Times Obit

Elkan Allan
December 8, 1922 - June 25, 2006
Journalist and broadcaster who created Ready, Steady, Go! and TV listings and turned a passion for gambling into an income

A KEY figure in British televison production, Elkan Allan was also one of the most innovative journalists of his era. The original producer of the groundbreaking pop show Ready, Steady, Go!, which ran from 1963 to 1966, he was known in the press as “The Man Who Switched On Britain.”
For more than 30 years he was one of the best-known journalists on The Times and The Sunday Times, and he was credited with inventing the idea of television listings pages. Until 1971 newspapers did not offer readers any critical assessment of forthcoming programming. Allan persuaded his Editor and friend Harold Evans to devote the entire back page of The Sunday Times to Elkan Allan’s TV Week Ahead. Within weeks most national papers had copied the idea. At the same time Allan invented a ratings guide for films on TV — three ticks for “Unmissable” and an X for “Give it a miss”.

Ten years later he published his own weekly cinema and TV magazine, Video Viewer, which listed all films shown on TV. Despite huge opposition, particularly from ITV, it broke the monopoly of the Radio Times and TV Times and paved the way for future weekly guides.

As a journalist he was a brilliant observer of media trends. His prose was hard-hitting and provocative, particularly about television, but he also wrote entertainingly about travel, politics and his own passions, bridge and poker.

His knowledge of cinema was second to none (he was an honorary member of Bafta) and he conducted in-depth interviews for The Times with leading actors such as Richard Burton and Orson Welles, the latter being something of a hero to him. The film journalist John Hazelton once remarked: “You can see the Citizen Kane in Elkan.”

Widely respected, though not always liked, Allan was a hard taskmaster who did not suffer fools. He could be waspish but also amusing, difficult but also generous in spirit. He taught many journalists their trade and was an inspiration to young TV producers. In appearance he seemed old fashioned, yet his ideas were revolutionary. He anticipated the birth of the video boom and the use of the internet in publishing, as well as digital television.

Elkan Phillip Allan was born in 1922 in Cricklewood, London, the son of Rose and Allan Cohen. (They changed their name to Allan in the 1930s.) Educated at the Quinto School he was exempt from National Service during the Second World War on medical grounds.

He began his career at 18 as an assistant editor on The Outfitter, and in 1942 became a reporter on The Daily Express, under Arthur Christiansen. “Christiansen was a great influence on me,” he recalled. “He taught me the basics of good journalism.” In 1945 he joined Picture Post covering the General Election.

In the late 1940s Allan began to move into broadcasting and eventually television. He wrote general knowledge questions for radio shows such as Quiz Time and Quiz Team, and in 1953 became a presenter for BBC’s Armchair Traveller.

He joined the newly formed Associated-Rediffusion, working as editor of the current affairs programme, This Week, and by 1962 had become Head of Light Entertainment, responsible for high-rating shows such as Hughie Green’s Double Your Money and Michael Miles’s Take Your Pick.

“The Weekend Starts Here!” was the slogan of Ready, Steady, Go! which Allan launched in 1963, the weekly pop show that opened to the sound of Manfred Mann’s 5-4-3-2-1.

Aired early on Friday evenings, and presented by Keith Fordyce and Cathy McGowan, the show gave many British teenagers their first glimpses of acts such as the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder and Little Richard.

Technically advanced for its era RSG! boasted many unknown names as well, and Allan was credited with discovering Donovan who had sent him a demo tape. In 1965 Allan hit the headlines when he banned miming on the show.

He axed RSG! at the height of its popularity, but even today it is regarded as a milestone in pop history.

During the Sixties Allan wrote and produced two films, Freedom Road (1961), which won three prizes at the Berlin Television Festival, and Love in Our Time (1968), a candid documentary about sexual behaviour in Britain, and one of the first to feature people talking openly about homosexuality. He wrote several scripts for the American TV series Batman, starring Adam West.

Throughout the 1970s Allan was Britain’s best-known television journalist, courting controversy with programme makers, but championing new ideas and directors. A huge fan of the US soap Dallas, he did much to publicise the show when it was first aired in Britain.

Anticipating the video revolution, his magazine Video Viewer was the first of its kind to analyse video technology and films. Contributors included Ted Willis and Ken Hoare, the comedian Stanley Baxter’s award-winning scriptwriter.

In 1986 he was invited by Andreas Whittam Smith to join the newly launched Independent newspaper as listings editor. Later he moved to Los Angeles for four years as Hollywood correspondent for The Mail on Sunday. He also wrote for Variety and contributed scripts for A&E’s series American Justice.

He wrote several books with his second wife Angie, including The Sunday Times Guide to Movies on Television (1973, revised 1980), The Virgin Video Guide (1983) and A Guide to World Cinema (1985).

Allan was a life-long gambler — he went to his first race meeting at the age of 5 and placed his first political bet with Ian Mikardo MP, who ran a flourishing book on parliamentary divisions. Allan spent his later years watching new films, writing about online poker, and playing weekly bridge with such friends as Victoria Coren in London. He was a consultant to online bookmakers and gambling sites.

Asked, often, to name his favourite and least favourite films, he would reply: “Citizen Kane — Heaven. Charlie Drake in Sands of the Desert — Hell on earth.”

He married, in 1947, Dorotheen Ingham, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. The marriage was dissolved, and in 1969 he married Angie Willment, who survives him with their son and daughter and the children of his first marriage.



Elkan Allan, television producer and journalist, was born on December 8, 1922. He died on June 25, 2006, aged 83.