User:Vernon39/Yesterday's Witness

Yesterday's Witness is a series of documentary television programmes, which ran on BBC 2 from 1969 to 1982. The series was innovative and made a significant contribution oral history.

Stephen Peet
Steve Humphries' obituary of Stephen Peet says: "In 1967, when Stephen Peet . . ., joined the BBC documentary department, he sent a memo to the then BBC2 controller David Attenborough. "I have an idea," he wrote, "for an inexpensive film series of ordinary people talking about their memories of historic events or periods." The immediate result was the first six Yesterday's Witnesses. Stephen had become the founding father of television oral history.

Between 1969 and 1981 Yesterday's Witness popularised history from below. The series - ordinary people telling extraordinary stories, usually with broader social significance, using family photos - ran to more than 80 programmes and documented events, now mostly beyond living memory, which form an important document of life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. . ."

Stephen's films were precursors of the video diary, an observational documentary approach that is now part of television grammar. He and his collaborators Mike Rabiger, Ian Keill and Rex Bloomstein, wanted their subjects to speak directly into the camera - a privilege of presenters and newsreaders. To achieve this, the interviewer crouched beneath the camera and this technique created a more intimate relationship between interviewee and audience."

- Steve Humphries

Alan Dein added: "In 1993 I was a rookie committee member of the Oral History Society, sharing the task of organising our annual conference. The theme was oral history and broadcasting, with a who's who of oral history legends, including Studs Terkel, Tony Parker, Stephen Peet (obituary, February 17) and his obituarist, Steve Humphries.

In the daytime, Stephen hosted an inspiring session at Morley College, sharing his masterly techniques as a canny listener, interviewer and television producer. That evening the National Film Theatre presented two examples of his groundbreaking Yesterday's Witness series to a packed audience. Many of us too young to remember their original broadcast were enthralled by their clarity and integrity.

I remember the event as a showcase for Stephen's contribution to the oral history community in the UK, and the opportunity to work alongside, and learn from, someone so eager to pass on his knowledge and experience to a younger generation. His mantra was to let people tell "their" story, rather than just being presented as "eyewitnesses" to a big event. It is a concept that has made the discipline so attractive to such a variety of practitioners. Would it not be great if the BBC could repeat the whole series of Yesterday's Witness?"

- Alan Dein

Other members of the team
<> Mike Rabiger, Ian Keill and Rex Bloomstein appear in the obituary above. Other people credited in the BBC ??? website are ... Christopher Cook...

Listing
A listing of the topics covered, date broadcast and other information, of the kind found in The Radio Times may be found by searching the BBC Genome Project :

