1950s

4th January 1951 - TV cameras allowed in 10 Downing Street - encouraging political views
15th February 1952 - Funeral of King George broadcasted on TV shared with mass audience, established a tradition of royal television events
25 June 1950 - Korean War begins
26 October 1950 - First broadcast from the House of Commons
25 June 1951 – CBS transmits first colour programme
13th June 1952 - programme for children with impaired hearing
7th Feb. 1952 – first interlude programming introduced for when a show breaks down or under ran.
2nd June 1953 - Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II – definitive event in the evolution of British television
18 July 1953 – quatermass experiment first British sci fi programme, mass audiences.
11 November 1953 – panorama began
11 January 1954 - first in vision weatherman
5th July 1954 - first transmission of Newsreel
Television act 1954 becomes law – introduction of commercial television is given royal assent.
2nd April 1954 - the Grove family - first Soap opera, tried to convey a social representation of the country at that time.1/4 of the U.K's population tuned into this programme.
17th February 1955 - Kitchen magic – Fanny Craddock’s gourmet cooking show.
22 September 1955 – ITV began broadcasting, independent television channel.
1 July 1955 – Montgomery bus boycott – Rosa parks, helped set in motion the US civil rights movement
27th April 1956 - First Ministerial broadcast Anthony Eden
24 May 1956 – first Eurovision
19 February 1957 - first medical drama – first appointment at emergency ward 10.
9th January 1957 - Anthony Eden resigns as prime minister after the Suez crisis
16 October 1958 - first blue peter show broadcasted
2nd April 1958 - People in trouble - programme which focused on social issues within real people's lives, mixed marriages, and unmarried mothers
4 April 1958 - The first CND protests (campaign for nuclear disarmament)
14th June 1958 - black and white minstrel show - now seen as highly racist. However it was extremely popular at that time.
21 march 1959 - Whickers world globe trotting show opening one of the first windows on the world for the British audience


1960s

9th December 1960 - Coronation Street launch. Now the longest running soap drama
25th December 1960 - queen pre-records her first Christmas message, it used to be live.
9 November 1960 - Kennedy elected president, youngest and first Roman Catholic to hold the office
12th April 1961-- first man to go into space Yuri Gagarin
1960 - Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho becomes one of the year’s most successful films
29 April 1961 - ITV goes regional
1st October 1961 - songs of praise first broadcast (religious views) 5th August 1962 - Marilyn Monroe found dead24th September 1962 - university challenge (educational programme) 22nd November 1963 - JFK assassinated1 January 1964 - first top of the pops aired
20th April 1964 - launch of BBC 2, disrupted by power failure.12th June 1964 - nelson Mandela sentenced22nd august 1964 - match of the day launch24th January 1965 - Winston Churchill funeral broadcasted on BBC and ITV
12 June 1965 - Kenneth Tynan swears on a live BBC show, sparked major debate and one mp called for him to be hung.
3rd July 1967 - news at ten extended news on for 1/2 hour on ITV with 2 news casters, adopting a US style
20th July 1969 - Neil Armstrong first man to walk on the moon, broadcasted to millions
9 Feb. 1970 - Doomwatch, environmental science programmed, which lead to debates in parliament


1970s

15 Feb. 1971 - Britain adopts the decimal system
2 October 1971 - generation game begins most watched game show in history and had 23.9 million viewers
30 January 1972 - Bloody Sunday – peaceful civil rights march in Derry descends into chaos, British paratroopers open fire
4 April 1972 - Newsround begins
8 Jan 1973 - Watergate scandal
17 December 1975 - the naked civil servant discussed the persecution of a homosexual, defining moment in the presentation of homosexuals.
8 April 1977 - BBC airs Roots, about the slavery of African Americans, these kind of historical dramas were a signature of 1970s programming.
4 January 1978 - the south bank show, which examined cultural changes.
3 may 1979 - Margaret Thatcher came to power
25 September 1979 - question time began, gave the public the opportunity to question politicians.
2 September 1979 - subtitling began


1980s

30 august 1980 - first time television acknowledged female police officers
21 November 1980 - Children in need, first British telethon
25 November 1981 - Brixton and Toxeth race riots
2 April 1982 - Falkland’s war
2 November 1982 - channel 4 launches
5 march 1984 - miners strike
19 February 1985 - Eastenders first aired
26 February 1987 - women priests accepted in the Church of England.
15 January 1988 - this morning, Britain’s most popular morning show.
5 January 1989 - Desmonds broadcasted on channel 4, shows its multicultural nature
5 February 1989 - sky launches the UK’s first satellite television service
9 November 1989 - Berlin wall comes down
22 November 1990 - Thatcher steps down
30 march 1997 - channel 5 launches
9 November 1997 - news 24 launches
7 December 1998 - ITV 2 launches
23 February 1999 - channel 4 broadcasts queer as folk, deals with gays exclusively.
21 September 1999 - walking with dinosaurs, most costly science BBC programme
2 November 1999 - house of commons is televised

