Entertaining Television: The BBC and Popular Television Culture in the 1950s

Drawing on extensive archival research, this book explores what can be termed case studies in popular program culture on 1950’s British television, with a particular focus on the BBC. Histories of 1950s British television have perpetuated the assumption that BBC television in this period was staid, elitist and paternalistic, while the competition from commercial television (ITV) was populist and appealing - capturing the increasingly mass audience for the medium and subsequently forcing the BBC to ‘catch up’. In fact, the BBC is not perceived to have been the producer of ‘popular’ program culture at all in the 1950s, whether at the level of political sensibility, or in terms of audience ratings. Entertaining Television challenges this view by examining how BBC television was continually negotiating with the popular (often causing controversy in the process). In focusing on genres/ topics such as the ‘soap opera’ ( The Grove Family ), quiz/ game shows, the ‘problem’ show, and celebrity culture, the book not only aims to reappraise existing perceptions of the BBC, but it seeks to recover programs which have been marginalized or ignored in early histories of British television. In this regard, Entertaining television contributes to knowledge about the beginnings of television’s popular generic forms in Britain, while uncovering often surprising links to programs and debates which circulate around television today. The book will be of interest to undergraduate and postgraduate students working in the fields of television studies and television history, and to scholars interested in the field.