Sarita Malik
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781526100986
- eISBN:
- 9781526132185
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526100986.003.0005
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter contributes to the debates around television drama and black representation that are presented in this book collection. It focuses on Shoot the Messenger (STM) (BBC2, 2006), which was ...
More
This chapter contributes to the debates around television drama and black representation that are presented in this book collection. It focuses on Shoot the Messenger (STM) (BBC2, 2006), which was heavily promoted by the BBC as a ‘bold’ and ‘thought-provoking’ television drama. The one-off ninety-minute BBC Drama production focuses on the psychological journey of a Black schoolteacher, Joe Pascale (portrayed by David Oyelowo), accused of assaulting a Black male pupil. This chapter discusses how stylistically, STM’s non-realist techniques, non-linear form and overt constructedness depart from the traditional modes of social realism that have prevailed in Black British television drama. Moreover, it breaks with British television drama traditions in terms of production, having an almost totally Black cast and written and produced by two Black women: Sharon Foster and Ngozi Onwurah respectively.Less
This chapter contributes to the debates around television drama and black representation that are presented in this book collection. It focuses on Shoot the Messenger (STM) (BBC2, 2006), which was heavily promoted by the BBC as a ‘bold’ and ‘thought-provoking’ television drama. The one-off ninety-minute BBC Drama production focuses on the psychological journey of a Black schoolteacher, Joe Pascale (portrayed by David Oyelowo), accused of assaulting a Black male pupil. This chapter discusses how stylistically, STM’s non-realist techniques, non-linear form and overt constructedness depart from the traditional modes of social realism that have prevailed in Black British television drama. Moreover, it breaks with British television drama traditions in terms of production, having an almost totally Black cast and written and produced by two Black women: Sharon Foster and Ngozi Onwurah respectively.
