I first met Alan Johnson in 1974 when I joined the instructor team at SABC Television. Because we shared the same first name and initials he was known as Big Al and I was known as Lil Al a€” a name he affectionately called me up to his passing. Our role was to train the many talented South Africans in the disciplines of Television so they could run the new television service due to start in 1976. Alan’s role was to train production managers and producers. I trained both film and television cameramen. It was a wonderful period as we were pioneers in a brand new industry and with the state of the art TV studio complex at Auckland Park we had the world’s largest toy train set to play with. We must have done a good job as many of those original students are now heads of TV companies across the whole range of television services in South Africa. Some have even gone on to international success.
When training finished Big Al went to the English Sports department as a Producer/ Director covering OB’s from Rugby to Motor Racing and I went on to become transmission controller and then a producer in the English magazines department. We were involved together in several other ventures at the time such as Executive Television Services where we trained business men how to appear on television, and in 1976 we set up the fledgling Swazi TV service. It was here that Alan met his wife Gail. We also made videos on How to Gamble for internal viewing at the Holiday Inns casino at the Swazi Spar and at the new casino at Sun City. We also shot the launch of the Holiday Inns’ casino on the Wild Coast.
Not only was Big Al an excellent director he was also a top scriptwriter and TV presenter. With his tall figure, good looks, blonde hair and blue eyes and his Irish charm and flattery he easily mixed with all levels of people and he was definitely a ladies man. – although I had to pick up the pieces from time to time of some failed liaisons.
I left the SABC in 1977 to go into the world of TV commercials and then corporate videos and TV facilities but we always remained good friends. When I helped set up Chroma TV, I persuaded Big Al to leave the SABC and join us as head of production where he stayed for many years.
One of Big Al’s greatest passions was cars and motor sports. He directed the first televised South African grand prix. He left Chroma to set up his own TV company producing and presenting the TV programme a€” Drive Time a€” a popular motoring programme which he also presented. It became one of the most watched TV programmes in South Africa and ran for over five years. He was also the motoring correspondent for Radio 702. He was at the time the face of the South Motor industry.
By this time I had returned to the UK and when he came to do shoots for Drive Time such as the International Motor Show I acted as his producer and cameraman so we saw each other on a regular basis and when I returned to South Africa for visits he was always able to use his motoring connections to organise me a flash car to drive for the duration of my stay.
When Drive Time ended mainly because of the changes that were taking place within the SABC after independence, Big Al was unsure of his future role in main stream television so in 2000 with his second wife he moved to Hermanus and ran a guest house called The Potting Shed aimed at the tourist trade, and it was in Hermanus where he lived for the rest of his days.
One of Big Al’s greatest claim to fame was his name. Whilst married to Gail they adopted a small child Nkhosi – 6 months old who had contracted aids from his mother, he was not expected to live more than a year. But with love and care and good nourishment little Nkhosi Johnson aged 10 became world famous for having the courage to stand up at an International Conference in front of President Mbeki to draw attention to the fact that they were humans too and having aids was not a thing to be ashamed of, and that young people like him deserved recognition and help from society. Pictures of this little boy confronting all these high powered international delegates were beamed across the world When Khosi died 2 years later the world’s TV news team flocked to his bedside as did Nelson Mandela. Big Al’s name had become far more famous that he would ever be.
I last saw Big Al two years ago when we sat on top of the hills surrounding Hermanus looking out across the town to the sea where the whales were swimming close to shore. It was a paradise setting and we talked about future plans. I was hoping to involve him in a new TV channel that I was setting up in the UK promoting South Africa, he would have been a useful production coordinator for us in the Western Cape.
Sadly that dream never materialised, Although the TV channel will launch in December 2006 Big Al passed away on Friday 30 June. For reasons as yet unknown he went into a coma, had a heart attack and never woke up. His death was so unexpected as none of his friends knew that he was unwell
Big Als death was a great shock to me and to all his friends. There are many people in South Africa who are now the captains of the TV industry that owe him a great debt of gratitude for the start he gave them.
We both were amongst the founding fathers of South African Television and looking at it 30 years on we can be justly proud of our achievements.
Farewell my dear friend
Lil Al.
Alan Joy
alan.joy@virgin.net
