Sebastian Cody is to receive the Shiers Trust Award 2022 for a book bringing together the writings of TV producer and historian Jerry Kuehl.
The American-born Kuehl, who died in 2018, founded the production company Open Media with Cody. Along with many documentaries and entertainment shows, Open Media made the late-night, live discussion show After Dark, which aired first on Channel 4 and then on the BBC.
Kuehl had joined the BBC in 1963 as a historical adviser on the documentary series The Great War, later working on ITV’s landmark Second World War documentary, The World at War.
The book will draw from 50 years of Kuehl’s writing on TV history and archives, some of it previously unpublished. “Authoritative and accessible (as well as funny), his writing centres around history on screen,” explained Cody.
“In our current era of unreal ‘reality TV’ and drama-documentaries like The Crown, his thoughtful and witty unpacking of the central issues makes this book of great contemporary relevance to debates around truth, trust and accuracy.
“As well as being a pleasure for the general reader, the book will also be a valuable resource for academics.”
Cody met Kuehl in 1980 at the National Film and Television School, where Kuehl was head of general studies. “We started a conversation then which never really stopped. Joining me later in starting a production company in the heady days of the young Channel 4, we ended up talking for nearly 40 years and it is really hard not to be able to talk to him now,” said Cody.
“Jerry was such a funny and an apparently easy-going man, but also so severe and uncompromising when confronting bogus people or bad ideas. He was our in-house historian, our humourist and our moral force.”
The award – £3,000 now and £2,000 when the book comes out – will assist with the book’s research, editing and publication. It is to be co-edited by cultural and TV historian Mary Irwin, honorary fellow at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. Irwin had interviewed Kuehl for her PhD, BBC Television Documentary 1960-1970: A History.
The Shiers Trust Award, which is funded by a bequest from the US television histo- rian and RTS member George Shiers, offers a grant of £5,000 towards publishing any aspect of TV history.
