Sunday Mirror editor-in-chief and then editorial director of Mirror Group, where he pushed the daily title, the "Daily Mirror", to a circulation in excess of five million copies. Reflecting strongly prevailing cultural views across the papers across the generations, in 1952, the "Sunday Pictorial" ran a three-part series entitled "Evil Men" promising an "end to the conspiracy of silence" about homosexuality in Britain. "Most people know there are such things – 'pansies' – mincing, effeminate, young men who call themselves queers (...) but simple decent folk regard them as freaks and rarities." The "Sunday Pictorial" compared homosexuality to a "spreading fungus" that
Hall's Pictorial Weekly programme was noted for concentrating on colourful characters and off-beat reportage, as well as occasional comedy sketches. According to Hall, it occurred to him one day that he would be much more the master of the situation if he simply sat at home and wrote sketches, instead of looking for stories around the country. The first episode of "Hall's Pictorial Weekly" aired on 29 September 1971. Set in the offices of a mythical provincial newspaper in the fictional town of Ballymagash, it initially continued to cover offbeat regional news in the manner of "Newsbeat", but gradually gave over more time