2000s

13 November 2000 - George w bush elected president
11 September 2001 - terrorist attacks
20 November 2002 - channel 4 airs a live autopsy
20 March 2003 - USA enters Iraq
28 January 2004 - Hutton inquiry
26 December 2004 - tsunami
30 January 2005 - Iraqi elections
February 2005 - youtube launched
7 July 2005 - London bomb attacks
30 September 2005 - Danish cartoons published depicting the prophet Muhammad (pbuh), causing much controversy

The Godfather (1972) & Goodfellas (1990)

The Godfather (1972)

Basic MIGRAIN:

• begins with a black screen and classic music playing as the nam"e Marlon Brando" appears and an image. "Al Pacino" introduced. Music begins before any name appears or any images - the music sets up a dramatic environment.

Key characters, Brando was already established, and this movie aimed to establish Pacino.

• familial idealogies throughout the trailer - we see images of family, weddings, children and women. The only joyous scene in the movie is a clip of a family wedding.

• "dont ever tell anyone outside the family what your thinking again" - backs up familial ideologies - introduction of violence as its a threat.

• "women and children can be careless, but not men" - sets up a patriarchal thinking, could be linked to familial ideologies as he believes he has to look after and protect the women and children.

• classic music turns into loud typical italian music.

• dark lighting - dark rooms - Brando's office.

• all wearing suits - shows wealth, sophistication, power, well established in whatever they do - capitalist ideologies ?

• we can see that Brando is the dominant figure - most respected.

• Brando is the only one who wears a red handkerchief in his suit - connotes violence and blood - relfective of his lifestyle.

• guns and violence introduced later in the trailer.
• "he'll never fear you" - typical of gangster films.

• we see several relationships - between family and men and women.

• family dinner - again backs up the familial ideologies this trailer establishes - "its my family not me" - loyalty despite orignally disagreeing with this lifestyle.

• kissing of Brandos hand - power, dominance, fear.

Goodfellas (1990)

Basic MIGRAIN:

• unlike the previous film which was tradition based when it came to the gangster lifestyle, this film makes it more about the luxury.

• begins with laughter unlike the Godfather.

• gangster lifestyle is set up to be a childhood dream, to gain wealth and luxury. "Rags to riches" song.

• "always keep your mouth shut" - violence quickly introduced - breaking car windows and blowing up cars as a child.

• large group of men greet the young boy after hes carried out a task - patriarchal ideologies - violence is a form of acceptance by these men.

• quick shots introduce 4 key things in this lifestyle - money, guns, the cross, blood.

• religious reference with the cross - lifestyle associated with italians - catholics.

• stealing of large sums of money and murder seen as casual - part of their lifestyle - accepted the violence and murder.

• "if we wanted something we just took it".

• show a joy in what they do - do not see itsdangerous or take it serious.

• gangster films usually show women as passive and weak under the mans power however here we see a woman confront Liotta's character for standing her up on a date and then holding a gun aimed at his head. She is a strong woman - it is shown that she is a jewish woman - maybe its shown to say if she was italian she would be passive like the other women in such films? only outside women can act this way?

• glamourises the lifestyle whereas the Godfather doesnt look at that aspect of the lifestyle and is more about carrying on for your family.

Related Texts:

• Scarface (1983)
• The Godfather trilogy (1974, 1992)
• One Upon A Time in America (1984)
• Casino (1995)
• Carlito's Way (1993)

SHEP -

• prohibition
• immigration in the early 1990s
• crime development
• poverty
• glamour linked to the gangster lifestyle shown through people such as Al Capone.

Cult of the Celebrity - people such as Al Capone, John Gotti etc. gained alot of importance within society and the media, they glamourised this lifestyle and made it more appealing due to the wealth they had gained. Made it more appealing to watch these types of films and learn about the life.

Moral Panic - during the period the films are set in there was a significant amount of moral panic associated with the gangster way of life, it was a threatening and dangerous thing. We learn through both movies what people outside these links thought and how they feared these people.

