In recent years British television drama of the 1960s has been the subject of significant academic scholarship and popular retrospective interest. The British television documentary of the period is, in contrast, markedly under researched. Initial investigation suggested that while the independent television network produced two very influential documentary series in Granada's World in Action (1963-1998) and ABC/Thames This Week (1956-1992), both of which have already been the subject of academic study, it was, in the main, at the BBC that the most critically acclaimed and popularly remembered documentaries of the period were produced. Beginning by tracing the televisual climate of the late 1950s and early 1960s out of which the documentaries developed, this thesis aims to construct the first scholarly narrative history of the development of the BBC television documentary between 1960 and 1970. It examines and re evaluates some of the most significant and influential BBC television documentaries or documentary series of the period, whilst examining the lack of status afforded other particular BBC television documentaries.

As layered and long works, television fiction series have aesthetic properties that are built over time, bit by bit. This thesis develops a group of concepts that enable the study of these properties, It argues that a series is made of strung pieces, a system of related elements. The text begins by considering this sequential form within the fields of film and television. This opening chapter defines the object and methodology of research, arguing for a non-essentialist distinction between cinema and television and against the adequacy of textual and contextual analyses as approaches to the aesthetics of these shows. It proposes instead that these programmes should be described as televisual works that can be scrutinised through aesthetic analysis. The next chapters propose a sequence of interrelated concepts. The second chapter contends that series are composed of building blocks that can be either units into which series are divided or motifi that unify series and are dispersed across their pans. These blocks are patterned according to four kinds of relations or principles of composition. Repetition and variation are treated in tandem in the third chapter because of their close connection, given that variation emerges from established repetition. Exception and progression are also discussed together in the fourth chapter since they both require a long view of these serial works. The former, in order to be recognised as a deviation from the patterns of repetition and variation. The latter, In order to be understood in Its many dimensions as the series advances. Each of these concepts is further detailed with additional distinctions between types of units, motifs, repetitions, variations, and exceptions, using illustrative examples from numerous shows. In contrast, the section on progression uses a single series as case study, Camioal« (2003-05), because this is the overarching principle that encompasses all the others. The conclusion considers the findings of the research and suggests avenues for their application.

Reality TV is the most popular and controversial television genre in postcolonial Islamic Malaysia. With its origins in the West, the copying of reality programmes has heightened existing East-West struggles and magnified social, cultural and political concerns within society. Existing alongside the reality TV phenomenon are 'real' issues concerning multiculturalism, national identity, religious fragmentation, racial tension, gender equality, and the suppression of human rights. Inevitably as a result of tight national security, surveillance and censorship, these 'real world' discourses get entwined in an alternative entertainment form that claims to be 'real'. This study explores the complex ways in which reality TV in Malaysia can be described as 'political' and poses questions about the role of reality programmes in the Malaysian public sphere. Furthermore, this study considers the relationship between reality TV and ideas of nationalism in the context of globalisation and cultural change. It examines how reality programmes may be viewed as spaces of fantasy and (or) empowerment, which could then reveal the formation of new social, cultural, and national ideals. Based on textual and discourse analysis, this study also engages with the Islamisation-liberalism dialectic manifested through reality TV. By looking at the reception of reality TV among Malaysians including notions of identification, performativity and transformation, this study attempts to construct a relatively new way of looking at the conflicts and contradictions embedded within the Malaysian society. It makes an argument for the idea of a new Malaysian civilisation and the postcolonial nation's desperate attempt to be non-West.

