Race on Screen
Audience Racism in Twentieth-Century Britain
Book •
Christine Grandy's Race on Screen examines how television programming, production decisions, and audience responses in twentieth-century Britain shaped and concealed racist attitudes.
Drawing on extensive archival materials—including BBC and ITV files, audience research, and the Black press—the book traces how popular programmes and broadcasting practices normalized racist representations while audiences of colour resisted and critiqued them.
Grandy shows how institutional practices and audience research contributed to a collective 'not knowing' of racism on screen, even as explicit racist content persisted.
The book situates these media histories within wider social and political contexts, illuminating continuities between mid-century programming and later changes in representation.
It is a critical intervention for scholars of media, race, and modern British history.
Drawing on extensive archival materials—including BBC and ITV files, audience research, and the Black press—the book traces how popular programmes and broadcasting practices normalized racist representations while audiences of colour resisted and critiqued them.
Grandy shows how institutional practices and audience research contributed to a collective 'not knowing' of racism on screen, even as explicit racist content persisted.
The book situates these media histories within wider social and political contexts, illuminating continuities between mid-century programming and later changes in representation.
It is a critical intervention for scholars of media, race, and modern British history.
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Christine Grandy, "Race on Screen: Audience Racism in Twentieth-Century Britain" (Cambridge UP, 2026)
