776 General Studies Art And Upheaval Songs of Protest

First  viewed : October  1986

This  was  broadcast  a  few  times  so  I  can't  be  certain  of  the  date. I  am  pretty  certain  it's  the   very  last  schools  programme  to  feature  here. It  just  caught  my  eye  during  a  flick  through  the Radio  Times. It  was  narrated  by  Mel  Smith  but  also  had  an  on-screen  presenter  Edward  Hayward  who  produced  many  of  the  BBC's  schools  programming  in  the  seventies  and  eighties.  As  the  title  suggests,  it  provided  a  brief  look  at  the  history  of  the  protest  song,  zeroing  in  on  Billie  Holliday's  anti-lynching  protest  Strange  Fruit   and  finishing  with  Billy  Bragg  championing  Jerusalem  ( which  I'd  say  was  anticipatory  rather  than  a  protest  but  whatever ).

I  note  that  the  programme  that  preceded  one  of  its  broadcasts  was  "Media  Studies - Inside  Television  Making  News"   which  surprises  me. I  hadn't  realised  that  the "subject"  had  become  embedded  that  early.