Changing narratives of conspiracy on British television: a review ofHunted,Secret State,ComplicitandUtopia

Oldham, Joseph

doi:10.1080/16161262.2013.840157

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…In fact, its debut was hugely overshadowed by the simultaneous debut of Secret Diary of a Call Girl (2007–2011) on ITV2, a different (and more successful) venture by the broadcaster in appealing to a younger audience with edgier content. Although ITV and Carnival later collaborated on the more traditional serialised conspiracy drama Midnight Man (2008), thereafter the genre would largely remain the preserve of the BBC (and to a lesser extent Channel 4) (Oldham, 2014).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Seeing a conspiracy around every corner’: Paranoia as procedural in Tony Marchant’s The Whistleblowers (2007)

Oldham

2019

Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Te

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The Whistleblowers is an unusual example of a British television conspiracy drama. Developed by Tony Marchant for ITV as a competitor to the BBC’s Spooks, it centred on ordinary people struggling with the ethics of reporting malpractice in state or corporate institutions. This was invested with verisimilitude through advice from the whistleblowing charity Public Concern at Work, though kept in tension with generic expectations of the conspiracy thriller. Unlike most British conspiracy dramas, The Whistleblowers was not a serial but a procedural with stand-alone episodic conspiracies, creating a vision of conspiracy not as escalating crisis but as ‘standard operating procedure’.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Seeing a conspiracy around every corner’: Paranoia as procedural in Tony Marchant’s The Whistleblowers (2007)

Oldham

2019

Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Te

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“…According to Oldham (2013, 2019), Utopia offers a bold, transgressive take on the traditional conspiracy television drama (Fenster, 2008), developing a post-patriotic model of the genre through its use of dark humour, hapless protagonists and experimental aesthetics and soundscape. Thus, we can see the most explicit conspiracy regarding the drama is within its storytelling and cult form.…”

Section: Utopia Imaginariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, discourses surrounding Utopia as ‘too cult’ reinforce its oppositional nature (Mathijs and Sexton, 2019). For example, the drama breaks the rules of the conspiracy genre (Oldham, 2013); it offends the cultural and economic bourgeoisie (see the Daily Mail moral scandals surrounding the drama); and it defies standard measurements for success (the industry ratings versus cult fan engagement). Utopia conspiracies within and outside the television industry serve to legitimise and penalise the drama as a cult form.…”

Section: Utopia Imaginariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who killed Utopia? Cult conspiracy drama and a television imaginary

Hill

2020

International Journal of Cultural Studies

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This article focuses on the production and reception of television drama, specifically the case study of conspiracy thriller Utopia. The empirical research is based on 21 production interviews with the makers of the drama and 56 interviews with audience members and fans of the drama. The concept of the television imaginary is used as an analytical lens for investigating the various ways television itself, and audiences and fans, are imagined and implicated in the cancellation of a cult drama series. In particular, Barthes’ early writing on a cultural imaginary is used to underscore the contrariness, the contra positions which creative producers, audiences and fans take, in the conspiracies and judgements surrounding the cancellation. Utopia conspiracies within and outside the television industry serve to legitimise and penalise the drama as a cult form; these conspiracies energise the subjective processes that shape an future imaginary for Utopia and drive its afterlife.

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“How Safe Do You Feel?”: James Bond, Skyfall , and the Politics of the Secret Agent in an Age of Ubiquitous Threat

Smith¹

2016

lit

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Changing narratives of conspiracy on British television: a review ofHunted,Secret State,ComplicitandUtopia

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

‘Seeing a conspiracy around every corner’: Paranoia as procedural in Tony Marchant’s The Whistleblowers (2007)

‘Seeing a conspiracy around every corner’: Paranoia as procedural in Tony Marchant’s The Whistleblowers (2007)

Who killed Utopia? Cult conspiracy drama and a television imaginary

“How Safe Do You Feel?”: James Bond, Skyfall , and the Politics of the Secret Agent in an Age of Ubiquitous Threat

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