Desert Island Discs’ castaways normally get just eight records to take to their mythical island in the sun.
But the lucky — or greedy — television and film producer, Steve Morrison, managed to play 12 iconic tracks at a fundraising evening held by the charity, Glasgow Girls in London.
As the name suggests, the group consists of Scottish ex-pats who put on events to help fund welfare projects in their home city. This week the spotlight fell on a man more usually behind the camera, whose career in TV and film has garnered him Royal Television Society awards, Baftas, and even Oscars.
Most closely associated with Granada TV, latterly as director of programmes, the Glasgow-born Mr Morrison is universally associated with his father’s south-side kosher delicatessen, Michael Morrison and Son. Jokey and affable, he ran through a breakneck overview of his work, starting in the 1960s when he was one of the first to book the singer Lulu for a charity event for the Glasgow Jewish Old Age Home.
Following a three year stint at Edinburgh University he went to work for Third World First, a charity established by Philip, one of Robert Maxwell’s sons, and then attended the National Film School as a producer trainee. His scoop film, which secured him a job with World in Action, was the occupation by supporters of the charity Shelter of the London skyscraper, Centrepoint. The exclusive footage of the occupation was his entry to working with Granada.
Interviewed by the award-winning ITN film-maker Lucy Manning, Mr Morrison also spoke about the invitation he received from Lord Bernstein, chairman of Granada, to complete a film of harrowing footage from Belsen.
These days Mr Morrison is head of All3Media, Britain’s largest independent TV production company.
For the curious, his desert island luxury was “1,001 whiskies”, while his book was 1,001 Books to Read Before You Die. The event raised £3,500.
