Jamie Medhurst 📺📻🎞✝

Graphic featuring a colour painting of a man and woman in evening dress standing by an antique chair and facing a television camera and operator from the 1930s.

Delighted to be giving an online talk about British television in the 1920s and 1930s for the Art Deco Society on the evening of 17 March; tickets £5 for non-members.

artdecosociety.uk/events-2/

Magic Rays of Light 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' app…

A month on from publication my book 'Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain' remains available from publishers Bloomsbury with discounts on the hardback, paperback and e-book versions.

www.bloomsbury.com/uk/magic-ray...

The arts on BBC television, then and now - Illuminations John Wyver writes: As we recover from the centenary, today’s post is just a single link to a piece I published on The Conversation yesterday: The BBC once made the arts ‘utterly central’ to television...

Today's post is largely a link to my polemic on The Conversation about the paucity of the arts on BBC television...

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/the-arts-on-...

Magic Rays at BFI: Radio Parade of 1935 - Illuminations John Wyver writes: Our series of screenings at BFI Southbank linked to the publication of Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television continues on Sunday, 25 January, with the second of three p...

Our BFI Southbank screenings linked to the publication of Magic Rays of Light continues on Sunday, 25 January.

This is a rare large-screen outing for the 1934 satire Radio Parade of 1935, with Will Hay as John Reith.

Programme note reporduced here:
www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/magic-rays-a...

Cyfryngau Cyhoeddus yn y Senedd Podcast Episode · Rhaglen Cymru · 23/01/2026 · 28m

podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/c...

Wake up, Westminster:after May, the Scottish and Welsh parliaments will likely be for independence | Will Hayward With Plaid Cymru and the SNP leading polls in their respective nations, can the United Kingdom continue in this – or any – form, asks Guardian columnist Will Hayward

Wake up, Westminster:after May, the Scottish and Welsh parliaments will likely be for independence | Will Hayward www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

‘I can’t waste this’: Michael Sheen on his riskiest role yet – saving Wales’s national theatre When funding cuts closed National Theatre Wales, the actor saw it as an emergency, and set about building a replacement. As its first show comes to the stage, he explains his plan to bring big product...

Excellent interview with Michael Sheen by daughter (mine, not his) Kate Wyver
www.theguardian.com/stage/2026/j...

Campaigners call for devolution of broadcasting powers following S4C and BBC agreement Stephen Price A Welsh language campaign group has repeated calls to devolve broadcasting powers to Wales amid concerns about the impact of a new agreement between S4C and BBC iPlayer on S4C’s digital ...

A Welsh language campaign group has repeated calls to devolve broadcasting powers to Wales amid concerns about the impact of a new agreement between S4C and BBC iPlayer

Magic Rays at BFI: High Treason - Illuminations John Wyver writes: The successful series of screenings at BFI Southbank continues on Sunday, 18 January, with the first of three programmes of British feature films that offer imagined versions of tel...

The successful series of screenings at BFI Southbank continues on Sunday, 18 January, with the first of three programmes of British feature films that offer imagined versions of television at its start.

First up is the silent version of High Treason...

www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/magic-rays-a...

My all-time favourite film. Loved it as a kid and 50+ years later, I still do! My kids (now 13, 15, and 30) are not so enthusiastic, sadly….

Whose BBC? | Fabian Society Fabian Society

The Government finally published its Green Paper on the BBC today. So here’s a very timely piece from Tom Chivers on the future of the BBC as we go into the Charter Review.

'The choice is a democratic BBC or no BBC at all.'
fabians.org.uk/whose-bbc/

MeCCSA Policy Network Roundtable 1:Funding & governing public service media MeCCSA Policy Network + IAPMR on the future of Public Service Media Winter 2025 Roundtable 1: learning from international examples

Delighted to be presenting alongside international colleagues in the MeCCSA Policy Network "Future of Public Service Media" series. The event is apparently sold out.

Defending our national treasure: the voice of the nation Politicians see the BBC through the lens of TV news, but those who want to undermine it threaten a central plank of our national culture

"For a century, the BBC has been our classroom, our concert hall, our stage, our storyteller and our window on the world. Politicians need reminding: its much more than a news channel."

