Re-evaluating British Television History: From I Love Lucy to Desperate Housewives

Abstract

Many histories of British broadcasting have been written over the years. Some have been scholarly works running in some cases to a number of volumes, for example the official history of the BBC by Asa Briggs (1961, 1965, 1970, 1979, 1995: Vols I–V), while others have been single volume affairs often focusing on the history of particular organisations, such as the BBC or ITV, or exploring specific periods or themes (for example, Scannell and Cardiff’s Social History of British Broadcasting, 1991). More popular histories have also appeared, often written by those with direct experience of working in the industry, for example by Peter Black (1972, 1973). Such histories, while focused on British broadcasting also, by extension, touch on, in different ways, the role and use of American programmes on British screens. However, as I argue below, the coverage of American programmes has not been the main focus of the above-mentioned work, and therefore there has been little attempt to fully explore the complexity and detail of its changing use and role on British television.