OXFORD TELEVISION STUDIES General Editors: Charlotte Brunsdon and John Caughie Oxford Television Studies offers international authors - both established and emerging - an opportunity to reflect on particular problems of history, theory, and criticism which are specific to television and which are central to its critical understanding. The perspective of the series will be international, while respecting the peculiarities of the national; it will be historical, without proposing simple histories; and it will be grounded in the analysis of programmes and genres. The series is intended to be 3oundational without being introductory or routine, facilitating clearly focused critical reflection and engaging a range of debates, topics, and approaches which will offer a basis for the development of television studies. British television has been a success story. One factor in this success has been the distinctive institutional structure of British broadcasting, a mix of state-regulated and publicly-funded services with commercial services. This book attempts to give a broad overview of British television by examining both the institutional framework and the programmes that it has produced. A range of reprinted writings from the work of acknowledged experts is supplemented by specially commissioned essays on such key topics as sport and British television in the global context. It will be a key text for all students taking courses on British television and broadcasting.