Moira Armstrong Tape 1 Side A This transcription was provided in 2015 by the AHRC-funded ‘History of Women in British Film and Television project, 1933-1989’, led by Dr Melanie Bell (Principal Investigator, Leeds University) and Dr Vicky Ball (Co- Investigator, De Montfort University). COPYRIGHT: No use may be made of any interview material without the permission of the BECTU History Project (http://www.historyproject.org.uk/). Copyright of interview material is vested in the BECTU History Project (formerly the ACTT History Project) and the right to publish some excerpts may not be allowed. CITATION: Women’s Work in British Film and Television, Moira Armstrong, http://bufvc.ac.uk/bectu/oral-histories/bectu-oh [date accessed] By accessing this transcript, I confirm that I am a student or staff member at a UK Higher Education Institution or member of the BUFVC and agree that this material will be used solely for educational, research, scholarly and non-commercial purposes only. 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I agree to the above terms of use and that I will not edit, modify or use this material in ways that misrepresent the interviewees’ words, might be defamatory or likely to bring BUFVC, University of Leeds or my HEI into disrepute. 1 Moira Armstrong Tape 1 Side A BECTU History Project Interview no: N/K Interviewee: Moira Armstrong Interviewer: N/K No of tapes: Two Duration: 01:48:32 NB: The time codes given here are estimates based on readings from the original cassette recording. Tape 1 Side A. [Irrelevant preliminaries] So can you please tell me who you are? I’m Moira Armstrong, yes and I’m a television director in... And you were born? In Creiff in Scotland in 1930. Right, thank you. And were your family anything to do with the business? Absolutely nothing at all. My mother told me that her mother-in-law used to sit and recite Robert Burn’s poetry, [Laughter] but it’s the only association I’ve ever had with anything in the theatre at all. Right. And can you remember how the first stirrings or inklings or interests in, in the theatre and, and...? Oh at school? Mm, I used to write little plays. They must have been awful I seem to think but, and bored my school friends by always producing them at the end of term in the school play and then started to act myself when I was a little bit older and played in, in the school play. We always did Shakespeare in the garden every summer because we had an English teacher who herself was an actress and, and did a lot of broadcasting on The BBC in, in Aberdeen. So I played Portia in The Merchant Of Venice when before I left school. And did that continue at university? Yes, it did, yes. And what were you reading? 2 Moira Armstrong Tape 1 Side A Oh I did a, an Ordinary Degree in, in, but you did a sort of what they called a cognate subject and I did English and History as a cognate, which meant the starting mark was much higher than fifty per cent so... And the interest in the theatre grew during that time did it? Oh yes, yes. And I left and, and joined Perth Repertory Company and was there for about two years and eventually left... What did you do in that time? Oh we were slaves you know. [Laughter] [Laughter] And we were sort of ASMs. In fact I was a student to start with, which meant they didn’t pay me anything. And then when they gave me a job as an ASM they paid me the princely sum of four pound ten a week and ten shillings extra for working on Sundays. And did you play any parts during that time or did...? Yes, yes, I played Bella in Worm Eye’s View, which was quite interesting and I’ve [Laughter] one horrific memory is actually doing it in Perth Prison, which was very strange because it was like you were playing to an audience of like baying animals, you know, the sort of, there was no silence while they listened to the words at all. Mm, and then we went on tour and I played in a, in a terrible sort of, I can’t remember who wrote it now but it was a farce set in South America and Russell Hunter who you people will probably know played I think it was the chief minister or something. Anyway we were all, he was stage manager and John Hart Dyke and I were the two ASMs and we both had parts in the play. So there were points in the play when there was nobody in the book [Laughter] and no telephone bells could be rung or anything because we were all on the stage. So that was about, I was there for about two years and then, as I say, I left and joined The BBC. But that gave you presumably a general sympathy with the lot of the actor? Oh yes, absolutely.[Laughter] And also the thing was very valuable I thought. It actually taught you how to, to make a prompt copy, how to exactly prompt people sympathetically and to be heard as well, which is important. And that was actually very useful in the days of television when I joined it, because I mean I remember being the SM on, on Maigret and in those days you had a cut key which meant that when the dialogue in fact dried up you could actually cut it and give the prompt and it started again. And you raced... Now you’re racing ahead, you’re leaping ahead. Oh sorry. [Laughter] 3 Moira Armstrong Tape 1 Side A Mm, out of university? Yes. In to The Perth Rep? Yes. And then what, what brought you to London? What, what, what were your ambitions at that particular time, can you remember? I mean what, were they entirely theatrical as it were or...? Oh yes. I mean I, I think in fact that rapidly I came to the conclusion that I really wasn’t a good enough actress to get to where I wanted to be, and I’d always been interested in directing and I used to watch the director at Perth Rep and I used to get involved in choosing music and things like that, you know, which was really that side of the business rather than acting. And I left Perth because of romantic reason. It was the sort of break up of an engagement and, and sort of went home to lick my wounds and saw an advertisement to go for an appointments board at The BBC in The Daily Telegraph, which I used to do the crossword every day just to give myself something to do. And then was selected to go down to London to be interviewed and this, then there was silence after that. [05:00] For how long? Oh nothing happened for about, I suppose, a couple of months and no rejection, nothing. So my parents were down in London at The Motor Show, and I learnt afterwards, to my astonishment, that my mother who I wouldn’t have said would say ‘Boo’ to a goose, apparently went up to Portland Place and asked to see the Appointments Officer. I mean I wouldn’t have done it I don’t think, [Laughter] and said, you know, why hadn’t her daughter been told whether she’d got this appointment for the job or not? And they said ‘Oh well, we sent a letter saying she’d been, been accepted’, and my mother said ‘Well, she never got it’. And meanwhile my father, who was a great friend of Kenneth Horne, because I don’t know whether you know but Kenneth Horne actually was a director of, of Triplex Glass as well as being a comedian and father told him and Kenneth Horne said ‘Well, do you want me to do something about it’? [Laughter] [Laughter] So I had two prongs going. Anyway the letter eventually, they then repeated the letter and they said we can’t let you come on to the course that was starting that winter but come next May. So I joined them in May of the following year. Ah, ha. So can you put a date to that? Fifty-five it must be. 4 Moira Armstrong Tape 1 Side A Ah, ha. Yes, ’56 it must have been when I went there to do the course, yes. And yes, right. And can you describe the atmosphere and the style of The BBC at that particular time? Well, it was very sort of… I have to say it was patronising towards women. I mean you were, you were accepted as being a member of the workforce but there was, there was always a little ladies and gentlemen sort of attitude, and it was very current in the 1950s anyway, I mean The BBC wasn’t an exception.