This collection is a wide-ranging exploration of contemporary British television drama and its representations of social class. Through early studio-set plays, soap operas and period drama, the volume demonstrates how class provides a bridge across multiple genres and traditions of television drama. The authors trace this thematic emphasis into the present day, offering fascinating new insights into the national conversation around class and identity in Britain today. The chapters engage with a range of topics including authorial explorations of Stephen Poliakoff and Jimmy McGovern, case studies of television performers Maxine Peake and Jimmy Nail, and discussions of the sitcom genre and animation form. This book offers new perspectives on popular British television shows such as Goodnight Sweetheart and Footballers' Wives, and analysis of more recent series such as Peaky Blinders and This is England.

Bursting with beautiful illustrations to color, Harry Potter: Ravenclaw: The Official Coloring Book is a must-have coloring book for members of this house and fans of the magical film series. Grab your colored pencils--it's time for coloring wizardry! Show your house pride with intricate all-new artwork of characters, iconic objects, and magical places from the Harry Potter films, all themed to house Ravenclaw. Featuring important house moments from the Sorting Ceremony, Yule Ball, feasts, and so much more, this coloring book is jam-packed with special designs and scenes every wise Ravenclaw will love. GORGEOUSLY INTRICATE: 64 pages of intricate designs, perfect for hours of coloring relaxation and creativity BELOVED CHARACTERS: Includes all-new artwork of beloved Ravenclaws, including Luna Lovegood, Cho Chang, Filius Flitwick, and more COLLECT ALL HOGWARTS HOUSES: Collect all four official Harry Potter Coloring Books: Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff OFFICIAL WIZARDING WORLD COLORING BOOK: Created in collaboration with the studio behind the Harry Potter films 20th ANNIVERSARY: Released to coincide with the 20th anniversary celebration of the first Harry Potter film.

This 80-card deck uncovers the memories of the soul. Astrology, personal insights, and symbolism in daily life are revealed.

Charting the intersection of aesthetic representation and the material conditions of urban space, The City Since 9/11 posits that the contemporary metropolis provides a significant context for reassessing theoretical concerns related to narrative, identity, home, and personal precarity. In the years since the September 11 attacks, writers and filmmakers have explored urban spaces as contested sites-shaped by the prevailing discourses of neoliberalism, homeland security, and the war on terror, but also haunted by an absence in the landscape that registers loss and prefigures future menace. In works of literature, film, and television, the city emerges as a paradoxical space of permanence and vulnerability and a convergence point for anxieties about globalization, structural inequality, and apocalyptic violence. Building on previous scholarship addressing trauma and the spectacle of terror, the contributors also draw upon works of philosophy, urban studies, and postmodern geography to theorize how literary and visual representations expose the persistent conflicts that arise as cities rebuild in the shadow of past ruins. Their essays advance new lines of argument that clarify art's role in contemporary debates about spatial practices, gentrification, cosmopolitanism, memory and history, nostalgia, the uncanny and the abject, postmodern virtuality, the politics of realism, and the economic and social life of cities. The book offers fresh readings of familiar post-9/11 novels, such as Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, but it also considers works by Teju Cole, Joseph O'Neill, Silver Krieger, Colum McCann, Ronald Sukenick, Jonathan Lethem, Thomas Pynchon, Colson Whitehead, Paul Auster, William Gibson, Amitav Ghosh, and Katherine Boo. In addition, The City Since 9/11 includes essays on the films Children of Men, Hugo, and the adaptation of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, chapters on the television series The Bridge, The Killing, and The Wire, and an analysis of Michael Arad's Reflecting Absence and the 9/11 Memorial.

Few could have predicted the enduring fascination with the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes. From the stories of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to the recent BBC series that has made a heartthrob out of Benedict Cumberbatch, the sleuth has been much a part of the British and global cultural legacy from the moment of his first appearance in 1887.
The contributors to this book discuss the ways in which various fan cultures have sprung up around the stories and how they have proved to be a strong cultural paradigm for the ways in which phenomena functions in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Essays explore the numerous adaptations, rewritings, rip-offs, role-playing, wiki and crowdsourced texts, virtual realities, and faux scholarship Sherlock Holmes has inspired. Though fervid fan behavior is often mischaracterized as a modern phenomenon, the historical roots of fan manifestations that have been largely forgotten are revived in this thrilling book.
Complete with interviews with writers who have famously brought the character of Holmes back to life, the collection benefits from the vast knowledge of its contributors, including academics who teach in the field, archivists, and a number of writers who have been involved in the enactment of Holmes stories on stage, screen, and radio. The release of "Fan Phenomena: Sherlock Holmes "coincides with Holmes's 160th birthday, so it is no mystery that it will make a welcome addition to the burgeoning scholarship on this timeless detective.

