Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies Series Editors: Andrew Hoskins and John Sutton The nascent field of Memory Studies emerges from contemporary trends that include a shift from concern with historical knowledge of events to that of mem- ory, from ‘what we know’ to ‘how we remember it’; changes in generational memory; the rapid advance of technologies of memory; panics over declining powers of memory, which mirror our fascination with the possibilities of mem- ory enhancement; and the development of trauma narratives in reshaping the past. These factors have contributed to an intensification of public discourses on our past over the last thirty years. Technological, political, interpersonal, social and cultural shifts affect what, how and why people and societies remember and forget. This groundbreaking series tackles questions such as: What is ‘memory’ under these conditions? What are its prospects, and also the prospects for its interdisciplinary and systematic study? What are the conceptual, theoretical and methodological tools for its investigation and illumination? Titles include: Aleida Assmann and Sebastian Conrad (editors) MEMORY IN A GLOBAL AGE Discourses, Practices and Trajectories Aleida Assmann and Linda Shortt MEMORY AND POLITICAL CHANGE Brian Conway COMMEMORATION AND BLOODY SUNDAY Pathways of Memory Richard Crownshaw THE AFTERLIFE OF HOLOCAUST MEMORY IN CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE AND CULTURE Astrid Erll MEMORY IN CULTURE Anne Fuchs AFTER THE DRESDEN BOMBING Pathways of Memory 1945 to the Present Yifat Gutman, Adam D. Brown and Amy Sodaro (editors) MEMORY AND THE FUTURE Transnational Politics, Ethics and Society Amy Holdsworth TELEVISION, MEMORY AND NOSTALGIA Mikyoung Kim and Barry Schwartz (editors) NORTHEAST ASIA’S DIFFICULT PAST Essays in Collective Memory Erica Lehrer, Cynthia E. Milton and Monica Eileen Patterson (editors) CURATING DIFFICULT KNOWLEDGE Violent Pasts in Public Places Motti Neiger, Oren Meyers and Eyal Zandberg (editors) ON MEDIA MEMORY Collective Memory in a New Media Age Evelyn B. Tribble and Nicholas Keene COGNITIVE ECOLOGIES AND THE HISTORY OF REMEMBERING Religion, Education and Memory in Early Modern England Forthcoming titles: Anne Fuchs ICON DRESDEN A Cultural Impact Study from 1945 to the Present Owain Jones and Joanne Garde-Hansen (editors) GEOGRAPHY AND MEMORY Exploring Identity, Place and Becoming Emily Keightley and Michael Pickering CREATIVE MEMORY J. Olaf Kleist and Irial Glynn (editors) HISTORY, MEMORY AND MIGRATION Perceptions of the Past and the Politics of Incorporation Palgrave Macmillan Memory Studies Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–230–23851–0 (hardback) 978–0–230–23852–7 (paperback) (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England Television, Memory and Nostalgia Amy Holdsworth © Amy Holdsworth 2011 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6-10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-31923-7 ISBN 978-0-230-34797-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230347977 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Holdsworth, Amy, 1979– Television, memory and nostalgia / Amy Holdsworth. p. cm. — (Palgrave Macmillan memory studies) Based on the author’s thesis (doctoral)—University of Warwick. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Memory on television. 2. Nostalgia on television. 3. Identity (Psychology) on television. 