Contemporary British Television Drama

Product Description

The early twenty-first century has seen the emergence of a new style of television drama in Britain that adopts the professional practices and production values of high-end American television while remaining emphatically 'British' in content and outlook. This book analyses eight of these dramas - Spooks, Foyle's War, Hustle, Life on Mars, Ashes to Ashes, Downton Abbey, Sherlock and Broadchurch - which have all proved popular with audiences and in their different ways represent the thematic and formal paradigms of post-millennial drama.

James Chapman locates new British drama in its institutional and economic contexts, considers their critical and popular reception, and analyses their social politics in relation to their representations of class, gender and nationhood. He demonstrates how contemporary drama has mobilised both new and residual elements in re-configuring genres such as the spy series, cop show and costume drama for the cultural tastes of modern audiences. And it concludes that television drama has played an integral role in both the economic and the cultural export of 'Britishness'.

Review

In this highly readable study of some of the most remarkable British TV dramas of recent years, Chapman shows how they make the most of new circumstances of production, new modes of storytelling, and engage with current social and political concerns. He shows how the best UK dramas of our time have not only been innovative but also build on past TV successes to give foundation to our new TV "golden age".

Is British television drama struggling in the face of today's US-dominated streaming and box-set culture, or actually in reinvigorated rude health? That is the question explored in James Chapman's new volume which offers a series of well-researched case studies of eight of the most memorable British productions of the last twenty years in order to wave the flag for the continuing quality and relevance of UK-produced TV drama. Author of previous historical studies of the TV action-adventure series and Doctor Who, Chapman finds cause for optimism when he turns his attention to contemporary British TV drama of the last 20 years: from Spooks and Hustle to Sherlock and Broadchurch?. Clear and accessible, this volume will appeal to students and scholars alike as well as to the general reader curious to find out more about how British TV drama has reinvented itself in the twenty first century.

James Chapman writes 'golden ages are usually only apparent in hindsight' -but in this thoughtful and perceptive book he builds a convincing case that the early twenty first century is a special moment in British television drama. Among the many delights in this exhilarating study is the author's ability to see beyond our place and moment. Chapman deftly connects his texts into a century of British cultural production and, with equal dexterity, looks across to parallel achievements in the US and Europe. This is a path-breaking study which deserves to be widely read.

About the Author

James Chapman is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Leicester, UK.