Category Archives: Series

Costume and space: Inspector Morse in his pyjamas

In the process of thinking through how Morse’s domestic space is presented across the course of four series, I have been struck by particular consistencies of how Inspector Morse is presented in his home, specifically the number of times he … Continue reading

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‘Hunters Walk: Local Knowledge’ (1973): Representing rape in the studio police drama

  (Text of a paper given by Billy Smart at the University of Glamorgan ATRiuM in Cardiff – twice! – at ‘Spaces of Television: The Performance of Television Space’ on Friday 20 April 2012 and ‘Cops on the Box: Crime … Continue reading

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Doctor Who: Warriors’ Gate (1981), Jean Cocteau and the realm of videographic fantasy

  (Text of a paper given by Billy Smart at ‘Walking in Eternity’, University of Hertfordshire, 3 September 2013) What I’m going to do today is examine the spatial realisation of a fantastical world in the 1981 Doctor Who story, … Continue reading

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Temple of Doom: Paul Temple (BBC, 1969-71)

(Review of The Paul Temple Black & White Collection, originally published on Tachyon TV, 2012)  A common game played by fans of old British TV drama is identifying rival copycat productions in the eternal competition between the BBC and ITV. … Continue reading

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Excited about apathy: Red Letter Day (Granada, 1976)

(Review of Red Letter Day: The Complete Series, originally published on Tachyon TV, 2011)  Thanks to the canonical status of the BBC’s Wednesday Play and Play for Today, people have a selective memory when it comes to the single play. … Continue reading

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Plot inflation in Greater Weatherfield: Coronation Street in the 1990s

Snooping on Don Brennan from the Back Garden: Watching Coronation Street in the 1990s.  For much of my twenties in the 1990s and early 2000s, before my eventual career as a Television Studies academic, I worked as a library assistant. … Continue reading

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Recording ‘Public Eye’ (ABC) on location in Birmingham (1966)

  Few major British television drama series of the 1960s have a worse survival rate than that of the first three series of Public Eye (ABC, 1965-68/ Thames 1969-75). Of the 41 episodes of the first three series made by … Continue reading

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