`Taking our personal lives seriously': intimacy,continuity and memory in the television drama serial

Abstract

This article argues against the generally agreed assumption that the demise of the single play heralded the decline in the standards of television drama generally. In contrast, it suggests that the rise of the television serial actually indicates the coming of age of TV drama. Unlike the `teleplay' that originally arose out of a strong theatrical tradition, the serial or `mini-series' better utilizes the generic aesthetics of television and the fundamental dynamics of its audience's viewing habits. In particular, it will demonstrate how the episodic nature of the drama serial successfully mimics and harnesses the many complex, multi-layered levels of both the series and soap opera, while retaining and redefining the finite narrative arch of the single play. This makes the serial a particularly suitable form for the portrayal of large historical narratives, especially those that, by necessity, cover a large area both in terms of space and time. Paying close attention to serials such as Roots (1977), Holocaust (1978) and Heimat (1984), the article suggests that the serial form has become an ideal vehicle through which the intimate dynamics of Alltagsgeschichte (`the history of the everyday') can be dramatized and gradually developed. The article concludes that, with its ability to portray and investigate questions of power and politics on both a macro/social and micro/personal level, the television drama serial offers a complex generic form which can now compete successfully with the comparatively restricted and single text dynamics of both the theatre and cinema.