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The Age of Static: How TV Explains Modern Britain
You can tell a lot about British society by its television. More than any other country, Britain still gets a sense of itself from the output of its national broadcasters. So what can we learn from the TV of the last two decades?
Beginning in 2000, this book explores the televisual contours of Britain, via five themed chapters, taking in (among others) Big Brother, The Great British Bake Off, The Thick of It, The Apprentice, This Is England, Detectorists, Killing Eve and Fleabag. Over this period, Britain has become more divided and fractious, as populist politics began to inform the national conversation.
What did Jamie's School Dinners tell us about our perceptions of the working classes? What does our love of Downton Abbey say about the national psyche under duress? And how did Top Gear help to ignite Britain's culture wars?
In this lively and wide-ranging account of twenty tumultuous years, The Age of Static asks how we got here – and the role television played in the process.
Beginning in 2000, this book explores the televisual contours of Britain, via five themed chapters, taking in (among others) Big Brother, The Great British Bake Off, The Thick of It, The Apprentice, This Is England, Detectorists, Killing Eve and Fleabag. Over this period, Britain has become more divided and fractious, as populist politics began to inform the national conversation.
What did Jamie's School Dinners tell us about our perceptions of the working classes? What does our love of Downton Abbey say about the national psyche under duress? And how did Top Gear help to ignite Britain's culture wars?
In this lively and wide-ranging account of twenty tumultuous years, The Age of Static asks how we got here – and the role television played in the process.
- GenresNonfictionHistoryTv
244 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 22, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 3, 2020
I watch much less TV than I used to, and I am very much more selective now about what I choose to watch too. I tend to prefer to watch documentaries on a variety of subjects, occasionally a drama and some humour or panel game. Much like my reading.
A lot of what passes for popular culture passes me by as I have my head in a book normally. I have seen one series of Big Brother, I think it was the second series, I don’t watch Bake Off, though the rest of my family do. I can’t bear the braying alpha males and females on the Apprentice, who seem to think that the only way to get ahead is the trample on all those around them. If fact, almost all the programmes that he references, I haven’t watched…
He has somehow managed to divide these TV programmes into five sections that loosely hang together. The first, Reality TV Reality focuses on Big Brother, the Apprentice and Britain’s Hardest Workers but he also manages to squeeze in, The Office, The Thick of It and Have I Got News For You. When Big Brother first started they took a bunch of people off the street and shut them away under the pervasive gaze of cameras and an intrigued and bemused audience. Not much happened but it was a big success. This lead to more profiling of the people selected to join in and a house that was more spikey and not quite as comfortable as the earlier series. It has made a number of people famous for no other reason than being on there. The Office was not a programme I liked. As I work in an office usually, the little I watched felt far to close to home but to pull off a drama that felt like a cringe-worthy embarrassing documentary takes some doing…
The fascination of seeing people who live differently will never go away and this sort of documentary is never going to go out of fashion. In How The Other Half Live, Harrison considers various programmes that give us a window into these other worlds. The Secret Millionaire is a programme that took the super-rich out of their opulent mansions an into the lives of ordinary people. In principle, it was a good thing, but in practice, it became a way of the show exploiting those in the lower levels of our society and probably showed as much the chasm between those at the top and bottom that is still widening.
I have watched Top Gear since William Wollard waxed lyrical over different types of engine oil and the cars they feature you could see quite often broken down of the side of the road. It was reinvented with Clarkson et al and became a lifestyle show that I must admit has made me laugh a lot. He was a man who didn’t let trivial things like facts get in the way of his opinion and he drove as close the edge as he could. In Hypernormalisation by Adam Curtis, he shows how we can all retract into our particular bunkers and by consuming a niche of content from various providers we reinforce our particular world views.
The BBC is a common thread throughout the book and they merit a special chapter to themselves. Harrison goes onto list the flaws of the corporation and the way that it works, especially the delusional attempt to get a balance on every single subject they talk about. I like the BBC, even more so now that I have stopped listening to their news output, but they do make some excellent programmes on a variety of subjects.
