‘Oh, the planners did their best’: the planning films of John Betjeman

Abstract

The development of British town planning in much of the twentieth century was situated within the modern movement and characterized by the ascendancy of a professional élite who possessed vision, rationality and the desire to bring about change for the good of society. These ‘planning wizards’ championed planning’s cause, promoted the professional basis of the discipline and were central to debates and projects about the physical restructuring of British cities. At the same time, the introduction of early television in Britain enabled the arts and factual programmes to be communicated to a wider audience. Broadcasters found such subjects as planning difficult to convey to a mass audience and various approaches and innovative programming were attempted. One artist who played a pivotal role in developing broadcasts on planning and development was the poet John Betjeman (1906–1984). Betjeman possessed a background in architecture, had been a regular performer on broadcasts on the radio and utilized the new medium of television to campaign for subjects that interested him personally: Georgian and Victorian architecture, old railway stations and the last vestiges of Edwardian Britain. As a skilful player of television and someone who was totally at ease in front of the camera, Betjeman turned many of his television broadcasts into personal statements containing passion and intense irony on those issues he perceived as threatening Britain, and against those in charge of restructuring the state. He may, therefore, be viewed as some sort of alternative planning expert. Attention is paid to two of his television series from the 1960s as brief case studies and the debate is broadened to assess implications for planning and the use of film to convey emotions about planning and places.