This collection of essays, by well known writers on the subject of writing for television, is divided into three sections, with the first one devoted to the debates on quality television. The second one focuses on literature and television. The final section examines 'Science on television', with series editors from Britain and Germany giving first-hand accounts of the scope for serious science reporting on television.
Contents
Part 1 – Quality Television
Introduction
Thomas Elsaesser
Television in the Age of Consensus without Sense
Lutz Hachmeister
'Quality' Television
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith
Quality Television in The Netherlands: Some Hopeful Reflections on Breaking the Taboo
Sonja de Leeuw
On the Quality of Soap
Olga Madsen
Zapping One's Way into Quality: Arts Programmes on TV
Thomas Elsaesser
Definitions of Quality
Jon Cook and Thomas Elsaesser
Questionable Quality or the Undiscoverable Quality of Television
Jan Simons
Part 2 – Literature on Television
Introduction
Thomas Elsaesser
The Novelist and Television Drama
Malcolm Bradbury
On Achieving Good Television
Fay Weldon
Speaking to Nations
Alan Plater
Television and Literature
Jon Cook
Literature after Television: Author, Authority, Authenticity
Thomas Elsaesser
Unwritable Films, Unfilmable Texts?
Jan Simons
Part 3 – Science on Television