This is a case study of 40 years of policy approaches in Australian children’s television during which the children’s television production ecology was profoundly altered by new distribution techno...

Despite critical and popular acclaim, the travel/food television series of Anthony Bourdain have not received much academic attention. This paper examines the negotiations required of the series’ p...

The Big Bang Theory, Atypical and Community are sitcoms paradigmatic of a recent representational shift, in which center stage is assumed by individuals who face psychological and neurological chal...

This article explores Netflix’s changing business strategies to diversify its catalogues, examining the practices of ‘direct commissioning’ and genre adaptation. The case study of Queen Sono, the f...

Those endorsing or opposing the development of television aesthetics scholarship have exhibited an admirable willingness to reflect upon the rationales and motivations for formulating value judgeme...

This institutional-industrial analysis evaluates how Netflix’s post-2016 rebranding efforts resulted in its ongoing transition from a centrally-managed multinational corporation, based mainly in Si...

This article addresses the role of television as a ‘new media’ in government public relations. Drawing on sociological theories on informalisation, this study analyses three features of the Swedish...

This article investigates the equality of female representation in 2019 Global Original Netflix drama series by identifying trends of female representation across 82 series sample, assessing the qu...

Television studies in Poland has not yet been recognized as an academic discipline in its own right. Despite this obvious omission in the institutional division of academic fields, Polish researche...

This study investigates how the concept of ‘quality TV’ is evolving in the age of streaming video on demand (SVOD) platforms, using reviews of two Israeli TV series on Netflix – Fauda and Shtisel. ...

This article discusses the ways locality and sense of place are used in the production and promotion of streaming media from small nations. We concentrate on location-related decisions behind Man i...

The Swedish/Icelandic co-produced serial Tunn is (Thin Ice, 2020) offers an insight into current possibilities and challenges of production in the Nordic Arctic region and the involvement of the de...

On their surface, medicalised reality television series about food addiction and fatness seem to reinforce the same discourses of neoliberalism that have come to define our understanding of contemp...

Interventional reality programmes often give rise to speculations about how they treat their contributors. However, little is known about the actual production practices that lie behind these compl...

The excess of mystery and ‘meaning’ in Twin Peaks: Season 3 (2017) reflects the post-truth ontological dissonance of information overload, tantalising the thirst for answers that dominates digital ...

Since 2020, Netflix has emphasised the diversity of representation the platform provides through its content. Following the publication of its diversity report, the streamer positions itself as a d...

Netflix’s status as a personalised service has been central to its business proposition and brand. However, recent changes to include community-based metrics within the user interface – such as the...

Small Axe, a series of five films, has brought innovation and prestige to TV drama not only for its overdue history of Caribbean migrant experiences in post-war Britain but also for its transformat...

This article analyses how three South Korean multicultural-themed reality television programmes discursively produce Koreanness. We ground our study in scholarship on ‘othering’ and the notion of b...

For this final issue in the year of the BBC’s centenary, the Book Reviews section has commissioned a special ‘article’. In this issue, we wanted to publish a number of short reviews by critics and academics of their favourite books about the BBC. We asked some authors, writing from different places and at different stages in their careers, to choose and write about a favourite book about the BBC. We

This issue marks the final of our special volume commemorating the centenary of the BBC. It takes as its theme the ‘BBC in the World’, drawing on one of the institution’s five public purposes as laid out in its charter: ‘to reflect the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world’ (BBC, 2022). From an early stage in the BBC’s development, it has understood itself in global terms: by defining

This provocation gives an overview of the BBC in India in terms of television news. It discusses the BBC's sensibilities in relation to the interests and perceptions of Indian audiences through two methods: one, a review of available secondary literature; and two, brief conversations with media professionals who have previously or currently work with the BBC in India. It briefly comments on the conflicting

In the context of constantly changing media communication and the behavior of different actors engaging it, our paper seeks to map current transformations and adaptations to changes within Czech au...

Although the dominant narrative among Africans is that Western media portray Africa in a one-sided and negative way, this belief is being challenged as a result of the intervention of the BBC’s Afr...

