Gouyon, Jean-Baptiste;
(2024)
The Granada TV and Film Unit at the London Zoo “Creating Adequate Opportunity for Observing Patterns for Amateur and Professional Zoologists Alike”.
In: Tabernero, Carlos, (ed.)
Urban Narratives about Nature: Socio-Ecological Imaginaries between Science and Entertainment.
(pp. 219-240).
Lexington Books/Fortress Academic: Danvers, MA, USA.
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Abstract
At the end of September 1955, Solly Zuckerman, then Honorary Secretary of the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), struck a deal with Sidney Bernstein, the owner and director of Granada Television, to install a film and television unit at the London Zoo. This unit was to produce regular live television broadcasts using the zoo’s collections, as well as a corpus of zoological films that could be used for education and research purposes. In return, Granada would control access to the zoo grounds and collections for the purpose of producing television programs. Other broadcasters would only be welcome to film in the ZSL gardens—in Regent’s Park and at Whipsnade—with no prior authorization from Granada, for the purpose of covering news stories. From April 1956 to December 1963, the Granada TV Unit at the Zoo, under the leadership of ethologist Desmond Morris, produced the very successful program Zoo Time, as well as a number of zoological research films. But eventually it got disbanded, and the interval during which the London Zoo got directly involved in TV and film production got closed (Gouyon 2019; Kempton 2023). In this chapter, I look at the creation of the Granada and Zoological Society TV and Film Unit, as it was officially named, and its installation within the zoo premises. My aim is to understand why such a knowledge-based institution as the London Zoo ventured into the production of audiovisual material, when the core of its business is the exhibition of live animals.
| Type: | Book chapter |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Granada TV and Film Unit at the London Zoo “Creating Adequate Opportunity for Observing Patterns for Amateur and Professional Zoologists Alike” |
| ISBN-13: | 978-1666950601 |
| Publisher version: | https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666950601/Urban-Narrat... |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the version of record. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Science and Technology Studies |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10200357 |
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