Talking Pictures with Mike Read

What do Dame Maureen Lipman, Tony Christie, Mike Read, Johnny Tudor and I have in common this weekend?  The answer, we are all headed to the Savoy Theatre in Monmouth for a very special Film and TV convention organised by Talking Pictures TV.  In a world of massive media companies and broadcasters one small TV channel stands out…Talking Pictures. 

Savoy Theatre Monmouth.

I have been to the SKY media complex just off the M4 near Brentford.  It’s like a small town or University Campus.  It has restaurants and cinemas; it has sports facilities and its own bus service to collect staff.  The new BBC building in Cardiff’s Central Square is like something from a futuristic movie.  It’s a glass and steel palace right out of an architect’s fantasy portfolio.

The Talking Pictures home is very different.

Talking Pictures is run from a rather ordinary looking house on a typical British street in a village not far from Watford. Just like Sky and Fox, Talking Pictures is a family run business, but this family is nothing like the Murdoch’s or the ‘Roy’ Family as depicted in the fictional TV series ‘Succession’. 

The head of the family is Noel Cronin.  Noel has been working with film since the age of 14 when he started working for the Rank organisation as a delivery boy. With one foot in the door he managed to find his way into the film ‘cutting rooms’ of Wardour Street in Soho.  Over the years Noel took every opportunity that came his way and gradually graduated from handling the actual film to making and distributing his own films.

In the 1990’s TV was expanding rapidly with Satellite television bringing an ever greater number of channels into the living room.  In a world of fast moving, brightly coloured, shaky camera angles the old black and white films that had been a staple ‘filler’ on late night terrestrial television soon looked very out of place, and soon they seemed to lose their place completely. 

That is where Noel saw an opportunity to save the classics by buying up the rights to films like Scrooge and the Pickwick Papers.  Having saved them what to do next? 

Noel started re-releasing some of these films on DVD via his own Renown Pictures Company but always dreamed of getting these films and old TV shows broadcast.  After rejection after rejection from the established broadcasters Noel decided that he would launch his own independent channel and so Talking Pictures TV was born.

Noel brought in his daughter Sarah and his son in law Neill to help run the channel and produce a weekly newsletter that became the initial promotional device. They produced a printable schedule so that people had something they could hold in their hands to plan their watching diary.

As the weeks passed their audience grew.  COVID and lockdown proved to be an important time in the growth of the channel.  With everyone trapped in doors people looked for the next box set to binge on streaming services.  As the weeks passed it seemed there was nothing new to watch. It was then people started talking about a little channel that showed old black and white films and TV shows.

It was said that even the Queen would tune into Talking Pictures to watch the old Laurel and Hardy shorts.  Actors like Brian Blessed and Kenneth Branagh would arrange to watch the same film at the same time and then meet later online to discuss it afterwards. And with that not only was a channel born but so was a community of like-minded people.

Chatting to Mike Read for Talking Pictures.

My first encounter with the channel was through legendary broadcaster Mike Read.  A number of years ago Mike realised that it was difficult for the more mature artist to get airtime, so he set up the Heritage Chart show.  It was Christmas 2021 when I got an email from a friend congratulating me and Steve Balsamo on entering the Heritage Chart.

And so began my new ‘Chart’ career.  Over the past few years I have appeared a number of times in the chart alongside the great’s like Elvis Presley, The Beatles and The Pet Shop Boys.  The chart gave me my first NUMBER ONE something I must admit I thought would never happen.

The chart is broadcast across the world on various independent radio stations and published in newspapers across the country.  Over the past few years we have seen the audience and interaction grow but also an uptake from artists who have now found a home for their new music.  A great mew station that plays their new music alongside the old ‘hits only’ stations who will only play their old recordings.

As well as being one of the most famous voices on radio Mike Read was an accomplished TV presenter having hosted shows like, Saturday Superstore, Pop Quiz and Top of the Pops.  Mike’s dream wasn’t just a Radio Chart Show.  He wanted a TV chart show as well, and so began his connection with Talking Pictures.  These days ‘The Heritage Chart Show’ is one of the only real chart shows on TV with a proper run down and No. 1 reveal and it’s broadcast online across the globe and weekly on Talking Pictures.

Before long I found I was developing a whole new audience for my music.  The chance that maybe my next release might have chart potential and the possibility of an appearance on a TV show encouraged me to spend almost as much time filming and creating the video for a new record release as actually recording the record itself.

One of the recent collaborations I have had with the Talking Pictures team was when I was thinking about a video for a new single called ‘Letting You Down’.  People I played it to said it sounded like a song taken from a movie. That set me thinking…maybe I could film myself going to a cinema and watching an old black and white film. But where would I find a film that made sense and how would I get the rights to use it in a video? 

I decided to give Sarah at Talking Pictures a call and explain the situation.  She ‘got it’ straight away. She suggested a film they owned called ‘Marilyn’ and by the end of the day I had a high quality copy and the rights all sent to my computer.

This weekend the story goes full circle.  Every year Talking Pictures goes on the road to meet with its loving audience.  Over the next 2 days devoted fans and friends will join together at the Savoy Theatre in Monmouth for a celebration of old Film and TV and get the chance to meet and hear from some old Film and TV stars too.

Mike Read will be hosting and interviewing the guests who will also be given a slot to perform.  My old friend Johnny Tudor is also on the bill talking about his life in show business. I’m sure he will have packed his tap shoes and I’ll be taking my guitar along as well.

Talking Pictures is a shining example that having passion and a stubbornness not to take no for an answer can sometimes make the wildest dreams come true.