Frans Said

Frans Henry Said (born 16 September 1932) is a Maltese broadcaster and author.

His best known work is in Children's Programmes, and Christmas activities for needy children.

The youngest of three surviving children, Frans (Francis) was born to Mary née Brincat and Publio Said, a merchant.

His birth took place at the administrative manager's residence of the “Ta’ Braxja” Cemetery.

His maternal family had been the owners of the plot and adjacent land where the British had built a cemetery for non-Catholic Christians, mainly British servicemen stationed in Malta.

His mother had been staying for a few months with her family.

Brought up in Floriana, Malta, his family had suffered greatly during the Second World War and were impoverished due to enemy actions.

It was during the war and still a child that Frans Said started his literary career.

After the war he sat for a competitive examination to enter The Lyceum which at that time was the leading secondary school in Malta.

Only a few students could be accepted.

From thousands of candidates who sat for the post war examination he placed sixth.

Both in The Lyceum and also in the town association, Frans joined drama groups.

At school he used to take part in the yearly Shakespeare production, while in his group, he not only took (a leading) part, but more often than not, also wrote the script of the plays and comedies.

His father died on the 12 February 1948, by which time Frans had already initiated the fledgling children's programme on the local cable radio.

He was thus one of the few pioneers in Maltese broadcasting.

Even though at a relatively young age he was invariably the producer and planner of those programmes which from once weekly soon developed into a daily production.

He soon became known as Uncle Frans (Iz-Ziju Frans).

In conjunction with these programmes, he wrote many original works in Maltese, and carried out translations of a number of classical works.

With his translations the children of Malta were introduced to many of the great classics.

The radio management noticed his potential and he was sent to study, initially, at the BBC in London, and later on with RAI in Rome and the Happy Station Show in the Netherlands.

On his return to Malta, Frans had become the brains and driving force behind the Children's Programmes and what was originally a weekly half hour was eventually extended to a daily afternoon magazine edition.

With the assistance of others he pioneered children's radio drama in Maltese.

During the years, the children's drama encompassed a wide spectrum from comedy, adventure, thrillers, musicals, up to pure drama.

As a corollary from this he started to organise Christmas Parties, initially for the many children of the drama group and later on for the needy children of the islands.

From a modest 300 needy children in 1952, these parties grew to big proportions, so that after 19 years (the last party was held in 1970) more than 40,000 children had been entertained.

(This represents 12% of the population at that time of the Islands).

Due to his eventual connections with the British Forces, he managed to obtain assistance from the armed forces.

In 1957, Frans met his future wife Enoe (née Calleja) daughter of Maestro Abele Calleja.

In 1960 the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal (R09) was specifically brought to Malta to host 2000 children.

In later years, these parties were held under the alternate auspices of the three UK services serving in Malta.

They were married on 24 January 1960.

They had three children, namely Adrian, Giuseppe and Oliver.

For five years from 1961 onwards he organised and presented a weekly “Round Malta Quiz,” which enjoyed great popularity.

He also organised large variety shows, tickets for which were sold within hours.

In the sixties he took over the full organisation of the daily Children's Programmes.

All this work was done on a part-time basis as he had his own full-time employment.

For two years he was also involved in TV productions.

For his work he received a number of awards.

As secretary to the Floriana Civic Council, he had also been active in civic affairs and was the co-founder of the Confederation of Civic Councils of which he had also been elected Secretary and was the founder of “Midalja tal-Meritu” (The Medal of Merit) (1968) (that preceded the Ġieħ ir-Repubblika award) that for a number of years used to be awarded annually by the Confederation of Civic Councils.

He retired from broadcasting in 1979, after nearly 32 years active service.