Style in British Television Drama

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Lez Cooke

   Pages 1-6

3. Nineteen Eighty-Four (BBC, 1954)

   • Lez Cooke

   Pages 7-28

4. Coronation Street (ITV, 1960)

   • Lez Cooke

   Pages 29-40

5. The Bond (BBC1, 1965)

   • Lez Cooke

   Pages 41-60

6. Upstairs Downstairs (ITV, 1971)

   • Lez Cooke

   Pages 61-78

7. Bar Mitzvah Boy (BBC1, 1976)

   • Lez Cooke

   Pages 79-93

8. Middlemarch (BBC2, 1994)

   • Lez Cooke

   Pages 94-105

9. This Life (BBC2, 1996)

   • Lez Cooke

   Pages 106-115

10. Births, Marriages and Deaths (BBC2, 1999)

    • Lez Cooke

    Pages 116-124

11. Teachers (Channel 4, 2001)

    • Lez Cooke

    Pages 125-138

12. Conclusion

    • Lez Cooke

    Pages 139-144

13. Back Matter

    Pages 145-160

    PDF

This pioneering book provides detailed analysis of scenes from nine British television dramas produced between 1954 and 2001. Taking dinner table scenes as a recurring motif, the study analyses changes in televisual style with reference to production practices, technology, aesthetic preferences, and social and institutional change.

• bibliography
• drama
• knowledge
• style
• television

'Cooke's is an interesting and tightly-focused book concerned only with the development of aesthetic styles in television, due primarily to changes in technology, but also influenced by changing ideas of television style.' - Derek Johnston, Critical Studies in Television 10.1

• Royal Holloway, University of London, UK

  Lez Cooke

Lez Cooke is a Research Fellow in the Department of Media Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of British Television Drama: A History (2003), Troy Kennedy Martin (2007) and A Sense of Place: Regional British Television Drama, 1956-82 (2012).

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