Poetry Television Broadcasting at the BBC, 1932 to the present

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An exploration of the relationship between poetry, BBC television and the viewing public.My aim is to produce the first scholarly history of poetry broadcasting on BBC television. In doing so I hope to answer a range of questions relating to the BBC, poetry, poets, the viewing public and a changing Britain. The BBC began broadcasting on television in 1936. The questions I hope to answer relate mostly to whether, and to what extent, the BBC's poetry programming (as yet undefined) led, echoed, influenced, subdued or abetted the great social changes of the age. These include, for example, modernism, decolonisation, feminism and changing demographics. I will also interrogate how, as public service broadcaster, the BBC has supported poets and poetry, how it made households names of some, and left others to the more rarefied medium of radio, and left yet others alone entirely. The BBC viewed poets and poetry in a variety of ways: as a non-commercial, 'highbrow' artform that brings prestige; as a way of exploring the formal possibilities of radio and TV; as a key part of the UK's literary heritage; as an affirmation of the 'national story'; as a means of promoting British 'soft power' abroad; and, more recently, as a means of exploring and representing the diversity of voices in modern Britain. This is primarily a work of history. The bulk of my research will be archive-based. The BBC has an extensive, and largely unexamined archives of staff files, internal memos, and files dedicated to individual TV programmes and series. I will also conduct and record interviews with a range of parties, including poets, directors, and producers. My research will situate the BBC's poetry television output within its broader cultural 'mission' and will provide the basis for a critical evaluation of the relationship between its stated mission and what actually transpired.