tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/poldark-30790/articlesPoldark – The Conversation2018-09-18T09:20:15Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1031452018-09-18T09:20:15Z2018-09-18T09:20:15ZWhy the sexual objectification of men isn’t just a bit of fun<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/236159/original/file-20180913-177941-198i3sy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/copy-michelangelos-david-378367231?src=c1nFQAXX8LSDOq2hs7QwPw-1-20">Lana Veshta/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The idea that advertising, entertainment and news media are guilty of objectifying women is familiar enough to most of us. But recently the balance seems to have shifted, with concerns being expressed about the potential objectification of male actors in drama series such as <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/viewers-go-mad-for-madden-as-another-bbc-hunk-bares-all-cldhkgxd6">Bodyguard</a> and <a href="https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/its-battle-chests-poldark-hunky-10633367">Poldark</a>. So are liberated and independent women who decry the objectification of women, but are thrilled by shots of male bodies on TV, guilty of double standards?</p>
<p>Compared to the acres of taut flesh on display in coverage of, say, Olympic swimming, the odd glimpse of a firm set of abs or a muscled thigh in a BBC drama seems almost trivial. Yet context is everything. Most of us are comfortable with displays of nudity on the beach or around the hotel pool that would not be acceptable in the office, so acceptability cannot be measured by square inches of naked flesh. </p>
<p>If nudity is dramatically integral to a scene in some way – in a scene of tender, non-sexual intimacy as much as in a sex scene – then it can’t be condemned as simply “gratuitous”. Nor is a sexualised audience response necessarily inappropriate. Comedy, horror and sentiment all have a legitimate place in drama, and all of them provoke emotional and bodily responses. Why not eroticism also? If a dramatic presentation of a sexual relationship fails to ring true because the performances lack “chemistry” the drama will fail as drama. Where chemistry is present, it will naturally provoke an audience response and, in this case, blanket puritanical condemnation is misplaced.</p>
<p>But, of course, <a href="https://books.apa.org/education/ce/sexual-objectification.pdf">feminist concerns about objectification</a> were never really a matter of blanket puritanical condemnation. So what are the concerns really all about? </p>
<h2>Objectified women</h2>
<p>Sexual objectification typically takes one of two forms. In the first, eroticised depictions of female bodies present women as mere resources – nothing more than “eye candy” for male sexual gratification. Such portrayals encourage more general exploitative attitudes towards women. By implicitly denying women’s agency, they appear to legitimise coercive behaviour and in extreme cases sexual violence.</p>
<p>In the second, women’s agency is not ignored but actively recruited for oppressive purposes. In this case, rather than reducing women to the status of mere resources, the objectifying content has the effect of scripting their behaviour – tacitly promoting norms and stereotypes of conduct geared to the sexual gratification of men. Women are invited to play along with the roles allotted to them, consenting to, and even enthusiastically embracing, treatment that is in reality exploitative. Objectification in this sense works by colonising women’s identities. It is subtly ideological rather than brutally coercive.</p>
<h2>Flipping the male gaze</h2>
<p>So, what of the objectification of men, and the existence of an apparent double standard?</p>
<p>If we only think in terms of the first form of objectification, and the consumption of “eye candy”, we are likely to conclude that the sexual objectification of men is a relatively trivial matter. Prevailing physical, political and economic power inequalities are such that in practice a man’s agency is much less likely than a woman’s to be overridden. Consequently, the objectification of men is much less likely <a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/articles/sexualoffencesinenglandandwales/yearendingmarch2017">to result in sexual violence</a>. To this extent, a double standard might be thought tolerable. </p>
<p>However, in relation to the second form of objectification – where damaging norms and stereotypes are promoted and internalised – it’s difficult to defend the double standard. There seems to be no good reason to think that men are any less suggestible and compliant than women are when it comes to “normalising” media representations. Young and impressionable men in particular may be as biddable and eager to play along as their female counterparts. </p>
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<p>Consider the way men are presented on programmes such as ITV’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/love-island-54609">Love Island</a>. The producers of the programme stress that it does not pretend to hold a mirror up to life, but provides an idealised and in their own words <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/jul/18/problem-with-love-island-people-who-turned-it-down">“aspirational” portrayal</a>. But when narcissism, individualism, materialism and manipulation are presented as aspirational, audiences are likely to find themselves emulating behaviour that is incompatible with healthy relationships and a fulfilling life. </p>
<h2>Audience appetites</h2>
