This work brings together writings on television published in Quarterly Review of Film and Video, from essays by Nick Browne and Beverle Houston to the latest historical and critical research. It considers television's economics, technologies, forms and audiences from a cultural perspective that links history, theory and criticism. The authors address several key issues: the formative period in American television history; the relation between television's political economy and its cultural forms; gender and melodrama; and new technologies such as video games and camcorders. Originally published in 1993.

Former Glories and New Beginnings takes us on a nostalgia-filled journey through Aberdeen FC’s glory years, while looking ahead to a promising future. The mere mention of the word ‘Gothenburg’ to older Dons fans instantly conjures memories of European nights under the floodlights, of Simpson and Strachan, McLeish and Miller, of Munich and Madrid. Mention ‘Gothenburg’ to younger fans and they know – it is a story etched in the annals of Scottish football. This book recreates not just one magical European trophy-winning night in May 1983, but the club’s trophy-laden golden era of the late 1970s to mid-80s. The moment a young manager called Alex Ferguson arrived, the balance of power began to shift. Only the best win championships, only the best win trophies at home and abroad. Forty years on, Aberdeen has been away from the top table for too long. Under the stewardship of Dave Cormack, the club is entering a new era, giving fans high hopes for the future.

This volume brings together seminal articles from the years 1969-1972, when Cahiers du Cinema writers were elaborating a major materialist account of the history, theory and criticism of cinema.

This work brings together writings on television published in Quarterly Review of Film and Video, from essays by Nick Browne and Beverle Houston to the latest historical and critical research. It considers television's economics, technologies, forms and audiences from a cultural perspective that links history, theory and criticism. The authors address several key issues: the formative period in American television history; the relation between television's political economy and its cultural forms; gender and melodrama; and new technologies such as video games and camcorders. Originally published in 1993.

The Cashiers du Cinema has played a major role in establishing film theory and criticism as an essential part of the late twentieth century culture. The volumes reprinted here contain articles from 1951 through to 1972. This is the only source where Cashiers is systematically represented in English.

Seventy-four years is a long time to wait. A whole generation of supporters has come and gone since Brentford were last in the top division of English football. Now, under the astute management of Thomas Frank, the Bees are back in the big time. The 2021/22 season has seen the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United visit the Community Stadium, the dreams of years past now a reality. A lifetime of gazing up the football ladder and wondering what it would be like to be in the top tier has become a reality. So how would their trip into the unknown go? Would the Premier League turn out to be the land of milk and honey or would the dreams turn to nightmares? Follow their progress in this season-long diary of the highs and lows of the biggest season in the history of Brentford Football Club. Only one thing is certain - whatever the season would bring for the Bees, the players, staff, supporters and everyone connected with Brentford Football Club would be buzzing!

The Godfather trilogy is among the most significant works of Hollywood cinema of the last quarter century. They provide a richly complex look at a whole segment of American life and culture spanning almost the whole century. In six essays, written especially for this volume, The Godfather trilogy is re-examined from a variety of perspectives. Providing analyses on the form and significance of Coppola's achievement, they demonstrate how the filmmaker revised the conventions of the American crime film in the Viet Nam era, his treatment of the capitalism of the criminal underworld and its inherent violence, the power struggles within Hollywood over the film, and the contribution of opera to the epic force and cinematic style of Coppola's vision of an American criminal dynasty. The Godfather articulates the themes, styles, mythologies, performances, and underlying cultural values that have made the film a modern classic.

New Chinese Cinemas analyzes the changing forms and significance of filmmaking in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong since the end of the Cultural Revolution, with a particular emphasis on how film comments on the profound social changes that have occurred in East Asia over the past two decades. Considering in detail both conservative and progressive stances on economic modernization, it also demonstrates how film has been an important formal structure and social document in the interpretation of these changes. The essays collected here, which were specially commissioned for this volume, also offer extended analyses of the important trends, styles, and work that define Chinese filmmaking in the 1980s.

The Godfather trilogy is among the most significant works of Hollywood cinema of the last quarter century. They provide a richly complex look at a whole segment of American life and culture spanning almost the whole century. In six essays, written especially for this volume, The Godfather trilogy is re-examined from a variety of perspectives. Providing analyses on the form and significance of Coppola's achievement, they demonstrate how the filmmaker revised the conventions of the American crime film in the Viet Nam era, his treatment of the capitalism of the criminal underworld and its inherent violence, the power struggles within Hollywood over the film, and the contribution of opera to the epic force and cinematic style of Coppola's vision of an American criminal dynasty. The Godfather articulates the themes, styles, mythologies, performances, and underlying cultural values that have made the film a modern classic.

272 AD The Roman Emperor Aurelian has defeated Queen Zenobia and crushed the Palmyran revolt. Faridun's Banner, hallowed battle standard of the Persian Empire, has fallen into Roman hands and is to be returned to the Persians as part of a historic peace treaty. But on the eve of the signing the banner goes missing. Recalled to Syria, imperial agent Cassius Corbulo is charged with recovering the flag. Accompanied by his faithful servant Simo and ex-gladiator bodyguard Indavara, Cassius must journey across the dangerous wastes of Syria to the equally perilous streets of Antioch. He and his companions face ruthless brigands, mysterious cults, merciless assassins and intrigue at every turn.

The Soldier's Gene cleverly fills a gap between factual history books and the general historical novel. Tracing the passage of genes for nearly 850 years through the descendants of one man, is an interesting departure from the norm and adds an intriguing slant to what remains a novel. The mixture of facts of the various battles fought by the British Army during those years, and the fictional descriptions of the experiences of the soldiers, in battle and otherwise, has been skilfully written and little imagination is needed to make the reader feel as if they are there with the soldiers. The characters experience the vagaries of war on a very personal level and recount their different tales at first hand although not all are willing soldiers. They fight for different reasons and differing causes both in their homelands and foreign fields. They are not always on the winning side and some don't come through unscathed. Some don't come through at all.

