National Museums Liverpool Blog - TV and radio

Hurrah for half term! Aside from all the great half term events that are taking place at our venues next week, we are also set for some radio interference across the city from 18 – 22 February.

Waves on the Mersey is a project that has been created by Open the Door Theatre in Education, who are bringing five giant radios into the city to broadcast documentaries about major historical events that have shaped Liverpool’s history.

The documentaries have been created by young people between the ages of 14 and 21, who have researched, interviewed and devised radio shows and plays on each topic. They have also decorated the radios, which will be located at five locations around the city, broadcasting a different documentary every day.

The radios can be found at the Museum of Liverpool, FACT, Albert Dock Liverpool (outside Merseyside Maritime Museum), the Metquarter and Liverpool Cathedral. They will each broadcast the following documentaries between 1 – 3pm every day:

Monday 18 February – The Beatles, 1964
Tuesday 19 February – The Toxteth Riots, 1981
Wednesday 20 February – Hillsborough, 1989
Thursday 21 February – The May Blitz, 1941
Friday 22 February – Pope John Paul II’s visit, 1982

You can also tune into 87.7FM to listen to the documentaries, but if you’re able to visit the giant radios, how about doing a trail of them all and getting a picture with each one?

The Waves on the Mersey team with the giant radio located at the Museum of Liverpool

Sudley House in Mossley Hill, Liverpool, was the home of Victorian shipowner George Holt who amassed a huge fortune as one of the proprietors of Lamport & Holt.

Despite his wealth, he was a modest man who did not go in for lavish entertainment. He was married with one daughter and the family were not ones to splash the cash on themselves.

In fact, they were among Liverpool’s greatest philanthropists and gave away most of what they acquired – including Sudley House.

George’s daughter Emma handed it over with its amazing art collection including paintings by Gainsborough, Millais, Holman Hunt and Turner.

Her stunningly generous gift ensured that the only art collection by a British Victorian merchant in its original domestic setting survives.

The atmosphere of historic homes is best captured when people dress in clothes reminiscent of the period.

This happened on 14 November 2011 when this crinoline dress (see my picture above) was unveiled in Sudley’s drawing room.

The Liverpool-made garment is seen in tonight’s episode of Desperate Scousewives on the E4 TV channel.

Made from synthetic human hair, it weighed 15 stone and took its toll on the model during the two hours of filming.

I am only really interested in women's clothing when a woman is wearing it, so this was a bit of a treat for me.

As my grandma May Kendrick (1868 - 1954) used to tell her friends: "Loosen your stays or you'll get the vapours."

The Museum of Liverpool is due to open next summer, 2011, and curators need your help!

One of the star features of the new museum will be an immersive film, taking visitors right into the heart of the city's passion for football, exploring our unique connections to the game.

We are currently in the process of filming sequences for the film, and in order for it to be as authentic as possible, we need to borrow certain things.

If you have any of the following articles, please get in touch with Katie Brown on 0151 478 4069 or katielouise.brown@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk before Thursday 7 October, who will make arrangements to collect your item.

Your object will be worn by a young Everton and Liverpool fan in a part of the film that looks at the incredible success of our teams in the 1980s. It will be returned to you safely by the end of the week.  The film will be shown in a gallery dedicated to Liverpool's creativity and sporting culture when the Museum of Liverpool opens next summer.

We are looking for the following pieces:

1984 Everton 'Hafnia' Everton kit (in kids’ size)
1984 Liverpool 'Crown Paints' Kit (in kids’ size)
1984 Milk Cup Final Hat for Liverpool & Everton
1984 Milk Cup Final rosette / memorabilia Wembley Trophy football

You can listen to curator Paul Gallagher talking about the appeal on Tony Snell in the Morning on BBC Radio Merseyside, at 2.22.36 hours in.