<p>Objectifying media content is sometimes defended on the basis that it doesn’t play an ideological role but only caters to the preexisting appetites of its audience. However, even in much more neutral contexts, such as fashion and car magazines, such arguments don’t stand up. It is no doubt true that magazines are usually read by people who have a preexisting interest in their content. But most people will be familiar with the experience of picking up a magazine and finding they have suddenly developed a keen interest in which £200,000 supercar is really most desirable. If it didn’t work that way, no one would loan £200,000 supercars to journalists. </p>
<p>Clearly, media representations do far more than cater to preexisting appetites. They actively shape what we aspire to, what we are prepared to consent to, and the ways we spend our time and money in pursuit of what we (consequently) want. Advertising, entertainment and news media play a significant ideological role in our lives. Power, <a href="http://marxistleftreview.org/index.php/59-journal/number-14-winter-2017/145-foucault-s-history-of-sexuality-a-marxist-engagement">as Foucault observed</a>, is insidious and productive. It typically operates not by overt interdiction or coercion, but by creatively and “consensually” shaping our self-conceptions and (thereby) our views of what is normal and desirable.</p>
<p>So, we should be concerned about the sexual objectification of men. The real issue though is not women’s responses to eroticised drama, nor <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/poldark-star-aidan-turner-criticises-bbc-for-releasing-photos-of-him-topless-10097683.html">the feelings of the male actors</a> involved, nor (realistically) the possibility that such scenes might lead to a significant rise in sexual violence against men. The issue is that the ideological scripting of men’s behaviour is coming to be as all-pervasive as the ideological scripting of women’s behaviour.</p>
<p>At the same time as young men are being encouraged to be increasingly narcissistic and materialistic, they are <a href="http://www.open.edu/openlearn/health-sports-psychology/health/health-studies/mental-health/why-are-young-men-worldwide-experiencing-mental-health-crises">experiencing unprecedented levels</a> of perfectionism-driven social anxiety and mental illness. This is perhaps understandable, given that they are being bombarded with a vastly greater quantity and intensity of objectifying media content than previous generations ever had to contend with.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103145/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Lucas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Perfectionism-driven social anxiety means young men will also be susceptible to ideological scripting of behaviour on TV.Peter Lucas, Senior Lecturer in Philosophy, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1016652018-09-06T02:15:24Z2018-09-06T02:15:24ZPistols at dawn: why there’s more to duelling than what’s seen on our screens<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232223/original/file-20180816-2906-1ov8u4l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Warren Clarke, Richard Harrington, Ruby Bentall, Aidan Turner, and Kyle Soller in Poldark.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mammoth Screen</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Duelling has gone down in history as a rather quaint and misunderstood practice, a butt of the joke in historical comedies and references. However, duelling was once not only common but considered the pinnacle of honour and bravery, an event that could change one’s reputation - and indeed end one’s life - in a pull of a trigger.</p>
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<span class="caption">Alexander Hamilton by John Trumbull: he famously died in a duel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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<p>It is extraordinary, and a little fantastical to our modern mind to think that some of the most famous and respected individuals in history, such as Alexander Hamilton, one of the Founding Fathers of the U.S. and the seventh President of the U.S. Andrew Jackson, both fought in many duels. Hamilton <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burr-Hamilton_duel">died in a duel in 1804</a>. Jackson <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/andrew-jacksons-duels/">duelled over 100 times</a>, was wounded in two and killed at least one man.</p>
<p>In our age of “trolling” and social media wars, the idea that one man may calmly, and according to proper social rules, kill another over an accusation of cheating at cards, or of being a corrupt or incompetent politician, seems utterly barbaric. This modern incomprehension frequently shows in popular media. Modern filmmakers and writers of TV series and musicals can’t help projecting their own feelings when interpreting duelling in their work.</p>
<p>Take, for example, the successful musical Hamilton based on Alexander Hamilton’s life. The Burr-Hamilton duel, which ended Hamilton’s life, is portrayed in several songs. In one song, founding father Aaron Burr sings, “Can we agree that duels are dumb and immature?” and declares that the whole affair is “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7iHmuco_zo">absurd</a>”. It must certainly have seemed so to Lin-Manuel Miranda, who wrote the lyrics, but Burr himself probably had very different feelings on the matter.</p>
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<p>Recent TV shows set in the 18th and early 19th century, notably <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/programs/poldark/">Poldark</a> and the 2016 BBC mini-series adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace, depict duels similarly.</p>
<p>In the duel between Pierre and Dolokhov in the miniseries of Tolstoy’s novel, the words “I know it’s stupid but I think I must go through with it” are <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q32ytzaT5rQ&t">put into Pierre’s mouth</a>. They encompass what the creators probably understood about duels – that they are stupid, but must be fought, for some unknown reason. </p>