270 AD Rome has ruled Syria for over three centuries. But now the weakened empire faces a desperate threat: Queen Zenobia of Palmyra has turned her Roman-trained army against her former masters and the once invincible legions have been crushed. Arabia, Palestine and Egypt have fallen and now Antioch, Syria's capital, stands exposed. Cassius Corbulo is a young intelligence agent fresh from officer training. He has been assigned the menial task of rounding up wounded legionaries but then urgent new orders arrive. He is the only ranking Roman officer left in the line of the Palmyran advance. He must take command of the fort of Alauran, the last stronghold still in Roman hands, and hold it against the enemy until reinforcements arrive. What Cassius finds at Alauran would daunt the most seasoned veteran, let alone a nineteen year old with no experience of war. A mere scattering of divided and demoralised legionaries remain, backed up by some fractious Syrian auxiliaries and a drunken Praetorian Guardsman. With the Palmyrans just days away, Cassius must somehow find the discipline, resourcefulness and courage to organise the garrison, save Alauran and secure Rome's eastern frontier...

When archaeologist Steve Watkins fled to the Greek island of Samos to escape the horror he had unearthed at Skendleby, he'd hoped to have found refuge. But the ancient terror that had spawned at Skendleby was waiting for him. Across the island an enigmatic and haunted detective, Theodrakis, is baffled by a series of brutal ritual killings infecting the island like a plague and spreading violent anarchy. Now the fates of these two men will be drawn together; against a backdrop of mayhem, fire and violence they begin to uncover the horrifying cosmic significance of this most ancient evil.

Having betrayed King Darius, Miltiades a duplicitous Athenian renegade on the run from the Persian Empire, is forced to make for the churning instability of new democratic Athens. He has to convince the hostile, frightened Athenians that if they don't fight the Persians then, like him, they are doomed. Athens seethes with enemies who want him dead and the only person he can trust is his Luck Bringer the ungovernable teenaged Mandrocles. Against a background of treachery and violence Miltiades fights his battles in the courts and councils while Mandrocles fights his in the streets, theatre, bars and brothels. As the Persian threat grows and the danger within threatens Miltiades chooses to fight at marathon where the ragged citizen army, including some of the greatest figures in the ancient world faces the overwhelming might of the Persian Immortals in 24 hours that changed history.

Now spanning three centuries, Spiritualism has evolved into a movement that reflects the highly individualistic spiritual experience of its adherents, and the anarchic and complex nature therefore of its many and various groupings. The New Spiritualists' Society seeks to allow a networking of those who share its declared views in an attempt to bring some order to this chaos, without coercion or imposing rules and regulations. Among the matters of the procedure, belief, proscriptions and prescriptions that are attached to each of these groupings, the debate around the singing of hymns has become a particular 21st century debating point, possibly overtaking the issue of reincarnation...

Unable to make any progress in locating the missing Indavara, a desperate Cassius has been given an unrewarding assignment in Antioch. But when an old ally's daughter is kidnapped, he feels duty-bound to repay a long standing debt. Disillusioned with the tawdry demands of the Imperial Security Service, he disobeys his superiors and leaves Syria, determined to do some good. Accompanied by nomadic chieftain Kabir and a trio of warriors, Cassius soon finds himself in Greece hunting a vicious band of slave-traders trafficking women across the Empire. But these are no common criminals, and as Cassius sets out to bring them down, he finds himself up against ruthless, cunning men with powerful friends and a lot to lose. For the Agent of Rome, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Still recovering from his previous assignment in Arabia, imperial agent Cassius Corbulo has been spending most of his time and money on women and wine. Unfortunately for him, word of his achievements has reached the emperor Aurelian's deputy and he is sent north, tasked with smashing a counterfeiting gang. Cassius tracks the criminals to the city of Berytus, where his investigations are hampered by civil unrest and uncooperative officials, not to mention the personal problems of his servant Simo and bodyguard Indavara. Despite this - and intense pressure from his superiors - the young officer eventually closes in on the gang. But his enemies will do anything to protect their profits, and Cassius and Indavara soon find themselves fighting not only for the emperor, but for their very survival.

AD 273. Obsessed by the solar religions of the east, the emperor Aurelian sets out to obtain every sacred object within his realm. But one - a mysterious rock said to channel the power of the sun god - lies beyond his reach. Warrior-priest Ilaha has captured the legendary stone and is using it to raise an army against Rome. For Imperial agent Cassius Corbulo and ex-gladiator bodyguard Indavara, stopping him constitutes their greatest challenge yet. Assisted by a squad of undercover soldiers and a Saracen chieftain, they trek south across the deserts of Arabia, encountering sandstorms, murderous money-lenders and a ruthless German mercenary. And when they finally reach Ilaha's mountain fortress, they face thousands of warriors who will give their lives to protect him ... and the black stone.

When the deputy commander of Rome's Imperial Security Service is assassinated on the island of Rhodes, Cassius Corbulo swiftly finds himself embroiled in the investigation. Assisted once more by ex-gladiator bodyguard Indavara and servant Simo, his search for the truth is complicated by the involvement of the dead man's headstrong daughter, Annia. Braving hostile seas, Cassius and his allies follow the assassin's trail south aboard a ship captained by a roguish Carthaginian smuggler and manned by his disparate, dangerous crew. Their journey leads them to the farthest reaches of the empire; to a ruined city where the rules of Roman civilization have long been abandoned, and a deadly battle of wits with a brutal, relentless foe.