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Helen Wheatley (she/her)

@helenwheatley.bsky.social
810 followers 734 following 86 posts

Academic Director of Warwick Institute of Engagement, Professor of Film and Television, Co-Founder of the Centre for Television Histories and mum of three teenagers and three cats

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Reposted by Helen Wheatley (she/her)
Dr Diane A Rodgers @dianearodgers.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Introducing the wonderful host for my book launch: Prof @helenwheatley.bsky.social, gothic television scholar and one of my role models, check out some of Helen's brilliant work if you haven't already! There are hardly any tickets left for this event - last couple at tinyurl.com/wyrdTVlaunch
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
A wonderful blog post by my friend @illuminations.bsky.social (John Wyver) about our trip to Coventry Cathedral to visit the ‘75: Towards a New Cathedral’ exhibition www.illuminationsmedia.co.uk/75-towards-a...
illuminationsmedia.co.uk
75: Towards a New (Coventry) Cathedral - Illuminations
John Wyver writes: To Coventry, to the city’s great and glorious cathedral, and most particularly to the exhibition 75: Towards a New Cathedral (until 21 September), mounted there in the Chapel of Chr...
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Reposted by Helen Wheatley (she/her)
Dr Diane A Rodgers @dianearodgers.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
WYRD TV book launch - get your tickets sooner rather than later - limited seats! Sun 6th Dec 2-5pm, Sidney & Matilda, Sheffield @sensoriafestival.bsky.social #sidney&Matilda @helenwheatley.bsky.social tickts.co.uk/events/book-...
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Very much looking forward to this!
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 08/05/2026
Excited to see @dianearodgers.bsky.social book nearly out in the wild!
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
It was such an honour to record this conversation with one of my favourite scholars, and to be part of this brilliant podcast series. Looking forward to Season Two already
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Reposted by Helen Wheatley (she/her)
Dr Diane A Rodgers @dianearodgers.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
Recorded a podcast episode with the marvellous @helenwheatley.bsky.social today for @nfsengland.bsky.social - watch the FOLKLORE MATTERS feed wherever you get your podcasts every Thursday! #folklorematters
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 17/10/2025
Thanks for sharing, @illuminations.bsky.social 😊
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Beautiful
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Friends in/near London. I've been invited to talk about my latest book at Goldsmiths in a couple of weeks time. It would be lovely to see some friendly faces if you're around. All welcome. www.gold.ac.uk/calendar/?id...
gold.ac.uk
Professor Helen Wheatley talk on 'Posthumous Television'
Professor Helen Wheatley will give a talk on 'Posthumous Television' based on her forthcoming monograph Television/Death that explores the intersections between these terms
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
@illuminations.bsky.social revealing the identity of The Scanner (at last!) As ever, impeccable historical research from my friend and colleague John Wyver
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 14/01/2025
Time to get your Screen proposals submitted. Hope to see you there!
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 08/01/2025
The fascinating story of Britain’s first all Black cabaret programme for TV
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Has anyone seen any of Michael Ingrams’ documentary series ‘Look in on London’ (A-R, 1956). The two opening episodes (on street cleaners and London’s homeless population’) were shown as part of a fascinating sounding season called ‘Captive Cinema’ at the NFT
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Truly an ambitious early tv ballet performance including cutaways to real swans on the Alexandra Palace lake! @illuminations.bsky.social - surprised they didn’t bring them into the studio (I love the story of the parrot who travelled by taxi from London Zoo to Ally Pally around the same time 😂)
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 10/12/2024
Thank you so much John - this is exactly the thing I was after.
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 09/12/2024
Can anyone recommend any really good writing on the aesthetics/appreciation of the post-industrial landscape, particularly (though not necessarily confined to) the UK? @illuminations.bsky.social - I feel like this might be something you could help with? New field for me - would like some guidance!
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 07/12/2024
What a wonderful OTD today - this gives a little glimpse into the richness of @illuminations.bsky.social new work on the early history of British television
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 06/12/2024
Today’s OTD is the story of a popular and critical success in early British television history from @illuminations.bsky.social
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 05/12/2024
Hollywood royalty in today’s OTD in early British television history by @illuminations.bsky.social
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
Many thanks for resharing this @deathstudiespod.bsky.social - it was such an honour to talk to you!