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<p>And in season four of Poldark, the main character utters, “My only regret is that I apologised in the first place”, to drive home the point that his faulty pride regrettably caused the duel.</p>
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<p>This is not to argue that duels were in any way positive affairs, and should be portrayed as such. </p>
<p>The duel was a highly ritualized activity practised mainly by the upper classes from about 1500 to 1900. It was held in private, usually at dawn, as duelling was illegal throughout Europe and America. It was seen as neither a recreational sport, nor an urge or uncontrollable male aggression - the duel was an affair of honour. In <a href="https://www.sfu.ca/%7Eallen/duelingaler.pdf">the words of Samuel Johnson</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In a state of highly polished society, an affront is held to be a serious injury. It must, therefore, be resented, or rather a duel must be fought upon it. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Honour was a most crucial concept for gentlemen, and ladies, tied up with one’s reputation. The importance placed on defending honour made refusing a duel challenge nearly impossible; the social consequences for doing so were severe. Indeed, gentlemen did not shoot each other over trivial matters, but rather over slander and <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/e5ef/9ec04b4532c53aeb2f1cc4d63ed43354ba4f.pdf">accusations of falsehood or dishonesty</a>.</p>
<p>Duels involving women were not fought to gain a woman’s love, as some modern adaptations try to show, but rather because men took responsibility for the protection of honour of certain women in their lives. The duel, therefore, was a way to honourably and privately resolve offences. Its causes varied from <a href="https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.lib.monash.edu.au/stable/pdf/27866745.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3Af48639ef6f50c5b5ba476c2f4fbdb5a3">accusations of cheating to women’s infidelity</a>.</p>
<p>Alexander Pushkin, considered by many to be Russia’s greatest poet, died in a duel in 1837, defending the accusations that <a href="http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/features/blackeuro/pushkindeath.html">his wife Natalya had been unfaithful</a>. His death echoed in many ways the famous duel between Eugene Onegin and Vladimir Lensky in Pushkin’s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Onegin#The_duel">Onegin</a>.</p>
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<span class="caption">Eugene Onegin and Vladimir Lensky’s duel, Ilya Repin, 1899, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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<h2>Scrupulous regulation</h2>
<p>A duel was scrupulously regulated by an elaborate and detailed set of rules, though the specifics of the duelling code varied between countries. Many codes of duelling and help manuals were published throughout the 18th and 19th century, the most popular being the <a href="https://www.sos.mo.gov/CMSImages/MDH/CodeDuello.pdf">Irish code duello</a>, published in 1777. </p>
<p>The duelling gentlemen would always have “seconds” - friends whose role was to negotiate a resolution of the dispute to avoid a potentially lethal confrontation, usually to very little success.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232241/original/file-20180816-2912-dhngtd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232241/original/file-20180816-2912-dhngtd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/232241/original/file-20180816-2912-dhngtd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232241/original/file-20180816-2912-dhngtd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232241/original/file-20180816-2912-dhngtd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232241/original/file-20180816-2912-dhngtd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232241/original/file-20180816-2912-dhngtd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/232241/original/file-20180816-2912-dhngtd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">French cased duelling pistols circa 1794-1797.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
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<p>The high probability of death was, of course, ever present in duels, especially when pistols became more fashionable than rapiers. Pistols could misfire and rarely shot straight, and could also be deadly in the hands of incompetent seconds, whose task it was to provide and load them. </p>
<p>Doctors were also indispensible in duels. The Art of Duelling, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=Yd4wAQAAMAAJ&pg=PR5&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=3%23v=onepage&q&f=false">published by “A Traveller” in 1836</a>, warns the duellist to remember to “secure the services of his medical attendant, who will provide himself with all the necessary apparatus for tying up wounds and arteries, and extracting balls”. </p>
<p>Public opinion (and ridicule) eventually led to the death of the duel. By the late 19th century, it was successfully banned by most countries, heavily criticised in the press, and frowned upon by the public.</p>