In, A Very British Identity Crisis, he considers various programmes that show us as a culture and he begins with those programmes that have increased thousands of waistlines across the country. It feels like a country fair where villagers take their garden and kitchen produce to be judged by the great and the good. Another of the programmes that he uses as points of reference, Downton Abbey, I have never seen or wanted to see for that matter. But I completely get his point that it has been written to show that the English upper class have the right to remain in charge in perpetuity. Glad to see that he mentions the Detectorists, a show that is gently funny, but has quite deep truths in ti and shows that two men can have fallen in love with their local landscape and the history below the soil.
I thought that this was a fascination book. In my opinion, Harrison hits the mark each and every time with his analysis of how culture, society and what we watch on TV act like some grim hall of black mirrors back on society. There are contradictions, what works for one class now days is frowned on in other classes even though the behaviours are the same. There have been certain milestone programmes that have provided a stark, if not shockingly vivid image out our society and the way that it has changed for the better. He celebrates the great TV that has been produced and hopefully still will be but is also wary of those programmes that seek to shame and polarise particular sectors of our society. He rightly bemoans that we are losing that common TV conversational starters as so many people are watching very different things. If you love TV, then why not read a book on it? This is a very good place to start.
A lot of what passes for popular culture passes me by as I have my head in a book normally. I have seen one series of Big Brother, I think it was the second series, I don’t watch Bake Off, though the rest of my family do. I can’t bear the braying alpha males and females on the Apprentice, who seem to think that the only way to get ahead is the trample on all those around them. If fact, almost all the programmes that he references, I haven’t watched…
He has somehow managed to divide these TV programmes into five sections that loosely hang together. The first, Reality TV Reality focuses on Big Brother, the Apprentice and Britain’s Hardest Workers but he also manages to squeeze in, The Office, The Thick of It and Have I Got News For You. When Big Brother first started they took a bunch of people off the street and shut them away under the pervasive gaze of cameras and an intrigued and bemused audience. Not much happened but it was a big success. This lead to more profiling of the people selected to join in and a house that was more spikey and not quite as comfortable as the earlier series. It has made a number of people famous for no other reason than being on there. The Office was not a programme I liked. As I work in an office usually, the little I watched felt far to close to home but to pull off a drama that felt like a cringe-worthy embarrassing documentary takes some doing…
The fascination of seeing people who live differently will never go away and this sort of documentary is never going to go out of fashion. In How The Other Half Live, Harrison considers various programmes that give us a window into these other worlds. The Secret Millionaire is a programme that took the super-rich out of their opulent mansions an into the lives of ordinary people. In principle, it was a good thing, but in practice, it became a way of the show exploiting those in the lower levels of our society and probably showed as much the chasm between those at the top and bottom that is still widening.
I have watched Top Gear since William Wollard waxed lyrical over different types of engine oil and the cars they feature you could see quite often broken down of the side of the road. It was reinvented with Clarkson et al and became a lifestyle show that I must admit has made me laugh a lot. He was a man who didn’t let trivial things like facts get in the way of his opinion and he drove as close the edge as he could. In Hypernormalisation by Adam Curtis, he shows how we can all retract into our particular bunkers and by consuming a niche of content from various providers we reinforce our particular world views.
The BBC is a common thread throughout the book and they merit a special chapter to themselves. Harrison goes onto list the flaws of the corporation and the way that it works, especially the delusional attempt to get a balance on every single subject they talk about. I like the BBC, even more so now that I have stopped listening to their news output, but they do make some excellent programmes on a variety of subjects.
In, A Very British Identity Crisis, he considers various programmes that show us as a culture and he begins with those programmes that have increased thousands of waistlines across the country. It feels like a country fair where villagers take their garden and kitchen produce to be judged by the great and the good. Another of the programmes that he uses as points of reference, Downton Abbey, I have never seen or wanted to see for that matter. But I completely get his point that it has been written to show that the English upper class have the right to remain in charge in perpetuity. Glad to see that he mentions the Detectorists, a show that is gently funny, but has quite deep truths in ti and shows that two men can have fallen in love with their local landscape and the history below the soil.