Neo-Victorian Things: Re-Imagining Nineteenth-Century Material Cultures in Literature and Film is the first volume to focus solely on the replication, reconstruction, and re-presentation of Victorian things. It investigates the role of materiality in contemporary returns to the past as a means of assessing the function of things in remembering, revisioning, and/or reimagining the nineteenth century. Examining iterations of material culture in literature, film and popular television series, this volume offers a reconsideration of nineteenth-century things and the neo-Victorian cultural forms that they have inspired, animated, and even haunted. By turning to new and relatively underexplored strands of neo-Victorian materiality-including opium paraphernalia, slave ships, clothing, and biographical objects-and interrogating the critical role such objects play in reconstructing the past, this volume offers ways of thinking about how mis/apprehensions of material culture in the nineteenth century continue to shape our present understanding of things.

Michael Shurtleff has been casting director for  Broadway shows like Chicago and  Becket and for films like The  Graduate and Jesus Christ  Superstar. His legendary course on auditioning has  launched hundreds of successful careers. Now in this  book he tells the all-important HOW for all  aspiring actors, from the beginning student of acting to  the proven talent trying out for that  chance-in-a-million role!

As traditional social hierarchies fall away, ever steeper levels of economic inequality and the entrenchment of new class distinctions lend a new glamor to the idea of aristocracy: witness the worldwide popularity of Downton Abbey, or the seemingly insatiable public fascination with the private lives of the British royal family. This collection of essays investigates the enduring attraction with the icon of the aristocrat and the spectacle of aristocratic society. It traces the ambivalent reactions the aristocracy provokes and the needs (political, ideological, psychological, and otherwise) it caters to in modern times when the economic power of the landed classes have been eroded and their political role curtailed. In this interdisciplinary collection, aristocracy is considered from multiple viewpoints, including British and American literature, European history and politics, cultural studies, linguistics, visual arts, music, and media studies.

In this book, leading and emerging scholars consider the mixed critical responses to Lena Dunham's TV series Girls and reflect on its significance to contemporary debates about postfeminist popular cultures in a post-recession context. The series features both familiar and innovative depictions of young women and men in contemporary America that invite comparisons with Sex and the City. It aims for a refreshed, authentic expression of postfeminist femininity that eschews the glamour and aspirational fantasies spawned by its predecessor. This volume reviews the contemporary scholarship on Girls, from its representation of post-millennial gender politics to depictions of the messiness and imperfections of sex, embodiment, and social interactions. Topics covered include Dunham's privileged role as author/auteur/actor, sexuality, body consciousness, millennial gender identities, the politics of representation, neoliberalism, and post-recession society. This book provides diverse and provocative critical responses to the show and to wider social and media contexts, and contributes to a new generation of feminist scholarship with a powerful concluding reflection from Rosalind Gill. It will appeal to those interested in feminist theory, identity politics, popular culture, and media.

Fast Company reporter Joe Berkowitz investigates the bizarre and hilarious world of pun competitions from the Punderdome 3000 in Brooklyn to the World competition in Austin. When Joe Berkowitz witnessed his first Punderdome competition, it felt wrong in the best way. Something impossible seemed to be happening. The kinds of jokes we learn to repress through social conditioning were not only being aired out in public-they were being applauded. As it turned out, this monthly show was part of a subculture that's been around in one form or another since at least the late '70s. Its pinnacle is the O. Henry Pun Off World Championship, an annual tournament in Austin, Texas. As someone who is terminally self-conscious, Joe was both awed and jealous of these people who confidently killed with the most maligned form of humor. In this immersive ride into the subversive world of pun competitions, we meet punsters weird and wonderful and Berkowitz is our tour guide. Puns may show up in life in subtle ways sometimes, but once you start thinking in puns you discover they're everywhere. Berkowitz's search to discover who makes them the most, and why, leads him to the professional comedian competitors on @Midnight, a TV show with a pun competition built into it, the writing staff of Bob's Burgers, the punniest show on TV, and even a humor research conference. With his new unlikely band of punster brothers, he finally heads to Austin to compete in the World Championship. Of course, in befriending these comic misfits he also ended up learning that when you embrace puns you become a more authentic version of yourself.

