Phil Wickham
Phil Wickham is curator of The Bill Douglas Centre for the History of Cinema and Popular Culture at the University of Exeter. He considers how to interpret the moving image through research using a variety of sources - from trade statistics to fan scrapbooks, Disney dolls to Marilyn Monroe soapdishes - and the routes through television history taken in researching his recent BFI TV Classic on The Likely Lads:
"In nearly two decades of researching the moving image I have taken a number of different approaches in finding a way to interpret what film and television might mean; as a force within society, as entertainments, and as works of art. I want to consider some of those routes and think about what they can reveal - and the problems that might be encountered. When we conduct research are we finding out the truth by unearthing facts or are we amassing evidence from which arguments can be developed? .
“My 18 years working at the BFI - in both the BFI National Library and the BFI National Archive - raised questions about the nature of secondary and primary sources; their effectiveness as research tools and the ability of research to make us think again about what we thought we knew. In my time at the BFI I was involved in a number of large-scale projects, including research for the Channel 4 TV programmes The Ultimate Film and Britain's Most Watched TV and organising a conference on 25 years of Channel 4.
"In writing my recent books - Understanding Television Texts, a textbook on contemporary television and, especially, a book on the sitcom The Likely Lads - the process of researching has informed my analysis. Utilising a range of sources to create a book can enhance your arguments and of course also challenge your preconceptions about texts. Interviews, trade papers, contemporary discourse and very close textual analysis all play a part alongside the wider issues of television research and its particular pleasures and perils.
"At The Bill Douglas Centre, we are dealing with artefacts and ephemera about the history of the moving image, and the research possibilities and challenges that these raise. What can this material - postcards, toys, posters, and a plethora of branded everyday objects from Mickey Mouse mugs to Marilyn Monroe soapdishes - tells us that other primary secondary and primary sources cannot? I would argue that it builds a picture of the audience’s interaction with the moving image and defines the power of the medium."
Before taking the position of curator of The Bill Douglas Centre, Phil Wickham was a television curator at the BFI National Archive (2005-2007) and for fifteen years prior to that worked in the Information Unit at the BFI National Library.
Phil has written and lectured extensively on film and TV, particularly on British culture and identity, and is a member of the BFI TV Classics series' editorial board. He has an MA in Film and TV Studies from the University of Westminster, has given papers at a number of academic conferences, and has taught Film Studies at the University of Buckingham.
He has contributed to a number of books, periodicals, and websites including The BFI Television Handbook, The Encyclopedia of Television, Critical Studies in Television and screenonline, and is author of the following works:
Understanding Television Text (BFI, 2007)
BFI TV Classics: The Likely Lads (BFI, 2008)
Read Phil Wickham's full Researcher's Tale presentation hosted at the BFI National Library, 8 December 2008.
