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Stephen Bourne

The Knitting Circle: Film

Biography,writing,press cuttings.

British film and television analyst.

He was brought up in Peckham, South London where he went to the Oliver Goldsmith primary school. He then went to St Michael and All Angels Secondary Modern School in Camberwell, but left at the age of 16 with no qualifications.

He then had a number of jobs, including a sales assistant in the True Form shoe shop in Peckham, working for the DHSS, nursery officer, library assistant, kitchen porter, and cinema usher.

Despite this unpromising background he pursued his wish to write about film. Without any training he began to contribute articles to publications, and since 1983 he has written for numerous black journals includingCaribbean Times,The Voice,Black Arts in London,Artrage and Pride. He has been a regular contributor toBlack Film Bulletin.

In 1988 he graduated from the London College of Printing with an honours degree in Film and Television. His thesis looked at the career of the gay Hollywood directorJames Whale.

For while he was a school teacher before concentrating on journalism.

He has written features and reviews for many lesbian and gay publications including,Capital Gay,Diva,The Pink Paper, andSquare Peg. From 1990 to 1992 he was the film critic forGay Times. His poems have appeared in, amongst others,Staunchmagazine andDance to a Different Drum - Brixton Festival Poetry 1983.

In 1992 he collaborated with his Aunt Esther in producing the autobiography of a working-class black woman born in London before the First World War inAunt Esther's Story. He and his Aunt Esther shared the 1992 Raymond Williams Prize for Community Publishing for this.

He also worked as a researcher onBlack and White in Colour, a two-part history of black people in British television which was directed byIsaac Julienfor the BBC in 1992.

In 1992 he curated the first retrospective dedicated to unearthing treasures from lesbian and gay television.Out of the Archiveswas presented at the National Film Theatre in London and, since that time, has successfully unearthed, reclaimed and interpreted a lost heritage. Stephen Bourne has been programmingOut of the Archivesfrom 1992 to 2001.

In 1997 he was Archive Consultant for Andrea Weiss's filmA Bit of Scarletwhich was first shown in the 11th London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.

From 1993 to 1998 he scripted a number of BBC Radio 2 series and specials includingThe Betty Driver Storyin 1994, celebrating the career of the actress/singer who plays Betty "e;Hotpot"e; Turpin in Coronation Street. For the BBC's 1998 Windrush season, he researched and scriptedTheir Long Voyage Home, a five-part series broadcast on BBC Radio 2 about Caribbean settlers in Britain. This was presented by Trevor McDonald.

In 1994 he undertook pioneering work with Southwark Council and the local police on the issue of homophobic violence as part of the Anti-Homophobic Violence and Abuse Forum. For this ground-breaking work he received a Civic Award from the London Borough of Southwark, and was shortlisted for the Mike Rhodes Award.

He received twoRace in the Mediaawards from the Commission for Racial Equality.

In 1996 he organised an evening at the National Film Theatre devoted to the work ofJackie Forster.

In 1998 Stephen Bourne's bookBlack in the British Frame - Black People in British Film and Television 1896-1996, (Cassell) included a chapter about black lesbian and gay representation. For this book, he received a Civic Award from the London Borough of Southwark, and was shortlisted forThe VoiceLiterature Award. A revised, updated edition ofBlack in the British Framewas published by Continuum in October 2001 with a new subtitle:The Black Experience in British Film and Television.

In 1998 he organised a centenary tribute to Paul Robeson for the National Film Theatre.

Also in 1998, he began working for a PhD at De Montfort University in Leicester. In 1999 he became the first person in Britain to receive a Research Student Bursary for a PhD about gay television history. De Montfort awarded him the Bursary to undertake work on the representation of gay men in British television drama since 1939.

In 1999 he organisedHollywood Divas, a special event, for the 13th. London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival

He has participated in a number of television documentaries including Channel 4'sCelluloid Icons: Black Divas, (1996),Paul Robeson: Speak of Me As I Am(BBC, 1998),American Masters: Paul Robeson - Here I Stand, (USA, 1999), andI'm Free! Inside the Comedy Closet(Channel 4, 2004). In 1999 he participated inThe Century Speaks, BBC radio's Millennium oral history series. Recent radio appearances have included Radio 4'sBlack on Screenand Radio 2'sThe Colour of Music.

On 9th. December 2002 Stephen Bourne andLinda Belloswere among the first voluntary community advisors to receive commendations from the Metropolitan Police. At Southwark Town Hall Chief Superintendent Rod Jarman, the Borough Commander for the London Borough of Southwark, presented them with Metropolitan Police Volunteer Awards "e;in recognition of outstanding contribution in supporting the local community"e;.

In 2003, at a ceremony in London's City Hall, Stephen Bourne received a Metropolitan Police Volunteer Award from police commissioner Sir John Stevens and Mayor Ken Livingstone.

Email:stephen.bourne@southwark.gov.uk.

• Boats in Front Gardens,Tricks,Shadow,Lost, poems published inNot Love Alone, Martin Humphries, (1985).

• James Whale: Hollywood's Gay Auteur, 1988, unpublished thesis, London College of Printing.
  

