People following the last few weeks of the Critical Studies in Television blog will have seen my brilliant colleagues discussing the essential work that they have been able to do thanks to the…

Those of you that have been reading CSTonline for a while will know that I have been in the USA for the past 6 years. I was employed (as an American TV scholar) to write a Master’s Programme in TV…

Around the world, sports journalism is dominated by men. In 2018, Sky Sports in Britain recognized that: ‘At recent press conferences for the leading football clubs in the Premier League…

In August 2022, I secured a slot at the BBC Written Archives Centre (WAC) in Caversham to look at the archives for Nai Zindagi Naya Jeevan (BBC1, 1968-1982). This was a groundbreaking programme…

Imagine, if you will, the following scene playing out on a television screen: A trial is underway in a courtroom. The defendant is being cross-examined by a sharp-dressed lawyer…

In a book chapter I recently had published (Beattie 2025) I discuss how seminal British sitcom Desmond’s (1989-1994, Channel 4) illustrates how barbershops function as both community anchors and as…

Warning: This article is divided into two parts but both have detailed descriptions of sexual violence in the book and TV series, Rivals. In episode one of the 2024 television period drama Rivals…

This past March, Fox News personality Jesse Watters, who first came to fame as the pundit Bill O’Reilly’s ambush interview man, earned considerable mockery when he introduced his “rules for men” on…

How might we illustrate, explore, and begin to define the ‘state of the nation’ film and television text? This edited collection, in collaboration with Intellect, invites consideration of these…

After Invincible’s fifteen-year run as a comics series (Image Comics/Skybound, 2003-18), creator Robert Kirkman and TV writer Simon Racioppa pitched an adaptation to Amazon Prime Video.

The European audiovisual landscape is complex, with a huge variety of content providers and a traditionally strong public service. While only about 10% of all European providers feature public…

“It’s like putting two insects together in a jar and seeing what happens…” (Hill, 2014: 3). When we are asked to define reality television this is often the analogy that comes to mind…

Edward G Robinson’s gangster Johnny Rocco in Key Largo (John Huston, 1948) seems uncertain when asked by Humphrey Bogart and Lionel Barrymore’s sequestered characters what he wants.

Richard Wallis and Christa van Raalte argue for greater honesty and pragmatism in addressing the talent pipeline.

In this second podcast, David and Elke are looking at Governance in Crisis – as governance that is troubled but also governance in a period of crisis. We examine the issue of crisis itself and what…

Disclaimer: This blog post is derived from the research presented at the 9th International Visual Methods Conference, at Istanbul, Turkey. Despite notable increases in LGBTQ+ representation across…

I first started writing this blog some weeks ago after I was lucky enough to be invited along to a review performance of the Broadway stage play, Good Night, and Good Luck. Thanks to my friendship…

Should a series be watched in production, broadcast, or some other order? Most viewers will never consider this question, only turning their minds to the order in which episodes are aired or queued up…

The Star Wars franchise is perhaps best known for its rather Manichean outlook on good and evil as expressed through the ‘Dark (evil) Side’ and ‘Light (good) Side’ of the Force (similar to 气, qi…

The AHRC What’s On? Project Team: Beth Johnson, Dave O’Brien, Laura Minor, Anna Viola Sborgi What’s Class Got to Do With It? Rethinking TV from the Inside Out School of Media and Communication…

Call for Papers – Transnational Perspectives on Anime: A Symposium, in collaboration with Japan Foundation London Location: Lancaster University Date: July 4th 2025 Anime studies has become a…

Watching the recent Severance season 2 finale “Cold Harbour,” I became increasingly intrigued with the show’s explorations of selfhood and autonomy, whereby the ‘innies’ are disposable tools – they…

The CHANSE ERA-NET project DIGISCREENS: “Identities and democratic values on European digital screens: Distribution, reception, and representation” is coming to an end in December 2025…

I’m passionate about the written word but conversely, I’ve turned to digital media to encourage people to read. This has included a series of online comics celebrating Nottingham’s literary history…

I write biographies. So far, I’ve written two, one on Hedy Lamarr, and another on the silent era Irish director, Rex Ingram. I have other entries on my CV too, more usually conventional academic…

It has been 20 years since the conference that inaugurated Critical Studies in Television. The twentieth anniversary gives us an opportunity to pause and consider where our subject is and might go.

NB: This is part of research that will be published in a special issue of Popular Culture Studies Journal focusing upon Star Trek: Enterprise which I am guest-editing (CFP open until 15 June).

This talk explores the articulation of food and television through an analysis of the soap opera genre and their transmedia cookbooks. Whilst debates on food & literature and food &

Last week, Kim Akass blogged about how the US press response to Adolescence (Netflix, 2025) made visible certain blind spots in a culture seemingly unable to identify that a particular kind of…

Everyone is talking about Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne’s latest venture: the 4-part series, Adolescence, that hit Netflix screens on March 13th. And what a series it is. I’m not going to go too much…

A CREAM, University of Westminster Conference June 19th and 20th 2025, University of Westminster, Marylebone Campus, LONDON, NW1 5LS Dr. Christopher Hogg – C.Hogg@westminster.ac.uk (University of…

Cathrin Bengesser (Aarhus University) in conversation with Francesco Casetti (Yale University) This interview with Francesco Casetti accompanies the English-language translation of ‘De la paléo- à la…

In Translation Original publication: Casetti F and Odin R (1990) De la paléo- à la néo-télévision. Communications 51 : 9–26 In Translation Original publication: Casetti F and Odin R (1990) De la paléo…

Trump is back in office, letting Elon Musk loose and apparently giving in to Russia’s demands as far as Ukraine is concerned, all the while looking to see if he can get access to Ukraine’s minerals.

‘In the not-too-distant future…’ For those of us of a certain age and from a certain geographic range, the lyric above was likely heard being sung by a range of voices including Joel Hodgson…