Author: CSTonline

The original line of this opening was: ‘It might seem odd to devote a television blog to books’; however, following Billy Proctor’s blog last week it now feels almost like bandwagon jumping. For me, though, the two media have...

[The killing of one black and two white civil rights workers] was an example of what we had really been talking to the volunteers about before the three went missing—that you are going into a murderously violent state and you...

Comedian Louie CK made the statement above as part of an interview with an American radio show recently. And, interestingly, even though he’s someone whose material is high on the list of things being illegally accessed, he’s on...

Last summer, I gave a paper on the shifting star persona of Jennifer Aniston at the Console-ing Passions conference, focusing predominantly on the significance of postfeminist discourses of ageing to the construction of...

The face of independent TV production in the UK has changed irrevocably. 21st Century Fox and Apollo Global Management together have taken over Endemol, Shine Group and Core Media and will transform them into the world’s first...

The universe is made of stories, not of atoms. Muriel Rukeyser This is an intimate account of the ways in which the moving image enters and energises the stories that we tell one another on Facebook. It is not meant to be a...

Television has long been accused of creating zombies….breeding an audience that sits transfixed in front of their TV screens, hypnotized by the presumed-to-be mind-numbing qualities of this ‘mindless’ entertainment. This idea...

In the early days of TV, some people apparently said that television was just radio, with pictures. Now, the general opinion would be that this is by no means the case. So it seems a little perverse to write here about something...

Dear Sajid Javid Please accept this column as my application to become the next Chair of the British Broadcasting Corporation’s Trust. I know the monarch ultimately makes such decisions, but between you and me, I believe you...

“Fire up the Mexico” Philip Glenister presents For the Love of Cars I first became interested in cars when I was four. That year my father got his first company car, an Austin Maxi. I can’t remember too much about it...

In light of the recent furore regarding Jamaica Inn (BBC, 2014), this week’s piece takes a look at – or a listen to? – the actor’s voice on television, and how its production and delivery has altered over the years. For those...

NB- Post may contain spoilers regarding Game of Thrones Season 4 Over the past few weeks, CST Online has seen a number of posts discussing the nature (I might say, ethos) of television studies. The question has been addressed...

A furry number 2, perched on a neatly-draped table set with fruit and little cakes, peers at a bowl of strawberries. In the background birthday cards pinned to a cheerful yellow wall spell out the number 50.  But with its...

I thought this time I would take a moment to reflect on some of the ideas generated by three recent CST blogs: TEACHING TELEVISION: WHERE DO I START? by Elke Weissmann, THE PLACE OF THE PROGRAMME IN TELEVISION TEACHING by...

I remember watching ‘Mystery Men’ the fourth episode of Mad Men’s extraordinary fifth season and being struck by the moment when Joan at the breakfast table, tells her husband Greg, an army surgeon who is voluntarily returning...

Recently I re-watched Battlestar Galactica.  No, not that one, but the 1978-1979 series that originally aired on ABC, complete with tinny Cylons, hysterically questionable ‘triad’ costumes and a ‘daggit’ named Muffy.  A while...

I was not interested in the Sixties.  I was interested in the Fifties.  It’s an important distinction. — Matthew Weiner, Austin Film Festival, 26 October 2009 Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner had little idea of what exactly he...

At the end of March I was invited to take part in the University of Glasgow’s RSE funded workshop series “Shaping Scotland’s Talent: Change, Flexibility and New Pathways in the Screen Industries”. It was a fascinating...