The Edwardians – The Birth Of Now
Art week
The Great Edwardian Rip Off (working title)
(³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Four)
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Peter York goes in search of the reasons why the Seventies were the golden age of the Edwardian rip off, from Laura Ashley to Upstairs Downstairs.
The Seventies: a decade stereotypically celebrated as style-less and taste-free.
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Yet, amidst all that orange, avocado and plastic, the early Seventies suddenly gave rise to a full blown revival of Edwardiana.
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Style commentator Peter York examines this nostalgic phenomenon and asks why was it that Laura Ashley, country kitchens, The Country Diary Of An Edwardian Lady and all things pastoral and old suddenly became de rigueur with both rich and poor in Britain.
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He finds less obvious connections between the two decades too. The Suffragette movement saw its energy revived in the Seventies as feminists rose to take power in print.
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This half-hour documentary includes Jean Marsh, co-creator and star of Seventies hit television series Upstairs Downstairs, and Rosie Boycott, feminist and journalist who founded Spare Rib and later Virago publishers in the same decade.
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Design guru Wayne Hemingway – a teenager in the Seventies – confesses to having bought the dream. Both his wedding and first home were Edwardian styled.
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Nick Ashley, son of Laura, explains how his mother's old-fashioned front-opening nightdresses, intended for breastfeeding mothers, gave birth to a fashion empire.
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Dr Sarah Edwards, probably the world's leading expert on The Edwardian Diary Of A Country Lady, reveals its author Edith Holden to be a raving feminist and free thinker.
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Winston Fletcher, Seventies advertising executive, deconstructs the the wave of nostalgic country goodness ads.
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And Charlie Smallbone, posh kitchen fitter, describes his rise to prosperity through stripping pine.
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A Tabloid Is Born (23 May, 9pm, ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Four)
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As former editor of The Sun, Kelvin MacKenzie had his finger on the nation's pulse for over a decade. From "Gotcha!" to the "white van man" politics of the early Nineties, he knew what his readers wanted.
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But where did the tabloid begin? In A Tabloid Is Born Kelvin explores the origins of the redtops at the dawn of the 20th century, beginning with the launch of the Daily Mail in 1896. It would change forever the way the world was reported.
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The publisher was Alfred Harmsworth, a maverick opportunist who grew up to become the "Napoleon of Fleet Street" and eventually Viscount Northcliffe. He was "the bridge between the Victorian and Edwardian eras – a 20th century man".
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While still in his teens, Northcliffe realised that the Victorian broadsheets bored most ordinary Edwardians stupid. The Mail would provide them with stories that would inform and entertain – scandal, celebrities and a few "first class murders".
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Kelvin explores the world of the Mail's readers - the harbingers of Middle England - and wryly observes the way Northcliffe targeted women.
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In 1903 he launched the Daily Mirror as a paper "written by women, for women". The first editions were a disaster, and he sacked the entire female staff – "it was like drowning kittens".
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Within months the Mirror was relaunched as a "pictorial" and became the country's biggest selling illustrated paper.
The Mirror gave birth to the first paparazzi, and the love affair between tabloids and the Royals.
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Kelvin dissects the first debates about privacy and intrusion, and some early scoops and exposes. What was the X factor that sent circulation soaring? And what do these newspapers tell us about the society back then?
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Irreverent and iconoclastic, A Tabloid Is Born is the story of the Edwardian people, through the pages of the People's Press.
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The Ornate Johnsons (³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Four)
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The Ornate Johnsons are an award-winning sketch group and this witty show brings their unique perspective to bear on everything from Edwardian society to the history of photography.
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Sickert V Sargent (working title)
(³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Four)
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In addition to pioneering literature at the turn of the century, art went through ground-breaking changes as well.
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In Sickert V Sargent, celebrated art critic Waldemar Januzczack looks at the work of Walter Sickert and John Sargent - both masters of their time.
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Sickert famously announced "any fool can paint, drawing is the thing". Januzczack steps into the fray, comparing the works of the two artists.
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Focusing on some of the most beautiful and alarming paintings ever made in this country – pictures of aristocrats and prostitutes, coronations and killings, opera houses and music halls – the programme evokes the long-lost atmosphere of Edwardian London.
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Edwardian Family Album (working title)
(³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Four)
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Peter Snow, examines a host of Edwardian artefacts, photographs, letters, toys, clothing and diaries to get a picture of the real Edwardians.
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Bringing the Edwardians back to life by investigating their objects of desire the programme offers a unique insight into our society 100 years ago.
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