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 03/12/2024
I missed this yesterday. John Wyver ( @illuminations.bsky.social) making the critical jump from Alison Light’s between the wars “literature of convalescence” and the adaptation of an Agatha Christie story by the BBC in 1938
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 30/11/2024
Today’s OTD in early British TV history post from @illuminations.bsky.social is a St Andrew’s Day extravaganza from 1932!
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 29/11/2024
Fast dialogue, slow shot assemblage: fascinating critical reconstruction of a 1937 broadcast of Cymbeline by @illuminations.bsky.social this morning
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Today’s OTD in early British television is a fascinating tale of a Birmingham based precursor to the RSC and the broadcast of Shakespeare plays and plays about Shakespeare. John Wyver shows us what we can learn about early tv drama without extant recordings
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 26/11/2024
No SCMS for me this year - a first time rejectee though it seems I am in esteemed company. On the other hand, very much looking forward to Screen where I’m delivering the keynote this year - hope to see folks in Glasgow though a shame it’s not Chicago too!
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
These posts from @auschwitzmemorial.bsky.social are more than heartbreaking. 19 years old. Shot after spending over a year in that hellhole. Other posts document the lives of children murdered on arrival at the camp. We really must never forget.
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 25/11/2024
This makes me excited for John Wyver’s new book - his detailed history of early television is going to challenge so many of our critical assumptions about that history. Also, can we please go back to calling TV viewers ‘lookers in’?
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
An unusually empty weekend due to a nasty lurgy has meant y’day I watched (& loved) all of Bad Sisters & today I have been pottering around the kitchen (my teenage nursemaids have not manage to tidy as they go 🙄), making soup, & listening to this brilliant podcast podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/w...
podcasts.apple.com
Weekend
News Podcast · 159 Episodes · Updated weekly
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 24/11/2024
Absolutely fascinating thread about the BBC’s Picture Page. The variety of the guests - from the last quill pen maker in England to Una Marson, a Black feminist, activist and journalist from Jamaica living and working in the UK - tells us a great deal about prewar television in the UK
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
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Reposted by Helen Wheatley (she/her)
Illuminations @illuminations.bsky.social · 23/11/2024
OTD in early television stays with November 1937; Tuesday 23 saw the outside broadcast van at Elstree for a third group of ‘Round the Film Studios’ broadcasts; Elstree (photo, from Radio Times) was the base of Associated British Picture Corporation, and this followed visits to Pinewood and Denham…
Photograph from Radio Times of a working sound stage at Elstree film studios, with this caption: 'A typical "set" at Elstree film studios, which the television cameras are visiting this week. A comprehensive tour will be made behind the scenes, and it is hoped that viewers will see past and present film celebrities such as Charles Laughton, Elsa Lanchester, Otto Kruger, Gertrude Michael, Barry Mackay, Alma Taylor, Betty Balfour, John Lodge, Diana Churchill, Erich Pommer, Paul Stein, and Herbert Brenon.'
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
A long interview with Beth and Renske about my recent book - thanks to @deathstudiespod.bsky.social for sharing again over here 😊
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Reposted by Helen Wheatley (she/her)
Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick @mrcwarwick.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Colliery communities and pithead heroes In 1984 the #Heroes concert at Consett, County Durham, raised funds for striking mineworkers This poster is part of the huge archives of the National Union of Mineworkers #ExploreYourArchives
Poster including captions ‘Heroes [The Album]’ and ‘The Consett Concert’. It features a photograph of a man, woman, boy and girl standing with colliery buildings behind them.
