This is the first full-length study of the screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin, whose work for film and television includes Z Cars, The Italian Job, Kelly's Heroes, The Sweeney, Reilly - Ace of Spies and Edge of Darkness. With a career spanning six decades Troy Kennedy Martin has seen the rise and fall of the television dramatist, making his debut in the era of studio-based television drama in the late 1950s prior to the transition to filmed drama (for which he argued in a famous manifesto) as the television play was gradually replaced by popular series and serials, for which Kennedy Martin did...

This pioneering study examines regional British television drama from its beginnings on the BBC and ITV in the 1950s to the arrival of Channel Four in 1982. It discusses the ways in which regionalism, regional culture, and regional identity have been defined, outlines the history of regional broadcasting in the UK, and includes two detailed case studies - of Granada Television and BBC English Regions Drama - representing contrasting examples of regional television drama during what is often described as the "golden age" of British television. The conclusion brings the study up to date by...

Cooke's pioneering book discusses changes in televisual style in British television drama from the 1950s to the early 21st century. Taking dinner table scenes as a recurring motif, each chapter analyses the construction of the scene in terms of camerawork, editing, dialogue and performance, exploring how decisions made by the director and members of the production team contribute to the narrative meaning of the scene. The scenes analysed come from single plays, series and serials, including Nineteen Eighty-Four, Coronation Street, Middlemarch, This Life and Teachers. Accompanied by frame...