Museum no. 1

Well, I'm back from Yorkshire, via some excursions in Bedfordshire and Derbyshire, and am just about recovered from the trip. I've gathered enough to call goal 74 complete, but more on that in the next few days. I also took the opportunity to visit one of the many museums I've never been to before - the National Media Museum (formerly the Museum of Photography, Film, and Television) at Bradford.

I am more into photography than I am film or TV, so I started in the basement, where there was a Kodak-sponsored, but very informative generally, exhibition on the history of amateur photography. There was plenty to look at, though I must admit that I moved rather swiftly past the rows and rows of Brownie cameras. I was more interested in the very early stuff, and the mock-ups of Victorian photographic studios and drawing rooms.

Then I started working my way upwards. The ground floor is devoted to the shop, the cafe, and the cinemas, so I skipped that. The first floor is special exhibitions, except there weren't any, so I kept going on up.

Second floor: TV. Proper interactive kiddie stuff about how it all works, and how TV programmes are put together; also some early works by John Logie Baird, ancient TV cameras, etc. And a 3D TV room. (It doesn't do it for me. I seem to see several layers of 2D, not what I would call 3D, and it's just distracting.) Across the corridor the focus is more on what you see on the screen. There was a replica Dalek. And some replica Thunderbirds. And some Wombles. I am drawn to the sophisticated end of the schedule, I am...

Moving upwards, there was a floor devoted to animation. I wasn't familiar with much of this (I am a philistine - blame my TV-deprived childhood), but there was some gorgeous work there. And the museum set from The Wrong Trousers

Up to the top floor - which probably would have been more interesting had there been a film showing, as it contains the projection room. As it was, there was a small exhibition on 3D cinema.

Lastly, I went down to the floor below, where there were all sorts of lenses and mirrors to play with, which I would have enjoyed hugely had there only been time. Alas, it was five to six, and chucking-out time.

Highly recommended. It's a very good museum, and it's free to get in.