ABSTRACT
With the help of the Committee we eventually appointed a psychologist: William A. Belson from Australia. To some extent this was a leap in the dark for, as Belson was then in Australia, he and we had to take one another on trust. He proved to be man of demonic energy who didn't spare himself - or his subordinates - and was full of ideas to which he held with sometimes passionate intensity. On a personal level we got on well, but on a professional level our relationship wasn't always plain-sailing. I think some of the difficulty arose from
the differences between the British and Australian cultures. He was, I think, a little suspicious of British 'smoothness'. What we would see as tact, he was inclined to see as a lack of forthrightness; what we would see as a necessary flexibility, he would see as a surrender of principle. I am sure, because he once said so, that he thought my personal loyalty to the BBC bordered on the fanatical and at times led me perilously near to intellectual dishonesty; to me some of his attitudes appeared nearparanoic. But there can be no denying that Bill made a contribution to the development of audience research which was very considerable indeed - and he said, and I am sure he meant it, that he felt he had learned a lot from us. His departure to become Head of the SurVey Research Centre at the LSE after some years with us was a very real loss to the department, though it must be confessed that his erstwhile colleagues thereafter seemed less prone to ulcers.
