Tony Essex

[Rusty Viewer]

Has anyone got any real information on Tony Essex, in particular when and how he died. I can't find anything relevant on google. I had understood that the Follyfoot movie wasn't made because he had died. However, according to imdb, he was executive producer of Luke's Kingdom in 1976. If this is true, then why was Follyfoot abandoned I wonder, when it was so popular?

See http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0261406/

[sue]

That's a good question, rustyviewer.

Anyone out there have the answers?  Maybe it will all be revealed in the book.

Sue
 

[Rusty Viewer]

What book is that then, he asked ignorantly.

[Pen.]

I found this quote in relation to the BBC's "Tonight" Programme from the 50's and 60's:
 
"Tony Essex was a film editor, an exceptionally skilled influence."

I'm guessing this is the same Tony Essex. ?Does anybody know if it is?

Pen.

[Rusty Viewer]

According to some information on the net, The reson Tony wrote the scripts using a pen name was to do with union problems about being both a producer/director and a scriptwriter. Maybe he was found out and there would've been trouble if he'd continued.

From http://www.follifoot.org.uk/Follyfoot.htm

Most of the scripts were written by Francis' brother, Tony Essex but as Tony produced the series for Yorkshire Television the unions would not accept him writing them as well. So he adopted the name 'Francis Stevens' as the writer.

As I recall, there was also an unsual strike around that time where all shows were filmed in black and white instead of colour. It's possible that it didn't seem worth filming Follyfoot in B&W and so it was abandoned. But this is all just speculation on my part.

[Tamara]

Don't want to bother you with a load of questions, Tamara, but if I could only ask one "do you have the answer to why Follyfoot did not go on to a fourth series?"  This has been a mystery to fans for over 35 years and perhaps one of the top-ten questions we would like to resolve and clear up all the speculation that has been discussed at length.

No worries if it is not something you feel able to answer.

Hi Dave -

Two or three reasons really.  Dad was a stickler for quality - would never compromise on that.  And he always felt that doing too many of a show would risk reducing the quality.  Not only that coming up with script ideas gets more difficult, but also that cast members can become tired within characters and it begins to show.  Plus he had begun working on the "Luke's Kingdom" show which was a joint production between Yorkshire TV and Channel 7 in Australia and we were getting ready to move out there for that show.  Finally I seem to recall that one of the cast wasn't going to be available anyway - possibly Desmond though I wouldn't swear to it.  Might have been Arthur.

Hope that helps!
Tamara

[Tamara]

I found this quote in relation to the BBC's "Tonight" Programme from the 50's and 60's:
 
"Tony Essex was a film editor, an exceptionally skilled influence."

I'm guessing this is the same Tony Essex. ?Does anybody know if it is?

Pen.

Yes, same Tony :-)

Tamara (Essex)

[Tamara]

Has anyone got any real information on Tony Essex, in particular when and how he died. I can't find anything relevant on google. I had understood that the Follyfoot movie wasn't made because he had died. However, according to imdb, he was executive producer of Luke's Kingdom in 1976. If this is true, then why was Follyfoot abandoned I wonder, when it was so popular?

See http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0261406/

Well this is a question I CAN answer.  We'd been in Australia finishing the post-production work on "Luke's Kingdom", and returned at the beginning of May 1975 to live in a temporary rented flat in London while Dad decided what to do next.  Unusually he had been offered a fabulous job as Head of Documentaries at the BBC - this was the first time ANYONE who had "absconded" from the Beeb to commercial TV had ever been invited back.  But he'd also been offered a very unusual job in India, working for the government to strengthen their TV structures and programming.  He was very stressed (which was not like him) because either of these jobs would have been very exciting and challenging, but each would involve very different lifestyles.

I believe it was because of the stress of having to decide, that led to his fatal heart-attack on 16th May 1975.  He was only 49.  There was a good obituary on May 17th in the Times, a memorial service on June 11th in Leeds, and a retrospective at the National Film Theatre later in the year.

Hope that helps.

Tamara

[Jane]

The question as to why there was never a fourth series has been asked many times so thanks Tamara for sharing all this information with us, it certainly does help!  

[mjmdvm]

I agree . Thanks for being here and clearing some things up for us

[Michael]

DITTO !!!!!! Thanks, Tamara.

Michael

[Tamara]

I asked my mum about this to see if she remembered anything more, and she pointed out that dad had already produced another children's series just before Follyfoot - Tom Grattan's War in I think 1970 - and wasn't really a children's TV producer, so had probably had enough of that!  He'd done Tom Grattan because it was about a boy's experience in Yorkshire during the war, and he was interested in doing that because of his two epic war series (The Great War, and The Lost Peace).  Then I guess they thought he'd done a good job of doing children's TV that wasn't patronising, so asked him to do Follyfoot.

Just thought I'd add that!

Tamara

The question as to why there was never a fourth series has been asked many times so thanks Tamara for sharing all this information with us, it certainly does help! 

[Rusty Viewer]

Thanks for all that info Tamara. 

I removed the other thread as I'd forgotten I'd already started ths one. 

[PaulE]

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned before, but someone has uploaded Luke's Kingdom to YouTube.  I thought this was an excellent series, it shows how versatile Tony Essex was.

Paul

[Jane]

I'm not sure if it has been mentioned before, but someone has uploaded Luke's Kingdom to YouTube.  I thought this was an excellent series, it shows how versatile Tony Essex was.

Paul

Thanks for the info Paul