Gill Stribling-Wright (Producer)

Gill Stribling-Wright was born in 1945 in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. She joined the BBC in 1966 aged 21 after her mother had spotted an advertisement for a secretary. Gill subsequently worked her way up through the ranks to become an Executive Producer for Grundy/Freemantle in 1993. During her 37 year career in television, Gill contributed to some of the UK’s most popular light entertainment programmes including Top of the Pops (BBC 1964-2016), Jim’ll Fix it (BBC 1974-1994), The Generation Game (BBC 1971-2001), Parkinson (BBC 1971-2004) and Blind Date (LWT 1985-2003).

In this interview Gill discusses her formative years and the way in which a love of the arts was instilled in her from a young age. She discussed her mother’s role in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY) during World War Two and her own training to become a secretary on leaving school at 16. She discusses the nurturing atmosphere at the BBC in the 1960s and the encouragement she received from her female supervisor, Helen Bell, to secure a position in light entertainment. She recalls the bon vivant atmosphere of living and working in London as a young woman and the excitement and pace of working as a production assistant on Top of the Pops and Dee Time (BBC 1967-1969). She reflects on the atmosphere associated with working in BBC Television by way of comparison with BBC Radio. She recalls fondly the thrifty means by which she and her colleagues lived and enjoyed themselves during the early 1970s. She discusses her pride of work for the BBC (the ‘Mecca of broadcasting’) and her work as a researcher on programmes such as The Generation Game as well as the stress and politics involved in producing her first series, Parkinson. She subsequently discusses her disillusionment with the BBC and her decision to work for London Weekend Television in 1983. She discusses her role as a producer on Blind Date and the first British 27-hour TV telethon. She recalls producing Happy Birthday, Happy New Year to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the London Palladium in 1989 and the invitation to take up the position of Controller of Light Entertainment at Television South in 1988. She discusses her subsequent freelance work for Grundy/Freemantle as well as the Foreign Office in the early 1990s. She discusses the changing climate of broadcasting and her subsequent decision to retire from television production in the early 1990s. Amidst this narrative, GiIl provides a commentary on the gender politics of working in broadcasting between the late 1970s and early 1990s, namely, the culture of sexual harassment at the BBC, the gender politics of the male-dominated boardroom as well as her personal position on working mothers.