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
John Wyver once again posting a fascinating thread on early British television history - emigre performers, well paid magicians and a meeting of the ‘high’ and ‘low’ arts
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 22/11/2024
Thanks to @saulhewish.bsky.social for sharing this. While says this is true of prisons, I think a lot of this also applies to universities and their engagement departments
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Reposted by Helen Wheatley (she/her)
Kate Egan @kte75.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
@cinefeline and I would like to share the CFP for our upcoming conference on Youth & Horror. Hope it’s of interest! www.birmingham.ac.uk/schools/edac... Youth and Horror: An International Conference, 1-2 July, 2025, University of Birmingham, UK
birmingham.ac.uk
Youth and Horror: An International Conference
The Youth and Horror Research Network is delighted to invite submissions for its international conference.
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
Delighted to share Warwick Institute of Engagement’s Annual Report for 2023-24. This report represents a lot of hard work from staff, students and their collaborators across the board at the University of Warwick and shows why we do what we do. warwick.ac.uk/wie/aboutwie...
warwick.ac.uk
Annual Reports
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Reposted by Helen Wheatley (she/her)
Julia Serano @juliaserano.bsky.social · 18/11/2024
since all the "gender critical"/TERFs are migrating here, thought I'd share this primer explaining their history, dissecting their beliefs, & debunking their talking points. no-paywall links, pls share! Substack: juliaserano.substack.com/p/a-gender-c... Medium: juliaserano.medium.com/a-gender-cri...
juliaserano.substack.com
A “Gender Critical” and “TERF” Primer
for readers trying to make sense of “feminists versus transgender activists” debates
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 19/11/2024
John Wyver (@illuminations.bsky.social) is posting OTD posts from the early history of British television and they are FASCINATING. Such rich threads. Well worth a follow if you don’t already
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Second time around for this - for those new in town 😊
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 17/11/2024
Scary. Depressing. Full of practical advice
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Nine years ago we rocked up in a v special place, the hotel of dreams, where we made some friends for life. Tonight we’re back to celebrate an our friend Helen’s birthday and her tenth anniversary as a hotelier. Victorian Whitby was JUMPING - love @larosa.bsky.social - everyone get booked for 2025!
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
Oh, Philippa 😔 I’m so sad to read this. Philippa commissioned my second book, Spectacular Television and my first edited collection, Re-Viewing Television History. She was exceptionally kind and always encouraging - a real joy to work with. amp.theguardian.com/books/2024/n...
amp.theguardian.com
‘She gave me the chance that became my life’: Jeanette Winterson on her first editor, Philippa Brewster | Jeanette Winterson | The Guardian
The pioneering feminist editor and publisher died in October. The Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit author looks back on the close friendship they shared
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 16/11/2024
This morning I am very busy with my snerdling…
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Reposted by Helen Wheatley (she/her)
michael veale @michae.lv · 15/11/2024
In response to OpenAI’s recent ‘A Student’s Guide to Writing with ChatGPT’, Arthur Perret (maître de conferénces, Jean Moulin Lyon 3) writes a line-by-line rebuttal — A Student’s Guide to Not Writing with ChatGPT www.arthurperret.fr/blog/2024-11...
arthurperret.fr
A Student’s Guide to Not Writing with ChatGPT
Site web d’Arthur Perret, enseignant-chercheur en SIC.
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Reposted by Helen Wheatley (she/her)
Prof Dave O'Brien @drdaveobrien.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
“Passions and dreams are not exclusive to those from middle class backgrounds. Talent is everywhere, with over 150,000 students on creative courses every year. Opportunity, particularly at the most prestigious institutions, is not.” www.suttontrust.com/news-opinion...
suttontrust.com
The class crisis in creative HE - The Sutton Trust
An author of our work on access to creative professions explores the research in detail.
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Reposted by Helen Wheatley (she/her)
Illuminations @illuminations.bsky.social · 15/11/2024
OTD in early BBC television: 15 November 1937 offered a drama-heavy schedule - in the afternoon, 40 mins of Marie Ney in scenes from the Old Vic production of Ibsen’s Ghosts, staged by the British actress and director Esmé Church at the Vaudeville Theatre, the only Ibsen on television pre-war…
Theatre programme cover for the Vaudeville Theatre, costing 4D, with a geometric design and text reading 'Marie Ney "Ghosts" by Henrik Ibsen'
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Helen Wheatley (she/her) @helenwheatley.bsky.social · 14/11/2024
So powerful
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