns of Napoleon. Chandler was an early re-an actor, involved with the ECW group Sealed Knot, and would also occasionally appear on military-themed historical TV programmes, such as Napoleon Bonaparte - The Road To Moscow, a documentary about on Napoleon's fatal Russian adventure in 1812. He was also amongst the military/historical consultants to the 1972 BBC War And Peace TV series, starring Anthony Hopkins, et al.

Paddy Griffith - Historical consultant: (Feb 4th, 1947 - June 25th, 2010): 'Dr Paddy Griffith was a British military theorist and historian, who authored numerous books in the field of War Studies. He was also a wargame designer for the UK Ministry of Defence, and a leading figure in the wargaming community.' (Wikipedia) For more on Paddy Griffith, look here.

The back of Dr. Paddy Griffith's head, as he lectures military bigwigs (from his 'legacy' homepage, see above link) [3].

Charles Wesencraft - Historical consultant: Based in northern England (I thought, form his name, he might be American!), and involved in the Tyne & Wear museum services, Wesencraft was known for having written some early wargaming rule books, and was also a knowledgeable local! Thanks to Robbie Rodiss (see the comments below), I've learned that Wesencraft is - at the time of posting - alive and well, and still involved with the wargaming community in the same neck of the geographical woods.

Peter Gilder - Tech. consultant: A legendary figure in the British wargaming world. Gilder was chiefly known as a figure designer, whose beautiful (and notably shiny) Connoisseur figures and incredible terrain frequently enlivened issues of Miniature Wargames. These images were a massive draw to me, when I occasionally bought the mag in my teens. Indeed I usually bought it only when plenty of his splendid Napoleonic collection were featured heavily in those pages. 

Gilder also set up the famous Wargames Holiday Centre. A first of kits kind, as far as I know, which has spawned several imitators, and is still going now, albeit in a different location. Gilder died ... well, I can't find out exactly how or when! Given what a wargaming legend he was, it's surprising, and I think a little sad, that I couldn't find out much more about him in terms of personal biography. He is, however, mentioned in Harry Pearson's wonderful Achtung Schweinehund, if you want to know a little more.

Tim Trout - Production Design: Trout appear to have been a close associate of director Gavin Taylor, and like Taylor to have worked for Tyne Tees, predominantly in music-related areas.

Robin Sinton - VTR Editor: - According to his own potted autobiography Sinton worked 'for too long' in television, including a long stint with Tyne Tees. Nowadays he is a freelance video editor & photographer.

Barbara Sinclair - Research & Script: a close friend and associate of producer Alex Murchie, Sinclair passed only very recently, about 18 months ago at the time of posting (acc. to Alex Murchie).

Gavin Taylor - Director: (c. 1942 - June 12, 2013) Taylor was, like Edward Woodward and theme tune composer Neil Richardson, amongst the cream of Britain's media elite. A highly successful film & TV director, with a speciality in music programmes, he produced the legendary series The Tube! (With Jools Holland and Paula Yates fronting), and went on to all kinds of successes.

Alex Murchie - Producer: Murchie has enjoyed a long and successful career, and, like several others involved in this series, has a long history of involvement with cultural and especially musical affairs. When I emailed her during my research for this post she was working for the charity Music In The Minster.

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The above were all credited for their involvement in the series. Last of all I come to the uncredited composer of the excellent theme tune, Neil Richardson. 

Neil Richardson - composer: (Feb 5th, 1930 – Oct, 8th 2010) An 'under the radar' Titan of British TV and light music, Richardson sometimes worked under the fabulous nom de guerre of Oscar Brandenburg, and his chief claim to fame, popular culture wise, is being composer of 'Approaching Menace', the theme tune for Mastermind. Richardson was a prolific composer and arranger who, in addition to the Mastermind theme, recorded a lot of widely varied music in many settings, including some bombastic big band pieces which occasionally accompanied that weird BBC noughts-and-crosses-girl test card (see my 1st Battleground post), such as 'Scotch Broth'! His obituary at the stage.co.uk says 'Neil Richardson’s name may not have been instantly recognisable, but his music certainly was.'

Where's the body? 

Obsession 

Preparing this post has only enhanced my already almost unhealthy obsession with the history of this hobby. In trying to find out about key personalities, like Peter Gilder, for example, I was dumbfounded at how little trace they had left outside of their work and it's legacy. I may try and remedy this terrible lacuna myself over future posts. In the meantime, I found the video below on YouTube, which is fascinating because you get to see Gilder and guests in his rather snazzy gaming room, filled with several huge tables, and lined with walls of shelves packed with figures...

