BRIAN WILLEY
(1928–2023)

We have received the following contributions which have evolved into a very comprehensive tribute: -

Anthony Wills (former BBC Radio Two producer) writes:-

Brian John Cecil Willey passed away on 16th January, a few days before his 95th birthday. His BBC career spanned more than forty years, beginning as a sound effects engineer for light entertainment programmes such as The Goon Show. In due course he became a producer on the Light Programme, then based at the Aeolian Hall in New Bond Street, with its own recording and transmission studios on site.

By the time I arrived at the BBC in 1979, he was one of four Executive Producers in what had now become Radio 2, based in Ariel House at 74a Charlotte Street, just off Tottenham Court Road. The building housed an extensive Popular Music facility servicing the BBC Radio Orchestra as well as its regional counterparts in Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, with an Orchestrations Unit that was also responsible for adapting scores, originally commissioned from freelance writers, to suit the forces available.

Friday Night Is Music Night, the BBC Concert Orchestra's weekly showcase, mainly broadcast live from the Golders Green Hippodrome, often went on the road for live or pre-recorded invited or paying audience concerts, in addition to occasional Saturday Galas. Brian Willey was responsible for setting these up and supervising their execution and the shows were produced by Barry Knight and David Rayvern Allen, among others. I was tasked with providing a range of Interval Features whilst the Orchestra and audience took a break and, often at short notice, tributes to artistes and musicians who had then recently passed away.

Brian was highly respected in the musical profession though I am not certain whether he was a trained musician.* He was Vice-Chairman of the Performing Right Society's Benevolent Fund Committee and Chairman of the Ivor Novello Awards Committee run by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA).

After taking voluntary redundancy, at a time when the BBC was reducing its light music programming, he contributed many interesting articles to the magazine Memory Lane and attended London Light Music Meetings for as long as his health permitted.

*See below for further information regarding this.

Sally Quinn (Brian's former Personal Assistant at the BBC) writes: -

Brian was born in London on January 3rd 1928 and joined BBC Engineering at age 16; He was initially employed as a Sounds Effects Operator. In 1947, he was called-up for National Service, and became an Airfield Controller in the RAF. Upon discharge, he returned to the BBC.

Having progressed to Studio Manager, Brian acted in this capacity for Series 9 and 10 of The Goon Show between 1958 and 1960. He went on to work with – and was a particular favourite of – many Band Leaders and Conductors.

Eventually graduating to producer, many soon-to-be- famous faces gave their first BBC auditions for him, including the Beatles, whose first broadcast was in 1959. Saturday Skiffle Club (which soon was re-named Saturday Club) introduced many other artistes and groups, including The Springfields, The Who and Gerry and The Pacemakers.(A comprehensive list of these can be found on the BBC Genome website).

Moving on to 1973, he began producing the very long-running Jimmy Young Show and the John Dunn Show – two major stalwarts of Radio Two programming at that time. During his tenure with John Dunn, he conceived and produced many live broadcasts from unusual venues, including ships at sea and aircraft. The year 1974 saw Brian producing the first radio broadcast of the annual Ivor Novello awards from Grosvenor House in London, and he went on to produce subsequent broadcasts of this illustrious occasion for several years thereafter.

In 1976, he was appointed producer of the famous long–running Sunday radio programme Two Way Family Favourites. Brian also regularly acted as an Official and BBC Representative for many song festivals around the world, taking a variety of performers to many of them. Destinations included Gibraltar, Eire, Knokke [Belgium] and Brazil, to name but a few.

Amongst the documentary programmes of which he was producer, the most notable were the four-part series The Bob Hope Story, featuring Bob Hope himself, and a series on Al Jolson, which was narrated by Max Bygraves. He was particularly proud of The Songwriters which featured some of the greatest Twentieth-Century songsmiths, namely Irving Berlin, Hal Shaper, Hal David and Henry Mancini.

He made various broadcasts with Bing Crosby, including a one-to-one programme where Bing discussed his favourite records with Brian, who spent a lot of research time in America with Bing and other contributors. This culminated in one of his most ambitious projects, a thirteen-part documentary series, introduced by Douglas Fairbanks junior, and featuring many greats of the day.

