Author: CSTonline

Now that I’m moving between part-time academic posts in three countries, I’m lucky, needy, or nerdy enough, to look for, accept, or leap at short-term opportunities. This week I’m a visitor at the Advanced Cultural Studies...

In the most recent episode of Matt Berry’s sitcom Toast of London, the titular thespian demonstrated a lamentable (though characteristic) disengagement from his profession by several times announcing: ‘I never watch the...

The objects of two of my fandoms – Doctor Who and The Archers – have been in the news in the past few months because of cast changes. Tom Graham, who has played Tom Archer in the BBC radio soap for 17 years, took to Twitter last...

As a fan of the teen drama series genre, I’ve been following E4’s recent offering, Glue (2014), with keen interest. Set in an English rural community, Glue is a teen/crime drama generic hybrid. The series’ over-arching...

WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR THE WALKING DEAD AND GOTHAM About a year ago, I posted a column about the current state of television and wondered if we were at a crossroads with anti-heroes and the television drama.  I feel...

One thing is for sure: World War 1 is not going to disappear from our screens any time soon. It’s there on all channels from CBeebies and BBC3 to ITV and the more specialist Discovery and History channels. The BBC has...

I want to talk about Some Girls. Some Girls is a teen comedy on BBC Three about four 16 year old girls (as they begin the first series) who attend the Greenshoots Academy in South London, all play for the school football team...

Here’s the problem. The licence fee is a cheap and elegant way of funding public service TV. It’s far cheaper than a Sky subscription and yields far more original UK production. However, a lot of people wriggle out of paying it,...

“I know you, I love you, and I can be your friend, I could follow you anywhere, even through solid air.” John Martyn, Solid Air  The holding onto air moment occurs when the scene set before one is so resolutely, ethically...

In July 2014 the BBC announced that it would be ending its exclusive promo production deal with Red Bee Media when the contract runs out in December 2015. Since 2005 Red Bee Media have been producing the majority of the BBC’s...

In today’s exciting world of the prosumer, readers become writers, listeners transform into speakers, viewers emerge as stars, fans are academics, and vice versa. Zine writers are screenwriters. Bloggers are copywriters....

During June and July a good many of my evenings -and some whole days- were spent at the at the National Film Theatre following the Dennis Potter season.  Marcus Prince, the BFI’s knowledgeable television programmer, was...

Some three months ago I got involved in a conversation with colleagues at the University of Bologna about medical humanities grants and, in relation to those, about the possible contribution of media studies, and television in...

Since the announcement that Danger Mouse (1982-1992) is to return to TV screens, this time on the BBC, I have had several conversations with people about whether this ‘remake’ will be any good. Most of these conversations have...

Some three months ago I got involved in a conversation with colleagues at the University of Bologna about medical humanities grants and, in relation to those, about the possible contribution of media studies, and television in...

Huge changes took place in British TV over the summer, and very few people seem to have noticed. American majors embarked on a spending spree that is reshaping both production and broadcasting. Viacom has bought Channel 5 from...

Earlier this year Louie CK told us that “The Whole Country of Australia Rips TV”, and it’s a problem that our Government is trying to do something about. Last month our current Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull,...

The BBC’s charter renewal is due in 2016 but traditionally the years and months beforehand are full of political jostling, public pronouncements and secret (and not so secret) lobbying. In this case, we don’t even know what kind...