Overview of Research Interests
My research mostly concerns British film and television culture. I am the author of monographs on Contemporary British Cinema (Wallflower, 2008), the films of the Amber collective (Berghahn, 2020) and the representation of North East England on film and television (Palgrave, 2021). I have also published edited collections relating to traditions of popular genre, such as UK science fiction film and television, British costume drama television, masculinity in period drama, and the comedy of Chris Morris. I have written a variety of articles and book chapters on topics relating to contemporary British film and television culture, traditions of realist cinema, comedy and period drama.
Qualifications
PhD in Film Studies (Newcastle, 2004)
MA in 20C Film and Literature (Newcastle, 1999)
BA in English Literature (Newcastle, 1998)
Professional Affiliations
Member of the HEA.
Member of the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (also Chair, 2020-21)
Life Member of the International Association for Media and History (also council member 2016-19)
Employment
I have lectured at Northumbria University since 2006.
Visiting teaching roles at other Universities
I have taught as a visiting lecturer at the universities of Sunderland, Teesside, Newcastle and Northumbria.
PhD Supervision
Emily Rowson, ‘Impossible Girls and Tin Dogs: Constructions of the Gendered Body in Doctor Who’ (2017)
Philip Hodgson, ‘Evaluation of Post-National Film Theory Using the Work of Migrant, Exilic and Diasporic Filmmakers’ (2013)
PhD Examination:
Andrew Ross (2020), ‘Retro-genesis and Remediation within a Transmedia Fictional Universe’, Northumbria University (internal examiner)
Chester Sherburne (2018),’Influences on Social Change on “Race” Representations in British Films’, Leeds University, MRes thesis.
Erica Horton (2015), ‘“Luxury Items: Discourses of Cultural Value in Creating Channel 4 Comedy’ (University of East Anglia
Clair Schwarz (2013), ‘Shane Meadows: Representations of Liminality, Masculinity and Class’, University of the West of England
Rupert Ashmore (2011), ‘Landscape and Crisis in Northern England: The Representation of Communal Trauma in Film and Photography’ (internal examiner, Northumbria University)
Publications
Monographs
(2021) The Representation of North-East England in Film and Television (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming)
(2020) In Fading Light: The Films of the Amber Collective (Berghahn)
(2008) Contemporary British Cinema: From Heritage to Horror (Wallflower)
Peer-reviewed Journal Articles
(2017) ‘Fair Do’s: Tom Hadaway and the regional voice in 1970s British television’, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 37 (4), pp. 683-702.
(2016) ‘Come to Daddy? Claiming Chris Cunningham for British Art Cinema’, Journal of
British Cinema and Television, 13 (2), pp. 243-61.
(2011) ‘Working Title Films: from Mid-Atlantic to the Heart of Europe?’, Film International,
8 (6), pp. 8-20.
‘“There’s Only One Way to Find Out!”: Harry Hill’s TV Burp and the Rescue of Invisible Television’, Critical Studies in Television, 5 (1), pp. 17-31.
(2008) ‘From Marks and Spencer to Marx and Engels: a transnational DEFA and Amber Film documentary project across the Iron Curtain’, Studies in Documentary Film, 2 (2), pp. 123-35.
Book Chapters
(2022) ‘Hebburn and Regional British Comedy’, in M. Irwin and J. Marshall (eds), UK Comedy Cultures (Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming).
(2021) ‘Quacks and Medical Comedy’, in K. Byrne, J, Leggott and J. Taddeo (eds), Diagnosing History: Period Drama and Medicine (Manchester University Press, forthcoming).
(2020) ‘“The Royal Philarmonic Goes to the Bathroom: Music in Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, in K.Egan and J. Weinstock (eds), And Now for Something Completely Different: Critical Approaches to Monty Python (Palgrave Macmillan).
(2018) ‘“No Need to Matronise Me!”: The Crown, the Male Consort and Conflicted Masculinity’.in K. Byrne, J. Leggott and J. Taddeo (eds), Conflicted Masculinities: Men in Television Period Drama (Bloomsbury), pp. 259-77.
