BBC 1963: February.



Witness: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath
"It is fifty years since the suicide of American poet Sylvia Plath. Hear from the friend Plath stayed with the weekend before she died." (pictured)

BBC News: Ted Hughes poem 'Last Letter' on Sylvia Plath discovered
"A previously unknown poem by the late Poet Laureate Ted Hughes has come to light 12 years after his death. The poem, called Last Letter, describes what happened when he received a letter from his estranged wife Sylvia Plath just before she took her own life. The poem will be published for the first time on Thursday.  Will Gompertz reports."

Sir Alan Hodgkin and Sir Andrew Huxley
"Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley were awarded the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which they shared with John Eccles, for their work on nerve action potentials. In this interview with Lewis Wolpert, the scientists explain how they came to collaborate on their particular field of research."

The Solitary Billionaire: J. Paul Getty
"First transmitted in 1963, Alan Whicker interviews billionaire J. Paul Getty, who discusses reports of his meanness, his unsuccessful marriages, why he keeps working and what he's had to sacrifice to become the world's richest man."

The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
"Bob Dylan's biographer Howard Sounes casts new light on a song that has haunted two families for nearly 50 years - Dylan's account of the killing of a black hotel worker. [...] On the evening of Friday 8 February 1963, William Zantzinger, 24-year-old owner of an old-style tobacco plantation, turned up drunk at a charity ball in Baltimore, Maryland. Hattie Carroll was one of the African-Americans serving the guests at a time when America was still segregated."

Witness: The Feminine Mystique
"In 1963, a frustrated American housewife, Betty Friedan, published one of the key texts in feminist thought. With its call for women to leave the home and enter the workplace, The Feminine Mystique paved the way for the women's liberation movement and became a bestseller. It called for a shakeup of the job market with maternity pay and subsidised childcare. Jo Fidgen speaks to two of Betty Friedan's children, Johnathan and Emily. The programme also contains archive recordings of Friedan herself."

Tonight: Equality at Cambridge University
"Now that Oxford University Union is finally allowing women to take part in all its activities, Cambridge University remains the only higher education institution not to do so. This short report features a renowned journalist who appears to be taking the issue less than seriously. He visits Birmingham University, where women have access to all facilities and activities, to canvas their opinions on equality. "

Panorama: Civil Rights: James Baldwin 1963
"As the civil rights movement gathered pace, Panorama invited black activist and author James Baldwin to present a very personal essay from New York on what it meant to be black in a tense and changing America of the early 1960s. This is an abridged version of Panorama which was first broadcast on 11 February 1963."

Witness: Welsh Dam Attack
"In 1963, three young Welsh nationalists took up arms against the construction of a controversial dam. The Tryweryn dam would flood a Welsh valley to provide water for an English city."

Cine-camera footage of 1963 NI snowfall
"We'll certainly not forget this spell of wintry weather - but if you can remember 1963 - well these freezing conditions are nothing in comparison. When a viewer rang in to offer us some film he shot in February of that year, we couldn't say no! here it is!"

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