John Wyver
Biographic Data
| ID | 3047231 |
|---|---|
| NAME | John Wyver |
| GIVEN NAMES | John |
| FAMILY NAME | Wyver |
| SIGNATURE | WYVER J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Illumina (United Kingdom) |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2891-1052 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 14 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 4 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 14 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1979 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Shakespeare on the Radio: A Century of BBC Plays
In 1924 the BBC’s first director-general John Reith reflected that, ‘The plays of Shakespeare fulfil to a great extent the requirements of wireless’. With minimal demands for settings and scenery
Coventry Cathedral: Exploring Reflexivity in a Collage Film
Employing an extensive and diverse range of archival material, Coventry Cathedral: Building for a New Britain chronicles the planning and construction in the 1950s and early 1960s of a modernist replacement for the medieval cathedral almost entirely destroyed in 1940. Drawing on a breadth of archival elements from a wide range of sources, the production team sought to develop a reflexive screen language that acknowledged the materialities of thes…
War and Peace: Play for Today’s Home Front Quintet
Although Play for Today is a strongly contemporary series, for many of its dramas the Second World War and the immediate aftermath are years of considerable significance. Numerous plays refer explicitly to aspects of the war, and nine productions are set wholly or primarily between 1940 and 1945. This article focuses on five of these, all of which were made on film for the later seasons of Play for Today: Licking Hitler (1978), Blue Remembered Hi…
‘Filming the invisible’: Barrie Gavin in conversation with John Wyver
Barrie Gavin (b. 1935) is a celebrated producer, director and writer who is best known for numerous programmes about music and musicians made primarily for BBC Television from 1964 onwards. He worked on numerous occasions with the conductors Pierre Boulez and Simon Rattle, and with them and other collaborators he has directed more than 90 films. In this conversation recorded in Leeds in June 2018 Gavin discusses with the writer and producer John …
Drama Out of a Crisis: A Celebration of Play for Today
Play for Today was a series of single dramas broadcast by the BBC between 1970 and 1984. These were years of crisis, a time when the consensus politics of Britain’s postwar world had begun to unravel. Industrial relations, education and the health service faced fundamental challenges, the country was struggling with the end of empire, and the personal had become increasingly political. Play for Today reflected and responded to all of this and mor…
Intermedial Relationships of Radio Features with Denis Mitchell’s and Philip Donnellan’s Early Television Documentaries
Writing of the closure in early 1965 of the Radio Features Department, Asa Briggs identifies one of the reasons for the controversial decision as ‘the incursion of television, which was developing its own features.’ ‘[Laurence] Gilliam and his closest colleagues believed in the unique merits of “pure radio”. The screen seemed a barrier’ (The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Vol. 5, p. 348). Rather than the screen being ‘a barrier’ f…
Civilisation and its discontents: Architectural spaces on film as defences against modernity
In the final moments of episode 12 of the BBC television documentary series Civilisation (1969), art historian Sir Kenneth Clark, who wrote and presented the series, stands in a darkened gallery before Auguste Rodin’s 1898 bronze ‘Monument to Balzac’. The novelist, Clark exclaims, with his voice close to cracking as he gazes up at the towering figure, ‘should inspire us to defy all those forces that threaten to impair our humanity: lies, tanks, t…
Exploring the Lost Television and Technique of Producer Fred O’Donovan
In the history of British television drama few notable creative figures are as forgotten as the actor, film director and pioneer producer, Fred O’Donovan. After a distinguished career on the stage and after directing Ireland’s first feature film, O’Donovan joined BBC Television in 1938. As one of the first directors of studio drama, he was a key agent in the fledgling form’s development. With his background in theatre and the cinema, he also exem…
Between Theatre and Television: Inside the Hybrid Space ofthe Wars of the Roses
