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Desert Island Discs and British emotional life
chapter
posted on 2023-06-09, 11:34 authored by David HendyThis chapter explores how the long-running BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs has responded over time to an increasing public appetite for openness and honesty. One of the programme’s presenters once said it was ‘properly impressed by power, wealth and ambition, but… knows that the world is made up of more than that’. This spoke to a longer-term revolution in modern life, as outlined by historians of the emotions: an increasing informality of manners, especially in broadcast talk. How did the BBC navigate these trends in a series that had long been a by-word for decorum? And what did Radio 4 listeners think of its new willingness in the 1980s and 1990s to probe guests more deeply? Drawing on unpublished BBC records and Mass Observation archives, this chapter focuses on how various desires for openness over private lives and feelings - and the anxieties this prompted - were negotiated behind-the-scenes at crucial moments in its history.
History
Publication status
- Published
File Version
- Accepted version
Publisher
Oxford University PressPublisher URL
Issue
211Page range
155-172Pages
328.0Book title
Defining the discographic self : "Desert Island Discs" in contextPlace of publication
OxfordISBN
9780197266175Series
Proceedings of the British AcademyDepartment affiliated with
- Media and Film Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Editors
Stephen Cottrell, Nicholas Cook, Julie BrownLegacy Posted Date
2018-01-15First Open Access (FOA) Date
2019-11-30First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2018-01-12Usage metrics
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