English Filming, English Writing

Jefferson Hunter examines English films and television dramas as theyrelate to English culture in the 20th century. He traces themes such as theinfluence of U.S. crime drama on English film, and film adaptations of literaryworks as they appear in screen work from the 1930s to the present. A Canterbury Taleand the documentary Listen to Britain are analyzed in the context of villagepageants and other wartime explorations of Englishness at risk. English crime dramasare set against the writings of George Orwell, while a famous line from Noel Cowardleads to a discussion of music and image in works like Brief Encounter and Look Backin Anger. Screen adaptation is also broached in analyses of the 1985 BBC version ofDickens's Bleak House and Merchant-Ivory's The Remains of the Day.