Author: CSTonline

Who would have thought that the company behind the cuddly Great British Bake Off format would be embroiled in one of the biggest documentary ethics blow-ups of recent years? Love Productions is indeed behind both Bake...

I knew I’d really made it when the New York Times wanted to speak to me about ‘Monocles’ last week. The inquiry was based, said the Grey Lady’s email, on my work about food on television. That in turn derived from something in...

I’m in a new world[1]. I’ve left secure employment at the University of California for London and returned to the kind of life I led for a decade from my mid-20s, when I was a member of what we now call the...

Having since marked several dozen first year essays, Christmas is fast becoming a distant memory. However, one programme that remains in my mind – perhaps more prominently than I’d like – is Michael McIntyre’s Showtime (BBC,...

Kennedy set so much in motion in such a short period of time that the outcome of each narrative was unclear. Journalist and author Evan Thomas in American Experience’s ‘JFK’ (2013) The Kennedy assassination still marks a shared...

There are only three sports I enjoy watching on television and each has a unique way of handling the articulation of player interiority through sound and vision. First up on the oche, as it were, is darts the bar game where...

In the introduction to their 2006 edited collection, Joanne Hollows and Rachel Moseley reflect on the decision to name their book Feminism in Popular Culture rather than Feminism and Popular Culture, arguing that ‘the idea of...

So, the first blog of the new year. Perhaps it should be about Christmas and television, a reminiscence of the supposed golden age when the nation was united around the tv set? But to be honest, television was a bit boring over...

Inspired by the countless reviews of 2013 in the New Year press, I started thinking what the best new TV of the last year had been. This is what I came up with. As well as being slightly self-indulgent, it’s also somewhat...

There are only three sports I enjoy watching on television and each has a unique way of handling the articulation of player interiority through sound and vision. First up on the oche, as it were, is darts the bar game where...

There is something bizarrely compelling about watching something that you’ve been told you will disagree with. This is how I encountered Ripper Street which ended this week, apparently axed as a result of disappointing viewing...

On 11th June 2013, the Greek Government reached a decision to close down the, until then, public broadcaster (ERT) citing the rationale that this measure was inevitable and formed part of the “national attempt” to cut down on...

It’s that time of year again. The streets are festooned with lights, mulled wine is on the menu in my local pub, and television is inundated with Christmas ads. We tend not to write that much about advertising in Television...

On 11th June 2013, the Greek Government reached a decision to close down the, until then, public broadcaster (ERT) citing the rationale that this measure was inevitable and formed part of the “national attempt” to cut down on...

It all started with a big bang.  So, there I was, sitting on the couch after a long day, remote in hand, ready to surf a few hundred channels on my television and make the most of a quiet hour at home.  And yet, for all of the...

One of the questions I’ve had to answer in conducting my PhD research is how I’m going to define what I’m looking at when I research British Television Comedy. More specifically, because I’m conducting interviews with ‘comedy...

After celebrating the joys of modern-day ‘flow’ television last month, this time round I’m going to take a (somewhat nostalgic, I admit) trip into the past. Television formed a major part of my childhood and teens, and I imagine...

The current crisp, cold Winter mornings are making a trip I made to Pensthorpe Wildlife and Gardens in early September seem a distant, balmy memory. Having persuaded a friend (who affords me the affectionate moniker of ‘wildlife...

In analysing media in 21st century, we have becomes used to thinking about working relationships which have become virtual. In an ideal world, creators, practitioners and viewers can ignore the constrictions of place and produce...