Gary Neita | Carey Robinson – The last great Jamaican voice

I met Carey Robinson through my father, Hartley. Their careers as journalists and government servants ran parallel, and sometimes crossed. Both were foundation members of the Government Public Relations Office – the precursor of the JIS and the API – under its head, A.E.T. Henry, working alongside early journalists like Hal Glave, Rose McFarlane and John Hearne.

My earliest recollection of Carey was being interviewed in the JBC’s television studios. Hartley was the lead public relations officer promoting the government’s new Savings Bank programme, which came with a piggy bank calendar for account holders (insert a sixpence in one slot and the date changed, insert a shilling in another to change the month). I was brought along to demonstrate how my piggy bank worked. Forty years later, Hartley gave me a photo with himself, Carey, and me in my short pants. Sadly, I lost that photograph of when I was eight and he was “Uncle” Carey.

So, it was my privilege decades later, for our office doors to be opposite each other’s, and have lunchtime conversations on Jamaican history and broadcasting with him. But not as Uncle Carey. That was now out of the question. First as Mr Robinson, eventually, Mr Rob, finally as Carey, friend and a confidante he entrusted with an important aspect of his personal affairs.

Apart from his accomplishments and awards (and there were many), two things elevated him to me as the most supremely talented broadcaster, television producer, documentarian and communicator in the Caribbean. Firstly, he produced Hill and Gully Ride well into his 90s. Secondly, for almost 10 of those, he was totally blind. Unheard of.

‘THE’ MAN

Carey was ‘THE’ man at the Creative Production and Training Centre (CPTC). He secluded himself in his editing room with his personal and trusted editor, Narada, or crisscrossed Jamaica with his incredibly loyal team of cameramen, sound recordists, drivers, and production assistants. On Tuesdays, he travelled. Wednesdays to Thursdays, he listened to the footage while creating the programme in his mind. After all, he could no longer see to write it. Then, he was led to a studio where he narrated his mental script aloud; accurately, seamlessly, weaving it through and around footage and interviews he had listened to and memorised. On Fridays, he edited a programme he could not see, often pulling library footage from hundreds of earlier episodes which he unerringly remembered.

The question for us as the management team was how to support and manage it, and more so, how to handle Mr Robinson, who we all – managers, staff, and a revolving door of CEOs and board chairmen – tiptoed around and treated with kid gloves. So, in 2013, when I agreed to be his producer, and oversee and guide the programme, it was with a great deal of trepidation.

It was not his creation, but, in the CPTC, it was known as “his”, and you forgot that at your peril. Originally called Land of Look Behind, its conceptualiser, presenter, producer and the original ‘face’ of the programme was Monica Johnson. At that time, Carey Robinson was the managing director of the Educational Broadcasting Service (EBS), precursor to the CPTC. After Monica returned to the UK, Carey assumed her role, but not as the presenter. That was shared by three people – Sonia Holman, Jonathan Burke, and then Celia Blake. Of the three, only Jonathan went on location with Carey. He directed and narrated the productions while Jonathan did his on-camera links on location. Sonia and Celia did theirs after the programmes were shot.

THE LAST GREAT VOICE

Their faces were seen, Carey’s never was. In its place was that signature voice, the last great voice of Jamaican broadcasting which generations of Jamaicans, here and abroad, know and have grown to love. Carey summated the reason in his iconic introduction to the programme,

“ Hill and Gully Ride is about all kinds of people in their usual environments. Their parishes, districts, towns, villages, communities, farms, business places, homes, gardens, whatever. The programme explores the history, folklore, heritage of parishes and districts, their ruins, historical buildings and sites, unusual physical features, natural phenomena. Hill and Gully Ride probes the memory of older folk, including many centenarians, in the hope of rescuing the past to better understand the present and the needs and aspirations of Jamaicans within the borders of their own country. The people themselves are the stars of the programme. Celebrities and icons don’t come between them and the viewer. The programme tries to avoid the temptation to manage the response and feelings of people. They are encouraged to forget the presence of the camera and the microphone and just be themselves without fear of ridicule. Hill and Gully Ride’s bias is to reveal what is best about Jamaica and Jamaicans. What is true, genuine, sincere, unvarnished.

Gary Neita is a director and producer. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com