ITV Cultures: Independent Television Over Fifty Years - Softcover

“This exciting book goes to the heart of a creative commercialand public service culture - it shows why ITV matters and howit was made to work so well. A tremendous contribution.”
Professor Jean Seaton, University of Westminster

“This is a valuable addition to studies of ITV's history andprogramming...”
Tom O'Malley, Professor of Media Studies, University of Wales, Aberyswyth, and Co-Editor of Media History.

Since breaking the BBC’s monopoly in 1955, ITV has been at thecentre of the British television landscape. To coincide with thefiftieth anniversary of the first ITV broadcast, this accessible bookoffers a range of perspectives on the complex and multifaceted history ofBritain’s first commercial broadcaster.

The book explores key tensions and conflicts which have influenced theITV service. Chapters focus on particular institutions, includingLondon Weekend Television and ITN, and programme forms, includingWho Wants to be a Millionaire?, Upstairs Downstairs and Trisha.The contributors show that ITV has had to tread an uneasy line betweenpublic service and commercial imperatives, between a pluralistic regionalstructure and a national network, and between popular appeal andquality programming. A timeline of key events in the history of ITV is alsoincluded.

ITV Cultures provides a timely intervention in debates on broadcastingand cultural history for academics and researchers, and a livelyintroduction to the history of ITV for students and general readers.

Contributors: Rod Allen, City University; Jonathan Bignell, University of Reading; John Ellis, Royal Holloway, University of London; Jackie Harrison, University of Sheffield; Jamie Medhurst, University of Wales, Aberystwyth; Matt Hills, Cardiff University; Steve Neale, University of Exeter; Helen Wheatley, University of Reading; Sherryl Wilson, Bournemouth University.

Dr Catherine Johnson is Lecturer in Television History and Theory, Department of Media Arts, Royal Holloway, University of London. She has published on factual entertainment, US television drama, and early British television. She is also the author of Telefantasy (2005: BFI). Rob Turnock is Lecturer in Media Theory, Bournemouth Media School, Bournemouth University. He was formerly post-doctoral research fellow on the AHRB funded project Did ITV Revolutionise British Television?. He is author of Television and Consumer Culture: Britain and the Transformation of Modernity (forthcoming: I.B. Tauris), and of Interpreting Diana: Television Audiences and the Death of a Princess (2000: BFI).