Peter Viney is the author of the Streamline English series, the Survival English / Basic Survival series, and the Departures in Reading / Connections in Reading skills development series. Peter and Karen Viney have co-authored many courses including Grapevine, Main Street, Handshake and the IN English series. They were pioneering ELT video authors and have written thirteen video series and have adapted the Academy Award® winning Wallace & Gromit animations for ELT.
Peter was also co-series editor of the Storylines series of graded readers, and has written many ELT readers. He is on the board of the Extensive Reading Foundation. His latest book for students is Fast Track to Reading (Garnet Education).
For fuller biographical details see the BIODATA section on this blog or visit our website.
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Hello,
I am teaching in Jakarta, Indonesia. I am looking for two documents you worked on: Mystery tour (DVD) and Grapevine.
We loved the quality of the work you did with Wallace and Gromit books and would like to use more of your material on DVDs.
Apparently, they are out of stock. Where can I get this material?
Please help
Isabelle
Hi Peter We are a service teaching English in a technical college in Tasmania. We would dearly love permission to transfer the level 1 and 2 videos which we havein our collection onto dvd as we lack the favcility to show them in the orgianl format. Can you please inform us of the best way to go as it is considered by our teachers a very valuable resource and they would love to contiunue to use it. Thanks for your interest. David
Hi David, first, which series? The Streamline videos A Weekend Away / A Week By The sea are available on a 2-on-1 DVD from BEBC … see eltvideos.com. They can easily post to Tasmania, and there are new self-study books.
Grapevine was never done on DVD. You give me a dilemma. My publisher would say “you can’t copy it.” And I’d have to repeat that. But as it’s out of print and they have no intention of putting it back in print, what someone who was ignoring me could do is link a VHS recorder to an HDD / DVD recorder. Then you copy them onto the HDD (hard disk) ONE episode at a time, making eight videos. You could then trim the tops and tails, and even with my Panasonic HDD insert access points at each section. You then burn a DVD.
With the Streamline DVDs it’s way easier to buy one from BEBC. They are taken directly from the original U-Matic master tape, and digitised on professional equipment so they are much better picture quality than the VHS tapes (though not as sharp as say, English Channel, which was digitally recorded in the first place). They also have all the access points inserted and at £16.50 (compared to around £240 for the set of four VHS tapes originally) they’re so cheap that it’s easier than copying. If you haven’t seen them, but like Grapevine, they’re worth getting too.
Thanks Isabelle. Sadly, Mystery Tour and Grapevine Video are out of print. Mystery Tour was on DVD but Grapevine was never put onto DVD. It was replaced by the English Channel series, with the same actors, but that was also put out of print last year when someone at Oxford University Press apparently decided there was no call for “fictional videos” anymore.
We think it’s tragic that only the Wallace & Gromit are now available.
However, we are trying to make arrangements to reissue the early A Weekend away / A Week By The sea videos ourselves. Watch the blog for news.
Hi Peter
Unfortunately i have the same problem like Isabelle i have 200 books of mystery tour but no DVD i’m looking for it. In my country, Iran mystery tour and grapevine videos are very popular. how should i inform oup this? and who is responsible for?
I have always been a great fan of ELT videos and feel sorry that there are so few left on the market. I have a small collection of VHS videos, including ‘Weekend Away’ and ‘A week by the Sea’. Sadly, we no longer have VHS players in our classrooms and none of my collection is available on DVD.
I know copyright is more complicated than most of us teachers realise, but I would love to see the episodes of these older but still useful series made available on YouTube by the copyright holders.
Do you think there is any possibility of this happening one day?
Copyright is a problem, in that the original contracts with actors and directors gave permission for sale of the videos or DVDs, but “broadcast on TV” (which rarely happened) gave the actors and writers repeat fees. Repeat fees work on an international scale, so that broadcast in the USA, UK and Germany are at the highest rates (e.g. 50% of the original fee) while other countries might be 1% or 2% of the original fee. It has been established in the USA that downloading to an individual user for a fee is not “broadcast” but a sale in the same way that a DVD or video was sold.
YouTube is a grey area, even though it’s free. YouTube puts stuff up until someone objects to it. It’s hard to judge, but the YouTube quality would then be very low indeed on a whiteboard for classroom use. It would be fine for a solo student on a laptop.
We want to regain the rights and put A Weekend Away and A Week By The Sea back in circulation, but this will be without books.
Dear, Mr. Viney
I, as an English teacher, have been using your American Streamline series until these days, although I have to adapt it to the present needs of my students.
Well, I would like to ask you if there is any perspective on a new apdated publication of the referred series.
I am also interested in your “In English”, but, as far as I know, you have not issued it in American English, have you?
I am looking forward to your reply. Thanks.
Luis Sérgio
We spent two years working on a revised American Streamline replacement, which was to be called “Jetstream”. We completed two levels, then OUP suddenly cancelled the project. So there won’t be one.
We don’t know how long NEW AMERICAN STREAMLINE will last in print. The British version has gone.
IN ENGLISH was felt to be mid-Atlantic by OUP, and they said a dedicated American edition was not necessary for East Asia or Latin America. I disagree, but many teachers of American English do use it.
Hi Peter,
I am a volunteer English teacher in Mozambique and I am working there with the New American Streamline series and you know I’d like to buy the achievement tests for this serie, but it has been impossible to find it! I have all the material, but I still have to create tests for it! Is there any place where we still can find it?
Thanks a lot and God bless you!
Those New American Streamline tests were always a problem. They were free and photocopiable, so bookstores didn’t bother to stock them, nor did OUP offices after the first flurry. OUP New York should supply them free of charge. That was the idea, but so many teachers have complained they can’t get them that I don’t think they will. Years ago, I suggested they should put them on line as free downloadable PDFs. I was told downloadable tests on line are no good because students can download them. But they’re achievement tests, not public examinations. I didn’t write them either and wasn’t consulted (and was furious when I saw how poorly written they were). They’re 36 pages long and illustrated, which I always was thought was a dumb idea. They could be far shorter and easier to copy / download. Some pages have just two multiple choice vocabulary questions taking up an A4 page, which isn’t worth the cost of paper if you have to do them for a large class. They’re all also staple bound into one booklet (and they worried about students downloading them!) . Try e-mailing OUP New York and asking. But basically it would be very easy to prepare something as good, or better, and you won’t be photocopying eight pages for one test.
Dear Peter
i taught IN ENGLISH pre – intermediate Unit 10 when i did extension of that i was in doubt in some blanks and confused unfortunately there is no key in teacher’s book would you please check my answers and if they are wrong write the correct answers for me.
into – above – onto – towards – away – on – inside – under – through – over – down – beside
Hello. I found your ELT stuff online and to my surprise, I also found myself on your music pages about Van, how funny!!
I can’t play at the moment due to injury, but will do sometime hopefully this year after I’ve had surgery.
In the meantime, I’ve been teaching ESL to keep me occupied and I’ve found that it’s something I really enjoy!
We both have 2 things in common then! Lol!
I’ll check out more of your work.
Cheers for now and best wishes
Teena Morcombe (Lyle)
Teena, that was a great concert. I’m so sorry to hear you’re not playing. I’m sure you must know this, but for musicians’ injuries, the Feldenkrais system of movement therapy is often good for rehabilitation after any operation. It’s like much, much more subtle physiotherapy. It’s mainly popular with classical musicians (nearly all violinists have neck and elbow problems) and Yehudi Menuhin was the Feldenkrais Association international president for years.