*Apologies for cross posting*

The deadline for booking for Television Drama in the Regions is Friday 18th March - please see below for booking and contact details. Hope to see you there.

CONFERENCE

Cultures of British Television Drama: 1960-82

TELEVISION DRAMA IN THE UK REGIONS (One-Day Symposium)
Manchester Metropolitan University (Alsager campus): Saturday 9th April 2005


A unique one-day symposium that brings together academics in the field of television drama studies and television professionals (including Alan Bleasdale, Philip Purser and David Rose) to debate the definition, history and legacy of regional television drama. 

Organised under the auspices of the AHRB- funded research project 'Cultures of British Television Drama: 1960-82', this one-day symposium will focus on regional television drama, with particular reference to the output of Granada in the North-West and BBC regional drama from Pebble Mill (Birmingham). The symposium aims to give a platform to research that recognises the importance of television drama produced in, and/or representing, the UK regions to the post-war history of television. 

Topics for debate will include: 
Granada's A Family at War: region, class and the television community (Julia Hallam, University of Liverpool)
Realism and authorship in regional drama - Colin Welland's Roll on 4 O'Clock (Bob Millington, Edge Hill College).
Granada's drama-documentaries: journalistic constraints and 'bad drama' (Peter Goddard, University of Liverpool).
Coronation St.: masculinity and sexuality (Phil Lumby, University of Wolverhampton)
Pre-Troubles television drama from Northern Ireland (Andrew Hill, University of Ulster)
Debating regionality: Granada and BBC English Regions Drama - contrasting models of the television region, 1960-82 (Lez Cooke, Manchester Metropolitan University)

A highlight of the conference will be two panel discussions, drawing together television professionals working in Granada and BBC regional drama from the 1960s to the 1980s. The following industry panellists have all confirmed their attendance: James Brabazon, Michael Cox, Julia Jones, Philip Purser, Alan Bleasdale, Peter Ansorge and David Rose. (Brief biographies below)

The event will also include a screening of a rare Second City Firsts 30 mins play, Early to Bed (BBC2, 20 March 1975; w. Alan Bleasedale, pr. Barry Hanson, dir Les Blair).

Cost: £25 and £10 student concession (includes coffee, tea and lunch). 

The day will begin at 10.00 (coffee and registration) for a 10.30 start, and will finish at 5.30 pm. For a detailed programme, along with a booking form and arrangements for payment, please contact Stephen Lacey - [log in to unmask] .

Industry Panellists

Peter Ansorge joined BBC English Regions Drama in 1975, working as script editor and producer on series such as Gangsters and Empire Road. He subsequently moved on to C4, becoming Head of Drama. He is the author of From Liverpool to Los Angeles: On Writing Theatre, Film and Television.

Alan Bleasdale wrote his first television plays for BBC English Regions Drama, beginning with Early to Bed, in 1975, and culminating with Boys from the Blackstuff, in 1982. Since then his television serials have included Scully, The Monocled Mutineer, GBH and Jake's Progress.

James Brabazon has worked as a writer, actor, story editor, producer and director for both the BBC (where his credits include John Hopkins' Talking to a Stranger) and Granada, where he worked from 1970-81 on a variety of programmes, including the WW2 drama serial, The Spoils of War.

Michael Cox joined Granada in 1961 as trainee floor manager. For the next three decades he was a director, producer and drama executive at Granada, working on series such as The System, A Family at War, Sam and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.

Julia Jones wrote her first television plays for The Wednesday Play in the 1960s and continued writing for both the BBC and ITV until the mid 1990s. Her first play for Granada was Penny Wise, in 1968, and in 1972 she wrote the seven-part series Home and Away.

Philip Purser was television critic for the Sunday Telegraph for 26 years and was a frequent contributor to the TV quarterly Contrast in the 1960s, writing a regular column on ITV drama. More recently he has written about the early years of Granada drama in Granada Television: The First Generation.

David Rose produced Z Cars at the BBC from 1962-65 and was Head of BBC English Regions Drama at Pebble Mill from 1971-81, when he left to become Senior Commissioning Editor for Fiction at C4. He was awarded a BAFTA Fellowship in 1997.


'Cultures of British Television Drama: 1960-82' is co-directed by Stephen Lacey (MMU), Dr Jonathan Bignell (Reading) and Prof John Ellis (RHUL) and combines analytical and archival study of British television drama programming between these years (roughly, from the expansion of TV drama in the wake of Armchair Theatre to the coming of Channel 4). The project focuses in particular on popular generic television drama in the period, institutional cultures and practices and regional drama output (Granada and Pebble Mill). This symposium is the fourth in a series of symposia/conferences organised in conjunction with the Centre for Television Drama Studies at Reading which will culminate in a major international conference at the University of Reading in September 2005. For details, please contact Helen Wheatley at: [log in to unmask] .

The Alsager campus is easily accessible by road, being three miles from Junction 16 of the M6, and by train (nearest station is Crewe, 6 miles away). Map and travel directions can be accessed from the MMU website: http://www.mmu.ac.uk/about/locations/cheshire.php 

Enquiries concerning the symposium should be directed to:
Stephen Lacey: 
Tel: 0161-247-5618; email - [log in to unmask]
Department of Contemporary Arts
MMU Cheshire
Hassall Rd.,
Cheshire
ST7 2HL

Or:
Lez Cooke:
Email - [log in to unmask]






Stephen Lacey
Acting Head of Department
Dept. of Contemporary Arts
Manchester Metropolitan University
MMU Cheshire
Alsager Campus
Hassall Rd
Alsager
Cheshire ST7 2HL
0161-247-5301 (direct line) 5303 (Dept. office)
[log in to unmask]