It is the end of May, and we are coming to the end, I assume, of the high-budget, ‘quality’, event-TV dramas that follow the blockbuster repeat series of the winter months. In Britain, this meant that we got to see a lot of dramas that were usually based on real crime cases.
N.B. This article contains SPOILERS relating to the FIRST FOUR EPISODES OF THE NEW SERIES OF TWIN PEAKS. Do not read this if you haven’t seen these and want to remain unspoilt.
In a recent Sight and Sound article (March 3 2017) Nick James made an interesting observation about BBC1’s latest historical/period drama, Taboo (BBC1, 2017, Scott, Hardy et al). Likening its look and characters to an Alan Moore graphic novel (“ From Hell ”), Taboo , according to James, has a “peculiar iconography” that “yearns to be linked…with the shadows…only graphic novelists care
In endeavoring to comprehend the current conjuncture, I’ve been trying to think back a hundred, fifty, twenty, even ten years. Could I have imagined, just a decade ago, that the following would be progressive nostra today?
I finally got around to watching the new version of Roots (if you haven’t seen it yet, episodes 2-4 are still available on the IPlayer). The series, even in its new version, still feels monumental: it evidences just how rare it still is to see history told from any other point of view than that of a white, heterosexual man. Unfortunately, despite this feeling of observing television history, I also found myself being quite disappointed.
Big changes are taking place at Sky, even before the much anticipated buyout of non-Murdoch shareholders by Fox. This buyout is currently awaiting approval from Ofcom and the relevant minister. At least that isn’t John Whittingdale any more, but Karen Bradley is scarcely one to stand up to the all-powerful Murdoch machine.
Film and Screen Studies, School of Media, University of Brighton 27-28 July, 2017 Proposals are invited for an interdisciplinary 2 day conference at the University of Brighton In response to the news of the British government’s imposed changes to junior doctor contracts in 2015, actors from the BBC’s hospital drama Holby City and Channel 4’s […]
Booking is now open for the season of ‘Forgotten TV Dramas’ at BFI Southbank, London in February 2017.
22 February 2017, NFT3, BFI Southbank, London, 11-6pm. An event co-hosted by the BFI, Learning on Screen/BUFVC and the Centre for the History of Television Culture and Production, Royal Holloway (in association with the AHRC-funded ‘Forgotten Television Drama’ research project) Rationale ·
The latest season of Sherlock concluded on January 15th in its unfortunately characteristic vein of ill-conceived pyrotechnics, scarcely-credible plot lines and levels of reality that test the patience of its viewers.