Dr David Rolinson

Lecturer

Communications, Media and Culture University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Dr David Rolinson

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About me

I am a film and television historian with specialisms in docudrama and terrorism and have taught documentary for over two decades.

I have a first-class degree in English and History, and a Ph.D. in English, both from the University of Hull.

I joined the University of Stirling in 2009, before which I was a lecturer at the University of Hull.

My main administrative role at present is divisional Admissions/Recruitment officer. My previous roles include Programme Director of Film & Media, during which time Film & Media rose to #1 in Scotland and #6 in the UK, and senior Adviser of Studies for all CMC students.

Research

My main research areas are docudrama and terrorism but I have a long record publishing on the history of British television drama. My methods include archival research, close textual analysis rooted in a sense of programme-making practice and industrial contexts, and attempts to conceptualise and interrogate methods of studying hybrid forms and television specificity.

My first book, Alan Clarke (2005), pioneered methods of studying television direction. Sight & Sound made it their 'Book of the Month'. I co-edited a collection of Dennis Potter's work, The Art of Invective: Selected Non-Fiction 1953-94 (2015), which was described by Jonathan Meades in Literary Review as 'one of the very finest collections of occasional (but far from ephemeral) writing I have read […] The scholarship of the editors is impeccable'.

Recent research topics include science documentary on mental illness using docudrama approaches; television branding in relation to coproduction; television formats relating to welfare; and torture in television drama on terrorism.

For over twenty years I have been committed to disseminating research outwith conventional academic routes. I contributed to various DVD and blu-ray releases for the BBC, BFI and Network: these include the award-winning Dissent and Disruption: Alan Clarke at the BBC and, most recently, Pinter at the BBC. I have written for many fanzines and non-academic book publishers. I have given public talks and interviews with practitioners at venues including the BFI Southbank, Manchester Cornerhouse and HOME.

I made dozens of contributions to the BFI resources Screenonline and Mediatheque, and I have contributed to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. I edit and write for my own website: www.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk, which has run since 2009 (and incorporates a Play for Today resource I have edited since 2003). The site includes a detailed list of my publications, conference papers, public talks, media appearances and much more: http://www.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk/?page_id=4789.

PhD supervision:

I welcome any applications within film and television studies, in particular those which use historical, archival or textual approaches.

My primary areas of research expertise are documentary, docudrama, terrorism in the media, British television drama, British cinema, film history and television history, but I am happy to receive applications that don't necessarily fit with the topics listed above as a research topic or in my teaching list. I have experience teaching, researching and writing on a range of topics not immediately apparent from those pages, including adaptation, African literature, labour history, comic books, welfare and radio comedy.

I have supervised PhDs in film theory and cultural theory, and undergraduate dissertations with a wide range of approaches across media, film, television, feminism, artists' exhibition practices, creative industries, and interdisciplinary work such as a Faculty prize-winning dissertation synergising media and psychology approaches to binge-watching.

Outputs (41)

Outputs

Book Chapter

Rolinson D (2020) Saville, Philip (1927–2016), television, film, and theatre director. In: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-112120?rskey=tLXwxa&result=1


Book Chapter

Rolinson D (2019) British Cinema and Television. In: Hill J (ed.) A Companion to British and Irish Cinema. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 332-346. https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/A+Companion+to+British+and+Irish+Cinema-p-9781118477519


Other

Rolinson D (2017) 'Rita, Sue and Bob Too', Essay in DVD/Blu-ray booklet. [Dual format DVD/Blu-ray booklet.] 22.05.2017. http://shop.bfi.org.uk/directors/alan-clarke/rita-sue-and-bob-too.html#.WOdf69LyuM8


Book Chapter

Rolinson D (2016) British Docudrama: New Directions in Reflexivity. In: Ebbrecht-Hartmann T & Paget D (eds.) Docudrama on European Television: A Selective Survey. Palgrave European Film and Media Studies. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 199-227. http://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9781137499783


Book Review

Rolinson D (2015) A Sense of Place: Regional British Television Drama 1956-82. Review of:
Lez Cooke, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2012. 240pp. ISBN 9780719086786. Critical Studies in Television, 10 (3), pp. 121-123. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.7227/CST.10.3.9; https://doi.org/10.1080/13619462.2015.982016


Book Review

Rolinson D (2015) Jimmy McGovern. Review of: Steve Blandford,
Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2013, 224pp. 978-0-7190-8248-1. Critical Studies in Television, 10 (2), pp. 143-145.


