Barbara Korte and Nicole Falkenhayner

Routledge Research in Cultural and Media Studies, Taylor and Francis, 2021

link to book’s page on Routledge site https://www.routledge.com/Heroes-in-Contemporary-British-Culture-Television-Drama-and-Reflections/Korte-Falkenhayner/p/book/9780367653668

This book explores how British culture is negotiating heroes and heroisms in the twenty-first century. It posits a nexus between the heroic and the state of the nation and explores this idea through British television drama.

It has been a true pleasure reading this book. It offers a rich and engaging discussion of the ambiguous hero and the contested heroic in contemporary British TV culture. Moreover, it presents a range of deeply fascinating and thought-provoking analyses of contemporary series – military, espionage, detective and fantasy – and scrutinizes the protagonist – mostly male – as a figure whose actions raise the broad and important questions what counts as heroic and who can be represented as heroic. Thereby it includes a clever and critical discussion on TV series and (the lack of) diversity. It is highly recommendable to anyone interested in contemporary British TV culture and how TV fiction can contribute to our understanding of contemporary societies.

Anne Jerslev, University of Copenhagen, Denmark