John Wyver writes: With the 1956 BBC production of Arthur Benjamin's commissioned opera Mañana currently and pleasingly on BBCiPlayer, I have written blog posts about the backstory to the project and about the production as television. This more
John Wyver writes: In a previous post I sketched the backstory of the BBC-commissioned opera Mañana, composed by Arthur Benjamin and produced for television in February 1956. Thanks to the seventieth anniversary, a digitally restored version of this more
John Wyver writes: Late on Sunday night, BBC Four brought to the screen the 1956 BBC production of Arthur Benjamin's 75-minute opera Mañana. The transmission was 70 years to the day after its television premiere, and the recording is now more
John Wyver writes: The final screening in the BFI Southbank season linked to the publication of Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain is on Saturday afternoon at 15.00. The oddball programme pairs more
John Wyver writes: The earliest programme to be featured in BBC iPlayer's treasure trove of Henrik Ibsen plays and documentaries is the production of The Lady from the Sea, first shown in May 1953. Seen initially in the more
John Wyver writes: Sunday on BBC Four and BBC iPlayer saw the start of a thrilling season of classic dramas by, and documentaries about, Henrik Ibsen. The full programme, to be broadcast over the coming weeks, is now available more
John Wyver writes: This coming Sunday, as part of BFI Southbank's Muse of Fire: Richard Burton season, which kicked off last night, I am introducing a rare screening of John Osborne's television play A Subject of Scandal and more
John Wyver writes: Some twenty months after the start of the BBC's service from Alexandra Palace, Wednesday 27 July 1938 saw the publication, in what was still proudly called the Manchester Guardian, of an absorbing article under the headline, 'Television more
John Wyver writes: Television's main event on the evening of 5 June 1938 was a presentation of two modern dance works by the company Ballets Jooss. Founded in 1933 by choreographer Kurt Jooss, the group had fled Nazi more
John Wyver writes: Unbilled in Radio Times, and so clearly organised at very short notice, in the afternoon of Monday 31 May 1937, AP broadcast a half-hour of scenes from Rupert Doone's Group Theatre production at the Little Theatre of more