The Camera That Changed the World 

4 August 2011 tbs.pm/1273

We don’t normally bother with such trivialities as television programmes on Transdiffusion. I mean, they’re not the most important thing on the goggle box now are they?! However every now and then we spot an excellent programme that’s well worth mentioning.

And one such programme is BBC Four’s The Camera That Changed the World.

These days if you think of handheld cameras you might think of video footage so jerky that it makes you ill, but in the 1960s television cameras were large and cumbersome; forced to sit atop of tripods, barely able to move around. The Camera that Changed the World tells the story of documentary making pioneers who longed to move with their subjects, and how they used (and in one case, created) the first lightweight, shoulder topped TV cameras that are now used extensively across television.

As you’d expect from BBC Four, it’s a fascinating documentary and as I type, you’ve got four days left to watch it on BBC iPlayer. No doubt it will re-appear on television at some point soon, but why take the risk. Watch now. You won’t regret it!

(Well you might. And if you do, don’t forget to berate us in the comments box below!)