by Martin Cassini
This tragicomic tale reflects my experience and recollection of events as they happened, supported by documents and press cuttings from the time.
I’ve tried to distinguish fact from interpretation. If I refer to motives, I’m not claiming to know what others thought privately, just trying to make sense of what happened.
It’s the story of how “the biggest commission in independent TV production history” launched a media empire, and why it was later described as “the biggest rip-off in independent production history”.
The first quote is from Basil Comely, who covered the origins of the career-defining contract for the TV journal, Broadcast.
The second is from lawyer, Bernard Simons. He was consulted, too late, to salvage something for the people who originated and developed the project to the point of commission. They were subsequently dumped and erased from the record.
The story exposes my failings, but it has value as a cautionary tale, and it seems worth shedding light on the obscured origins of a media empire.
In detailing the precipitous fall from spectacular success to spectacular failure, the tale will also, for some, be a source of deep schadenfreude.