Television Series – serie

One of Britain's foremost TV practitioners, Andrew Davies is the creator of programmes such as 'A Very Peculiar Practice', 'To Serve Them All My Days', 'Pride and Prejudice', 'Othello' and 'The Way We Live Now'. Although best known for his adaptations of the work of writers such as Jane Austen and George Eliot, he has written numerous original drama series, single plays, films, stage plays and books. This volume offers a critical appraisal of Davies’s work, and assesses his contribution to British television.Cardwell also explores the conventional notions of authorship and auteurism which are challenged by Davies’s work. Can we identify Davies as the author of the varied texts attributed to him? If so, does an awareness of his authorial role aid our interpretation and evaluation of those texts? How does the phenomenon of adaptation affect the issue of authorship? How important is ‘the author’ to television? This book will appeal to both an academic readership, and to the many people who have taken pleasure in Davies’s work.

This is the first in-depth study of the science fiction television devised and written by Terry Nation. Terry Nation was the inventor of the Daleks and wrote other serials for 'Doctor Who'; he also wrote the BBC's 1970s post-apocalyptic drama 'Survivors' and created the space adventure series 'Blake's 7'. Previously television science fiction in Britain has received little critical attention. This book fills that gap and places Nation's work in the context of its production. Using Terry Nation's science fiction work as a case study, the boundaries around the authorship and authority of the television writer are explored in detail. The authors make use of BBC's archival research and specially conducted interviews with television producers and other production staff, to discuss how the programmes that Terry Nation created and wrote were commissioned, produced and brought to the screen. The book makes an important contribution to the study of British television history and will be of interest to enthusiasts of Terry Nation's landmark drama series as well as students of Television Studies.

Lynda La Plante is Britain’s most successful and well known screenwriter and the first woman to win the prestigious Dennis Potter writer’s award. Attracting millions of viewers, the popular and critical success of La Plante’s work is central to understanding changes that shook the UK television industry in the late twentieth century. This critical introduction, the first account of her work, focuses on three innovative serials: Widows (ITV, 1983), Prime Suspect (ITV 1991) and Trial and Retribution (ITV 1997).In each chapter questions of gender and genre, acting and stardom and authorship and value are mapped against the changing relationship between women and the television industry. The final chapter traces La Plante’s metamorphosis from ‘just a writer for hire’ to the astute businesswoman she has become through a focus on the trans-national appeal of dramas such as Killer Net (C4 1997) and Bella Mafia (CBS 1997).

This book explores the collaborative sitcoms of two of British television’s most well-known comedy writers. Written over a period of twenty-five years, the four series ‘Dad’s Army’, ‘It Ain’t Half Hot, Mum’, ‘Hi-de-Hi!’ and ‘You Rang M’Lord?’ have endured as much-loved and often-repeated classics.The book explores the themes of Perry and Croft’s writing in terms of their own biography, and as articulations of British cultural and televisual history. Focusing on issues central to the concept of identity in British culture, class, gender, sexuality and race and analysing individual episodes and scenes in the four series, ‘Jimmy Perry and David Croft’ evaluates the contributions made by these two writers to the genre of situation comedy, and locates the programmes in the immediate contexts of their production.Including new interview material from David Croft, this book will be invaluable to students and lecturers of television studies and cultural studies.

Tony Garnett is the first book-length study of one of the most respected and prolific producers working in British television. From ground-breaking dramas from the 1960s such as Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home to the 'must see' series in the 1990s and 2000s such as This Life and The Cops, Garnett has produced some of the most important and influential British television drama. This book charts his career from his early days as an actor to his position as executive producer and head of World Productions, focusing on the ways in which he has helped to define the role of the creative producer, shaping the distinctive politics and aesthetics of the drama he has produced, and enabling and facilitating the contributions of others. Garnett's distinctive contribution to the development of a social realist aesthetic is also examined, through the documentary-inspired early single plays to the subversion of genre within popular drama series.

