Impact case study database
Recovering and revaluing working-class voices: the Barry Hines Archive
1. Summary of the impact
The Hines project had positive social, cultural, educational, creative, and heritage impact. It increased awareness and appreciation of an overlooked working-class writer, recovering forgotten works, facilitating their republication by a publisher with national and international distribution networks, and enhancing access to seldom-viewed regional films. It introduced collaborative research practices into schools, contributing to teachers’ professional development and raising young people’s aspirations and engagement by unlocking creativity and developing research skills. It facilitated new cultural artefacts, generating new ways of representing the north and informing artists’ continuing practice, and enriched the Hines archive through the co-production and deposit of new material.
2. Underpinning research
The research illuminates the significance of the novelist, dramatist, and screenwriter Barry Hines (1939-2016), whose work includes the novel A Kestrel for a Knave (1968), filmed as Kes (1969), and the TV drama Threads (1984).
In 2008, Vice – then working on Hines’ near-contemporary and fellow screenwriter Jack Rosenthal – was shown Hines’ papers, stored in boxes in his attic. Recognising their value, she negotiated their donation to Special Collections, University of Sheffield. This ensured the preservation of, and wider access to, this unique archive, which includes Hines’ correspondence, research materials, and scripts of otherwise ‘lost’ plays: ones which were either never performed, or recordings of which were subsequently destroyed. As such, the archive offers unparalleled insight into Hines’ practice as a writer and collaborator, and provides an eye-witness perspective on the socio-political culture of the North of England during a time of de-industrialisation. The research subsequently conducted by Vice and Forrest – currently comprising the first book-length study of Hines’ work (R1), one article (R2), and four essays (R3-6) – is based on this archive. Key findings include:
Hines was a meticulous nature writer, and was much more involved in establishing the visual elements of his screenwork than has previously been understood, particularly in relation to the depiction of landscape and urban architecture. This reinstates Hines as a crucial creative presence in the filming of his work; it also challenges the critically dominant idea of auteurism, whereby a filmmaker controls all elements of production, resulting in a recognisable directorial style. Hines’ working relationships with directors and producers such as Ken Loach and Tony Garnett were symbiotic rather than hierarchical. Acknowledging this restores the often overlooked position of screenwriters, particularly working-class screenwriters (like Hines), within film authorship.
Recovering Hines’ ‘lost’ works – such as Billy’s Last Stand (1965), the tapes of which were destroyed by the BBC – shows that he was much more experimental than his frequent association with ‘kitchen sink realism’ suggests. Initially produced as a radio play for the BBC, it was subsequently performed at London’s Royal Court Upstairs (a space renowned for ambitious, cutting-edge theatre). Paying attention to the full breadth of Hines’ oeuvre contests reductive ideas of working-class writing as generically limited, building a much richer picture of what it meant to be a working-class writer in the second half of the twentieth century.
Hines’ role as a documenter of the political history of northern England has only been partially understood because of the suppression of his output in the final decades of his career. Hines was a first-hand witness to the 1984-5 miners’ strike and its aftermath. Scripts of three unproduced plays – After the Strike (1985), The Diggers (1994), Follow the Sun (2003) – and correspondence about them reveal the part played by British broadcasters (BBC, Channel 4) in occluding ideologically sensitive material about the strike. The research also shows how Hines struggled to articulate in artistic form the social, cultural, and economic trauma of de-industrialisation, and helps explain the sudden stalling of his career after the high point of Threads.
3. References to the research
Forrest, D. and Vice, S. (2017). Barry Hines: ‘Kes’, ‘Threads’ and Beyond. Manchester University Press. Available on request / REF2.
Vice, S. (2011). Barry Hines’ Unproduced Miners’ Strike Plays: An Archival Study. Journal of British Cinema and Television, 8(2), 204–217. https://doi.org/10.3366/jbctv.2011.0028
Forrest, D. and Vice, S. (2016). ‘Archival traces of the North: The case of Barry Hines’ in Dobson, J. & Rayner, J. (eds.) Mapping Cinematic Norths: International Interpretations in Film and Television. Peter Lang. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-1-78707-082-0
Forrest, D. and Vice, S. (2017). ‘Screening South Yorkshire: The Gamekeeper and Looks and Smiles’ in Mazierska, E. (ed.) Heading North: The North of England in Film and Television. Palgrave Macmillan. Available on request.
Forrest, D. and Vice, S. (2020). ‘ Kes: from page to screen’ in Mayne, L. et al. (eds.) Sixties British Cinema Reconsidered. Edinburgh University Press. Available on request.
Forrest, D. (2019). ‘Art Cinema and the British poetic realist tradition’ in Hoyle, B. and Newland, P. (eds.) British Art Cinema: Creativity, Experimentation and Innovation. Manchester University Press. Available on request.
4. Details of the impact
Forrest and Vice rehabilitated Hines’ reputation, using co-creative practices and varied forms (oral, written, visual) to engage diverse audiences. Their championing of Hines led directly to the publisher And Other Stories acquiring the rights in 2020 to publish Hines’ unpublished and out-of-print works, making those available to national and international readerships: without them “ none of this would have happened” [S1].
The research on Hines underpinned BBC4’s documentary Looking for Kes (2019; with total viewing figures of 545,000, it was the channel’s ninth most watched programme in the week that it first aired [S2]). The public interest this inspired is evidenced by the spike in pageviews of Hines’ Wikipedia entry (23,000+ post-screening), the revision of which Forrest supervised [S3]. The research also informed journalistic work on Cold War nuclear cultures and sports writing [S4]. In particular, the football magazine When Saturday Comes (average monthly circulation, 14,500; online users 210,000) brought Hines to a different twenty-first century audience.
