BBC - mostly for fun

 In 1958, and for several decades afterwards, the BBC produced the children's programme "Blue Peter" which included human interest stories, introductions to science, how to make things with your hands at home, and a whole series of part entertainment part educational topics, presented by relentlessly cheerful adults, and the dog, Shep.

The programme was much loved by generations of children. It did of course simplify many subjects, and this aspect allowed the Monty Python to produce this brilliant parody :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_ryjjeNc5k&

Agrégation 2021 La BBC et le service public de l'audiovisuel 1922-1995. Post 50 the Light Programme

 

This 1995 documentary about the Light Programme is worth a listen 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF7W-EJd0ms&feature=youtu.be

Week one : this week's classes

 

Les cours de la semaine

a happy new year to one and all – here’s hoping that 2021 (with the help of a vaccine) will become more tranquil than 2020.

 

Mardi 5 janvier 17h- 18h  Agrégatifs de Rouen [link will be here shortly before]

This is the first class (of two) on the methodology for the essay paper in English which is part of the agrégation interne.

We will be looking at what you might do if you were faced with the essay question « The BBC and Competition 1922-1995 », and using this to highlight some general points about the essay exercise. Try to prepare some ideas : send me an outline if you have time.

Mercredi 6 janvier

10h30- 12h Agrégatifs de Rouen [link will be here shortly before] Thème

We will be looking at the passage from the mock exam on Adelaïde, her shoes and her heart. I received seven scripts for the interne and six for the externe - a good number this year. If you didn’t do the mock exam, try to find time to prepare this translation. I will be giving back your marked translations, this time, after the class.

14h CAPES interne – listening comprehension 

Topic: Capes interne
Time: Jan 6, 2021 02:00 PM Paris

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82628516834?pwd=TGllVkw0RUtKVXZQYms4aFI0RWxmZz09

Meeting ID: 826 2851 6834
Passcode: 7PuD8r

16h30- 17h30 agrégatifs de Paris – BBC [link by mail  ]

 

Agrégation anglais 2021 La BBC et l'audiovisuel public 1922-1995 Post 49: the birth of television

 When we think of the BBC before the Second World War, we tend to think "radio", and when we think of the corporation after 1945 we think "television". But this is very much an oversimplification. For the whole of the 1950s, radio was more influential than television. And before 1939, there was the amazing adventure of the first experiments and broadcasts in television. This documentary from 1984 looks at television in the 1930s. You can skip the first few minutes, but the rest is very interesting (the image quality gets better after 20 minutes or so).

Just click here :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heJ4-1GRazA&t=24s 

Suggested translation "La naissance d'un pont"

 

At the beginning, he got to know[1] the North of Yakutia[2] and Mirny, where he worked three years. In Mirny they had to open up a diamond mine which was under a dirty grey crust of ice. The land was a hopeless[3] tundra disfigured by piles of old sick coal, and prison camps, a wasteland bathed in nights which gave you frostbite,[4] lacerated, eleven months of the year, by blizzards strong enough[5] to cut your skull apart, and underneath it were, still sleeping, the scattered limbs and beautifully curved giant horns of furry rhinoceroses, woolly beluga whales and frozen[6] reindeer.[7] He would picture all this to himself in the evening, sat at the hotel bar in front of a glass of strong clear liquor, always the same scheming whore caressing him endlessly, while trying to talk him into a wedding in Europe in exchange for  loyal services ; but he never laid a hand on her, he never could : he would rather have nothing rather than screw this woman who did not desire him ; he stuck to his guns on that.

