‘More than a Television Channel’: Channel 4, FilmFour and a failed convergence strategy

Obliged by act of Parliament to ‘innovate and experiment’, Channel 4 has, since its birth in 1982, been the UK’s most pioneering commercial television broadcaster. Its arrival broadened the meaning, function and operations of public service broadcasting in the UK, with a particular focus on minorities and pushing boundaries, political and creative. In the late 1990s, though, it was under increasing threat from specialist pay-TV services that could more accurately target its audiences. As a commercially funded channel with public service responsibilities, Channel 4 was under increasing pressure to be financially independent and fulfil a challenging remit. Its response to a threatened income and increasing competition was to diversify its portfolio into various media related businesses, particularly taking advantage of the arrival of digital television to expand its offer. The subtitle of the Corporation’s 2000 Annual report, ‘More than a Television Channel’ indicates the confidence, optimism and boldness with which this expansion was approached. The rapid expansion of the channel’s portfolio in a time of relative confidence in the commercial viability of the television industry was to be reversed only a few years later, when, after it failed to produce the returns it was designed for, 4Ventures was drastically scaled back, and Channel 4 refocused its efforts on the core broadcast channel. <br /><br />Channel 4 therefore offers a test case in the limits of convergence as a strategy for survival for British broadcasters at the arrival of digital television. This paper focuses specifically on the areas of Channel 4’s strategy that pertained to one of the broadcaster’s particular strengths: film culture. It explores one of the film offshoots of 4Ventures: FilmFour Ltd, the film finance, production, sales and distribution company and how its failure to find a commercial hit mirrors the general problems for a commercial public service broadcaster in expanding to become a convergent television company

‘No-nonsense-two-up-two-down-by-gum-you-daft-ha’poth-Northerness’: Jane Horrocks, Gracie Fields and performing generic Northernness

When Jane Horrocks starred as Gracie Fields in the BBC Four single drama Gracie! (2009), most reviewers agreed that this casting was almost too perfect. They were thinking of the geographical connection between the two women – Horrocks grew up in Rawtenstall, Lancashire, only a few miles from Fields’s famed home town of Rochdale. Like Fields, Horrocks’s star image has been built around the ambivalent performance and exploitation of a Lancashire identity. From Bubble in Absolutely Fabulous (1992–2012), to a middle-class mother turned political candidate in The Amazing Mrs Pritchard (2006) or deputy supermarket manager in Trollied (2011–) Horrocks’ strong regional accent has rendered her a recognizable presence on British television for two decades. Her persona is of down-to-earth, no-nonsense, seemingly authentic Northernness. This article analyses Horrocks’ performance of Gracie Fields in relation to the rest of her career. It compares common themes of Lancashire identity associated with these stars of different eras, with particular attention to the changing sociocultural milieu in which working class Northern characters are found in their work – the mill/factory in the 1930s and the supermarket in the twenty-first century. It also considers the critical reception of Gracie! and the critical tendency to conflate actor with character. It explores how the embodied performance of known biographical personalities works in tension with the performance of generic ‘Northernness’

Land Grant Application- Andrews, Samuel (Lowell)

Land grant application submitted to the Maine Land Office on behalf of Samuel Andrews for service in the Revolutionary War, by their widow Hannah.https://digitalmaine.com/revolutionary_war_me_land_office/1028/thumbnail.jp

BBC Four biopics: Lessons in Trashy Respectability

Between its launch in March 2002 and 2013, BBC4, the BBC’s niche arts and culture digital channel, broadcast a cycle of biographical dramas, largely about the unhappy personal lives of British cultural and political icons of the twentieth century. Alongside stylish continental European drama imports, world cinema and documentary programmes, biopics became a key marker of the BBC4 brand and its dominant home-grown dramatic output. In scholarly work on television biopics to date, the genre has been seen as akin to tabloid newspapers, conceived as a trashy cultural form that reduces the importance and seriousness of biographical narrative. However, in recent years biographical drama has been used by upmarket television brands like HBO, Showtime or, indeed, the BBC as a mark of distinction and respectability. This article analyses this dynamic in relation to BBC biopics, exploring how a specific dramatic genre is used to reinforce the brand image of a niche digital channel. It focuses not only on the benefits of such material for attracting both within and beyond the channel’s intended demographic, but also on certain of the ethical and legal challenges intrinsic to a genre that exploits the personal stories of real people

Characterising the responsiveness of mesenchymal stem cells to arginine, leucine and IGF-1 via the mTORC1 signalling pathway.

