This module will acquaint you with a range of different television dramatic formats and consider how meaning is constructed on screen (in a opposition to that of other visual media - theatre, film and radio). The module draws upon a wide range of historical and contemporary drama texts to explore dramatic form, narrative, characterisation, representation, visual style, realism, naturalism, non-naturalism, performance and audience reception. The diverse nature of television drama will also be approached and you will be alerted to the role that television drama has had upon engaging with a wide range of social, political, cultural and economic issues over the past fifty years. The module also emphasises the institutional constraints upon the production of popular forms of television drama genres, and how TV drama in recent years has been problematised by financial and ratings constraints. The drama case studies will include:

Drama-documentary
Queer drama
Science Fiction
Soap Opera
Police, detective and crime drama
Children's drama
Costume drama

The programmes for critical examination will include single plays, series and serials and cover such historic examples as The Wednesday Play, Play For Today, Dixon of Dock Green, Doctor Who, The Avengers, The Prisoner, Pennies From Heaven, The Sweeney, Minder, Edge of Darkness, Boys From The Blackstuff and more contemporary dramas like Queer As Folk, Tipping the Velvet, Bloody Sunday and Second Coming.

There will be a programme of lectures/screenings and accompanying seminars. You will be expected to work in small groups to research and present ideas surrounding one of the lecture topics. There will be a number of formative exercises which will include a short textual analysis in preparation for the assessed piece and providing a starting point for the students' seminar topics and/or group research.

Lecture theatre, DVD/video playback facilities, Library & online resources.

Lez Cooke, British Television Drama: A History (London: BFI, 2003).
Jonathan Bignell, et al. (ed's.), British Television Drama: Past, Present and Future (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2000).
Robin Nelson, TV Drama In Transition: Forms, Values and Cultural Change (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1997).
Jason Jacobs, The Intimate Screen (Oxford: OUP, 1999).

An essay [Learning Outcomes 1,2]
A student-led seminar presentation [Learning Outcomes 2,3]