This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Piper, Helen Title: Questions of value and problems of critical judgement : British television drama serials, Autumn 1997 - Autumn 2000. General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. However, if you have discovered material within the thesis that you consider to be unlawful e.g. breaches of copyright (either yours or that of a third party) or any other law, including but not limited to those relating to patent, trademark, confidentiality, data protection, obscenity, defamation, libel, then please contact [email protected] and include the following information in your message: •Your contact details •Bibliographic details for the item, including a URL •An outline nature of the complaint Your claim will be investigated and, where appropriate, the item in question will be removed from public view as soon as possible. Questions of Value and Problems of Critical Judgement: British Television Drama Serials, Autumn 1997 - Autumn 2000 Helen Piper A dissertationsubmitted to the University of Bristol in accordancewith the requirementsof the degreeof Doctor of Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts. Department of Drama April 2001 Number of words: 79,415 II Abstract This thesis offers an examination of contemporaryBritish television drama and its cultural value at the end of the twentieth century, questioning our ability to ascribe merit. The study surveysemerging trends from a broad range of so-called 'quality' drama serials transmitted on British terrestrial television between October 1997 and October 2000, and usesthis body of texts as an empirical context to explore broader questions of aesthetics and use-value. Relevant secondary discourses such as industrial debate, journalistic critique, and cultural theory are all interrogated. Argumentscomprising a 'realist paradigm' are examinedin somedetail, as are certain critical positions commonly adopted towards 'costume' drama. In each case, modifications to establishedconcepts are recommendedso as better to reflect the public and other functions often served by mainstream television fictions. In particular, a paradigmof 'dramatic myth' is developedand offered as an alternative framework for analysis,and by extension,for critical evaluation. Casestudy texts provide a locus for testing and modifying argumentsthroughout. For example, Butterfly Collectors (Granada 1999) epitomisesa number of key trends; Warriors (BBC 1999) is used to demonstratevarious positions on realism; and both Vanity Fair (BBC 1998) and Our Mutual Friend (BBC 1998) serveto elaboratethe case(or predicament)of the literary adaptation. The fmal chapter is dedicatedto the analysis of three contemporarydramas: Nature Boy (BBC 2000), Births Marriages and Deaths (BBC 1999) and The Last Train (Granada 1999). These analysesdraw upon selectedcriteria associatedwith both realism and myth in order to arrive at a valorising critique that prioritises receiver use value. The argument is consistently madefor extendingthe practiceof criticism as a socio-culturaland pedagogicprocess, whilst remaining ever mindful of the problems of theory, scholarship,and power this might involve. For Ava May, whose arrival was so timely. Acknowledgments My thanksto all thosewho gavetheir support,and particularly to Dr JanetThurnim for her consistentencouragement and advice whilst supervisingthis project. iii Author's declaration I declarethat the work in this dissertationwas carried out in accordancewith the Regulationsof the University of Bristol. The work is original exceptwhere indicated by specialreference in the text and no part of the dissertationhas beensubmitted for any other degree. Any views expressedin the dissertationare those of the author and in no way representthose of the University of Bristol. The dissertationhas not beenpresented to any other University for examinationeither in the United Kingdom or overseas. SIGNED- DATE: iv Table of Contents PAGE NO. Introduction I Chapter One: A Very Public Practice - trends in television drama at the end of the 10 1990S 1.1 The Late 1990s: Forms, Formats and Special II Events 1.2 Butterfly Collectors 16 1.3 Character and Individualism 22 The Last of the Protagonists 28 The Public Professional 33 1.4 Groups and Communities 35 Modes of Group Contemplation 35 The Tribe 39 1.5 Open Spaces 41 An*us Places' 43 1.6 Temporality 48 Chapter Two: Dramatic (Mis)Appreciation 51 2.1 Ideasof quality 52 Consumersovereignty 54 Quality as