3rd August 2026
John Wyver writes: 'This Temple of the Arts and Muses' is the opening phrase of the dedication, displayed in Latin and supposedly written by John Reith, at the entrance to Broadcasting House. Sited on an irregular plot in Portland Place,
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31st July 2026
John Wyver writes: When the BBC television service at Alexandra Palace began operations officially on 2 November 1936, Studio A was fitted out with four Emitron electronic cameras supplied by the recently-established joint venture company Marconi-EMI. One or more of
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28th July 2026
John Wyver writes: In the global scheme of things, the concern I want to highlight this morning is little more than a mote. But apart from the irritation it has provoked, it is a small but potentially significant sign of
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21st July 2026
John Wyver writes: To the ICA on Saturday last for another fascinating programme in Michael Witt's Jean-Luc Godard: Unmade and Abandoned series. This has been a revelatory season, shown more or less monthly, of films by Godard
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20th July 2026
John Wyver writes: Just over a fortnight since The Cultures of Early Television wrapped, with much – although far from all – of the admin done, and with the distractions of a weekend in Paris and the World Cup now
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27th April 2026
John Wyver writes: Ten days ago, with perhaps rather too little fanfare, the Government released a new strategic vision for archives. Commissioned from The National Archives (TNA) and launched by Baroness Twycross, Minister for Museums, Heritage and
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6th April 2026
John Wyver writes: To Tate Modern for the richly interesting Nigerian Modernism exhibition (until 10 May) which is packed with the work of artists of whom I knew nothing. The second room is devoted to the art
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11th March 2026
John Wyver writes: In 2007 the great Polish director Andrzej Wajda, then in his early eighties, released Katyń, a historical drama about the massacre across thrtee months in 1940 of at least 14,000 Polish
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9th March 2026
John Wyver writes: Regulars here will know that I am one of those involved with the continuing discussion over recent policy changes about access to the BBC Written Archives Centre. The campaign to have these changes reversed
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8th March 2026
John Wyver writes: as usual, stuff that I found in the past week that helped me get through these strange and terrible times; the header image is a detail from Jan Lievens' 1652 'Allegory of Peace', from
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