Television Biopics

Abstract

Like cinema, television is international and is traded transnationally, and although its history is shorter than cinema's, there are over 80 years of broadcasting for this chapter to consider. It is organized around three main problems, namely the question of textual grouping, television's national specificity, and the changing medial identity of television over time. The programme examples derive mainly from recent British and American production. The first section is on genre and considers how the rarity of the designation ‘biopic’ for programmes depends on differences from and similarities to other forms like television documentary, movie-of-the-week television melodrama, and television historical drama. The section on national identity draws attention to the prevalence of television dramas based on the lives of historical and political figures, who are often of national relevance because television has historically been organised through national institutional structures.

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