Documentaries.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

A comment by Richard Tarleton on the Mozart in London Thread got me idly pondering:

[Lucy Worsley] is a considerable expert on the period in her own right after all, a senior research fellow, visiting professor, etc. etc.

I had a quick Google about other factual/documentary presenters who have regularly worked for the BBC, and discovered the following:

Mary Beard
Professor of Classics at the University of Cambridge, a fellow of Newnham College, and Royal Academy of Arts Professor of ancient literature.
14 publications since 1985

Simon Schama
Professor of History and Art History at Columbia University
17 publications since 1977

Alice Roberts
Professor of Public Engagement in Science at the University of Birmingham
7 publications since 2004

Helen Czerski
Research Fellow in the department of mechanical engineering at University College London

Brian Cox
Advanced Fellow of particle physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Manchester, does research at CERN.
6 publications since 2009
and the best Hannibal Lecter on film

Jim Al-Khalili
Professor of Theoretical Physics and Chair in the Public Engagement in Science at the University of Surrey.
Author/contributer to 14 publications since 1999.

Marcus De Sautoy
Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. Formerly a Fellow of All Souls College, and Wadham College, he is now a Fellow of New College.[6] He was previously President of the Mathematical Association, an EPSRC Senior Media Fellow and a Royal Society University Research Fellow.
4 publications since 2003

Kate Williams
Professor of History at the University of Reading
4 publications since 2005

Andrew Graham-Dixon
chief art critic of The Sunday Telegraph
8 publications since 1994

Matthew Collings
Professional Artist,
9 publications since 1997

Waldemar Januszczak
art critic for The Sunday Times

Suzanna Lipscombe
Head of Faculty and a Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History at the New College of the Humanities
5 publications since 2009

Robert Bartlett
Wardlaw Professor of Mediaeval History at the University of St Andrews.
12 publications since 1987

Gabriel Weston, Chris and Xand van Tulleken, Saleyha Ahsan
practising surgeons

David Starkey
22 publications since 1985

Bettany Hughes
Research Fellow of King's College London, (as well as tutor for Cambridge University's Institute of Continuing Education, Honorary Fellow of Cardiff University, recipient of an Honorary Doctorate from the University of York).
2 publications since 2005

("publications" here referring to books specifically authored by these presenters intended for general public reading - and does not include several articles and contributions to more specialist journals. Some, of course, have arisen from the television work they have done, but their first publications appeared before their first TV appearances.)

What this demonstrates is that for many documentary programmes, the BBC regularly employs academics with proven ability to communicate complex ideas to a general public (Helen Czeski's recent programme on Bubbles was exemplary in this respect).


Who are their equivalents as presenters of Music documentaries? There's David Owen-Norris (professor at the Royals College and Academy and Southampton Uni) - who has presented (AFAIK) one programme on his own - and Tom Service (calm down, Cali, for goddness' sake) - the academic equivalent of, say, Andrew Garaham-Dixon (PhD student, Music Critic/columnist for newspaper).

More regularly, R3 presenters are used - Suzi Klein, C B-H for example - or non-specialists as in the Ian Hislop Beethoven 5. Often, these are entertaining and informative (in spite of regular factual inaccuracies that someone more used to presenting educative material would avoid) - but why is Music so differentiated? Why aren't people like Marina Frolova-Walker, or Julian Johnson (or even Stephen no-relation) or any of the Music Academics at UK universities asked to present detailed, accurate programmes, the intellectual equivalent of other subject?

[Serial_Apologist]

At least Michael Berkeley is a composer - but you're asking about presenters of musical documentaries. David Owen-Norris presents occasional ones, and once you've got used to his OTT manner his enthusiasm can be quite catching.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

At least Michael Berkeley is a composer -

Indeed - but when was the last time he appeared on telly?

but you're asking about presenters of musical documentaries. David Owen-Norris presents occasional ones, and once you've got used to his OTT manner his enthusiasm can be quite catching.

I have been trying to remember when he presented a documentary on his own other than the Perfect Pianists programme. (Which was very good - the OTT manner was kept under control. I wish he'd do - a lot - more in this vein.)

[Richard Tarleton]

To underline your point still further, ferney:

Amanda Vickery (several docs in recent years): Vickery is professor of early modern history at Queen Mary, University of London, and has held academic posts at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the University of York. Her academic interests encompass the Late Modern period from the seventeenth century to the present with a strong emphasis on the Georgian period in England.

Dr Clare Jackson (whom I know slightly) who has done a couple of documentaries on the Stuarts and the Stuarts in Exile (aka the Jacobites) on BBC in the last couple of years - Senior Tutor and Director of Studies at Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

I remember when the BBC was not afraid to unleash Hans Keller on the public...and Peter Stadlen with an hour to himself on Beethoven's metronome markings on Radio 3, both in thick Austrian accents, nowadays they'd require it to be filtered through an intermediary.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Thanks, Richard - Amanda Vickery occurred to me after I'd posted. Her programme on Handel and the Foundling Hospital (jointly presented with Tom Service on his best behaviour - showing how much we are deprived of when he puts on that eminently slappable persona he thinks suitable for presentation) was excellent.

And Clare Jackson is superb; dignified without being pompous - completely avoiding the "Blue-Peter-Presenter-on-Prozac" approach that certain individuals seem to think essential to keep an audience watching.

Helen Castor, too.

[Richard Tarleton]

Jago Cooper.....the list goes on.