I have spent much of the last two years in the company of a long dead British actor.

2017 was something of an eventful year for British actor Jodie Whittaker. When the BBC announced on the 16th of July that she would be the one to replace the incumbent Peter Capaldi as the star and titular character of Doctor Who , her public profile was elevated to heretofore unseen heights.

June and Leon Bernicoff, a progressive Liverpool couple married for over 60 years, were never your typical reality TV stars.

Two years ago, CST kindly posted my piece on Christmas television and ‘BBC Christmas Specials’. The blog focused particularly on those programmes here in Britain (but also shown around the world) that had inveigled themselves into being part of the Christmas ritual, and become ‘event’ television for the festive period, and for the BBC in the process.

Thank goodness for W1A (2014-17), the now defunct satire on life at New Broadcasting House first launched in the run-up to the BBC’s traumatic renewal of its Royal Charter (‘Don’t forget it’s a Royal Charter’ declared ‘Head of Values’ in the hour-long special which kicked off W1A ’s second series (BBC2 23.4.2015)). Now that Charter Renewal and all its attendant upheavals are in place, lets hope that the Corporation

I woke up this morning to multiple messages from friends saying how sorry they were that David Cassidy had died in the early hours of this morning. Strange, but true. Anyone who knows me well knows that David Cassidy was my first love. We have history, David and I.  I stood in the rain and greeted him at Heathrow Airport. I was there at all the concerts.

British television re-started after the Second World War on 7 June 1946, with programmes that included adaptations of theatre dramas, and relays of public ceremonies and sporting events. It relied heavily of remediation, Jay Bolter and Richard Grusin’s (1999) concept of remaking or repurposing meanings from one text into another but also the extension of a text across multiple mediums and platforms.

N.B. Before reading this blog it is worth stating that my cultish sensibilities frequently draw me to re-evaluate that which is targeted for scorn. During the summer recess period I became mildly obsessed with a television series.

… don’t worry; you’re still doing better than most modern undergraduates. Welcome back everyone – and what better way to start the academic year than with a good read? After what seems (to me) like an eternity, my first book – The Changing Spaces of Television Acting – was at last published at the end of August, and I have since been busily promoting it via whatever means possible.

Some of you may have read my previous blog on Comfort Telly, where I pondered if in the end the value of this type of TV Drama is in its actors and performances. (Granted, that the writing is central as well.) Last year ITV resurrected or rebooted their nineties success series Cold Feet (ITV, 1996 -) and with its return this week, I’ve been thinking back on series 6 or series 1 of the reboot.