Television Drama

I

Introduction

Television Drama, drama, including one-off plays, series, and serials, broadcast on television. In the United Kingdom the BBC, in its early days, established a tradition for broadcasting high-quality drama, which has continued to this day on all the major British terrestrial channels.

II

Early Days

In the first three years of its existence, from 1936 until the outbreak of World War II, BBC television broadcast no fewer than 326 plays, including a version of How He Lied to Her Husband (1937), which received an on-set visit from its author, George Bernard Shaw. In 1938, the then director of programming, Cecil Madden, created the enduring idea of a Sunday night “event drama”, starting with Henry IV by Luigi Pirandello. This, like all early television drama, was basically a filmed stage play. That custom was initiated by the popular Theatre Parade (1936-1938), which screened excerpts from successful London productions, such as Alice Through the Looking Glass (1937), Twelfth Night (1937), and Anna Christie (1937). The concept of the television serial, a running story spread over several episodes, was pioneered with Ann and Harold (1938), about the growing love between a London couple (Ann Todd and William Hutchison).

III

Plays for Today

After the war, the BBC began to develop the idea of writing plays especially for television. The Rose and the Crown (1946) by J. B. Priestley was an early example. Such works, though still performed largely as if on stage, started to use the key film-making technique of cutting to create a new manner of story-telling. Techniques evolved further during the 1950s, when a new breed of writers and directors working specifically for television emerged. They were encouraged by the establishment of ITV in 1955 (see Independent Television) and its ground-breaking series of one-off dramas, Armchair Theatre. Running from 1956, when it opened with The Outsider, to 1974, this influential series helped hone the televisual devices of close-up, fast-cutting, pans, zooms, jump-cutting, and crane-shots, and took the television play further away from its theatrical roots. The producer Sydney Newman nurtured such directors as Philip Savile, George More O’Ferrall, and William T. Kotcheff, and writers of the calibre of Harold Pinter (A Night Out, 1960), Alun Owen (Lena, O My Lena, 1960), Robert Muller, and Ray Rigby. Often centring on gritty social issues, which inspired the nickname “Armpit Theatre”, the series also schooled actors such as Billie Whitelaw, Tom Courtenay, and Diana Rigg.

The success of Armchair Theatre spawned The Wednesday Play (1964-1970) on BBC1, which metamorphosed into Play for Today (1970-1984). These series fostered such writers as David Mercer (And Did Those Feet?, 1965) and Nell Dunn (Up the Junction, 1965) and the director Ken Loach. Its most significant episode may well have been Cathy Come Home (1965), a potent and moving portrait of a homeless young mother. Underlining the power of television, it led to the formation of the homeless charity, Shelter.

IV

Proliferation

By now drama, whether in the form of a one-off or a long-running series, was a proven ratings winner. It spun off into all kinds of sub-genres around which schedules were built: period drama (the BBC’s The Forsyte Saga, 1967); police shows (the BBC’s Dixon of Dock Green, 1955-1976) and Z Cars (1962-1978); fantasy and science fiction (the BBC’s Doctor Who; 1963-1989, revived 2005); and soap operas (ITV’s Coronation Street, 1960- ).

In the United States, at first, plays were transmitted live from New York. Then film studios realized there were profits to be made from supplying television with programmes, and drama became increasingly commercialized. Popular genres were the Western and the action series. Drama of a higher quality included the mini-series Roots (1977).