Russell Harty - Career

Career

On leaving university, Harty became an English and drama teacher in Giggleswick, North Yorkshire. In 1964, he started a year lecturing in English Literature at the City University of New York, and finally began his broadcasting career a few years later, when he became a radio producer for the BBC Third Programme, reviewing arts and literature.

He got his first break in 1970 presenting the arts programme Aquarius, that was intended to be London Weekend Television's response to the BBC's Omnibus. A memorable programme involved a typically bizarre clash of cultures, as Harty travelled to Italy to unite on camera the singer Gracie Fields, and the classical composer William Walton.

In 1973 he was given his own series Russell Harty Plus on ITV which placed him against the BBC's Parkinson, conducting lengthy celebrity interviews. Parts of Russell Harty's interview with The Who in 1973 were included in Jeff Stein's 1979 film The Kids Are Alright, providing some of its most memorable moments, such as Pete Townshend and Keith Moon ripping off each other's shirt sleeves. The show lasted until 1981.

In 1975, Harty moved to the BBC with an early evening celebrity chatshow, which gained some unwelcome notice when he was smacked in the face by Jamaican-American singer Grace Jones on live TV on 18 November 1980. Jones appeared to be offended by Harty's turning away from her to talk to another guest. This show ended in 1982.

Harty began working on a new series Russell Harty's Grand Tour for the BBC in 1987; the few interviews completed before his death included Salvador Dalí and Dirk Bogarde.

Harty had a distinctly camp turn of phrase; his name has been used as Cockney rhyming slang for party. One of his catchphrases was "you were, were you not...?".

Russell Harty was a good friend of the playwright Alan Bennett, who talks about him and his family, in relation with Bennett's own family, in the episode "Written on the Body", taken from his semi-biography Untold Stories.

Harty had strong connections with the village of Giggleswick in North Yorkshire: before beginning his TV career he worked as an English teacher at Giggleswick School, where one of his pupils was Richard Whiteley, the future TV presenter and host of Countdown. Harty subsequently lived in the heart of Giggleswick village. Following his death in 1988 (from Hepatitis B) in a Leeds hospital aged 53, he was buried in the churchyard of St Alkelda, Giggleswick.