Alison, a former TV production manager on a blockbuster 1990s UK breakfast show is a wealth of talent – and fresh air. She is also a memoirist, and fiction writer, and is here with me now. Great to have you here, Alison!
THE QUESTIONS
1. Focus on your book!
I had to be selective about the stories that made it into my career memoir Misadventures in the Screen Trade. I wouldn’t tell it like it was about anyone who wasn’t around to defend themselves. And I gambled that none of the people I mentioned in a less than flattering light would come after me. (Obviously, I’m now in Witness Protection and have to keep moving house, but that’s a small price to pay!)
2. Fine art: The craft of writing!
Memoirists are storytellers, and every book needs a story and a plot. I explain it this way. And I’m sticking my neck out here as I’m about to disagree with one of the writing titans of English literature, E.M. Forster using his example. My theory is that: ‘the queen died and then the king died is a plot’, (that it’s just facts). But, ‘the queen died, and the king died of a broken heart is a story’.
3. Fascinating you: What would locals in a foreign country first notice about you?
That I am so happy to be out meeting people again after two years of lock-down that I am so grateful to socialise again!
4. Fame: What’s your claim to fame?
That I played a Police Officer in a title sequence for a regional TV magazine series and my bosses asked me to prank my unsuspecting colleagues by walking into the office in the uniform dangling a pair of handcuffs. It worked!
5. Fortune: Have you ever made any money? Won a bet, a round of poker? Or been the beneficiary from a long-forgotten distant Aunt?
Only because I heeded the advice of a film director who was driven out of Hollywood during the McCarthy era and ended up as an exile in London. In LA he made films for the likes of RKO but in London he made ‘B’ movies. I was researching a documentary about his life.
Bernard: ‘Kid, you know there’s no money in the movies don’t you?’ I didn’t. ‘How do you think I make my money?’ I couldn’t answer. ‘Property. Put everything you have into it, even if you have nothing.’ In my early twenties, when they’d give anyone a mortgage, even a young, single woman, I bought a house with a friend. We parted ways after a few years but were both lucky and the gamble paid off!
6. Fool: Just for fun: tell me about the time you made a silly mistake or found yourself the unwitting centre of attention
That would be the time in a press conference in Norway with a full contingent of press, TV and radio when I had to introduce the two Disney costume character chipmunks—Snipp and Snapp (Chip n’Dale). Only I didn’t know one from the other. I got round it by introducing them separately and as they stepped forward, I realised it was all in the teeth. (Chip had buck teeth and Dale had a gap between his).
7. Frippery: how do you make your mark?
By dressing up in jodhpurs, a riding jacket and long riding boots and getting out onto the Downs on horseback whenever I’m back in England.
8. Favourite books?
My favourite actors are the ones who were nice to me: Dudley Moore, who played the piano for us in LA for a segment for the Big Breakfast and Larry Hagman who was absolutely delightful to deal with when I was at the BBC. I had dreaded picking up the phone to J. R. Ewing to ask permission to use a clip from Dallas for which we would pay him some miniscule amount. ‘Sure, go right ahead. I LOVE the BBC.’
9. Forgiveness – Is it better to ask for forgiveness or permission?
I was always getting into trouble at boarding school for talking after lights out. The punishment was to be hauled out of bed and made to stand outside the Reverend Mother’s office in a dark unlit corridor at night and wait for her to come out and tick you off. I was convinced the place was haunted but then I was only seven!
Stephen Malins, Author & Photographer 