 

Anyway, these diamonds in Mirny,[8] they had to dig down to get at them, to break up the permafrost  using dynamite, then drill out a Dante-esque hole, as wide as the town itself – they could have thrown headfirst in the hole the fifty storey housing blocks  which were soon to grow up around there – then, with a head flashlight, they had to climb down into the orifice, attack the walls with a pick axe, dig out the soil, sort the underground galleries into a tree structure, going sideways far out into the hardest and darkest distant parts. Then they had to shore up the corridors and put down the rails, pass an electric current through the mud, burrow into the soil, scratch away at the loose stones and sieve through the entrails, searching for that splendid sparkle. That went on for three years.[9]

Once his contract had run out, he went back to France on a not very democratic Tupolev plane. His seat in Economy Class sagged dreadfully ; a coil[10] of metal wires threaded its way under the cloth of the chair back, breaking through it here and there leaving a wire which hurt your back.[11] He had a few more contracts then, and found himself as site manager in Dubai, having to raise[12][13] a luxury hotel out of the sand, a palace as vertical as an obelisque but as secular as a coconut tree, and having to work in glass this time, glass and steel, with lifts like bubbles sliding along gilded tubes, and marble from Carrare for the circular lobby in which a fountain gurgled out a sound of petrodollar luxury amidst polished green plants, animal-hide sofas and air-conditioning.

 

 

 

A woolly rhinoceros

 Tupolev

---

[1] Because of the preterite tense in French, one cannot translate as « knew » (= connaissait). It must be some verb or verb expression which can happen at a specific time.

[2] « North Yakutia »  is not good, sinc eit suggests it is the name of the country, like North Korea.

[3] Someone found « despair-inducing » , which is very good. « Disheartening » is ok.

[4] « Frostbitten night » is possible.

[5] The narrator says that the wind *could* cut into your skull. This is obviously hyperbole, so you must not use a structure which says that skulls were actually cut into.

[6] Not « iced » which is generally for cold drinks.

[7] Seasonal reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j11rwc6Sf4o

[8] If you are interested in diamond mining, see here https://beyond4cs.com/faq/diamond-origins/how-they-are-mined/

 

[9] Sentences with verbs are vastly preferred in English.

[10] « clump » was good.

[11] Remember anglophones are less precise : « j’ai mal aux reins » : I have a backache.

[12] A good time to revise the difference between to rise, to raise and to arise, and to remember that the difference between a rise and a raise is not the same as the difference between to rise and to raise. Essential short exercise here : http://random-idea-english.blogspot.fr/2010/11/confusing-words-quiz-verbs-rise-raise.html

 

[13] Someone suggested « conjure up » which is excellent.

M1 MEEF - Third wave feminism

 In class (and on video) I had time to look over struggles for women's rights which occurred from 1860- 1918 (which we often call first wave), and the mass movements of the 1970s (often referred to as second wave). But I did not have time to look at the 21st century. Today there are no mass movements or national conferences of the women's liberation movement in general. There are, however, active networks and much activity. This video for 2016 gives one possible view of the history of women's liberation. [their Youtube channel has 150 or so subscribers, so as you can see we are talking of a pressure group, not a mass organization]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-CGpuMOdIk 

December 2020 M1 MEEF Homework assignments

I have received assignments from the following people (apologies if I have misspelt your name or mixed up your first name and your surname). If your work is not here, it just might be in my spam folder, so send me an email. Correcting these assignments will take a long time, but you will eventually see on this blog a long set of comments.

Ait Ichou

Alonse

Ansard

Champion

Copin

Dauphin

Deschamps

Farmus

Frelet

Gervais

Harel

Hebert

Hucher

Jaume

Larrinaga

Legros

Lemoal

Lethuillier

Masurier

Menet

Merigoux

Morteo

Neveu

Ollivier

Prud’homme

Schando

Sorator

Vesier

Happy holidays

 Thank you for all your homework assignments, mock exam scripts etc. Many students, in their emails, wished me and my family all the best for Christmas and the New Year. Thank you very much - there were far too many for me to answer you individually, so I will have to be satisfied with collectively wishing everyone happy holidays and a positive - and hopefully less challenging - 2021.

A bit of British culture which people often find interesting: normally you wish people "Happy New Year" on January 1st only (or perhaps before). If you do not see someone in 2021 until the 10th of January, it is too late. Unlike in French. I think this is because in UK English we are wishing people, not a  happy 2021, but a happy New Year's Day celebration.

