The writer of ITV’s powerful drama Mr Bates Vs. The Post Office, and the producer behind TV hits such as Race Across The World and Gogglebox, will be among the speakers at this year’s Autumn Art Lectures at the University of Bristol.
To celebrate 120 years of the Autumn Arts Lectures, this year’s series will focus on the public art of television, to coincide with the centenary of the world’s first demonstration of a working television by John Logie Baird.
The three free events will take place in the Wills Memorial Building at the University of Bristol, each starting at 6.30pm and ending around 8pm.
On Thursday 23 October, award-winning television dramatist Gwyneth Hughes will discuss the ‘public’ art of television writing with Dr Helen Piper, Associate Professor in Television Studies at the University of Bristol.
Gwyneth’s extensive and varied writing credits include the critically acclaimed series Mr Bates Vs. The Post Office, about the miscarriage of justice in which hundreds of sub-postmasters were wrongly prosecuted. The series sparked such widespread outcry it prompted the government to announce plans to compensate and exonerate victims, introduce new legislation and launch a criminal investigation into the Post Office.
Then on Thursday 6 November, there will be a panel conversation between three award-winning television producers – Sara Gibbings, Tim Harcourt and Michael Jenkins.
Tim Harcourt is the multiple BAFTA award-winning Chief Creative Officer for Studio Lambert. An Executive Producer with 20+ years’ experience of working in British and American television, he specializes in format origination and is the inventor of some of the most successful British TV formats of the past ten years.
He devised Gogglebox for Channel 4, the hit Netflix show The Circle, and Race Across The World and Celebrity Race Across The World for the BBC. He is also an executive producer on a number of major shows, including Emmy award-winning hit The Traitors.
Michael Jenkins is an RTS West award-winning writer/director and producer from Bristol, with work commissioned by broadcasters such as Channel 4, BBC, and BET as well as by the BFI Network. His films have featured at international film festivals, and his short PICKNEY, won an audience award and was a quarter-finalist in the HBO short film competition. Recently, Michael was additional material director on The Outlaws (BBC/Amazon) and second unit director on an Apple + TV series.
The panel will be chaired by Sara Gibbings, who has more than 20 years of experience in international television production. Her credits include the Emmy award-winning series Welcome to Wrexham, Chef’s Table, and Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, as well award-winning features Zero Tolerance and UnBound. Sara has worked with a wide range of talent including U2, Ryan Reynolds, Sir Trevor McDonald, Sir Christopher Lee, Johnny Flynn, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo. Sara is also a Lecturer in the Department of Film and Television at the University of Bristol.
The final event of this year’s Autumn Art Lectures on Thursday 13 November, will see guest speaker Professor Beth Johnson, Professor of Television and Media Studies at the University of Leeds, discuss how inequalities in the TV industry shape production and representation on screen.
Professor Johnson situates these questions within current debates over the future of public service broadcasting, from Charter renewal to the impact of global streamers, asking what it would take to reimagine television as a truly public and inclusive medium.
Dr Peter Dent, Chair of the Autumn Art Lectures, said: ‘Join us for this year’s Autumn Art Lectures, a unique and long-lived Bristol institution, to celebrate the art of TV, a medium that, one way or another, touches everyone’s lives. The tickets are free and everyone is welcome.’
For more information and to book tickets, visit: Autumn Art Lectures 2025 by Faculty of Arts, Law & Social Sciences | Eventbrite
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