The Guardian brings the sad news of the death of Reginald Tate who collapsed outside his Putney home, and later died in hospital in London last night. Perhaps most famous as Professor Bernard Quatermass in the serial The Quatermass Experiment, Mr Tate had been moving into television production and had appeared on the BBC on Saturday night in his own adaptation of Murder in Pimlico.
The Times carries an obituary for him but despite beginning by describing him as a “well-known actor and television player”, the obit concentrates on nothing but his theatrical career.
In its Television Notes column, The Guardian has details of the BBC’s new Sunday afternoon schedule, due to come into force on 4 September. It will begin at 3pm with an hour-long concert featuring the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Pierino Gamba and this will be followed by the first in a series of episodes from the half-hour American comedy series I Married Joan, starring Joan Davis and Jim Backus.
The following half hour will be given over to The Brains Trust which will meet every Sunday afternoon “to discuss subjects selected by viewers.” The panel on the first edition will include Julian Huxley, George Edwards, John Nicholas, Peter Brook and one other who, like the programme’s chairman, has yet to be chosen.
The same paper’s “London Correspondence” section suggests that stories suggesting that the BBC has lost so much of its staff to commercial television are exaggerated when “in fact the staff, on both the administrative and production sides, is expanding so fast that it has already outgrown the office accommodation.” It adds, “A building has been bought in Woodstock Grove, Shepherd’s Bush, and will be in use as offices before the end of the year. But for use in the meantime, the BBC has bought a dozen caravans into which it hopes to fit some of its smaller men and women. The caravans are to be kept on the car park outside the Television Centre.”