Telefantasy series Torchwood (2006-2011, multiple production partners) was industrially and paratextually positioned as being Welsh, regardless of its frequent status as an international coproduction. When, for series four, the production (and diegesis) moved primarily to the US as a coproduction between BBC Worldwide and American premium cable broadcaster Starz, fan response was negative from the announcement, with the series being termed 'Americanised' in popular and academic discourse (e.g., Porter 2012, Derhy 2013). This study interrogates these assumptions via textual, industrial/contextual and audience analysis and finds that, in part due to the competing public service and commercial remits of the BBC, Torchwood was a glocalised text from the beginning, despite its positioning as Welsh, which then became glocalised again in series four. This 'second order of glocalisation,' as I term it, has not previously been explored in depth within TV Studies. It leads to a disjuncture between the national 'imaginary' (Tulloch 1995: 151, cf Weissmann 2012)-- as expressed by the text and interpreted by the (fan) audience. The study also develops the concept of a banal diegetic nationalism, drawn from Billig (1995) and adapted to television aesthetics; this includes elements of the mise-en-scène with a special focus on costume drawn from interviews with both costumers for the series. The Bourdieuian concepts of fan and national cultural capitals are also explored in-depth; their interplay creates and impacts a number of potential readings. In addition, by having conducted 42 semi-structured interviews and four focus groups (totalling 16 further participants), this study qualitatively investigates various readings produced by audience members in the US, UK and Canada, as well as transnational viewers who are long-term residents of one of those nations. The study finds that the audience is pseudo-reflexive (cf. Sender 2012) when it comes to interpretation; though all express an awareness and acceptance that national identity is constructed and fluid, they still express an underlying essentialism when discussing national identity in the context of the series. This broadly agrees with Tulloch (1995) and Weissmann (2012) who both note the inflexibility of audience readings with regard to television and national identity (and their attendant connotations) whilst also helping to account for the lack of reading the initial series text as glocalised. The focus upon fan and national cultural capitals also allows for a discussion of performativity in the context of national identity. My work innovatively extends debates surrounding transnational TV drama into audience studies, at the same time demonstrating the ongoing importance of carrying out critical readings of fan interpretations.

This thesis deals with methods of detection i.e. the mode of investigation employed to catch a criminal in American detective dramas on television. It divides methods of detection into the categories of ‘rational-scientific’ and ‘irrational-subjective’. ‘Rational-scientific’ methods of detection are linked to the literary tradition of Golden Age fiction and suggest an analytical distance to the crime. ‘Irrational-subjective’ methods are linked to a hard-boiled tradition and suggest (often emotional) ‘closeness’ to the victim, suspects or witnesses. Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault, John Fiske and Jason Mittell, this thesis views genre as discourse. As such, television genre is viewed as always changing and intersecting with a variety of other discourses, for example, representing social and political debates, shifts within the television industry and mirroring ideologies of ‘truth-finding’. It analyses methods of detection as a discourse internal to the genre, as a genre convention, as well as external to the genre i.e. as relating to discourses regarding social, political and industrial developments. It also explores how methods of detection, as an expression of ideologies of ‘truth-finding’, reveal how a specific series may be positioned in relationship to modern post-Enlightenment and postmodern discourses. A number of texts from different historical moments (Dragnet [NBC, 1951-1959], Quincy, M.E. [NBC, 1976-1983], CSI: Crime Scene Investigation [CBS, 2000- ], Hill Street Blues [NBC, 1981-1987], Twin Peaks [ABC, 1990-1991] and The Shield [fX, 2002-2008]) are analysed as examples of how individual genre texts represent these shifts in attitudes towards ‘truth-finding’. In a final step, this thesis analyses The Wire (HBO, 2002-2008) and Dexter (Showtime, 2006- ) as dramas that represent a more recent shift in the representation of ideologies of ‘truth-finding’ that may formulate ‘alternative’ methods of detection and a possible epistemological shift in postmodern culture.

The virtual studio is a form of Mixed Reality environment for creating television programmes, where the (real) actor appears to exist within an entirely virtual set. The work presented in this thesis evaluates the routes required towards developing a virtual studio that extends from current architectures in allowing realistic interactions between the actor and the virtual set in real-time. The methodologies and framework presented in this thesis is intended to support future work in this domain. Heuristic investigation is offered as a framework to analyse and provide the requirements for developing interaction within a virtual studio. In this framework a group of experts participate in case study scenarios to generate a list of requirements that guide future development of the technology. It is also concluded that this method could be used in a cyclical manner to further refine systems post-development. This leads to the development of three key areas. Firstly a feedback system is presented, which tracks actor head motion within the studio and provides dynamic visual feedback relative to their current gaze location. Secondly a real-time actor/virtual set occlusion system that uses skeletal tracking data and depth information to change the relative location of virtual set elements dynamically is developed. Finally an interaction system is presented that facilitates real-time interaction between an actor and the virtual set objects, providing both single handed and bimanual interactions. Evaluation of this system highlights some common errors in mixed reality interaction, notably those arising from inaccurate hand placement when actors perform bimanual interactions. A novel two stage framework is presented that measures the magnitude of the errors in actor hand placement, and also, the perceived fidelity of the interaction from a third person viewer. The first stage of this framework quantifies the actor motion errors while completing a series of interaction tasks under varying controls. The second stage uses examples of these errors to measure the perceptual tolerance of a third person when viewing interaction errors in the end broadcast. The results from this two stage evaluation lead to the development of three methods for mitigating the actor errors, with each evaluated against its ability to aid in the visual fidelity of the interaction. It was discovered that the adapting the size of the virtual object was effective in improving the quality of the interaction, whereas adapting the colour of any exposed background did not have any apparent effects. Finally a set of guidelines based on these findings is provided to recommend appropriate solutions that can be applied for allowing interaction within live virtual studio environments that can easily be adapted for other mixed reality systems.

