Armchair Nation
eBook - ePub

Armchair Nation

An intimate history of Britain in front of the TV

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Armchair Nation

An intimate history of Britain in front of the TV

About this book

But what does your furniture point at?' asks the character Joey in the sitcom Friends on hearing an acquaintance has no TV. It's a good question: since its beginnings during WW2, television has assumed a central role in our houses and our lives, just as satellite dishes and aerials have become features of urban skylines. Television (or 'the idiot's lantern', depending on your feelings about it) has created controversy, brought coronations and World Cups into living rooms, allowed us access to 24hr news and media and provided a thousand conversation starters. As shows come and go in popularity, the history of television shows us how our society has changed. Armchair Nation reveals the fascinating, lyrical and sometimes surprising history of telly, from the first demonstration of television by John Logie Baird (in Selfridges) to the fear and excitement that greeted its arrival in households (some viewers worried it might control their thoughts), the controversies of Mary Whitehouse's 'Clean Up TV' campaign and what JG Ballard thought about Big Brother. Via trips down memory lane with Morecambe and Wise, Richard Dimbleby, David Frost, Blue Peter and Coronation Street, you can flick between fascinating nuggets from the strange side of TV: what happened after a chimpanzee called 'Fred J. Muggs' interrupted American footage of the Queen's wedding, and why aliens might be tuning in to The Benny Hill Show.

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Yes, you can access Armchair Nation by Joe Moran in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in History & World History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Publisher
Profile Books
Year
2013
Print ISBN
9781846683916
eBook ISBN
9781847654441
Topic
History
Index
History

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright Page
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. 1 Switching on
  7. 2 A waking dream
  8. 3 A straight pencil-mark up the sky
  9. 4 The pale flicker of the Lime Grove light
  10. 5 The invisible focus of a million eyes
  11. 6 The dance of irrelevant shadows
  12. 7 A barrier against the silences
  13. 8 The age of warts and carbuncles
  14. 9 A glimmer on the dull grey tube
  15. 10 Closedown
  16. Notes
  17. Acknowledgements
  18. Picture credits
  19. Index