Tern TV Puts BBC4 on the Map | The Irish Film & Television Network

‘The Beauty of Maps’ looks to put the art back into cartography by taking a look at the development of key maps throughout history, examining how they have become works of art rather than simply objective representations of space.

Each episode will focus on one map and will use human stories and testimony, original sketches and artistic impressions, private journals and historic archive sources to tell its story. The series will address the cartographers’ roles and how big an impact their creations have had in the art world. The maps which feature in the series are from the collection at the British Library. Peter Barber, Head of Map Collections at the British Library, is acting as consultant on the series.

Belfast based Tern TV received funding for the project from the Northern Ireland Screen Fund (supported by Invest NI) and the European Regional Development Fund. The series is part of BBC Four’s map mini-season, which airs alongside the British Library’s new exhibition, Magnificent Maps: Power, Propaganda and Art. The director and series producer of the project is Steven Clarke (Great Escape: The Untold Story) and the director of photography is Chris Openshaw (Elizabeth). The series was shot in England and Holland.

‘The Beauty of Maps’ also has an online counterpart, which will deliver content thematically aligned to the TV series. Users will be able to explore five historic maps using a mixed-media combination of pictures, video, audio and text .

‘The Beauty of Maps’ series runs on BBC4 nightly until Thursday, April 22nd at 8.30pm.

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