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

This article aims to analyse how Netflix uses social media to generate a dialogue between the local and transnational layers of television, to position its brand and curate content in domestic markets. Within the frame of transnationalism, a cross-cultural comparative study has been conducted in three different local European markets: the United Kingdom, Spain and the Nordic region. The results show

SKAM Italia, the Italian version of the Norwegian SKAM format, was first released in Spring 2018 and has reached its fourth season in May 2020, overcoming several industrial struggles and slowly engaging an increasing, young and local audience. This article aims to integrate a production–distribution and reception perspective, showing how they mutually reinforce the series’ identity: the peculiarity

This issue of CST is a general one that has a themed section, on the ‘Youthification’ of television, and a Provocation. This is reflected in the editorial. Whilst CST Editors have written this opening part, the Guest Editors responsible for the special section – who were also the Guest Editors for our Summer 2021 issue, 16.2, which also focused on this topic – have written a separate introduction.

This study documents the industrial conditions that permitted the green-lighting and production of The Walking Dead (2010–present) on AMC, a network that built its reputation through high-brow series like Mad Men (2007–2015) and Breaking Bad (2008–2013). The findings challenge two major arguments forwarded to make sense of the show’s airing: 1) the diagnostic model which suggests that zombies dovetailed

of what it is the people want both from indigenous programming, which she says is often judged by the “Afghaniyat” or “Afghanness” of its contentand also of what exactly it is that they find appealing in various forms of imported programming, be that American, Indian or Turkish. Despite the enormous difficulties faced by media institutions in Afghanistan, her final conclusions are positive, as she

Nikitas Fessas holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences: Communication Sciences, from Ghent University, Belgium. His research interests include film noir, Greek cinema, and gender and sexuality. He has worked as a film reviewer for several years, and has published numerous cultural criticism essays in both Greek and English-language media, as well reviews and academic articles in peer-reviewed

Furthermore, Nygaard and Lagerway mention that ‘Transparent features a transgender parent whose gender transition in body is the feminization of many HWP men who become obsessed with their homes, domesticity, and excessive emotions’ (p. 110). This blatant misgendering seems to belie a misunderstanding of trans identity, going so far as to hint at “emasculation,” a hurtful narrative associated with

This article discusses online media’s contribution to the youthification of television through the case study of DRUCK (tr. Pressure, 2018–), the German format adaptation of SKAM (tr. Shame, 2015–17). Youthification is understood as the television industry’s attempts to reach and win back teen and tween viewers with strategies in production, representations, aesthetics and distribution. In DRUCK, online

This article investigates how Turkish audiences conceptualize authenticity in their engagement with foreign television (TV) productions in the case of Danish TV dramas. The theoretical notion of authenticity is juxtaposed with empirical material from fieldwork interactions, focus group interviews, and one-on-one interviews conducted with Turkish audiences between 2016 and 2018. By employing a semiotic

Interviews with industry workers and decision-makers are a critical method in television studies. Yet, one group of informants proves particularly hard to access – representatives from global media platforms. Why is it so hard to get interviews with global platform representatives, and what does the lack of access do to our research and scholarly debate?

TV formats provide an excellent lens to study the transnationalisation of television, but actual format production has rarely been examined. This article discusses three interrelated limitations of current format scholarship: (1) a gap between industrial and textual studies; (2) a selective focus on localisation; and (3) a lack of insight into daily practices of format production. Using the Flemish

This article explores the tension that lies in the construction of resilience, which is at once, hopeful and inspiring and yet also in danger of positioning the individual as responsible for the lack of welfare and support that is available. In articulating these contradictory readings, I treat The Handmaid’s Tale as a ‘site where the meaning of feminism(s) is produced and contested’ (Ferreday and

The European audiovisual market has unique contextual characteristics that constrain the sustainability and development of audiovisual content. Among other shifts, the rise of global subscription video-on-demand players like Netflix have been reshaping this market. Although Netflix has been investing in Europe, little is known about their actual investment strategies. This study’s goal is to analyse

This article argues that while reliant on Latinx stereotypes in character construction, Breaking Bad (2008–2013) ultimately uses them to problematise American racial categories and conquest mythology. Comparing stereotyped Latinx criminals to the main white character, Walter White (Bryan Cranston), who claims difference, reveals that they share traits. In its use of Latinx stereotypes to transfer focus

Video-on-demand (VOD) interfaces have become a ubiquitous feature of contemporary screen culture. But despite their prevalence and the significant amount of time we spend in these liminal spaces, these interfaces are – within the field of TV studies at least – relatively under-theorised and rarely the subject of focused critical interrogation. Indeed, it has been noted that there are simply ‘no established

2010) marked a change in the production style and narrative themes by presented Indian soap operas. Through the book, Munshi establishes the role played by soap operas in catapulting cable and satellite channels into the broadcast sphere in India. Thus, Munshi provides the reader with chapters that examine the production practices of Balaji Telefilms, including interviews with producers, writers and

All My Children (1970–2011) ABC. Creative Horizons/ABC. Allen RC (1985) Speaking of Soap Operas. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press. Another World (1964–1999) NBC. Procter & Gamble. As the World Turns (1956–2010) CBS. Procter & Gamble/TeleNext. Brunsdon C (2000) The Feminist, the Housewife, and the Soap Opera. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Guiding Light (1952–2009) CBS. Procter

The cover art of Elana Levine’s Her Stories may seem like an obvious choice to the inattentive reader. It brings up assumed memories of the archetypical soap opera viewer: a perfectly presented housewife, hair-done and earrings-on even while staying at home, leaning over a couch to manually tune in to an old-school television, daylight coming through the open-curtained windows, a gallery of framed

This article examines the discourses of streaming success within the television industry by focusing on Netflix and two of the service’s original series: Fauda and La Casa de Papel. Using publicly available secondary data through 2019, this analysis argues the transnational platform’s efforts to redefine successful television while maintaining a high level of data secrecy necessitate the discursive

Dutch research communities were introduced to anglophone Media and Cultural Studies via internationally renowned, pioneering studies in television theory and research on television series. Het Geval Dallas [Watching Dallas] (1982) by cultural scholar Ien Ang was notably ground-breaking because of its use of an active audiences research approach which sought out participant viewers by placing an advertisement

This paper starts from the premise that research into how producers negotiate issues of diversity and multicultural content in Europe is rare and mostly relies on interviews and documents, and furthermore work on understanding those negotiation processes in relation to children’s screen content is even rarer. The article seeks to reflect critically on an alternative hybrid research method, which aims

This article explores the ‘youthification’ of television through real-time storytelling. It draws on a study of the online youth drama blank (2018–2019), NRK’s first follow-up after the hit show SKAM (2015–2017). It finds that real-time drama brings unique opportunities to broadcasters aiming to reconnect with younger audiences, but also substantial challenges. This insight is essential, as previous

Post-crisis Greece is experiencing dynamic audiovisual market growth, faster than the EU average. As Greek TV responds to the challenges of the streaming era, new paths are forged by young viewers/users. This article, based on a survey of nearly 1,000 students, attempts to characterise the viewing patterns of young audiences, who are early adopters and heavy consumers of streaming television. We argue