3934/ BBCPoetA5Booklet10/15/033:18PMPage1 poets & writers 3934/ BBC Poet A5 Booklet 10/15/03 3:18 PM Page 2 3934/ BBC Poet A5 Booklet 10/15/03 3:18 PM Page 3 travelling without passport... travelling without passport "The light of imagination transcends decay." (Brian Patten,The Story Giant) This exhibition celebrates the diverse and abundant talents of local writers who have had an association with the BBC. It profiles the work of poets, playwrights, novelists and critics and acknowledges their contribution to broadcasting and wider cultural and community life over almost 80 years of programme-making by the BBC in Northern Ireland. Poets and Writers looks back to some of the defining personalities and achievements of the past and forward to the creative possibilities that are being explored by a new generation of local writers. It chronicles a succession of social and technological changes and also the recurring themes and pre-occupations of broadcasting in a diverse society. Whilst no such exhibition can offer a definitive summary of all that has been accomplished, or work that is still in the making, what is presented here usefully illustrates the range and scale of material that the BBC has produced for local and Network audiences. BBC NI has a long-established and unique role as a supporter of the arts. It has worked hard to encourage creative excellence and remains committed to risk-taking and innovation, and to facilitating "those adventures of the spirit" that lie at the heart of all good broadcasting and literary activity. Preserving the BBC’s past, whilst building on its legacy by seeking out different voices and audiences, will present inevitable challenges over the coming period. In all of this however, a key task of programme- makers and writers will remain the telling of stories that allow our imaginations to "travel without passport across borders and time" and which connect us ever more fully with the complexities and excitements of the world that we share. This exhibition should make many such journeys possible. I hope that you enjoy it! Professor Fabian Monds BBC National Governor for Northern Ireland 1 3934/ BBC Poet A5 Booklet 10/15/03 3:18 PM Page 4 radio memories The radioprogramme is The Arts in Ulstermemories, the year 1966. John Boyd with his hands full of paper rushes from behind the glass partition and into the studio to scold the panel for not talking enthusiastically enough about the book under discussion. Charles Brett is in the chair. Mercy Hunter, John Cowser and I make up the team. "It’s the best thing to come out of this place for years," John insists. "Sound more enthusiastic, for God’s sake!" And he is right of course. On a second take we sing more loudly the praises of Seamus Heaney’s first collection, Death of a Naturalist. In the Sixties when my generation of writers was just setting out, John Boyd and Sam Hanna Bell read our first publications, got to know us and invited us to write scripts or contribute in other ways to their programmes. Sam’s broadcasts often began in The Elbow Room over pints and chasers. But once we had waltzed across the road into Broadcasting House, the hilarity ceased. Behind the glass partition Sam changed (or changed back ) into a Presbyterian disciplinarian, a perfectionist. These great men were a good deal older than us. Their encouragement and patronage were blessings. Thanks to them the BBC played a crucial role in what is sometimes thought of as a northern literary renaissance. Is it possible to trace some kind of apostolic succession? Sam Hanna Bell and John Boyd’s predecessors include the playwright Denis Johnston, whose combination of words and music and sound effects in pre- war plays such as Lillibulero pointed the way forward; and Tyrone Guthrie, the first voice to be heard on the Northern Irish airwaves, the founding father of radio drama in London, before the world became his stage. Two other Ulstermen, Louis MacNeice and W. R. Rodgers, as well as being wonderful poets were innovative broadcasters, pivotal players in the Features Department of the Third Programme (now BBC Radio 3). MacNeice who died in 1963 gave his last interview to John Boyd here in Belfast. As scintillating heir of Rodgers and MacNeice, Paul Muldoon is the most recent bard to work in the BBC. His ingenuity and magic brightened local radio for more than a decade. As is the case with most good chefs, his recipes were often quite simple. The magazine programme Bazaar encouraged writers to do their own thing or try something entirely new. "I hear you’re trying to give up the fags. Would you like to write about it? Five minutes, say?" Who could refuse? Part of the fun was wondering who else would be