Hypodermic Needle Model - some may be influenced by the glamour and money, may want to take part in this kind of life, similiar to Ray Liotta's character in Goodfellas who dreamt of becoming a gangster from a young age.

Similarities & Differences

• The Godfather shows this life as more traditional, it is for the sake of the family, however, Goodfellas shows it more about the luxury and the wealth which comes with this lifestyle.
• Goodfellas has more elements of humour and comedy, the trailer begins with laughter and we see as they bury a body the are making jokes. The Godfather is more serious about these issues.
• Godfather is more family based and traditional however Goodfellas is about these group of men and what they can get out of it all.
• Goodfellas shows more female figures, and establishes one of them as stronger than most women in this film genre.
• Goodfellas glamourises violence and robberies alot more than the Godfather does.

:: Guardian Story :: Oscar-winning director Minghella dies at 54

Anthony Minghella, the Oscar-winning director of The English Patient, has died at the age of 54, his agent said today.
Minghella won the best director Academy award in 1997, the year in which the film won nine Oscars. He was also nominated for the best adapted screenwriting award in 2000 for The Talented Mr Ripley.
He had undergone an operation for cancer of the tonsils and neck last week and the operation seemed to have gone well. But he suffered a fatal haemorrhage at 5am today, his agent Leslee Dart said. "The surgery had gone well and they were very optimistic," she said. "But he developed a haemorrhage last night and they were not able to stop it."

The actor Jude Law, who worked with Minghella on The Talented Mr Ripley, Cold Mountain and Breaking And Entering, said he would miss the director "hugely".
He said: "I am deeply shocked and saddened to hear of Anthony's untimely death.
"I worked with him on three films, more than with any other director, but had come to value him more as a friend than as a colleague.
"He was a brilliantly talented writer and director who wrote dialogue that was a joy to speak and then put it on to the screen in a way that always looked effortless.
"He made work feel like fun. He was a sweet, warm, bright and funny man who was interested in everything from football to opera, films, music, literature, people and, most of all, his family whom he adored and to whom I send my thoughts and love. I shall miss him hugely."
Former prime minister Tony Blair said Minghella, who directed him in a party election broadcast for Labour, was a "wonderful human being".
"Whatever I did with him, personally or professionally, left me with complete admiration for him, as a character and as an artist of the highest calibre," he said.
Fellow film director Lord Puttnam said the death was a "shattering blow" to the industry.
He said: "I am shattered. He was a very important person in the film community because not only was he a fine, fine writer ... and made the transfer into becoming a really excellent director, he was also a really beautiful man. I just spoke to Alan Parker and it was the line Alan used: he was a beautiful man; he was a lot of fun to be with; he was thoughtful and intelligent."
Lord Puttnam said Minghella had been "a storyteller in the classic British tradition". He compared him with David Lean, saying he was particularly good at inspiring great performances from actresses.
The film-maker recently completed work on the Botswana-set comedy, The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which he directed after co-writing with Four Weddings and a Funeral scribe Richard Curtis. An adaptation of the Alexander McCall Smith novel, it had been due to premiere on BBC1 on Easter Monday.
Minghella had two projects in the pipeline: New York, I Love You, a celluloid ode to the Big Apple for which he had written and directed a segment, and the drama The Ninth Life of Louis Drax.
The director was born on the Isle of Wight, the son of Gloria and Edward Minghella, who owned an ice-cream factory.
His father was Italian-Scottish and his mother came from Leeds, although her ancestors were also Italian. Minghella attended Sandown grammar school and St John's college in Portsmouth. He is a graduate of the University of Hull, where he completed undergraduate and graduate courses, but eventually abandoned his doctoral thesis.
Minghella worked as a television script editor before making his directing debut in 1990 with Truly, Madly, Deeply, a comedy about love and grief starring Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman. The made-for-TV production proved so popular that it received a cinematic release.
The director also received critical plaudits for his 2003 film Cold Mountain. While Minghella himself did not receive any nominations, it saw Renée Zellweger take the Oscar for best supporting actress, with Jude Law picking up a nomination for best actor.
Minghella began his career in theatre, working as a playwright as well as a director. The plays of Beckett were a lifelong fascination - Play and Happy Days provided his directorial debut - and Minghella presided over a starry gala tribute to celebrate the playwright's 100th birthday in 2006, as well as writing a radio play to commemorate the occasion.
Two volumes of Minghella's own plays were published by Methuen, and he won a number of awards for his theatre writing in the mid-80s.
He returned to the stage in 2005 with a cinematically lavish staging of Puccini's Madam Butterfly at the English National Opera, which disappointed critics but was enthusiastically received by audiences. Last year, it was announced he would direct and write the libretto for a new work at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in the 2011-12 season
At the time of his death Minghella had recently relinquished his role as chairman of the British Film Institute. He was replaced by the former director-general of the BBC, Greg Dyke, on March 1. Minghella was made a CBE in the 2001 Queen's birthday honours list. He was married to Carolyn Choa and had two grown-up children, Max and Hannah.

