• Colour drawing of a staged theatrical scene framed by two symmetrical classical structures with niches containing gilded statues, flanked by trees. At the centre, a painted backdrop shows an island within an archipelago, with a visible settlement; in the foreground, a vessel approaches the shore. Four figures stand before the backdrop holding branches and other objects. The composition is enclosed within a thin rectangular gold border.
Image of Downton Abbey

Downton Abbey, Britishness and Class

by John White In the second of a short series of extracts from British Cinema and a Divided Nation (EUP, 2022), John White looks at Downton Abbey (Michael Engler, 2019). The quick series of shots presented to the audience at…

Sixties British Cinema Reconsidered

Sixties British Cinema – Reconsidered!

Read Laura Mayne’s overview of the new book Sixties British Cinema Reconsidered, which re-evaluates a critically neglected period in British film history. Has here been any decade more inconsistent in the public imagination than the 1960s? Lived recollections of the…