Popular Television Drama: Critical Perspectives

Editors' introductions to each section discuss how the essays address existing problems in the field and also suggest new directions for study. The editors and contributors consider the strengths and weaknesses in the field of TV drama criticism and offer new lines of inquiry for future work. Part I explores the nature and enduring appeal of popular television genres, focusing on forms and audiences of TV sitcom. Part II comprises essays that look at the notion of 'quality' in television drama, and explores this in relation to marginalised genres and programmes such as science fiction and children's drama. Part III groups together essays that examine a range of programmes, past and present. It suggests new ways in which they might be analysed by thinking about production contexts, questions of realism, performance and gender.