Summoned by Bells (BBC TV film)
Encyclopedia
Summoned by Bells is a BBC TV film of John Betjeman's verse autobiography
of the same name - " a unique and touching account of an Edwardian middle-class childhood."
It was first broadcast on Sunday 29 August 1976, the day after the Poet Laureate
s 70th birthday. In the film Betjeman re-visits the places he knew as a child, the houses he grew up in, his schools, his holiday haunts in Cornwall
, and his college in Oxford. The film ends with his being sent down from Oxford and enrolling in desperation as a cricket master at a private prep school
.
In an interview given to Radio Times
Betjeman spoke about his verse autobiography and the making of the film : " I always had filthy reviews for it, and I didn't think it very good." He recalls that Joe Orton
was arrested for defacing books in the public library - among them Summoned by Bells - on which he had stuck a pornographic picture. "I wrote it thinking it the best way to write about being young. I was thinking about Tennyson's (probably Betjeman's 'favourite poet' ) English Idylls and I had been reading Wordsworth
's Prelude
and I thought why not put down being a schoolmaster and this kind of thing in to very plain blank verse
. It's the shorter way of writing prose and I think easier. I think peoples lives are interesting only up until they're 21. It's our first humiliations and struggles that are very interesting, so I thought I'd record them. I remember the sensual thrills one has as a child, the feeling of textures and the smell of things. I tried to put that down."
" Doing this thing has been the most devastating experience, I had no idea the kind of draining effect it has on one. I was an only child, considered very brilliant by my mother, and considered the future heir to the factory by my father. I mustn't let the men (workers) down, and I was thought to have let them down." Betjeman, from childhood, wanted to be a poet. " Namby-Pamby - that's what my father thought I was and I've always been sympathetic to Ambrose Phillips, the 18th century poet, who was the origin of the phrase namby-pamby. My father was always wanting to be a country gentleman, and trying to get me to do manly sports. I can't bear sport."
Summoned by Bells
Summoned by Bells, the blank verse autobiography by John Betjeman, describes his life from his early memories of a middle class home in Edwardian Hampstead, London, to his premature departure from Magdalen College, Oxford....
of the same name - " a unique and touching account of an Edwardian middle-class childhood."
It was first broadcast on Sunday 29 August 1976, the day after the Poet Laureate
Poet Laureate
A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...
s 70th birthday. In the film Betjeman re-visits the places he knew as a child, the houses he grew up in, his schools, his holiday haunts in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
, and his college in Oxford. The film ends with his being sent down from Oxford and enrolling in desperation as a cricket master at a private prep school
Preparatory school (UK)
In English language usage in the former British Empire, the present-day Commonwealth, a preparatory school is an independent school preparing children up to the age of eleven or thirteen for entry into fee-paying, secondary independent schools, some of which are known as public schools...
.
In an interview given to Radio Times
Radio Times
Radio Times is a UK weekly television and radio programme listings magazine, owned by the BBC. It has been published since 1923 by BBC Magazines, which also provides an on-line listings service under the same title...
Betjeman spoke about his verse autobiography and the making of the film : " I always had filthy reviews for it, and I didn't think it very good." He recalls that Joe Orton
Joe Orton
John Kingsley Orton was an English playwright.In a short but prolific career lasting from 1964 until his death, he shocked, outraged and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies...
was arrested for defacing books in the public library - among them Summoned by Bells - on which he had stuck a pornographic picture. "I wrote it thinking it the best way to write about being young. I was thinking about Tennyson's (probably Betjeman's 'favourite poet' ) English Idylls and I had been reading Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
's Prelude
The Prelude
The Prelude; or, Growth of a Poet's Mind is an autobiographical, "philosophical" poem in blank verse by the English poet William Wordsworth. Wordsworth wrote the first version of the poem when he was 28, and worked over the rest of it for his long life without publishing it...
and I thought why not put down being a schoolmaster and this kind of thing in to very plain blank verse
Blank verse
Blank verse is poetry written in unrhymed iambic pentameter. It has been described as "probably the most common and influential form that English poetry has taken since the sixteenth century" and Paul Fussell has claimed that "about three-quarters of all English poetry is in blank verse."The first...
. It's the shorter way of writing prose and I think easier. I think peoples lives are interesting only up until they're 21. It's our first humiliations and struggles that are very interesting, so I thought I'd record them. I remember the sensual thrills one has as a child, the feeling of textures and the smell of things. I tried to put that down."
" Doing this thing has been the most devastating experience, I had no idea the kind of draining effect it has on one. I was an only child, considered very brilliant by my mother, and considered the future heir to the factory by my father. I mustn't let the men (workers) down, and I was thought to have let them down." Betjeman, from childhood, wanted to be a poet. " Namby-Pamby - that's what my father thought I was and I've always been sympathetic to Ambrose Phillips, the 18th century poet, who was the origin of the phrase namby-pamby. My father was always wanting to be a country gentleman, and trying to get me to do manly sports. I can't bear sport."