Interview with John Salthouse, executive producer of Dream Team 80's. John also played Frank Patcham in seasons 1 and 2.
After a few years away, what are your reasons for returning? I've learnt a lot since producing series 3 and 4 of Dream Team and I wanted to return and do it better. DT 80's was the perfect opportunity to do that and gather about me people who had worked on DT and felt the same way. The director, Rob Mcgillivery, the designer, Paul Burns, the Line Producer, Sean Glynn and the Editor Tim Porter, are all DT veterans. There were many other members of the crew who had worked on the show before and wanted to make a brilliant 80's trilogy.
Was it hard to get DT80's to look realistic and how much research took place? A lot of research took place. Richard Parkin, the script editor trawled the internet. Rob McGillivery relived his youth. I had lots of conversations with players like Luther Blissett who played for Watford and England in the 80's and other people connected with football at that time. Simon Washington the football researcher had the hardest job to find the 80's football footage. A lot of the footage has been destroyed or the quality was too poor for us to use. Design wise, it was hard to make the show look right but we returned to the original locations where DT started which was accurate for the period and for DT diehards, will feel right. We went back to Addison Road where it all began.
How hard was it to get hold of the props (Walkman, Phone, etc) from the era? Not easy but Paul Burns and the design team did a great job.
Without giving too much away, what are you most proud of concerning Dream Team 80s? Telling the lives of 3 young footballers from 1980 to 1986. The three young actors who play these characters are very talented, James Sutton, Mike Dixon and Duane Henry. They have the potential to be stars of the future, and they can play football!
Having worked on Dream Team 80's, do you think it's an idea that could be extended into full length series? I think it would be very difficult because of the lack of football footage available.
In terms of the style of the programme, how does it differ from the week to week 'modern day' Dream Team? In DT 80's we jump time. We're telling 6 seasons in 3 hours of drama.
Do you think the idea could feasibly be extended to produce Dream Team 60's and 70's. Again, the problems of the availability of the footage would be a problem for a long running series.
Is there any possibility of Frank Patcham returning to Harchester to steer the Dragons to success in the final series of Dream Team? Frank was the Youth Team coach and temporarily coached the First Team for a while but he was never Premiership Manager material. The whole business side of football - dealing with high powered agents and chief executives was never for Frank. He just loved coaching talent. Besides to produce 32 hours of DT series 10 is a one hell of a job, I don't think I could act in in the show as well!
You are at the head of the production team for the final series of Dream Team - without giving away anything major, can you tell us anything about what we can expect from the final series? It will be the best yet. And it will celebrate everything we all love about the show. I spent 4 years of my life working on DT - at the beginning, two years acting and then two years producing it and I'm proud of everything we did. Jane Hewland has performed miracles to improve the quality of the show on the budget she has been given. Series 10 must continue to move forward and finish gloriously.
Do you feel any extra pressure knowing that series 10 will be the last? No. Excited and privileged.
With your past connections to the programme, would you be tempted to try and bring anyone back? Only if I thought it would make a good story. Premiership football is dynamic and never looks back. The staff of a football club is constantly changing - you're only as good as your last game. I think it would be a great mistake to make 32 hours of wallowing in the past for series 10.
Will you take into consideration the fans opinions about how to end the show? How do you see it ending? If I told you now how it's going to end they'd be no point in you watching series 10! The scripts for the end of the series will be written well in advance of transmission. It would ruin it for everyone if I told you all the stories before you saw them, so you could tell me how to end the series. Please trust Jane Hewland and I, plus a script team headed by Huw Kennair Jones who has written and script edited many hours of the show, to give you something you'll love.
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