Overview

This book explores the role of heritage in contemporary British visual culture through an analysis of a selection of British factual television series. Despite being the most popular genre on British and American television since the late-2000s, factual entertainment is often dismissed for its triviality. As such, it has been left out of discussions concerned with visual depictions of British heritage onscreen, which are typically reserved for costume dramas. This book explores television’s relationship with contemporary nostalgic culture, examining Britain’s relationship with its past, its heritage, and its identity. Focusing on a cross-section of factual television programmes, from talent shows and cooking competitions to children’s television and national live sporting events, the author argues that they not only explicitly reflect the socio-political context and nostalgic culture in Britain in the decade following the 2008 financial crisis but have also been instrumental in shaping it. Proposing a new subgenre of factual entertainment – factual heritage television – this book will be a must-read for scholars and students in television studies, popular culture, history and heritage studies, cultural studies and media studies.

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9781032132419

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Author Information

Michael Samuel is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Film and Television at the Department of Film and Television, University of Bristol, UK, where he is also the co-director of the Bristol Digital Game Lab. He is the author of Northern Exposure: A Cultural History and co-editor of TV and Empathy, Streaming and Screen Culture in the Asia-Pacific and True Detective: Critical Essays on the HBO Series.

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