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illuminations.bsky.social
Illuminations
@illuminations.bsky.social
3.5K followers 660 following 3.3K posts
Media producer of arts docs, screen performance; posts by John Wyver, Professor of the Arts on Screen, Univ of Westminster; broadcasting history, esp early TV, theatre, film, visual art
Images: Man w the Flower, ‘30 / de Stael, Le Saladier (detail), ‘54
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illuminations.bsky.social
Spike Lee at excellent q&a after screening of Highest2Lowest this morning - and just before he went to the derby. Loved the film (apart from maybe the final 15 minutes), which is a quintessential NYC movie, and a movie about NYC movies: Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon, French Coonection are its forbears.
Portrait of director Spike Lee in full Arsenal kit.
November 23, 2025 at 7:32 PM
illuminations.bsky.social
‘Australia trails…’ or ‘Australia trail…’; I would have thought the latter #Ashes #pedantry
Detail of screen shot of Ashes coverage including graphic ‘Australia trails by 115 runs’.
November 21, 2025 at 8:39 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
These digital ads imposed on the side shots in #Ashes coverage make the space of the field feel really strange.
Screen shot of Ashes cricket with prominent electronic advertising
November 21, 2025 at 8:25 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
Here’s that side shot with three brands. Not the BBC is it?
November 21, 2025 at 3:06 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
Neat new tech at TNT Sports
November 21, 2025 at 2:53 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
… and three more (!) brands, electronically imposed, in the less-often-used side shot @TNT Sports.
November 21, 2025 at 2:52 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
Four (!) on-field brands in the wide shots at TNT Sports coverage…
November 21, 2025 at 2:37 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
Here we go
November 21, 2025 at 2:22 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
How completely weird is this! But nice too.
Doing some reading about director Tony Richardson (ahead of an intro next month at BFI Southbank), I opened at random Don Radovich's 1995 'Tony Richardson: A Bio-Bibliography, published by Greenwood Press in 1995.
And I found this...
Extract from a book which reads: 'B180 Wyver, John. The Moving Image: An International History of Film, Television and Video. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989. Published in cooperation with the British Film Institute, Wyver's overview of the history of moving images is wonderfully entertaining, concise, and informative. At a little over three hundred well -illustrated pages, it is one of the best short and manageable one-volume references available. Richardson's contributions to British film, from Free Cinema to Woodfall, are briefly covered.'
November 13, 2025 at 3:42 PM
illuminations.bsky.social
Courtauld cafe after the Wayne Thiebaud exhibition 🙂
November 6, 2025 at 11:21 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
Only two rooms, but a stellar show
Painting in thick paint of a lone coffee mug on a yellow ground
November 6, 2025 at 10:38 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
Cakes by Wayne Thiebaud at Courtauld, Somerset House
Painting detail of a pink cake on a stand, done with thick luscious paint Painting detail of a yellow cake on a stand, done with thick luscious paint Painting detail of a pink cake with cherries on a stand, done with thick luscious paint Painting detail of a yellow layered cake on a stand, done with thick luscious paint
November 6, 2025 at 10:35 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
... and that's me done, I think - proofs, queries, final checks, the lot.
Image of the Contents page of my forthcoming book Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain, with the following text: List of figures vi List of abbreviations vi Acknowledgements xii Introduction 1 1 'Practical television is here' 17 2 'And so we progress' 57 3 The importance of Isidore 96 4 Starting out at Alexandra Palace 5 Putting on a show 173 6 Dramatic success 219 7 The world elsewhere 265 8 Cinema's challenges 319 9 Looking in 356 Coda: The war and the future 397 Selected bibliography 404 Notes 423 Index 498
October 30, 2025 at 4:44 PM
illuminations.bsky.social
You can hardly read it, but it says, Everybody Needs a Place to Think, BBC Four. Installed on London’s South Bank benches for channel’s launch. A lifetime ago.
Silver plaque on end of concrete bench.
October 18, 2025 at 1:04 PM
illuminations.bsky.social
Tate’s Henry Moore Locking Piece, 1964, looking somewhat the worse for wear on Millbank this morning.
Photo of mounted bronze sculpture with obvious damage to the patination
October 18, 2025 at 11:34 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
This morning, 11am in the UK, midday CET - and it's not too late to request a Zoom link from from [email protected]
Details of an online seminar this morning, 15 October: me speaking about my forthcoming book, Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain
October 15, 2025 at 5:11 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
Looking forward next Wednesday to outlining some of my ideas in and research processes for my forthcoming book "Magic Rays of Light: The Early Years of Television in Britain". Do e-mail for a Zoom link if you would like to listen in.
