The History of Forgotten Television Drama in the UK

近年来，人们在一定程度上回归了以经验为基础的电视史，试图“修改”人们对电视过去的传统理解方式。特别是，在电视制作的最初几十年，当许多节目“丢失”或被毁时，人们越来越意识到有必要记录和重新评估英国广播公司和独立电视台的产出。这个项目将以之前的研究为基础，通过调查英国被遗忘的电视剧的历史，寻找基本上不为人所知的作品，要么是因为它们是现场制作的而不是录制的，要么是因为它们是被录制的，但后来被丢弃、删除或丢失。它还将审查存在的电视剧，要么是部分(例如，作为一部电视剧或系列剧中的单个剧集)，要么是完整的，但自最初的传播以来很少看到(如果有的话)。由于地区制作提出的具体问题，该项目将特别重视在英国地区和国家(英格兰地区加上北爱尔兰、苏格兰和威尔士)制作的电视剧，并评估电视剧中“未知”和“地区”之间的关联程度。该项目涵盖的时期是从1946年BBC电视在第二次世界大战后恢复，到1982年，BBC/ITV的双头垄断随着第四频道的到来而结束，广播事业的新纪元开始。1946年，所有的戏剧都是现场直播的，没有录音。到1982年，几乎所有的戏剧都是预先录制的，在20世纪60-70年代经常发生的擦拭和丢弃录音的做法已经停止。通过对地区和国家档案馆的研究，以及对幸存的制作人员的采访，该项目旨在揭示英国电视剧的一段“失落”的历史。通过这样做，它试图创造一部另类的英国电视剧历史，这将增加我们对电视史的了解，挑战关于电视剧《佳能》的想法，并鼓励人们意识到电视剧制作的地区多样性。需要解决的研究问题包括：1946-82年制作的许多不太知名的戏剧、连续剧和连续剧发生了什么，这些剧、连续剧和连续剧在电视史上没有提到，也没有后来的放映？这些戏剧性事件还存在吗？如果不是，它们的不存在，或者如果它们确实存在，它们的不可获得性，是否解释了它们在电视剧历史上的隐形？英国电视剧中“未知”或“被遗忘”的定义是什么？一部电视剧被定义为“未知”的标准又是什么？这些被遗忘的电视剧在多大程度上是由地区BBC制作中心和地区独立电视台制作的？《被遗忘的》剧集和地区性制作之间有关联吗？这些电视剧的录音发生了什么？它们是否保存在地区BBC制作中心和地区独立电视台公司的档案中？如果是这样，当这些中心关闭或搬迁时，或者当独立电视台公司被其他公司接管时，这些档案发生了什么？他们存档的性质是不是导致了这些电视剧的隐形？鉴于无法对研究期间所有被遗忘的电视剧提供详尽的描述，这项研究的目的是在现有数据库的基础上，绘制出英国未知和被遗忘的电视剧的主要轮廓，然后集中在一系列案例研究上。案例研究将被选为代表所有地区和国家的案例，尽可能至少有一部电视剧代表每个BBC地区制作中心和每个地区独立电视台。通过这种方式，案例研究应该有助于英国电视剧的另一种历史，同时也将检验一些传统上支撑现有历史描述的假设。

In recent years, there has been a degree of return to empirically-based television history that seeks to 'revise' the conventional ways in which television's past has been understood. In particular, there has been a growth in awareness of the need to document and reassess the output of the BBC and ITV during the early decades of television production when many programmes were 'lost' or destroyed. This project will build on previous research by investigating the history of 'forgotten' television drama in the UK, looking at productions that are largely unknown, either because they were produced live and not recorded, or because they were recorded but subsequently junked, wiped or lost. It will also examine dramas that exist, either in part (e.g. as individual episodes within a series or serial) or complete, but which have rarely been seen, if at all, since their original transmission. Due to the specific issues raised by regional production, the project will place particular emphasis upon television drama made in the regions and nations of the UK (the English regions plus Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) and assess the extent of the correlation between the 'unknown' and the 'regional' in television drama. The period to be covered by the project is from 1946, when BBC television resumed after the Second World War, to 1982, when the BBC/ITV duopoly was ended by the arrival of Channel 4 and a new era in broadcasting began. In 1946 all drama was broadcast live and no recordings were made. By 1982 nearly all drama was pre-recorded and the practice of wiping and junking recordings, which occurred on a regular basis during the 1960s-70s, had ceased. Through research in regional and national archives, and by interviewing surviving production personnel, the project aims to uncover a 'lost' history of television drama in the UK. In doing so it seeks to produce an alternative history of UK television drama that will add to our knowledge of television history, challenge ideas concerning the television drama 'canon' and encourage awareness of the regional diversity of television drama production. Among the research questions to be addressed are: What has happened to the many lesser-known plays, series and serials produced from 1946-82 that are not mentioned in television histories and which have not had subsequent screenings? Do these dramas still exist? If not, does their lack of existence, or their unavailability if they do exist, account for their 'invisibility' in histories of television drama? What constitutes the 'unknown' or 'forgotten' in UK television drama and by what criteria might a drama be designated 'unknown'. To what extent were these 'forgotten' dramas produced by regional BBC production centres and regional ITV companies? Is there a correlation between 'forgotten' drama and regional production? What happened to recordings of these dramas? Were they kept in the archives of regional BBC production centres and regional ITV companies? If so, what happened to these archives when the centres closed or relocated, or when the ITV companies were taken over by other companies? Has the nature of their archiving contributed to the 'invisibility' of these dramas? Given that it will be impossible to provide an exhaustive account of all the 'forgotten' drama produced in the period under study, it is the aim of the research to build on existing databases by mapping the main contours of unknown and forgotten drama in the UK before concentrating on a series of case studies.The case studies will be chosen to represent all of the regions and nations, with at least one drama, as far as possible, representing each BBC regional production centre and each regional ITV company. In this way, the case studies should contribute to an alternative history of television drama in the UK while also putting to the test some of the assumptions that have traditionally underpinned existing accounts of its history.