The Written Archives
We have tried hard to make sure we have released a range of programmes that, overall, paint a rounded picture of the different countries, faiths, communities and times explored in this trial. This has not been easy to achieve and we welcome your thoughts on how we have done.
Although the programmes in this trial are a selection from the BBC archives, we have only been able to pick from what was actually made at the time and then stored in those archives.
In fact, the programmes are as much a reflection of the broadcasting styles and priorities of the times from which they came as they are of the subjects they cover. Watching them gives us an insight into the news priorities of the time and the way that the public thought about different topics.
With limited resources to cover major events all over the world, and the fact that travel was very difficult and expensive until recently, the BBC was, historically, not able to make many programmes looking at life in other countries outside of major news events. This is particularly true of pre-satellite times, when large crews would have to be sent and footage would have to be physically brought back to be transmitted from Britain. This was, unfortunately, too expensive and time consuming to do on a regular basis. Watch our interview with Sir Mark Tully to find out more about the challenges of getting stories about other countries on the air.
All of this means that not many programmes documenting everyday life were made and, as not all broadcast programmes were preserved, even fewer have been archived. To find out more about the archiving process watch our interview with archivist Adam Lee .
We have also had to go through a complicated process of rights clearance to be allowed to put each and every one of these programmes in the trial. There are many programmes we would have loved to include that we simply could not get agreement to put online. This includes drama and entertainment shows, sporting events and some programmes made with lots of extracts from non-BBC material. Find out more about how the BBC gets agreement to show archive programmes again with the BBC's head of Talent Rights Simon Hayward-Tapp .