Gilder, caught on camera: a screenshot from the YouTube video The Scarborough days of the Wargames Holiday Centre.

Affecting a cod Corsican-French accent: One day I too shall rule over such an empire... it is my destiny!

More wargaming on the telly?

Well, apparently there was another attempt at putting the game over on the small screen - Game of War (1997), alluded to above by Robin Sinton - but I know next to nothing about it. Anyone care to chip in and enlighten us?

Acknowledgements and links:

I'd like to thank those who I spoke to in preparing this post, especially Robin Sinton. It seems lots of wargamers are interested in Battleground, and many have posted about the programme and their memories of or their desire to see it. Two blogs that I feel I ought to mention would be unfashionablyshiny and vintagewargaming, both of which were very helpful to me in preparing my posts, tho' of course there are many others as well.

Here some related links:

- A post about Woodward and Battleground.

- Some nice screen captures from the Gettysburg game

- Some stuff about Edward Woodward and the Callan series/movie.

- A couple of great links from vintagewargaming: 'Callan, from Miniature Warfare May 1970' & 'Callan goes to war... again'.

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I sincerely hope this series of posts has been of interest? It's certainly been a pleasure watching the series and preparing these pieces. Please leave some feedback in the comment. Cheers, Seb.

Footnotes:

[1] Actually, during the course of posting these articles, I found out, thanks to Jeff on TMP, that the BFI have the series in their archives. Hopefully that means the whole series? If I can I'll sort myself out a viewing, and fill in the gaps a little.

[2] Episode info from IMDB.

[3] I say 'legacy' homepage because Griffiths passed away in 2010. Fortunately someone is maintaining his useful and interesting homepage. Actually the picture to which this note relates is from the Operation Sealion wargame, run by Paddy Griffith at the Staff College at Sandhurst, in 1974. In this fascinating Kriegspiel style wargame (which was novelised!) real life generals from the former Allied and Axis forces wargamed a Nazi invasion of England! Viewers who have watched the classic World At War TV series might recognise former fighter ace and Luftwaffe bigwig Adolf Galland, as one of the participants (on the right of the pic, with the 'tache).

Wargaming Media: Battleground - Part 1, Introduction

Battleground (1978) - Tyne Tees Television Series on Wargaming!

The Cover of the June 1978 edition of Battle magazine, in which there was an article by Terry Wise about the Battleground TV series.

Before I get started on my short series of posts about this venerable aulde TV series from the 1970s, I'd like to acknowledge all the interest in it that many other bloggers have shown, and through which I came to know of, and ultimately love, the programmes. At the end of the series I'll list everyone that I can think of to whom I'm indebted. And, where I can actually remember, I'll also acknowledge where some of the images came from. But to start off I'd like to express my profound thanks to DC, without whose help I certainly couldn't have written this: thank you, sir!

Battleground!

So, what exactly was Battleground? The chances are that if you're reading this, you might already know. But, if this is your introduction to the subject, please let me know via the comments. In essence it was, very simply, wargaming on the telly.

At the time, in an article that appeared in the June 1978 issue of Battle, Terry Wise (author, modeller and writer of rules) enthuses about 'this revolutionary series', with its 'cast of thousands', referring, of course, to the toy soldiers - '11,000 figures to be precise'. 

Battleground, produced for Tyne Tees Television would, 'for the first time give viewers the opportunity to see wargaming as it really is'. He further hoped, one might think rather optimistically, that 'the visually exciting side of the hobby should produce some favourable audience reaction for clubs.'

Terry Wise's article, as it appeared in Battle, June 1978. 

Well, truth be told, as several other bloggers on this topic have noted, it's quite difficult to make a wargame, which uses a collection of static models, visually exciting in the way TV, a medium of motion, is best suited to (Mind you, having said that, artist and wargamer Cristoph Mueller has recently done just this. See his short film here).

And actually, if we don our pedantry shako - as wargamers are all too often wont to do - and scrupulously dissect Wise's statements, they err a little, inasmuch as wargaming had already been given a starring role in mainstream TV, in the series Callan, and even in the spin-off movie of the same name.

