What’s On? Class and the Future of Television as a Public Art

Television is often described as a 'public art', yet the industry remains shaped by deep inequalities of class, intersecting with race, gender and place to determine who gains access to creative work and whose voices are heard. Drawing on findings from What’s On? Rethinking Class in the TV Industry, this lecture examines how these inequalities shape both production and representation. It also situates these questions within current debates over the future of public service broadcasting, from Charter renewal to the impact of global streamers, asking what it would take to reimagine television as a truly public and inclusive medium.

As we approach the centenary of television’s invention, the Autumn Art Lecture series will reflect on its distinctive possibility as a very public art. This term was coined in the last century on the premise that such arts rightfully ‘belong’ to the people and has tended to underpin judgements about television’s failures as well as its achievements. Today, the loss of a shared, national audience and the transformation of the TV industry into a crowded, global marketplace seems to have left little space for debate about what television could or should be, but these are precisely the questions to which this year’s lecture series will give room. The series will host prominent speakers from the worlds of both academic research and television production, including Gwyneth Hughes, writer of the RTS and BAFTA winning drama, Mr Bates Vs. The Post Office (ITV, 2024).

The Autumn Art Lecture series is hosted by the University of Bristol's Faculty of Arts, Law & Social Sciences.

Find out more about the other events in the Autumn Art Lectures 2025 series, Television: A Very Public Art. If you have any questions about this event or the series as a whole, please contact YWxzcy1yZXNlYXJjaCB8IGJyaXN0b2wgISBhYyAhIHVr.

Beth Johnson is Professor of Television and Media Studies at the University of Leeds. Her research explores television production and representation, with a particular focus on intersectional inequalities across class, race, gender and place. She leads the AHRC-funded project What’s On? Rethinking Class in the Television Industry (2023–26), in partnership with the BBC and Channel 4. Her most recent book, Sally Wainwright (co-authored with Kristyn Gorton), was published in September 2025 by Manchester University Press. She has published widely on television, cultural politics and media industries, and contributes to EDI initiatives across higher education and the screen sector. 

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