Concept and creative process
Opening titles for a 1986 series of programmes looking at issues which involve young people. Bernard Heyes’ daring concept for the title sequence took the programme name literally. It involved a 35mm hand-held camera shoot by cameraman Ken Macmillan in a black taxi in Portland Place, with the cab drawing up at the entrance of BBC Broadcasting House, reflected in one of its hubcabs (shot backwards). The scenario, inspired by Carol Reed’s ‘The Third Man’, was filmed in black and white and used actual locations in BBC Broadcasting House. It tracked the footsteps of some poor soul who has been summoned to see the Director General, seated in an imposing meeting room behind a massive table. The camera is the point of view of the poor interviewee. As it tracks into the DG he sees a file cover with the title RED HERRINGS stamped on it in red, the programme title. It was a sequence which ultimately had nothing to do with the content of the programme, it was all just a red herring!