From madcap days on The Goon Show to The White House, retired production manager from Selsey shares her lifetime in television

Marjorie Graham, née Sullivan, worked at ITV from its launch in 1955, as well as TVS, Meridian and as a freelance production assistant. She moved from London to live in Selsey in 1970.

Now aged 89, Marjorie has tales of comedians like Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Eric Sykes jumping around on a bed, remembers the day she had to arrange to transport an elephant and many other wild goings on during her career.

Marjorie also worked on documentaries and serious news programmes, so she saw another side to the business, too, in her 40-year career.

Her book A Lifetime in Television by Marjorie Sullivan Graham was launched by publisher Kaleidoscope in Birmingham on March 7, with her two grandchildren attending on her behalf. The cover features a picture of her with Peter Sellers.

Kaleidoscope Publishing promotes the appreciation of British television in general and particularly classic television programmes. The memoir is priced £19.99. Visit www.tvbrain.info/shop for more information.

Marjorie said: "I am now 89 and I have written a book about my life, as I worked in TV production for 40 years, ending in the millennium. The front cover of the book is me on a camel being led by the famous Peter Sellers."

As a girl, Marjorie always wanted work that was unusual and out-of-the-ordinary, and she believes her upbringing gave her the strength to cope with challenges. Her mother was an invalid and Marjorie was often left to get herself to school and then cook dinner for her father when she got home.

Her experience proved invaluable when she helped launch the Snak Shak in Selsey in 2005 to offer young people in the area a place to go. She was able to recognise that many children were dealing with difficult situations at home, acting as carers even though they may not see themselves that way.

Marjorie was born in London in 1936 and grew up in Kentish Town during the Second World War. She left school in 1952 at the age of 16 and joined an advertising agency in the West End, having learned shorthand, typing and bookkeeping in her final year.

She heard ITV was launching in September 1955, opening up a whole new range of programmes compared to those on the only other channel at the time, the BBC, and with adverts in between.

Her friend Hazel, the wife of actor John Sherlock, encouraged her to apply to Associated-Rediffusion, the ITV franchise holder for the region. Marjorie got a job as a production assistant in August 1955 and spent the first month working on arrangements for the channel's opening night at London's Guildhall.

In an article Marjorie wrote under her maiden name for Girl Film and Television Annual in 1957, she said: "I remember several years ago, when I was leaving school, wanting to do work that was unusual and out-of-the-ordinary, but I never imagined my boss would turn to me one day and ask me to find an elephant from somewhere and arrange to transport it.

"Neither did I imagine during my normal working hours I would ever be seated in the rear of a 1934 taxi with my boss grimly clutching what was left of a steering wheel as we chugged slowly across a cricket pitch. But now, after a few years as a Television Production Assistant I find that these and many other similar happenings are all part and parcel of the daily work.

"Since joining one of the London Independent Television Companies, I have been working in the Light Entertainment Department on many shows, including the Peter Sellers & Spike Milligan 'Fred' series and the Tommy Cooper series, and, on looking back, I can’t think of any career which could be more out of the ordinary."

After ITV went on air, Marjorie began working on new programmes, learning everything from scratch. At first, she was focusing on music programmes, like Down Beat and Vera Lynn Sings, but then started working with Dick Lester.

The Goon Show was moving from radio to television and Marjorie started working on The Idiot Weekly, Price 2d followed by A Show Called Fred and Son of Fred, starring Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan.

Marjorie, who was 19 at the time, recalls them all jumping up and down, with her tied in the middle, and the Idiot's Postbag, which involved climbing on to a brass bed with a projection of a road behind. She recently donated a tweed fishing hat she had from one of the skits to The Goon Show Preservation Society.

By the time she was 20, Marjorie reckons she knew 'just about every dirty joke in the business'. It all went out live, she said, with 'audience reaction' from the studio hands, as there was no actual audience.

Timing the shows was difficult, because of the madcap team, but Graham Stark and Kenneth Connor could be relied upon to say the right lines to finish the sketches on time, she recalled.

In comparison, working on the drama No Hiding Place was 'boring', she said! Marjorie then worked on This Week, a current affairs programme, from 1962, meaning she alternated between filming abroad and doing the live show in London each week for two years.

She was at The White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis and saw President John F. Kennedy and his family take off in a helicopter from the lawn outside The Oval Office.

Marjorie was married to Hugh Graham, a former Fleet Street photo journalist, and gave up work for a while after having children.

Southern Television, in Southampton, was the nearest company to the family home in Selsey, and Jack Hargreaves was programme controller. Marjorie had worked with Jack on This Week and he gave her a job as principal PA.

After working on a programme about Florence Nightingale, she went into the documentary department for a time. She then went on to work on Runaround, a children's game show, with director Colin Nutley and presenter Mike Reid.

Marjorie recalls a time she had to send stagehands out into Southampton to round up children for the audience, because it was half-term and the schools were closed.

She also worked for TVS in Maidstone, on TV-am at a time when computers were replacing portable typewriters and on Thames Silents with David Gill and Kevin Brownlow. Working on Country Ways in the 1980s, Marjorie learned all about hedging and ditching - far more interesting to her than getting to grips with the internet!

When freelance television work dried up, Marjorie completed a teacher training programme and began lecturing at various universities in the south, including Chichester and Portsmouth.

But her dream was to return to television work and she got the opportunity in 1997, when she became a production manager for ITV Meridian until she retired in 2000.