Tom Nicholls

Last Sunday, faced with a disappointing episode of *Philip K.Dick's
Electric Dreams (*Sony Pictures TV for Channel 4, 2017 --*)* on Channel
4 and the blandness, not to say offensiveness of watching episode 3 of
*The Last Post* (BonafideFilms for BBC, 2017- ), we turned to a repeat
of *The Monocled Mutineer* (BBC, 1986) on the Yesterday channel. I'd
first seen the opening two episodes on a weekend screening led by Ian
Aitken on the Film & TV Masters programme at the University of
Westminster in the early nineties. More recently, I bought the DVD
thinking that I might cover Alan Bleasdale in authorship studies at some
point. I was not new to the series, therefore, but was surprised and
shocked at its power.

##### Trailer for *The Last Post*:

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##### Trailer for *The Monocled Mutineer*:

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To return to our earlier viewing -- *The Last Post* -- whereas this
series simply fails to address the issues of a continuing British
presence in Aden (Now Yemen) after independence was granted, *The
Monocled Mutineer* quickly establishes that there is an untold history
of World War 1 and that we need to know more about it. In *The Last
Post* little is upsetting or provoking. (Bar one scene of the aftermath
of an attack on a British soldier showing us his charred body.) The
trials and tribulations of the post-empirical forces in Aden and their
families pre-dominate and the fact that indigenous people might be
suffering something rather worse than ennui and a tricky pregnancy is
almost completely lost. In three hours I have learnt very little about
the occupation of Aden and the trials for all of bringing this outpost
of Empire to a close. In complete contrast, *The Monocled Mutineer*
(henceforth TMM), was thought provoking and entertaining even, from the
start. The finale of episode 1 is shocking no matter how many times you
have seen it and rightly so since it deals with the execution of an
alleged deserter. And if one thinks that this is an issue of schedule
context, they were both transmitted on BBC 1 at around the same time.
(TMM was also transmitted at 9.00 pm (9.05pm to be precise) in September
1986 on Sundays evenings on BBC 1.)

At this stage it would be very easy to paint a rosier past for British
Television Drama, at a time when things were better at the BBC and the
full force of market competition, really unleashed post '92, had not yet
happened. I recall a day event celebrating 25 years since *The Singing
Detective* (BBC, 1986) -- organised by Royal Holloway -- at which one
participant claimed that there was so much more drama in the 1980's.
There clearly wasn't, it would easy to demonstrate this and indeed if
one got into the murky issues of quality then *The Singing Detective*
was preceded, if memory serves, by *Howards Way* (BBC, 1985-1990)!
(Incidentally this was in the same slot as TMM starting just three weeks
later) Whilst it is possible to describe the change in quantity it is
much harder to a make a pronouncement on quality that does not sound
very much akin to an expression of personal taste. Though, of course one
can draw upon a whole range of writings on this --e.g.  Charlotte
Brunsdon (1990) and Janet McCabe and Kim Akass (2007) -- amongst others.

An ability to shock is hardly the sign of a functioning drama. One of
the reasons that I turned off the episode of *Philip K.Dick's Electric
Dreams* was that a cockney geezer, straight out of the Guy Ritchie
stable, was threatening to chop off a fellow character's finger and
possibly get his colleague to eat it. Sure shocking, up to a point, but
unmotivated, gratuitous and pointless. In TMM the shocking execution,
and the raping of two women in episode 2 is I think
justified.[\[1\]](#_ftn1){#_ftnref1} Firstly, because in both cases
minimal gore and nudity were involved and secondly because only a very
unhinged viewer would take pleasure at what was shown. Thirdly, and most
importantly for me, the purpose of the scenes was to demonstrate the
results of barbarism, though one had to trust that these were documented
historical events. In the week following the Harvey Weinstein
revelations this becomes more pertinent. Certainly, the biggest change
in British TV Drama is a move away from purely male writers and male
perspectives. Writing in the Guardian this week [Kate Hardie suggested
that Sally Wainwright should be put in charge of everything
drama](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/14/time-to-make-link-between-abuse-and-film-content){target="_blank"}.
An understandable reaction, not least to experiences in her own acting
career, as she describes it. But, in turning our back on a male
dominated TV Drama past, might we not lose something. (Whilst, I freely
admit there could be gains.) Bleasdale has himself admitted that he was
not good at writing female characters. I once got locked into an
interesting discussion with Terry Lovell as to why there could not be a
mixture of female and male lead characters in *Boys from the Blackstuff*
(BBC, 1982). It would have been a cheap shot to say because of the
title, but clearly tarmacing was pretty much a male preserve and so
whilst there is a drama to be made about a female gang, this would not
be the naturalistic one that Bleasdale intended. There was Angie Todd
played by Julie Walters, but only in two episodes and perhaps not an
ideal female character? The need for reform in television as a whole,
and particularly in television drama, was and continues to be necessary,
but should we take an essentialist line on this? Just to consider two
recent dramas, *Liar* (Two Brothers Pictures  for ITV, 2017 -) and
*Doctor Foster* (Drama Republic for BBC, 2015 -). For *Liar* this is the
product of two male writers, a male director and female producers and
*Doctor Foster* has a similar spilt between male writers and directors
and female producers. There has been criticism of *Doctor Foster*
recently -- [Women' s
Hour](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b096gjqt){target="_blank"} -- and
this might indeed be because of a male writer, but mostly it appears to
stem from a treatment of the drama as naturalistic rather than the high
melodrama I assume it was intended as.