Brian also worked on a number of projects with Gracie Fields, whom he knew well and greatly admired, including Our Gracie at Eighty and another four-part programme on her life. An orchestral series, 'The Musical World Of……………' featured Robert Farnon, George Martin and Norrie Paramor, amongst others.

Brian regularly produced live concerts, particularly featuring the BBC Radio Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra. His broadcasts from the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Festival Hall featured legendary performers such as Frankie Vaughan, Rosemary Clooney, Petula Clark and Jose Carreras.

In his capacity as Executive Producer, he was for many years in charge of Friday Night Is Music Night. After a very long absence from the airwaves, Brian brought back Music While You Work in 1982 and in 1987, he took the Concert Orchestra to Hong Kong for a series of four major concerts. It was their first visit there and was a great success.

Throughout most of his life, Brian had been a songwriter, although less-so in later years. He wrote many lyrics and composed many melodies, including a number of Latin-American pieces, and these were performed world-wide by numerous artistes. He had collaborated with a variety of people on his long list of songs.

Notably, he wrote a Gibraltar Anthem, which was often performed there on special occasions and over time he became somewhat of a celebrity 'on the Rock' . He was also very proud of a number one record hit in New Zealand, performed by the very well-known singer Inia Te Wiata.

Once he had retired, Brian became a prolific writer and contributed for many years to several publications, including Memory Lane and the BBC's own in-house magazine, Prospero. Although his first love was music, he also very much enjoyed language and the written word.

Brian will be greatly missed by his family, friends and colleagues.

Brian Reynolds writes: -

Brian Willey's main BBC task between the late 40s and the early 60s was as a sound engineer and he regularly 'mixed' the dance band editions of Music While You Work. Apparently, he loved this job so much that he refused promotion to producer at least twice, so that he could continue in the role !

Sound engineers involved with musical programmes are required to be musicians as well and to have the printed score in front of them. Brian was also a composer, some of his pieces being songs, for which the lyrics were – on occasion – written by Carlos Romanos (in reality Wilf Todd). An example is Summer Love In Napoli, which became quite well-known.

After finally becoming a producer, one of his early duties was one of a team responsible for the daily early-evening magazine show Roundabout.

When Music While You Work was revived in 1982 for one week, Brian dispensed with the sound engineers for some editions, so that he could be at the controls himself ! For the edition featuring The Banjoliers, I was assigned the role of Temporary Producer, which required me to do the timing and listing of all the musical pieces for the 'Programme As Broadcast' – which was of course ultimately lodged within the BBC Written Archives Department at Caversham.

In conclusion, Tony Clayden adds: -

I first became acquainted with Brian Willey soon after the London Light Music Meetings Group was established, back in 2014. He had appeared as one of our early guest-speakers and he continued to regularly attend, along with his long-time friend and former colleague Sally Quinn, until his health started to deteriorate – I believe this was around the time of the first Covid lockdown.

He frequently enlivened our meetings with his encyclopaedic knowledge and effervescent humour. He was an absolute mine of information about BBC Radio and he had known and worked with countless people, both 'in front of and behind' the microphone and – needless to say – outlived the majority of them !

One was a sound engineer with whom he had worked closely in the early post WW2 years, by the name of Leonard Trebilco – who, of course, went on to achieve great success as one of our principal Light Music composers, under the nom-de-plume of Trevor Duncan.

Another example which he told me about was a radio series he produced which featured Jimmy Young (in his original role as a vocalist), together with the singing group The Springfields. (This was before Dusty Springfield 'went solo'). The show was called Younger Than Springtime – a somewhat 'tongue-in-cheek' title, I think – and, as was customary at that time, had its own signature theme tune; both music and lyrics were penned by Brian himself !

It was a great pleasure – and indeed a privilege – to have known Brian, who had been such an instrumental figure in the world of the BBC. I am quite sure that he will be sadly missed by very many, not least our own loyal band of LLMMG attendees.

© London Light Music Meetings Group 2023