This collection explores the presence within television of the epic and the everyday, with reference to a range of fictional television programming, including episodic series and serial dramas, sitcoms, science-fiction, spy dramas, children’s TV and detective shows.

Introduction: epic/everyday – Sarah Cardwell1 Configurations of man, monster and hero in The Incredible Hulk – James C. Taylor2 Game of Thrones’ Epic 9s: a series of epic moments intertwined with the everyday – Louise Coopey3 ‘I felt the touch of the kings and the breath of the wind’: making the everyday epic in Detectorists – Phil Wickham4 From the everyday to the epic and back: ‘foreground’ and ‘background’ in Community– Timotheus Vermeulen5 The epic in the everyday: television and Doctor Who, ‘The Chase’ – Jonathan Bignell6 Storms and teacups: Russell T. Davies, the epic and the everyday – James Walters7 Spies with ties: the marital logic of the Cold War in The Americans– Courtney Hopf and Liam Creighton8 Columbo: in touch with the ordinary –Alex Clayton and Sarah Moore9 Lost in the everyday – Zoë ShacklockIndex

The ‘Moments in Television’ collections celebrate the power and artistry of television and the excitement that particular televisual moments can engender, while simultaneously interrogating current concepts and debates within TV studies.Each book is organised around a binary theme that engages with key concepts in television studies. Epic / everyday explores how both the epic and the everyday inform creative practice in television, arguing that a fuller consideration of these two modes can revitalise TV criticism and interpretation, enabling fresh perspectives on the value of television, its essential qualities and aesthetic significance. The chapters in Epic / everyday are inspired by moments drawn from an eclectic range of TV fictions, dramatic and comedic. Sustained, sensitive attention to features of the epic and the everyday persuasively illuminate the book’s chosen programmes in new ways. Contributors from diverse perspectives expand and enrich the kind of close analysis most commonly found in television aesthetics. Each chapter attends to one carefully chosen programme, evoking its particular qualities and appraising its achievements, while situating it within historical, technological, institutional, cultural, creative and art-historical contexts. The programmes examined here are The Incredible Hulk, Game of Thrones, Detectorists, Community, Doctor Who, The Second Coming, Years and Years, The Americans, Columbo and Lost.Epic /everyday is essential reading for those interested in how closer attention to the presence of the epic and the everyday might enhance our critical appreciation and enjoyment of television.