British Youth Television

In this book, Faye Woods explores the raucous, cheeky, intimate voice of British youth television. This is the first study of a complete television system targeting teens and twenty somethings, chronicling a period of significant industrial change in the early 21st century. British Youth Television offers a snapshot of the complexities of contemporary television from a British standpoint - youth-focused programming that blossomed in the commercial expansion of the digital era, yet indelibly shaped by public service broadcasting, and now finding its feet on proliferating platforms. Considering BBC Three, My Mad Fat Diary, The Inbetweeners, Our War and Made in Chelsea, amongst others; Woods identifies a television that is defiantly British, yet also has a complex transatlantic relationship with US teen TV. This book creates a space for British voices in an academic and cultural landscape dominated by the American teenager.

Faye Woods is Lecturer in Film and Television at the University of Reading, UK. Her research interests include youth representations, feminist media studies and television industries. Her work has appeared in a range of journals as well as the edited collections Television Aesthetics and Style and Multiplicities: Cycles, Sequels, Remakes and Reboots in Film & Television.

Section 1: Framing.- 1. Made in Britain: Mapping British Youth Television.- 2. Branding Youth Space: British Youth Strands and Channels.- Section 2: Fiction.- 3. British Youth Drama: Space, place, authenticity and intimacy.- 4. Teen TV Translations: Across The Pond.- Section 3: Factual.- 5. Youth Factual: First Person, Peer Address and Interaction.- 6. Structured Reality: Designer Clothes, Fake Tans, Real Drama?.- 7. Conclusion: A Short-form future?.- Notes.- Bibliography