Bacchae

In Rehearsal: The Bacchae (BBC, 1969)

Today’s blog post is something of an aside: the television programme I’m considering doesn’t fall within the methodological net of Screen Plays owing to the fact that it is focuses only on a couple of scenes from a play. The half-hour programme in question, which considers scenes from Euripides’ Bacchae was the second in the In Rehearsal series, a creation of the BBC Further Education department for transmission on BBC 1 on Sunday mornings in 1969. It’s interesting as an example of the BBC’s Further Education programmes of the late 1960s and early 1970s, enabling me to extend my knowledge about the BBC’s educational programming, and also because, as a Greek play, it’s also of some relevance to my Greece on the Small Screen project. Certainly, then, it seems to be worth a footnote on the blog.

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Greek plays: Philoctetes (BBC Schools, 1961-62)

In 1961 and 1962 Sophocles’ Philoctetes was produced by BBC Schools and transmitted in two parts in a series on ‘Greek Drama’ for Sixth Forms. The series also featured a production of Euripides’ Bacchae and introductions to the two plays by the moral philosopher Bernard Williams. This post offers my thoughts on the first half of Philoctetes which exists in the BBC’s archives. Continue reading →