Johnnie Stewart
Lorn Alastair "Johnnie" Stewart (7 November 1917 – 29 April 2005) was a British television producer who worked for the BBC, noted mostly for his role in co-creating and co-producing the long-running music programme Top of the Pops with his co-producer and director Stanley Dorfman and Bill Cotton the Controller of BBC1 in 1964. Stewart co-produced Top of the Pops with Stanley Dorfman until 1969, when Stewart was replaced by Mel Cornish as Dorfman's co-producer.[1] [2]
Johnnie Stewart | |
|---|---|
| Born | Lorn Alastair Stewart 7 November 1917 |
| Died | 30 April 2005 (aged 87) East Dereham, Norfolk, England |
| Occupation | Television producer |
Early life
Born as Lorn Alastair Stewart, in Tonbridge, Kent, Stewart was the son of Dr Haldane Campbell Stewart, who was also musical but in a different sphere – he was organist and choirmaster at Magdalen College, Oxford, the director of music at the Tonbridge School, Kent, and also notable as a cricketer at Kent County Cricket Club.[3] As a child, Stewart's family played as a string quartet, with Stewart and his sister Jean playing violin, his father playing viola, and his mother playing cello. His sister Jean went on to become a noted performer on viola, performing as a soloist, and in chamber music and orchestras. She performed with the Menges Quartet, the London Bach Orchestra and the English Baroque Soloists.[4] Stewart's grandfather, John Stewart, was the sixth Baron Appin, and a barrister of Lincoln's Inn.
Career
Stewart started off his entertainment career in the BBC radio sound effects department in the late 1930s. During the Second World War he worked in the Middle East as a wireless operator and later worked in intelligence. After the war, in 1946, he married Sheila Williamson. He returned to the BBC and produced a number of radio music programmes, which included Sing It Again and BBC Jazz Club. He was able to sign up Frank Sinatra for a fee of only fifty pounds as a guest for Cyril Stapleton's Show Band Show. In 1958 he produced Juke Box Jury for BBC Television.[5]
Continuing the popular musical theme, in 1963 the BBC recorded a pilot chart show, which Stewart produced. Originally called The Teen and Twenty Record Club, it emerged onto the UK screens as Top of the Pops, which continued on the air until 2006. Its initial presenters, on a rotational basis, were Jimmy Savile, David Jacobs, Alan Freeman and Pete Murray. Samantha Juste, one of the programme's assistants, sat alongside them and placed the records on a turntable. Stewart remained as the co-producer of the programme with Stanley Dorfman until he was succeeded by Mel Cornish in 1969[2] who was later replaced by Robin Nash in 1973.
In 1970, he produced the BBC/ZDF TV show Pop Go The Sixties, broadcast across Europe on 1 January 1970.
After work
Stewart retired to Ibiza but later returned to the UK when his health deteriorated. He died in East Dereham, Norfolk, aged 87.[6] He was prominently featured in The Reckoning, a 2023 BBC One miniseries depicting the life and crimes of Jimmy Savile, which starred Julian Rhind-Tutt as Stewart and Steve Coogan as Savile.[7]
References
- "Top Of The Pops: Are These The Two Most Frighteningly Powerful Men In Pop? Probably one in a thousand teenagers have the vaguest ideas who Stanley Dorfman and Mel Cornish are, but in the pop record business they are two of THE most important men". by Richard Green 7 February 1970. New Musical Express (NME). Retrieved 8 June 2023.
- "Pop's top pair". Grimsby Telegraph. 27 February 1970. p. 5. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
- "Wisden – Obituaries in 1942". Espncricinfo.com. 2 December 2005. Retrieved 26 June 2014.
- Archived 21 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine
- Archived 24 January 2009 at archive.today
- Sweeting, Adam (6 May 2005). "Obituary: Johnnie Stewart". Theguardian.com. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
- "Meet the cast of Jimmy Savile drama The Reckoning". Radio Times. 12 October 2023. Retrieved 25 October 2023.