TMM might also be forgotten because of the continuing interest in the
new in television. Despite issues of ephemerality been partially covered
by DVD, Box of Broadcasts, Netflix and even Youtube, there remains a
real focus on this year and now. Indeed, I certainly feel a pressure to
concentrate on the more recent, the more easily accessible in screenings
when I teach. This is partly the 'tyranny 'of the module evaluation, but
also a desire to engage in the lecture room and at the follow up
seminar. (My record this year has been to screen the previous night's
episode of *Upstart Crow* (BBC, 2016 -) on a Tuesday evening session for
a PSB module. Less than 24 hours! Starting a module on film and TV
authorship a couple of weeks ago, I asked the group if any of them had
heard of Dennis Potter. None had. As I pointed out to them, in the
context of TV drama this might be seen to be extraordinary given that
you would hardly enrol on English and never have heard of Hardy,
Dickens, the Brontë sisters and so on. This, as I re-assured them, was
hardly their fault -- it happens every year that I try this test -- but
it tells us something about the continuing status of television drama
and especially the treatment of its history. Though, of course, one
might argue that Potter was a difficult man and wrote for a different
time in terms of male and female roles and any debate on gender.
Equally, one might argue that his work was ground breaking in British TV
Drama.

To return to TMM, Bleasdale it seemed to me was suggesting that the
barbarism arose from a particular type of masculinity. So, whilst not
shouting that this is the fault of some men and a construction of
masculinity, he makes this very clear in episode 2 when Lady Angela
Forbes played by Penelope Wilton complains about the treatment of
recruits at the training camp at Etaples. The reasons for disregarding
her intervention are many, but they end with the fact that she is a
civilian and primarily that she is a woman. Here her class, the
commanding offer (Timothy West) points out that she knows both the Royal
Family and Chiefs of Staff personally, are completely trumped by her
sex. (Incidentally, this makes for a very interesting intertextual
reference to her role in *Downton Abbey* (Carnival for ITC, 2010 -15)
where she demonstrates the same steely resolve and campaigning zeal, but
with a more successful outcome, as Isobel Crawley)

[![Downtown Abbey\'s Isobel
Crawley](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/image1-1-450x266.jpg){.aligncenter
.size-large .wp-image-4835 loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="450"
height="266"
srcset="https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/image1-1-450x266.jpg.webp 450w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/image1-1-300x178.jpg.webp 300w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/image1-1-140x83.jpg.webp 140w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/image1-1.jpg 730w"
sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px"}](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/image1-1.jpg)In
contrast to any of the military hierarchy Paul McGann's playing of Percy
Topliss, the titular character, portrays a very charismatic form of
masculinity. As Bleasdale's writing indicates this itself is not without
problems. Topliss refuses to take a political position stating more or
less that it is everyone for themselves in this world. After the war, he
even extorts £100 from his old comrade in the mutiny in order to fund
his adopted parents retirement. His politics are portrayed as malleable
and primarily about survival. Thus, giving a contemporary feel both in
1986, and perhaps today, to parallel debates in the Labour Party. His
relationships with women also seem questionable until the latter part of
the drama. He visits the town impersonating an officer in part to sleep
with prostitutes. Here he is portrayed as better than other officers,
more caring, but still making use of the sex trade. To an extent this
might be contextualised by the horrendous conditions at the front and
the general madness of this grim world of the trenches, but is that a
justification after the facts? When he falls in love his relationship,
given that he is on the run, is not a straightforward one. But,
throughout he is shown as a man abandoned by his mother in childhood
looking for love and approval elsewhere. Even his military role is not
as a combatant, but working in the medical core as a stretcher bearer.
Bleasdale again shows the duality in his character in both Topliss'
attempts to rescue the injured, never at his own personal risk and then
 him stealing from the dead when he can on the battle ground.

