To help clarify my thinking about what sort of television drama gets remembered and forgotten in Britain, I’ve been looking at how the Radio Times publicised BBC drama over 1946-82, the period covered by the ‘Forgotten Television Drama in the UK’ project.
I’ve put together lists of all of the covers of the Radio Times that promoted original BBC drama productions during these years. As this information hasn’t previously been collated or put online before I’m posting these lists up here in six parts, where a general readership of magazine collectors and fans of particular programmes may find them useful.
One notable change in the editorial coverage of the Radio Times in the late 1970s and early 80s when compared with earlier periods is the absence of cover feature promotion for the BBC’s most successful popular drama series of the time, with such long-runners as Angels (BBC1 1975-83), All Creatures Great and Small (BBC1 1978-90), Juliet Bravo (BBC1 1980-85) and Bergerac (BBC1 1981-91) only receiving one or no covers.
The cover for Empire Road (18 August 1979) illustrates some of the values and intentions of the Radio Times in a bold and inventive phase of the magazine’s history. The show, a BBC Birmingham multiracial serial shown on BBC2, was neither a mainstream popular success, nor a prestige drama deriving from a classic literary source. The image and text doesn’t feature familiar star actors, and gives an impression of what the series is attempting to do (“a good-humoured slice of life as it is lived by West Indians and Asians”). The portrait, inviting us to share a meal with an afro-carribean family, is one that makes a quiet statement when reproduced on the cover of a mass-circulation magazine, both welcoming and uncompromising: these people and their programme are part of the BBC family – we hope that you might want to join them.
Radio Times covers: Series and serials 1975-84
04 Jan 1975 The Venturers
18 Jan 1975 The Love School
15 Mar 1975 The Fight Against Slavery
03 May 1975 The Brothers
07 Jun 1975 Ten from the 20s
23 Aug 1975 Oil Strike North/ Quiller
04 Oct 1975 Poldark
22 Nov 1975 Moll Flanders
17 Jan 1976 The Glittering Prizes
28 Feb 1976 Our Mutual Friend
03 Apr 1976 Angels
24 Apr 1976 The Onedin Line (3)
04 Sep 1976 The Duchess of Duke Street
01 Jan 1977 Wings
29 Jan 1977 Fathers and Families
05 Feb 1977 Headmaster
25 Jun 1977 The Onedin Line (4)
13 Aug 1977 Marie Curie
03 Sep 1977 Target
24 Sep 1977 Anna Karenina
15 Oct 1977 Treasure Island
07 Jan 1978 All Creatures Great and Small
21 Jan 1978 The Mayor of Casterbridge
04 Mar 1978 Pennies from Heaven
01 Apr 1978 The Standard
29 Apr 1978 The Devil’s Crown
16 Sep 1978 Tycoon
23 Sep 1978 Wuthering Heights
28 Oct 1978 The Voyage of Charles Darwin
06 Jan 1979 Telford’s Change
03 Mar 1979 The Serpent Son
17 Mar 1979 My Son, My Son
12 May 1979 A Family Affair
19 May 1979 Crime and Punishment
21 Jul 1979 The Onedin Line (5)
18 Aug 1979 Empire Road
01 Sep 1979 Prince Regent
08 Sep 1979 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
06 Oct 1979 Penmarric
05 Jan 1980 Breakaway
01 Mar 1980 The History of Mr Polly
08 Mar 1980 Thérèse Raquin
22 Mar 1980 A Question of Guilt
04 Oct 1980 Shoestring
25 Oct 1980 Oppenheimer
10 Jan 1981 Sons and Lovers
14 Feb 1981 When the Boat Comes In
28 Feb 1981 The Life and Times of David Lloyd George
25 Apr 1981 The Chinese Detective
05 Sep 1981 The Day of the Triffids
19 Sep 1981 Fanny by Gaslight
10 Oct 1981 The Borgias
07 Nov 1981 Wilfred and Eileen
09 Jan 1982 The Bell
06 Feb 1982 Nancy Astor
06 Mar 1982 Maggie
20 Mar 1982 Love is Old, Love is New
15 May 1982 Frost in May
31 Jul 1982 Jane
18 Sep 1982 Smiley’s People
30 Oct 1982 Beau Geste
06 Nov 1982 The Barchester Chronicles
08 Jan 1983 Bergerac
05 Mar 1983 My Cousin Rachel
10 Sep 1983 The Old Men at the Zoo
17 Sep 1983 Give Us a Break
15 Oct 1983 By the Sword Divided
19 Nov 1983 Doctor Who (12)
10 Mar 1984 Strangers and Brothers
07 Jul 1984 A Winter Harvest
15 Sep 1984 The Tripods
06 Oct 1984 Tenko
17 Nov 1984 The Box of Delights
(Thanks to Simon Coward for his assistance in double-checking the lists)
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