Ian kept an eye out for Daleks during his interview

"I interviewed in Birmingham on the subject of 'maritime mysteries' for a short feature that will be used as a DVD extra for Doctor Who. It's for a re-release of an old John Pertwee episode from the 1970s, but I'm under orders not to reveal the episode title. The interview was based around disappearing ships and the DVD should appear sometime next year."

Accordionist Helen Maher brought some distinctive French style to the Walker Art Gallery today as filming took place for an item on tonight's edition of BBC North-West Tonight (or 'Nord-ouest ce soir' if you like) for the upcoming exhibition High Kicks and Low Life: Toulouse-Lautrec prints, which opens this Friday.

Accordionist Helen Maher in the Sculpture Gallery of the Walker Art Gallery © National Museums Liverpool

Helen will be just one of the many musicians taking part in a special Musicians' Gallery as part of Art à la Carte, the Walker Art Gallery's event as part of Liverpool Light Night 2010.

The French-themed event will also include the band Deadbelgian with tributes to Jacques Brel, jazz from Snake Oil Jass, and the Liverpool Guitar Society with music by the quintessential French composers Debussy, Satie and Ravel.

Visitors to Light Night at the Walker will be amongst the first to see the new Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition, along with being able to browse all of the Walker's galleries, go on gallery tours, listen to French and English poetry readings and have French food in the Walker café. Download the full programme (pdf).

The gallery will be open until 10.30pm and admission is free. Vous y voir!

Today's object featured on Radio Merseyside for the BBC's 'A History of the World' project, is the Ince Athena statue from our Classical collections. You will be able to hear Gina Muskett, curator of classical antiquities, talking about the statue on 'listen again' here. Here is Gina to tell us more about this beautiful and statuesque sculpture!

The Ince Athena statue

The statue has brilliant links with the local area, as it used to belong to Henry Blundell, who lived at Ince Blundell Hall. Many of you will have seen the entrance to the hall when travelling by road from Liverpool to Southport. We’ve just had an anniversary too – in 2009 it was 50 years since the statues came to the then Liverpool Museum, as a gift.

I’m so lucky to be the curator of the ‘Ince Athena’ statue. I knew about her (yes, I know the statue’s not a real human!) even before I worked at World Museum. I visited the museum a lot when I was a student, and can remember seeing Athena in the old Ancient World gallery, and am really pleased that she’s going back on display again.

As you can imagine, statues get quite grubby when they’re on display without cases, and Athena has spent quite a bit of time in the National Conservation Centre, being cleaned up. She looks wonderful again now, as I’m sure you’ll agree when you see her again – she’ll be on display from the middle of February, greeting visitors at the main entrance to World Museum.

Dr Clem Fisher and the Dodo skeleton

I’m not a great pigeon fancier but I do have a soft spot for the biggest of this breed – the long-dead Dodo. Depending on what you believe, the flightless bird waddled or strutted into history around 1693 when it was wiped off the face of the earth.

There is a very rare skeleton of a Dodo temporarily on display at World Museum. It is going to be featured on Radio Merseyside at 8.20 am on Monday 25 January 2010 as part of the BBC’s exciting series, A History of the World. Our picture shows curator of vertebrate zoology Dr Clem Fisher, who was recently interviewed for the show, with the incomplete composite skeleton. It has been in our collection since 1866 and has not been on display for at least 40 years.

Clem will tell listeners how specimens continue to reveal secrets: “The skeleton was made up from various Dodo bones found in a bog and is quite complete. However, we recently discovered that the foot bones had been skilfully carved from wood – probably in Victorian times.”

I have discovered that there is quite a controversy over what the Dodo actually looked like when alive. Live ones were brought to Europe from its only home, the island of Mauritius in the Indian Ocean. These captive specimens grew fat and waddled about their cages. One was painted by Jan Savery and his depiction led to the popular perception of the creature as a bird buffoon.

We now know the reality was rather different and that Dodos were more likely lithe birds that strutted around. Being flightless, they must have been pretty agile to find food in competition with other species. This interpretation is backed up by the 1991 rediscovery of long-lost drawings showing a slightly plump but alert bird. 

