Lez Cooke

Regional British television drama in the 1960s and 1970s

Abstract This article considers the television drama produced by two regionally-based production centres in the 1960s and 1970s: Granada Television, responsible for Independent Television provision in the north-west of England, and BBC English Regions Drama, based at Pebble Mill in Birmingham. Granada and BBC Birmingham provide contrasting examples of regional drama production in the 1960s and 1970s, the ITV company setting out to fulfill its regional remit with representations of local culture and identities, while BBC English Regions Drama set out to commission drama from regionally-based writers, resulting in a diversity of regional representations in the dramas produced by the department. At a time when the concept of regionalism in British television seems to be at risk this is an opportune moment to look back on a period when the cultivation of regional identities in television drama was actively pursued by both the BBC and ITV.