Art / lecture series
University of Bristol’s free Autumn Art Lecture series celebrates 120 years with a focus on TV
The University of Bristol’s annual Autumn Art Lectures are celebrating 120 years in 2025 – making them four years older than the institution itself (founded in 1909).
This year’s theme for these popular and free public events is TV, chosen to coincide with the centenary of John Logie Baird’s world-first public demonstration of a working television.
“As we approach the centenary of television’s invention, the Autumn Art Lecture series will reflect on its distinctive possibility as a very public art”, organisers say.
“This term was coined in the last century on the premise that such arts rightfully ‘belong’ to the people and has tended to underpin judgements about television’s failures as well as its achievements.”
Gwyneth Hughes, screenwriter and creator of the BAFTA-winning Mr Bates vs The Post Office, starring Toby Jones (ITV)
On October 23, screenwriter of the BAFTA-winning drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office (ITV) – which went on to become the UK’s third most-watched TV programme in 2024 – Gwyneth Hughes will be in conversation with Dr Helen Piper, lecturer in Film & TV at the University of Bristol.
A discussion between three award-winning TV producers will be front and centre on November 6, with experienced international TV producer and University lecturer Sara Gibbings in the chair, whose credits include the Emmy Award-winning Welcome to Wrexham (Disney+).
L to R: Sara Gibbings, Tim Harcourt and Michael Jenkins
Completing the panel will be Tim Lambert, who devised hit shows including Gogglebox (Channel 4), The Circle (Netflix) and Race Across The World (BBC), and award-winning Bristol writer/director and producer Michael Jenkins, who is also co-artistic director of the Bristol School of Acting.
In the final week of the series, Professor Beth Johnson will give a lecture entitled What’s On? Class and the Future of Television as a Public Art, which will explore the inequalities within the TV industry, and ask “what would it would take to reimagine television as a truly public and inclusive medium”.
Professor Beth Johnson and a TV wall
The Faculty of Arts, Law & Social Sciences will be hosting the series. “Today,” they contend, “the loss of a shared, national audience and the transformation of the TV industry into a crowded, global marketplace seems to have left little space for debate about what television could or should be, but these are precisely the questions to which this year’s lecture series will give room.”
Gwyneth Hughes: In Conversation is on October 23 at the Wills Memorial Building, Reception Room.
The Art of Factual Television is on November 6 at the Wills Memorial Building, Old Council Chamber.
What’s On? Class and the Future of Television as a Public Art is on November 16 at the Wills Memorial Building, Reception Room.
All lectures in the series are at 6.30-8pm, and are free to attend, but tickets can be reserved at www.eventbrite.co.uk.
All photos: University of Bristol Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences
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