Throughout the year 2021, Disney+ released a series of…well, series, which took place in and followed various characters of the wider hyperdiegesis conventionally referred to as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

If you live, like me, in The Guardian bubble, you will be heartened by the outspoken defence of the BBC in the last two days (The Guardian, 2025). But this defence clearly doesn’t come from all sides.

Just about exactly a year ago, on 19 November 2024, I e-mailed a group of colleagues expressing concern about the Terms of Use researchers had to sign up to it secure access to the immeasurably rich collections of the BBC Written Archives Centre (WAC) at Caversham.

In common with the other authors of this series of blogs, I am a regular user who knows first-hand the importance of the BBC’s Written Archives.

Roughly a decade ago, Netflix’s then–Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos made a pessimistic remark about the future of reality TV on the platform at an investors’ conference, calling the genre “disposable,” and something that Netflix is not really invested in making.

It’s always bloody Doctor Who isn’t it? The show about the police box that’s bigger on the inside than it is on the outside.

Fig. 1. Still from S3E1, ‘Tomorrow’, The Bear (FX on Hulu, 2022–) There is nothing new about filler or bottle episodes; when I hear the latter term, I always think of Abed (Danny Pudi) from the NBC sitcom Community complaining about how, in ‘Cooperative Calligraphy’ (S2E8), they (the characters) are becoming stuck in a bottle episode. It is a trope so common it can be used for comedy – and that was 15 years ago.

Booking is now open for the Screen Two at 40 symposium at BFI Southbank, London, on the 12th November 2025.

In a previous academic life, I was trained as an historian and archaeologist, particularly regarding representation of heritage.  While this has proved unexpectedly good training for eventually becoming a media theorist studying representation (amongst other things), it also means I often have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with documentaries about history, archaeology and/or culture.

I was asked to write an op-ed piece saying why I think the BBC’s Written Archives Centre (WAC) is a unique and brilliant resource, which I can do because it’s both – and why, therefore, the BBC’s slimming of its services is a Bad Thing.

This article was first published on WFTHN on the 17th October 2025. Warning: This article is divided into two parts, but both have detailed descriptions of sexual violence in the book and TV series, Rivals. Author’s Note: This essay was written before the death of Dame Jilly Cooper.