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The chapter introduces drama in the UK from 1936 to 1955. Whereas, the pre-1955 era represents the most unexplored period of television drama production (and of television in general), the post-1955 period is considered to be a transitional one, between a near total reliance on live studio drama productions, and the increasing use of pre-recorded material, on tape and film. The importance of ‘intimacy’ in the context of early television drama, as interpreted by critics and producers in terms of the reception of television is highlighted. Developments relating to ‘telerecording’, and ‘videotapes’, are cited. Telerecording, introduced in the BBC, was meant to address the needs of an expanding national audience. The chapter also compares the developments in context of television drama between the period 1936 and 1955, and that of the period post-1955.

The combination of film and television camera image sources resulted in television's maturation, thereby resulting in increased ease in the recording of programmes. The establishment of new transmitters facilitated the expansion of television coverage. The consolidation of the drama schedule matched the departmentalization, subdivision, and routinization of the production process. One of the significant changes was the scheduling of telerecorded plays instead of live repeats. Telerecording of a live drama production and the subsequent repeat of the telerecording became more common, even though live repeats of drama productions continued. Live drama performances and production, and its technical nuances are highlighted.

The chapter presents an account of photographed stage play as a form of television drama during the period 1936–39. The idea of the ‘photographed stage play’ seemed static, boring, and relayed, with due reverence to the performance or to the television audience. There were two ideologies surrounding this form of television drama, firstly the idea that fewer rehearsals were needed, as the actors would be familiar with their lines, so they could save time and space, secondly, outside broadcasts (OBs) of live stage performances transmitted by television cameras from the theatre. The weekly alternation between Baird and EMI television systems had a significant impact on the length and type of programmes that could be seen until late 1936. Once the Baird system was shut down, there was some standardization in the schedules, as the EMI-Marconi system was both more mobile and more flexible, as it could deploy multiple cameras. The relationship between the words and pictures in terms of family relations during the pre-war period, and the relation between television and other media expressed explicitly in terms of the ‘family of media’ in the post-war years is exemplified in this chapter.

Television drama in the late 1940s seemed to have a continuing uncertainty about the themes, form, and style it was taking. This brings to fore the ways in which the television service during this period was reddening itself with a prominent aid from television drama. Even though the post-war period saw an increase in the amount of drama on screen, repeat telecast of the plays was still considerable more reliable. The fact that mystery-murder and ‘horror’ productions were preferred during the post-war period along with drama with wartime themes, is exemplified by the late 1940s drama schedules of producing plays of the Gothic, supernatural, or thriller genres, generically known by television management as ‘Horror Plays’. The reopening of post-war service saw technical and stylistic changes such as those regarding camera movements, along with changes in programme content and scheduling.

Decorum, proportion, formal harmony, respect for tradition, mimesis, self-effacing craftsmanship, and cool control of the perceiver’s response make up Hollywood’s principles of classicalism. Devices, systems, and the relationships between these systems also affect Hollywood’s ability to narrate a story. The classicalism of narrative causation that is typically exemplified in most films and plays is rarely present in television dramas, for these forms of distraction operate in a resolutely non-classical system. This chapter investigates the classical origins of television dramas as well as the realism and authorship that are associated with these distractions.

It has been long established that television dramas and other television programs greatly affect the manner in which audiences perceive their realities along with the actual state of British politics, society, and culture, among other things. The debate whether popular television programs sufficiently represent the naturalism and realities of its audience has been continuously argued by various groups. Television critics have, then, conceptualized the term non-naturalism and modernism as a result of this contention. This chapter explores the non-naturalistic facet and criticism of British television dramas as well as the accuracy of its depiction of reality.

This chapter examines the function of music as a veritable navigator through television “flow,” a term coined by Raymond Williams to describe the chain of texts (programs, commercials, station breaks, etc.) that are broadcast on television through chronological time. Music is used to delineate three discursive, or narrative, spaces: the extradiegetic, the intradiegetic, and the diegetic, terms that are borrowed from Gérard Genette's theory of narrative agency. This chapter concludes with a comparative analysis of two early television dramatic anthology series, a 1949 episode of The Philco Television Playhouse and a 1963 episode of The Twilight Zone, wherein music serves as narrator on several levels.

This chapter examines South Korean drama and its rapid penetration into regional markets. Since the late 1990s, Korean popular culture has established a presence in Mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Taiwan, Vietnam, and Japan. Korean television dramas have been at the forefront of the so-called Korean Wave, or hanliu, which has diversified the media and cultural landscape in Asia, in turn challenging the unilateral, top-down flow of globalization.

The concluding chapter emphasizes the history and developments of television drama during the pre-war and post-war period. Drama producers during the late 1930s were striving for innovation and visual mobility, thereby developing their own styles of television technique, experimenting with studio design, script layout, and film-studio combinations. ITV television drama affected the changing fashions of the British theatre during the mid 1950s. ITV and Sydney Newman liberated new writers from the shackles of the shunned BBC television drama and theatrical chains.

This chapter provides description of various television dramas. Troy Kennedy Martin's famous polemic, ‘Nats Go Home’, subtitled ‘First Statement of a New Drama for Television’, was published in the theatre magazine Encore in March 1964. Its opening paragraph set the tone for an article which was to stir up a hornet's nest in television drama circles at the time and which has become one of the most cited articles in the history of television studies. ‘Nats Go Home’ was the product of debates, which had been going on in the Drama Department at the BBC for some time, involving the new generation of scriptwriter/adapters recruited in 1959–61. This chapter states that several months before Storyboard and before MacTaggart's arrival, Kennedy Martin had already demonstrated an interest in experimenting with the form of television drama in a short script written as an exercise for a BBC training course. The course was one in which all new staff in the Drama Department were required to complete and it was designed to teach the basics of television production.

This chapter examines some of the export successes of China's television drama industry. In recognizing dramas that have registered sales in international markets, it becomes apparent that classic and historical tales have been the mainstay. Other evidence, often anecdotal, suggests that the influence of Chinese dramas overseas has been considerable, mainly assisted by video distribution networks in Chinese communities and informal piracy channels.

This chapter discusses the formation of and the critical response to a canon of British television drama in terms of a conflict between aesthetic modernism and critical realism. It notes that some of the critics' responses to Beckett's work in the 1970s reflected the critical debate of the time over the politics of naturalistic versus avant-garde form. It determines that Beckett's television plays are placed within a complex dialectic of critical discourses around the aesthetics and politics of television drama, and part of this debate is about the address to the television audience. Finally, this chapter tries to link critical work on Beckett's television plays with discursive models of how television audiences were imagined by critics, television institutions and authors.

This chapter examines the rise of the “Korean Wave” in the new millennium in terms of governmental and corporate support. It also empirically investigates the government support, investments of chaebols (Korean conglomerates), and processes of capital accumulation in the media sector. In order to account for the growth of Korean popular culture into an export industry and its international appeal, it reviews the trajectory of Korean popular culture industries linking them to global and local political economic relations and the domestic cultural environment. It concentrates on cinema and television dramas for its analysis of the development of Korean popular culture. For a start, the government policies and domestic conglomerates' business moves that helped transform the Korean cinema industry are presented, taking account of the global political economic context. It is noted that even the Korean government did not have a clear vision for popular cultural exports.

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.