BBC revives unaired Betjeman film forgotten for 40 years
A forgotten film by the former poet laureate John Betjeman that was never shown because of internal BBC problems is to see the light of day after more than 40 years.
The half-hour feature, A Poet Goes North, has been given the go-ahead for screening after being found in a cupboard in Leeds.
It fell through the schedules in 1968 for reasons lost or destroyed in the BBC's bureaucracy, even though the poet was paid a handsome £400 (£5,000 at today's values) to potter around the city admiring its historic architecture.
It shows Betjeman on classic form, denouncing newly built tower blocks and suggesting – with foresight since borne out – that Leeds's back-to-back redbrick terraces would outlive them. Turning his nose up at the satellite town of Seacroft, which was being heralded as the future, he suggests: "I am sure that most of the people here will wish themselves back in the old streets before long."
The film appears on none of the lists of Betjeman's work and almost certainly slipped the BBC's notice because of changes in the corporation's regional network at the time. It was commissioned by a Manchester unit that was dissolved during filming and replaced by one – ironically based in Leeds – that wanted to start with a clean slate...
Read entire article at Guardian (UK)
The half-hour feature, A Poet Goes North, has been given the go-ahead for screening after being found in a cupboard in Leeds.
It fell through the schedules in 1968 for reasons lost or destroyed in the BBC's bureaucracy, even though the poet was paid a handsome £400 (£5,000 at today's values) to potter around the city admiring its historic architecture.
It shows Betjeman on classic form, denouncing newly built tower blocks and suggesting – with foresight since borne out – that Leeds's back-to-back redbrick terraces would outlive them. Turning his nose up at the satellite town of Seacroft, which was being heralded as the future, he suggests: "I am sure that most of the people here will wish themselves back in the old streets before long."
The film appears on none of the lists of Betjeman's work and almost certainly slipped the BBC's notice because of changes in the corporation's regional network at the time. It was commissioned by a Manchester unit that was dissolved during filming and replaced by one – ironically based in Leeds – that wanted to start with a clean slate...