Daniel Farson
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Daniel James Negley Farson (8 January 1927 – 27 November 1997) was a British writer and broadcaster, strongly identified with the early days of commercial television in the UK, when his sharp, investigative style contrasted with the BBC's more deferential culture.
Farson was a prolific
Early life
Farson was born in
1950s
Farson joined
Another 1958 Farson series, entitled Keeping in Step, looked at establishment institutions such as public schools from a distinctly more distanced perspective than that seen on virtually all BBC programmes (and even most other Associated-Rediffusion programmes) of the time. A regular guest on Farson's programmes at this stage was James Wentworth Day, a reactionary British writer of the Agrarian Right school, who commented in the programme about mixed marriages, referring to mixed-race children as "coffee-coloured little imps" and argued that black people must be less "civilised" than white people because "their grandfathers were eating each other" (Wentworth Day's remarks were featured in Victor Lewis-Smith's series Buygones and TV Offal). Farson would usually respond to these diatribes with a polite statement along the lines of "I couldn't disagree with you more, but at least you do say what you really feel".
However, Wentworth Day's appearances came to an end when he said all homosexuals should be hanged.[citation needed] Farson insisted that the episode of People in Trouble in which Wentworth Day had made those remarks – concerning transvestism – was scrapped before it had been completed. He publicly insisted that the Independent Television Authority would ban it; in reality Farson was terrified that Wentworth Day would attempt to bring him to trial. After this, Farson immediately froze Wentworth Day out of his life and his programmes.
Farson's broadcasting career, however, continued to flourish.[
The
1960s
In 1962 Farson made a documentary for Associated-Rediffusion about pub entertainment in the East End of London where he lived, called Time Gentlemen Please (this led directly to the company's later series Stars and Garters, with which Farson was not, however, personally involved).[citation needed] Soon after this he bought a pub, The Waterman's Arms, in the East End with the explicit intent of reviving old-time music hall, but it failed. He later said the money he lost would have been enough to buy a row of houses at the time (1963).
By the end of 1964 he had resigned from Associated-Rediffusion (by then renamed Rediffusion London). He kept a lower public profile for the rest of his life. He moved from London to live in his parents' house in Devon (his father had died in 1960), but continued to make regular visits to the pubs and drinking clubs of Soho.
1970s to 1990s
Farson remained a prolific author and produced several volumes of memoirs. Soho in the Fifties (1987) recalled his participation in the "Bohemia" of Soho. Limehouse Days (1991) recalled his disastrous East End pub venture. These and other books were illustrated with his own photographs.
In 1972, Farson authored Jack the Ripper which proposed the
Farson also wrote the authorised biography of his friend the painter
His last book was a "portrait" of the artists
Farson devised the Channel 4 art quiz Gallery, and he worked as TV critic and, later, art critic for The Mail on Sunday.
He also wrote travel books, including A Traveller in Turkey, The Independent Traveller's guide to Turkey and A Dry Ship to the Mountains (Down the Volga and Across the Caucasus in My Father's Footsteps), the book version of the children's TV series The Clifton House Mystery (produced by HTV West for ITV in 1978), and an appreciation of Marie Lloyd and music hall.
Final years
His father had been an alcoholic, and Farson himself had been a heavy drinker since his days in Soho in the 1950s. In later years the effects of alcoholism became more apparent. He knew he was dying of cancer in March 1997, when his self-deprecating autobiography, Never A Normal Man (a phrase actually used to describe his father, not himself), was published.[3] He was hung over when he appeared on the BBC Radio 4 programme Midweek to promote this book.[4]
He died at his house in Georgeham in Devon on 27 November 1997.[5]
Publications
Biography
- Jack the Ripper (1972)
- Marie Lloyd & Music Hall (1972)
- The Man Who Wrote Dracula: A Biography of Bram Stoker (1975)
- Henry: An Appreciation of Henry Williamson (1982)
- With Gilbert & George in Moscow (1991)
- The Gilded Gutter Life of Francis Bacon (1994)
- Never a Normal Man: An Autobiography (1997)
Memoirs
- Soho In The Fifties (1987)
- Limehouse Days (1991)
Cryptozoology and monsters
- Vampires, Zombies and Monster Men (1976)
- Mysterious Monsters (1978) [with Angus Hall]
- The Hamlyn Book of Monsters (1984)
Horror and paranormal
- The Beaver Book of Horror (1977)
- The Hamlyn Book of Ghosts in Fact and Fiction (1978)
- The Hamlyn Book of Horror (1979)
- Curse (1980)
- Transplant (1981)
Travel
- Traveller in Turkey (1985)
- Swansdowne (1986)
- Turkey (1988)
- A Dry Ship to the Mountains (1994)
References
- ^ "Out of Step (1957) – Spielplatz". Pamela Green: Never Knowingly Overdresse.
- ^ "Jack the Ripper". casebook.org. Retrieved 22 August 2023.
- ^ "The Weird Truth About the Word 'Normal'". The Spectator. 10 October 2015. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
- ^ "Daniel Farson: 1927-1997". Casebook. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
- ^ "Daniel James Negley Farson". Geni. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
External links
- Daniel Farson at IMDb
- Article on Farson and his television work
- Article on Farson at a British Film Institute site
- Obituary in The Daily Telegraph Archived 10 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
- Obituary in The Independent
- Review of Farson's autobiography in The Spectator
- Review of Farson's autobiography in The Independent on Sunday