4. Television—Psychological aspects. I. Title. PN1992.M45H65 2011 791.43019—dc23 2011020969 10987654321 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne For Alice. In Loving Memory This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Figures viii Acknowledgements xi Introduction 1 1 Half the World Away: Television, Space, Time and Memory 7 2 Haunting the Memory: Moments of Return in Television Drama 32 3 WhoDoYouThinkYouAre?Memory and Identity in the Family History Documentary 65 4 Safe Returns: Nostalgia and Television 96 5 Television’s Afterlife: Memory, the Museum and Material Culture 127 Notes 149 Bibliography 159 Index 169 vii List of Figures 1.1 Split-screen memory in Oldboy (dir. Park Chan-Wook, prod. Egg Films/Show East, South Korea, 2003) 10 1.2 Remembering watching television news (BBC promo, 2008) 12 1.3 Television’s mise-en-abyme – a series of reflections looking into and out from the screen. The Royle Family title sequence (Granada for BBC, 1998–) 18 1.4 Garry Shandling and Bill Haverchuck share an after-school drink in ‘Dead Dogs and Gym Teachers’, episode 14, Freaks and Geeks (dir. Judd Apatow, prod. Apatow Productions/DreamWorks SKG, 1999) 23 1.5 Imprisoned by television. Jane Wyman in All That Heaven Allows (dir. Douglas Sirk, prod. Universal, US, 1955) 27 1.6 Television as the site of horror and haunting: Ringu (dir. Hideo Nakata, Japan, 1998) 28 1.7 David Baddiel’s television altar (WDYTYA,series1, episode 7, Wall to Wall for BBC, 2004) 30 1.8 Nana takes pride of place on the Royle Family’s television altar. ‘The Queen of Sheba’ (dir. Mark Mylod, prod. Granada for BBC, 2006) 31 2.1 Six Feet Under, ‘Everyone’s Waiting’, season 5, episode 12 (dir. Alan Ball, prod. HBO/The Greenblatt Janollari Studio/Actual Size Productions, US, 2005) 33 2.2 Alice, present (Perfect Strangers, dir. Stephen Poliakoff, prod. Talkback for BBC, 2001) 41 2.3 Richard, past (Perfect Strangers, dir. Stephen Poliakoff, prod. Talkback for BBC, 2001) 42 2.4 Alice, past (Perfect Strangers, dir. Stephen Poliakoff, prod. Talkback for BBC, 2001) 43 2.5 Mark Greene, ‘Heal Thyself’, ER, season 15, episode 7 (dir. David Zabel, prod. Constant c Productions/Amblin Television/Warner Bros.Television, US, 2008) 50 2.6 Izzie Stevens, ‘Losing my Religion’, Grey’s Anatomy, season 2, episode 27 (dir. Mark Tinker, prod. Mark viii List of Figures ix Gordon Productions/ShondaLand/Touchstone Television, US, 2006) 56 2.7 Izzie Stevens, ‘Dream a Little Dream of Me, pt 2’, Grey’s Anatomy, season 5, episode 2 (dir. Ron Corn, prod. ShondaLand/The Mark Gordon Company/ABC Studios, US, 2008) 57 2.8 Izzie Stevens, ‘Now or Never’, Grey’s Anatomy, season 5, episode 24 (dir. Ron Corn, prod. ShondaLand/The Mark Gordon Company/ABC Studios, US, 2009) 58 2.9 Nick Sobotka, ‘Port in a Storm’, The Wire, season 2, episode 12 (dir. Robert F. Colesberry, prod. Blown Deadline Productions/ HBO, US, 2003) 62 2.10 Frank Sobotka, ‘Bad Dreams’, The Wire, season 2, episode 11 (dir. Ernest R. Dickerson, prod. Blown Deadline Productions/HBO, US, 2003) 63 3.1 Then and now: The battle grave (WDYTYA,series1, episode 5, Wall to Wall for BBC, 2004) 81 3.2 Jeremy Clarkson surveys the former site of the Kilner factory (WDYTYA, series 1, episode 4, Wall to Wall for BBC, 2004) 82 3.3 Peering through time: Fry and his mother retrace old steps (WDYTYA, series 2, episode 3, Wall to Wall for BBC, 2006) 83 3.4 WDYTYA’s original brand image (Wall to Wall for BBC, 2004–) 89 4.1 Sean Lock and Johnny Vaughan in series 1, episode 3, TV Heaven, Telly Hell (dir. Lissa Evans, prod. Objective Productions for Channel 4, 2006) 100 4.2 Un-regeneration, Manchester in 1973, series 1, episode 1, Life on Mars (dir. Bharat Nalluri, prod. Kudos Film and Television/Red Planet Pictures for BBC, 2006) 106 4.3 Disruptive restoration, New York in 1973, ‘Out Here in the Fields’, episode 1, Life on Mars (dir. Gary Fleder, prod. Kudos Film and Television/20th Century Fox/ABC Studios, 2008) 107 4.4 Sam leaves hospital, series 2, episode 8, Life on Mars (dir. S. J. Clarkson, prod. Kudos Film and Television for BBC, 2007) 109 4.5 Alone in a crowd, series 2, episode 8, Life on Mars (dir. S. J. Clarkson, prod. Kudos Film and Television for BBC, 2007) 109 4.6 Trailer for second series of Life on Mars (BBC, 2007) 111 x List of Figures 4.7 Chris Dunkley and Mark Lawson review Steptoe and Son in episode 2 of TV on Trial (dir. Amanda Crayden, prod. BBC, 2005) 122 4.8 Studio set of You Have Been Watching (dir. Richard Valentine, prod. Zeppotron for Channel 4, 2009) 124 4.9 Fern Britton presents That’s What I Call Television (dir.