Homosexuality on the Small Screen: Television and Gay Identity in Britain

Television provides a unique account of the development of a homosexual identity across the western world, emerging as it did when ideas around sex and sexuality were themselves only just beginning to be publicly discussed. From the very earliest surviving drama featuring homosexuality in 1959, Homosexuality on the Small Screen explores each decade's programming in turn, looking at homosexual themes, storylines, and characters, situating them historically, and relating them to the broader events in British history. By doing so it examines the interactions between the medium and the reality of gay lives, showing how television mirrored the changes taking place in British society. For those with a homosexual - or emerging homosexual - sexual orientation, they were seminal in early personal and social development. For heterosexual viewers, these images were equally important in exploring a sexual other which otherwise remained hidden from them. They included positive storylines which helped improve public ideas about homosexuality, but also stereotypical images which propagated negative attitudes in the public consciousness. Homosexuality on the Small Screen charts this fascinating journey and television's role in the construction of a gay identity.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Preface Introduction Chapter 1: A social problem Chapter 2: Defining sexuality Chapter 3: Securing a subculture Chapter 4: Positive Images Chapter 5: The burden of representation Conclusion Bibliography

About the Author :
Sebastian Buckle gained his PhD in History and LGBT Studies at the University of Southampton. He is a blogger, writer and researcher on British queer history and the author of The Way Out: A History of Homosexuality in Modern Britain (I.B.Tauris, 2015).

Review :
As informed and informative as it is thoughtful and thought-provoking, 'Homosexuality on the Small Screen: Television and Gay Identity in Britain' is exceptionally well written, organized and presented. Homosexuality on the Small Screen is a timely, carefully written and thought-provoking interrogation of the themes, debates and case studies as they are relevant to the representation of homosexuality on the small screen in Britain. The chapters are relevant, rigorous, thoughtfully researched and eloquently written while the case studies are fascinating, enlightening and engaging in equal measure … indeed, I am convinced that it will benefit a new generation of media scholars and creative media practitioners to look at the programmes and the wider social and sexual content as it is presented here. This book will be of genuine interest and importance to undergraduate students on television, film, media, cultural studies, gender and creative media courses. There is also a market for postgraduate students and lecturers working in those same fields of study.