Trade deal

 Cela semblait probable dans la mesure que les deux côtés auraient perdu dans un no deal

https://www.nouvelobs.com/politique/20201223.OBS37967/brexit-un-accord-commercial-entre-l-ue-et-le-royaume-uni-en-cours-de-validation.html 

The history of the BBC video chapter 8

 

You will find here video chapter number 8, which continues with the story of the BBC before 1945, and indeed takes us up to the end of the Second World War. It looks at new styles of programme, the effects of the war on censorship and on music programming, as well as at the beginnings of such phenomena as political vetting, and audience research.

Just click here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYL-GPo0KM4

I wish you happy (and cautious) holidays.

Thème agrégation 6 janvier

 On the 6th January we will be going through the translation I gave you for the mock exam: the piece about Adelaïde's heart. If you did not have time in the December rush to take this mock exam, make sure you study the passage and try to translate it before the class. We will go back to the passages in the booklet afterwards. If you no longer have the passage used for the mock exam, send me an email. If you concentrated on the Agrégation interne mock exam, and so did not translate the final paragraph, try this paragraph before the class. 

video BBC 7c

 You will find here chapter 7c of the BBC  history series. Again, for students in Rouen, this goes over a period we looked over in live class. The next videos, however, will move forward through the thirties, forties and so on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rim_Ifpsog 

This week’s front pages in the UK

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/20/christmas-cancelled-what-the-papers-say-as-covid-bubbles-burst#img-1 

Agrégation BBC 1922-1995 post 48: the first Science Fiction on BBC TV

 In 1938. This short article explains 

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/78-years-ago-today-bbc-aired-first-science-fiction-television-program-180958126/ 

Concours blanc agrégation

 For the text commentary, I received so far 4 scripts  - from Charlotte, Kelly, Robin and Aurore. If anyone else sent one, please send it again :=)

Agrégation - political figures in the UK

 "How many well-known political figures in  UK history are you supposed to be familiar with?" asked one agrégation student. The question is imposisble to answer. Naturally almost  all the 20th century and 21st century prime ministers for a start. But what about other personalities? Since this is a competitive exam, I suppose the real answer is " afew more than most of the other candidates" or "the more the better". However, this last answer is not very useful when you have many subjects to prepare. Let us say that it is a significant advantage to know who Tony Benn was, if he should come up. In the 1960s and 1970s one of the main leaders of the left wing of the Labour Party, minister of technology for several years, an activist who hopes that the Labour government would enact very radical measures of nationalization and decide a very substantial increase in spending on public services. Here is an obituary in French from one of his supporters

 https://lib54.wordpress.com/2014/06/08/hommage-a-tony-benn-1925-2014/

BBC - question for today

 Why did Margaret Thatcher, and other Prime Ministers who were very unhappy with the BBC never abolish the corporation ? 

L3 Popular culture since 1945. Final elements on Popular music

 

L3 Final elements on Popular Music

You will find here my last video chapter  for this course, which takes another few genres of popular music to look at how genres work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lhcqz7a3RZw

 

If you want to know more about the history of British popular music, there has been a series of documentaries about different musical genres, which you can find at the links below (these are not requirements for this course). They contain a certain amount of fantalk, but also much useful information

Folk Britannia

https://youtu.be/0JAzWTjNTuU

Progrock Britannia

Prog Rock Britannia 1 - YouTube

Blues Britannia

Blues Britannia - YouTube

Punk Britannia. There is more than one episode (three I think), but episode one is here

https://youtu.be/pB2mTW_61m0

Reggae Britannia. There are several episodes. Episode one is here :

Reggae Britannia Documentary Part 1 - YouTube

Synth Britannia

Synth Britannia - YouTube

Rap Britannia

Rap Britannia - The UK State Of Rhyme (1Xtra Story) - YouTube

 

Agrégation BBC Rouen last live class recording and slides

 You will find here the Mp3 recording of this week's class

Just click here

And you will find here  the slides we saw

Just click here

I wish everyone a Happy Christmas: be extremely careful.

