John Betjeman Bibliography - Sound Recordings and Television Programmes

Sound Recordings and Television Programmes

• Betjeman, John and Parker, Jim. Banana Blush, Varsity Rag, Betjeman's Britain, Late Flowering Love: John Betjeman reads his poems with musical accompaniment provided by Jim Parker (composer) (four LP records)

His television programmes included:

• John Betjeman In The West Country, made for the defunct ITV company TWW between 1962 and 1964. These programmes were long thought lost but were rediscovered in the 1990s and shown on Channel 4 under the titles The Lost Betjemans and Betjeman Revisited
• John Betjeman Goes By Train, a co-production between BBC East Anglia and British Transport Films, made in 1962
• One Man's County, BBC programme from 1964, about Cornwall
• Something About Diss, made for BBC East Anglia in 1964
• Pity About the Abbey, co-authored drama, BBC 1965
• A Poet Goes North, made for BBC North in 1968
• Three episodes in the Bird's Eye View series, An Englishman's Home, Beside The Seaside and A Land for all Seasons, made for the BBC between 1969-71
• Betjeman In Australia, a co-production between the BBC and the Australian Broadcasting Commission, made in 1971
• Thank God It's Sunday, made for the BBC in 1972
• Metro-land, a poetic and humorous journey on the Metropolitan Line from Baker Street to rural Buckinghamshire, made for the BBC in 1973
• A Passion For Churches, made for the BBC in 1974
• Summoned By Bells, a television version of his verse autobiography, made for the BBC in 1976
• Vicar Of This Parish, a documentary about Francis Kilvert and his love of Herefordshire and the Welsh Marches, made for the BBC in 1976
• Queen's Realm, a compilation programme made for the Silver Jubilee in 1977, most of it compiled from 1968/69 Bird's Eye View footage
• Time With Betjeman, his final and retrospective series (1983), which included extracts from much of his television work, conversations with his producer Jonathan Stedall and many friends and colleagues, and included a memorable final interview filmed outside his home in Cornwall
• Betjeman and Me, series aired by BBC Two in August 2006, a retrospective of Betjeman's life, loves and poetry. The series comprised three authored documentaries: TV chef Rick Stein on Betjeman's connections to Cornwall, architectural historian, conservationist and broadcaster Dan Cruickshank on Betjeman's role as a supporter of architectural heritage, and actor Griff Rhys Jones on Betjeman's poetry considered from a literary perspective.

A fuller listing of Betjeman's television programmes can be found in:

• John Betjeman: A Bibliography, by William S. Peterson. Oxford: The Soho Bibliographies, 2006

Scripts of 60 of Betjeman's television programmes can be found in:

• Betjeman's England, edited by Stephen Games. London: John Murray, 2009