John Wyver writes: Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin was born 136 years ago today. To mark his 50th birthday on Sunday 16 April 1939, when Charlie was working on the script for The Great Dictator (1940), Alexandra Palace screened an more
John Wyver writes: After an hour or so's coverage of the Boat Race on the morning of Saturday 1 April 1939, that afternoon Alexandra Palace offered the television premiere of Michael Powell's 1937 feature film The Edge of the World. more
John Wyver writes: Frustration reigned at AP on the afternoon of Saturday 20 February 1937 as it proved impossible to get the vision system working and between the sound-only transmission of records director of television Gerald Cock had to make more
John Wyver writes: In November the distinguished art historian Lynda Nead (link to her page at Birkbeck, where she is now Emerita Professor), who is also a friend, gave the prestigious Paul Mellon Lectures at the V&A. In four more
We're thrilled to announce that Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake releases on DVD and Blu-ray on 14th July 2020. Lockdown may have slowed us down, but we've been working hard behind the scenes and we got there in more
John Wyver writes: Back in October 2018 I was fortunate to see Basil Dearden's 1951 luminous crime drama Pool of London at BFI Southbank. What made the occasion particularly special more
John Wyver writes: I am happy to report that today is the official date for the paperback publication of my book Screening the Royal Shakespeare Company: A Critical History. Bloomsbury more
John Wyver writes: In the first post in this series I suggested that the lockdown has prompted the proliferation of the performance of music, dance and drama in split-screen media spaces. The prominence of work that employs what, following more
John Wyver writes: Two months or so into lockdown I wonder if, along with so much else, we are seeing a fundamental shift in the screen language of our moving image media. So do I have your attention now? I am more
John Wyver writes: among the film treasures nearly accessible online is a digital restoration from the George Eastman Museum of Emergency Ward (1952), a remarkable documentary made at St Vincent's Hospital, New York City. I had read about more