Acting in the New World: Studio and Location Realism in Survivors

Abstract

While the development of British television drama has been well charted, comparatively little work has been conducted with regard to the medium's impact on acting style. This article is intended to address that lack, evolving a framework of ‘studio realism’ and ‘location realism’ to examine how changes in production can affect acting in television drama, using the BBC series Survivors (1975–7) as a case study. Originally produced along the traditional Corporation lines of filmed location work followed by rehearsal at the purpose-built Acton rooms (typically two weeks for a 50-minute episode of drama) and two days of studio recording at Television Centre, after its initial seven episodes the programme switched to an all-location model using Outside Broadcast video cameras. Instead of preparing in a separate space, the cast adopted an on-location rehearse/record process, a template that has endured, with certain modifications, to the present day. By employing a combination of original cast interviews and textual analysis, I examine what effects this altered mode of production had on acting, as pre-planned, ‘in continuity’, multi-camera studio work – itself a remnant of the live process imported from the stage in the 1930s – began to give way to the out-of-sequence, single-camera model – in which performances are evolved almost entirely on site – which predominates today. In this way the conditions and effects of studio and location realism are exemplified and investigated in an attempt to make an opening contribution to the hitherto largely neglected field of acting for television drama.

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