Andrew Stewart comes across in most histories of the BBC in Northern Ireland as a more liberal and enlightened director (1948-52) in comparison to his predecessor George Marshall (1932 -48). You can read a good analysis of both in Gillian McIntosh's book on unionist identities in Northern Ireland 'The Force of Culture' (Cork University Press, 1999, pp 69-95).
There is no doubt that the BBC tried to move the cultural agenda on in Stewart's years and the employment of writers Sam Hanna Bell and John Hewitt is symptomatic of that. But like his predecessor, Stewart went out of his way to not offend the Unionist establishment and was careful to remove from the airways any criticism of partition. For McIntosh, both men represented the dominant culture of the time and she feels that they have been unfairly treated in Rex Cathcart's book on the BBC in Northern Ireland 'The Most Contrary Region' (1984).
For Cathcart both men were almost the cultural wing of Unionism and the slightly more liberal-seeming Stewart was just a product of slowly changing times (Labour in government, the beginnings of the welfare state). He was, for Cathcart, more a continuation of the Marshall regime than a radical new liberal voice. The station at the time employed no Catholics and any discussion of nationalist politics was strictly forbidden. Bell did, indeed, begin to push against this dominant ethos but how much Stewart had to do with this is debatable. Probably the defining factor was that the setting up of an Advisory Council in 1946 and this had some Catholic representation (3 out of 20 members). However, this was to provide the more liberal ethos that Bell, Hewitt and John Boyd represented and Stewart, by and large, went with the flow.
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Martin McLoone
Professor of Media Studies (Film, Television and Photography)
Director
Centre for Media Research
School of Media, Film and Journalism
University of Ulster
Coleraine
Northern Ireland BT52 1SA
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From: The History of the BBC [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Hugh Chignell [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 13 November 2012 10:55
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [BBC-HISTORY] Andrew Stewart
I wonder if anyone has any views on Andrew Stewart, the BBC lifer who was eventually Controller, Home Service 1953-7.
David Hendy is rather dismissive of him as an old school broadcasting reactionary but in Ieuan Franklin's unpublished PhD I read that he was an innovative Controller, Northern Ireland who encouraged radical producers like Sam Hanna Bell.
Can anyone enlighten me on the man who seems to have had a character change?
Best, Hugh
Hugh Chignell
Associate Professor of Broadcasting History
The Media School
Bournemouth University
BH12 5BB 01202 961393 Mob. 07799643970
Public Issue Radio: Talks, News and Current Affairs in the Twentieth Century, 2011
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