a matter of taste 59 Quality as a measurableobject 62 2.2 Audiences,Players and the Public Domain 68 2.3 The Businessof Critique 85 2.4 Aesthetics 93 Towards a FunctionalistAesthetics 99 Use-Value 101 Cha pterThree: "Here and Now" -The limits of 109 reality 1 3.1 Liberal Realism - the principle of 'harsh reality' 110 and the example of JoJo 3.2 Marxism, the 'Classic Realist Text', and the 117 example of Warriors Agency and Society 119 The Problems of the Realist Text 127 (i) Metalanguage and Illusion 129 (ii) Correspondence of Ideology and Form 132 3.3 Conventionalism, Reference and Subjectivity 137 V 3.4 Border Zones 145 3.5 Artistic Realism 148 3.6 The Limitations of the Realist Paradigm 158 Chapter Four., Dramatic Myth 164 4.1 A sketchof Dramatic Myth 166 4.2 Conceptualand TheoreticalBasis 169 Cognitive Use Values 173 Experiential Use Values 193 4.3 Myth and Beyond 200 203 Chapter Fiv : "There and Then" - Costumes, Metaphors and Myth 5.1 The 1990sCostume Cycle 203 5.2 Vanity Fair 217 5.3 Our Mutual Friend 232 Chapter Six: Dramatic Myths of Nature and 246 Transformation 6.1 Nature Boy 247 62 TheLast Train 258 63 Births, Marriages and Deaths 270 Conclusions 282 Bibliograph 290 Appendix A Programme chronology: transmission 307 datesof new dramaseries and serials Appendix B- Productioncredits for casestudies 312 vi INTRODUCTION A witty! Ohthe bud of commendation Fit for a girl of sixteen;I am blown, man, I be by I should wise this time ............ The dog days of the twentieth century were far from interesting times for British television drama, or so, at least, the usual commentatorswould have it. In marked contrast to the excitementsof new technology,few obvious artistic milestoneswere laid, and little in the way of fiction emergedto galvanisethe nation or stir its col.lective conscience. There were no lost Cathys, no Yossers, and no questions asked in parliament,although the Prime Minister did, somewhatnotoriously, offer to lend his 2 supportto the "Free Deirdre Campaign". The youthfid dynamicappeared always to be elsewhere,with the most recognisableinnovations of style, form and audience addressoccurring in the emergent and rapidly evolving hybrid genres of factual entertainment,'docu-soap', and later, in social experimentssuch as the excessively debatedBig Brother (Bazal/Channel4,2000). By contrast, the drama serial seemed more and more like a portly baby-boomer,a blown radical whose energeticzeal had long sinceebbed away. True to form, broadsheetcritics stiU nmnagedto expend a fair amount of energy remarkingupon the unremarkablenature of most dramas,or as ChristopherDunkley 1 livia, WomenBewure Women,Thomas Middleton, (Act 1, sc ii) 2 During the period, Coronation Street ran a story in which Deirdre Rachid was falsely imprisoned, prompting a tongue-in-cheekpublic campaignfor her release. I put it: If middle-of-the-road mid-evening middlebrow drama, mostly of middling length, is what you like from television- and most of us want it from time to time - then Britain is the placeto be? Although Dunkley did not go on to describehis expectationsnor elaboratehis criteria of worth, he did suggestthat things were not always so humdrum - which begs the question: 'how would we tell' (rather than 'whether or not') if things were ever thus? The existence of an incontrovertible 'golden age' is often contested, but how selectivelydo we recall other high spots,how accurateare our programmememories, and in so far as televisionhas one, how representativeis the canon? Moreover, what good are any of theseyardsticks to us if we wish to explore presentvalues for present- day audiences? This project was designedto pursueand bring together different routes of enquiry. In the first place, I wanted to monitor new drama output in quite a rigorous and comprehensivefashion, not leastso as to avoid that retrospectiveblur that can be used to substantiatearbitrary and usually negativegeneralisations. A secondob j ective was to ugetWddcumented broadcastmaterial as a very precise empirical context within which to ask some hoary old questions about artistic merit and cultural value. If British television dramahas changedin its maturity, should or might our criteria not havedone the same?One paradox,increasingly common in the 1990s,was that the 3 ChristopherDunkley, "NNbydraina isn't yet a crisie', YheFinmwial I-Imes, 12 bday 1999,p 22. 2 terrestrial channelswere all claiming high quality as a routine, consistent feature of their output. It was to test the validity of