Lee Tim Shing - The backstage pro

Scan from i-Weekly #731
People call him Uncle Tim. He is the golden producer who produced many classic dramas that belonged to the golden era of the Hong Kong television industry. From The Good, The Bad And The Ugly in the early days to the Rosy Business series now, many dramas throughout the years owe their success to him.

He is now 63 years old, and has spent nearly 40 years in this industry. He slowly worked his way up; from the props department, the scene department, the assistant script-editor to script-editor, until finally, he became a producer.

Classic dramas include Hotel, The Good, The Bad And The Ugly， A House Is Not A Home and Conflict of the 1970s, The Duke of Mount Deer, The Yang's Saga and The Legend of the Book and the Sword of the 1980s and the Rosy Business series, the dramas which were such huge hits despite their small production values.

The mega-stars that we all know today, including Chow Yun Fatt, Dodo Cheng, Andy Lau and Tony Leung all owe their successes to him. Even Stephen Chow specially thanked Uncle Tim for transferring him from the children programme to the acting group, thereby paving his path to becoming a true actor when he won his Movie King award.

10 over years ago, he was once promoted to be the deputy executive producer, but he still enjoyed being personally in-charge of the backstage work, so he willingly demoted himself and continued being a producer. "One must know where his strength lies. Wearing an office suit and supervising people is a comfortable job, but it doesn't suit me. One can't escape from politicking and rivalry in big organisations. I will feel tired and unhappy if I continue to work in such an environment."

The trend in Hong Kong dramas now is all about women fighting with each other or people plotting against each other. He bucks the trend by using artistes who can really act and a realistic script that is meaningful and yet stirs the emotions in people.

In recent years, Hong Kong is facing the same problems as Singapore. There are less and less artistes. The more popular ones have either gone on to film movies or gone over to Mainland China to earn money. He once said that he made do with whoever and whatever he had. As such, many second and third-line artistes have gotten the chance to shine in his dramas. Such people are Steven Ma and Tavia Yeung in Sweetness in the Salt, Pierre Ngo in Safe Guards, Dominic Lam in A Fistful of Stances and Evergreen Mak in No Regrets.

With such vast experience on hand, he, who will be retiring when he reaches 65, will be dearly missed by both the artistes and drama fans alike.

Talks about the Rosy Business cast
Sheren Tang: One fine day, when I was outside the canteen smoking, she walked past me and said that she would like to work with me before I retire. I asked her if she was serious or just joking about it. If she was serious, I would have to tell the company. This was how we collaborated for the first time. The more free rein you give Sheren, the more you gain because she knows how to act very well.

Wayne Lai: The first time I knew Wayne was at Ocean Centre. At that time, Spotlight Children's Education Centre was organising a drama-acting class. The company asked me to go over to teach. Wayne seemed as though he was crazy and ran to sign up for it. He even paid for the school fees. Wasn't that very silly of him? I gave him a scene to act out. After watching him, I was thinking to myself, "This fellow is already near the professional standard. What does he want to sign up for this course for? He's just wasting his time." I went back to the company and told them, if this person really graduated, sign him on to become an artiste. He really made it in the end.

Difficult for Rosy Business 3 to start filming?
In 2009, when Rosy Business was first shown, Wayne Lai was not popular yet. The only first-line artistes were Sheren Tang and Ron Ng. It was not highly looked upon by the executives and it was seen as a "warehouse good" that nearly did not get the chance to air. After the drama was aired, Chai Gau and 4th Wife became very popular. The entire crew then decided to ride on the success of Rosy Business and came up with No Regrets. Lau Sing and Gau Gu Leong created another ratings miracle. Cheung Wah Biu, who had already left TVB, wanted to return to work with Lee Tim Shing on the third sequel. However, in recent times, TVB has been the subject of poachers who poached away their staff. It is not known whether the third sequel will still be going on or not. "There are only 2, 3 people left from the original script-writing team of Rosy Business because the rest have left already. We are now all working with new people. We do not have enough talent, so what we can do is to work longer, with everybody having more work to do. We have to work from morning till night without stopping. I can't think of other ways to remedy the situation. The process of creation is a long one. You can't just find anybody to replace them immediately."

Rosy Business will be shown every weekend nights at 7.30 pm on Channel U from 5th November 2011 onwards.

- Credits to Tammy for the scan

*PLEASE CREDIT DREAMLUCKY IF REPOSTED! THANKS! ^^

Here's another article from Express Weekly #690 about Producer Lee Tim Shing. It's a very interesting read. You can tell how much I admire Producer Lee heehee! ^^

Comments: I really admire Tim Gor very much. He really has the ability to 点石成金. Apparently, he saw potential in people whom other people tended to dismiss. He really possesses good foresight, something which most people don't have.

Channel U is really very laggy in airing Rosy Business huh... I've re-watched it 4 times already! Tsk tsk Mediacorpse. -.-'''