Other

Rolinson D (2014) Red Shift. Essay in DVD booklet. [DVD Booklet] 10.2014. http://shop.bfi.org.uk/pre-order-red-shift.html#.V-UF_YgrJpg


Book Review

Rolinson D (2014) The Beiderbecke Affair. Review of: William Gallagher,
BFI TV Classics, British Film Institute/Palgrave Macmillan, 2012, 128pp. ISBN 978-1-84457-469-8. Critical Studies in Television, 9 (3), pp. 127-128. https://doi.org/10.7227/CST.9.3.11


Book Chapter

Rolinson D (2013) The helium of publicity: mass-mediated 'terrierism'. In: Leggott J & Sexton J (eds.) No Known Cure: The Comedy of Chris Morris. London: BFI, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 223-247. https://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_26348.html


Book Chapter

Rolinson D (2012) "You’re still living in the Middle Ages!": Time Travel in Doctor Who and Pseudo-Historical, Neomedieval, Alternate Realities. In: Robinson C & Clements P (eds.) Neomedievalism in the Media: Essays on Film, Television, and Electronic Games. hors série, 0. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press. http://mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=8617&pc=9


Book Review

Rolinson D (2012) Shadows of Progress: documentary film in post-war Britain. Review of:
Patrick Russell and James Piers Taylor (eds), London, British Film Institute–Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, xii+429 pp., ISBN 978-1844573219. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 32 (3), pp. 479-482. https://doi.org/10.1080/01439685.2012.699622


Other

Rolinson D (2011) Tales Out of School. [Essay as DVD booklet] 07.2011.


Book Chapter

Rolinson D (2010) The last studio system: a case for British television films. In: Newland P (ed.) Don’t Look Now: British Cinema of the 1970s. Bristol: Intellect, pp. 163-176. http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/books/view-Book,id=4699/


Other

Rolinson D (2008) This Sporting Life. [Essay as DVD booklet] 2008.


Book Review

Rolinson D (2007) Fires were started: British cinema and Thatcherism. Review of:
Lester D Friedman (ed), London, Wallflower Press, 2005 (2nd edn), xxiv + 341 pp., ISBN 978-1904764717. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 27 (4), pp. 590-592. https://doi.org/10.1080/01439680701553560


Book Chapter

Rolinson D (2007) 'Who done it': discourses of authorship in the John Nathan-Turner era. In: Butler D (ed.) Time and Relative Dissertations in Space: Critical Perspectives on Doctor Who. Reference,Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 176-189.


Other

Rolinson D (2007) The Firm Special Edition. [DVD commentary, Essay as DVD booklet] 08.2007.


Book Review

Rolinson D (2007) Documentary: The Margins of Reality. Review of:
Paul Ward, New York: Wallflower, 2005, 144pp. ISBN 9780231850094. Scope: An Online Journal of Film and TV Studies, (8). http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/scope/issues/2007/june-issue-08.aspx


Other

Rolinson D (2007) Hell Drivers. [Essay as DVD booklet] 03.2007.


Authored Book

Rolinson D (2005) Alan Clarke. Television Series. Manchester: Manchester University Press. http://manchester.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.7228/manchester/9780719068300.001.0001/upso-9780719068300


Book Chapter

Rolinson D (2005) Sweet Sixteen. In: McFarlane B (ed.) The Cinema of Britain and Ireland. 24 Frames. London: Wallflower Press, pp. 251-259. http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-1-904764-39-7/the-cinema-of-britain-and-ireland


Book Chapter

Rolinson D (2003) 'If they want culture, they pay': consumerism and alienation in 1950s comedies. In: MacKillop I & Sinyard N (eds.) British Cinema of the 1950s: A Celebration. Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 87-97. http://www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9780719064890


Book Review

Rolinson D (2002) J. Lee Thompson. Review of:
Steve Chibnall, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000, 380pp. ISBN 9780719060120. Scope: An Online Journal of Film and TV Studies, August 2002. http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/scope/issues/2002/august.aspx


Book Review

Rolinson D (2001) Documentary, Interpretivism and Positivism (Review Essay). Review of: No Other Way to Tell It: dramadoc/docudrama on television, Derek Paget, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 1998, pp. vii + 237. ISBN 978-0719045332 New Documentary: a critical introduction, Stella Bruzzi, London, Routledge, 2000, pp. 199. ISBN 978-0415385244 Lies, Damn Lies and Documentaries, Brian Winston, London, BFI, 2000, pp. 186. ISBN 978-0851707976. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 21 (3), pp. 323-325. https://doi.org/10.1080/01439680120069443


Book Review

Rolinson D (2001) Windows on the sixties: Exploring key texts of media and culture. Review of: Windows on the Sixties: exploring key texts of media and culture, Anthony Aldgate, James Chapman, and Arthur Marwick (eds), London, I.B. Taurus, 2000, 194 pp. ISBN 978-1860643835. Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 21 (2), pp. 190-191. https://doi.org/10.1080/01439680120051523


Teaching

In 2023/24 I coordinated and taught Documentary Film and Television: The Poetic Eye (at Honours level) and The Moving Image, our first-year core module on film and television style, I gave a new lecture on the module Media Audiences & Reception Studies, and supervised dissertations at undergraduate level. In Summer 2024 I am supervising postgraduate dissertations.

I have vast experience in creating and coordinating modules. My Honours level module Terrorism in the Media is not running this year and I have previously taught across a wide range of subjects including contemporary media industries, television business, public service broadcasting, research methods, film theory, Chinese cinema, European cinema, silent cinema, gender studies, literature, history, medievalism, superheroes, Hitchcock, comedy, television ghost stories and Scottish media. I continue to supervise undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations on a wide range of topics across various programmes including Media Management and Public Relations & Strategic Communications.