How do various forms of comedy - including stand up, satire and film and television - transform contemporary invocations of nationalism and citizenship in youth cultures? And how are attitudes about gender, race and sexuality transformed through comedic performances on social media? The Cultural Set Up of Comedy seeks to answer these questions by examining comedic performances by Chris Rock and Louis C.K., news parodies like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report, the role of satire in the Arab Spring and women's groundbreaking comedic performances in television and the film Bridesmaids. Breaking with the usual cultural studies debates over how to conceptualize youth, the book instead focuses on the comedic cultural and political scripts that frame them through affective strategies post-9/11.

This book examines the structuring of space in Romanian and Hungarian cinema, and particularly how space is used to express the deep imprint of a socialist past on a post-socialist present. It considers this legacy of the Eastern European socialist regimes by interrogating the suffocating, tyrannical and enclosing structures that are presented in film. By tracing such paradigmatic models as horizontal and vertical enclosure, this book aims to show how enclosed spatial structuring restages the post-socialist era to produce an implicit and collective form of remembrance. While closely scrutinizing the interplay of location and image, Space in Romanian and Hungarian Cinema offers a new approach to the cinema of the region, which unites the filmic productions under a defined, post-socialist Eastern European spatial umbrella. By simultaneously portraying the gloom of a socialist past, while also conveying a sense of longing for a pre-capitalist era, these films convey how sense of unity and also ambivalence is a defining hallmark of Eastern European cinema.

This open access, interdisciplinary book presents innovative strategies in the use of civil drones in the cultural and creative industry. Specially aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the book offers valuable insights from the fields of marketing, engineering, arts and management. With contributions from experts representing varied interests throughout the creative industry, including academic researchers, software developers and engineers, it analyzes the needs of the creative industry when using civil drones both outdoors and indoors. The book also provides timely recommendations to the industry, as well as guidance for academics and policymakers.

This book offers a fresh approach to British film music by tracing the influence of Britain's musical heritage on the film scores of this era. From the celebration of landscape and community encompassed by pastoral music and folk song, and the connection of both with the English Musical Renaissance, to the mystical strains of choral sonorities and the stirring effects of the march, this study explores the significance of music in British film culture. With detailed analyses of the work of such key filmmakers as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, Laurence Olivier and Carol Reed, and composers including Ralph Vaughan Williams, William Walton and Brian Easdale, this systematic and in-depth study explores the connotations these musical styles impart to the films and considers how each marks them with a particularly British inflection.

A TIMES BEST COMEDY BOOK OF 2021 'Phil Wang makes me laugh out loud with every single thing he does and this book is no exception' JAMES ACASTER 'An hilarious breath of fresh air' AMY SCHUMER 'Phil Wang is as original a writer as he is a comedian. Sidesplitter is predictably hilarious but also quietly moving' SATHNAM SANGHERA 'A razor-sharp dissection of cultural connections, divides and differences. And yes, it's side-splittingly funny' ADAM KAY 'But where are you REALLY from?' Phil Wang has been asked this question so many times he's finally written a book about it. In this mix of comic memoir and observational essay, one of the UK's most exciting stand-up comedians reflects on his experiences as a Eurasian man in the West and in the East. Phil was born in Stoke-on-Trent, raised in Malaysia, and then came of age in Bath - 'a spa town for people who find Cheltenham too ethnic'. Phil takes an incisive look at what it means to be mixed race, as he explores the contrasts between cultures and delves into Britain and Malaysia's shared histories, bringing his trademark cynicism and wit to topics ranging from family, food, and comedy to race, empire, and colonialism.

This book analyzes six key narratives of Hurricane Katrina across literature, film and television from the literary fiction of Jesmyn Ward to the cinema of Spike Lee. It argues that these texts engage with the human tragedy and political fallout of the Katrina crisis while simultaneously responding to issues that have characterized the wider, George W. Bush era of American history; notably the aftermath of 9/11 and ensuing War on Terror. In doing so it recognizes important challenges to trauma studies as an interpretive framework, opening up a discussion of the overlaps between traumatic rupture and systemic or, "slow violence."

