Dr John Cook

Reader in Media

Dr John Cook is Reader in Media. He is an internationally known and respected academic expert in the study of the media, with particular research specialisms in aspects of television history, media institutions, screenwriting, television drama, documentary and film.. He has a range of industrial interests and experience, having worked over the course of his career with a number of very distinguished media practitioners on various collaborative projects, both in terms of research and knowledge transfer.

Specialisms & Interests

Dr Cook's main research and teaching interests lie in television, cinema and related topics in media studies. He is an internationally known academic expert in television studies and his past publications include his work as the author of two successful editions of the first academic study of the plays and films of the late distinguished TV screenwriter , Dennis Potter (Dennis Potter: A Life on Screen, 1995; 1998). In the course of this work, he managed to secure the unique co-operation of Potter himself, including a rare personal interview which has since been released by the ‘Official Dennis Potter website’(http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/potter/interv_main.htm).

Dr Cook has also done intensive research into the work of the international film and TV director Peter Watkins (The War Game 1965; Edvard Munch 1973) having gained unique negotiated access to the director’s personal archives, then housed in Lithuania.. At the special invitation of the director, he witnessed in Paris the film shoot of Watkins’ last major production (the acclaimed La Commune, 2000) and also at Watkins’ invitation, wrote and provided voice-over commentaries for the DVD release of Watkins' 1964 Culloden film. His work on the commentaries has been particularly singled out for international review praise (including reviews in prominent US journals such as Variety and Films in Review). He also contributed an essay to the BFI’s 2010 DVD release of the Peter Watkins’ film Privilege (1967) which has received very good reviews. He has published numerous international academic journal articles not only on Watkins but other aspects of film and TV history, in addition to having written and edited academic works on TV & film science fiction and screenwriting. He has made a unique contribution to screenwriting education in the UK by developing and innovating with the active help of the TV industry, as well as leading to successful validation, Britain’s first postgraduate MAs wholly devoted to the teaching of television scriptwriting – first at De Montfort University, Leicester in 1999-2000 and then at Glasgow Caledonian University in 2008-9. Both MAs have gone on to be successful and prestigious degree offerings for their respective universities.

Professional Membership and Activities

Member of the Editorial Board, Journal of British Cinema and Television (major international refereed journal for British cinema and television, published by Edinburgh University Press)
Founding Membership of the Editorial Board of its predecessor journal, Journal of Popular British Cinema (international refereed journal, published by Flicks Books) (1996 - 2003). {In addition: founding member (1996) and Treasurer of the Society of Popular British Cinema which set up the Journal}
Member of the Editorial Board, Journal of Screenwriting (international refereed journal published by Intellect Press)
Member of 'Advisory Board' of Scriptwriter magazine first published by The Screenwriters' Store, London and now relaunched online as ‘twelvepoint.com’ (http://www.twelvepoint.com)
Member, Society of Authors
Peer reviewer for various international scholarly journals including Critical Studies in Television, Journal of Screenwriting and Journal of British Cinema and Television.

Current Research

On-going research and writing into the work of film director Peter Watkins, including work on a contracted monograph (for Manchester University Press), international refereed journal articles, conference papers and other forms of public dissemination.
Continuing work on the theme of science fiction film and television, following upon the publishing success of British Science Fiction Television: A Hitchhiker's Guide (2006), including work on science fiction adaptations for cinema.
Continuing development of international research standing in television studies, including work on television drama, documentary, screenwriting as well as issues around rethinking television in the digital age.

Selected Consulting Projects

Primary Academic Research Consultant to 'Clenched Fists: The Official Dennis Potter Web-Site', http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/potter
Academic Adviser to ‘Voices of the Forest’ community engagement initiative commemorating and celebrating the work of Dennis Potter within his native Forest of Dean, Gloucestershire, England.
Consultant, Researcher, Author and Presenter (voice-over commentary and 'special features'), DVD release of Culloden (Dir.: Peter Watkins, BBC TV 1964), first released by the British Film Institute in 2003 and re-released internationally by New Yorker Films / Project X in 2006.
Work for the British Film Institute on the DVD release of Privilege (Dir.: Peter Watkins, 1967), released January 2010.
Academic consultant to biographer Humphrey Carpenter, author of Dennis Potter: A Biography, (London: Faber and Faber, 1998).

