Television Books

Swedish crime fiction became an international phenomenon in the first decade of the twenty-first century, starting first with novels but then percolating through Swedish-language television serials and films on to English-language BBC productions and...

Entertaining television challenges the idea that the BBC in the 1950s was elitist and 'staid', upholding Reithian values in a paternalistic, even patronising way. By focusing on a number of (often controversial) programme case studies - such as the soap...

This book is about the life and work of David Milch, the writer who created NYPD Blue, Deadwood and a number of other important US television dramas. It provides a detailed account of Milch's journey from academia to the heights of the television...

Despite its popularity when it first appeared in print in 1600, Every Man out of His Humour has never appeared as a single modern critical edition until now. The volume's introduction and annotations convey early modern obsessions with wealth and...

This book assesses Joss Whedon's contribution to US television and popular culture. Examining everything from his earliest work to his most recent tweets and activist videos, it explores his complex and contradictory roles as both cult outsider and...

Robin Nelson's State of play up-dates and develops the arguments of his influential TV Drama In Transition (1997). It is equally distinctive in setting analusis of the aesethetics and compositional principles of texts within a broad conceptual framework...

Trevor Griffiths has been a critical force in British television writing for over three decades. His successes have included the series Bill Brand (1976), his adaptations of Sons and Lovers and The Cherry Orchard (1981) and his television plays, The...

Alan Bennett is one of the UK's most well-known and successful writers. His oeuvre is one where populist art forms and intellectually complex arguments co-exist seamlessly, allowing the work to appeal to a wide audience. Bennett's familiar voice combines...

Lynda La Plante is Britain's most successful and well known screenwriter and the first woman to win the prestigious Dennis Potter writer's award. Attracting millions of viewers, the popular and critical success of La Plante's work is central to...

One of Britain's foremost TV practitioners, Andrew Davies is the creator of programmes such as A Very Peculiar Practice, To Serve Them All My Days, Pride and Prejudice, Othello and The Way We Live Now. Although best known for his adaptations of the work...

Public issue television is a major contribution to understanding the relationship between television, politics and society. Based on full access to the archives, it offers a fascinating historical account of how one television series, Granada's World in...

This study traces the evolution of the various categories of "factual entertainment" programmes which have come to dominate our screens over the last decade. The book focuses on issues such as the changes in the braodcasting environment which have given...

A rich history of underwater filmmaking and how it has profoundly influenced the aesthetics of movies and public perception of the oceans.In The Underwater Eye, Margaret Cohen tells the fascinating story of how the development of modern diving equipment...

While other books give you tips on how to "write funny," this book offers a paradigm shift in understanding the mechanics and art of comedy, and the proven, practical tools that help writers translate that understanding into successful, commercial...

In the long-awaited sequel to his surprise bestseller, author and screenwriter Blake Snyder returns tohilarious form in Save the Cat Goes to the Movies, in which he dissects 50 top Hollywood and Independent films from the past 30 years. 'To paraphrase...