Elaine Saffer began working with Pickwick International (GB) in 1972 and enjoyed a long, sucessful tenure with the company thereafter. She is perhaps most notable for her significant role in the writing, composing and production of Pickwick International’s popular Children’s audio range, produced from the late 1970’s to the early 1990’s.  Elaine has graciously agreed to share some of her memories with The Ladybird Pickwick Project.

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You have enjoyed an accomplished musical career ranging from composing to production. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your background in the music industry?

I started by going to Drama School in Birmingham, appeared in small parts at the Birmingham Rep and on local TV.  Later, I moved to London and became a copy writer. I was always interested in music and writing various songs, stories and poetry.

 

We understand that you began working with Pickwick International Inc. (GB) quite a few years prior to your contribution to the Tell-A-Tale Series. Can you fill us in a little about your earlier work with Pickwick?

I got married and when I started a family, I took some time off work for a few years.  When I got divorced I took a full time job in 1972, through my company Saffred Music Ltd., as Press and Promotion officer at Pickwick, working mostly under the guidance of Monty Lewis.  Part of my job was to write the copy on the sleeves of the Top of the Pop LP’s which were produced by Graham Goodwin.  I also arranged personal appearances of various people including an appearance in Bristol of Jackie Stewart, the racing driver, who was promoting Pickwick products.  I had to collect him in a car from Heathrow and drive him to Bristol and then back after the promotion. I found the driving really nerve wracking as you can imagine, but he was charming.  I have pictures of this promotion.

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During this time, I created The Mr. Pickwick Award which was presented to best-selling artists such as Perry Como and Ray Conniff.  When I left Pickwick The Mr. Pickwick Award was presented to me and is something that I treasure.

 

In December 1975 I re-married and moved to the North East of England, though I still kept a small flat in London for my work.  I concentrated mostly on writing and producing pop songs and had some success with a song entered in The Song for Europe contest, which I didn’t win… the winner represented the UK in the Eurovision song contest.  I wrote songs for Winston Groovy, one was called ‘Something on the Side’ which still brings me in a small amount of royalties!  I wrote for various other artists as well, including Tina Charles. 

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In early 1976 Monty Lewis asked me to produce children’s stories, music and songs for Ditto.  And that’s where it all started.  Included in this was a double cassette of “Songs for the Wishing Well” the proceeds of which were donated to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for children which raised a considerable amount of money for the hospital.

 

In 1982 I started producing Tell-A-Tale, also providing original theme music written by myself.  I also started the Stick-A-Tale series and wrote scripts and individual songs to each story.  I took over from Graham Goodwin producing the Puddle Lane series read by Kate Lee.

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Other productions were the Cook-Along series which included 3 Keith Floyd productions and featured him singing a song I specially wrote for him, and which proved very popular.  The Disney Read Along series, The Little Mermaid series, Read with Me series etc. etc.   

The last productions were 8 recording for Puffin Classics.

 

How were the titles of the Tell-A-Tale series chosen? Did Ladybird select a book and then the cassettes were subsequently recorded at Pickwick? Or was Pickwick the principal driver, selecting the titles/books it wanted to record?

The titles for Ladybird/Pickwick were a joint effort but mainly selected by Pickwick.  We used to have meetings at Pickwick to decide which to record and sometimes I would visit Ladybird and discuss products with them.  Once books had been chosen, I would record them.

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Were the recordings produced in a studio owned by Pickwick? Was there a planning process?

Initially the recordings were produced in various studios of my choice.  Eventually when Ivor Schlosberg was in charge, Pickwick built a recording studio and a video studio in the Colindale buildings where the Children’s Ladybird Videos were produced.  I wrote songs and music for the Videos but did not produce them. Once Pickwick moved from Colindale to Elstree there was no studio and the Children’s products were recorded at Carlton Studios in St Johns Wood, London.

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Do you recall at which point you began working on the Tell-A-Tale series? We suspect that Graham Goodwin produced many of the earlier ‘Well Loved Tales’, ‘Children’s Classics’, and ‘History Series’ cassettes and we notice that the series began to expand rapidly from about 1984 releasing titles such as ‘Masters of the Universe’, ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’, ‘Puddle Lane’, ‘Transformers’ etc.

My work on Tell-A-Tale commenced about 1983 but I cannot be precise.

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In what capacity did you begin your work on the Tell-A-Tale series and did your role change over those years in which you were involved?

My work on Tell-A-Tale never changed except when we did the recording in the Pickwick and Carlton Studios.  Otherwise, my company Saffred Music Ltd (myself) composed/produced/coordinated the recordings.

 

The earliest titles in the series made use of background classical music. This music was licensed from The Moss Music Group Inc., which had been set up by former president of Pickwick International Inc (US) and was used on all titles released up until 1984. From 1984, electronically composed music was used on titles such as ‘Masters of the Universe’, ‘Thomas the Tank Engine’, ‘and Puddle Lane ’,‘ Transformers’ etc.  though the classical music continued to appear for three more years (until 1987) on both the ‘Children’s Classics’ and the ‘Well Loved Tales’ series until it too was replaced with the electronic music. Did you compose the updated electronic music from 1984?

In the cases of the UK TV Series  (Puddle Lane, Thomas the Tank Engine etc), the music seems identical to the music used on the TV shows themselves but the US TV shows like ‘Transformers’ seem to be original compositions. I did not compose the music for Puddle Lane, Thomas the Tank engine etc.  We had to use the TV music.  I did not record Transformers – that was Graham Goodwin.  Otherwise most of my productions were written by myself.

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How (and from where) was the voice actors selected? Who appointed the actor to each role etc. Was there interaction/direction regarding performance between the actors and Pickwick?

The Voice Artists were chosen by myself.  Initially I contacted the actors union and invited people to send me cassettes of the work they had done plus their CVs.  I will try to remember who did which voiceover but can’t find all documentation.

 

You were involved with the popular Pickwick/ladybird VHS release. Could you tell us a bit about that?

My involvement was to write the music and songs and each producer gave me instructions.

 

Did you produce the Tell-A-Tale series until the series was discontinued? We believe it was discontinued sometime around 1992. Did Pickwick have a specific reason for discontinuing such a successful series?

I produced Tell-A-Tale until it was discontinued and do not know why this happened.

 

At what point did you leave Pickwick?

The last recording I did for Pickwick were the 8 Puffin Classics.   That also seemed to be the end of everything at Pickwick.  My close relationship with them ceased once they moved to Pickwick House, Elstree and the person in charge was Etta Saunders who, to my knowledge, did not release any of the Ladybird, Tell-a-Tale, Ditto, Stick-a-Tale products.  I believe she was going to launch 20 new children’s products including colouring books with cassettes.

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We, at the Ladybird Pickwick Project would like to thank you for taking the time to speak with us and for your continued interest in the project. More importantly, we would like to take this oppertunity to acknowledge your sterling contribution to the Pickwick world for over 20 years, not least your invaluable contribution to the education and entertainment of a generation of children from the 1970’s to the 1990’s. It is our hope, at The Ladybird Pickwick Project, that your beautiful artistry will continue to charm future generations of children.