The Hive: ArchivesDavid Hendy

Professor of Media & CommunicationsSchool of Media, Film, and Music

d.j.hendy@sussex.ac.uk

BBC Written Archives Centre

Caversham

Why written, not sound?

The organizational mind of the BBC

‘Yellow minutes’ (NCA, R3 54-93)• Balance in Current Affairs Programmes:• ‘DG said that after President Nixon had ordered a resumption of bombing in

North Vietnam he had heard very little in exposition of American policy. Only in The World Tonight and Letter from America had he heard anything of that kind. He knew that the flow of news and public comment had been mainly in one direction, and the BBC had been right to reflect it, but he still felt that the BBC should have made a point of paying some attention to the other side’s case.

• DG laid it down as a general principle that whenever there was an emotional outcry or campaign, whether it concerned Vietnam or victims of thalidomide or any other group, the BBC’s journalists must stand back from the fray and ask themselves whether they had paid sufficient attention to the other side’s point of view. Had they been fair? Had they missed anything? In recent coverage of Vietnam, DG said, it seemed to him that the BBC had let an opportunity slip.’

• (R3/57/1: January-April 1973)

R78 (Policy) – just some examples• R78/2519: Czechoslavakian Crisis, 1968-89.• R78/2611: Robin Day, 1968-87.• R78/205: Defamatory allegations against BBC staff, 1970.• R78/2639: Distinction between fiction and reality in programmes, 1964-1988.• R78/2623: Documentary Programmes: Principles and Practice, 1971-83;

Projects 1968-1988.• R78/662: Entertainment Programmes: Satire, 1963-1966.• R78/1715: Falkland Islands: General, political reaction, press reaction, 1982-

83.• R78/2348-9: NVLA, including programme criticism, 1969-82.• R78/2071: Nixon Interviews, The, 1975-77.• R78/various: Northern Ireland, civil disturbances.• R78/2528: Phone-in programmes, 1973-1988.• R78/various: Political broadcasting.• R78/2843: Enoch Powell, 1981-1986.

R78 (Policy) – just some examples• R78/237: Public Relations: Women’s Organisations, 1964-1972 and 1973-

1981.• R78/various: Race Relations.• R78/2554: Religious Programmes: Policy, 1967-1989.• R78/1616: Scarman Inquiry: Brixton Disorders, 1981.• R78/various: Schools Broadcasting.• R78/1989: Solzhenitsyn, Alexander, 1976.• R78/694: Student Unrest and Demonstrations, 1968.• R78/1895: Subversive Publications, 1971-1978.• R78/2873: Sun (The), 1968-1981.• R78/2640: Swearing in Programmes, 1962-1988.• R78/2184: Margaret Thatcher, 1960-1981.• R78/various: Trades Unions.• R78/2133: Windsor (Duke of), 1969-1976.

The slow accumulation of details

Weekly Programme Review Board

• 10th April 1968. • 152. Boat Race Coverage. ‘CR4&MP said he would be

discussing the arrangements for Boat Race coverage with HOB(R) because it appeared that the launch used by the radio commentators was no longer powerful enough and could not keep up. At one point, John Snagge had been unable to see either of the university boats. It would be an advantage, too, to have the radio launch equipped with television monitors if that was technically feasible. HTCA(R) and H.Pres.(R) said that despite these drawbacks radio’s estimate of the relative positions of the university boats had been consistently more accurate than television’s.’

‘Weekly Programme Review Board’

• See handouts:• 1972 Policy document – extract.• Earlier discussion of ‘The Brother of the Bride’, Radio 3.• Countless discussions – weighing up listeners, press

coverage, own instincts, political climate, cultural shifts, etc.

• 1972 Policy Document – an end point, not a beginning.• Insight into how policy emerges – not usually top-

down.

Exhaustiveness?

Slicing

• Horizontally• Vertically• Splitting effort:• ½ systematic slow work on ‘spine’• ½ scampering through ‘random’ sampling at

speed.• The pleasure of both finding and not finding –

safety and risk.

Thank you

• David Hendy• d.j.hendy@sussex.ac.uk• Twitter: @davidjhendy• Room 310, Silverstone

(MFM)

• Public Culture Hub

• - Austerity, activist media, and civil society

• - Media history, policy, and public institutions (Media History Lab)

• - Sound and listening in public life• - New public spaces and

performances.• - Public intellectuals and public

engagement.

• http://www.sussex.ac.uk/mediaandfilm/research/researchcentres/publicculturehub