in the studio: John Hewitt sternly reciting some autobiographical sonnets, James Simmons crooning a political ballad or a love song. Bernard MacLaverty trying out a short story, Sam McAughtry sagely giving us a slice of life, John Morrow making Ulster laugh with some outrageous yarn. Stewart Parker, Medbh McGuckian, Ciaran Carson, Frank Ormsby, Jennifer Johnston, Michael Foley – Paul brought us all together on the air and, without trying too hard, made Belfast feel like the centre of the universe. He also ensured that poems were read on the radio and books by local authors reviewed. In the Schools’ Department Douglas Carson rejoiced in the example and achievements of Bell and Boyd, Rodgers and MacNeice. Over two decades I wrote for him one or two scripts a year based on Irish legends. The thrill was in trying to communicate the spirit of these Iron Age tales through the 20th century electronic contrivance. I loved leaving in my scripts spaces in which the boffins of the Radiophonic Workshop in Manchester would conjure up a giant’s stomach-rumbles or an underwater monster’s slashing 2 3934/ BBC Poet A5 Booklet 10/15/03 3:18 PM Page 5 tail. In The Bird of the Golden Land it was, for a change, the Billy White Jazz Trio who improvised sound effects and tunes and cast the spell. Illustrated pamphlets for the pupils and teachers’ notes accompanied our programmes. Douglas and I were indeed men with a mission. But the curriculum and the fashion changed. By the end of our long adventure we were enjoying ourselves so much we didn’t really care if anyone was listening! For me producers and writers are what it is all about. It is inspiring nowadays to tune into new work by playwrights still in their springtime – Daragh Carville, Gary Mitchell,Tim Loane, Damian Gorman. More seasoned dramatists such as Marie Jones and Graham Reid continue to adorn the schedules. The comedy drama series Two Doors Down by Annie McCartney looks like a healthy development. Two outstanding young novelists, Robert McLiam Wilson and Glenn Patterson, live in our midst, both of them skilled broadcasters. In our small community poets seem to have handed over the baton to writers of prose, but for the time being only, I’m sure. The watchword of the BBC’s first Director General Lord Reith was: "The best for the most." May the old curmudgeon never sound out of date. Easy-going disc-jockeying and chat may have their attractions, but the ancient Greeks were surely right when they insisted: "The beautiful things are difficult." Many years ago I toured the province as floor manager for an amateur talent show produced by that marvellous writer and devoted radio man, Maurice Leitch. I fraternised for the first time in my life with stand-up comedians, country and western singers and Ian Paisley impersonators – an experience I relished. I apologise, therefore, for not discussing the merely diversionary or, for that matter, the documentary. These genres are taking over and can look after themselves. On the occasion of this exhibition of literary photographs I prefer to celebrate creativity and invention. One of the BBC’s greatest servants Huw Wheldon put it this way: "It is through stories, overwhelmingly, that we learn to live in the world: and it is through stories that we learn to live with ourselves. It is no accident that civilisations are built on myths and that religions are built on parables." There’s a magical line in Ciaran Carson’s poem Hamlet: "the storyteller picks his way through the isolated stars." Radio waves travel at the speed of light. My own time worn retelling of those legends from prehistoric Ireland may just now be reaching a star in Orion’s belt. Who knows what receptive intelligence is tuning in? "Time," Ciaran Carson says at the end of his poem, Is conversation; it is the hedge that flits incessantly into the present, As words blossom from the speakers’ mouths… Michael Longley 3 3934/ BBC Poet A5 Booklet 10/15/03 3:18 PM Page 6 poets writers jonathan bardon jc beckett jonathan bardon jc beckett (born 1940) Historian (1912-1996) Historian Born in Dublin and educated From East Belfast, Beckett was © BBC at High School,TCD, QUB and educated at RBAI and QUB. the University of Ulster. A © Pacemaker His many books include the former teacher and lecturer at classic text, The Making of BIFHE and QUB, he was Modern Ireland (1966). During Chairman of the Community the 1950s he and another RBAI Relations Council of Northern historian, Professor Theo Ireland, 1996-2002. A prolific Moody of TCD, collaborated on author whose works include A History of Ulster (1992) two acclaimed series of history programmes for the and Beyond the Studio: A History of BBC Northern BBC NI Home Service.