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Masterpiece Special – Melvyn Bragg (1996)

Synopsis

Andrea Stretton interviews the British writer and television presenter, Melvyn Bragg. His arts magazine program the South Bank Show (2008) is the longest running arts television show in the English speaking world, and is still going strong after 30 years.

Curator’s notes

by Janet Bell

Melvyn Bragg is the consummate television performer. He is great talent, amusing and witty. He’s in Australia to promote his new book Credo, the latest of about 20 novels that he’s written. His style of fiction is historical, which he describes as 'unfashionable’. This particular novel is set in early medieval times in the north of England during the Dark Ages, between the departure of the Romans and the French conquest of 1066.

Melvyn Bragg was born into a working class family in Cumberland in the north of Britain. He won a scholarship to Oxford and a traineeship at the BBC and yet he’s always remained attached to his northern roots. His schoolmates are still his closest friends.

Andrea Stretton conducts a well researched and wide-ranging interview that is a delight to watch, not least because she’s interviewing a professional interviewer who knows how to relate to his audience. Stretton allows him to feel relaxed and expansive, creating the feeling of a fireside chat between two old friends. The set is two chairs and a simple backdrop, the strength of the program being its content.

Arts journalist and television presenter Andrea Stretton died in 2007. The Masterpiece Specials were an extension of the Masterpiece series she presented for SBS. Andrea Stretton began working for SBS as a journalist and producer in 1986. She co-presented The Book Show with Dinny O’Hearn until his death in 1993 then presented alone for many years. In 1998, she moved to the ABC as the presenter of Sunday Afternoon, staying until 2001. She was the artistic director of the 1998 and 1999 Olympic Arts festivals and was chosen by Prime Minister Keating to work on the Creative Nation cultural policy statement. Audiences loved her natural on-camera presence and interviewing style, at once conversational, knowledgeable and challenging. One of the things she was most proud of was her award from the French Government of the award of Arts and Letters for her contribution to arts and culture and for fostering French-Australian relations.