With an extensive directorial career beginning in 1960, Waris Hussain has directed several acclaimed and award-winning television and film productions and is perhaps best known for being the first director to work on Doctor Who in 1963 on its first serial, An Unearthly Child. As part of the celebrations to mark the first anniversary of the opening of Liverpool’s VideOdyssey – a VHS rental store (yes, in this age of streaming, somebody has opened a video rental store) which also houses arcade games and an impressive studio space – Room 5064 Productions hosted the latest in its series of ‘Audience With…’ events of Doctor Who alumni (previous events have included the director Graeme Harper and script editor of the series from 1982-86, Eric Saward) in VideOdyssey’s studio space which had three working cameras stationed in it to add to that TV studio vibe befitting the subject of the event.
The host for the event was Matt Charlton who introduced the first item of the day – a special screening (made possible with the help of the BFI) of a ‘Play For Today’ from 1976 which Hussain directed called 'Love Letters On Blue Paper'. The teleplay, written by Arnold Wesker and adapted from the short story of the same name, featured Patrick Troughton (the second actor to play Doctor Who, from 1966-69) as Victor Marsden, a former trade union boss who is dying from leukaemia, although he has kept this news from his wife, Sonia (Elizabeth Spriggs). Victor confides the truth in his friend Maurice (Richard Pasco), a middle-class university professor in the history of art, and shares with him letters written and sent by Sonia to Victor which express her feelings about their relationship and their courtship and early marriage in ways she feels unable to vocalise to him in person. While bound by the formal style of BBC dramas up until the mid-1980s, whereby exterior shots were captured on film inserts and the interior scenes shot on multi-camera video (meaning shots had to be planned in advance and actors thoroughly rehearsed so they knew where they were moving to on set), this does not restrict Hussain’s direction and contains an astonishing scene where Maurice enters the living room of the Marsden’s home and the camera pans 360-degrees around it. Troughton sports a convincing Yorkshire accent throughout and delivers a powerhouse performance as Victor goes through the five stages of grief as he faces the end of his life. Spriggs, meanwhile, portrays Sonia as a tough, no-nonsense wife who disapproves of the members of the union who ‘drain’ Victor’s spirit but whose initially stony appearance belies the warm, emotional person beneath (the scene near the end when she cries over Victor really pulled at the heartstrings). As a piece of archival television, 'Love Letters On Blue Paper' is a strong production within the famous (and for some, much missed) ‘Play For Today’ programme strand, although it is marked by the production style of the time (there is a voice-over delivered by Pasco which often tells the audience exactly what we are seeing and thus seems to a more modern audience somewhat redundant).
Following the screening, Charlton and Hussain sat down for the first interview, where Hussain was able to reflect on 'Love Letters On Blue Paper', this being the first time he had seen it since its transmission in 1976. Charlton proved to be a very well-researched and patient interviewer and gave Hussain the time to answer his questions and provide anecdotes about his career. Speaking of the work he did on the Wednesday Play/Play For Today series, Hussain did say that he was proud of the work he had done and how privileged he felt to be able to work with such strong, talented actors as Troughton and others. While saying he was proud of his work, Hussain did not come across as someone subject to hubris but as a humble person who was very aware of their fortune in life giving them such an opportunity – and as the first Indian director to work at the BBC, Hussain was a trailblazer. Discussing the often ‘issue’ led basis of the ‘Play For Today’ dramas, Hussain said that when it came to working with scripts, ‘I always welcome a script which has an issue at stake.’ 1965, for instance, saw Hussain directed an adaption of ‘A Passage To India’ for the BBC, while later in his career he would direct the Suffragette drama 'Shoulder To Shoulder' (1974, produced by Verity Lambert, the first producer of Doctor Who), examine the abdication of Edward VIII in 'Edward And Mrs Simpson' (1978), and the AIDS drama 'Intimate Contact' (1987) which was one of the first television dramas to highlight that AIDS did not affect only homosexuals but that heterosexuals could be affected by it as well. In addition to his work on television, there was also discussion of his work in film from his first feature, 'A Touch Of Love' (1969) – which starred fellow Cambridge alumnus Ian McKellen, the musical 'Melody' (1971), 'Henry VIII And His Six Wives' (1972), and the TV movie of Barry Manilow’s musical 'Copacabana' (1985), which earned Hussain an Emmy award (although, with typical grace, Hussain said he felt the choreographer, Grover Dale, should have been given the award instead).
The event then moved into its second, more Doctor Who orientated half, with a screening of the 2013 drama, 'An Adventure In Space And Time', which focused on the genesis of Doctor Who in 1963 up to the departure of the show’s first lead actor William Hartnell in 1966. For this, Hussain provided a live commentary which was available to stream via the Twitch website and app and provided some interesting anecdotes – especially on how conservative the BBC were in the early 1960s – and enabled viewers to ask questions via the website which Hussain would then answer while the screening was happening. Some audience members, however, either chose to dispense with the commentary altogether or started listening to it but abandoned it (for this reviewer, the commentary was difficult to hear over the sound coming from the screening). In this drama Hussain was played by Sacha Dhawan who very closely resembled the young Hussain but, from the evidence of seeing the man himself, also his personality. While taking liberties with some aspects of the early days of Doctor Who for dramatic or budgetary reasons (the resistance from executives in the BBC to the show is depicted as coming through a single figure in the drama, whereas Hussain said in his commentary that Lambert was fighting off pressure from several people), 'An Adventure In Space And Time' (named after the brief description of the show in the listings of the Radio Times for the series’ first episode) still provided a fantastic nostalgia-fest for fans of the show (production and acting was superb throughout).
Following this screening, Charlton and Hussain returned for the second part of their interview and reflected on what the drama got right (Hussain did say that Hartnell’s reluctance about taking on the role was depicted exactly as it happened in real life) and what it was like working on the show in its infancy. One nugget of information was that Hussain was present when the theme tune (written by Ron Grainer) was first recorded (and he still has the original, Delia Derbyshire arranged version as his ringtone!). There was also discussion of the second Doctor Who story he directed, Marco Polo (1964), which is sadly missing from the BBC archives, having been wiped as part of the organisation’s policy at the time. Hussain praised the work of BBC designer Barry Newbery for the amazing sets he was able to create and squeeze within the confines of Studio D in Lime Grove studios, filled with its heavy cameras which had to be pushed by the operators whenever a zoom-in was needed. Hussain reflected that he felt that “we did as well as we could” with working within the confines of the studios and the BBC budget! Hussain also mourned the loss of the BBC’s Director Training Course where he cut his teeth as a director prior to working on the soap-opera Compact, where he was put through his paces by re-adjusting his directing on the spot as a camera malfunctioned during a live broadcast. As the event ended, Hussain said with a twinkle: “I’ve had a very good run and fortunately, I’m still running.” It was a fine way to wrap up a very pleasant event and celebration of one of Britain’s best television directors.
Reviewer - Andrew Marsden
on - 30/6/19
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