Commonwealth Teleview

Dates

1957 - 1958

Category

Cinemagazine - Government

History

Commonwealth Teleview was a black and white 15-minute series made by the Central Office of Information and sponsored by the Commonwealth Relations Office for broadcast in Canada and later Australia. It was designed, as its opening titles state, to present The Commonwealth to The Commonwealth. Within Canada it was ‘Presented by arrangement between the United Kingdom Information Service and The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.' The first issue was released in January 1957 and a further fourteen issues were produced over the next two years. Each issue concentrated on a single story, such as the future of the Commonwealth, the radio telescope or the role of art in the community. Commonwealth Teleview was usually presented by Robert McKenzie, who would explore the topic through an interview with a single prominent personality such as the Earl of Home, issue no. 1, while other presenters, such as Ted Morrisby, would conduct a series of interviews to give an idea of industrial relations within a British factory, issue no. 14.

This format drew heavily on the one already established by Transatlantic Teleview and indeed many issues shared the same material. For example NEW TOWNS is the subject of Transatlantic Teleview issue no. 21 and Commonwealth Teleview issue no. 2. However, the approach for each was slightly different, slanted to their specific audiences.

Provenance

The data for this series has been compiled from the following sources: The production documents at The National Archives (INF 6), the monthly divisional reports of the COI for 1957 (INF 8/34), the Overseas Film Library Catalogues produced by the COI, the COI index cards and film copies held at the BFI National Archive

Films in this series can be obtained from:

Film Archive

Name

British Film Institute (BFI)

Email

For BFI National Archive enquiries: nonfictioncurators@bfi.org.uk For commercial/footage reuse enquiries: footage.films@bfi.org.uk

Web

http://collections-search.bfi.org.uk/web

Phone

020 7255 1444

Fax

020 7580 7503

Address

21 Stephen Street
London W1T 1LN

Notes

The BFI National Archive also preserves the original nitrate film copies of British Movietone News, British Paramount News, Empire News Bulletin, Gaumont British News, Gaumont Graphic, Gaumont Sound News and Universal News (the World War II years are covered by the Imperial War Museum).

Series held

View all series held by British Film Institute (BFI)