m e d ii a s t o 0 o r y..*

Pakistan bans YouTube over anti-Islamic film clips

Pakistan's government has banned access to the video-clip website YouTube because of anti-Islamic movies posted on the site, an official said yesterday.
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority told the country's 70 internet service providers that the popular website would be blocked until further notice.
The authority did not specify what the offensive material was, but a PTA official said the ban concerned a trailer for an forthcoming film by Dutch politician Geert Wilders. The film portrays Islam as a fascist religion prone to inciting violence against women and homosexuals.
The unnamed official said the PTA had also blocked websites showing the controversial Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. The drawings were originally printed in European newspapers in 2006, but were reprinted by some papers last week.
The PTA urged internet users to write to YouTube and request the removal of the films, saying that the authorities would stop blocking the video-sharing site once that had happened.
Pakistan is not the only country to have blocked access to YouTube. In January, a Turkish court ordered the site to be blocked on account of video clips that allegedly broke the law by insulting the country's founding father, Kemal Ataturk.
Last spring the Thai government banned YouTube for four months because of clips regarded as offensive to the country's revered monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Moroccans were unable to access YouTube last year after users posted footage critical of Morocco's treatment of the people of Western Sahara.

m e d ii a sto0ory

Channel 4 names documentaries chief

The Channel 4 executive behind City of Vice and the broadcaster's controversial investigation into the death of Princess Diana has been named the station's head of documentaries.
Hamish Mykura replaces Angus MacQueen, who resigned last month to return to film-making.
Mykura is currently the head of specialist factual at Channel 4, overseeing the channel's history, science and religion output.
His commissions include Diana: The Witnesses in the Tunnel, which caused controversy last year when it used pictures of the crash that killed Princess Diana despite a personal plea from her sons, Prince William and Prince Harry.
Another Mykura commission, Martin Durkin documentary The Great Global Warming Swindle, also sparked a row when it criticised the consensus on global warming.
Mykura's more recent credits include five-part historical drama City of Vice and feature-length documentary, Day of the Kamikaze.
He will continue to report to Channel 4 head of programmes, Julian Bellamy.
"The range and quality of Channel 4's documentary output tends to be a leading indicator of how effectively we're delivering against our broader public service remit, so I'm delighted a commissioner of Hamish's experience and insight is eager to take up this key role," said Bellamy.
Other Mykura commissions include The Human Footprint, Richard Dawkins' Enemies of Reason, historical parenting series Bringing Up Baby and feature-length historical drama The Relief of Belsen. He was also responsible for Nuremberg: Goering's Last Stand and 9/11: The Falling Man.
Mykura said: "The documentary brief at Channel 4 is one of the most exciting and varied commissioning roles within television, ranging from popular innovations like The Secret Millionaire and Meet the Natives to feature-length landmarks like the Lie of the Land. It represents an irresistible new challenge."
He joined Channel 4 in 2001 as commissioning editor, history, becoming head of history in 2003 and later taking on additional oversight of the channel's religion and science programming.
Mykura previously worked for independent producers Blakeway Productions and Mentorn, and spent 10 years at the BBC.

Guardian Story

British reporter kidnapped in Basra
Michael Howard
guardian.co.uk,
Tuesday February 12 2008

