This book investigates a crucial transition in British television drama: the move from studio to location, and from videotape to film, a shift that occurred predominantly in the 1970s. It explores the main production paradigms of 1970s television: multi-camera studio video, Outside Broadcast video, and 16mm film. It combines archival research, textual analysis and original interviews with television pioneers such as Alvin Rakoff, Herbert Wise and Margaret Matheson. The book provides production histories and critical analysis of three landmark serials: I, Claudius (BBC 1976), The Mayor of Casterbridge (BBC 1978) and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (BBC 1979). 

Dr. Douglas McNaughton is a senior lecturer at the University of Brighton. His research interests include the political economy of television production and representations of space and place in British screen cultures. His publications include work on television's production spaces, Scottish identity on screen, and British folk horror television.