This pioneering book provides detailed analysis of scenes from nine British television dramas produced between 1954 and 2001. Taking dinner table scenes as a recurring motif, the study analyses changes in televisual style with reference to production practices, technology, aesthetic preferences, and social and institutional change.

'Cooke's is an interesting and tightly-focused book concerned only with the development of aesthetic styles in television, due primarily to changes in technology, but also influenced by changing ideas of television style.' - Derek Johnston, Critical Studies in Television 10.1

Autorentext
Lez Cooke is a Research Fellow in the Department of Media Arts at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is the author of British Television Drama: A History (2003), Troy Kennedy Martin (2007) and A Sense of Place: Regional British Television Drama, 1956-82 (2012).

Inhalt
Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction 1. Nineteen Eighty-Four (BBC, 1954) 2. Coronation Street (ITV, 1960) 3. The Bond (BBC1, 1965) 4. Upstairs Downstairs (ITV, 1971) 5. Bar Mitzvah Boy (BBC1, 1976) 6. Middlemarch (BBC2, 1994) 7. This Life (BBC2, 1996) 8. Births, Marriages and Deaths (BBC2, 1999) 9. Teachers (Channel 4, 2001) Conclusion Appendix 1: Select Glossary of Technical Terms Appendix 2: Average Shot Lengths Notes and References Bibliography Index