The history of British television has been written as a 'history' distinct from memory. The idea that memories of television are continuous with its history is less well developed. How is British television remembered and by whom? How should one individual's memories of watching, or working in television be balanced against evidence from other scales (collective, community, national, global)? What part do producers' memories and the media heritage industry play in constructing television's past? These questions drive the overriding objective of the Inheriting British Television research project: to interrogate how ‘British Television Heritage’ is articulated by television producers and media museums/archives. A key element of the research project will integrate knowledge co-generation with practitioners in developing an understanding of television’s past.

This project ran a symposium at the National Media Museum on February 11th 2014 for researchers, practitioners and media heritage workers involved in the production of television as heritage, memorable and archivable. During the project (2013-2015), the investigators undertook a series of oral history interviews with television producers, screenwriters, archive managers, production workers, extras and heritage organisations. The data gathered is being analysed and disseminated in a co-authored monograph entitled Inheriting British Television: Memories, Archives and Industries (BFI) forthcoming in 2017. The project was funded by a British Academy Small Grant which ran from October 2013-Sept 2014. The principal investigator is Prof Joanne Garde-Hansen (Warwick) and the co-investigator is Prof Kristyn Gorton (York) and the project led directly to the book Remembering British Television (2019).

IBTV Symposium Schedule 2014 (videos and audio available here)

NB: That the speakers below were in their respective roles at the time of the symposium

Theme 1: Curating Television’s Past: from the Museum to the Fan

Iain Baird, Associate Curator at the National Media Museum – The Role of the Museum for Television

Prof Matt Hills, Aberystwyth University – Citizen Curators in a Connected Age

Theme 2: The Television Archive: regional, national, global

Matthew Butson, Vice President Hulton Archive – Going Global: Getty Images and the BBC Motion Picture Gallery

Tony Ageh, Director BBC Archives and Digital Public Space – What’s the point of a TV Archive?

James Patterson, Director of Media Archive of Central England – The Role of the Regional Archive in the 21st Century

Theme 3: Producers Remembering Television: Remembering Television Production

Kenith Trodd, Television Producer - “I’M OUT OF HERE IN THE MORNING”: Is There a Future for The Past?

Lisa Holdsworth, Screenwriter – Nostalgia for Past TV?

Lucy Hooberman, Professor and Director of Digital Media and Innovation, University of Warwick – What is Television Now?

Theme 4: New Approaches to Researching Past Television

Dr Nick Hall - Reconstructing old technology in use: The ADAPT Project

Prof Helen Wood (University of Leicester), Dr Helen Wheatley (University of Warwick) & Hazel Collie (De Monfort University) - TV for Women: Generation, Public Engagement and Memory

Prof Jonathan Bignell, University of Reading– Spaces of Television