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Palgrave Macmillan

British Television Drama

Past, Present and Future

  • Book
  • © 2014

Overview

Editors:
  1. Jonathan Bignell

    1. Department of Film, Theatre & Television, University of Reading, UK

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  2. Stephen Lacey

    1. Faculty of Creative Industries, University of South Wales, UK

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    You can also search for this editor in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Includes contributions from some of the key figures in British television drama, such as Tony Garnett, Phil Redmond and Andrew Davies, responsible for landmark programmes such as “Cathy Come Home”, “Brookside”, and “A Rather English Marriage”
  • Assessments by leading academic experts on British television offer detailed readings of popular programmes including “Coronation Street”, “Downton Abbey”, and “The Sarah Jane Adventures”
  • Editors' introductions set out broad frameworks in television history and methods of television analysis that animate the debates discussed in the chapters

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Table of contents (21 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    1. Introduction

      • Jonathan Bignell, Stephen Lacey
      Pages 1-15

    2. Contexts

      • Tony Garnett
      Pages 16-29

  3. Institutions and Technologies

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 31-31
      Download chapter PDF

    2. Sydney Newman and the ‘Golden Age’

      • Shaun Sutton
      Pages 40-44

    3. Television Drama Series: A Producer’s View

      • Irene Shubik
      Pages 45-51

    4. TV Drama: Then and Now

      • John McGrath
      Pages 52-57

    5. Writing Television Drama: Then and Now

      • Andrew Davies
      Pages 58-61

    6. Brookside: The Technology Backstory

      • Phil Redmond
      Pages 62-69

    7. Plot Inflation in Greater Weatherfield: Coronation Street in the 1990s

      • Billy Smart
      Pages 70-83

    8. Persuaded? The Impact of Changing Production Contexts on Three Adaptations of Persuasion

      • Sarah Cardwell
      Pages 84-97

  5. Representations

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 157-157
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    2. The 1970s: Regional Variations

      • Barry Hanson
      Pages 166-171

    3. ‘What Truth is There in this Story?’: The Dramatisation of Northern Ireland

      • Edward Braun
      Pages 172-183
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Keywords

About this book

Featuring leading scholars of British television drama and noted writers and producers from the television industry, this new edition of British Television Drama evaluates past and present TV fiction since the 1960s, and considers its likely future.

Reviews

"The book not only brings academics and TV professionals together in the debate about televised drama but also provides a probing, but not over-technical introduction to the field of British Television Drama." - Christian-Martin Czypull, University of Hannover, European Journal of English Studies

"Overall this collection remains valuable reading for anyone interested in the academic and commercial analysis of television drama, with valuable new perspectives offered by the newly commissioned chapters." - Mark Fryers, University of East Anglia

Editors and Affiliations

  • Department of Film, Theatre & Television, University of Reading, UK

    Jonathan Bignell

  • Faculty of Creative Industries, University of South Wales, UK

    Stephen Lacey

About the editors

Jonathan Bignell, University of Reading, UK Edward Braun University of Bristol, UK Victoria Byard, University of Leicester, UK Sarah Cardwell, University of Kent, UK John Caughie, Glasgow University, UK James Chapman, University of Leicester, UK Andrew Davies, writer for television, UK David Edgar, University of Birmingham, UK Tony Garnett, film and television producer, UK Julia Hallam, University of Liverpool, UK Barry Hanson, television producer, UK Stephen Lacey, University of South Wales, UK Ben Lamb, University of South Wales, UK John McGrath, film and theatre producer, UK Madeleine Macmurraugh-Kavanagh (Davies), University of Reading, UK Alan Plater, writer for television, UK Phil Redmond, producer and screenwriter, UK Cameron Roach, Senior Commissioning Editor for Drama at BSkyB, UK Irene Shubik, television producer, UK Billy Smart, Royal Holloway University of London, UK Shaun Sutton, drama producer, UK Timothy West, stage, film and television actor, UK

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