Along with Armchair Theatre and The Wednesday Play, Play for Today constitutes one of the most important series of British television drama. Beginning on BBC1 on Thursday 15 October 1970, it continued until 1984, running to over 300 individual plays and regularly commanding audiences of several millions. Launched as a successor to The Wednesday Play […]
A short season of Plays for Today, curated by John Hill, for the Belfast Film Festival that was scheduled for April 2020 but, sadly, cancelled in March. Play for Today was launched on BBC1 in October 1970 and ran until 1984, commanding audiences of several millions. It is generally recognised to be a hugely important […]
The Centre for the History of Television Culture and Production, and the History of Forgotten TV Drama project, at Royal Holloway, University of London, have teamed up with the television archive organisation, Kaleidoscope, to co-host a series of screenings and discussions of programmes made by STV (Scottish Television), originally launched in 1957, and HTV (Harlech […]
This is the official blog of the ‘History of Forgotten Television Drama in the UK’ project, Royal Holloway, University of London. This 4-year AHRC-funded project has explored why many television dramas made in the regions and nations of the UK between 1946 and 1982 have been ‘forgotten’ while others have been elevated to the canon […]
Set in a London comprehensive school, Grange Hill was first broadcast on 8 February 1978. Although initially conceived as a nine-part series, the programme proved to be so popular that it carried on until 2008. It also earned a reputation for its realism and willingness to tackle difficult subjects – from bullying and truancy to […]
On Friday 3 November 2017, as a prelude to the Missing Believed Wiped Northern Ireland event at QFT the following day, the Belfast Film Festival – in association with the ‘Forgotten Television Drama’ project at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the television heritage organisation Kaleidoscope – will be screening two television dramas previously unseen […]
Beanbag Cinema/Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast 2 – 8 April 2017 Following the success of previous screenings at the 2015 festival, Professor John Hill has curated a second series of screenings for the Belfast Film Festival 2017. The programme is outlined below. Sunday 2 April, 12pm The Eagle Has Landed (Granada 1973. Written by David Edgar, Directed by Colin […]
Our Forgotten Dramas season continues on Monday 13 February at 6.20 pm in NFT2 with a double bill of 1970s political dramas, made by Granada, at which we will be very pleased to welcome the director of The Nearly Man, John Irvin, and the script-editor of The Eagle Has Landed, Jonathan Powell. The Eagle Has […]
We are pleased to be able to announce details of the second ‘Forgotten Dramas: Rediscovering British Television’s Neglected Plays’ season, held at BFI Southbank this February, curated by Lez Cooke, John Hill and Billy Smart as a part of the AHRC-funded ‘History of Forgotten Television Drama in the UK’ project at Royal Holloway College, University […]
By John Hill The directors Ken Loach and Ken Russell are usually considered to be operating at opposite ends of the aesthetic scale with Loach traditionally associated with documentary-realist sobriety and Russell identified with neo-romantic excess…
Forgotten Television Drama