An abundance of studies post 9-11 have critically evaluated the representations of Islam and Muslims in the media. In spite of this, very little work has focused on portrayals of Muslims in fictional television programming. This thesis aims to address this gap by investigating language usage and the construction of identities in the BBC sitcom Citizen Khan, which is centred around a family living in the Sparkhill area of Birmingham. In order to carry out this analysis a 40,000 word corpus was created, consisting of transcripts of the thirteen episodes from the first two seasons of the sitcom. The analysis utilised an array of different analytical tools and approaches to carry out an in-depth textual and visual analysis. Corpus software was used to carry out an initial quantitative analysis which identified salient aspects of identity within the sitcom. This was followed by a qualitative analysis which employed a modified version of Fairclough’s 3 stages of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) framework to assist in interpreting the data from a wider contextual standpoint. Incorporated into the framework were aspects of Conversational Analysis and Multimodal Analysis, in order to provide evaluation of some of the textual and visual aspects of the programme. The analysis indicated that the lead character Mr Khan has a hybrid of intersecting identities: Pakistani, British and Muslim; and his negotiation of these multiple identities was used by the writers to generate humour. Due to aspects of the Muslim and Pakistani identities overlapping with one another, the scriptwriters employed negative stereotyping around Pakistanis within the sitcom, as opposed to directly stereotyping Muslims as a whole. The findings also identified an association between Pakistani and family identity, with aspects of Pakistani culture dictating the dynamics within the household. Namely, through the importance attached to producing male offspring, coupled with Khan attempting to construct himself as the patriarch of the family and Mr and Mrs Khan’s first names never being revealed to the audience. The gendered identities of the characters were also found to be intersecting with other facets of their identity. A visual analysis identified a correlation between Khan’s usage of good girl and his religious expectations for his daughters. Additionally, analysis of male-related terms indicated Khan’s views were male-centred, with him drawing upon constructions of hegemonic masculinity and patriarchal order. Overall, the study identified that Citizen Khan reinforced negative stereotyping of Pakistanis and Muslims. However, by portraying Muslims in a normalised setting on a primetime slot on BBC One, despite its many flaws Citizen Khan could be seen as providing a positive step in the right direction in enabling more diverse and honest representations of Muslims in the media.

Traded as a format between Britain and the US, the sitcom has traditionally been understood as closely connected to its socio-cultural context (Tueth, 2005; Wagg, 1998) and as being characterised by its humorous intent (Eaton, 1978; Mills, 2009). Current format studies of sitcoms illustrate the variety of ways in which the final texts relate to their local contexts, offering either comparative analyses between versions or singular critiques of programmes focusing on their suitability for their particular market (Beeden & de Bruin, 2010; Ducray, 2012). While doing well to showcase the nations involved, what is missing is an understanding of the industrial specifics involved. This project seeks to understand how industrial factors impact the format process, specifically what role industry understandings and expectations of genre play. Therefore, to meet the goal of this project, this study is guided by the question of how genre is expressed in industrial discourses surrounding sitcom remakes between Britain and the US and presents its findings in terms of identification, origination, work, and intention. These aspects of the remake process are shown to be framed in terms of genre. As such, genre is significantly utilised as a framing device (Bielby & Bielby, 1994) within the statements surrounding comedy remakes. The publicly made statements under study are a part of the discursive formation of genre for these programmes (Mittell, 2004) and, therefore, their examination contributes to understanding these programmes generically. Understandings of comedy within the statements examined are utilised and expressed with regard to familiarity and a negotiation between similarity and difference. This study is focused on only one remake relationship – that between Britain and the US – and only considers one genre: scripted television comedy. The findings of this study demonstrate the utility of utilising this method for future studies of the relationship between remakes and genre.

