ABSTRACT

This chapter traces the historical development of the depiction of business on British television. It explains the shift that has seen business issues not only informing television news journalism and current affairs but also being incorporated into the realms of entertainment-led factual programming from the beginning of the 1990s onwards. The chapter examines the rise of the global entertainment format and considers both its importance to an increasingly competitive and entrepreneurial television marketplace and the way in which certain international business formats have been successfully adapted by the BBC for a public service audience. It looks at the representations of business on British television. The chapter examines the key personnel involved in the production of BBC2's Troubleshooter before outlining how the series established a template for future generations of business programming in the United Kingdom by placing an emphasis on drama, risk and the casting of an accessible business expert.