Selected Publications

‘Circles of Time: Peter Watkins, August Strindberg and the Challenge to Historical Representation’, published proceedings of ‘When Clio Claims the Documentary’ international conference, University of Bordeaux Press, France, 2010 (completed and in press).

‘Moonage Daydreams: Nostalgia and Cultural Memory Contexts of Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes’, co-wr. with Mary Irwin, Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes ed. Stephen Lacey and Ruth McElroy, University of Wales Press, 2010 (completed and in press).

‘No-One Will Believe Our Newsreels Anymore’, essay for booklet accompanying DVD release of Privilege (dir.: Peter Watkins, UK 1967), released by British Film Institute, 2010.

'Gaming the System', 4000 word review essay on DVD releases of The Gladiators (1969) and Punishment Park (1971) (both dir.: Peter Watkins), Journal of Science Fiction Film and Television, vol. 2, no.1, 2009.

‘The Screenwriter’, special guest-edited themed issue of Journal of British Cinema and Television, co-ed. with Andrew Spicer, vol.5, no.2, winter 2008/9.

'Three Ring Circus: Television Drama About, By and For Scotland', The Media in Scotland eds. Neil Blain and David Hutchison, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008.

'Exile from the Mainstream: Peter Watkins' Work for Scandinavian TV in the 1970s', Critical Studies in Television, vol.3, no.1, spring 2008.

'The Past is Myself: Peter Watkins' Edvard Munch (1973), Critical Studies in Television, vol.2 no.1, spring 2007.

British Science Fiction Television: A Hitchhiker's Guide, co-edited with Peter Wright. (London and New York: I.B. Tauris, 2005) including introduction and essay, "The Age of Aquarius": Utopia and Anti-Utopia in Late 1960s' and Early 1970s' British Television Science Fiction.

'Between Grierson and Barnum: Sydney Newman and The Development of the Single Television Play at the BBC 1963-7', Journal of British Cinema and Television, Issue 2, spring 2005.

'Peter Watkins' Culloden' ('Archive Television' DVD release, British Film Institute). 2003

'The Last Battle: Peter Watkins on DVD', Film International, Vol.1 (Jan.). 2003.

'History-Makers', review essay, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol.22, No.3 (Aug.). 2002.

'After the Bomb Dropped: The Cinema Half-Life of The War Game (1965)', co-wr. with Patrick Murphy, Journal of Popular British Cinema, Issue 3: Forbidden Cinema, (Trowbridge: Flicks Books). 2000

The Passion of Dennis Potter: International Collected Essays, co-ed. with Vernon W. Gras, (New York: St. Martin's Press). 2000

'Start Big and Then Build: Sydney Newman and British Television Drama' in Mediated Drama - Dramatized Media: Contemporary Drama in English Vol.7 (Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the German Society for Contemporary Theatre and Drama in English, 17-20 June 1999), (Germany: Trier Press). 2000

'Adapting Telefantasy: The Doctor Who and the Daleks Films' in British Science Fiction Cinema,
ed. I.Q. Hunter, (London and New York:Routledge). 1999

Dennis Potter: A Life on Screen, (Manchester:
Manchester University Press; New York: St. Martin's Press) revised second edition 1998 (first edition published 1995)

'Dennis Potter', 'Kenith Trodd' and The Wednesday Play': 3 separate essays in Encyclopedia of Television, ed. Horace Newcomb, (Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn). 1997 (republ. 2005).

'Men Behaving Badly? Basil Dearden and The Persuaders!' in Liberal Directions: Basil Dearden and Post-War British Film Culture, eds.: Alan Burton, Tim O'Sullivan and Paul Wells, (Trowbridge: Flicks Books). 1997