Page 34 - 08_Bafta ACADEMY_Goldie Hawn & Jamie Bell_ok

All In A Day’s Work
SUE RADFORD’S
For most of the nineties the face of Sue Radford was one of the most recognised in Cumbria and South West Scotland. Her on-screen duties for Border Television included continuity and presentation, reporting and news reading, children’s and arts programmes and the occasional “special”. Very much a natural, she is now working again in London where her talents are happily immersed in the internet as part of a team developing an exciting new enterprise. She explains all to Ronald Allison.
24
SEVEN
Sue Radford was born prematurely, became a researcher at BBC Radio. That in
Gareth Hunt, he of The New Avengers and soon to be of Eastenders, who wanted to use the internet to give “resting” actors as wide an exposure as possible.
He was soon joined by David Rudland, who had been developing a simi- lar idea for locations and now, with Michael Wendt as Chief Executive, e-media- c covers the media, entertainment, fashion and the other creative industries. “It is not an agency, I am not an agent” says Sue firmly. “What we do is act as conduits.”
What the job does do is take Sue in a myriad of different directions, including, as often as possible, into BAFTA. Though one is a business, the other a charity, the two organisations have much in common. Sue hopes there will be more direct con- tact in future.
Having trekked in the Himalayas and climbed Mt Kilimanjaro, dizzying heights hold no terrors for her and that is where she wants the company to be. If it doesn’t get “up there” it won’t be through inactivity on the part of its PR and Business Manager. ■
two months ahead of her due date. Her family should have been warned! In a hurry to get into the world and then to get on with her
life, Sue has been on the move almost ever since always, though, with an end in view - to work in “the media.” Early heroines were Susan Stranks and Jenny Hanley on Magpie and then, as she widened her viewing to take in news, Anna Ford, Julia Somerville and Carol Barnes.
Before her own career could begin though there was her formal education to be completed, an Honours degree in History and Drama. There was also a huge culture change to be experienced as for three vacations she worked as a pro- gramme co-ordinator at Camp America , the enterprising series of summer camps held in the States. Meeting poor black children from inner-city San Francisco was a sure way of seeing how the “other half” lives.
The next two years were spent, again amongst youngsters, with the Christian organisation, Scripture Union, before Sue
turn led to appointments as a Production Assistant on Radio 4’s Call Nick Ross, Feedback and other magazine programmes. Then it was up the M6 to Carlisle.
After life in Border and back again in London Sue became project director of “Fanfare for a New Generation”. Backed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, the then Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster and other church leaders, its aim was to ensure that at the time of the Millennium, attention was firmly focused on the birth of Christ. Books, PR, audio visuals, a pro- gramme on the ITV network and a regular- ly published magazine were all part of the project. It was not entirely successful but it did do much to encourage people to think about what was being celebrated.
Now Sue is very much involved in the new generation of communications, Working for one of the newer kids-on-the- block, e-media-c.net, she says twelve hour days are the norm but no two days are ever the same. Just as she likes it! The company was originally the brainchild of
RI TA TUSHI NGHAM’ S
SIX OF THE BEST
Industry personalities hand out their very own BAFTAs
SIX OF THE BEST
BUSTER KEATON
The master of underplay,
allowing the audi- ence to be swept along with him and never telegraphing what is ahead. He makes anything pos- sible, is never ridicu- lous and whatever the situation you never question it. He is touching and funny – simply a joy.
CHILDREN’S MATINEES
The earliest memory I have of cine- ma was going to children’s matinees. The excitement would build, the lights would dim and then the ruched curtains in front of the screen would change colour magi- cally from red to green to blue. It was so exciting and dramatic and hooked me
completely... sometimes even more than the film!
BRITISH TV
Television in the UK is amongst the best in the
world. Comedy, drama, doc- umentaries, current affairs and sport. There is, how- ever, a growing trend to
dumb down TV and make us all voyeurs.
Soon nothing will be sacred.
During Ratings Week in the US, they
had three women giving birth live on a breakfast show (no pushing during the commercial break) then daddy cutting the cord in extreme close-up with squeals of delight from the birthing and tele- vision crews. They sneeze, we catch a cold.
SENSE OF HUMOUR
I couldn’t survive without it. In our wonderful world of make believe that loves and spurns you in no particular order, where we often take ourselves too seriously, to be able to laugh at yourself and with friends and colleagues keeps what can sometimes be an insulated world in perspective. After all, we’re not saving lives, are we?
FOOTBALL
Being born in Liverpool, football is in the blood. They expect you to be born wearing boots and the latest strip. My father was a huge Everton sup- porter and when I was very young he took me to my first game. From that moment, I was hooked. I follow both my home teams (which is allowed) and I try to watch as many games as possible. The atmosphere in the
ground before the game, the highs and lows that it takes you through for 90 min- utes – and the bliss when your team wins. Magic!
SIX OF THE BEST
LS Lowry, Spring flowers, music, fam- ily and friends, a long ago trip to the Teheran Film Festival with the most won- derful group of people providing memo- ries which still make us laugh, and being in a business which means you never have to grow up... ■
Rita Tushingham has been in films for 40 years ever since making her remarkable screen debut aged 20 in Tony Richardson’s A Taste Of Honey. Currently, she has written a short film, We’ll Meet Again, which she hopes to direct, and is also developing a feature film called Victory Girls, about a pio- neering women’s football team.
32
Photo: Buster Keaton (Archive photo courtesy Kobal Collection)