Exploring television drama: realism, modernism, and British culture

1 x 5hr seminars (including screenings) per week over ten weeks, as scheduled on MyCampus. This is one of the Honours options in Film and Television Studies and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

None

None

1 x Essay (3,000 words) - 60%

1 x Examination (90 minutes duration) - 40%

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

This course aims to:

■ survey the aesthetic, institutional and industrial history of television drama, concentrating on British television, but with some reference to early American television drama.

■ establish the significance of television drama for British cultural history.

■ encourage the development of specific modes of analysis appropriate to television drama.

■ consider the implications of the convergence of film and television in the 1980s and 1990s, and the importance of independent production since Channel 4.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ enhance knowledge of and comment on the key debates that inform the study of television drama.

■ understand the institutional and cultural contexts in which recent television drama is produced.

■ analyse the specificities of drama written and produced for television.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.