This article examines the CBC/Netflix co-production Anne with an E (2017–19), a leading example of cross-platform co-production whose legacy is disrupted by the drama’s unexpected cancellation. Theories of cultural and media imperialism are discussed to contextualise this circumstance, along with an overview of the Canadian media policy context. The relationship between the CBC’s public service model

This essay examines how society and culture constructs differing responses to memory and remembrance in producing documentary series that look back at the American War in Indochina. Drawing upon studies of memory, nostalgia, and remembrance, the primary focus is on the recent documentary series directed by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, The Vietnam War. That series can be seen as a remembrance rather than

This article outlines and examines the role comedy and entertainment have played at the BBC in constructing a sense of national identity both in the UK and overseas. It demonstrates the ways in which UK national identities are intertwined with ideas of a sense of humour, and the extent to which this is a performative act. Beginning with a historical approach, the article shows how the BBC, over time

The article examines formal innovation, authorship and representation within Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s television series Fleabag (2016–2019). Through close examination of the developed use of direct address within the programme, in particular two key moments of trans-diegetic address, the analysis considers how, contrary to ontological assumptions, the adaptation of the theatrical ‘aside’, when converted

This article discusses the important role the BBC played in advancing the careers of ABC women in the post-war era. Adopting an integrated, transnational approach, it revisualises the British broadcasting empire from a dominion perspective, a gendered perspective. This research follows ABC television producers as they undertook transformative, transnational excursions and recognises the necessary mobility

This study explores the transformation of production spaces from empty sound stages to standing sets, drawing on the findings from fieldwork involving 14 key players; studio owners and managers, screenwriters and art directors. The sets containing standing decors of hospital rooms, police stations, jails and courtrooms, transformed from abandoned factories, warehouses and administrative buildings in

This article explores historical representations of Liverpool in two television dramas: ITV’s Cilla (2014) and the BBC’s Boys from the Blackstuff (1982). It is concerned with the ways that television drama can both record and recreate places from the past. Focussing on two dramas set in Liverpool at formative moments in the city’s past, it considers the centrality of an evocation of place and specifically

This working paper focuses on women in leadership roles in the Entertainment Department of BBC North, based at New Broadcasting House on Oxford Road, Manchester and subsequently at Media City UK. In so doing, it considers the role of the department’s founder, Janet Street-Porter, and her leadership of the then Youth Programmes department in the late 80s/early 90s. Drawing on interviews with six women

Past studies of broadcasting histories sometimes excluded and rendered invisible the work of women, concerned as such histories often were with recounting the achievements of pioneering men or detailing institutional chronologies through themes of technology, bureaucracy, leadership and innovation (Abramson, 2003; Burns, 1986; Crisell, 2002; Herbert, 2004). Studies of individual broadcasting institutions

This is a working paper on women and the early BBC television service, prior to September 1939. It considers women in four main areas of work: in production roles, in secretarial/clerical support work, in Makeup and Wardrobe, and as on-screen announcers. Apart from the latter two, which were developed especially for television, it shows a clear link with radio practices, particularly the possibility

Cooking on television after WWII mainly addressed ‘the housewife’ audience, while women themselves were presenting television cooking programmes. History has largely forgotten the presenter Joan Robins, who appeared alongside Philip Harben and Marguerite Patten on BBC broadcasts of the late 1940s and 1950s. Robins specialised in ‘common-sense’ cookery, nutrition, and health, including a controversial

This article presents a range of hitherto unheard women’s testimonies of their experiences working in the BBC Drama Plays department during the 1970s and 1980s. It incorporates the subjective interview testimony of nine women who all worked on BBC1’s prestigious strand of one-off dramas, Play for Today (1970-84) to reveal commonalities and differences in their gendered work experiences. This incorporates

This working paper explores the significance of the work of the assistant head of BBC Television Talks and Features, Grace Wyndham Goldie, in the development of current affairs and documentary television which took place at the BBC in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Wyndham Goldie was central to these processes. She was passionately committed to the creation of a ‘neutral’ current affairs television

Scholars of crime fiction continuously discuss what Nordic Noir series have in common, arguing that it is a genre, a brand and a style respectively. Instead, this article explores Nordic Noir as an atmosphere, observed through the concept of stimmung, and argues that affective world-building in TV-series should be analysed beyond matters of style and narrative. Based on an analysis of The Bridge (2011–2018)

I opened the editorial of the first BBC centenary special issue on something of a downbeat note, relating the existential challenges the institution currently faces. Early 2022 has offered little to inspire optimism. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries (offering a strategic distraction from a seemingly endless stream of bad publicity for the UK government) announced via Tweet on Sunday 16 January a freeze

The United Kingdom and Spain represent two distinct models of media pluralism, and their two different approaches have traditionally been the subject of comparative studies. This article extends this comparison to the question of cultural pluralism through the study of sign language on public television as a mechanism of representation and accessibility for Deaf viewers. Through a content analysis