Tony Garnett is the first book-length study of one of the most respected and prolific producers working in British television. From ground-breaking dramas from the 1960s such as Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home to the 'must see' series in the 1990s and 2000s such as This Life and The Cops, Garnett has produced some of the most important and influential British television drama. This book charts Garnett's career from his early days as an actor to his position as executive producer and head of World Productions. Drawing on personal interviews, archival research, contextual analysis and selected case studies, Tony Garnett examines the ways in which Garnett has helped to define the role of the producer in British television drama. Arguing that Garnett was both a key creative and political influence on the work he produced and an enabler of the work of others, the book traces his often combative relationships with broadcasting institutions (especially the BBC). Additionally, the study discusses the films he made for the cinema and considers some of the ways in which Garnett's experiments in film technology – 16 mm in the 1960s, digital video in the 1990s – have shaped his creative output.Tony Garnett will be of interest to all levels of researchers and students of British television drama, media and film.

This is the first full-length study of the screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin, whose work for film and television includes Z Cars, The Italian Job, Kelly’s Heroes, The Sweeney, Reilly – Ace of Spies and Edge of Darkness. With a career spanning six decades, Troy Kennedy Martin has seen the rise and fall of the television dramatist, making his debut in the era of studio-based television drama in the late 1950s prior to the transition to filmed drama (for which he argued in a famous manifesto), as the television play was gradually replaced by popular series and serials, for which Kennedy Martin did some of his best work.Written in an easily accessible style, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in television drama, screenwriting, and the history of British television over the last fifty years.

This is the first full-length study of the screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin, whose work for film and television includes Z Cars, The Italian Job, Kelly’s Heroes, The Sweeney, Reilly – Ace of Spies and Edge of Darkness. With a career spanning six decades Troy Kennedy Martin has seen the rise and fall of the television dramatist, making his debut in the era of studio-based television drama in the late 1950s prior to the transition to filmed drama (for which he argued in a famous manifesto) as the television play was gradually replaced by popular series and serials, for which Kennedy Martin did some of his best work.Drawing on original interviews with Kennedy Martin and his collaborators, the book provides a comprehensive analysis of the film and television career of one of Britain’s leading screenwriters. Also included is a chapter examining Kennedy Martin’s significant contribution to innovative and experimental television drama - his 1964 ‘Nats Go Home’ polemic and the six-part serial, Diary of a Young Man, plus his 1986 MacTaggart Lecture which anticipated recent developments in television style and technology.Written in an easily accessible style, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in television drama, screenwriting, and the history of British television over the last fifty years.

Alan Bennett is one of the UK’s most well-known and successful writers. His oeuvre is one where populist art forms and intellectually complex arguments co-exist seamlessly, allowing the work to appeal to a wide audience. Bennett’s familiar voice combines both an appreciation for the past with a critical assessment of contemporary Britain, often through relentlessly detailed observation of himself and of others. Bennett has acted, written, directed, presented or edited in almost every conceivable dramatic medium, including stage, television, radio, film and print media. This book is the first to focus on his often neglected work for television, from the mid-1960s right through to the present. It encompasses formats such as the single play (the rarely seen 1970s collaborations with Stephen Frears and Lindsay Anderson), the two Talking Heads series, perceived as a reinvention of the television monologue, and his autobiographical documentaries. While providing a context of television drama in which Bennett’s output is embedded, this study also provides compact overviews of his work in other media. The book is intended for those interested in Alan Bennett, his many voices and the history of television drama.

The British television director Alan Clarke is primarily associated with the visceral social realism of such works as his banned borstal play 'Scum', and his study of football hooliganism, 'The Firm'. This book uncovers the full range of his work from the mythic fantasy of Penda’s Fen, to the radical short film on terrorism, 'Elephant'. Dave Rolinson uses original research to examine the development of Clarke’s career from the theatre and the ‘studio system’ of provocative television play strands of the 1960s and 1970s, to the increasingly personal work of the 1980s, which established him as one of Britain’s greatest auteur directors.'Alan Clarke' examines techniques of television direction, and proposes new methodologies as it questions the critical neglect of directors in what is traditionally seen as a writer’s medium. It raises crucial issues in television studies, including aesthetics, authorship, censorship, the convergence of film and television, drama-documentary form, narrative and realism.