I thought that this was a fascination book. In my opinion, Harrison hits the mark each and every time with his analysis of how culture, society and what we watch on TV act like some grim hall of black mirrors back on society. There are contradictions, what works for one class now days is frowned on in other classes even though the behaviours are the same. There have been certain milestone programmes that have provided a stark, if not shockingly vivid image out our society and the way that it has changed for the better. He celebrates the great TV that has been produced and hopefully still will be but is also wary of those programmes that seek to shame and polarise particular sectors of our society. He rightly bemoans that we are losing that common TV conversational starters as so many people are watching very different things. If you love TV, then why not read a book on it? This is a very good place to start.
January 21, 2021
This is a somewhat academic commentary on 21st century British political and social life seen through the prism of popular contemporary television. The premise is that events inspire television programmes or maybe that that TV programmes can be a mirror of those events and even occasionally create the news, like the controversy regarding Iraq's missing WMD and the BBC. So, we get the miners’ strike, Thatcherism, industrial discontent in the 1980s, the BBC and the WMD controversy (of course) and more recent stuff like Brexit, Boris and Covid married up with a dissection of the type of television broadcast during the period in question.
Each chapter considers half-a-dozen or so TV programmes; these can be dramas and documentaries, series and one-off specials, and unpicks what the author postulates are the political and social drivers behind them. It’s all interesting stuff and quite left-leaning so some readers will enjoy having their prejudices reinforced, whilst others might not be quite so keen.
There's a lengthy, largely critical, analysis of the role and future prospects the BBC and its uneasy relationship with Government. And there's an appeal against the coining of the much over-used phrase 'A Very British...' in factual programme titles.
I struggled at times as I was only really aware of a little more than half of the programmes and had maybe seen only about a third or so of them, which rather limited my understanding some of the points raised. But it’s a thoughtful and thought-provoking book and well worth the read - and even if you don’t know the telly cited, you'll almost certainly be aware of at least some of the underlying real-life stories of the last couple of decades.
Each chapter considers half-a-dozen or so TV programmes; these can be dramas and documentaries, series and one-off specials, and unpicks what the author postulates are the political and social drivers behind them. It’s all interesting stuff and quite left-leaning so some readers will enjoy having their prejudices reinforced, whilst others might not be quite so keen.
There's a lengthy, largely critical, analysis of the role and future prospects the BBC and its uneasy relationship with Government. And there's an appeal against the coining of the much over-used phrase 'A Very British...' in factual programme titles.
I struggled at times as I was only really aware of a little more than half of the programmes and had maybe seen only about a third or so of them, which rather limited my understanding some of the points raised. But it’s a thoughtful and thought-provoking book and well worth the read - and even if you don’t know the telly cited, you'll almost certainly be aware of at least some of the underlying real-life stories of the last couple of decades.
July 22, 2023
4 ⭐️’s (Great).
May 20, 2022
The Age of Static by Phil Harrison does exactly what the sub-title says. In it, the author looks at how TV explains modern Britain, from the year 2000 through the next twenty years.
This is a book that I've dipped in and out of over the past month or so, it's not the type of book that I'd read straight through but it is fascinating and telling. Phil Harrison is a TV critic and his observations within the text are precise and on the mark.
For most of us, the television burbles away in the corner of the room. We all have our favourite, must-watch shows, and if you are anything like me, there are hundreds, probably thousands of other shows that people will avoid. The beauty of the growth of TV over the years is the amount of choice. I'm old enough to remember when we had three channel and these all shut down at night. No scrolling through hundreds of channels, and watching TV through the night for us!
What this did mean was that most people watched the same shows and the amount of viewing numbers meant that the issues raised in the programmes often became things that the whole country talked about. It was a form of community, as we all looked on at the escapades of various soap characters - some were even mention in the House of Commons!
What Phil Harrison does so very well in this book is align our behaviours to the things that play out on screen, from small community values, to the rise of social media and 'banter', the celebrity of the often untalented reality show contestant, to the searing political wit that screen writers so often include in their scripts.
It's a fascinating book that not only brought back memories, it also made me think hard about how that box in the corner can influence the nation. Enjoyable and informative read, written with style and authority.