S4C, TG4, and BBC NI unveil first ever co-commissioned animated Christmas movie TG4, BBC Northern Ireland and S4C have announced a milestone co-commission of the first ever animated Christmas movie, created through a tri-nation co-production. Supported by Northern Ireland Screen’...

TG4, BBC Northern Ireland and S4C have announced a milestone co-commission of the first ever animated Christmas movie, created through a tri-nation co-production

Word of the day is ‘quockerwodger’ (19th century): a puppet politician whose strings are pulled entirely by someone else.

Diolch! Thank you!

Broadcasting for Wales Cover

A History of Independent Television in Wales cover

Today marks World #Television Day! 📺

Discover more about the struggles and successes of #Welsh broadcasting in 'A History of Independent Television in #Wales' by @jimbomed.bsky.social and 'Broadcasting for Wales' by Elain Price.

📚 www.uwp.co.uk/book/history...
📚 www.uwp.co.uk/book/broadca...

YouTube video by LastWeekTonight Public Media: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Was thrilled to help consult for this fantastic John Oliver segment on the tragic plight of U.S. public media and why, if we hope to be a democracy, we still need public media for so many things that commercial media will never provide. Deserves a wide viewership. www.youtube.com/watch?v=yknM...

No one should have to face such threats.

It would’ve been nice if Greene had realized this before she amplified and endorsed calls for executing Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama.

SUPERB and angrily unvarnished response, by former BBC chairman, Lord Patten.

"I don't think that we should allow ourselves to be bullied into thinking that the BBC is only any good, if it reflects the prejudice of the last person who shouted at it." ~AA

Important contribution from Lewis Goodall, who describes in devastating detail his own personal experiences - and suggests Robbie Gibb and David Grossman should be removed from their current posts.

the BBC and why it needs defending even if you don't always agree with it, and sometimes it does things that you think are outright terrible

@naomialderman.bsky.social's new book: "A friend - who’s read the book - texted me yesterday to say “I see they’ve decided to burn Tim Davie at the stake today”. And so I thought it was probably the right time to put this extract on Substack." naomialderman.substack.com/p/the-bbc-an...

Extract from report in the Guardian on the right wing manoeuvres that have led to the resignation of the DG Tim Davie

S4C contributed £150.3 million to the Welsh economy last year - new report Welsh-language broadcaster S4C now supports more than 2,500 jobs across Wales, according to new independent research that highlights the channel’s growing economic impact. The figure represents an inc...

Welsh-language broadcaster S4C now supports more than 2,500 jobs across Wales, according to new independent research that highlights the channel’s growing economic impact

The Birth of TV

On this day in 1936:

The start of the BBC’s regular TV service from Alexandra Palace.

See programme archive, oral history interviews - and some amazing images from those pioneering days:

Some background to Peter Watkin's extraordinary 'The War Game' ...

... as revealed through oral history interviews with senior BBC figures - including Huw Wheldon and Hugh Carleton Greene - as well as Tony Benn.

Part of the @sussex.ac.uk research project 'Connected Histories of the BBC'

Dwi'm yn siwr alla i gysgu heno. Am ddeffro i newyddion da, ond ....

Could Reform UK get more broadcast coverage than other parties in the run-up to next May's Senedd election? Martin Shipton Concerns have been expressed that Reform UK could have an in-built advantage in terms of broadcast coverage in the run-up to next May’s Senedd election. Researchers led by Professor Ste...

Concerns have been expressed that Reform UK could have an in-built advantage in terms of broadcast coverage in the run-up to next May’s Senedd election ✍️Martin Shipton

Bumbling Monks and Hot Priests A brief history of TV’s most influential comedy priests - to celebrate thirty years of the Vicar of Dibley

I'll have a new piece for the BBC coming out this weekend, when the clocks change. It's about the BBC's role as the nation's timekeeper.

In the meantime, I'm going to repost links to my four most recent pieces - starting with a brief history of TV's most influential comedy priests ...