Tony Garnett

Tony Garnett is the first book-length study of one of the most respected and prolific producers working in British television. From ground-breaking dramas from the 1960s such as Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home to the 'must see' series in the 1990s and 2000s such as This Life and The Cops, Garnett has produced some of the most important and influential British television drama. This book charts Garnett's career from his early days as an actor to his position as executive producer and head of World Productions. Drawing on personal interviews, archival research, contextual analysis and selected case studies, Tony Garnett examines the ways in which Garnett has helped to define the role of the producer in British television drama. Arguing that Garnett was both a key creative and political influence on the work he produced and an enabler of the work of others, the book traces his often combative relationships with broadcasting institutions (especially the BBC). Garnett's distinctive contribution to the development of a social realist aesthetic in British TV drama is also examined, from the documentary-inspired single plays of the 1960s and 70s to the subversion of genre within popular drama series of the 1990s and 2000s. Additionally, the study discusses the films he made for the cinema and considers some of the ways in which Garnett's experiments in film technology - 16 mm in the 1960s, digital video in the 1990s - have shaped his creative output. Tony Garnett will be of interest to all levels of researchers and students of British television drama, media and film.