Coast and Spooks: On the permeable national boundaries of British television

Abstract

Two contrasting BBC series – a geography/leisure programme and a spy drama – are examined to establish the strategies used to construct national discourses. It is suggested that the articulation of such discourses includes a necessary openness, corresponding both to an intensified BBC policy to represent social diversity and the implications arising from the specific genre or television format. For Coast, initial claims for the coast as a defensible national boundary line have been undermined. The programme has come to recognize the coast as a permeable location of exchange and migration. It has shifted towards a version of the coast in terms of diversity rather than as a symbol of national integrity. Spooks, by contrast has moved away from an initial scepticism concerning the elitist role of MI5 in defending the nation as anxieties about terrorism grew during the last decade. Nevertheless, like Coast, there has been a necessary transnational dialogue as much as there has been a concern to defend national boundaries.

Notes

 1. For arguments focusing on the failure of the BBC in this respect see Harvey and Robins (1993) and Creeber (2004).

 2. For a summary of the expected role of national broadcasting in linking peripheries and the centre see Morley (2004, 310–12).

 3. Diversity has become an increasing anxiety in the BBC. In the 2008/9 annual report it begins by stating: ‘The UK is an incredibly diverse place, and we aim to reflect this diversity at national, regional and local levels’ (6). There are then a further 48 references to diversity.

 4. Other examples include A Picture of Britain (BBC 1, 2005), Britain from Above (BBC 1 and 4, 2008), Rivers with Griff Rhys Jones (BBC 1, 2009).

 5. Reviewer Sam Wollaston explains the appeal of the format: ‘I like this programme because it's not about history, natural history, geography, geology or tourism. It's about all those things’ (‘The coast is toast’, The Guardian, 30 July 2005, G2, 5).

 6. Audiences reached 5 million viewers, in the top 30 programmes on all channels, although being transmitted on the minority BBC 2 channel. Source: BARB (Broadcasters' Audience Research Board), http://www.barb.co.uk/

 7. A groundbreaking analysis of this from the 1970s can be found in Brunsdon and Morley (1978).

 8. Coast was supported by a website (http://www.bbc.co.uk/coast/archive/) and by mobile phone information allowing viewers to follow the journeys on foot (BBC Annual Report 2005/6, 41).

 9. David Wolstencraft, the creator of the series, is quoted as saying that ‘Espionage these days is more about preventing atrocity than nation against nation’ (Interview, ‘David Wolstencraft on London spies’, Time Out, 16 May 2006. http://www.timeout.com/london/books/features/339/David_Wolstencroft_on_London_spies.html).

10. David Shayler, ‘Must spy harder’, The Guardian, 15 May 2002, G2, 4.

11. The perception of the programme's commitment to a diversity agenda is noted in the right-wing Daily Telegraph: ‘BBC sources say that one of Spooks’ strengths is the dedication of the production team to making sure that sensitive issues – around multiculturalism, radicalisation and international diplomacy – are handled properly' (‘Spooks the show that is James Bond on a BBC budget’, The Daily Telegraph, 4 December 2008. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/profiles/3550557/Spooks-The-show-that-is-James-Bond-on-a-BBC-budget.html).

12. Toby Miller notes ‘the gruesome interiority and tension’ of the spy's calling so that ‘good and evil come to depend upon each other’ (Miller 2003, 44–5).

13. It should be noted that this is two years before the Tube bombings of 2005, which were the first example of terrorism in the name of Islam in Britain.

14. Television interview, Newsnight, BBC 2, 25 August 2006.

15. This was written by the playwright Howard Brenton whose regular contributions in the first four series were sometimes opportunities for satire. For instance, Series 4, Episode 8, ‘The Russian’, offers satire on the destruction of socialism by the free market.

16. In ‘The Special’, Part 2, Second Episode of Series 4, 2005, Adam Carter's use of torture and murder is justified by an imminent bomb threat.

17. For instance, by Series 3, Episode 10, ‘The Suffering of Strangers’, Adam Carter must deal with the kidnap of his wife and threats to her son.

18. For instance, at the end of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy the traitor George Haydon explains his treachery in terms of ‘the economic repression of the masses’ and the malign influence of the United States on Britain.