Caribbean and African Writing in the BBC's Written Archives

Abstract

Recent research has clearly established the links between the British Broadcasting Corporation and the fictional monster which it inspired in George Orwell's 1984, the Ministry of Truth. Orwell's work for the BBC's Asian Service and with Indian writers has been examined and gaps in his euvre filled following research at the BBC's Written Archives Centre at Caversham near Reading.1 For those concerned with the BBC's overseas services, particularly the services to Africa and the Caribbean, the Archives offers a largely untapped source of material about how the BBC conducted its business, and of creative work which was broadcast. Space available at the Archives is limited and arrangements to use the facilities have to be made in advance. Researchers are required to give undertakings about the use to which they intend to put their findings, and to comply with the Copyright Act photocopies of scripts can be made only after the written consent of the author concerned has been obtained. On the open shelves in the reading-room researchers will find back numbers of London Calling, the Radio Times of the overseas services. These provide details about the material broadcast and contain clues to the broadcasting policy and indications about programmes which writers, teachers, and students might have listened to in different parts of the world. The most revealing programmes are those which collected material specifically for the overseas networks. For example, 'Calling West Africa' ran a 'What is...' series which included talks on Guy Fawkes Day, the Derby, and the theatre. During 1956 lectures were broadcast about Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson, and the following year Maurice Cranston contributed a series on English Grammar in which he considered such topics as 'Shall and Will', 'Split Infinitives', 'Like and As', and 'Malapropisms'. For those doing research on Caribbean and African authors the creative writing programmes, such as 'Caribbean Voices' and 'West African Voices', are of particular importance. A catalogue listing contributions by Caribbean authors has been prepared and so researchers can find out, at a glance, the titles of work presented and available. The boxes containing the scripts can be provided by the archivists and the texts consulted. The archive thus