<p>This was, of course, a good thing, as we can all agree there are far better ways of resolving disputes. But next time you watch a duel on television or in a film, it might be worth recalling the history and meaning of this very serious rite of honour.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101665/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ryna Ordynat does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The next time you watch a duel on television or in a film, it might be worth recalling the history and meaning of this very serious rite of honour.Ryna Ordynat, PhD Candidate in History, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/691702016-11-21T15:02:01Z2016-11-21T15:02:01ZThe Singing Detective at 30: never mind the modern box sets, here’s a true TV masterpiece<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146770/original/image-20161121-4518-pvu95e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Time for another viewing?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelrogers/3388376575/in/photolist-6ausPJ-6aqjcp-6aqjeg-6aqjiM-6aqjhR-9waZHK-6ausUo-64qbTH-79WijU-bLY73Z-6ihLzN-mG8Jp-8nSqhy-f8EN2y-8nPfCk-8nSqjj-8nPfvn-8nSqc5-8nSq9E-9dsPvL-8nSqkU-f6EsuE-fFwvaN-3xmchn-6KrpPi-BjUGaD-AHecJr-BjUG4M-APAJJf-BhE37L-CS7FYP-CxhGsY-BhE2Um-BeqXHo-BgJGqF-CxhGH7-CVvwaN-LY2UPD-L94W4Z-LVskqd-f9o9TQ-6pymt3-Dk9kE-HbsqX-4d8DCb">Pere Ubu</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Monday, mid-November, 30 years ago, British newspapers <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JXi7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA351&lpg=PA351&dq=%22Every+Sunday+for+Six+Weeks:+Drama+from+Heaven%22&source=bl&ots=UHTizmN5f6&sig=TU4YwIH2817ByDym6ydIgDqMFY4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7z-fs1rnQAhXpKsAKHaSCDQkQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=%22Every%20Sunday%20for%20Six%20Weeks%3A%20Drama%20from%20Heaven%22&f=false">were hailing</a> the first episode of a major “television drama event” that had aired the night before. “Every Sunday for Six Weeks: Drama from Heaven,” declared The Financial Times. “Stunning new serial,” wrote The Guardian. </p>
<p>Those of a certain age may be disconcerted to learn it has been three full decades since <a href="https://store.bbc.com/the-singing-detective">The Singing Detective</a>, the six-part drama by Dennis Potter, was first shown on British television on Sunday nights at 9pm. It still <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110911083558/http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/tv/100/list/list.php">frequently</a> features in “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2010/jan/12/guardian-50-television-dramas">greatest-ever TV</a>” polls. </p>
<p>Much <a href="https://youtu.be/WvQRDQ59q7Q">parodied</a> over the years, many will be familiar with <a href="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/487877/">the story</a> even if they haven’t seen it. A middle-aged misanthropic writer of pulp detective stories, the appropriately named Philip E Marlow (played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002091/">Michael Gambon</a>), is hospitalised with a dreadful disease that inflames the skin and cripples the joints. <a href="https://twitter.com/BBCArchive/status/798920714535440384">Confined to</a> his hospital bed and suffering intermittent bouts of fever, Marlow hallucinates doctors, nurses and other patients miming to the old 1940s dance band tunes from his youth. </p>
<p>In his head, he starts to rewrite one of his own old detective novels, imagining himself as its hero, The Singing Detective, striding down the shadowy mean streets of 1945 post-war London. At the same time, he delves into his own childhood memories from the same year, reliving a sexual trauma that led to his mother’s suicide. </p>
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<p>What elevates The Singing Detective is the way in which these threads gradually intersect: individuals from Marlow’s childhood memories appear in his pulp detective fantasy; characters from the detective fantasy emerge in the “real” hospital ward. Reality and imagination finally completely fuse as a gun battle takes place in the ward and the seemingly “real” Marlow is killed off and replaced with his fantasy alter ego, The Singing Detective. The writer character has used his memory and imagination to renew himself psychologically, replacing his old sick self with a more positive and open persona that can leave hospital. </p>
<p>It provides arguably the most vivid representation of the workings of the human mind ever realised on screen. “This is the piece of work I’d like to be remembered for,” Potter <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bUeGDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA166&lpg=PA166&dq=Detective+%22It+goes+leagues+forward+from+anything+I%E2%80%99ve+written%22&source=bl&ots=qD6136ecns&sig=bBb4fe5zAPBvk3fIwjkc-NIysIc&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_-aCM2rnQAhUHAsAKHefoBIoQ6AEIGzAA#v=onepage&q=Detective%20%22It%20goes%20leagues%20forward%20from%20anything%20I%E2%80%99ve%20written%22&f=false">told The Times</a> even as the drama was still being shot by its very able director, Jon Amiel. “It goes leagues forward from anything I’ve written.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146772/original/image-20161121-4515-879hu8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Michael Gambon as Philip E Marlow.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelrogers/3388376575/in/photolist-6ausPJ-6aqjcp-6aqjeg-6aqjiM-6aqjhR-9waZHK-6ausUo-64qbTH-79WijU-bLY73Z-6ihLzN-mG8Jp-8nSqhy-f8EN2y-8nPfCk-8nSqjj-8nPfvn-8nSqc5-8nSq9E-9dsPvL-8nSqkU-f6EsuE-fFwvaN-3xmchn-6KrpPi-BjUGaD-AHecJr-BjUG4M-APAJJf-BhE37L-CS7FYP-CxhGsY-BhE2Um-BeqXHo-BgJGqF-CxhGH7-CVvwaN-LY2UPD-L94W4Z-LVskqd-f9o9TQ-6pymt3-Dk9kE-HbsqX-4d8DCb">Pere Ubu</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Box-set generation</h2>