Then there is the theory about how Dodos became extinct. The popular story is that they were killed by the crews of passing ships. The Dutch, however, thought the Dodo tasted loathsome. I suppose it would depend how hungry you were. Some people said Dodo meat was tough but good to eat. There were other birds and animals on Mauritius to tempt the palate. Looking at the World Museum skeleton, I am reminded of the turkey after Christmas dinner so perhaps seafarers had the same idea. Turkeys were discovered in North America by the Spanish more than 400 years ago during the time Dodos were being hunted.

The name is probably of Dutch origin, shortened from dodaars meaning knot-arse, referring to the knot or tuft of feathers making up its tail. The Dodo had a relation on the neighbouring island of Réunion called the Solitaire. Sometimes known as the White Dodo, it became extinct some time after 1705.

Yesterday's edition of Flog It! came from Liverpool and included some behind the scenes peeks at the Museum of Liverpool.  Host, Paul Martin, took a tour of the building with building operations manager, Martin Hemmings (who took most of the shots on the museum's Flickr set), and chatted with transport curator, Sharon Brown, in the Liverpool Overhead Railway carriage.

The episode is available on the BBC iplayer until the evening of Monday 7 December.

Presenter, Paul Martin, and I at the Albert Dock

My appearance on the popular BBC 2 afternoon auction show Flog It! was broadcast on Wednesday – recorded on the Albert Dock with presenter Paul Martin.

It was shot back in April when the crew spent the day at three separate locations. My main role was setting up and supervising the BBC’s visit. The six minutes of screen time took almost three hours, including setting up the camera and getting the angles right.

Our picture shows Paul and I with the Merseyside Maritime Museum in the background - the chap in the front holds an enormous collapsible reflector which aims to literally put us in the best possible light.

You can watch the full show on the BBC iplayer. It's available until 4.29pm this Wednesday (18 November).

There was a script of sorts but the director stressed this was only meant as a guide – obviously with takes from different angles there had to be continuity. Some wasn’t used, including a close-up of my hand affectionately patting one of the huge cast iron columns.

In between takes, Paul told me that he started out as a professional musician and became involved in Flog It! through his interest in antiques. I shared some memories of the TV shows I watched as a child. They were always live and anything could – and did – go wrong.

I vividly remember two major stars on separate occasions suffering the indignity of their false teeth slipping,  watched by millions of viewers.

I’m a big fan of the Flog It!, when I can see it, and also The Antiques Roadshow on which I appeared recently talking about some 1960s films discovered at Lowlands community centre, West Derby, Liverpool.

I last appeared on Flog It! about five years ago doing a three-minute tour of the Lady Lever Art Gallery with one of the programme’ specialists, Kate Bliss. We did it in our stocking feet because of the echoes from the polished floors.

Flog It! is an in-house BBC production and takes a lot of careful preparation to bring to the screen.

The rest of the National Museums Liverpool footage is scheduled to be screened at 3.45 pm on Monday 30 November, focusing on the stunning new Museum of Liverpool on the city’s waterfront.

The show visits our workshops where some of the museum’s fabulous exhibits are being conserved. Paul interviews land transport curator Sharon Brown in a carriage from the legendary Overhead Railway.

Also featured are the Lion steam locomotive, star of the Ealing comedy classic The Titfield Thunderbolt, and the first Ford Anglia off the assembly line at Ford’s new Halewood factory in 1963.

The feature ends at the Museum of Liverpool where operations manager Martin Hemmings takes Paul on a hard-hat tour of the magnificent building.

If you like a peek behind the scenes - and who doesn't - tune in to BBC2 tomorrow (Thurs 3 September) at 3.45pm for Flog It! There's a visit to the new Museum of Liverpool with a preview of some of the objects that will be featuring on the galleries. It's also available on BBC HD at 6.30pm later that day. And if you miss it you can always catch it on BBC iplayer.