The Arrival of Colour in BBC Drama and Rudolph Cartier's Colour Productions. Issue 3 (November 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Panos, Leah
• Is Part Of: Critical studies in television. Volume 10:Issue 3(2015)
• Page Start: 101
• Page End: 120
• Publication Date: 2015-11
• Subjects: colour -- BBC2 -- Rudolph Cartier -- 1960s -- TV drama -- aesthetics; Television -- Periodicals; Television criticism -- Periodicals; 384.5505
• DOI: 10.7227/CST.10.3.8
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1749-6020

Abstract

This article examines the implementation of colour television at the BBC during 1967–69 at material, practical and conceptual levels, and considers how this change was managed by BBC Executives and staff internally and publicly. Using archival written documentation it considers factors that shaped the introduction of colour in drama, and explains how multiple understandings of and practices relating to colour were engaged with by management and in training and production. A case study of dramas directed by Rudolph Cartier between 1967 and 1969 is then used to demonstrate a diverse range of chromatic aesthetics developed during the early colour period.