Television Drama: An Introduction by David Self (review)

Book Reviews To Savona's great credit, her radical revisioning of Genet's dramas from a contemporary critical perspective does not remove lhe study either from the mainstream afGenet criticism or from the interests of the general reader.This is both a long overdue clarification of why Genet's plays have the powerful and troubling effects that they do, and it is a lucid and jargon-free account of Genet's contemporaneity. UNA CHAUDHURl , NEW YORK UNIVERSITY DAVID SELF. Television Drama: An Introduction. London: Macmillan 1984. pp. xiii, 173. illus. £5.95 (PB). David Selfs new book on television drama will prove to be a useful tool for the student with little or no background in the way a popular art form functions in Britain. The information incorporated here is always clear and very much to the point. Selfsets out to make available to a wide audience the collaborative efforts defining the industry. He is thoroughly familiar with the BBC as well as its everexpanding competition. Throughout his study he maintains a realistic attitude about the aesthetic merits as well as the marketing necessities that comprise what gets done in this genre. when, and by whom. Any reader setting out to familiarize himself with television drama will therefore find this introduction both persuasive in its arguments and concrete in its presentation. It would be necessary. first of all, to point out what this book is not. Self is not concerned with the aesthetics of the medium. He is also not concerned with its relationship to the other performing arts. The reader will find here DO heady discussions of how a given genre infonns the practice of another. This sense of focus is both the limitation and the strength of the volume. On the one hand, the reader would like to know something more about this question, especially the way in which it might affect the work of actors, directors, and designers. On the other hand, Selfpursues a no·nonsense approach which always has at its center the workaday values that define how television drama works. It should also be pointed out here that Self's subject is limited to the U.K. There are no searching questions to be found in these pages about the relationship of television drama in Britain and on the Continent. or the relationship between SeIrs subject and the way television functions (or more often misfunctions) in North America. Students will therefore find the concentration this volume offers informative in its particularfocus. A great deal of what Selfsays here applies to how drama works on other national networks. Yet his most telling subject matter"is the BSC, its affiliates. and its local competition. As more students ofdrama have become concerned with the different media available to the writer, there has been increased emphasis on technology as it affects the making of theater art. Self's book is therefore timely, for any sophisticated analysis of theater cannot ignore the impact of radio, film, and television. For the novice who wishes to develop such a multimedia perspective, one that will serve him well as he thinks about the contemporary stage, a book like Selfs will help to produce the kinds of comprehensive skills that are necessary to understand the subject in an informed way. It Book Reviews is, however, strictly for the beginner, as Self so clearly states in his introductory comments. I would therefore have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending it to my own students. The interrelationship of dramatic activity in the various media is a fascinating subject. one which this journal has taken up in a recent special issue. Selfs little volume will serve a nice function in helping students understand some of the basics. especially those among us with a taste for things British. ENOCH DRATER, THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN TONY DUNN . ed. Gambit: Howard Barker Speciallsslte, Vol. n. No. 41. London: John Calder Ltd. 1984. Pp. 143, illustrated. £2.50 (PB). For ajoumal with the name "Gambit," this issue devoted to Howard Barker doesn't open well. The editorial leads off with a classic piece ofawkward sloganeering: "Since, in our culture, public hypervaluation of minimal skills is now routine, those trained in discrimination must...