The ‘War on Terror’

Stephen Lacey, Derek Paget

Description

This book explores the ways in which television has engaged directly and indirectly with the new realities of the post-9/11 world. It offers detailed analysis of a number of key programmes and series that engage with, or are haunted by, the aftermath of the events of September 11 in the USA and what is unavoidably through problematically and contentiously referred to as the resulting ‘war on terror’.

The substantive part of the book is a series of independent chapters, each written on a different topic and considering different programmes. It includes series and single dramas representing the invasion of Iraq (The Mark of Cain, Occupation and Generation Kill), comedic representations (Gary, Tank Commander), documentary (the BBC Panorama’s coverage of 9/11), ‘what if’ docudramas (Dirty War), 9/11 in popular series (CSI:NY) and representations of Tony Blair in drama and docudrama. The book concludes with an extended reflection on contemporary docudrama and an interview with filmmaker and docudramatist Peter Kosminsky.
1. Introduction
Stephen Lacey and Derek Paget
2. Ways of Showing, Ways of Telling
Derek Paget
3. Embedded dramaturgy – representing the ‘war on terror’ from within: Ten Days to War, The Mark of Cain and Occupation
Stephen Lacey
4. Post 9/11 American Television Drama: 24 and Generation Kill as Melodrama
Steve Lipkin
5. The comedy of terror: Gary: Tank Commander and the TV sitcom’s ‘discourse of impropriety’.
Bruce Bennett
6. The Paranoid Style’s traumatic speculations of suffering
Hugh Ortega Breton
7. Mac and Monotheism: Remembering 9/11, Surviving Trauma and Mourning Work in CSI: NY
Janet McCabe
8. Britz, Contemporary British National Identity and the ‘War on Terror’
Steve Blandford
9. ‘It Won’t Be Iraq They’ll Remember Me For, Will It?’: Tony Blair and Dramatisations of The War On Terror
Stella Bruzzi
10. Panorama's coverage of 9/11 and the ‘War on Terror'
David McQueen
11. Interview with Peter Kosminsky
Peter Kosminsky and Derek Paget
12. Texts cited
13. Bibliography

Sujets

• Modern
• Histoire
• 21st Century
• History

Informations

• Publié par: University of Wales Press
• Date de parution: 22 mai 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783162468
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

CONTEMPORARY LANDMARK TELEVISION THE ‘WAR ON TERROR’

Series editors Professor Steve Blandford (University of South Wales) Professor Stephen Lacey (University of South Wales) Dr Ruth McElroy (University of South Wales)

CONTEMPORARY LANDMARK TELEVISION

THE ‘WAR ON TERROR’ POST-9/11 TELEVISION DRAMA, DOCUDRAMA AND DOCUMENTARY

Edited by Stephen Lacey and Derek Paget

U N I V E R S I T Y O F W A L E S P R E S S 2 0 1 5

© The Contributors, 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Applications for the copyright owner’s written permission to reproduce any part of this publica tion should be addressed to The University of Wales Press, 10 Columbus Walk, Brigantine Place, Cardiff CF10 4UP.

www.uwp.co.uk

British Library CataloguinginPublication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN eISBN

9781783162451 9781783162468

The right of the Contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77, 78 and 79 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Designed and typeset by Chris Bell, cbdesign Printed by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham, Wiltshire

CONTENTS

 Series Editors’ Preface

 Notes on Contributors

 Introduction  Stephen Lacey and Derek Paget

1Ways of Showing, Ways of Telling Television and 9/11 Derek Paget

2 Embedded Dramaturgy  Representing the ‘War on Terror’ from Within: Ten Days to War,The Mark of CainandOccupation  Stephen Lacey

3American Television Drama Post9/11 24andGeneration Killas Melodrama  Stephen N. Lipkin

4The Comedy of Terror  Gary: Tank Commanderand the TV Sitcom’s  ‘Discourse of Impropriety’  Bruce Bennett

5The Paranoid Style’s Traumatic Speculations  of Suffering Hugh Ortega Breton

6 Mac and Monotheism  Remembering 9/11, Surviving Trauma and Mourning  Work inCSI: NY  Janet McCabe

7Britz, Contemporary British National Identity and  the ‘War on Terror’ Steve Blandford

vii

ix

1

11

33

49

65

81

95

109

8‘It Won’t Be Iraq They’ll Remember Me For, Will It?’  Tony Blair and Dramatisations of the ‘War On Terror’  Stella Bruzzi

