Britishness in The Avengers

How was 'Britishness' represented in Episode 1 of Season 4:

Costumes:

• John Steed was seen wearing a suit and a bowler hat whilst carrying a umbrella.
• Emma Peel wore a skin-tight lycra outfit whilst investigating, but when undercover as a teacher she wore an elegant dress with hat.

Settings:

• The first scene was set in London in a very modern, highly technical flat.
• The train scene was classically British, each train car having been designed to seat 4 people.
• The rest of the episode was set in a small seaside village with a cosy inn.

Props:

• Steed is seen holding an umbrella constantly.
• Steed drives an exceedingly British car.
• Steed wore a bowler hat.
• Peel was seen to be fencing.
• Peel would carry around a handbag.

Character Interaction:

• Steed was rather flirtatious towards Peel.
• Steed acted rather friendly with everyone, showing the British stereotype that we are all friendly and know each other.

Dialogue:

• Steed and Peel are friendly towards one another in their speech.

Stereotypes:

• Steed and Peel like tea.
• Steed and Peel investigate rural areas like in Sherlock Holmes.

Case Study: The Town of No Return

The Avengers - Season 4 Episode 1: The Town of No Return

Plot Summary:

It opens up with a strange man attending to his lobster pots when a man emerges from the ocean in a black water-tight covering, he then marches up the beach towards the town of Little Bazeley.

After a small bout of fencing, agents John Steed and Emma Peel are tasked with infiltrating the small coastal town of Little Bazeley due to several other agents going missing there. They travel there via train and share a carriage with a portly man called Smallwood, and upon arriving Steed takes on the role of a Land Realtor and Peel poses as a teacher.

The town is very strange as no villagers are found around the town, and all the others are found in the local inn and behave very strangely. Here they find the Headmistress, School Inspector and 'Piggy' Warren.

Peel and Steed get rooms at the inn whilst Smallwood goes looking for his brother.

The next day Peel goes to the school and finds that there are no children, and that they are in fact 'On Holiday'. This behaviour is strange so she leaves in an attempt to locate Steed, and finds him on the beach. There they find the corpse of Smallwood and go find his brother. Smallwood's brother looks nothing like he does in the photo that Smallwood carries around of him. This brother then tell the agents that Smallwood left for London, proving that something ominous is going on and that this brother is an imposter.

Whilst investigating the school an elderly man bursts into the room and tells Peel that he is the real School Inspector and starts ranting on about what is below.

Heeding the dying mans words, Peel and Steed head into a bunker where they discover a small army of imposters with a large stockpile of weapons. Steed and Peel defeat everyone in the bunker and lock them underground permanently.

The agents are then seen driving away from the town on a scooter.

The Characters:

John Steed:
Emma Peel:
'Piggy' Warren:

Links to social and cultural context:

Audience Appeal:

The Avengers 1961

The Avengers (1961):

1) Which Institution produced the show?:

It was produced by ITV.

2) Who was the primary and secondary audience?:

The primary audience demographic is aged over 15 as it aired past 9pm. The show is aimed at males and females as it featured a strong female lead. The social grade of the target audience ranges from B to E as ITV wasn't deemed to be as posh as the BBC.

3) When did the first episode air?

The first episode, called Hot Snow, aired on the 7th of January 1961.

4) How many viewers followed the show?

The regular viewer count for each episode was

Duopoly in the 1960's

The era of two competing broadcasters, ITV and BBC, is referred by many as a "Golden Age" of broadcasting in the UK. The two institutions had full control over the programmes as they produced them in-house.

How might this competition and control have positive outcomes? What negative effects might this have?

Television Industries: Ownership

The BBC:

Channels: 

The BBC has 9 separate channels. These channels are BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC News, BBC Parliament and BBC Alba.

Mission, Vision and Values: 

The BBC intends to provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them. The BBC also hopes to support learning for people of all ages. They will also aspire to output the most creative, distinctive and highest quality services. The BBC also intends to reflect and represent the diverse peoples of the United Kingdom in all of it's nations regions. The BBC will also reflect the United Kingdom along with it's culture and values to the world.

Most Popular BBC 1 Programmes:

The most popular programmes featured on BBC1 are Doctor Who, The Apprentice, Eastenders and Strictly Come Dancing.

Most Expensive Programme to make:

The most expensive program ever made by the BBC is Rome, it costed $10 million per episode.

