Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Throughout its history, British television has found a place, if only in its margins, for programmes that consciously worked to expand the boundaries of television aesthetics. Even in the present climate of increased academic interest in television history, its experimental tradition has generally either been approached generically or been lost within the assumption that television is simply a mass medium. Experimental British television uncovers the history of experimental television, bringing back forgotten programmes in addition to looking at relatively more privileged artists or programme strands from fresh perspectives. The book therefore goes against the grain of dominant television studies, which tends to place the medium within the flow of the 'everyday', in order to scrutinise those productions that attempted to make more serious interventions within the medium.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of illustrations (p. ix)
• List of contributors (p. xi)
• Acknowledgements (p. xiii)
• Introduction: experimental British television (p. 1)
• 1 'Creative in its own right': the Langham Group and the search for a new television drama (p. 17)
• 2 And now for your Sunday night experimental drama ...: experimentation and Armchair Theatre (p. 31)
• 3 A 'new drama for television'?: Diary of a Young Man (p. 48)
• 4 'The very new can only come from the very old': Ken Russell, national culture and the possibility of experimental television at the BBC in the 1960s (p. 70)
• 5 From art to avant-garde? Television, formalism and the arts documentary in 1960s Britain (p. 89)
• 6 An experiment in television drama: John McGrath's The Adventures of Frank (p. 106)
• 7 Don't fence me in: The Singing Detective and the synchronicity of indeterminacy (p. 120)
• 8 Visions: a Channel 4 experiment 1982-85 (p. 136)
• 9 Experimenting on air: UK artists' film on television (p. 146)
• 10 Experimental music video and television (p. 166)
• 11 'Yes, it's war!': Chris Morris and comedy's representational strategies (p. 180)
• Bibliography (p. 195)
• Index (p. 205)