BBC Four tv Wed 18 Sep 2013 - Handmade in Britain: Fabric

[ra5storey]

Anybody caught any of the trailers just recently about a programme to be shown on BBC Four television on Wednesday 18 September 2013?

 

I just heard Paul's voice and have had to search for information on it, because by the time I twigged they had already said the programme's name and I'd missed it.

 

The BBC are doing this new series of Handmade in Britain in partnership with the V&A, and it seems to be a three-parter, but Paul is only mentioned in the first programme.   The three parts are on fabrics, wallpaper and embroidery.  Have a look at the V&A website:

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/h/handmade-in-britain-a-bbc-and-v-and-a-partnership/

 

So anyway, from the blurb below (From BBC Four)...at first I though it might just be an old clip of Paul making flock wallpaper.  I remember Paul doing this in one of those programmes last summer... but there seems to be quite a bit more...  Was this the title of those craft programmes he did last year???

 

Wed 18 Sep 2013, BBC Four tv

 

Handmade In Britain: Fabric

In the fourth and final installment [that's a bit odd because it's the first of three] of the critically acclaimed partnership with the V&A, Handmade In Britain explores fabric with three vibrant films.

Really Ripping Yarn looks back at the golden age of British knitting, and the way knitting - a craft that has captured our national spirit - came to define Britain in days of leisure and hardship. In The Lost Art Of Medieval Embroidery, Dan Jones celebrates 'opus anglicanum' - English needlework from the Middle Age. And in a special film on wallpaper, Paul Martin learns how to make flock wallpaper, the height of luxury in the 18th century; helps to uncover a rare antique paper from a building site; and prints the designs of Marthe Armitage. Along the way, he meets contemporary designers and makers, and tells the stories of such historical wallpaper luminaries as Pugin and William Morris.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/bbc-four-topical-arts-prime-time.html

 

[leolady]

Yes I saw this trailer and thought it looked really interesting.Will certainly be watching it next week.

[ra5storey]

Anybody watched it yet?   I have it recorded but just recently I fall asleep within a few minutes of putting the tv on...

[leolady]

I've watched both of them.The first one about knitting I found a bit boring and felt that half hour would have been enough but the second one with Paul as presenter was superb.All about the history of wallpaper and it was very interesting.Looking forward to the third one this week but dont know if Paul will be involved.

[ra5storey]

Indeed it was an interesting one on wallpaper.   Fancy it all starting off from some paper liners for boxes.  I liked those old pattern books that were found in an old house.   Seeing all the work that goes into the handmade wallpaper really makes you understand why some wallpapers are so expensive.

 

Meanwhile, Paul is now really famous - he's an answer in the Radio Times crossword (next week's Radio Times has come through the letterbox today.  I reckon that counts as being properly famous now.   :-)

[ra5storey]

Forgot to say, the next show is on Embroidery.  That might be interesting.  I used to do embroidery when I was at school, never since.  Knitting I did for plenty of years after school, also crochet (I don't think they touched on crochet at all, did they?)

 

Anyway, back to the embroidery one.  Paul isn't involved in this, somebody else is mentioned in the Radio Times.  Not somebody whose name I recognise (can you tell I've forgotten his name already?).

[ra5storey]

I watched the embroidery show this morning.   I was most disappointed, it spent most of the time rambling on about religious "copes" and we didn't get to see much in the way of actual embroidery stitches (I think we saw two different stitches being made).  There were a lot of sweeping views of very faded and washed-out old embroidered things with religious images on, but we don't want to see a whole programme where you can't focus on very much because it's all being swept past so fast.   All these damned programmes have a presenter telling you about something but you don't get to see the actual item, the camera is focused on the presenter.

 

After the lovely knitting programme I wanted something similar with embroidery, showing people making things now.  Instead it was a programme on religious apparel from 1300 and thereafter, mostly now kept behind glass in various lovely sunny countries around the world - which means the presenter HAD to go there to see them. Jobs for the boys, eh!

 

And I also didn't want to hear about nuns rolling these things up and running away with them when Henry VIII started destroying things.  That had nothing to do with embroidery, that was religious history.

 

Grumble.   So how can we get to see something on how to actually DO embroidery?