• is stephen coming out?, 1991, inGay Times, September, 1991, issue 156, pages 34-36. Reminiscences about growing up in Peckham. "e;... in 1968, the filmThe L-Shaped Roomwas shown on television for the first time. I shall never forget the wonderful performance of Cicely Courtneidge when she acknowledged her relationship with another woman in a scene with Leslie Caron. 'It takes all sorts, dearie,' she said. I understood exactly what she meant. Finally, I remember looking at some men in a mail order catalogue with Mum and Auntie Rosie. I told them that I wanted to be a male model when I grew up and Auntie Rosie said, quite firmly: 'You don't want to do that for a living, boy. They're all a bunch of queenies'. I suppose it was at that point in my life I realised I was going to have to suppress my homosexuality."e;
  

• Aunt Esther's StorywithEsther Bruce, and with contemporary photographs byVal Wilmer, 1992, Ethnic Communities Oral History Project, ISBN 1871338123 (paperback).
  

• Brief Encounters: Lesbians and Gays in British Cinema 1930-1971, 1996, London: Cassell, 268 pages, ISBN 0 304 33283 6 (hardback)/0 304 33286 0 (paperback).
  
  • Blurb:"e;Prejudice and misconception mean that lesbian and gay representation in British cinema has largely escaped the attention of critics and historians. Informative and entertaining,Brief Encountersexamines performers, directors and a wide range of films to reveal a cinema more varied, vital and sensuous than we could ever have imagined."e;
    

    "e;Free of reductive jargon and theory, this fluent chronology of over 150 famous, half-remembered and forgotten films is a celebration of the contribution of gays and lesbians to British cinema and culture."e;
    

    Paraphrased from the Foreword byKeith Howes.
    

  • Includes detailed sections on the filmVictimstarringDirk Bogarde.
    

• Black in the British Frame: Black People in British Film and Television 1896-1996, 1998, Cassell, 246 pages, ISBN 0304333751.
  

  • Includes a chapter about black lesbian and gay representation in popular British film and television.
    

  • (2001), revised edition, published by Continuum International Publishing Group - Academic and Professional, 288 pages, ISBN 082645741X (hardcover)/0826455395 (paperback).
    
    Synopsis:"e;Focusing on drama and light entertainment, this text documents a range of experiences and representations of people of African descent in British film and cinema."e;
    

    Description:"e;In this updated edition of his acclaimed and award-winning study, Stephen Bourne takes a personal look at the history of black people in popular British film and television. He documents, from original research and interviews, the experiences and representations which have been ignored in previous media books about people of African descent. There are chapters about Paul Robeson, Newton I. Aduaka, soap operas and much more - as well as several useful appendices and suggestions for further reading."e;
    

• A Ship and a Prayer - The Black Presence in Hammersmith and Fulhamedited withSav Kyriacou, 1999, Ethnic Communities Oral History Project, 60 pages, ISBN 187133814X (paperback).
  

• Sophisticated Lady: A Celebration of Adelaide Hall, 2001, published by The Ethnic Communities Oral History Project (ECOHP), 60 pages, ISBN 1871338158.
  

  • A biography of the acclaimed jazz singer who sang with Duke Ellington and Fats Waller.
    

  • Web site:http://www.hfusc.org.uk/adelaide
    

• Elizabeth Welch: Soft Lights and Sweet Music, 2005, published by Scarecrow Press, 208 pages, ISBN 0810854139 (paperback).
  Synopsis:"e; In Elisabeth Welch: Soft Lights and Sweet Music, author Stephen Bourne celebrates the stage, screen, and radio career of this sophisticated African American actress and singer, who always defied categorization. Spanning almost a century of popular music, she did not fit the definition of jazz, torch, pop or ballad singer but defined her art quite simply as telling a story in song. Whatever she sang, she demonstrated that she had no peer in the art of interpreting songs by the likes of Cole Porter, Noel Coward, Irving Berlin, and Jerome Kern. Her story is a fascinating one that brings readers insight about the life and times of this musical legend."e;

• Speak of Me As I Am - The Black Presence in Southwark Since 1600, 2005, published by Southwark Council.

• Soap Gets In Your Eyesby Vicky Powell inGay Times, July, 2001, issue 274, pages 21-22. An article about ten years ofOut of the Archives, based on an interview with Stephen Bourne who is shown in a colour photograph. "e;Bourne has spent the last decade researching and documenting the history of gay characters on television, and his time-consuming trawl through TV archives has resulted in the discovery of many treasures. These includeOnly Connect(1979), byGay Sweatshop'sDrew GriffithsandNoël Greig, andGirl(1974), in which a young Alison Steadman played an Army recruit seduced by a lesbian WRAC."e;

  "e;With the amount of research he and some others, such as the gay broadcasting expert and authorKeith Howes, have carried out, surely there's scope for the making of a damn good documentary on the development of the homosexual from the mocked, camp fairy of yesteryear to the leading characters seen in soaps and dramas today? 'Back in 1994, I attempted, along with Keith Howes andStephen Jeffery-Poultera television producer, to get a documentary on TV about the history of television's lesbian and gay characters. We were told we had development money from an independent TV company, and we were thrilled, but then it was decided not to give us the money'."e;

Biography,writing,press cuttings.

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The Knitting Circle

First uploaded 1st. September, 1999.

Last altered 2nd. May, 2005