In Television Cities Charlotte Brunsdon traces television's representations of metropolitan spaces to show how they reflect the medium's history and evolution, thereby challenging the prevalent assumptions about television as quintessentially suburban. Brunsdon shows how the BBC's presentation of 1960s Paris in the detective series Maigret signals British culture's engagement with twentieth-century modernity and continental Europe, while various portrayals of London—ranging from Dickens adaptations to the 1950s nostalgia of Call the Midwife—demonstrate Britain's complicated transition from Victorian metropole to postcolonial social democracy. Finally, an analysis of The Wire’s acclaimed examination of Baltimore, marks the profound shifts in the ways television is now made and consumed. Illuminating the myriad factors that make television cities, Brunsdon complicates our understanding of how television shapes perceptions of urban spaces, both familiar and unknown.

"A well written and well researched book that opens new prospects for television researchers on the history and the future of the medium." - H-France, H-Net Reviews

"Television Cities is relatively short . . . but it packs in a wide range of thought-provoking issues without losing its focus. . . . An engaging and rewarding read for anybody interested in fictions for small, and not-so-small, screens. It will no doubt succeed in its aim of encouraging debate in these domains." - Critical Studies in Television