Tony Garnett is the first book-length study of one of the most respected
and prolific producers working in British television. From
ground-breaking dramas from the 1960s such as Up the Junction and Cathy
Come Home to the 'must see' series in the 1990s and 2000s such as This
Life and The Cops, Garnett has produced some of the most important and
influential British television drama.
This book charts Garnett's career from his early days as an actor to his
position as executive producer and head of World Productions. Drawing on
personal interviews, archival research, contextual analysis and selected
case studies, Tony Garnett examines the ways in which Garnett has helped
to define the role of the producer in British television drama. Arguing
that Garnett was both a key creative and political influence on the work
he produced and an enabler of the work of others, the book traces his
often combative relationships with broadcasting institutions (especially
the BBC). Garnett's distinctive contribution to the development of a
social realist aesthetic in British TV drama is also examined, from the
documentary-inspired single plays of the 1960s and 70s to the subversion
of genre within popular drama series of the 1990s and 2000s.
Additionally, the study discusses the films he made for the cinema and
considers some of the ways in which Garnett's experiments in film
technology - 16 mm in the 1960s, digital video in the 1990s - have
shaped his creative output.
Tony Garnett will be of interest to all levels of researchers and
students of British television drama, media and film.
