Category: Sutherland’s Law

Maurice Roëves (1937-2020)

Post author By billysmart
Post date July 24, 2020
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I had the good fortune to interview the actor Maurice Roëves (who has died at the age of 83) on two occasions. Maurice had an extraordinarily prolific 55-year career in film, theatre and especially television, the span and range of which (“beginning with an episode of Doctor Finlay’s Casebook in 1966 and concluding with a […]

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1960s 1970s Audience Research BBC BBC 2 BBC drama BBC Scotland Billy Smart Iain Cuthbertson Sutherland's Law The View From Daniel Pike This Man Craig

The BBC Television Audience Research Reports and BBC Scotland Drama, 1964-82: Recorded Opinions and Invisible Expectations

Post author By billysmart
Post date April 1, 2017
1 Comment on The BBC Television Audience Research Reports and BBC Scotland Drama, 1964-82: Recorded Opinions and Invisible Expectations

Between the 1950s and the 1980s, the BBC’s internal Audience Research Unit compiled up to 700 television Audience Research reports per year, attempting to cover the complete spectrum of BBC TV programming. What I’m going to do today is consider the value of this material, in relation to my own work on the development of […]

1970s Actors Audience Research BBC BBC Scotland Billy Smart Conference paper Iain Cuthbertson Scotland Sutherland's Law Writers

Sutherland’s Law (BBC Scotland 1973-76): Presenting Scottish landscape to a UK audience

Post author By billysmart
Post date June 30, 2014
10 Comments on Sutherland’s Law (BBC Scotland 1973-76): Presenting Scottish landscape to a UK audience

This post presents a forgotten BBC Scotland drama series of the 1970s and explains its historical significance and distinctive form. I’ll discuss its treatment of landscape before finally considering how the programme represented tensions between rural and city Scotland.