Flyer for the series of Entangled Media Histories seminars, including John Wyver's online presentation on Wednesday 15 October, from 12-13 CET, about his book 'Magic Rays of Light'; anyone interested in attending can request a Zoom link from: maximilian.brockhaus@univie.ac.at
October 9, 2025 at 8:49 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
'Rohtko', by Polish director Łukasz Twarkowski and tireless team, is @Barbican for one more show - and is astonishing, a bit banal, extraordinary, occasionally boring, challenging (nearly 4 hrs), beautiful, an absolutely unique mix of performance + live video - I was enthralled; pic is curtain call
Curtain call from Polish show Rohtko at the Barbican last night, with cast lined up across the stage, and above a banner in the Ukraine colours of blue and yellow, on which is written "Russian Warship: go fuck yourself"
October 4, 2025 at 4:39 PM
illuminations.bsky.social
In Bradford for Widescreen Weekend and staying at the grand but somewhat faded Midland Hotel where, I am perversely delighted to discover, in 1905 Sir Henry Irving breathed his last on this staircase. His manager, Bram Stoker, was in attendance.
Photograph of grand staircase stretching away from the camera, with decorative metal handrails and a patterned carpet.
September 28, 2025 at 8:16 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
Great 'Captive Cinema' programme at BFI Southbank last night, with Associated-Rediffusion documentaries from 1955-57, including "Our American Cousins", intro'd by BFI curator Lisa Kerrigan. Part of Lisa and colleagues' brilliant A-R season.
TV Times listings for programme "People are Talking: Our American Cousins", with text "An Englishman wrote a fetter to an American magazine: the sooner we British get out of the alliance with the Americans the better."* In the same issue an American wrote: ". . O.K. buddies, if you don't like our peaches, quit shaking our tree." Michael Ingrams, himself a product of an Angio-American alliance, makes a personal report."
September 24, 2025 at 12:20 PM
illuminations.bsky.social
Very pleased to be contributing an Entangled Media Histories seminar about the writing of 'Magic Rays of Light', online on Wednesday 15 October.

Request a Zoom link from [email protected]
September 19, 2025 at 11:04 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
Starry line-up for Q&A after last night's VistaVision projection at Odeon Leicester Square BAFTA preview screening of Paul Thomas Anderson's 'One Battle After Another':
PTA, Leonardo diCaprio, Chase Infiniti, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro.
Line-up of speakers seated on chairs on a stage before a blue curtain, with a moderator and (left to right) Paul Thomas Anderson, Leonardo diCaprio, Chase Infiniti, Sean Penn, Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro.
September 16, 2025 at 9:22 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
The distinctive bulgibng Orangina bottle, a sign of the sophistication of the Continent since I was yay-high, seems, on the evidence of our current trip, to be increasingly rare, replaced by anonymous cans.
Half-empty soft drink bottle with the label Orangina, next to a glass half full of the orangey fizzy drink, sitting on a cafe table.
September 12, 2025 at 5:29 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
So refreshing from Zack Polanski
Extract from Guardian Politics live; text reads: Polanski praises migrants as 'very much backbone of this country', saying Greens must defend marginalised groups In his victory speech Polanski also said that this evening he would be attending a United Voices of the World event. It is a migrant union, and Polanski said this as "a total show of intent, of what this party is" He went oN: 1 We listen to the poorest communities, whether they're migrant communities, disabled communities, the trans community, working class communities, whoever needs us to have their back, we will be there. We will be there to amplify their voices, to listen to the most marginalised and minority communities, to speak with them, not for them, and challenge truth to power, to take on power and wealth in this country, and we absolutely recognise that migrants are very much the backbone of this country. Our country has problematic history that we also need to come to terms with, but also we have a beautiful history, a beautiful present and a beautiful future of what we are when communities come together. So let's have a very clear Green party message. Our communities will always stand together.
September 2, 2025 at 11:05 AM
illuminations.bsky.social
Absolutely delighted that Dan Briggs, son of the BBC's first official historian Asa Briggs, has written to The Observer supporting the need for on-request vetting to re-instated at the BBC Written Archives Centre (p.29; not I think online).
Letter's wording is in the .alt element.

#waccampaign
Letter text reads: History written off 'I agree that the BBC’s decision, apparently a fait accompli, taken without prior consultation to refashion the BBC Written Archive Centre in Caversham (re Vanessa Thorpe’s article “Historians dismayed by ‘scandal’ of BBC cutting access to written archives”, News, last week), is very disappointing. It appears to run counter to the BBC‘s compact with the public, Our BBC,Our future, and arguably the broadcaster’s charter itself. This would have deeply disturbed my father, Asa Briggs, the first official historian of the BBC who played a key role in setting up the archive. As Adam Sisman writes in his new biography, my father rescued countless papers, broadcasts and artefacts. The archive has since provided a valuable and rich seam of research material. The plan to step up the release of material in themed batches, rather than as now, respond to specific research enquiries clearly ‘dumbs down’ the value of the archive as an open and accessible resource.' Dan Briggs Lewes, Sussex
August 31, 2025 at 8:55 AM