About

Screen Two celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2025. Running from 1985 until 1998, it consisted of around 150 single dramas and films involving the leading writers, directors, and producers of the time. However, in comparison to its predecessors – The Wednesday Play and Play for Today – its contribution to television, and UK culture more generally, has been little analysed and discussed. Although the series initiated a decisive shift in BBC drama policy towards shooting entirely on film, and producing television films for cinema release, its contribution to this development has been largely neglected in comparison to the study of Channel 4 and Film on Four.

The purpose of the project will therefore be to revisit the history of Screen Two – and the related BBC series Screenplay (launched in 1986) and Screen One (launched in 1989) – in order to examine the transition from the single play to television film during this period and assess its artistic, economic, and socio-political significance. This will include case studies examining the changing role of women at the BBC in the 1980s and 1990s, and the opportunities that Screen Two afforded to women in relation to broader British film and television production policy. The project will also examine public and critical responses to the films released in the Screen Two strand, and assess the ways in which they addressed national and international politics, regional identity, ethnicity and sexuality.

In doing so, the project will not only re-assess the history of UK television drama and its relationship to theatrical cinema during this period, but also re-evaluate individual works and make them better-known through public websites (such as BBC Canvas), publications, events, and screenings (at the BFI).