In 1964 BBC Television recorded the Royal Shakespeare Company's History plays cycle The Wars of the Roses. The production was shot in the RSC's Stratford-upon-Avon theatre, temporarily transformed into a multi-camera television studio, and it remains the only major production for British television to have been recorded in that manner. As well as detailing The Wars of the Roses’ unique production process, this article analyses the ways in which t…
Serjeant Musgrave's Dance and the Politics of Possibility in Two Television Adaptations
John Arden's stage play Serjeant Musgrave's Dance was adapted for British television in a Granada Television production in 1961 and four years later in a three-part BBC Schools version. Although received at its stage premiere in 1959 with puzzlement the play has since been acknowledged as a key work of modern political drama in Britain with its bold use of anti-naturalistic techniques including heightened prose and the integration of ballads. Thi…
The Single Play: An Afterword
Journal Article The Single Play: An Afterword Get access Carl Gardner, Carl Gardner Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar John Wyver John Wyver Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Screen, Volume 24, Issue 4-5, July-October 1983, Pages 125–129, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/24.4-5.125 Published: 01 July 1983
Screening Television
Journal Article Screening Television Get access John Wyver John Wyver Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Screen, Volume 24, Issue 1, Jan/Feb 1983, Pages 75–80, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/24.1.75 Published: 01 January 1983
The Single Play: From Reithian Reverence to Cost-accounting and Censorship
Journal Article The Single Play: From Reithian Reverence to Cost-accounting and Censorship Get access Carl Gardner, Carl Gardner Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar John Wyver John Wyver Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Screen, Volume 24, Issue 4-5, July-October 1983, Pages 114–124, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/24.4-5.114 Published: 01 July 1983
Television: The Debate on TV 4
Journal Article Television: The Debate on TV 4 Get access John Wyver John Wyver Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Screen, Volume 20, Issue 3-4, Winter 1979, Pages 111–114, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/20.3-4.111 Published: 01 December 1979
The Single Play: From Reithian Reverence to Cost-accounting and Censorship
Journal Article The Single Play: From Reithian Reverence to Cost-accounting and Censorship Get access Carl Gardner, Carl Gardner Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar John Wyver John Wyver Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Screen, Volume 24, Issue 4-5, July-October 1983, Pages 114–124, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/24.4-5.114 Published: 01 July 1983
Television: The Debate on TV 4
Journal Article Television: The Debate on TV 4 Get access John Wyver John Wyver Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Screen, Volume 20, Issue 3-4, Winter 1979, Pages 111–114, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/20.3-4.111 Published: 01 December 1979
The Single Play: An Afterword
Journal Article The Single Play: An Afterword Get access Carl Gardner, Carl Gardner Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar John Wyver John Wyver Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Screen, Volume 24, Issue 4-5, July-October 1983, Pages 125–129, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/24.4-5.125 Published: 01 July 1983
Screening Television
Journal Article Screening Television Get access John Wyver John Wyver Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Screen, Volume 24, Issue 1, Jan/Feb 1983, Pages 75–80, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/24.1.75 Published: 01 January 1983
The Single Play: From Reithian Reverence to Cost-accounting and Censorship
Journal Article The Single Play: From Reithian Reverence to Cost-accounting and Censorship Get access Carl Gardner, Carl Gardner Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar John Wyver John Wyver Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Screen, Volume 24, Issue 4-5, July-October 1983, Pages 114–124, https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/24.4-5.114 Published: 01 July 1983
Serjeant Musgrave's Dance and the Politics of Possibility in Two Television Adaptations
John Arden's stage play Serjeant Musgrave's Dance was adapted for British television in a Granada Television production in 1961 and four years later in a three-part BBC Schools version. Although received at its stage premiere in 1959 with puzzlement the play has since been acknowledged as a key work of modern political drama in Britain with its bold use of anti-naturalistic techniques including heightened prose and the integration of ballads. Thi…