<p>While “quality” US TV dramas such as <a href="http://www.hbo.com/the-sopranos">The Sopranos</a>, <a href="http://www.amc.com/shows/mad-men">Mad Men</a> and <a href="http://www.amc.com/shows/breaking-bad">Breaking Bad</a> have taken up the baton of narratively complex and layered storytelling, arguably none have quite sustained the intense interior drama and rich metaphor of The Singing Detective. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/feb/02/singing-detective-addictive-bbc4">According to</a> one Guardian critic writing in 2012, it makes “the best current drama look like an amateur hour”. </p>
<p>Behind this may lie the different industrial constraints of modern long-form US TV dramas. There is always a commercial incentive to keep them running for more seasons than is artistically desirable, using a soap opera-like “infinitely extended middle” of interweaving storylines and story arcs to resist the audience’s desire for resolution. Contrast this with The Singing Detective, made by the public service BBC in a very different era. The whole drive was towards final narrative closure. </p>
<p>Running for only six episodes allowed it to benefit from the intensity of a single authorial vision. Contemporary US TV dramas extol authorial vision, too, but in the form of the showrunner – the head writer-producer who creates the series and develops the main story arcs. The showrunner leads a team of writers who write individual episodes which are passed to different directors to realise on screen. </p>
<p>The experience of both creating and watching long-form TV drama is therefore very different to the traditional BBC model of one writer and one director. </p>
<h2>The best of British</h2>
<p>America’s success with long-form drama has meant British TV drama has struggled to keep up in recent years. Potter’s closest British successor is probably <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0689081/">Stephen Poliakoff</a>, writer-director behind the likes of <a href="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/523425/">Shooting the Past</a> and <a href="http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/523442/">Perfect Strangers</a>. </p>
<p>Poliakoff is given considerable freedom at the BBC to choose his own subjects and sculpt well-crafted dramas, often exploring forgotten or suppressed aspects of British history. His current drama, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b082sy3q">Close to the Enemy</a> (BBC Two), is interestingly set in the same immediate post-war time period as The Singing Detective. Yet Poliakoff’s dramas tend to lack the passion that animated Potter’s best works – and do not have the same popular reach. </p>
<p>Nor is there much to recommend recent occupants of the BBC’s Sunday night 9pm drama slot. This autumn has featured season two of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07pn8mz">Poldark</a>, a ratings hit – but basically safe period fare; and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08302gm">My Mother and Other Strangers</a>, which revolves around GIs arriving in Northern Ireland during World War II. It is “an incredibly hackneyed premise”, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/nov/20/week-in-tv-planet-earth-ii-nw-my-mother-and-other-strangers-kids-on-the-edge-grand-tour-review">according to</a> The Guardian. This is typical of the reviews. Both dramas are in the tradition of escapist feel-good British drama on Sunday nights against which The Singing Detective was bucking the trend even in 1986. </p>
<p>Far more interesting is <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07xt09g">The Missing</a>, whose second series will shortly end on BBC One. It has gripped viewers on Wednesday nights and won praise for its depiction of detective Julien Baptiste (played by <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001409/">Tchéky Karyo</a>) trying to solve the riddle of two missing schoolgirls in Germany a decade earlier, after one suddenly reappears. Critics <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3945140/The-Missing-fans-forget-mystery-Alice-Webster-panic-fate-Julian-Baptiste-health-dramatically-deteriorates.html">have praised</a> the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/oct/13/the-missing-review-a-missing-persons-reboot-with-more-than-one-way-to-keep-you-awake">complexity</a> of its storytelling and the narrative’s fluid shifts between past and present. </p>
<p>Here, then, is a legacy of The Singing Detective. Potter’s experiments 30 years ago with interweaving narratives and timelines have become part of the accepted grammar of television drama today. Yet in the case of The Missing, these innovations are principally being used to refresh well-worn TV crime staples – child abduction and serial killers. </p>
<p>This is very different from how Potter escaped fixed genre to play freely with the conventions of the hospital drama, detective story, childhood drama and so on. More than 20 years after Potter’s <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-dennis-potter-1421167.html">untimely death</a> at the age of 59, it is hard to find anything on British TV today that is truly the artistic peer of The Singing Detective.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69170/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Cook has received funding in the past from AHRC. </span></em></p>Dennis Potter’s 1986 story of a writer in need of psychological renewal rewrote the TV drama rulebook.John Cook, Professor in Media, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/647002016-09-05T13:03:31Z2016-09-05T13:03:31ZPoldark adviser: how I stripped down history for the screen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136568/original/image-20160905-15463-1be78x5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/Adrian Rogers</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Poldark returned to our screens in true swashbuckling style, much to the delight of its fans. A BBC adaptation of Winston Graham’s historical novels, the first series was broadcast last year and proved a hit with Sunday evening audiences, pulling in <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-32215572">more than 8m viewers</a> an episode. The drama soon became associated with a single image of lead actor, Aidan Turner, about to film a scene in which a shirtless Ross Poldark scythes a field. But <a href="https://theconversation.com/sexing-up-cornwall-but-theres-more-to-poldark-than-good-looks-38456">there is more to Poldark than good looks</a> – I have particular reason to know as historical consultant to the series.</p>
