Period drama is a genre of prestige and pleasure, realism and fantasy, spectacle and intimacy. It is embedded in national pasts but speaks to the present, tracing connections, continuities, and change. It reconstructs and reimagines the spaces and places of the past and considers how lives were shaped by the classed, raced and gendered structures of society. Period drama is invested in the bodily and emotional experience of the past, it delights in the intricacies and textures of clothing, the erotics of the gaze and moments of touch. It is often viewed as a genre of escape, nostalgia and traditionalism. Yet it has the potential to challenge dominant cultural narratives and explore under-represented histories, helping to reshape our understandings of our own histories. This book maps out the dominant debates surrounding television period drama. Through a series of themed programme case studies it charts the genre's investments and preoccupations, considering its place within television industries and contemporary culture.

Provides a thorough overview of the key theoretical debates surrounding the study of television but also relates these strongly to production, providing an important link to practice Includes a useful glossary of key terms which students can use to support their own research and back ground reading Contains case studies on popular contemporary shows such as Game of Thrones and Sherlock

In this book, Faye Woods explores the raucous, cheeky, intimate voice of British youth television. This is the first study of a complete television system targeting teens and twenty somethings, chronicling a period of significant industrial change in the early 21st century. British Youth Television offers a snapshot of the complexities of contemporary television from a British standpoint - youth-focused programming that blossomed in the commercial expansion of the digital era, yet indelibly shaped by public service broadcasting, and now finding its feet on proliferating platforms. Considering BBC Three, My Mad Fat Diary, The Inbetweeners, Our War and Made in Chelsea, amongst others; Woods identifies a television that is defiantly British, yet also has a complex transatlantic relationship with US teen TV. This book creates a space for British voices in an academic and cultural landscape dominated by the American teenager.

Provides a thorough overview of the key theoretical debates surrounding the study of television but also relates these strongly to production, providing an important link to practice Includes a useful glossary of key terms which students can use to support their own research and back ground reading Contains case studies on popular contemporary shows such as Game of Thrones and Sherlock

Period drama is a genre of prestige and pleasure, realism and fantasy, spectacle and intimacy. It is embedded in national pasts but speaks to the present, tracing connections, continuities, and change. It reconstructs and reimagines the spaces and places of the past and considers how lives were shaped by the classed, raced and gendered structures of society. Period drama is invested in the bodily and emotional experience of the past, it delights in the intricacies and textures of clothing, the erotics of the gaze and moments of touch. It is often viewed as a genre of escape, nostalgia and traditionalism. Yet it has the potential to challenge dominant cultural narratives and explore under-represented histories, helping to reshape our understandings of our own histories. This book maps out the dominant debates surrounding television period drama. Through a series of themed programme case studies it charts the genre's investments and preoccupations, considering its place within television industries and contemporary culture.