Adjusting the Contrast: British Television and Constructs of Race

Through contextual and textual analyses, Adjusting the contrast: British television and constructs of race explores a range of texts and practices that address the ongoing phenomenon of race and its relationship to television. Essays by British and American media scholars focus on how race is framed within this 'new' age of television; replete with digital services, streaming and on-demand downloads. Among other issues, chapters explore television policy and the management of race; how transnationalism may diminish racial diversity; historical questions of representation; the myth of a multicultural England via current programming, and more. The book also seeks to examine how television constructs Britishness through whiteness and continued constructs of normativity. It includes analyses of programmes such as Doctor Who, Shoot the Messenger, Desi DNA, Survivors and Top Boy, as well as the broadcast policies that helped to create them, and cultural production in the 'new age' of television. Other essays include a look at the 1950s and how they are reframed on contemporary television screens through Call the Midwife; the continuing myth of a multicultural England on Luther; and how comedies such as Till Death Us Do Part and Mind Your Language framed enigmatic racial tensions as laughing matters. Through a critical analysis of literature and new empirical research, cultures of production are deconstructed as public service remits, sometimes through the work of minority producers, continue to produce programming rife with racialised tropes. Whilst efforts have been put into diverse portrayals on screen, there remain significant problems with the stories being told.