Television and British Cinema: Convergence and Divergence since 1990

This book is a timely and thorough investigation of the changing relationship between television and cinema in the UK since 1990. It explores the process of convergence, both in terms of the intermedial relationship between closely related cultural forms, and in the involvement of institutions of television in the British film industry. Rather than viewing convergence as a byproduct of digitalization, the book argues for a longer history of analogue convergence, manifested in, for example, the use of television as an alternative exhibition platform for British cinema, or the broadcast of feature-length filmed television dramas traditionally conceptualized as ‘plays’ rather than films. The book demonstrates how these processes of convergence have been met with equally strong rhetorical ‘divergence’, the use of presentational devices or discursive framing to distinguish film from television. The book discusses the role of television institutions in these processes, focusing on a period in which the relationship between film and television in the UK developed into a symbiosis.