TV Archives - Bristol Radical History Group

BBC rebels in the 1970s

The BBC is often portrayed by critical commentators as a monolith, inherently biased and strictly regulated from within. This characterisation both denies the agency of its workers, and deserves further investigation. This talk considers the BBC in the 1970s in Bristol and London, as government intervention in the Corporation increased, particularly over the representation of the conflict in Ireland. At the same time control over programme content was increased by the casualisation of programme […]

Ireland: The Silent Voices

This ground-breaking documentary, originally made in 1983 for Channel 4 at the height of the war in Ireland, provided a critical counter-narrative to the pro-British propaganda spouted by most of the mainstream media in this country. Rarely seen, Ireland: The Silent Voices (80 mins), focuses on the stories and perspectives of ordinary people actively or passively involved in the conflict. In three parts, the film analyses the representation of the conflict on TV in Britain and in Europe. It […]

Putting History on Television

Producer/directors David Parker and Colin Thomas have both challenged conventional approaches to television history in their productions: David by tapping into home movie archives and by seeking out 'history from below' contributors in West Country series like Reel Lives; and Colin by including different historical perspectives within the same programme. Michael Sheen described The Dragon Has Two Tongues, a series on Welsh history which Colin made for Channel 4, as “one of the greatest history […]

100 Years of Struggle

Bristol Radical History Festival 2023 poster, featuring a Walter Crane print

100 Years of Struggle (30 mins) is a film made in 1973 to mark the centenary of the Bristol Trades Union Council. Although it was transmitted by BBC Bristol, it was produced and narrated by members of the Council. Each of them linked key events in the past - in 1873, 1892, 1914 and 1926 - to the industrial and political struggles of the time when the documentary was made.

Putting Welsh history on TV

7.00-9.00pm 3 March 2023 Clwb Y Bont, 85A Taff St, Pontypridd CF37 4SL This talk with video extracts, will look at attempts to turn the complexities of Welsh history into accessible television. It will include clips from Horrible Histories, Huw Edwards's The Story of Wales and The Dragon Has Two Tongues in which Wynford Vaughan Thomas and Professor Gwyn Alf Williams offer two very different versions of Welsh history. The latter series, produced and directed by Colin Thomas, was recently […]

John Deed: Heart of Darkness

Was the BBC right not to rebroadcast this programme?

“Heart of Darkness” is a drama from the controversial Judge Deed series. It was transmitted in 2006 but the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit decided that this episode should not be shown again. It focusses on two legal cases, a judicial review of the U.S. government’s demand for the extradition of a politically active Iraqi woman and a courtroom disagreement between a married couple on whether their child should be given the MMR vaccine. G.F. Newman, the writer and producer of the Judge Deed […]