Networks and Patterns of European TV Drama Co-production

Audiences of popular European television crime drama: A nine-country study on consumption patterns, attitudes and drivers of transcultural connection

“…The crime genre is abundant on European TV screens and is one of the most watched and circulated genres throughout the continent (Bondebjerg et al, 2017; Kevin and Ene, 2015). Most of the series (and movies) consumed in the various European countries are either domestic or Anglo-American (US and UK) productions.…”

“…Particularly on subscription VoD platforms (Grece and Jiménez Pumares, 2021: 15) and services from strong public service broadcasters (see Kevin and Ene, 2015) European viewers can encounter non-national content from other EU countries. The increase in the circulation of European TV series through new distribution platforms, and the simultaneous growth of European production of high-end dramas (Jiménez, 2020: 12; Iordache et al, 2021; Raats and Jensen, 2020), however, may generate deeper bonds with ‘our European Others’ through ‘mediated encounters’ (Bondebjerg et al, 2017: 27). Or, as Joke Hermes says, ‘popular cultural texts and practices are important because they provide much of the wool, from which the social tapestry is knit’ (2005: 11).…”

Britishness and otherness: Representing and constructing identity in BBC’s Land Girls

“…Television plays a crucial role in the construction of modern collective memory, implying differences between national and transnational reconstructions of the past (Fiske and Hartley, 2003: xv). Since the creation of the European Union, national narratives in the United Kingdom have been increasingly influenced by transnational narratives (Bondebjerg, 2017: 261). Land Girls was created in an era that witnessed rising public anxiety about immigration, fuelled by the ‘selective openness’ policies of Labour since 1997.…”

“…The media, and television in particular, provides access to the hidden dimensions of European identity policies by permitting constructed national identities to remain in place, while allowing for the linking of national groups through common experiences. This double structure ensures the dominance of national identity, while recognising a weaker European identity (Bondebjerg, 2017: 304). In Land Girls , the Italians are supervised while working, but the characters are quite casual in their work and interactions with the Land Girls.…”

“…The show’s acknowledgement of continual changes in European alliances and alignments, and with them the making and remaking of the national narrative for the purpose of both political theatre and the practicalities of policymaking (Bondebjerg, 2017: 260), is also evident in its treatment of its lone German character, Ulrich Keitmeiler. As in The One That Got Away (1957), Ulrich is not identified as a Nazi and the show makes no overt reference to Nazism.…”