In light of the implementation of the pan-BBC diversity policy in 2000 - with the aims/objectives of the BBC to reflect the nation that we serve (Dyke 2000), this study undertook a methodical analysis of the output of the Midlands Today programme. This enabled an assessment to be made upon whether the BBC’s ‘paper’ diversity policy translates into ‘practice’ on Midlands Today, in terms of this programme reflecting the cultural ethnic diversity of the West Midlands region in its output. The finding of this analysis was then used to determine to what extent, this programme’s output could be deemed to be a reflection/depiction/articulation of a multi-ethnic public sphere. The analysis of 258 Midlands Today programme’s broadcast over the periods of 2002 to 2008, revealed that the output of this programme consistently fails to representatively reflect the cultural ethnic diversity of the West Midlands region – to where it broadcasts. This study identified that the primary reason for this finding, is because of the lack of a cultural change in the news production process, as employed on the Midlands Today programme; a cultural change that would facilitate and encompass the aims/objectives of the pan-BBC diversity policy, hand-in-hand and alongside the aims/objectives of the news production process. Therefore, Midlands Today’s failure to contribute to the formation of a multi-ethnic public sphere, can be understood in terms of this programme being shaped by at least 2 separate forces - both ‘vying’ and ‘competing’ for the ‘air space’ within the Midlands Today programme. The first: the aims/objectives of the news production process; the second: the aims/objectives of the pan-BBC diversity policy. Without a significant cultural change, the first force - the news production process, will always take priority, supersede and inadvertently negate the second.

Over the last decade soap operas shown on British television have been constantly facing severe criticism from the public, politicians and the press for allegedly containing ‘too much sex’; and in the context of rising teenage pregnancies and the spread of STDs and HIV in the UK, concerns over the role of television’s sexual content in general, and that of soap operas’ in particular, in potentially influencing young people’s perception, attitudes and behviours are most accentuated. The overall objective of this study is to comprehensively identify and analyse, using the method of content analysis, the amount, frequency, type, nature and contexts of sexual activity portrayed across a four-week sample of British and Australian soap operas shown on the UK‘s five main terrestrial channels: the sample analysed include the three most popular British soap operas, Coronation Street (ITV), EastEnders (BBC One), and Emmerdale (ITV), the UK‘s soap operas most popular with teenagers, Hollyoaks (Channel 4) and its late night spin-off Hollyoaks in the City (Channel 4), and the two day-time Australian soap operas, Neighbours (BBC One) and Home and Away (Channel Five). The study also provides a comprehensive quantitative analysis of, first, some of the important thematic aspects and contextual elements of soap operas‘ portrayal of sex and sexuality, such as themes of sexual intercourse and other behaviours, accompanying behaviours and outcomes of sexual activity, and, second, the attributes and general profiles of all characters involved in sexual activity. Furthermore, the study aims to identify whether or not soap operas contain safe-sex messages and any references to sexual Risks and Responsibilities (R & R) and provide a detailed analysis of soap operas‘ treatment of the various aspects of safe-sex and sexual risks and responsibilities. The main findings in this current research clearly indicate that day-time and prime-time soap operas: (a) contain relatively moderate amounts of sexual portrayals, compared with post-watershed serialised drama programmes and general TV programming, (b) rarely portray overt and explicit intimate sexual behviours, (c) rely primarily on narrative devices in their portrayal of sex and sexuality, (d) place primary and substantial emphasis on sexual activity, and (e) dedicate substantial numbers of portrayals and storylines to highlight sexual risks and responsibilities and disseminate safe-sex messages. For instance, in some soap operas, Coronation Streets and EastEnders, around four out of every ten scenes with sexual content revolved around sexual Risks and Responsibilities.