‘Opus’ day

11th September 2013

This is a little story about the joy of serendipitous discovery in the archives. I am working on a research paper about the ways in which Henry Moore and his works featured on television and in films during his lifetime. Central more

Coronation cogitations

3rd June 2013

Yesterday, I thoroughly enjoyed the full seven hours of the BBC's 1953 Coronation coverage which BBC Parliament re-ran in (almost) its entirety. You can read the blog that I wrote here as well as see the numerous screengrabs more

The terra incognita of television archives

8th May 2013

Recently I sat in a viewing theatre with half a dozen other researchers and watched a truly remarkable 1965 television documentary called Walk Down Any Street. Directed for Associated-Rediffusion by Charlie Squires, the film is a clear-eyed and sympathetic verité more

A lost masterpiece

22nd April 2013

On Thursday night BFI Southbank screened Roland Joffé's 1980 BBC television adaptation of John Ford's play 'Tis Pity She's a Whore. This was shown as part of 'Classics on TV: Jacobean tragedy on the small screen', a season of television more

Steel on screen

6th February 2013

I have said this here before but it definitely bears repeating: over the past seven years or so a series of BFI screenings, publications and DVD releases has rewritten the history of the British documentary. This is an achievement that more

On finding your second-hand self

7th November 2012

Wednesday morning, and to kill time I'm wandering around Stratford-upon-Avon. Oxfam Books is - as ever - alluring, and I make for the modest Film and Television section. Not that my shelves at home (or indeed the floors) have any more more

On first looking into The Space

1st May 2012

Day 8 of the Julius Caesar shoot, and we continue to film the assassination scene. On set it's still really cold and outside it's raining hard once again. What more do you need to know (apart from what's for lunch)? more