Indeed, this was the reason the new series was presented by Edward Woodward, since he was the star of that TV series and the associated movie. 

When I first read about all this stuff, and even after seeing the Callan episode A Magnum For Schneider, I had wondered whether Woodward was genuinely interested in wargaming or not. This question was to be answered by watching the Battleground series, and researching this article, and I'll come back to it in due course.

Does this image answer the question I pose above, or is it just an early example of strategic marketing? I found the photo here, alongside some other great pics from the making of Callan.

I might argue that the scenes in A Magnum For Schneider, the original black and white 1967 episode from the TV series, and Callan, the 1974 movie (which was also based on the same plot as Magnum For Schneider), the latter perhaps most of all, do a slightly better job of making wargaming look like a dramatic and fun hobby. 

This is in part due to the games being embedded in a thriller about the shady world of hit-men and espionage, and not a little also to the presence of a very beautiful woman - actress Catherine Schell, in the role of Jenny, Schneider's moll - who looks on with a kind of bemused and indulgent half-interest!

Catherine Schell, sadly not very likely to be appearing at a wargames table near you! Actor Carl Möhner as Schneider perfectly captures the boyish grin toy soldiers bring out in a man.

So, whilst Wise is quite correct in enthusing over this debut for the hobby as a subject in itself, he is in error in the sense that wargaming had already been given a couple of airings at least, in the public eye. I would also argue that neither these Callan related instances, nor the Battleground TV series really show wargaming quite 'as it really is', rather, they show it 'as we might like it to be'.

What do I mean by this? Well, first of all there's the snazzy set, with backdrops, etc. - not to mention the future 'Equaliser' being on hand! - and then there's the fact that, with people like David Chandler and Peter Gilder as advisors, contributors and participants, the audience is treated to what were then the best of wargaming possibilities, in all sorts of respects, from the background research to the quality of the miniatures and terrain. 

Of course this was only right, the hobby, in the persons of all involved, did a good job of presenting itself in the best possible light.

But it's a bit like the gap between the best games one often sees in magazines or at shows, and, perhaps, one's own humble efforts: seeing a beautiful car, let's say a Porsche 356 (I just pick this car 'cause I've always rather liked the look of it! I'm not really much of a petrol-head, truth be told.) can make one more aware of and less happy about the fact one owns and drives, let's say, a Ford Focus! 

NB: that's not literally my car, it's just a generic pic off't web (altho' it is the same colour!).

Heck, I couldn't even justify running to this electric toy 356!

It wasn't just Terry Wise that was enthusing about the show in print at the time it came out, there was also a piece by Laurie Taylor, for the TV Times. I initially thought this might be the same Laurie Taylor who hosts BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed, but discovered the former - who had acted as a publicist for Tyne Tees TV at some juncture, hence the article - had passed on, whereas the latter is still going strong.

This is the TV Times spread, which, as far as I know, first came to light on't web here.

If you read the texts of both the Wise and Taylor articles, they are very nearly identical, which rather suggests they originate from the same source! There are small differences though, with Wise focussing, as a wargamer himself, on the players, noting that 'Despite the stresses of being filmed, it appears Peter Gilder and John Braithwaite engaged in quite a bit of their regular light-hearted banter, though other players were more tense because of the circumstances'. He also records the fact that 'Over a hundred wargamers were interviewed before picking the players, who had to be able to endure not only the pressure of the game, but the lights, effects, and cameras.'

What has this iconic BBC test card image got to do with the Battleground TV series?

In Taylor's piece, which I suspect, as he was the Tyne Tees publicist at the time, was the 'original', the little nugget that we glean, and which Wise leaves out, concerns one of the only members of the production team, besides the cameramen and other anonymous studio 'gaffers', who is not credited. 

I'd like to leave that, along with the above-pictured test card, as a bit of mystery, to be unveiled Agatha Christie style, at the end of my story. Can you guess what the connection is?

I quite agree with Wise when he says, right at the end of his article, that 'we all owe a debt to the team that has made this dream of recognition a reality.' He singles out the ladies involved, producer Alex Murchie and scriptwriter and researcher Barbara Sinclair, saying that they 'have shown that the female of the species is not after all afraid to enter into our male-dominated hobby'! 

Whether authors writing now would feel comfortable making such comments as this last observation, I'll leave open, but certainly I intend, at the end of this series of posts, to pay tribute to all involved myself, in some small way.
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