Directions Unit: TV Director- Ray Butt

Happy Ever After 

A director who has been an inspiration to my own project is a BBC comedy Director, Ray Butt. He is best known for his long association with the corporation's Light Entertainment department throughout the 70s and 80s, he will be best remembered for producing and directing Only Fools and Horses.
Some of his earliest credits are from the fourth and fifth series of Carla Lane's The Liver Birds, and the third series of Happy Ever After, the sitcom that would become long-running hit Terry & June.

Citizen Smith 

Before his best known wok in Only Fools And Horses, Butt established a working relationship with, John Sullivan (writer of Only Fools and Horses), on his earlier series, Citizen Smith, directing 23 of the programme's 30 episodes. This was the start of a strong working relationship between two good friends. This strong writer-director relationship is really visible through the comedy and humour projected in the programs; both were on the same page sharing a similar sense of humour. When directing The LadyKillers, Alexandre Mackendrick shared a similar sense of humour with its writers William Rose and Jimmy O'Connor. Having two writers is rather unusual; its usually either one or a group of writers.

The strong relationship between Butt and Sullivan was almost inevitable . Butt was the son of an East End market trader, and Sullivan, a former market worker himself. The pair found they had much in common, and Butt played a pivotal role in the creation of Only Fools And Horses, helping Sullivan identify the strongest elements of his new sitcom idea - Readies, which was viewed cautiously with the BBC - and transform them into the comedy classic.

Ray Butt directing David Jason (Del Boy) and Buster Merryfield (Albert)

Butt went on to produce John Sullivan's later comedies, Dear John.... and Just Good Friends.  Two years of National Service saw Butt join the RAF as an electrician, later getting a job at the BBC, where he eventually became a cameraman and a protégé of legendary comedy producer Dennis Main Wilson (Hancock's Half Hour, Sykes, Till Death Us Do Part). Butt's other credits include Spike Milligan's Q5, Last Of The Summer Wine, Seconds Out, and Sob Sisters, for ITV's Central in 1989. He also directed a number of episodes of comedy It Ain't Half Hot Mum, and three series of Are You Being Served?

Butts direction style for the chandelier scene was an inspiration to my piece. I like how much it deceives the audience; when you watch it it doesn't even cross your mind that its a separate chandelier because the shot cuts without hesitation or anything to indicate otherwise. Its then such a shock when the chandelier falls and smashes.  His director style is very comedy orientated, and comedy is mostly what he has directed. The key element of comedy is timing.

Only Fools and Horses took a while to really catch on, but when it did it it blew up, and although Butt left the show after six years in 1987, he deserves as much credit for its success into the new century as do its writer and cast.

Ray Butt (left), John Sullivan (right)

Butt's attention to detail was exemplified by a running gag where each week the living room set would be subtly altered: not just the useless tat that Del was peddling, but sometimes even the dining table would change, suggesting that anything Del could sell, he would sell. Their lives are continuous so even if we don't see everything, it doesn't mean its not happening in the background. Butt used a lot of the inspiration around him, so the idea of traders selling anything of theirs, comes from his childhood, when his father was a market trader. Its this in depth character background that really inspired my directing. He knows the characters so intimately, and that shows in his directing, s the audience know the characters so intimately. I want to create character backgrounds in my directing. I therefore printed an old picture of an ex war veteran, and want to imply that it was Mrs Wilberforce's late husband by having a close up shot of her tenderly caressing the photo. This character background is a very important giveaway and tells us a lot about the character(s).
Ray Butt has characters completing daily activities during scenes, which looks naturalists and the scenes don't look as staged. This was an influence to my piece as I want Mrs. Wilberforce to be carrying out day to day routines before Professor Marcus arrives. This also gives us an idea of her character, putting a book down gently for example, will show us the intellectual, gentle character she is.

Butt and Sullivan were a great team and their careers are very similar and together they created some of the best comedy to be broadcasted on British television. While Butt's career ended with less of a bang than Sullivan, throughout the 1970s and 1980s his work was well appreciated by the public, warm, characterful and funny. He fought hard for the casts he wanted, protected the writers and knew clearly knew the importance of team work. I have a large cast/crew for my project, and aim to keep them as happy as Butt did his. He was one for comedic timing, which is why many of those moments on television are now iconic and unforgettable.

Bibliography

https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/news/1199/comedy_director_ray_butt_dies_only_fools/
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ray-butt-television-producer-best-known-as-the-guiding-force-of-only-fools-and-horses-8718031.html