Agrégation 2021 La BBC et le service public de l'audiovisuel: post 47 La BBC et la propagande

 Qu'est-ce que la propagande, et comment savoir si la BBc en fait ou pas? Cet article,  disponible gratuitement, de Renée Dickason aide à comprendre ce sujet. Il prend l'exemple de la guerre des Malouines, et celui de la Guerre du Golfe.

https://www.cairn.info/journal-vingtieme-siecle-revue-d-histoire-2003-4-page-71.htm

Popular music, racism and diversity

Students preparing the CAPES (in connection with the subject of diversity) and L3 students following my class on popular culture may be interested in these two articles, both in French, by a distinguished scholar.

Chansons antiracistes au Royaume-Uni

Festivals de musique, à Notting Hill et ailleurs.

M1 MEEF WEEK 12 RECORDING AND SLIDES: Uk women's liberation movement, 1970s

You will find here a recording of the class on the UK women's liberation movement of the 1970s.

Just click here

And also the slides we saw on this subject

Just click here.

There will be one more post in this course, over the next few days.

Thank you for your cooperation, and have a good (and safe) end of year break.

Week 12 Popular culture in Britain - recording and slides

 Congratulations on surviving the semester, and very best wishes for a good (and cautious) holiday break. 

You will  find here the MP3 recording of the final class, which spoke of some examples of musical genres and how they work in terms of values, aesthetic or activities. I dealt briefly with Big Band, Skiffle and early Rock.

Just click here

You will find the slides we saw here

Just click here

No doubt on Friday, there will  be a final video which I will make about some example genres from the 1970s, and a final series of links for those who want to look further into the history of British popular music .

Agrégation 2021 La BBC et le service public de l'audiovisuel post 46: Popular programmes and intellectual programmes

 

The BBC was always trying to maintain a balance between "popular" "light" "entertainment" content and more "highbrow content" which might not be as popular, but which the BBC leadership felt was good for people. This debate has often been carried on in a seterotyped manner, and there are a number of examples of intellectually challenging content which turned out to be very widely listened to.

 

A good example from the 1940s is The Brains Trust. It dealt with serious questions of art, science and philosophy, yet drew millions of listeners. Up to a third of the Uk population tuned in, and the programme received three to four thousand letters a week.

 

An episode from 1945, filmed for a US  channel, is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVpCUtNdM0Q&feature=youtu.be

 

Colloque en ligne la BBC et la Fiction 14/15 janvier 2021

 Agrégatifs: réservez les dates si possible.

Si vous pouvez vous libérer, inscrivez-vous rapidement, car le nombre de places est limité.

JM

Université de Rouen

La BBC et la fiction. The BBC and fiction

 

 

Deux wébinaires en ligne/ Two online seminars

Organisation : Florence Cabaret et John Mullen

Equipe de recherche ERIAC http://eriac.univ-rouen.fr/

 

Much discussion of television, and of the BBC, has focused on its relation to political power and the methods which allow establishment view of the world to be reinforced in documentary and news programmes without stooping to straightforward and unsubtle propaganda. Our conference would like to look at another aspect of the BBC – its relationship with fiction (a notion which contributors are encouraged to interrogate and problematize).

Les recherches sur la télévision, et en particulier sur la BBC, ont souvent tendance à s'intéresser aux relations que la BBC entretient avec le pouvoir politique, ou bien aux processus qui contribuent à renforcer les conceptions officielles du monde telles qu'elles apparaissent dans ses programmes documentaires ou ses programmes d'information, sans que, pour autant, on puisse qualifier ni les uns ni les autres de propagande explicite et grossière. Au cours de ce colloque, nous aimerions nous pencher sur une autre facette de la BBC afin d'interroger ses relations à la fiction (notion qu'il serait d'ailleurs pertinent d'examiner et de problématiser dans chacune des interventions).

Vous êtes cordialement invités à participer à cet évènement en ligne.

