Television play
The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (December 2010) |
A television play is a
United Kingdom
From the 1950s until the early 1980s, the television play was a
Armchair Theatre: 1956–1974
Armchair Theatre was a British
The programme was networked nationally on ITV on Sunday evenings, and often drew large audiences. Over 450 plays were made and broadcast under the Armchair... banner from 1956 to 1980. Among the best-known plays were No Trams to Lime Street (1959) by Alun Owen, and A Night Out (1960) by Harold Pinter.
Armchair Theatre was an important influence over later similar programmes such as the BBC's The Wednesday Play (1964–1970). This latter programme was initiated by Sydney Newman as a deliberate attempt to echo the success of Armchair Theatre after he had moved to the BBC in 1963.
The Wednesday Play: 1964–1970
The Wednesday Play ran on BBC1 from 1964 to 1970 originated by Sydney Newman, by now the head of BBC Drama, with the policy of commissioned plays being "relevant to the lives of a mainstream popular audience." The goal was to find or commission work that "would be fast...telling an exciting narrative sparely" using material "that would more accurately reflect the experience of the audience." The series' producers, including James MacTaggart, hired "fresh new writers", whose new ideas led to the series gaining "the reputation for 'controversy' and 'outrage'."[1] He also wanted to get away from the BBC's reputation of producing very 'safe' and unchallenging drama programmes, to produce something with more bite and vigour.
The series gained a reputation for presenting original contemporary social dramas, although adaptations from other sources also featured, and brought political issues to the attention of a mass audience. Director Ken Loach made two highly regarded plays for the series: an adaptation of Nell Dunn's Up the Junction (1965) and Cathy Come Home (1966), the documentary-style drama of a homeless young couple's attempt to keep their children. The Wednesday Play came to an end in 1970 when the transmission day changed, and the series morphed into Play for Today.
Play for Today: 1970–1984
Play for Today was a
Some well remembered plays from the series included Mike Leigh's Nuts in May (1976) and Abigail's Party (1977), which examined the dysfunctional interactions between neighbours and married couples. Some plays, such as Rumpole of the Bailey, were later made into series.
Decline of genre: mid-1980s
Television plays became less common from the 1980s, because of a trend in 1980s television drama towards the television film which might receive limited cinema screenings before being shown on Channel 4. Another factor was a greater reliance on continuing series of the police or medical genres in a growing multi-channel environment. Nonetheless, television plays were regarded as a benchmark of high-quality British television drama.
United States
In the United States, television plays were seen mainly from 1948 to 1961, the period of live TV dramas which framed the Golden Age of Television.
Soviet Union
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In the Soviet Union the broadcast-only TV plays were produced since 1938 until early 1950s,[2] later they started being recorded via kinescope.[3]
The genre was abandoned in mid-1980s.[4]
Russia
An attempt to revive the genre was made by the
See also
References
Notes
- ^ "Wednesday Play, The".
- ^ Лапин С. Г. Телевидение, In: Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 1976
- ^ Коноплёв Б. Н., "Многокамерные способы электронных съёмок", In: Основы фильмопроизводства М.: Искусство, 1975 p. 180
- ^ "Особое внимание вызвали у зрителей и у профессионалов отдельные из названных спектаклей своими открытиями в новой области художественного творчества, в его поэтике". Archived from the original on 23 July 2018.
- ^ Решетникова В.В. "О жанре телевизионного спектакля" In: "Научные и учебные тетради Высшей школы телевидения МГУ.им. М.В. Ломоносова М.: Алгоритм-Книга, 2010, vol. 2, p. 26
Further reading
- Evans, Jeff. The Penguin TV Companion (1st ed.). ISBN 0-14-051467-8.
- Vahimagi, Tise. British Television: An Illustrated Guide. ISBN 0-19-818336-4.
External links
- Mark Duguid "The Television Play", BFI screenonline article