<p>My research specialism is in 18th-century British history and given the popularity of Georgian drama I’ve acted as historical consultant to film, television and theatre regularly over the past decade. But Poldark has given me a unique set of experiences. The size of the audience outstrips any other productions I have contributed to previously, including feature films. With eight to ten episodes a series, the filmed content is also far more substantial. I’ve now consulted on three series for Poldark, equating to around 1,600 pages of Debbie Horsfield’s effervescent scripts.</p>
<p>Certainly, the characters are highly fictionalised and romanticised. Poldark himself is by no means a real historical figure. But the historical context behind the drama is carefully construed in the original novels by Winston Graham and treated with equal respect in the production process of the BBC’s adaptation. Set against a background of the American Revolutionary War and then the French Revolution, Graham opened his novels in 1780s Cornwall, exploiting its dramatic local history of mining, smuggling, banking and a dominant gentry class as the springboard for the personal experiences of his fictional characters.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UGsyR6k_C_w?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>From script to set</h2>
<p>I am often asked what the work of an historical adviser involves. In truth, there is no single answer because the role is determined by the different needs of each production. </p>
<p>For Poldark, I’ve settled into a fairly regular pattern of involvement that begins with reading drafts of the scripts prior to filming. The script is not just the story, it is the blueprint for the entire production. I try to read each episode as closely as possible, checking the historical content from every angle, looking not just for the occasional anachronistic term, but for character development, locations, scene and prop details and context. I send back to the production team all the historical commentary I can think of – however significant or potentially pedantic – and leave the judgement calls to them. </p>
<p>When the scripts are finished and the production prepares for filming, questions start to come in from the various departments as they prepare locations, sets and costumes. And once the cameras start rolling, attention turns to many of the smallest details: manuscripts seen on a desk or broadsides handed out in the street. During the filming of the second series, some of my favourite moments came from conversations with the graphic artist, Richard Wells, as we bounced emails around discussing the appearance of 18th-century pamphlets, advertisements, military commission letters, polling books and more. Many of these details might not be captured in the final shots, but each and every one was inspired by original artefacts and painstakingly recreated by the art department.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136446/original/image-20160902-20238-qxun8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136446/original/image-20160902-20238-qxun8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136446/original/image-20160902-20238-qxun8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136446/original/image-20160902-20238-qxun8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136446/original/image-20160902-20238-qxun8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136446/original/image-20160902-20238-qxun8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136446/original/image-20160902-20238-qxun8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Every detail checked.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/Adrian Rogers</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Much of my academic research has focused on ideas of status and hierarchy in 18th-century Britain, and working with the Poldark production has given me the chance to consider how preoccupations with hierarchy and deference might be enacted in the most ordinary of ways – through words, greetings, gestures, emotional responses, motivations and aggressions. </p>
<p>What might a flashy middle class man serve at a dinner party? How would a politician sign a letter? Would everyone know how to curtsy? How would a gentleman or lady meet an acquaintance on the street? What does a footman actually do? Would a woman get drunk in a tavern? What games might you see children playing? These are the kinds of questions that need answers in order to put period drama on to the screen.</p>
<h2>Reading Rousseau</h2>