Other Platforms:

Online using BBC iPlayer, listening to the radio on all the different BBC stations.

How Else Does it Generate Income?:

Not only does the BBC generate an income by getting people to buy a TV Licence, it also generates income by selling it's dramas and shows to other countries.

Advantages of being Publicly Owned:

They have a guaranteed income, so they do not need to worry about having a low viewer count for the first few episodes of a series.

ITV:

Number and Names of ITV Channels:

ITV, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4, ITVBe, CITV, ITV Box Office, ITV HD, The Store.

Strategy:

y

Most Popular ITV Programmes:

The most popular ITV programmes are Coronation Street, Emmerdale and I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here.

Most Expensive ITV Programme to make:

y

Other Platforms:

Other platforms consist of ITV player which is available online, allowing you to watch ITV shows online.

How does it Generate Income?:

ITV generates an income by playing advertisements and by using product placement.

Advantages of being Commercially Owned:

It can generate more money by utilising sponsorships to advertise other products.

Crime Drama: Industries and Audiences

Television: Industries and Audiences

Terminology:

• Publicly Owned TV Channel - This type of channel is accessible to the public for free. An example of this would be channel 1, which is always BBC 1.

• Commercial TV Channel - This type of channel generates revenue from showing advertisements. ITV is this type of channel.

• Convergence - The combination of 2 technologies. This allows for the ability to watch TV over the internet.

• Watershed - This is after the timeframe in which shows should be child friendly, usually after 9PM.

• Segmented Market - This is the process in which people are separated via their preferences. This results in a difference between channel genres.

• Mainstream - The most viewed channels. This type of channel would be the BBC channels as they are the moist basic type of channel and BBC 1 is always on channel 1. 

• Self-regulating - This is a type of channel that runs itself and is not governed by outside bodies.

• Franchise - This refers to the ownership of a series or movies. An example of this would be Doctor Who which is owned by the BBC.

• Channel Surfing - This refers to constantly switching between channels and not deciding on what to watch.

• PSB - In the United Kingdom the term 'public service broadcasting' refers to broadcasting intended for public benefit rather than to serve purely commercial interests.

• TV License - A TV license must be owned in order to watch any channel. This system is utilised by the BBC in order to generate a revenue because they do not gain money through advertisements.

• Scheduling - A TV schedule will decide which shows will be aired at what time over the course of the day.

• Conglomerate - A company that owns several businesses which specialise in different things. An example of this would be Comcast and how they own both Sky and Verizon.

  Research Task:

1. When was TV introduced into the UK?: It was invented in 1936 and released to the public in 1939.

2. In 1965, how many channels were there in the UK and what were they?: There were only 3 channels available in 1965, BBC 1, BBC 2 and ITV.

3. When did ITV start? Why was it different?: It was introduced in 1955 and it was different because it was the UK's first commercial TV channel.

4. Which UK channels have to follow PSB permits?: BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

5. Who regulates TV now?: It is currently regulated by

The Lego Movie: Poster Campaign

Analysis Recap:

DENOTATION - Denotation is very explicit information. It is information which is incredibly easy to gather, and stating the obvious.

CONNOTATION - Connotation is finding the hidden meaning.

Analysis of The Lego Movie Video Game Cover:

Denotations:

• It features a yellow male character in a high-vis jacket right at the forefront. He has dark hair and is holding a large blue wrench. There is also a large red brick on his back. He is smiling.
• Standing to the left of the frontal character is a female. She is wearing dark clothes which feature a minor blue and purple colour scheme, this mirrors her hair. She is smirking.
• In the far left of the background there is a large ominous figure who is wearing a large headpiece which is red and black with an orange orb which is gleaming. He has an apparent frown on his face.

Connotations:

• The yellow character at the front is the lead character of The Lego Movie - Emmet. As he is smiling in the midst of all the chaos and the danger is probably heroic. Due to the high-vis jacket he is probably a construction worker who builds things.

Lego Movie Promotional Posters:

In order to promote the Lego Movie, WarnerBros released many posters. Some of these feature individual posters of each character:

This is effective to do as it lets the audience familiarise themselves with the cast of characters. This will let them recognise characters, or memorise their favourite characters for later.

Different Types of Posters:

The first type of poster is the Teaser Poster. This one tends to come first and contains the least amount of information. It usually has a large dramatic image which builds suspense and anticipation for the film

The second type of poster is the Theatrical Poster. This poster tends to contain more information about the movie