Showcasing working-class writing and expressing working-class experience is crucial owing to the long-term exclusion of people of working-class origins from the creative industries (‘ Panic!’ report, 2018). Forrest co-curated two exhibitions about Hines’ work with artists Murphy and Want (2018, 2019) and delivered over fifteen public talks across the UK (August 2013-July 2020), reaching more diverse audiences than such events usually attract, including some of Sheffield’s most deprived postcodes [S3]. These activities transformed how people viewed Hines’ work and subject matter, building his audience and fostering interest in working-class art more widely. Representative comments: “I found myself looking at the landscape in a way I just wouldn’t have noticed otherwise”; “ I’ve had an awakening with art… I’m excited to explore more social realist work” [S3].
Forrest collaborated with Dearne Valley Landscape Partnership, placing Hines at the centre of Heritage Lottery funded arts and community engagement regenerating an area devastated by deindustrialisation. A reading group (2016) engaged local residents – including ‘reluctant’ adult readers – with Hines’ work and archive. This group co-produced a short film, Cushion of Mist, exploring Hines’ evocations of landscape and how his work influenced their understanding of place and belonging [S5]. The film was screened in Sheffield (2017, 2018) and is available via vimeo (300+ plays). These screenings impacted positively on audience members’ sense of self and well-being. Representative comments: “ I felt more connected to my roots and social history”; “ the film made me think I should walk in nature more” [S3].
These public-facing activities generated new collaborations, including the first public performance of After the Strike, co-produced with Orgreave Truth and Justice Campaign (2019), and produced new material for the archive, including responses to Hines’ work (valuable records of reader engagement) and biographical testimonials. For example, miners who drove Hines while he chronicled the strike approached Forrest after a talk and subsequently provided important information which would otherwise have been lost.
Enhancing access to regional films
Forrest and Vice curated ‘South Yorkshire Trilogy’ (Showroom, Sheffield, 2018), featuring three of Hines’ films, alongside talks and an exhibition, for Film Hub North’s ‘Our North’ season. Screenings were sold out (350+ tickets), reaching multi-generational audiences and generating income for an independent cinema during the summer (usually problematically quiet) [S6]. Increasing access to, and interest in, specialist films is particularly significant in Yorkshire and Humber, which has only 7.2% of UK’s specialist cinemas (strikingly few, considering the region’s size and population). The trilogy contributed to the Showroom’s mission to build audiences: its programmer (Pettersson) observes that, as a working-class writer, Hines was especially effective at overcoming socio-cultural barriers to accessing arts venues [S6].
The trilogy’s success influenced the Showroom’s practice, demonstrating demand for local stories and giving Pettersson confidence to ‘push back’ when Film Hub North proposed changing the remit of their 2019 season. The interest in the accompanying exhibition also encouraged Pettersson to feature other archives when programming special seasons [S6].
Educational impact
Forrest’s work with schools focused on Kestrel for a Knave. Participants included the University’s post-16 engagement programme (2016), Ecclesfield School (2015, 2017), Trinity Academy (2018), and Hinde House (autumn 2013), based in an economically deprived area of Sheffield (50%+ of pupils eligible for free school meals, twice the national average [S7]). Feedback shows the experience raised aspirations and increased pupil engagement: 95% of Hinde House pupils reported being ‘more interested’ in schoolwork afterwards [S7].
Brennan (teacher, Hinde House; subsequently, Ecclesfield) found the project transformational for three cohorts of 12-year-olds: it gave them “ intellectual freedom to explore things in their own terms”, improving the quality of their work, “ which was more academic than I had seen before”. The experience also transformed Brennan’s teaching, demonstrating the value of non-essay-based assessments and overturning her assumption that pupils only relate to recent texts. Brennan adopted the project’s methodology of treating pupils as ‘experts in the room’ and developed more collaborative methods of working with them: “ it’s opened up a lot of doors to me as a teacher which would otherwise have remained closed”, including inspiring her to work with other academics on a creative-writing project (Sheffield Hallam) and ‘Classics for All’ (Oxford) [S8].
Artistic impact
Making Cushion of Mist influenced film-maker Brown’s creative practice, highlighting the value of co-production and facilitating more fluid approaches to narrative, utilised in Brown’s subsequent heritage films [S9]. Collaboration with Forrest similarly enhanced Murphy’s and Want’s creative practice, stimulating both a renewed commitment to working-class art and specific artworks re-evaluating childhood landscapes [S10]. The collaboration also led to an exhibition commission – Northern Town (Barnsley, 2020) – tracing narratives of social change inspired by Hines’ charting of deindustrialisation.
5. Sources to corroborate the impact
Testimonial, Publisher, And Other Stories.
Viewing figures, Looking for Kes.
Audience data (public talks; Wikipedia figures).
Professional writers’ engagement with the research (Tom Overton, Paris Review; Jude Rogers, New Statesman; Ewan Flynn, When Saturday Comes; circulation data for WSC).
Cushion of Mist, https://vimeo.com/217401807.
Evidence about impact of ‘South Yorkshire Trilogy (testimonial from Programme Manager, Showroom Cinema; activity log from Showroom Cinema).
Evidence about engagement with schools (student and teacher feedback; school data).
Interview with Charlie Pritchard Brennan (teacher).
Interview with Andy Brown (filmmaker, Cushion of Mist).
Interview with Patrick Murphy and Anton Want (artists).
Additional contextual information
Grant funding
| Grant number | Value of grant |
|---|---|
| AH/P005780/1 | £725,448 |