(2017) ‘The Rise and Fall of Practically Everyone? The Independent British Film Production Sector from the 1980s to the Present’, in I. Q. Hunter, L. Porter and J. Smith (eds), The Routledge Companion to British Cinema History (Taylor & Francis), pp. 338-48.
‘A Northern Soul: The Television of Jimmy Nail’ in D. Forrest and B. Johnson (eds), British Television and Class (Palgrave), pp. 135-48.
(2014) ‘“It’s Not Funny, It’s Not Clever, and It’s Not Period!”: British period comedy’ in J.
Leggott and J. Taddeo (eds), Upstairs and Downstairs: British Costume Television Drama From The Forsyte Saga to Downton Abbey (Scarecrow/Rowman and Littlefield), pp. 37-52.
(2013) ‘Travels in Curtisland: the Comedies of Richard Curtis’, in I.Q. Hunter and L. Porter (eds), British Comedy Cinema (Routledge), pp. 184-95.
(2013) ‘Introduction: Why Bother’, in J. Leggott and J. Sexton (eds), No Known Cure: The Comedy of Chris Morris (British Film Institute), pp. 1-20.
(2012) ‘The Catherine Cookson Television Adaptation Cycle’, in J. Taddeo (ed.), Catherine Cookson Country: On the Borders of Legitimacy, Fiction and History (Ashgate), pp. 175-90.
(2011): ‘Introduction: British Science Fiction Beyond the TARDIS’, in T. Hochscherf and J. Leggott (eds), British Science Fiction Film and Television: Critical Essays (McFarland & Co), pp. 1-9.
(2010) ‘Dead Ends and Private Roads: The 1970s Films of Barney Platts-Mills’, in P. Newland (ed.), Don’t Look Now: British Cinema of the 1970s (Intellect), pp. 221-40.
(2009) ‘From the Kitchen to 10 Downing Street: Jamie’s School Dinners and Reality Cooking’, in J. Taddeo and K. Dvorak (eds), The Tube Has Spoken: Reality TV as History (Kentucky UP), pp. 47-64 [co-written with Tobias Hochscherf].
(2009) ‘Nothing to Do Around Here: British Realist Cinema in the 1970s’, in R. Shail (ed.), Seventies British Cinema, (BFI/Palgrave Macmillan), pp. 94-101.
(2007) ‘From Launch to Shooting Magpies: Locating the Amber Film Collective’, in H. Fawcett
(ed.), Made in Newcastle: Visual Culture in Newcastle upon Tyne (Northumbria University Press) [co-written with Tobias Hoschscherf].
Examples of Public Engagement
I have curated seasons for a local community film cinema, introduced films at cinemas such as Star and Shadow, Side Cinema, The Odeon (Gateshead) and Tyneside Cinema. I have discussed research projects and contemporary issues in film/TV in local media (The Journal newspaper, Radio Newcastle etc)
External funding/research grants
AHRC Research grant for project on the films of the Amber Collective.
Editorial Board and Peer Review Experience
I am a founding and principal editor of The Journal of Popular Television (Intellect); peer-reviewed and three issues a year (first published in 2013). I am a founding and editorial member of Open Screens journal; online, open access and peer-reviewed journal in film and screen studies (first published in 2018).
Member of Peer Review college for Arts and Humanities Research Council (2012-present); three participations in selection meetings, and reviewer for AHRC Research in Film awards (2019)
Reviewer of monograph and edited collection proposals and manuscripts for academic publishers, including: Berghahn Press, Edinburgh University Press, Intellect, Manchester University Press, Palgrave/Macmillan, Routledge
Peer reviewer for articles submitted to academic journals, including: British Journal of Film and Television, Critical Studies in Television, Screen, SCOPE
Email
james.leggott@northumbria.ac.uk
Twitter
@jegleggott