[![screenshot from The Monocled
Mutineer](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/image2-1-450x270.jpg){.aligncenter
.size-large .wp-image-4836 loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="450"
height="270"
srcset="https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/image2-1-450x270.jpg.webp 450w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/image2-1-300x180.jpg.webp 300w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/image2-1-140x84.jpg.webp 140w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/image2-1-440x264.jpg.webp 440w, https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/image2-1.jpg 620w"
sizes="(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px"}](https://cstonline.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/image2-1.jpg)It
was Robin Nelson who wrote in 1997 that it was possible to objectively
demonstrate that *Boys from the Blackstuff* was superior as a drama to
*Heartbeat* (Yorkshire TV, 1992-2008). This was largely because of the
subject matter of *Boys from the Blackstuff* and its contemporary
relevance to the state of things. John Caughie (2000) in carefully
discussing the idea of 'Serious Drama' (his quote marks) also suggests
that one can definitively distinguish between differing levels of
television drama. (Though it should be noted that he states that any
discussion of British TV drama cannot proceed without reference to
*Coronation Street*.) In his BFI TV Classic on *Edge of Darkness*
(2007), he also discusses seriality and especially the benefits of the
weekly episode. It allows for discussion and reflection and a further
thinking through of the narrative story as opposed to presented plot in
some 'serious' dramas. However, despite the lateness of the hour, I have
to admit we could not wait and simply got the DVD out to continue
viewing episode 2.

I suppose my conclusion here is that much contemporary debate about
British TV Drama deserves closer inspection and the interesting change
here is that there is so much popular debate as well as academic. I can
stand in my local supermarket and hear a conversation about, say *Doctor
Foster*. When my eldest daughter and partner returned home this weekend,
I can wizz through everything on at present and we will find something
that we have both watched to discuss. (Both *Liar* and *Doctor Foster*
in this case). And a hope that both teaching and popular discussion
should not fail to discuss the past in TV drama. But, too much of this
discussion, both popular and academic, relies on received wisdom about
the state of television and society. In other words there is much more
to do here. My great hope is that increasingly those of us in the
academic world, welcome in the regular viewer and fan to this debate.
It's one of many reasons that I teach Television, because potentially
everyone can get involved. Oh, and TMM continues on Yesterday and is
available online......

------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Tom Nicholls** is a Senior Lecturer in Media Theory at the University
of Lincoln. Initially trained as a Photographer at Birmingham School of
Photography his teaching and research interests have gradually migrated
to moving image critical theory over the last twenty five years,
teaching Film Studies and specialising in Television Studies more
recently.

 

[\[1\]](#_ftnref1){#_ftn1} Though here one might pause to think that
firstly, the two female actors concerned were probably paid less that
the male actor who mooned later in the episode simply because they did
not speak and that filming such a scene might not come without some cost
emotionally. There is further female nudity in episode 3 which might
need further consideration as to its necessity and the differing
contexts in which it is shown a brothel and within a loving
relationship.


Last Sunday, faced with a disappointing episode of

 Philip K.Dick’s Electric Dreams (

Sony Pictures TV for Channel 4, 2017 –

 )

on Channel 4 and the blandness, not to say offensiveness of watching episode 3 of

 The Last Post

(BonafideFilms for BBC, 2017- ), we turned to a repeat of

 The Monocled Mutineer

(BBC, 1986) on the Yesterday channel.

Postagens de Rogue Scholar

THE SHOCK OF THE OLD – REDISCOVERING THE MONOCLED MUTINEER LAST SUNDAY