RESEARCHING THE HISTORY OF TELEVISION FOR WOMEN IN BRITAIN, 1947–1989

Abstract

This report details the aims, methodology and selected findings of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)-funded project ‘A History of Television for Women in Britain, 1947–1989’, running between 2010 and 2013 at the University of Warwick and De Montfort University. Here, we consider the difficulties of conducting historical television research and the ways in which we have tried to use a method which is attentive to production research, textual analysis and audience work in a dialogic relationship. We discuss the work of Doreen Stephens, the BBC's first Editor, Women's Programmes, the ‘discovery’ of the daytime women's arts programme Wednesday Magazine and the ways in which the women who have participated in our study have described the significance of television for women in their lives. Finally, we discuss the ways in which the project has attempted to engage with constituencies outside the academy.

Keywords:

• address
• audience
• history
• programming
• television
• women

Notes

1. Cath Kidston is a British designer whose shops specialise in retro, 1950s-style home furnishings, textiles, accessories and clothing and whose ‘chintzy’ style has become synonymous with popular understandings of cosy 1950s domesticity and housewifery.

2. Hazel Adair, perhaps more famously, also wrote Crossroads (ATV, 1964–1988), and before that Compact (BBC, 1962–1965) and episodes of Emergency Ward Ten (ATV, 1957–1967) and has been an important figure in the development of British soap opera and television drama. As yet, however, there is no critical account of her career. Mary Irwin interviewed Adair for a public engagement event, and this interview has been deposited with Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union so that future researchers can continue the task of bringing women's work in British television to light.

3. Vicky Ball is also attending to these programmes from the perspective of the female ensemble drama on British television (Ball).

4. In a period of increased emphasis on accountability in relation to public funding, research in British universities is now both funded and partially assessed on its production of ‘impact’ on the wider culture. Impact is broadly defined as occurring when research produces social and economic benefit, and in the terms of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) by which the quality of research is judged and research funding to UK Higher Education Institutions allocated, impact ‘assessment provides accountability for public investment in research and produces evidence of the benefits of this investment’. For further details on the impact agenda of British research assessment and funding frameworks, see http://www.ref.ac.uk/ and http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/What-We-Do/Strengthen-research-impact/Impact-assessment/

5. For further discussion of the ‘Pop Up TV Pop Shop’, see Wheatley ‘Impact of Television History’.