Mary Irwin – författare

This is the first dedicated overview of the international television romantic comedy genre, Mary Irwin builds on the critical work on cinematic romantic comedy to offer a dedicated critical analysis of the romantic comedy on the small screen. Drawing on series from the 1960s to the present day, Irwin presents five themed chapters around the theme of romantic love, from searching for it and finding it to the love wars of the book''s title to finding love later in life and in places you didn''t expect. Chapters explore the genre''s key recurrent themes: evolving attitudes to love, relationships, sex, class and money, feminism and post-feminism, changes in the nuclear family (dramatised through contrasting romantic relationships) and shifting discourses of masculinity, situating them within the specific socio-historic and cultural context in which the series are set. Throughout, Irwin underscores the centrality of women, their friendships and their personal and professional lives and experiences to the television romantic comedy genre, demonstrating that it is prominence of female characters and their interests and concerns which have most significantly affected the genre''s thematic focus. Crucially, this thematic approach allows for explorations both of similarities in representations to be found in series decades apart and the way in which such representations ebb and flow across time. Additionally, the international nature of the comedies selected also makes possible comparison beyond national boundaries.

This is the first dedicated overview of the international television romantic comedy genre, Mary Irwin builds on the critical work on cinematic romantic comedy to offer a dedicated critical analysis of the romantic comedy on the small screen. Drawing on series from the 1960s to the present day, Irwin presents five themed chapters around the theme of romantic love, from searching for it and finding it to the love wars of the book''s title to finding love later in life and in places you didn''t expect. Chapters explore the genre''s key recurrent themes: evolving attitudes to love, relationships, sex, class and money, feminism and post-feminism, changes in the nuclear family (dramatised through contrasting romantic relationships) and shifting discourses of masculinity, situating them within the specific socio-historic and cultural context in which the series are set. Throughout, Irwin underscores the centrality of women, their friendships and their personal and professional lives and experiences to the television romantic comedy genre, demonstrating that it is prominence of female characters and their interests and concerns which have most significantly affected the genre''s thematic focus. Crucially, this thematic approach allows for explorations both of similarities in representations to be found in series decades apart and the way in which such representations ebb and flow across time. Additionally, the international nature of the comedies selected also makes possible comparison beyond national boundaries.

This is the first dedicated overview of the international television romantic comedy genre, Mary Irwin builds on the critical work on cinematic romantic comedy to offer a dedicated critical analysis of the romantic comedy on the small screen.Drawing on series from the 1960s to the present day, Irwin presents five themed chapters around the theme of romantic love, from searching for it and finding it to the love wars of the book’s title to finding love later in life and in places you didn’t expect. Chapters explore the genre’s key recurrent themes: evolving attitudes to love, relationships, sex, class and money, feminism and post-feminism, changes in the nuclear family (dramatised through contrasting romantic relationships) and shifting discourses of masculinity, situating them within the specific socio-historic and cultural context in which the series are set.Throughout, Irwin underscores the centrality of women, their friendships and their personal and professional lives and experiences to the television romantic comedy genre, demonstrating that it is prominence of female characters and their interests and concerns which have most significantly affected the genre’s thematic focus. Crucially, this thematic approach allows for explorations both of similarities in representations to be found in series decades apart and the way in which such representations ebb and flow across time. Additionally, the international nature of the comedies selected also makes possible comparison beyond national boundaries.

Ararat, a behemoth of a mountain, is 17,000 feet of pain for anyone who dares trespass upon its icy heights. It is a place of dread where one wrong step can send climbers careening down a steep, glacial field into the abyss known as the Ahora Gorge. Many have died on those slopes, and some have never been seen again. So why do climbers come to this place on the far east of the Turkish Frontier? It is not for sport alone; in fact, for most, that is far from the real reason. They come to Ararat flirting with death to find an old boat we all know as Noahs ark. It is said that its rotting corpse is somewhere up there in the swirling clouds and slumbering silence of ancient ice. Come with Mary Irwin, one of the original ark-aeologists, as she travels to Ararat and back again uncovering many of the ancient secrets of Noahs ark. You may be surprised what you find!

This is the first dedicated overview of the international television romantic comedy genre, Mary Irwin builds on the critical work on cinematic romantic comedy to offer a dedicated critical analysis of the romantic comedy on the small screen.Drawing on series from the 1960s to the present day, Irwin presents five themed chapters around the theme of romantic love, from searching for it and finding it to the love wars of the book’s title to finding love later in life and in places you didn’t expect. Chapters explore the genre’s key recurrent themes: evolving attitudes to love, relationships, sex, class and money, feminism and post-feminism, changes in the nuclear family (dramatised through contrasting romantic relationships) and shifting discourses of masculinity, situating them within the specific socio-historic and cultural context in which the series are set.Throughout, Irwin underscores the centrality of women, their friendships and their personal and professional lives and experiences to the television romantic comedy genre, demonstrating that it is prominence of female characters and their interests and concerns which have most significantly affected the genre’s thematic focus. Crucially, this thematic approach allows for explorations both of similarities in representations to be found in series decades apart and the way in which such representations ebb and flow across time. Additionally, the international nature of the comedies selected also makes possible comparison beyond national boundaries.

This book looks at television comedy, drawn from across the UK and Ireland, and ranging chronologically from the 1980s to the 2020s. It explores depictions of distinctive geographical, historical and cultural communities presented from the insiders’ perspective, simultaneously interrogating the particularity of the lived experience of time, and place, embedded within the wide variety of depictions of contrasting lives, experiences and sensibilities, which the collected individual chapters offer. Comedies considered include Victoria Wood’s work on ‘the north’, Ireland’s Father Ted and Derry Girls, Michaela Coel’s east London set Chewing Gum, and Wales’ Gavin and Stacey. There are chapters on Scottish sketch and animation comedy, and on series set in the Midlands, the North East, the South West and London’s home counties. The book offers thoughtful reflection on funny and engaging representations of the diverse, fragmentedcomplexity of UK and Irish identity explored through the intersections of class, ethnicity and gender.