Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 13h

The closest I can think of (entirely offhand) is those festive pantomimes they did with all the BBC children’s TV stars! Mind you, I think they were recorded on location in a theatre? Rather than the studio pseudo-theatre of Morecambe & Wise.

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 13h

Interesting to see NT Live these days — on the telly and in the cinema, as something old-but-new. The camerawork uses selective focus through film cutting conventions rather than lighting/curtain, but also has the theatre audience as active participants — even shown during the interval!

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 13h

We accept the implausibility of cartoons (including ST Lower Decks) more than live action.

Is an epitome of made-for-TV drama the multi-camera studio sitcom? Or is that just accommodating theatrical representation and pacing?

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 13h

I wonder why TV dramas didn’t start with studio audiences, especially when recorded live.

Is TV drama that leans into the representative possibilities (rather than accommodates the constraints) something more like Talking Heads or Captain Zep or DW Underworld?

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 13h

Indeed. I think series like Z Cars and Coronation Street aimed from the off for realism, and even Quatermass was rooted in contemporary realism.

Which maybe set impossible standards for the more overtly fantastical Doctor Who and Blake’s 7; viewers (especially fans) perhaps came to expect that.

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 14h

TV drama pioneer Troy Kennedy Martin aspired to do “microdrama” inspired by film techniques and vocabulary. Stage director/writer David Hare came to TV but thought BBC studios were “stale overlit shells in a great circle”. Whereas BBC studies were fixed assets needing to be used cost effectively.

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 14h

And once they’d seen what US film series could do, ITV dramas like Upstairs Downstairs were also exploring/stretching what was possible to escape the confines of proscenium arch multi-camera studio recording, rather than leaning into the constraints of facilities designed for LE and news.

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 14h

Nice thread, thanks. The idea of viewers learning/expecting a TV drama grammar is interesting.

I think once BBC TV drama wasn’t steered in the theatrical tradition established by Val Gielgud’s BBC radio, new TV creators started looking for ways to escape the confines of studios for drama.

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 18h

Strikingly brutal from the outset. Then Liberator’s crew taunting the captured Shrinker— when Tarrant defends it (“He's an animal, Cally”) Cally’s terse reply: “Yes, and it's contagious, isn't it?”

@andr3wsmith.bsky.social’s prequel was satisfyingly gruesome.

www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/h...

Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 18h

Assumed American date format

Paul @rudemrlang.com · 18h

The barcode was wrong.

Marjorie James Keenan @unenthusiast.com · 1d

In honour of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand.

rm -rf ~/

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 21h

Tommy Flowers, a British computing pioneer.

www.theguardian.com/world/2025/o...

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 1d

I thought those were your initials.

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 1d

#DoctorWho 1001 Nights in Time & Space now available in the Guardian Bookshop

guardianbookshop.com/doctor-who-1...

Doctor Who: 1001 Nights in Time and Space

A better place to buy your books. Support independent journalism with everything you buy. Free UK P&P on online orders over £25

guardianbookshop.com

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 5d

I think I read that somewhere as well, but now it’s behind a paywall.

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 5d

Irony

INDEPENDENT PREMIUM has a comment article that says: “The era of 'free' internet is over - here's why everything you store online is at risk
The world wide web started as a wholly free service -“

and then

“To continue reading this article...
INTRODUCTORY OFFER
Try 6 months for just £66”

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 5d

“Come and visit me and my friends Reed Elsevier, Thomson Reuters and… er… Bert Elsmann, at my Penguin Random House just off McGraw Hill.”

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 5d

Spar at Swindon

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 5d

“Extra frisson” could be one of the settings.

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 6d

Haha! Either that or the stunt doubles they brought in for the close-ups were different heights.

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 6d

“Never trust a hug. It’s just a way to hide your face.”

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 6d

As if proof were needed…

Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 6d

You are tempting fate with “magic” there as well, y’know.

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Reposted by Peter Anghelides

Ten Acre Books @tenacrebooks.bsky.social · 6d

The latest printing of David Whitaker in an Exciting Adventure with Television is almost sold out but more are on the way. An in-depth biography of Doctor Who’s first script editor by @0tralala.bsky.social, shining new light on an enigmatic personality. Order now from tenacrebooks.co.uk.

Cover design for David Whitaker in an Exciting Adventure with Television.

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 6d

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Peter Anghelides @anghelides.bsky.social · 6d

Those Blu-ray FX enhancements are more drastic than I first realised.

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