James Cellan Jones's View of Female Potential in The Portrait of a Lady (1968) and The Golden Bowl (1972)

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serials were produced in the 60s and 70s. Both The Portrait of a Lady and The Golden Bowl were adapted by Jack Pulman and directed by James Cellan Jones; following their British premieres, they were broadcast on PBS in the United States in the Masterpiece Theatre series which began in 1971. They were produced by the BBC Serials Department, which at the time provided 140 hours per annum of television (excluding repeats), with a staff of six directors and eight producers. Each year the department head proposed a package of programs for broadcast in regular slots--the classic serial on BBC2 every Saturday (with a repeat on Thursday), or the Sunday tea-time classic serial on BBC1. By the late 60s the serial had established through weekly scheduling in seasonal blocks enough regularity to build an audience, and enough identity to build an ethos, based on the notion of contributing to the development of a national culture. The BBC executive Oliver Whitley remarked in 1965 that the ...

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Both adaptations make frequent use of visual symbols to facilitate the viewer's understanding of a particular sequence, and how it fits into the overall narrative.

It is hard to imagine Cellan Jones's approach recommending itself to BBC producers of today, in an environment where cost-effectiveness has become more and more central to decision-making, and where the economic logic has shifted from producer-unit to package-unit. In the past, producers could work on a variety of projects, secure in the knowledge that they would be scheduled at regular times, and attract a loyal audience. By the 90s every adaptation was planned on the assumption that every aspect of an adaptation had to ...

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