Introduction

Abstract

This chapter explores the ‘known’ Kennedy Martin, organised according to the following categories: the single play, the theory and practice of experimental and non-naturalistic television drama and the creation of and contributions to popular drama series. Television, like the film industry, is a collaborative medium and through interviews with some of the people with whom Kennedy Martin has worked, in addition to the analysis of individual productions, this chapter reveals the ways in which the work of Troy Kennedy Martin is the product of collaboration with other writers, producers, script editors and directors. The main objective is to explore the work of one writer in relation to historical developments in British television drama. The book therefore adopts a largely chronological structure, starting with Kennedy Martin's early television scripts, which were broadcast live, and tracing his involvement in the aesthetic debates that accompanied technological and institutional changes in British television.