Has Hollywood stolen our history ?
Report on a conference in London, December 2002

One of the most visible signs of the current boom in history is the amount of coverage devoted to it on television, radio and in film. Some welcome this as an unprecedented opportunity for historians to reach a broader public audience than ever before, resulting in a new kind of history in many ways more exciting, more original and more appealing. For those who deplore these developments, the take-over of history by the media has resulted in a facile vision of the past, which is by turns unexciting and condescending towards its audience. Either way the current encounter between history and the media is one of the most noteworthy signs of the times.

An excellent conference that was jointly hosted by the History Channel and Institute of Historical Research at London's Senate House in December 2002, bringing together representatives from the academy and the media, including Simon Schama, Melvyn Bragg, Kate Adie, Max Hastings, Polly Toynbee, Jeremy Isaacs, David Cannadine and John Tusa, to promote a mutually stimulating dialogue and exchange of ideas.

The scene was set in the key note speech by Taylor Downing, of Flashback Television, producer of many notable archive using history documentaries.

Programme highlights were Jeremy Isaacs reflecting on his monumental work The World at War, but also paying tribute to its precursor The Great War. Jeremy was full of praise for archive film researchers and went as far as to propose an award for these unsung heroes.

Does Television Enhance or Diminish History ? issues were discussed by Tristram Hunt and Ian Kershaw, Roly Keating and others.

Melvyn Bragg spoke about The limitations and possibilities of Radio and Television History.

Simon Schama offered TV History: A Manual for Beginners. He and his producer Clare Bevan presented extracts from his History of Britain and a fascinating dialogue demonstrating the complexity of decisions that are made in the production office to find images - both specially shot and archive to illustrate historical views and interpretation of events.

The question of Why is so much Television History about War was addressed by a panel of producers, archivists and academics.

Lawrence Rees, BBC creative Director of Television History programmes recognised that television is a medium of take, but then set out to demonstrate what it also gives back. He also touched on the debate about the value of oral history : Are personally written documents any more or less accurate than spoken accounts? There is a value in being able to see the "body language" of some one talking about their role in an event in their past ; it tells you things that words alone cannot. Today's television is tomorrow's history, there must be access to it.

Sue Malden
January 2003