1969

 * I have flown and it's marvellous : 24-3-1969


 * George Pearson: Pioneer Film Maker: 31-3-1969


 * The Narrow Boat Men: 14-4-1969


 * Birth Control in the Twenties: 21-4-1969


 * Breaking the silence : wireless before the days of broadcasting: 28-4-1969


 * Long before the talkies : 6-5-1969


 * The First War in the air : 12-5-1969


 * Prisoners of conscience: no to the army : 19-5-1969


 * Prisoners of conscience: no to the state: 26-5-1969

1970

 * The Battle of Cable Street: 4-1-1970


 * The Cockney Invasion: 18-1-1970


 * The Last Voyage of the Garthpool : 25-1-1970


 * The Burning of the Bombing School: 1-2-1970


 * A remnant of feudal society: 8-2-1970


 * The Cramlington Train Wreckers: 15-2-1970


 * Mission to Serbia: 22-2-1970


 * Whatever Happened to Music?: 4-5-1970


 * The First Boy Scouts: 8-5-1970


 * Search for a Film Star : 25-5-1970


 * The Great Scuttle: 1-6-1970


 * One Man's Dunkirk: 15-6-1970


 * Trial: The City versus Lauren R. Watson: 20-6-1970


 * The Abandoned Island [Alderney]: 22-6-1970


 * David Lloyd George, Welshman: 27-7-1970


 * George Pearson: Pioneer Film Maker: 3-8-1970


 * Levant Mine Disaster: 24-8-1970

1971

 * The Lifeboat That Wouldn't Give Up: 21-4-1971


 * The Last People of St Kilda: 28-4-1971


 * The Last People of St Kilda: 28-4-1971


 * [Wartime London]: 5-5-1971


 * Downhill All the Way [Skiing]: 12-5-1971


 * The Jarrow Crusade (Produced by Patricia Meehan): 19-5-1971


 * [Britain's first talkies] (Prod. 1)Peet with Jane Oliver: 26-5-1971


 * Two Victorian Girls: 2-6-1971


 * The Narrow Boat Men (repeat): 9-6-1971


 * Tolstoy remembered by his daughter: 16-6-1971


 * Levant Mine Disaster (repeated from 24-8-1970): 8-8-1971


 * Search for a Film Star: 22-8-1971


 * A Remnant of a Feudal Society: 12-9-1971


 * I have flown and it's marvellous: Pioneer aviators (R 24-3-1969): 19-9-1971


 * The Lifeboat That Wouldn't Give Up (R): 26-9-1971

1972

 * Sylvia of Sarawak: 6-4-1972


 * Tythe war: 25-5-1972


 * Who was Carl Goerdeler?: 1-6-1972


 * The Great Blizzard of 1891: 8-6-1972


 * A Way with the Girls [US Forces/GI Brides]: 15-6-1972


 * To Paris - By Air! : 22-6-1972


 * Talkies Come to Britain (R): 2-9-1972

1973

 * Sylvia of Sarawak (R): 1-8-1973


 * The Tithe War (R): 11-8-1973


 * The Shell House Raid: 20-8-1973


 * A Cause Worth Fighting For [Spanish Civil War): 27-8-1973


 * Five Years' Nightmare: 3-9-1973


 * The Iolaire Disaster: 10-9-1973

1974

 * Charlie Smith : aged 131: 26-1-1974


 * Zeppelins Over England : 2-2-1974


 * The Village on the Wall : 9-2-1974


 * The Great Scuttle: 18-3-1974


 * The Battle of Cable Street: 25-3-1974


 * The Burston School Strike: 1-8-1974


 * The Ship of Good Hope [Empire Windrush]: 8-8-1974


 * The Village on the Wall (R): 15-8-1974


 * English Nurse with the Tsar's Army: 25-9-1974

1975

 * Honeymoon in the Sky: 8-3-1975


 * Coming Out in 39 [Debutantes]: 6-7-1975


 * X-Rays: The Early Days: 13-7-1975


 * The Scuffers Are Out [Liverpool Police strike]: 27-7-1975

1976

 * YW in America - 1: Babes in Hollywood: 27-9-1976


 * YW in America - 2: The Great Sit-Down: 4-10-1976


 * YW in America - 3: The Day the Sun Blowed Up: 11-10-1976


 * YW in America - 4: Fighting for Rights: 18-10-1976

1977

 * Honeymoon in the Sky: 15-1-1977


 * A Night at the Pictures: 5-2-1977


 * English Nurse with the Tsar's Army: 18-4-1977


 * Women at War - 1: The Two Women of Pervyse: 25-4-1977


 * Women at War - 2: Down on the Farm: 2-5-1977


 * Women at War - 3: We are. the Arsenal Girls: 9-5-1977


 * Women at War - 4: Three VADs: 16-5-1977


 * Women at War - 5: Standinq in for brother Bob: 23-5-1977


 * Women at War - 6: The Girls Behind the Men: 6-6-1977


 * Stand Up and Be Counted: 23-7-1977


 * Women at War - 1: The Two Women of Pervyse (R): 5-11-1977


 * Women at War - 5: Standinq in for brother Bob (R): 6-11-1977


 * Women at War - 3: We are. the Arsenal Girls (R): 9-11-1977


 * Women at War - 4: Three VADs (R): 11-11-1977 (R)

1978

 * Tales of India - 2: Frontier Outrage : 15-5-1978


 * Tales of India - 3: Soldiers Three: 22-5-1978


 * Tales of India - 4: Fighting Terrorists : 29-5-1978


 * Tales of India - 5: Sahibs : 5-6-1978


 * Tales of India - 6: One of the Community: 12-6-1978

1979

 * Ten years - 1: Two Victorian Girls : originally 1969 : 13-4-1979


 * Ten years - 2: The Lifeboat that Wouldn't Give Up: 7-5-1979


 * Ten years - 3: Tolstoy Remembered by his Daughter- Originally 11 May 1970: 14-5-1979


 * Ten years - 4: Five Years' Nightmare : 18-6-1979


 * Ten years - 5: The Shell House Raid : 28-5-1979


 * Ten years - 7: The Burston School Strike - originally 1974 : 11-6-1979

1980

 * YW in America - 1: A Very Public Private Affair: 18-3-1980


 * YW in America - 2: Gold Rush at Cripple Creek: 25-3-1980


 * YW in America - 3: A Question of Loyalty: 1-4-1980


 * YW in America - 4: The Long March of the Suffragists: 8-4-1980


 * Distant Guns - 1: Soldiers of the Queen: 9-11-1980


 * Distant Guns - 2: With the French Resistance: 16-11-1980


 * Distant Guns - 3: The Escape of HMS Amethyst: 23-11-1980


 * Distant Guns - 4: Wings over Waziristan: 7-12-1980


 * Distant Guns - 5:Two Legionnaires: 14-12-1980


 * Distant Guns - Keeping Peace in the Desert: 21-12-1980


 * America - 3: A Question of Loyalty - 1 - 4 - 1980

1981

 * British India: voices from the Imperial Past: 20-6-1981

1982

 * Honeymoon in the Sky: 6-7-1982


 * A Night at the Pictures: 7-7-1982


 * The Great Blizzard of 1891: 12-7-1982


 * The Scuffers Are Out: 13-7-1982


 * Birth Control in the 20s: 14-7-1982


 * YW in America - 1: A Very Public Private Affair: 20-7-1982


 * YW in America - The Great Sit-down : 21-7-1982


 * YW in America - Fighting for Rights: 22-7-1982


 * YW in America - 3: A Question of Loyalty: 23-7-1982


 * YW in America - Gold Rush at Cripple Creek: 27-7-1982


 * The First Boy Scouts: 3-8-1982


 * X-Rays: The Early Days: 4-8-1982


 * The Day the Sun Blowed Up: 6-8-1982


 * Tales of India - 1: One of the Community : 3-11-1982


 * Tales of India - 3: Memsahibs: 17-11-1982


 * Tales of India - 5: Frontier Outrage : 1-12-1982


 * Tales of India - Fighting Terrorists: 8-12-1982

1985

 * The Burston School Strike: 23-2-1985