Lost tapes of classic British television found in the US

From the Guardian

"A rediscovered haul of television dramas that has been lost for 40 years or more is set to change the way we think about many of Britain's biggest acting stars.

The extraordinary cache of televised plays – described by experts as "an embarrassment of riches" – features performances from a cavalcade of postwar British stars. The list includes John Gielgud, Sean Connery, Gemma Jones, Dorothy Tutin, Robert Stephens, Susannah York, John Le Mesurier, Peggy Ashcroft, Patrick Troughton, David Hemmings, Leonard Rossiter, Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith and Jane Asher. The tapes have been unearthed in the Library of Congress in Washington DC."

Oscar-winning director announces controversial 10-hour crash course in 20th century for American television

"In a film-making career spanning almost 40 years, Oliver Stone has turned political controversy in America into an art form. He has upset financiers with his caustic portrayal of Wall Street; conservatives with his depiction of Fidel Castro, Hugo Chávez and George Bush; and Democrats with his conspiracy theories about the assassination of John F Kennedy.

All of which may come to look like a tea party – of the social as opposed to right-wing protest variety – when his next big venture hits the screens.

Stone announced yesterday that a 10-hour crash course in the history of the 20th century he is putting together for American TV is designed as an antidote to the inaccuracies and biases he believes exist in the conventional historical narrative dished out in American schools and mainstream media. The title alone gives an inkling of what lies ahead: Oliver Stone's Secret History of America..."

BBC and British Library to take joint approach to building digital archive

"The BBC and the British Library are collaborating on a digital technology project to open up the institutions' archives, with the aim of giving the public greater online access to a vast cultural treasure trove.

Under a memorandum of understanding to be signed by the two organisations today, they will collaborate on the task of provising greater digital access to the British Library's archive of more than 150m items collected over the past 250 years, as well as nearly 1m hours of TV and radio output from the BBC, which has been broadcasting since 1922..."

All i can say is... fantastic!

A History of Christianity (TV)

The Open University and the BBC have produced this series which began showing last night on BBC4. It was quite interesting especially for me as i am probably going to be studying Religion in History next year!

Coast returns

Slightly late i know as the first part of the new series was shown on the 11th of July but Coast has returned to BBC2. It is a very good series which is well worth watching, for those who haven't seen it before, following along a portion of the British coastline and reporting on interesting aspects of local history (as well as some geography and nature). The first part included a feature on the Red Sands Sea Forts, an electric railway that ran along the sea shore (and hence underwater) and early film making in Brighton.

After Rome: Holy War and Conquest

It was on at the weekend though i did not watch it until last night, part 1 of a 2 part series written and presented Boris Johnson (the Mayor of London of course and former Tory MP) on the rise of Islam after the fall of Rome and the conflicts between Christianity and Islam.

There is a lot of history on TV these days but much of it relies of gimmickry and reconstructions, often the same blurry battle scene over and over again (just in case the viewer doesn't know what men fighting with swords looks like). This programme refreshingly did not, it was presented in a simple style: Boris in various locations and talking to a number of experts, with a bit of architecture and art thrown in. Unlike many history programmes on TV i felt this one actually treated me as intelligent, which is nice. Part 2 is on next Saturday.