9Panorama’s Coverage of 9/11 and the ‘War on Terror’  David McQueen

10Interview with Peter Kosminsky  Derek Paget

Texts Cited

Bibliography

Index

125

143

161

175

179

191

SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE

HERE IS NO DOUBT that the landscape of broadcasting has been trans rise T the Internet), the internationalisation of television formats and pro of formed in recent years, and the speed of change shows no sign of slowing. Technological change (satellite and digital television, the grammes, the availability of DVD boxsets, new technologies for recording and timeshifting viewing, the proliferation of TV channels and the segmenta tion of the TV audience – these have all ensured that television, once dubbed ‘ephemeral’, is now a major cultural commodity in a global marketplace. The discipline of television studies, although a relative newcomer to the field of cultural and media studies, has grown confident in its ability to confront and debate the challenges that the new ecology of broadcasting poses. Contemporary Landmark Television focuses on one corner of the wider picture, British programmes, in recognition of their continuing significance for both home and overseas audiences. The series offers scholars and lectur ers timely investigations of current UK broadcasting, through a focus upon television’s prime output: programmes. By being responsive to the contem porary television landscape, the series recognises that television scholarship benefits from engaging with the current viewing experience of scholars and students. For us, one of the enduring values of television as a mass medium lies in its contemporaneity with its audience; television exists in the moment – even when that ‘moment’ is lengthened by new technologies of recording and distribution – and in so doing, enjoys a privileged position as a creative source of artistic and social intervention in the world of its viewers. The choice to engage with programmes themselves is recognition of the turn towards television aesthetics in recent scholarship, and of the now contentious nature of some of the accepted categories. Terms such as ‘land mark’, and its synonyms such as ‘classic’ or ‘quality’, cannot be assumed but must be debated, and a reflection on key terms is an important aspect of the series’ approach. Also, broadcasters such as the BBC and Channel 4 have sought to meet the challenge of digitalisation by exploiting online programme

SERIES EDITORS’ PREFACE

assemblages (the chat room, forum, and programme games and quizzes), and these have become staples of British television drama, in the process significantly extending our understanding of what constitutes a television programme. Therefore, an important emphasis of the series is the treatment of individual programmes or series ‘in the round’ – in their production and reception contexts, and where relevant in their different iterations. It also draws on, where possible, the perspectives of practitioners and television pro fessionals themselves. Programmes – even longrunning series – exist in a wider context of other programmes, and the series will occasionally consider clusters of programmes linked by a common theme. Although aimed primarily at students and scholars of television, Con temporary Landmark Television intends to be accessible to the general reader with an interest in how television programmes have been commissioned, pro duced, debated and enjoyed, as well as to professional broadcasters. Whoever the reader, we hope that he or she will be both stimulated and challenged by the experience.

viii

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

Dr Bruce Bennettis Director of Film Studies in the Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts at Lancaster University. Publications include articles on celebrity culture, James Cameron and blockbuster cinema, the aesthetics of digital 3D cinema, border cinema and the figure of the immigrant, and the ‘war on terror’ in film, television and photojournalism. He is author of the monographThe Cinema of Michael Winterbottom: Borders, Intimacy, Terror (Columbia University Press, 2014) and coeditor of the collectionCinema and Technology: Theories, Cultures, Practices(Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

Steve Blandfordis Emeritus Professor of the University of South Wales. Until 2013, he was Director of the Centre for the Study of Media and Culture of Small Nations, and was coresearcher on ‘Screening the Nation: Landmark Television in Wales’ for the BBC Trust and Audience Council Wales (2009–10). He has published widely on British television and theatre, includingFilm, Drama and The BreakUp of Britain(Intellect, 2007),Theatre and Perfor mance in Small Nations(Intellect, 2012) andJimmy McGovern(MUP, 2013). He is a member of the Board of the National Theatre of Wales.

Stella BruzziProfessor of Film and Television Studies at the University is of Warwick and a Fellow of the British Academy. Her publications include the monographsUndressing Cinema: Clothing and Identity in the Movies (Routledge, 1997),New Documentary (Routledge, 2000 and 2006),Bring ing Up Daddy: Fatherhood and Masculinity in Postwar Hollywood (BFI, 2005),Seven Up(2006) andMen’s Cinema: Masculinity and MiseenScene in Hollywood(EUP, 2013). With Pamela Church Gibson she coeditedFashion Cultures: Theories, Exploration and Analysis(Routledge, 2000) andFashion Cultures Revisited(Routledge, 2013).

Peter Kosminskyan internationally known writer and filmmaker, is whose career has included documentaries, feature films and, significantly,