British Television Drama: A History

by Lez Cooke

This widely-respected history of British television drama is an indispensable guide to the significant developments in the area; from its beginnings on the BBC in the 1930s and 40s to its position in the twenty-first century, as television enters a multichannel digital era. Embracing the complete spectrum of television drama, Lez Cooke places programmes in their social, political and industrial
contexts, and surveys the key dramas, writers, producers and directors.

Thoroughly revised and updated, this second edition includes new images and case studies, new material on British television drama before 1936, an expanded bibliography and a substantial new chapter that explores the renaissance in the quality, variety and social ambition of television drama in Britain since 2002. Comprehensive and accessible, this book will be of value to anyone
interested in the rich history of British television and modern drama.

296 pages, Paperback

First published August 6, 2003

Reviews

[Stuart Douglas · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a real need for a good history of British TV drama (there's a real need for more good books on UK tv in general) - and this is almost that book. Full of interesting facts and with a decent critical analysis behind it, it mainly falls down in being occasionally poorly written (the tendency to mark every word taken from a quotation in qwuotes, even if it's a single common word is distracting) and often repetitive (the author will make the same point, in almost the exact same words, within the space of a few peages).

Still, this is a decent attempt at a history of a large and sprawling area which does manage to cover a lot of ground (if to uneven effect) in quite a short length.

[[ J o ] · Rating 2 out of 5]

to review at a later date - possibly even re-read at a later date as well, though not urgent ]