Inscrivez-vous auprès de john.mullen@univ-rouen.fr, en précisant si vous voulez assister à la session de jeudi ou celle de vendredi, ou les deux. Le nombre de places peut être limité. Les inscrits recevront le lien approprié par mail quelques jours avant.

 

 

 

 

jeudi 14 janvier après-midi (14h30-17h) BBC Radio

 

Mohamed Chamekh,  "The BBC and Entertainment: the case of the music hall"

Suzanne Bray, A “Mismatch of Expectations”: The BBC, the Detection Club and the Stresses and Strains of Behind the Screen (1930) and The Scoop (1931)

Anne Fuchs, BBC fiction. From ITMA to Goodness Gracious Me : how wartime radio gave birth to TV sitcoms and after

 

vendredi 15 janvier matin (10h-12h30) BBC TV

 1- Pierre Costecalde, "Pobol Y Cwm, soap opera en gallois produit par la BBC en 1974 pour la chaine S4C : les raisons d’une réussite et d’une longévité exceptionnelles" .

2-  Joy Leman, “TV Drama in Britain and France in the 1950s and 1960s “.

3-  Barbara Fontyn, "La question de l’avortement dans Up the Junction de Ken Loach : quand la réalité rejoint la fiction".

 

 

 

Classes in the last week before the break: week 12

 

L3 homework assignment

 

Dear L3 students,

Thank you for all your homework assignments. You can see a list of the ones I received, above and below. If you have sent your work but you cannot see it  do not worry – it is probably in my spam folder. Just send it again. I wrote individually to one or two students with particular requests. If you have particular problems, send me an email.

Thank you to all those who asked after my health and my family’s in this difficult period (I could not reply to each person). We are all well, and my mother, in England has an appointment on Tuesday to be vaccinated !

For the homework assignment, it will obviously take a while for me to get through. I will be posting here on the blog comments about common mistakes, of content, of structure and of language – rather than sending you indiviually a list of your individual mistakes.

BBC Class for Rouen, week eleven

 

BBC classes week eleven Rouen

 

You will find here the MP3 recording of this week’s live class. We did not have slides this week.

http://www.jcmullen.fr/bbclive4final.mp3

The journal presented in this class is available free online here :

https://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/6976

It is up to each of you to decide  which articles are your top priority.

 

There is a video chapter here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGkBvOneAos

 I have numbered it 7b, because it is not really one in the series of video chapters for you in Rouen. It is a (somewhat briefer) version of my class on the BBC in the 1920s.

Next week last live class. There are  a number of video chapters still to come. 

In the concours blanc next week you may or may not have a subject on the BBC.

In the two one-hour classes in January on méthodologie de la dissertation, we will look at how to construct a dissertation on the subject "The BBC and competition", so make sure you prepare beforehand. Try to write a plan of such a piece of work. If you wish you may write a whole dissertation beforehand and send it to me, but I know you are busy people.

In the following months there will be a few hours of preparation for the orals, on the questions of the BBC (mostly commentary).

 

 

M1 MEEF week eleven. More on diversity

 

M1 MEEF week eleven

You will find here the MP3 recording of the first class on the history of women’s rights.

http://www.jcmullen.fr/1220meefwomen1.mp3

And the slides are here

http://www.jcmullen.fr/1220meefwomen1.pdf

 

Here is the last video chapter (chapter 14) of my videos on migration and inclusion (very important)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6eyLSqNmh8

 

And here is a video lecture about the recent « Windrush generation » scandal, explaining how institutional racism was involved.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huE998lxGS8&feature=youtu.be

 

 

L3 popular culture: The videos for week eleven, and a recording of the live class

 

 

I have received a number of homework  assignments and look forward to receiving the rest soon.

You will find here the recording of our live class from last Tuesday

http://www.jcmullen.fr/L3music2.mp3

and the slides are here  http://www.jcmullen.fr/PPL3music2.pdf

This week’s videos are in French, and come from a conference on popular music held in Rouen a couple of years back.

