After celebrating the joys of modern-day ‘flow’ television last month, this time round I’m going to take a (somewhat nostalgic, I admit) trip into the past. Television formed a major part of my childhood and teens, and I imagine the same is true for many of those who contribute to this site.
The current crisp, cold Winter mornings are making a trip I made to Pensthorpe Wildlife and Gardens in early September seem a distant, balmy memory. Having persuaded a friend (who affords me the affectionate moniker of ‘wildlife geek’) to join me, we packed up a picnic and set off to the north Norfolk nature reserve.
In analysing media in 21 st century, we have becomes used to thinking about working relationships which have become virtual. In an ideal world, creators, practitioners and viewers can ignore the constrictions of place and produce work together in the click of an upload. But broadcasters still have buildings, offices, studios, sets and workspaces.
As a scholar of all things transmedia, the news that Netflix is teaming up with Marvel Comics to produce a series of shows based upon several comic book properties provides valuable insight into the way in which television is adapting to a shift in delivery.
I was recently consulted by telecommunications company, TalkTalk, on what it called its ‘Television Tribes’ report. Along with TalkTalk, I worked on producing a detailed, long-form questionnaire conducted by telephone and online by the organisation OnePoll.
The TARDIS is one of Doctor Who ’s most distinctive iconographic components and it performs as a space for narrative action, as a vehicle, as an object within a setting, and as a place that is inhabited. In this post I want to link together some ideas about how the TARDIS functions aesthetically, with ideas about how it enables and constrains the production of Doctor Who .
With the 2014 centenary of the First World War already being trailed, the BBC’s move to a steampunk view of history is fascinating.
Last week (Friday 8 th November, to be exact) marked the 25 year anniversary of the UK broadcast of Scott and Charlene’s wedding in Australian soap opera, Neighbours , watched by almost 20 million viewers at the time.
The media’s power to imbue particular places with the authority to be sites of interesting and pertinent stories fascinates me. It also feels like it is a process in operation everywhere. This summer, an article in The Times caught my eye because it was titled, ‘Thank goodness Edinburgh hasn’t gone all Scottish’. It’s a classic bit of journalistic word-play, but for the life of me I couldn’t grasp why Edinburgh should disavow its Scottishness.
Starting work on the three year AHRC project ‘The History of Forgotten TV Drama in the UK’ at Royal Holloway has led me to think a lot about to what extent I remember television myself, and the reliability of my own memory. A widespread false memory syndrome can afflict even programmes that are ostensibly well remembered.
This blog is primarily inspired by Christine Geraghty’s recent CST post ‘Re-Appraising the Television Heroine’ and also what Douglas Howard refers to as the ‘crossroads’ that has been reached in US quality television.