Margaret Lewellyn-Jones - Frames and Fictions on Television: The politics of identity within drama

A diverse analysis of cultural identity, and how it has been mediated through the TV drama of the 1980s and 1990s. This book deals with British TV drama, and assesses the impact of popular American series within the British context.

An exploration of identity across the range of dramatic television, from one-off dramas to soap operas. The book consists of a collection of essays, and the central aim is to situate the ideas raised within the changing nature of the wider culture. Familiar titles discussed include:

-- ER -- The Buddha of Suburbia -- The X-Files -- Father Ted -- Driving School -- Diana: Her True Story -- Eastenders -- The Cops -- Silent Witness

The editorial introduction puts the essays in context by examining the changing identity of British TV Drama in terms of the institutional and technical developments in the last 35 years:
-- The fragmentation of the home audience
-- the transnationalisation of media culture
-- the increasingly hybrid nature of programme formats
-- the popularity of US series within a British viewing context

The collection examines a range of issues of identity in social class, ethnicity and race, gender adn sexuality, national and diaspora identity. These are debated in relation to current aesthetic and social concerns. Enriching the arguments of the contributors are a selection of programme examples, drawn from the full range of dramatic formats -- comedy dramas, crime/hospital dramas, factions, literary adaptations, political dramas, single plays, films for TV, situation comedies and soap operas.