Research centre
Communication and Computing Research Centre

Date
2014

Feature Films on British Television

Since the 1950s, when television first asserted itself as a serious rival to the cinema as a source of public entertainment, more people have seen films on television than by any other means, including the cinema itself. This book will provide a comprehensive history and analysis of the ways in which feature films have figured in TV programming in the United Kingdom. It begins with the earliest pre-war days of BBC Television, the world’s pioneer TV broadcasting service, and its antagonistic relationship with the vested interests of the film industry.

Feature films made to be seen on the big screen were initially withheld from TV by the major studios, both American and British, which resisted the idea that the ‘enemy’ should be supplied with their own weapons. Struggles between film and television interests settled into a truce in the mid-1960s and from then onwards literally thousands of films have been shown on British terrestrial television each year; indeed, many films in recent years have been funded by UK TV companies. The book will seek to cover every aspect of this story.

Researchers involved

Sheldon Hall - Senior Lecturer in Film Studies

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