Canon Doyle? : Getting Holmes right (and getting the rights) for television

The importance of copyright with regard to television versions of literary works has only recently begun to be considered in adaptations studies, but offers an intriguing perspective not only on what can be transferred, but how. Few characters have been adapted more frequently than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, yet the majority of his screen adventures have taken the form of pastiches or parodies; in Holmes’ country of origin, only a handful of series featuring the detective have derived directly from Doyle’s work. This was due in no small part to the limitations imposed in the United Kingdom by the Conan Doyle estate, which maintained strict control of the character’s television representations until the early 1980s; at this time the stories entered the public domain, Granada Television’s acclaimed series with Jeremy Brett swiftly following. This article, however, focuses on earlier attempts by the BBC to transfer Holmes to the small screen: a short-lived 1951 series, featuring Alan Wheatley; and the 1965 and 1968 productions, starring first Douglas Wilmer and later Peter Cushing. Each strove to be as faithful as possible to Doyle’s original material, due largely to the watchful eye—and insistent specifications—of the copyright holders, sons Denis and Adrian. Drawing upon material from the BBC’s Written Archives, ‘Canon Doyle?’ investigates the extent to which the continuing influence of Doyle’s offspring interacted with the exigencies of screen adaptation—and the ambitions of the creative teams—to shape these television interpretations

Performing Sherlock : a study in studio and location realism

Since its origins in the live era of the 1930s, British television acting has changed from being primarily (though not entirely) a creature of the studio to a largely location-based performance medium. Although studio soundstages are still employed, these are usually comprised of ‘standing sets’ which arguably become locations in their own right, rather than the temporary three-walled structures erected and dismantled as part of the studio process. This shift in performing environs has had an enormous influence on the way actors work, both in technical terms (most notably the move from multi-camera to a single camera set-up) and with regard to production process, the once essential rehearsal period now increasingly regarded as an expensive luxury. Utilising the models of ‘studio realism’ and ‘location realism’, ‘The Changing Spaces of British Television Acting’ draws upon original archive and interview material to examine the ways in which actors have adapted to such developments, and the impact they have had upon small screen performance in the UK

Book review : 'You’re Nicked' : investigating British television police series

You’re Nicked utilises a well-chosen range of case studies to examine historical trends in the development of the British television police series between the 1950s and the 2010s. Previous works in this area have either concentrated on a more limited timespan (Sydney-Smith, 2002), accommodated crime drama as part of a wider television history (Cooke, 2015), provided a multi-national critique (Turnbull, 2014), or focused on alternative sub-genres such as the detective drama (Piper, 2015). Lamb’s monograph therefore provides a much-needed overview of the national specifics of small screen cops and robbers – or as the author puts it, ‘series that regularly depict the routine work of police constables and detectives’ (2020, p. 3)

Who's in charge? Changing character agency in early Doctor Who

This article investigates the impact of production process upon character agency in early Doctor Who, focusing on the period between 1963 and 1966, during which time William Hartnell starred as the Doctor. As originally conceived by Sydney Newman, Verity Lambert and David Whitaker, it is debatable to what extent the Doctor could be regarded as the ‘hero’ of the narrative, as this role was often better fulfilled by his human companions, initially represented by teachers Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill), who provided a ready point of identification for viewers. This situation changed significantly during Hartnell’s tenure, but the shifts in agency that occurred were so radical as to seem almost ad hoc, reflecting industry pressures that typified television drama of the time. The extent to which these changes were influenced by the programme's rapid turnaround are examined here via a combination of textual analysis and historical production research, before being briefly contrasted with the modern version of Doctor Who, starring Jodie Whittaker, whose production context allows for more considered development of long-term character arcs

Spaces of preparation: The Acton ‘Hilton’ and changing patterns of television drama rehearsal

It is only comparatively recently that performance in arenas other than theatre and cinema has begun to receive serious academic attention. The ‘Spaces of Television’ project and the University of York’s ‘Playing the Small Screen’ symposium have each opened up discussions regarding the impact of production process and space upon television acting, yet little consideration has been given to those spaces in which performances were traditionally prepared prior to studio transmission or recording. This article attempts to address this by focusing on the BBC’s ‘Television Rehearsal Rooms’, better known by those who used them as the ‘Acton Hilton’, which offers a precise model of the ‘outside’ rehearsal process which characterised multi-camera studio production. A creative hub for not only drama, but also sitcom and light entertainment, the Hilton represented an extended community for the many performers who gathered there to rehearse – a community that has all but disappeared in the modern era of single camera location work, where prior rehearsal of the type conducted at Acton has virtually disappeared. Drawing upon a combination of archive research and interviews with practitioners, this piece examines the important role played by the Acton Hilton in the history of UK television acting

Pinter as performer

Harold Pinter worked successfully for many decades as an actor, making numerous, albeit intermittent, appearances on television, on stage and in film in addition to his distinguished writing career. Pinter’s acting spanned the television eras I have identified as studio realism and location realism (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017). However, unlike many of his contemporaries, his screen performances do not represent a straightforward linear development from the scaled down, stage-derived codes of multi-camera studio to the less projected style of single camera film. In contrast, Pinter drew upon a variety of styles at each stage of his acting career. This article utilises five case studies to examine the extent to which he did not conform to the model of a stage actor adapting to screen work. The opening four texts are divided into two pairs; the first examines his work for multi-camera studio television, and the second for single camera film. The multi-camera case studies include a supporting role as Seeley in his own Armchair Theatre entry, A Night Out, alongside the BBC’s 1987 adaptation of The Birthday Party, in which Pinter plays Nat Goldberg. The single camera pairing comprises Pinter’s cameo as lawyer Saul Abrahams in the 1976 television movie Rogue Male, and his memorable appearance as the Director in David Mamet’s 2000 short film Catastrophe. In addition to examining the range of techniques Pinter employed over his distinguished—yet comparatively little heralded—acting career, this article will also consider his ‘performance’ in his 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature lecture, ‘Art, Truth & Politics’

Book review : Contemporary British Television Drama

Review of: Contemporary British Television Drama James Chapman, Contemporary British Television Drama, London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020; 187 pp.: ISBN 9781780765228, £63 (hbk), ISBN 9781526125859, £22.99 (pbk), ISBN 978135015250, £16.55 (EPUB/MOBI

Belittling Ern : the changing performance dynamic of Morecambe and Wise

Despite their renown as one of the most successful double acts in British television history, Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise have received scant academic attention. However, they have been celebrated in numerous biographies and documentaries, as result of which various narratives have come to be constructed around them: namely, that their success at the BBC in the 1970s was in large part due to the re-working of their screen personae by writer Eddie Braben. Braben claimed to be the first person to have incorporated the real bond of affection that existed between the men into their screen alter egos, and also stated that his reimagining of Ernie Wise’s character as a pompous yet talentless writer allowed him to eschew the traditional role of a straight man and feed. Drawing upon archive interviews, written accounts and textual analyses of Morecambe & Wise’s television performances, both at the BBC in the 1970s and in the 1960s at ATV, this article demonstrates that their personalities were very much an established part of the act prior to Braben’s arrival, and that his reinvention of their screen dynamic, while capitalising upon Eric Morecambe’s comic talents, in fact served to weaken Wise’s agency as a performer