Old TV and Radio listings.

TV and Radio week beginning Saturday 5^th October.

Saturday 5^th October

19:00:  Robert Preston Goes Shopping (BBC2).  Quick repeat of this 2013 history of shopping since the 1950s in the UK. (1 of 3)

 

21:00:  The 70s (BBC2)  Repeat of Dominic Sandbrook’s series of the 1970s from 2012.  At heart, this reads back the narrative created by the Conservatives in the 1980s that the 1970s were a time of unmitigated misery by retelling selected popular perceptions (both contemporaneous and after the fact) instead of building up a reasoned analysis. (2 of 4)

 

Sunday 6th October

13:30:  The Road to the National Theatre (BBC Radio 4).  Investigates the long gestation of the National Theatre.

 

Monday 7th October.

16:30:  Bingo, Barbie and Barthes:  50 years of Cultural Studies (BBC Radio 4).  .  First the part on the history of cultural studies in the UK with Laurie Taylor.

 

Tuesday 8th October

20:30: Britain on Film (BBC4).  Quirky and often intriguing look at the 1960s through Rank’s post newsreel documentaries of the 1960s.  Sadly local authorities of the series but many still available on iPlayer.

 

Wednesday 9th October

20:00 Heritage!  The battle for Britain Past (BBC4).  Early repeat for 2014 series telling the story of how the idea of heritage developed.  This first part (of three) looks at the Victorian roots of the heritage movement and it outside the scope of this website, but it is useful for understanding the development of post-war heritage which arrives in part 3.

 

Thursday 10^th October

11:30:  Troubled Walls (BBC Radio 4).  The story of the murals that marked community boundaries and paramilitary territory within that, now being replaced by the Arts Council’s Re-imaging Communities programme.

 

20:20, Auf Wiedershen, Pet. (Drama (Freeview 20)).  Beginning of the run of the 1983 series scripted by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais (Whatever Happened the Likely Lads, Porridge).  It might be the weakling half brother of Alan Bleasdale’s The Boys for the Black Stuff (1980, 1982), and lack its grit, but it still an important reflection of how the popular media began to reflect on life under Mrs. T.

 

Friday 11th October

21:00:  Tubular Bells: The Mike Oldfield Story (BBC4).  As ever, Friday night is the history of music night on BBC4.  Here we Mike Oldfield bringing prog rock to the masses, and making Richard Branson a success.  What’s not to dislike?

 

22:25: Synth Britannia (BBC4).  Repeat of 2010 documentary about the post-punk electronica boom.  As with all the Britannia series, a excellent slice of music history.  (Of course, forever available on YouTube.  Also see BBC site for the programme.)