News & Events

Bournemouth University Hosts Seminar at BAFTA
Current Affairs on Commercial Television

Bournemouth Centre for Broadcasting History and The Media School's Head of School, Stephen Jukes MA (Oxon), invite you to a seminar on:

'Current Affairs on Commercial Television- This Week's 50th Anniversary'
17 January 2006
at British Academy for Film and Television Arts 195, Piccadilly, London W1

2.00pm-6.00pm

This event celebrates the history of 'This Week', the first current affairs programme on ITV, which was launched in January 1956 and ran for 36 years. In the light of that history, it considers current affairs on a commercial channel in the dramatically different circumstances of 2006.

The seminar also launches the database of 'This Week' programmes prepared by The Media School and the British Universities Film and Video Council; and the book The Angry Buzz: This Week and Current Affairs Television by Patricia Holland, published by I.B.Tauris.

Confirmed speakers include:

Stephen Jukes, Head of The Media School, Formerly Head of Reuters Global
Stephen Barnett (Professor of Communications, University of Westminster) On the future of current affairs
Sonia Livingstone, Professor of Media and Communications, London School of Economics, on the 2003 Communications Act
Steve Perkins, Head of Public Service Broadcasting Content OFCOM
Vicki Wegg-Prosser freelance media historian on the early history of This Week
Patricia Holland (The Media School) on the pressures on This Week as part of a commercial channel
Rob Turnock (The Media School) and Catherine Johnson (Royal Holloway College, London University) Editors of ITV Cultures: Independent Television over Fifty Years (Open University Press 2005) on the early years of ITV.
Peter Goddard (Liverpool University) on World in Action
Murray Weston (Director BUFVC) and Matt Holland (Bournemouth University Library) on the This Week database.

6.30-10.00pm

The seminar is linked to an evening reception, with screenings and discussions by distinguished journalists and producers of This Week, including Jonathan Dimbleby, Sir Jeremy Isaacs and Roger Bolton. Peter Taylor will present some programmes you have not been allowed to see until now.

Peter Taylor's long and distinguished contribution to television journalism includes a decade working on This Week in the 1970s, when he produced highly controversial programmes on smoking and health and on Northern Ireland.

Sadly Phillip Whitehead MEP, Producer of This Week (1967-70) died suddenly on 1 January 2006. Peter Morley (Producer 1961-63) has been taken ill. Both had looked forward to being present at this event. We will pay tribute to their work.

Both events are free, but registration is essential as places are limited. If you register for the afternoon seminar, you may also request to be put on the list for the evening event. (Priority for the evening event is for BAFTA members and people who are connected to This Week).

To register please e-mail Sandie Rose, of The Media School, giving the following details:

Name:
Company/University:
Address:
and confirm if you would like to be put on the list for the evening event.

We look forward to welcoming you to the seminar