The British television director Alan Clarke is primarily associated with the visceral social realism of such works as his banned borstal play Scum, and his study of football hooliganism, The Firm. This book uncovers the full range of his work from the mythic fantasy of Penda's Fen, to the radical short film on terrorism, Elephant. Dave Rolinson uses original research to examine the development of Clarke's career from the theatre and the 'studio system' of provocative television play strands of the 1960s and 1970s, to the increasingly personal work of the 1980s, which established him as one of Britain's greatest directors.Alan Clarke examines techniques of television direction, and proposes new methodologies as it questions the critical neglect of directors in what is traditionally seen as a writer's medium. It raises crucial issues in television studies, including aesthetics, authorship, censorship, the convergence of film and television, drama-documentary form, narrative and realism.

Trevor Griffiths has been a critical force in British television writing for over three decades. His successes have included the series Bill Brand (1976), his adaptations of Sons and Lovers and The Cherry Orchard (1981) and his television plays, The Comedians (1979), Hope in the Year Two (1994) and Food for Ravens (1997). During his creative life he has negotiated the issues of genre, politics, identity, class, history, memory and televisual form with a sustained creativity and integrity second to none. And he has parallelled this career with one as equally as eminent in the theatre, as well as the slightly more problematic forays into film-writing for Warren Beatty's Reds and Ken Loach's Fatherland.John Tulloch's incisive and wide-ranging volume is a perfect entry point not only for students of Griffiths' oeuvre, but also for anyone entering the discourses of television, media and cultural studies.

Trevor Griffiths has been a critical force in British television writing for over three decades. His successes have included the series Bill Brand (1976), his adaptations of Sons and Lovers and The Cherry Orchard (1981) and his television plays, The Comedians (1979), Hope in the Year Two (1994) and Food for Ravens (1997). During his creative life he has negotiated the issues of genre, politics, identity, class, history, memory and televisual form with a sustained creativity and integrity second to none. And he has parallelled this career with one as equally as eminent in the theatre, as well as the slightly more problematic forays into film-writing for Warren Beatty's Reds and Ken Loach's Fatherland.John Tulloch's incisive and wide-ranging volume is a perfect entry point not only for students of Griffiths' oeuvre, but also for anyone entering the discourses of television, media and cultural studies.

This book assesses Joss Whedon’s contribution to US television and popular culture. Examining everything from his earliest work to his most recent tweets and activist videos, it explores his complex and contradictory roles as both cult outsider and blockbuster filmmaker. Crucially, the book insists on the wider industrial, technological, political and economic contexts that have both influenced and been influenced by Whedon, rejecting the notion of Whedon as isolated television auteur. Using key source material, with exclusive access to drafts of many of the episodes across Whedon’s career, as well as unique correspondence with Whedon collaborator Jane Espenson, this book offers unparalleled access to the creative process that helped produce the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse and Firefly. Energetic, engaging and informed by detailed scholarship and theoretical rigour, the book is not just an essential addition to the study of Whedon, but a timely and important re-invigoration of television studies in general.

This book assesses Joss Whedon’s contribution to US television and popular culture. Examining everything from his earliest work to his most recent tweets and activist videos, it explores his complex and contradictory roles as both cult outsider and blockbuster filmmaker. Crucially, the book insists on the wider industrial, technological, political and economic contexts that have both influenced and been influenced by Whedon, rejecting the notion of Whedon as isolated television auteur. Using key source material, with exclusive access to drafts of many of the episodes across Whedon’s career, as well as unique correspondence with Whedon collaborator Jane Espenson, this book offers unparalleled access to the creative process that helped produce the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse and Firefly. Energetic, engaging and informed by detailed scholarship and theoretical rigour, the book is not just an essential addition to the study of Whedon, but a timely and important re-invigoration of television studies in general.

