the history of forgotten television drama in the...
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Reprinted from Archive Zones, Spring 2014 Issue No. 89 © FOCAL International
FEATURE
Three-year project underway and looking for contributorsA three-year research project has been set up to investigate unknown or forgotten television drama produced in the UK between 1946 and 1982 – from when television resumed after the Second World War to the arrival of Channel Four – which marked the end of the BBC/ITV duopoly and the beginning of a new era in British broadcasting. The project began in September 2013 and will run until September 2016. The research team consists of Professor John Hill, Dr Lez Cooke and Dr Billy Smart, and is based in the Department of Media Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London.
The project looks at productions that are largely unknown, either because they were produced live and not recorded, or because they were recorded but subsequently wiped, junked, mislaid, or lost. It will also examine dramas that exist, either in part (e.g. as individual episodes within a series or serial) or complete, but which have rarely been seen, if at all, since their original transmission.
Due to the specific issues raised by regional production, the project will place particular emphasis upon television drama made in the regions and nations of the UK (the English regions plus Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) and assess the extent of the correlation between the ‘unknown’ and the ‘regional’ in television drama.
The specific objectives of the project are:
To uncover a ‘lost’ history of forgotten television drama in the UK
zz To produce an alternative history of television drama in the UK that will add to our knowledge of television history, challenge ideas concerning the television drama ‘canon’ and encourage awareness of the regional diversity of television drama production
zz To collaborate with regional and national archives in order to establish the existence and availability of regionally-produced dramas in regional and national archives and to make this drama better-known and more accessible (through publications, public screenings and special events)
zz To produce case-studies of dramas (either single plays, series or serials) from regional ITV companies and regional BBC production centres in order to examine more closely the production, scheduling, reception and archiving of regionally-produced drama
zz To record interviews with selected production personnel who worked on regionally-produced dramas that have since been ‘forgotten’.
Although it is impossible to be sure at this early stage what material the project will succeed in unearthing, preliminary research has identified a range of productions worthy of further investigation.
These include:
To be investigated…Granada Workshop (1957), five ‘experimental’ plays produced live (and not recorded) in Granada’s Manchester studios, which include the first television plays by John Hopkins, later responsible for many innovative plays at the BBC.
Hilda Lessways (1959), a six-part adaptation from Arnold Bennett’s Clayhanger trilogy, produced live (and not recorded) by BBC Midland, featuring Judi Dench and Eileen Atkins in their first television roles.
Stewart Love’s The Sugar Cubes, produced in Belfast in 1961.
They Don’t Make Summers Like They Used To (Anglia TV, 1963), one of the earliest TV dramas to be recorded on location, on video, directed by one of the relatively few women directors working in television in the 1960s.
Trapped (1972), three plays produced in Glasgow by Scottish TV, two of which have survived.
Second City Firsts (1973-78), the series of half-hour plays produced by BBC English Regions Drama at Pebble Mill, barely half of which have survived.
The BBC North West series Sense of Place (1978-79), two series of filmed dramas that were only shown in the north west, featuring little-known work by writers such as Alan Bleasdale, Shelagh Delaney and Alan Garner.
Action planPreliminary research on the project is underway and in February 2014 we held a regional symposium in Belfast to discuss some of the issues that the project raises regarding ‘forgotten’ television drama and the ‘canon’. Future events will include a season of forgotten drama at BFI Southbank which will also tour to regional film theatres, and a national conference.
Outcomes from the project will include an edited collection of conference papers, articles on aspects of forgotten drama published in journals and on the project blog, and a book on The History of Forgotten Television Drama in the UK. We hope that there may also be a television programme on the subject of forgotten television drama.
We would be delighted to hear from anyone who has any information they would like to share with us about forgotten TV drama. For more information about the project please see the project website and blog:
The History of Forgotten Television Drama in the UK…
www.rhul.ac.uk/mediaarts/research/thehistoryofforgottentelevisiondrama/historyofforgottentvdrama.aspxhttp://forgottentelevisiondrama.wordpress.com