This is a book that I've dipped in and out of over the past month or so, it's not the type of book that I'd read straight through but it is fascinating and telling. Phil Harrison is a TV critic and his observations within the text are precise and on the mark.
For most of us, the television burbles away in the corner of the room. We all have our favourite, must-watch shows, and if you are anything like me, there are hundreds, probably thousands of other shows that people will avoid. The beauty of the growth of TV over the years is the amount of choice. I'm old enough to remember when we had three channel and these all shut down at night. No scrolling through hundreds of channels, and watching TV through the night for us!
What this did mean was that most people watched the same shows and the amount of viewing numbers meant that the issues raised in the programmes often became things that the whole country talked about. It was a form of community, as we all looked on at the escapades of various soap characters - some were even mention in the House of Commons!
What Phil Harrison does so very well in this book is align our behaviours to the things that play out on screen, from small community values, to the rise of social media and 'banter', the celebrity of the often untalented reality show contestant, to the searing political wit that screen writers so often include in their scripts.
It's a fascinating book that not only brought back memories, it also made me think hard about how that box in the corner can influence the nation. Enjoyable and informative read, written with style and authority.
July 5, 2025
3.5 (rounded up)
The Age of Static is a nimble book. It covers a lot of ground, from the state of the BBC to reality TV and Downton Abbey. More generally, it is a confident piece that doubles as both criticism and cultural history, organised around the pillars of the ‘end of history’ in the 1990s, the 2008 financial crash, and, latterly, COVID-19. It is both scholarly and conversational, though does lack consistency regarding footnotes (which can be slightly frustrating for scholars). However, there is a confident argument in favour of television as “an indispensable road map to the British psyche”.
The case studies are interesting, though I do note that some (e.g. Doctor Who) are given a billing in the chapter subtitle but only received a brief mention. Still, there’s enough here to make you ponder — the chapter on nostalgia is especially effective, and, along with the coverage of early ‘00s television like Jeremy Kyle, one of the book’s top highlights. I’d definitely read more by the author.
The Age of Static is a nimble book. It covers a lot of ground, from the state of the BBC to reality TV and Downton Abbey. More generally, it is a confident piece that doubles as both criticism and cultural history, organised around the pillars of the ‘end of history’ in the 1990s, the 2008 financial crash, and, latterly, COVID-19. It is both scholarly and conversational, though does lack consistency regarding footnotes (which can be slightly frustrating for scholars). However, there is a confident argument in favour of television as “an indispensable road map to the British psyche”.
The case studies are interesting, though I do note that some (e.g. Doctor Who) are given a billing in the chapter subtitle but only received a brief mention. Still, there’s enough here to make you ponder — the chapter on nostalgia is especially effective, and, along with the coverage of early ‘00s television like Jeremy Kyle, one of the book’s top highlights. I’d definitely read more by the author.
March 13, 2021
I have savoured this book and took my time with it because I’ve found it to be an utterly enjoyable read!
I can easily see this become a textbook being taught in media and broadcast journalism courses.
Harrison takes you through all the television programmes that have impacted Britain historically, politically, culturally and socially with astute - and incredibly hilarious - observations peppered along the way.
As a media academic myself, I recommend this to fellow academic professionals, media students, TV geeks and journalists alike.
I can easily see this become a textbook being taught in media and broadcast journalism courses.
Harrison takes you through all the television programmes that have impacted Britain historically, politically, culturally and socially with astute - and incredibly hilarious - observations peppered along the way.
As a media academic myself, I recommend this to fellow academic professionals, media students, TV geeks and journalists alike.
December 18, 2020
Interesting read.
Loved the connections. Made me proud, embarrassed and frustrated to occasionally be part of this world.
Recommended to everyone in Production, you have power and responsibility, use it wisely.
Loved the connections. Made me proud, embarrassed and frustrated to occasionally be part of this world.
Recommended to everyone in Production, you have power and responsibility, use it wisely.
October 12, 2022
Overuse of the term 'speak to' and the semi-colon, and it reads like a 60,000-word Guardian piece that keeps having to remember that the topic is TV, not politics. A game effort, all the same, and very good on the mirror TV holds up to the country.