One researcher looks at the question of the meaning of singing along at concerts

https://webtv.univ-rouen.fr/videos/15-11-2018-140757-partie-1/iframe/

And another looks in detail at progressive rock

https://webtv.univ-rouen.fr/videos/16-11-2018-100512-partie-2/

 

 

diversity on the the television in the UK

 This week this podcast came out on this subject

BBC Radio 4 - The Media Show, June Sarpong: What is diversity?

L3 popular music

 Videos soon, but here are some of the songs

Folk 

Different ways of treating a song

Belle of Belfast City

Kirsty MacColl

 https://youtu.be/ZZMjDfTeoQw 

With the dancing 

https://youtu.be/bI48EdYdD34

Loch Lomond

Ella Roberts

https://youtu.be/gb8AGuD2uOI

Run rig

https://youtu.be/CHu0h9XaNcg 

Matty Groves

Fair port Convention 

https://youtu.be/dtVkYMFueWs 

Child 81

https://youtu.be/bUns2Ye0wWM

The Pogues and the Dubliners together:

https://youtu.be/cZXnJ4UYh40 

M1 MEEF/ INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY

This will be of interest to many other students, but in particular to MEEF  students. One of the themes on the programme is, as you know "Inclusion and diversity", and this is an account of one huge scandal about immigration and racism a couple of years ago. Try to tune in.

Nous avons le plaisir de vous informer que nous accueillerons Amelia Gentleman (The Guardian) pour une conférence Zoom autour de son ouvrage "The Windrush Betrayal : Exposing the Hostile Environment" (London : Guardian Faber publishing, 2019), le 5 janvier 2021 de 17h00 à 19h00. 

Amelia Gentleman a révélé et couvert tout le scandale Windrush pour le "Guardian". Son travail est à l'origine d'une profonde crise politique au sein de gouvernement conservateur de Theresa May. 

En outre, cette affaire à ce jour est loin d’être finie, voir : https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/nov/22/windrush-victim-refused-british-citizenship-despite-wrongful-passport-confiscation?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Amelia Gentleman sera interrogée par :

Cédric Courtois (Université de Lille, CECILLE EA4074) ; Aude De Mézerac-Zanetti (Université de Lille, CECILLE EA4074), Olivier Esteves (Université de Lille, CERAPS (UMR 8026)) ; Clémence Fourton (IEP Lille, CECILLE EA4074).    

Ensuite elle répondra aux questions des étudiants de 3ème année de LEA (Université de Lille) et à celles du public.



Voici le lien Zoom pour la conférence : https://univ-lille-fr.zoom.us/j/95853446775?pwd=U3VaSEpXZ3I3Yjc3bGV5S3c3eDRWQT09
Code secret : 611645

Bien cordialement.

Olivier Esteves, Professor in British Studies.
.

L3 Homework assignment

 Marking: the classroom test you would normally have done has been replaced with a homework assignment :
Write a structured essay on the following subject
How have different British artists and British institutions attempted to ensure that visual art is not only for the elite ?
Write 1000 - 1300 words, and send it by email to myself (john.mullen AT THE ADDRESS univ-rouen.fr )by next Friday, 11 December at 9am.

L3 examen janvier

 L'examen de janvier sera composé d'une dissertation, concernant ou bien vos cours de civilisation britannique ou bien vos cours de civilisation américaine. Vous serez informés des sujets le matin du lundi 11 janvier 9h.

Vous devrez rendre le travail le lendemain avant 12h.

Le jour venu, pour voir si vous avez un sujet "britannique", vous devez vous rendre ici:

https://universitice.univ-rouen.fr/course/view.php?id=15192

Je serai disponible par mail en cas de difficultés techniques.

 

Agrégation BBC video chapter 7

 The video chapters will continue for some time. This is the eighth one (chapter 7 - don't ask). There will be 18 altogether. I will be able to take into account, in the final ones, your needs, as shown in your answers in the mock exam.

Anyway, here is chapter seven

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KffGOksogFc

UK Coronavirus news

 https://www.independent.co.uk/news/covid-vaccine-safety-uk-jab-b1762528.html