This, the first book length study of one of Britain's leading television writers, Jimmy McGovern, links his work to key changes in British television over the last thirty years. McGovern's versatility has meant that his work ranges from soap opera to crime series, studio based single drama to art house features for theatrical release. The book therefore acts partly as a survey of the way that drama for the small screen has mutated and changed over a key period in its history. Steve Blandford's percipient and readable book extensively examines some of McGovern's most influential work, including Brookside, Cracker, The Lakes, Hillsborough and The Street.

This book is about the life and work of David Milch, the writer who created NYPD Blue, Deadwood and a number of other important US television dramas. It provides a detailed account of Milch’s journey from academia to the heights of the television industry, locating him within the traditions of achievement in American literature over the past in order to evaluate his contribution to fiction writing. It also draws on behind-the-scenes materials to analyse the significance of NYPD Blue, Deadwood, John From Cincinatti and Luck. Contributing to academic debates in film, television and literary studies on authorship, the book will be of interest to fans of Milch’s work, as well as those engaged with the intersection between literature and popular television.

Creator of television series such as Shameless, Clocking Off, State of Play, Reckless, Linda Green and Children’s Ward, Paul Abbott is a British 'showrunner' and writer whose name and reputation for edgy, intelligent, successful and socio-political programmes holds significant weight both in the contemporary television industry and with the public. This is the first book-length academic study of the television programmes created, written by, and/or executive-produced, by Abbott. It is also the first academic study to attempt to consider his complete oeuvre. Within a broadly chronological structure this book elucidates, decodes and evaluates key examples of Abbott’s output, exhibiting a vital evaluation of Abbott’s work over the past three decades and assessing his contribution to British television. Engaging with thematic and ideological notions of the personal, the autobiographical, the honest, the shameless, the pleasurable and the painful recourse of the specificity of ‘ordinary life’, the volume seeks to combine close textual analysis of Abbott’s work with archival research and specially commissioned interviews with Abbott and other important industry practitioners.

This is the first-ever critical work on Jack Rosenthal, the award-winning British television dramatist. His career began with Coronation Street in the 1960s and he became famous for his popular sitcoms, including The Lovers and The Dustbinmen. During what is often known as the golden age' of British television drama, Rosenthal wrote such plays as The Knowledge, The Chain, Spend, Spend, Spend and P'tang, Yang, Kipperbang, as well as the pilot for the series London's Burning. This study offers a close analysis of all Rosenthal's best-known works, drawing on archival material as well as interviews with his collaborators and cast members.It traces the events that informed his writing, ranging from his comic take on the permissive society' of the 1960s, through to recession in the 1970s and Thatcherism in the 1980s. Rosenthal's distinctive brand of humour and its everyday surrealism is contrasted throughout with the work of his contemporaries, including Dennis Potter, Alan Bleasdale and Johnny Speight, and his influence on contemporary television and film is analysed. Rosenthal is not usually placed in the canon of Anglo-Jewish writing but the book argues this case by focusing on his prize-winning Plays for Today The Evacuees and Bar Mitzvah Boy.This book will appeal to students and researchers in Television, Film and Cultural Studies, as well as those interested in contemporary drama and Jewish Studies.

You’re nicked is the first comprehensive study of television police series in the UK. It shows how British television’s most popular genre has developed stylistically, politically and philosophically from 1955 to the present. Each chapter focuses on a particular decade, investigating how the most-watched series represent the inner workings of the police station, the civilian life of criminals and the private lives of police officers. This new methodological approach unearths the complex ideology underpinning each series and discerns the key insights the genre can provide into the breakdown of the post-war settlement. A must-have for scholars and students of British history, television, sociology and criminology, the book will also be of interest to crime-drama enthusiasts worldwide.