Iraqi security forces in Basra were today engaged in "an intensive hunt" for a British reporter and his Iraqi interpreter who were abducted from their hotel by a gang of masked and armed men.
Basra police said the two men, who work for the US television network CBS, were seized at Basra's Sultan Palace hotel on Sunday morning. Police sources said one man had been detained on suspicion of involvement in the raid.
CBS yesterday confirmed that two of its journalists were missing, but it did not name them. The network appealed to other media "not to speculate on the identities of those involved" until more information was available.
In London, a foreign office spokesperson said she was aware that western citizens had been reported missing in Iraq, and that the FCO was looking into the matter "with some urgency".
The news of the kidnapping came as the bullet-riddled body of a young Iraqi journalist was found on the streets of Baghdad, two days after he had left his office to buy supplies.
Hisham Michwit Hamdan, 27, had not been seen by colleagues since leaving the offices of the Young Journalists League, an independent media watchdog, to buy stationery at a market in the Bab al-Mudham area.
The murder and the kidnapping were a reminder that despite recent security gains, Iraq remains the world's most dangerous country for journalists.
According to a report by Reporters Without Borders, 47 journalists lost their lives in Iraq in 2007, up from 41 in 2006, while 25 were kidnapped. The vast majority of the victims were Iraqi citizens. The only foreign journalist killed last year was a Russian photographer who was killed in a bomb blast north of Baghdad. Most of the hostages were freed unharmed, Reporters Without Borders said.
If the accounts of the latest kidnapping in Basra are confirmed, it would be the first abduction of a western reporter in Iraq since Jill Carroll of the Christian Science Monitor was seized and her driver killed in western Baghdad in January 2006. She was released two months later.
The British army transferred security in Basra to Iraqi forces in December. Since then, Iraq's second largest city has been generally quieter, but there are occasional eruptions of violence as Shia political parties, militias and criminal gangs continue to battle each other for dominance.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said three journalists had been abducted in Basra since 2004. Freelancer James Brandon was released, but Steven Vincent, also a freelancer, and Fakher Haider of the New York Times were later found shot dead.
The Basra office of the radical Shia cleric Muqtada al Sadr today appealed for the release of the CBS staff. "We condemn such events and we call on security forces to help in their release," an official said.

Guardian Sto0ory

ITV1 lost prime time share in January as its new-look schedule bedded in, but Channel 4 was the biggest ratings loser among the five main networks.
There was better news for ITV1 across the day, with the network averaging an audience share of 18.1% between 9.30am and 1am last month, only slightly down from 18.2% in January 2007, according to Barb/Infosys figures seen by MediaGuardian.co.uk.
Channel 4 fell from 10.4% to 8.1% compared with January 2007, or to 8.7% if the new +1 channel is factored in, between 9.30am and 1am. BBC1 went down from 22.3% to 21.6% year on year.
In prime time - between 7pm and 10.30pm - ITV1 suffered a bigger fall in share than BBC1, down from 26% to 24.2%; while BBC1 was down one percentage point from 23.8% to 22.8%.
However, in relative terms Channel 4 took the biggest prime time ratings hit last month - not surprisingly, given the absence of Celebrity Big Brother. Channel 4's share in prime time fell from 10.3% to 8%, or 8.5%, including the +1 service.
These figures suggest that ITV1's daytime programming is propping up the network's overall audience share, while its new look primetime schedule finds its feet, complete with the resurrected News at Ten.BBC2 saw its 9.30am to 1am share fall from 8.7% to 8.3%, compared with January 2007. In prime time the network almost held its own, down from 8.9% to 8.8%.
Channel Five kept prime time share stable at 5.2%. But Five lost half a percentage point between 9.30am and 1am across January, down from 5.4% to 4.9%.
Channel 4's decline stems mainly from losses in the 9pm hour, the berth of the highly controversial Celebrity Big Brother last year.
Share on Mondays to Fridays fell from 16.1% in January 2007 to 12% last month in the 9pm hour, with the network's audience share among 16- to 34-year-olds almost halving from 25.8% to 13.1%.
Closer analysis of the crucial 9pm hour on weekdays shows that, year on year, ITV1 has closed the gap with BBC1, although it is losing out to its chief rival on three nights out of five.
In the past four weeks, ITV1 shows have averaged 4.3 million viewers and an 18% share in the slot, compared with BBC1's 4.4 million, also an 18% share, according to data compiled by MediaGuardian.co.uk.
The comparable period a year ago saw BBC1 average 5.7 million viewers and a 23% share, while ITV1 averaged 4.7 million and 20%.
Some of ITV1's new shows - The Palace on Monday, Ladette to Lady on Tuesday and the pairing of Moving Wallpaper and Echo Beach on Friday - are failing to deliver ratings to match BBC1's shows.
But ITV1 is a thumping winner on Thursday, with returning drama Trial & Retribution averaging nearly double BBC1's Fairy Tales.
Honours are almost even on Wednesday night, when ITV1's new Amanda Redman drama Honest has just about edged out BBC1's offerings, which have varied from live FA Cup football to Crimewatch and a repeat of Mel Gibson film What Women Want.
While BBC1 regularly wins with Mistresses on Tuesday night and New Tricks repeats on Friday, it is suffering in comparison with last year, when Waking the Dead, Judge John Deed and Five Days all fuelled its ratings success.