One area where, along with other UK broadcasters, the BBC has been seen to consistently fail to make headway is in its inadequate representation of minority groups within British society. This study fills a gap in the literature understanding black programming on the BBC. It assesses this programming through a qualitative analysis of the views of 94% of those who produced the current affairs programme

Idents, the logos appearing in the continuity between programmes, are ubiquitous yet easily missed aspects of channel branding. Focusing on BBC One and BBC Two as case studies, this article traces the evolution of the images and sounds of idents over the past three decades. The approach brings to light the creative contributions of graphic designers and composers by combining data from in-depth interviews

In its Annual Plan for 2021/22, the BBC announced that it would cease to make new content for BBC Four, instead relying on repeats and archive programmes to fill the channel’s schedule. The decision might seem to be a pragmatic response to the corporation’s financial constraints, but will it really lead to the channel becoming ‘the home of the most distinctive content from across the BBC’s archive’

This article focuses on BBC Four’s original music programming, considering documentaries which, according to the channel’s commissioning guidelines, ‘tak[e] a musicology approach’ to give audiences a ‘privileged view’ of ‘how the music was made’. It focuses on two case studies: Tunes for Tyrants: Music and Power with Suzy Klein (2017) and Being Beethoven (2020) . Drawing upon original interviews with

This Provocations article reviews some key moments in the history of Children’s BBC, now, since 2019, combined with Education. It refers to important and occasionally controversial programmes, such as Grange Hill, Newsround and Horrible Histories and draws on recent interviews with former head of Children’s, Anna Home, current head of Children’s In-house Production, Helen Bullough, and former head

Following the news detailed in the BBC Annual Plan 2021/22 that BBC Four will cease to broadcast original content and will revert to an archive-only channel as a cost-cutting measure, this article endeavours to understand the legacy of the channel as it was, as it is and what it could become.

Although BBC Four has been lauded for its dedication to more esoteric content and artforms, since the channel was introduced there has concern for the range and depth of arts content on the BBC’s terrestrial services – BBC One and BBC Two. As journalist Stuart Jeffries warned at the launch of the new channel: ‘We shouldn’t let great art disappear into BBC Four’s cultural ghetto and let the mainstream

In recent years, media production studies have grown into a thriving field of research, which has given rise to a discussion of the theoretical and methodological approaches it employs (Paterson et al, 2016; Frandsen, 2007; Bruun, 2010, 2016b). This article is a contribution to this development. The focal point is a discussion of how time and timing are important in media production research. The article

This paper analyses the way in which traditional broadcasters are reorienting their strategy to reach young audiences. From this starting point, we analyse the three specific offers launched very recently by Spain's leading audio-visual groups for youth audiences. The online platforms constitute an attempt to compete with the new internet-distributed video offerings that are gaining increasing ground

The mismatch between political devolution in the United Kingdom and the apparent retention at the centre of responsibility for broadcasting policy, particularly in relation to the BBC, is examined, and the anomalies therein explored. The article argues that, despite the constitutional position, in practice devolution of broadcasting policy has proceeded, albeit unevenly, and more systematic devolution

Fifty years ago, the controller of BBC 2, (now Sir) David Attenborough supported an initiative to expand the range of voices and opinions on the BBC through a specialist Community Programmes Unit (CPU). The Unit formed in 1972, a time when the function of broadcasting was subjected to intense public scrutiny in the run-up to the delayed Annan Committee, which finally reported in 1977. Using archival

This editorial and interview introduce Critical Studies in Television’s new section ‘In Translation’, which provides translations of non-English-language research in television studies. It addresses how contributions from languages other than English enable adequate understanding of transnational TV phenomena through methods and theory developed on a diversity of objects and contexts. The first translation

In early 2021, Rhodri Talfan Davies was appointed Director of Nations, a role which would see him lead all the BBC’s work across Scotland, Wales, England and Northern Ireland, alongside his responsibilities as Director of BBC Wales. Shortly after this appointment, and the announcement of further commitments by the BBC to nations and regions, the authors interviewed Talfan Davies to understand the decisions

David Waine was the Head of Network Production, and subsequently, Head of Broadcasting at BBC Pebble Mill from 1983 to 1994. He held the top job at Pebble Mill during a period of great significance for the BBC Nations and Regions, with competition from independent production becoming established and privatisation beginning to affect the working culture within the BBC. He focussed attention on four

This article will take an historical view on the BBC’s relationship with the nations, beginning with a discussion of the pre-television era, and then considering how the Corporation introduced television to the ‘national regions’ in the post-war period before focussing on Wales as a case study, ending with the establishment of the Welsh Fourth Channel, S4C. The aim is to underline the often complex