Life on Mars Symposium
November 8, 2007
A conference which will be the first ever to take a close look at the ground breaking drama ‘Life on Mars’ is being held at the University of Glamorgan’s Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries (CCI) this month, 16th November.
The critically-acclaimed BBC Wales/Kudos drama finished its second, and final, series earlier this year, generating a great deal of academic and popular interest. It was nominated for a BAFTA in 2006, and a follow-up series, ‘Ashes to Ashes’, is currently being filmed to be screened in spring 2008.
Professor Stephen Lacey who is one of the conference organisers said, “‘Life on Mars’ rapidly became must-see television. It has attracted loyal audiences and demonstrated that it is possible to be innovative within a police drama series’.
The symposium, which will be held at the University’s brand new ATRiuM building in Cardiff, will attract academics from across the UK for what is the first research event devoted to a drama series that has emerged as one of the most significant of the 21st century.
One of the distinctive features of the conference is a panel discussion with some of the leading figures behind the series, chaired by Professor David Lavery. Claire Parker and Jane Featherstone of Kudos Productions will take part in the event along with BBC Wales’ Julie Gardner who commissioned the programme.
“We have been very fortunate in attracting some of the key figures behind the series”, said Professor Lacey “the dialogue with industry practitioners is of considerable value to academic research.”
The conference will open with a keynote address by Professor Robin Nelson on ‘Life on Mars’ as ‘quality’ television drama. Papers will be given on a range of topics, including the role of nostalgia in audiences’ responses to the series, the re-working of the iconography of the 1970s, the programme’s relationship to other police series and the role of the uncanny.
The conference will close with the launch, sponsored by CCI and Manchester University Press, of Professor Nelson’s study of quality television drama ‘A State of Play’ and Professor Lacey’s book on the television producer, Tony Garnett.