<p>Over time I have become deeply invested in the characters, contextualising their worlds as I read a script to preempt later questions or to add in details that might otherwise be missed. In series one, for example, Elizabeth Poldark is seen reading Rousseau. Such a detail can create a raft of knock on considerations at any point in filming. Is Rousseau the right choice for her? Might it influence her choices? If we see a shelf of books in the background what else should be there? If the director wants a close up shot, which pages should be selected and why?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136468/original/image-20160902-20255-1epfn93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/136468/original/image-20160902-20255-1epfn93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136468/original/image-20160902-20255-1epfn93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136468/original/image-20160902-20255-1epfn93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136468/original/image-20160902-20255-1epfn93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136468/original/image-20160902-20255-1epfn93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/136468/original/image-20160902-20255-1epfn93.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elizabeth (she reads Rousseau).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">BBC/Adrian Rogers</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One essential aspect of the storylines that I find particularly fascinating is the complexities of credit networks, local banking systems and the history of finance. We routinely see money changing hands, both paper and coins, in markets, private meetings, and at the gaming table. Surviving artefacts are, of course, key to the creation of the props required. Notes from 18th-century local banks provide the blueprint for the art department to produce replica money for the Pascoe and Warleggan banks featured in the Poldark plot. </p>
<p>But what about the other details? I’ve used previous research into 18th-century account books to determine how much cash someone might carry in their pocket and to consider what everyday items might cost. Trying to establish what the interior of an 18th-century local bank might look like was a harder task, and for this I turned to archivists and other historians to canvas opinion. While images survive for 19th-century banks, 18th-century images are, by and large, restricted to the newly established Bank of England (hardly a model for an ad hoc regional bank in 1780s Cornwall). Sometimes even the most expert opinion can only offer a well-informed guess, rather than concrete evidence.</p>
<p>Over the past two and a half years, I’ve considered the history behind each word, line, scene, character and context. Of course, as with any period production, it is impossible to create a perfect recreation of the past (and how can we ever know what that “perfect” recreation should be anyway?). Choices are always made for the purposes of plot, character, budget and schedule. </p>
<p>The role of the historical adviser is to ensure that those choices are well informed and that they are just that: choices, rather than mistakes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64700/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Greig is the historical consultant for the Poldark TV series.</span></em></p>Poldark’s historical consultant on how she mulled over questions such as what an 18th century Cornish bank might look like and whether women would get drunk in taverns.Hannah Greig, Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/646312016-09-01T10:22:15Z2016-09-01T10:22:15ZHow Ross Poldark was a victim of Cornwall’s changing industrial landscape<p>In July 2016, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2016/poldark-series-three">BBC announced</a> the commissioning of a third season of <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22463847">costume drama Poldark</a>, months before the second series was even due to be broadcast. This represents an impressive vote of confidence in the series, especially as season two will apparently not be repeating the famous “topless scything” scene which <a href="http://metro.co.uk/2015/12/31/poldarks-topless-scything-scene-voted-best-tv-moment-of-2015-5593236/">won the National Television Awards’ prize</a> for TV Moment of the Year. </p>
<p>The real pivotal moment depicted by Poldark, however, is one of historical change in south-west England. In the mid-18th century, <a href="http://www.cornwallheritagetrust.org/discover/industry-in-cornwall/">Cornwall and Devon were major commercial and industrial centres</a>. Cornwall’s tin and copper mines were some of the largest and most sophisticated in Europe, while the profits from the Cornwall and Devonshire wool trade helped <a href="http://www.british-history.ac.uk/magna-britannia/vol6/pp177-234">make Exeter</a> one of the biggest and richest cities in England. </p>
<p>By the mid-19th century however, much had changed. The <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/online_research_catalogues/paper_money/paper_money_of_england__wales/the_industrial_revolution.aspx">rise of the mechanised cloth industry</a> in England’s North and Midlands sent the south-western wool trade into serious decline. And while Cornwall’s mining industry survived well into the 20th century, it experienced <a href="https://www.cornish-mining.org.uk/sites/default/files/01%20-%20History%20-%20overview.pdf">repeated crises</a> from the 1770s onwards. This was primarily due to newly discovered tin and copper mines elsewhere in the world, leading to the large-scale emigration of Cornish miners to countries such as Mexico, Australia and Brazil. </p>
<p>The era depicted in Poldark shows the region on the very tipping-point of this transition. Ross Poldark’s struggles to keep his mine open and profitable are symptomatic of the economic difficulties experienced by the region as a whole during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.</p>
<p>As south-western towns lost their traditional role as centres of trade and industry, their focus shifted increasingly to tourism. This was especially true during the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/empire_seapower/french_threat_01.shtml">long years of the Napoleonic Wars</a> which form the backdrop to the later Poldark novels. <a href="http://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/the-grand-tour-of-europe">Cut off by war from their favoured resorts in France and Italy</a>, a generation of English tourists began taking holidays in Devon and Cornwall instead. </p>
