Upstairs and downstairs : British costume drama television from The Forsyte saga to Downton Abbey / edited by James Leggott, Julie Anne Taddeo.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Leggott, James, editor.

Taddeo, Julie Anne, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Historical television programs--Great Britain--History and criticism.

Historical television programs.

Clothing and dress on television.

Television series--Great Britain.

Television series.

Great Britain.

Physical Description:

xxx, 298 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham : Rowman & Littlefield, 2015.

Summary:

The international success of Downton Abbey has led to a revived interest in period dramas, with older programs like The Forsyte Saga being rediscovered by a new generation of fans whose tastes also include grittier fare like Ripper Street. Though often criticized as a form of escapist, conservative nostalgia, these shows can also provide a lens to examine the class and gender politics of both the past and present. In Upstairs and Downstairs: British Costume Drama Television from The Forsyte Saga to Downton Abbey, James Leggott and Julie Anne Taddeo provide a collection of essays that analyze key developments in the history of period dramas from the late 1960s to the present day. Contributors explore such issues as how the genre fulfills and disrupts notions of "quality television," the process of adaptation, the relationship between UK and U.S. television, and the connection between the period drama and wider developments in TV and popular culture. Additional essays examine how fans shape the content and reception of these dramas and how the genre has articulated or generated debates about gender, sexuality, and class. In addition to Downton Abbey and Upstairs, Downstairs, other programs discussed in this collection include Call the Midwife, Danger UXB, Mr. Selfridge, Parade-s End, Piece of Cake, and Poldark. Tracing the lineage of costume drama from landmark productions of the late 1960s and 1970s to some of the most talked-about productions of recent years, Upstairs and Downstairs will be of value to students, teachers, and researchers in the areas of film, television, Victorian studies, literature, gender studies, and British history and culture. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction

Approaches to the Costume Drama. Pageantry and populism, democratization and dissent: the forgotten 1970s / Claire Monk

History's Drama: Narrative Space in "Golden Age" British Television Drama / Tom Bragg

"It's not clever, it's not funny, and it's not period!": Costume Comedy and British Television / James Leggott

"It is but a glimpse of the world of fashion": British Costume Drama, Dickens, and Serialization / Marc Napolitano

Neverending Stories?: The Paradise and the Period Drama Series / Benjamin Poore

Epistolarity and Masculinity in Andrew Davies's Trollope Adaptations / Ellen Moody

"What are we going to do with Uncle Arthur?": Music in the British Serialized Period Drama / Scott Strovas and Karen Beth Strovas

The Costume Drama, History, and Heritage. British Historical Drama and the Middle Ages / Andrew B.R. Elliott

Desacralizing the Icon: Elizabeth I and Television / Sabrina Alcorn Baron

"It's not the navy" We don't stand back to stand upwards": The Onedin Line and the Changing Waters of British Maritime Identity / Mark Fryers

Good-Bye to All That: Piece of Cake, Danger UXB, and the Second World War / A. Bowdoin Van Riper

Upstairs, Downstairs (2010-2012) and Narratives of Domestic and Foreign Appeasement / Giselle Bastin

Downton Abbey and heritage / Katherine Byrne

Experimentation and Post-Heritage in Contemporary TV Drama: Parade's End / Stella Hockenhull

The Costume Drama, Sexual Politics, and Fandom. "Why don't you take her?": Rape in the Poldark Narrative / Julie Anne Taddeo

The Imaginative Power of Downton Abbey Fanfiction / Andrea Schmidt

This Wonderful Commercial Machine: Gender, Class, and the Pleasures and Spectacle of Shopping in The Paradise and Mr. Selfridge / Andrea Wright

Taking a Pregnant Pause: Interrogating the Feminist Potential of Call the

Midwife / Louise FitzGerald

Queer Lives: Representation and Reinterpretation in Upstairs, Downstairs and Downton Abbey / Lucy Brown

Troubled by Violence: Transnational Complexity and the Critique of Masculinity in Ripper Street / Elke Weissmann.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781442244825

1442244828

OCLC:

890310154