Article Title : The Life of Galileo and Brechtian: Television Drama

Author(s) : Billy Smart

Authors Brief Background : Billy Smart is a Postdoctoral Researcher on the AHRCfunded project Spaces of Television: Production, Site and Style at the University of
Reading. His doctoral thesis on BBC adaptations of Galsworthy, Ibsen, Brecht and
Shakespeare is currently being developed as a book project.
Journal name : Journal of British Cinema and Television
Date : 2013
Page : 112 129
Volume : 10.1
Issue : URL (if any) : www.euppublishing.com/jbctv
Keywords : Bertolt Brecht; BBC Television; television studio; Life of Galileo; epic
drama.
Reviewers : Gondo Handianto (121112022)
REVIEW
Introduction: Bertolt Brechts dramaturgy was as influential upon the development of
British drama on television between the 1950s and the 1970s as it was in the theatre. His
influence was made manifest through the work of writers, directors and producers such as
Tony Garnett, Ken Loach, John McGrath and Dennis Potter, whose attempts to create
original Brechtian forms of television drama were reflected in the frequent reference to
Brecht in contemporary debate concerning the political and aesthetic direction and value
of television drama. While this discussion has been framed thus far around how Brechtian
techniques and theory were applied to the newer media of television, this article examines
these arguments from another perspective. Through detailed analysis of a 1964 BBC
production of The Life of Galileo, I assess how the primary, canonical sources of Brechts
stage plays were realised on television during this period, locating Brechts drama in the
wider context of British television drama in general during the 1960s and 1970s. I pay
particular attention to the use of the television studio as a site that could replicate or
reinvent the theatrical space of the stage, and the responsiveness of the television audience
towards Brechtian dramaturgy.
Overview: The Life of Galileo was not yet a familiar, or canonical, play in the British
theatrical repertory of 1964. There had been one professional production in 1960 at the
Mermaid Theatre, to which reaction appears to have been uneven, with Galileo played by

Bernard Miles, an actor most familiar to audiences for his performances in light comedy
(Esslin 1970). The production was marked by a sense of directorial and performative
uncertainty about how to approach such material. As a review in Plays and Players
commented on both the play This reaction to the play, although unfavourable, is telling in
drawing parallels between Brechts dramaturgy and broadcasting. Here the complaint is
not one of obscurity, but of overt obviousness of message and storytelling, suggesting that,
if performed to a higher professional standard, the play might be able to convey clearly its
message when adapted to broadcast.
Analysis: The Life of Galileo works as a fully realised Brechtian production, which not
only used the conventions of studio camera movement and vision mixing to explain and
illustrate the decisions made by characters and their place within a wider social structure,
but also succeeded in placing these characters within a sustained bardic narrative. This
bardic storytelling operated through the use of the guiding figure of the narrator, as well as
through the integrated use of captions, monitors, sets that were clearly artificial and, in the
sequence of nuclear missiles, the use of interpolated non diegetic footage. The production
achieved an original Brechtian form that was unique to television, through not disguising
the programmes means of production: a television studio, with microphones and cameras.
Conclusion: this television drama has similarities with the play previously. But there is an
emphasis that this television drama becomes more epic. The film director was make this
drama more dramatic with the realist model that as live drama generally used.
Citation:
Smart, Billy. "The Life of Galileo and Brechtian." Journal of British Cinema and
Television (2013): 112-129.