<p>By the late 18th century, <a href="http://ota.ox.ac.uk/text/4603.html">writers in Devon were praising their native county for its natural beauty and its ancient history</a>, rather than for the wealth and industry of which their parents and grandparents had been so proud. By the mid-19th century, the same was increasingly true of Cornwall. </p>
<p>This economic shift led, in turn, to the development of the Victorian mythology of the “romantic South-West”, still <a href="https://www.visitcornwall.com/about-cornwall/blogging-cornwall/mon-2012-08-13-1048/cornish-legends">beloved of local tourist boards today</a>. </p>
<p>This mythology is built upon a version of the region’s history which emphasises its remote and wild character, playing on associations with Merlin and King Arthur, druids and witches, smugglers and wreckers and pirates. </p>
<p>Like most costume dramas, Poldark’s primary concern is with the travails of cross-class romance. But it is also a narrative about de-industrialisation, and about the struggle of local businesses to remain competitive and economically viable within an increasingly globalised economy – a story which has <a href="https://theconversation.com/britain-fails-to-understand-the-nature-of-globalisation-at-its-peril-61392">some resonance in early 21st-century Britain</a>. </p>
<p>The poverty of the Cornish miners with whom Ross Poldark identifies is not simply the result of gratuitous oppression. Instead they are the victims of a new economic order which has little interest in preserving local industry for its own sake. </p>
<h2>Wild West</h2>
<p>The show has certainly not been shy about making lavish use of the beauty of <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/cornish-coast-stars-in-poldark-remake">its Cornish setting</a>, and has already triggered something of a <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/1137928/the-poldark-effect-devon-and-cornwall-see-visitor-boom-of-155-per-cent-after-hit-bbc-series/">tourism boom</a>, with visitors flocking to the region to see for themselves the moors, cliffs, and beaches which Poldark employs to such dramatic visual effect.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135973/original/image-20160830-26282-11kzg4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/135973/original/image-20160830-26282-11kzg4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135973/original/image-20160830-26282-11kzg4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135973/original/image-20160830-26282-11kzg4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135973/original/image-20160830-26282-11kzg4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135973/original/image-20160830-26282-11kzg4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/135973/original/image-20160830-26282-11kzg4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Industry by the sea.</span>
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<p>But it also depicts the historical struggles of the region’s inhabitants to preserve the South West as something more than just a pretty place for other people to visit on holiday. In this sense, it is rather symbolic that season one of Poldark <a href="http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/world/554256/poldark-everything-you-need-to-know.html">ends with Ross being falsely accused of wrecking</a>. The legend of the Cornish wreckers, which reached its definitive form in Du Maurier’s Jamaica Inn, is <a href="http://www.cornishlinks.co.uk/history-smugglers.htm">founded on extremely slender historical evidence</a>, but it persists because it fits in so neatly with the Victorian mythology of the South West in general, and Cornwall in particular: a mythology which viewed it as a lawless and desperate land, filled with crime and adventure, and remote from all true civilisation. </p>
<p>In Poldark, the looting of the wrecked vessel is motivated by hunger and poverty, which have in turn been caused by the economic depression besetting the region. But after spending the whole season struggling against Cornwall’s industrial decline, Ross finds himself in danger of being absorbed into a new kind of narrative about the South West – one which will have no place for men like him, except as picturesque savages.</p>
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<p>Of course, in this respect, Poldark rather wants to both have its grain and (shirtlessly) reap it, too. Ross Poldark and Demelza appeal to their audience precisely because they embody the kind of romantic wildness which, since the Victorian era, has been the stock-in-trade of the south-western tourist industry. </p>
<p>They are passionate, free-spirited, and dismissive of class boundaries and social conventions: hardly the kind of people that the self-consciously respectable merchants and industrialists of the 18th-century South West would have wanted as their representatives or champions. But by setting its story of class antagonism against the backdrop of this crucial turning-point in the history of the South West, Poldark does serve as a reminder that the quietness of the region, which has proven so attractive to generations of tourists, is not the natural state of a land untouched by commerce or industry. It is the silence which follows their enforced departure.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/64631/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joseph Crawford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The literary hero represents a sea change in the region’s history.Joseph Crawford, Lecturer in English, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.