ABSTRACT
The British film industry is again a sector of the British media that is sometimes neglected in discussions of media industries, yet the development of the industry highlights some important features of how political and economic structures underpin the very nature of a medium’s position in society. The questions of commercial and cultural dimensions of media forms are particularly evident in the ever-changing fortunes of the British film industry and governmental responses to it during its historical development. Key issues running throughout British film history, and still highly significant today, are discussed in this chapter including the impact of government, television, technology, and the persistent predominance of Hollywood.