The first and only book length study of British screenwriter, director and producer Sally Wainwright. Authors Gorton and Johnson brings together Wainwright’s key television series and television films with theoretical work on the concept of emotion and feminist television criticism, exploring Wainwright's contributions to British television through the heroic female characters she creates. The book covers a wide range of theoretical work on melodrama, genre and emotion to explore Wainwright’s televisual texts, offering analysis of globally recognised television series such as Happy Valley, Last Tango in Halifax, and Gentleman Jack.

An exciting new strand in The Television Series, the ‘Moments in Television’ collections celebrate the power and artistry of television, whilst interrogating key critical concepts in television scholarship.Each ‘Moments’ book is organised around a provocative binary theme. Complexity / simplicity addresses the idea of complex TV, examining its potential, limitations and impact upon creative and interpretative practices. It also reassesses simplicity as an alternative criterion for evaluation. Complexity and simplicity persuasively illuminate the book’s chosen programmes in new ways.The book explores an eclectic range of TV fictions, dramatic and comedic. Contributors from diverse perspectives come together to expand and enrich the kind of close analysis most commonly found in television aesthetics. Sustained, detailed programme analyses are sensitively framed within historical, technological, institutional, cultural, creative and art-historical contexts.

An exciting new strand in The Television Series, the ‘Moments in Television’ collections celebrate the power and artistry of television, whilst interrogating key critical concepts in television scholarship.Each ‘Moments’ book is organised around a provocative binary theme. Substance / styleoffers fresh perspectives on television’s essential qualities and aesthetic significance. It reassesses the synergy between substance and style, highlighting the potential for meaning to arise through their integration. The book’s chosen programmes are persuasively illuminated in new ways.The book explores an eclectic range of TV fictions, dramatic and comedic. Contributors from diverse perspectives come together to expand and enrich the kind of close analysis most commonly found in television aesthetics. Sustained, detailed programme analyses are sensitively framed within historical, technological, institutional, cultural, creative and art-historical contexts.

An exciting new strand in The Television Series, the ‘Moments in Television’ collections celebrate the power and artistry of television, whilst interrogating key critical concepts in television scholarship.Each ‘Moments’ book is organised around a provocative binary theme. Sound / image reassesses the synergy between televisual images, and sounds and music, as a key creative interaction warranting closer attention. Through close scrutiny of visual and sonic elements, the book’s chosen programmes are persuasively illuminated in new ways.The book explores an eclectic range of TV fictions, dramatic and comedic. Contributors from diverse perspectives come together to expand and enrich the kind of close analysis most commonly found in television aesthetics. Sustained, detailed programme analyses are sensitively framed within historical, technological, institutional, cultural, creative and art-historical contexts.

An exciting new strand in The Television Series, the ‘Moments in Television’ collections celebrate the power and artistry of television, whilst interrogating key critical concepts in television scholarship.Each ‘Moments’ book is organised around a provocative binary theme. Epic / everyday explores the presence within television of the epic and the everyday. It argues that attention to ideas of the epic and notions of the everyday can illuminate television programmes in new ways.The book explores an eclectic range of TV fictions, including Game of Thrones, Lost and Dr Who. Contributors from diverse perspectives come together to expand and enrich the kind of close analysis most commonly found in television aesthetics. Sustained, detailed programme analyses are sensitively framed within historical, technological, institutional, cultural, creative and art-historical contexts.

You’re nicked is the first comprehensive study of television police series in the UK. It reveals how British television’s most popular genre has developed stylistically, politically and philosophically from 1955 to the present.Each chapter focuses on a particular decade, investigating how the most-watched series represent the inner workings of the police station, the civilian life of criminals and the private lives of police officers. This new approach unearths the complex ideology underpinning each series and discerns the key insights the genre can provide into the breakdown of the post-war settlement.Offering insightful readings of police series from Dixon of Dock Green to Happy Valley via The Sweeney, The Bill and Cracker, the book is a must-read for crime-drama enthusiasts worldwide. This new paperback edition features an extensive epilogue on Line of Duty and other Jed Mercurio creations.