Magic Rays of Light

Nyhet

The Early Years of Television in Britain

Häftad, Engelska, 2026

Av John Wyver, UK) Wyver, John (Independent Scholar

419 kr

Kommande

On the evening of 26 January 1926, inventor John Logie Baird held a public demonstration in his workspace on London’s Frith Street of a ‘seeing by wireless’ apparatus that he and many others had been working towards, television. In the years that followed, variants of this astonishing device produced programming that was rich, complex and excitingly imaginative. Familiar television genres, including studio drama, quiz shows, variety spectaculars and sports broadcasts, were all fully realised in the 1930s. At the same time, early television was often strikingly different from later domestic broadcasting.Television began with intimate entanglements with interwar cinema, theatre, music and dance. And, despite reaching only tiny audiences, from its beginnings television responded to key strands of social history, embracing legacies of the Great War, changing roles for women, suburban living and more.Magic Rays of Light is a unique and comprehensive cultural history of early television, exploring its technologies and institutions, while also celebrating the programmes and the people, the ideas and the innovations of the first decade of what would become the most consequential medium of the subsequent century.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2026-01-08
Mått156 x 234 x 25 mm
Vikt454 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor320
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN9781839028205

Tillhör följande kategorier

Film inom Kultur
Elektronik och kommunikationer inom Naturvetenskap och teknik
Television inom Kultur

John Wyver is a writer and producer with Illuminations, and Professor of the Arts on Screen at the University of Westminster, UK. His numerous productions for television and event cinema have been honoured with a BAFTA, an International Emmy and a Peabody. His publications include The Royal Shakespeare Company on Screen: A Critical History (2019) and the collection co-edited with Amanda Wrigley, Screen Plays: Theatre Plays on British Television (2022).

It is entirely appropriate that this book's title mentions magic: what John Wyver has achieved here is nothing short of miraculous. Wyver takes a period of television production long thought to be out of our grasp and constructs a painstakingly researched history of its key personnel, programmes, and technological developments. He illuminates the relationships between early television and cinema, theatre and radio, and highlights the creativity and innovation of those making it. This will change everything we understand about the early development of television in the UK.