A collection of essays which debates the past, present and future of British television drama. Writers, producers and television executives reflect on the changing face of TV drama, and academics present case studies on critical approaches, general topics and specific programmes.

Acknowledgements Notes on the Contributors Editors' Introduction Contexts; T.Garnett SECTION I: Editors' Introduction: Production Context Television Drama Series: A Producer's View; I.Shubik TV Drama: Then and Now; J.McGrath Sydney Newman and the 'Golden Age'; S.Sutton The 1970s: Regional Variations; B.Hanson Writing Television Drama: Then and Now; A.Davies 'The Age of Innocence'; A.Plater Playing Shops, Shopping Plays: The Effect of the Internal Market on Television Drama; D.Elgar SECTION 2: Editor's Introduction: Critical Constructions, Approaches to TV Drama Mapping the Terrain: Troy Kennedy Martin's Edge of Darkness; J.Bull Holding On: Signs of the City, The Motif of the Redemptive Journey in Tony Marchant's Holding On; P.Billingham 'What Truth is there in this Story?': The Dramatisation of Northern Ireland; E.Braun The Emancipatory Strategies of Reginald Perrin; C.Fox 'Run Over by One's Own Story': Genre and Ethos in Dennis Potter's The Singing Detective'; A.Hilfer Power Plays: Gender, Genre, and Lynda La Plante; J.Hallam Too Secret for Words: Coded Dissent in Female-authored Wednesday Plays; M.Macmurraugh-Kavanagh What Do Actors Do When They Act?; J.Caughie Multiple Authorship in TV Drama: Trevor Griffith's version of The Cherry Orchard; J.Tulloch Conclusion Select Bibliography Index

JOHN BEACHMAN Senior Lecturer, Department of Media and Communication, Goldsmiths College, University of London PETER BILLINGHAM Course Leader, BA Performing Arts, Bretton Hall College, University of Leeds EDWARD BRAUN Professor Emeritus of Drama, University of Bristol JOHN BULL Professor of English Literature and Drama, University of Reading JOHN CAUGHIE Director, John Logie Baird Centre, University of Glasgow DAVID EDGAR Academic and Playwright CHRIS FOX Lecturer, Department of Politics, University of Reading TONY GARNETT Film and Television Producer JULIA HALLAM Director of English and Communication Studies, Liverpool University BARRY HANSON BBC Television Drama ANTHONY HIFLER Lecturer, English Department, University of Texas, Austin JOHN MCGRATH Author, and Film and TV Producer IRENE SHUBIK Television Producer SHAUN SUTTON Drama Producer JOHN TULLOCH Professor of Media Communication, University of Wales, Cardiff TIMOTHY WEST Stage, Film and Television Actor