Why John Motson, Seven Stories and Newcastle Town Moor are in a new TV series about Utopia – ChronicleLive

What or where is Utopia, that perfect world described by Sir Thomas More who also coined the word in his book of that name, published in 1516?

And what has it got to do with football commentator John Motson and Newcastles Town Moor?

The answers to these and many other Utopia-related questions will be found in the new Utopia season of programmes on BBC Four, and particularly in the three-part series called Utopia: In Search Of The Dream which starts on Tuesday, August 8.

The latter is presented by art historian Richard Clay, professor of digital humanites at Newcastle University, and in the past few months it has taken him on a whirlwind tour of Britain, the United States, Lithuania and Belarus.

Its not very glamorous, making TV, he jokes.

He is speaking from the Northumberland coast where he is currently on holiday. Sounds pretty utopian, I suggest. I wouldnt disagree with that, he replies.

This series of hour-long programmes started when ClearStory, an independent production company, pitched a documentary marking the centenary of the Russian Revolution to the BBC.

They kept sending them away to think of something more ambitious and eventually they came back with the idea of something around utopias. This then became a season of programmes.

Richard, who has presented previous documentaries on BBC Four, including one two years ago about the history of graffiti, was approached just before Christmas to work on Utopia: In Search Of The Dream and filming began in March.

Whichever way you look at it, this was an ambitious undertaking. Anyone who knows anything about television will know an awful lot of filming goes into making three hours of documentary.

Richard says: Episode one opens with archive footage of Obama talking about making the world a better place and then we have John Motson...

At which point I have to interrupt. Er, John Motson? On Utopia?

That was me talking about football as Utopia, says Richard.

We chose him because hes a legend. Hes got 50 years of football experience and an amazing stock of memories and he turned out to be a good choice, a serious interviewee.

He was going to football before I was born and talked about things like people streaming out of the factories and into the match where bosses and workers would suddenly be equals.

He also talked about village football where, as soon as youre on the pitch, youre all members of the team, working together and with a shared goal ideally lots of goals.

Theres something really utopian about that.

Richard says they had hoped to film Motty at a village match but had to settle for Watford FC.

And as for his own football allegiance, Richard says: I usually say Im a fan of North East football although I was born in Preston and half my family are from Sunderland.

They all supported Sunderland apart from one cousin who, as a rebellious teenager, supported Newcastle.

Also appearing in the first programme is professorial colleague Matthew Grenby, an expert on childrens literature, who was filmed at Seven Stories running a workshop about the idea of a perfect world based on Gullivers Travels.

Richard says: He was asking the kids what their version of Utopia would look like and the film crew was grinning through the whole thing.

A lot of the things they said were what youd expect, like not killing people and not stealing, but one kid said everybody must live up trees and another said everyone must like football.

So what would happen if somebody doesnt like football? Oh, said the kid, we throw them in the river.

Not all of these priceless exchanges made the final edit, warns Richard, but what remained sounds thoroughly entertaining.

The Town Moor features in the series because of Richards interest in Thomas Spence, the 18th Century radical who advocated the common ownership of land and opposed the threatened enclosure of this open green space in the 1770s.

It was when I moved to Newcastle two years ago that I realised he was a Geordie and supported the Freemen who succeeded in keeping this enormous space in the heart of the city accessible for grazing, he explains.

Im not taking sides politically. Im just observing, as a historian, that there was a vision of shared ownership of this resource and that utopian vision hasnt been compromised, although I suspect generations of people have had to keep defending the moor.

The film crew, mostly up from the south, couldnt believe what they were seeing. What on earth is this in the middle of the city with cows grazing on it?

Sir Thomas More, whose political satire Utopia started it all, features in the series.

We filmed in a monastery, says Richard, because Mores idea of Utopia, where there is no private property, was thought to have been inspired by monastic living.

But in what was clearly a wide-ranging exploration, there is also room for an interview with a Wikipedia boss, Star Trek actress Nichelle Nichols, architect Norman Foster, whose firm designed Sage Gateshead , and composer Steve Reich.

The big competing ideologies of the 20th Century Communism, Capitalism and Fascism are all covered, hence those trips to the Baltic states which have felt the effects of all three.

And that might sound rather depressing, considering the cost in human lives.

But Richard says his exploration of historys utopias ends on a positive note.

The final programme ends up saying a recurring theme throughout history and across human societies and cultures is this urge to create a better, more equal way of life.

Despite the endless challenges in attempting to make it happen, we keep on trying and theres something really heartwarming and optimistic about that.

And with that hes away to enjoy his break in the county which he has chosen to make his home.

Ive been here for two years and Ive got no intention of leaving, he says.

Beautiful deserted beaches, incredibly friendly and generous people and the Town Moor!

He makes it sound rather utopian.

The first part of Utopia: In Search Of The Dream is screened on Tuesday (August 8) at 9pm on BBC Four.

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Why John Motson, Seven Stories and Newcastle Town Moor are in a new TV series about Utopia - ChronicleLive