ABSTRACT
As scholars we need better to understand what television means for the women who
make it as well as for those who watch it. This chapter contributes to that project by
examining the gendered production contexts out of which some of the most popular
contemporary British television drama has emerged. By drawing together analysis of
the production and writing of television drama by women with close textual analysis
of television popular with women viewers and critics on-screen, this essay offers a
multi-method approach to understanding the feminisation of contemporary British
television drama. Particular attention is given in the essay to the output of Sally
Wainwright, one of the UK’s foremost writers of mainstream contemporary tele-
vision drama, andRed Production, an independent production company established
in Manchester in 1998 by Nicola Shindler.
