University of Glamorgan goes Inside Coal House
June 2, 2008
As work begins on a second BBC Wales Coal House series, now set in the 40s, the University of Glamorgan is holding a symposium on Tuesday 3rd June, Inside Coal House, looking at the series and its representation of coalfield communities.
The Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations at the university’s new Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries ATRiuM faculty in Cardiff is hosting the event, which will bring together researchers, programme makers and historians.
Symposium organiser Dr RUTH MCELROY said:
“When BBC Wales’ Coal House series appeared on Welsh screens in autumn 2007 it rapidly made an impact on the televisual landscape of the nation. It described itself as ‘the reality of living in the past’, with three Welsh families ‘transported’ back to 1927 to experience day to day life in the south Wales coalfield.”
Following in the footsteps of earlier hybrid reality-history shows, most notably The 1900 House, The 1940s House and The Edwardian Country House, Coal House drew strong responses – both favourable and hostile – from viewers and scholars alike.
Some critics saw the programme’s hybrid televisual form as an abandonment of the BBC’s public service values yet for others it was an instance of their fulfilment, particularly in its relationship to wider digital storytelling initiatives that have been fostered within BBC Wales particularly.
Symposium organiser Dr PETER JACHIMIAK said:
“The symposium will be a forum that encourages debate on Coal House in relation to our understanding of history, community, family and the home. As well as being concerned with the series’ production and its reception by its audience, Coal House will be examined within its social, cultural, economic and even artistic contexts”.
This symposium draws together academics and media professionals together in dialogue to consider this piece of landmark television in advance of shooting beginning of the second series, to be set in the 1940s.
Invited speakers include:
Prof. Chris Williams (Swansea University and series historical consultant)
Rachel Morgan (Indus Films; series producer)
Paul Islwyn Thomas (MD of Indus Films)
Mandy Rose (Creative Director: Multiplatform BBC Wales)
Prof. Ann Gray (University of Lincoln and Director of the AHRC ‘Television History 1995–2010’ project)
Prof. Tom O’Malley (University of Wales Aberystwyth and co-editor of the journal Media History)
Prof. Peter Stead (Visiting Professor University of Glamorgan and member of the board of trustees for English Language National Theatre for Wales)
The Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations conducts research and hosts a range of events, including its forthcoming symposium on TV Game Shows on Friday 20 June.
Its recent Finding a Voice symposium on community radio in Wales has led to the establishment of a new community radio research centre.
