Abstract
This article examines the evolution of disaster films and series broadcast by the BBC in light of major developments in the British televisual landscape, such as the competition for higher TV ratings and the ever-increasing criticisms, by private operators, of the BBC’s monopoly on the license fee. How far have these issues influenced TV productions? Why did films originally designed to educate and inform the population about potential dangers, for example the military use of nuclear power — Peter Watkins’s The War Game, 1965 — gradually evolve towards phobocratic series, like the 2004 If ... series? It would be shortsighted to put the blame on the BBC’s need to attract a larger audience only; instead, special attention will be paid to political reasons that may account for the public broadcaster’s recent decision to promote disaster films.
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