February 25, 2021
This. Book. Slaps.
January 3, 2022
A surprisingly enjoyable read for something that gets quite deep into grim politics at times. Made me realise I have a few gaps in my pop culture knowledge, so am rectifying this now.
February 16, 2023
This book is so interesting, as someone who works in TV on Britain, reading was like a history book of how I'm able to do my job and why it's in a certain way.
May 1, 2024
Harrison weaves between social and political subjects organically and uses a variety of British TV to support and supplement his claims. Very engaging; I flew through this!
January 12, 2025
DNF: A snobish take on the industry, littered with big words that add nothing to what is being told and just making the author sound ignorant.
July 20, 2024
o serviço público de radiodifusão e televisão será sempre o saco de boxe da direita; muito infelizmente, não se tornou um elemento inexorável da vida moderna, como a biblioteca (e mesmo essa... vamos a ver). inexorável, não indiscutível!
um dos lampejos no raciocínio de Phil Harrison (escritor brilhante) é a forma como inverte a taxa audiovisual: em vez de ser um motivo de queixume, que tal olharmos para isso como uma defesa do espectador/ouvinte? os privados farão aquilo qu€ b€m £h€$ par€c€₹, mas uma BBC, uma RTP ou uma RTVE não tem alternativa senão escutar quem contribui com os seus impostos. o nosso parecer importa! (sempre acreditei nisto; não planeei vir trabalhar na rádio pública, mas é uma honra fazê-lo.)
aqui está alguém bem versado na televisão britânica, 360º, sem pruridos nem preconceitos. a BBC é uma criatura fascinante e problemática, que demasiadas vezes se demite do seu dever jornalístico. e que só não foge com o rabo à seringa, tragicamente, quando se dá uma calamidade que o governo trata com absoluta inépcia; mesmo assim, é capaz de se retratar. é um balancé entre coragem e cobardia, televisão de alta e baixa qualidade, que me faz lembrar muitas vezes a RTP (várias vezes acusada, até por artigos académicos, de se pôr à disposição do poder político; aliás, muito gostaria eu de ler um livro semelhante sobre a RTP). no seu melhor, The Age of Static é uma condenação de todas as vezes que a televisão produziu e confirmou realidades abjetas, e uma celebração de tudo aquilo que fez, faz e fará por um país.
(não sei se teria conhecido este livro sem ter ido à loja do British Film Institute. obrigado, BFI, ainda não vi o Blu-ray do Kwaidan, mas este livro já pagou a viagem – demasiado cara – a Londres)
um dos lampejos no raciocínio de Phil Harrison (escritor brilhante) é a forma como inverte a taxa audiovisual: em vez de ser um motivo de queixume, que tal olharmos para isso como uma defesa do espectador/ouvinte? os privados farão aquilo qu€ b€m £h€$ par€c€₹, mas uma BBC, uma RTP ou uma RTVE não tem alternativa senão escutar quem contribui com os seus impostos. o nosso parecer importa! (sempre acreditei nisto; não planeei vir trabalhar na rádio pública, mas é uma honra fazê-lo.)
aqui está alguém bem versado na televisão britânica, 360º, sem pruridos nem preconceitos. a BBC é uma criatura fascinante e problemática, que demasiadas vezes se demite do seu dever jornalístico. e que só não foge com o rabo à seringa, tragicamente, quando se dá uma calamidade que o governo trata com absoluta inépcia; mesmo assim, é capaz de se retratar. é um balancé entre coragem e cobardia, televisão de alta e baixa qualidade, que me faz lembrar muitas vezes a RTP (várias vezes acusada, até por artigos académicos, de se pôr à disposição do poder político; aliás, muito gostaria eu de ler um livro semelhante sobre a RTP). no seu melhor, The Age of Static é uma condenação de todas as vezes que a televisão produziu e confirmou realidades abjetas, e uma celebração de tudo aquilo que fez, faz e fará por um país.
(não sei se teria conhecido este livro sem ter ido à loja do British Film Institute. obrigado, BFI, ainda não vi o Blu-ray do Kwaidan, mas este livro já pagou a viagem – demasiado cara – a Londres)
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