Between Theatre and Television: Inside the Hybrid Space ofthe Wars of the Roses
In 1964 BBC Television recorded the Royal Shakespeare Company's History plays cycle The Wars of the Roses. The production was shot in the RSC's Stratford-upon-Avon theatre, temporarily transformed into a multi-camera television studio, and it remains the only major production for British television to have been recorded in that manner. As well as detailing The Wars of the Roses’ unique production process, this article analyses the ways in which t…
Exploring the Lost Television and Technique of Producer Fred O’Donovan
In the history of British television drama few notable creative figures are as forgotten as the actor, film director and pioneer producer, Fred O’Donovan. After a distinguished career on the stage and after directing Ireland’s first feature film, O’Donovan joined BBC Television in 1938. As one of the first directors of studio drama, he was a key agent in the fledgling form’s development. With his background in theatre and the cinema, he also exem…
Intermedial Relationships of Radio Features with Denis Mitchell’s and Philip Donnellan’s Early Television Documentaries
Writing of the closure in early 1965 of the Radio Features Department, Asa Briggs identifies one of the reasons for the controversial decision as ‘the incursion of television, which was developing its own features.’ ‘[Laurence] Gilliam and his closest colleagues believed in the unique merits of “pure radio”. The screen seemed a barrier’ (The History of Broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Vol. 5, p. 348). Rather than the screen being ‘a barrier’ f…
Civilisation and its discontents: Architectural spaces on film as defences against modernity
In the final moments of episode 12 of the BBC television documentary series Civilisation (1969), art historian Sir Kenneth Clark, who wrote and presented the series, stands in a darkened gallery before Auguste Rodin’s 1898 bronze ‘Monument to Balzac’. The novelist, Clark exclaims, with his voice close to cracking as he gazes up at the towering figure, ‘should inspire us to defy all those forces that threaten to impair our humanity: lies, tanks, t…
‘Filming the invisible’: Barrie Gavin in conversation with John Wyver
Barrie Gavin (b. 1935) is a celebrated producer, director and writer who is best known for numerous programmes about music and musicians made primarily for BBC Television from 1964 onwards. He worked on numerous occasions with the conductors Pierre Boulez and Simon Rattle, and with them and other collaborators he has directed more than 90 films. In this conversation recorded in Leeds in June 2018 Gavin discusses with the writer and producer John …
Drama Out of a Crisis: A Celebration of Play for Today
Play for Today was a series of single dramas broadcast by the BBC between 1970 and 1984. These were years of crisis, a time when the consensus politics of Britain’s postwar world had begun to unravel. Industrial relations, education and the health service faced fundamental challenges, the country was struggling with the end of empire, and the personal had become increasingly political. Play for Today reflected and responded to all of this and mor…
War and Peace: Play for Today’s Home Front Quintet
Although Play for Today is a strongly contemporary series, for many of its dramas the Second World War and the immediate aftermath are years of considerable significance. Numerous plays refer explicitly to aspects of the war, and nine productions are set wholly or primarily between 1940 and 1945. This article focuses on five of these, all of which were made on film for the later seasons of Play for Today: Licking Hitler (1978), Blue Remembered Hi…
Coventry Cathedral: Exploring Reflexivity in a Collage Film
Employing an extensive and diverse range of archival material, Coventry Cathedral: Building for a New Britain chronicles the planning and construction in the 1950s and early 1960s of a modernist replacement for the medieval cathedral almost entirely destroyed in 1940. Drawing on a breadth of archival elements from a wide range of sources, the production team sought to develop a reflexive screen language that acknowledged the materialities of thes…
Shakespeare on the Radio: A Century of BBC Plays
In 1924 the BBC’s first director-general John Reith reflected that, ‘The plays of Shakespeare fulfil to a great extent the requirements of wireless’. With minimal demands for settings and scenery
Art (12 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Media studies (9 works) · Cinema and Media Studies (7 works) · History (7 works) · Art history (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Literature (5 works) · Political science (5 works) · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism (5 works)