Did ITV revolutionise British television?
Under the leadership of John Ellis (Principal Investigator) this three-year research AHRC-funded project questioned the received wisdom about the arrival of ITV in 1955 and subsequent years. Many people assume that ITV brought about wholesale changes in the kinds of TV programmes that were screened; that the BBC was panicked by a wholesale loss of audience share; and that the arrival of ITV brought about the mass acquisition of TV sets in British homes. The project team included Rob Turnock (Post-doctoral Researcher, 3 years) and Chris Hand (Post-doctoral Researcher, 1 year). John Hill received an AHRC Research Leave award to complete his book (due to be published by the BFI) on the film and television output of the director Ken Loach. This consists of a historical study of the formal and thematic features of Loach’s work in relationship to the changing social and institutional contexts in which it has been made and viewed. Mandy Merck was awarded a Research Fellowship by the Leverhulm