What stories are told about teaching and learning on TV and in film? And how do these stories reflect, refract and construct myths, anxieties and pleasures about teaching and learning? This collection looks at how pedagogy is represented on screen, and how TV programs and films translate pedagogic ideas into stories and relationships. International in scope, with case studies and analysis from the UK, US, Australia, Turkey and Brazil-the book adopts a critical stance in relation to the ways in which theories of learning and myths about education are mobilized on screen. Teaching and Learning on Screen: Mediated Pedagogies provides a stimulating addition to the field of media and cultural studies, while also promoting debate about particular pedagogic models and strategies that will contribute to the professional development of educators and those involved in teacher education.

This book offers a unique approach to storytelling, connecting the Enneagram system with classic story principles of character development, plot, and story structure to provide a seven-step methodology to achieve rapid story development. Using the nine core personality styles underlying all human thought, feeling, and action, it provides the tools needed to understand and leverage the Enneagram-Story Connection for writing success. Author Jeff Lyons starts with the basics of the Enneagram system and builds with how to discover and design the critical story structure components of any story, featuring supporting examples of the Enneagram-Story Connection in practice across film, literature and TV. Readers will learn the fundamentals of the Enneagram system and how to utilize it to create multidimensional characters, master premise line development, maintain narrative drive, and create antagonists that are perfectly designed to challenge your protagonist in a way that goes beyond surface action to reveal the dramatic core of any story. Lyons explores the use of the Enneagram as a tool not only for character development, but for story development itself. This is the ideal text for intermediate and advanced level screenwriting and creative writing students, as well as professional screenwriters and novelists looking to get more from their writing process and story structure.

'Pacy, witty and affectionate' Guardian Rob Beckett never seems to fit in. At work, in the middle-class world of television and comedy, he's the laddy, cockney geezer but to his mates down the pub in south-east London, he's the theatrical one, a media luvvy. Even his wife and kids are posher than him. In this hilarious exploration of class, Rob tries to understand the life he lived growing up as a working-class kid in comparison to the life he lives now. Will he ever favour a craft beer over strong lager? When did it become normal for kids to eat sushi? Is he still working class? Why does he feel so embarrassed about success? And, will it ever be acceptable to serve pie mash on a wooden board? Tackling the questions big and small, A Class Act is a funny, candid, often moving account of what it feels like to be an outsider and why actually that's the best (slightly awkward) place to be.

'An absolute riot. I'm literally going to read it again once I've finished, and I'm a miserable bastard...it's a belter' - FRANKIE BOYLE If you've ever been on a night out where you got blackout drunk and have laughed the next day as your friends tell you all the stupid stuff you said, that's what being autistic feels like for me: one long blackout night of drinking, except there's no socially sanctioned excuse for your gaffes and no one is laughing. A summary of my book: 1. I'm diagnosed with autism 20 years after telling a doctor I had it. 2. My terrible Catholic childhood: I hate my parents etc. 3. My friendship with an elderly man who runs the corner shop and is definitely not trying to groom me. I get groomed. 4. Homelessness. 5. Stripping. 6. More stripping but with more nervous breakdowns. 7. I hate everyone at uni and live with a psycho etc. 8. REDACTED as too spicy. 9. After everyone tells me I don't look autistic, I try to cure my autism and get addicted to Xanax. 10. REDACTED as too embarrassing. 'Of course it's funny - it's Fern Brady - but this book is also deeply moving and eye-opening' - ADAM KAY 'It made me laugh out loud and broke my heart and made me weep...I hope absolutely everyone reads this, and it makes them kinder and more curious about the way we all live' - DAISY BUCHANAN 'Glorious. Frank but nuanced, a memoir that doesn't sacrifice voice or self-awareness. And it has brilliant things to say about being autistic and being funny' - ELLE MCNICOLL 'Fern is a brilliant, beautiful writer with a unique voice and even more unique story. Astute, honest and very, very funny.' - LOU SANDERS 'So funny and brilliant' - HOLLY SMALE 'Fern's book, like everything she does, is awesome. Incredibly funny, and so unapologetically frank that I feel genuinely sorry for her lawyers.' - PHIL WANG