This item is only available electronically.Thesis (BHlthMSc(Hons)) -- University of Adelaide, Adelaide Medical School, YEA

Distorted Recognition: the pleasures and uses of televisual historical caricature

[Extract] A straitjacketed figure is being wheeled on an upright trolley through a dank corridor lit by flickering fluorescent tubes. A low-angled medium closeup reveals the bottom half of a royal blue skirt, and sensible, black, high-heeled pumps. After the trolley has come to a rest, the porter removes from the figure a full-face mask, reminiscent of the one worn by Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991). But the face revealed is not Hannibal Lecter’s; it is a woman’s. She has a red-lipsticked, thin-lipped mouth, over which a sinister, cool smile plays. She wears pastel blue eyeshadow and tasteful pearl earrings. Her strawberry blonde hair is teased into a tall perm. When she finally speaks, it is in a low, slow voice with a lilting, arhythmical cadence that allows her to emphasize firmly her increasingly strange and fervent antisocialist opinions

Exploring Communication Patterns in the Discussion of Maternal PKU Syndrome Between Parents and Daughters

Maternal PKU syndrome is the collection of features and birth defects that arise from uncontrolled phenylalanine levels in a pregnant woman with phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) deficiency, previously known as phenylketonuria (PKU). Currently, the literature is lacking in exploring what young women are being told about maternal PKU syndrome. In this study, communication patterns between parents and their daughters about maternal PKU syndrome were investigated through an online survey completed by parents. The survey assessed parents’ level of comfort with this topic, the information they discussed with their daughter and the resources they accessed. Followup interviews were conducted with participants to elaborate on survey responses. The majority of participants were very comfortable discussing maternal PKU syndrome (51%); however, 21% reported being very uncomfortable with the discussion. Parents most often discussed health concerns associated with maternal PKU syndrome (94%) and least frequently discussed unplanned pregnancies (58%). The most frequently used resource was a metabolic doctor (73%); however, parents included mothers with PAH deficiency among the most helpful resources. Themes from open-ended responses and interviews emphasized qualities of parents’ discussion with their daughters. Parents commented on the timing and how they presented the information to their daughters. They described challenges such as the emotional impact of the conversation as well as their daughter’s decision-making and consequences of her actions. Lastly, they discussed advice for treatment compliance, resources, and ways to normalize the topic of maternal PKU syndrome. These results can help genetic counselors better understand the parent daughter conversation so that healthcare professionals can better assess and inform families about maternal PKU syndrome

Needing permission : the experience of self-care and self-compassion in nursing

In the National Health Service (NHS) there appears to be a culture of substantial change, with many nurses highlighting the impact of this on their own wellbeing (BPS, 2014). Reports following negative healthcare experiences, such as those reported at Mid Staffordshire (Francis, 2013), led to a number of initiatives emphasising the importance of nurses delivering compassionate care. However, there is a dearth of literature focusing on how nurses care for themselves as they try to provide compassionate care in a challenging job within a climate of constant change. The literature places a focus on the more negative aspects associated with providing care such as compassion fatigue, burnout and vicarious traumatisation, rather than on nurse’s ability to look after themselves through self-care and self-compassion. The purpose of this study is to focus on experiences of self-care and self-compassion in nursing and how these experiences may relate to compassionate care giving. Constructivist Grounded Theory was used, and purposive and theoretical sampling were utilised to recruit nurses working within two NHS Trusts in the UK. Semi structured interviews were undertaken with 30 nurses from general, mental health and learning disabilities and at different levels of seniority. Data analysis was conducted in line with the Constructivist Grounded Theory approach as suggested by Charmaz (2014) and resulted in the emergence and construction of three concepts: 1) ‘Hardwired to be caregivers’ – vocation versus role 2) Needing a stable base and; 3) Managing the emotions of caring. All three concepts were then linked with a core process: needing permission to self-care and be self-compassionate. Nurses needed permission from others and from themselves in order to be self-caring and self-compassionate. An inability to do this appeared to impact upon their own wellbeing and compassionate care giving to others. Nurses in this study described how they struggled particularly with self-compassion. Helping nurses to be proactively more self-caring and self-compassionate may increase their ability to manage emotions and prevent some of the more negative consequences of nursing such as burnout and compassion fatigue. Participants identified that if they had formal permission (e.g. within nursing guidance) to look after themselves then they would be more likely to engage in it and benefit from self-care and self-compassion. Future research within this field is recommended in order to gain an understanding of the effects of self-care and self-compassion initiatives