BBC ORDERS FRANK MUIR TO LEAVE

NORMAN HARE
TV Staff

The BBC has given "notice to quit" to the three key members of their programme staff who are joining ITV. They are Frank Muir, assistant Head of Light Entertainment, Doreen Stephens, Head of Family Programmes, and Humphrey Burton, Head of Music.

They have been told that they should leave BBC premises by next Tuesday, although they will still be "on call." until their contracts expire.

They will receive their monthly cheques, and because of the BBC's decision several hundreds of pounds will be paid to them for being on call. A stipulation is than they should not work for the new Company they have joined until their contracts expire.

The three have taken appointments with the London Television Consortium, which will provide ITV programmes at the weekends from July next year.

'Friendliest terms'

Frank Muir's contract runs until November, but he will be leaving the TV Centre tomorrow at the end of a period when he has done a great deal to make the BBC's comedy programmes among the most popular of the week.

He said last night: "I was told on Tuesday that the BBC had decided they would rather I left at soon as I could hand over instead of working out my contract until November. The BBC has been a really good employer and we are parting on the friendliest of terms. Perhaps this is a five-month remission for good conduct."

All three who are leaving the BBC have been told that their contracts will be terminated at any time they wish if they do want to do work for their new company.

The Daily Telegraph (in 1967 still called The Daily Telegraph and Morning Post) is now Britain's biggest-selling broadsheet daily, owned by the Canadian-born Conrad Black.

The paper follows a Conservative line, and is widely recognised as having the largest daily news coverage.

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Technical staff, management, talent all disappeared into ITV quicker than the BBC could keep up with.  Remaining staff were offered inducements to stay or threatened and made to sign loyalty pledges in order to keep the BBC on an even keel.

When the ITV pattern was fixed, the BBC breathed a sigh of relief.  Staff comings and goings would be limited to the ordinary, expected degree of wastage and replacement.

Then the 1967-8 contract round happened - and the process started again, as technicians, management and talent again sold their souls to the commercial devil.  This time, the wounds went deep.  The BBC had experienced a revival of late, seriously challenging ITV and producing classic programmes remembered to this day.  They even had the long-awaited full colour service on BBC-2.  The regime of Director-General Sir Hugh Carleton Greene was enlightened and daring and the BBC had responded to this superbly.

Then Frank Muir, Doreen Stephens, Humphrey Burton, Denis Norden, Aubrey Singer, Donald Baverstock, Michael Peacock, Chief Engineer Bill Fletcher, Wynford Vaughan Thomas and scores of other talented BBC men and women began leaping across the frontier.

The BBC responded the only way it could - it immediately sacked anyone who gave notice of leaving to join an ITV company, denying them the five months notice they requested before their new jobs began.

Today, people jump from company to company, from BBC to ITV to Sky and back to the BBC, without so much as a murmur (unless they are highly-paid on-screen talent) in the press or from the companies themselves.

Once upon a time, leaving one camp for another was a permanent decision - the original company would not have a 'traitor' back.