| One Day in the Life of Television | |
|---|---|
| Genre | Documentary |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Grant McKee |
| Producer(s) | Peter Kosminsky |
| Editor(s) | Terry Warwick |
| Running time | 180 mins[1] |
| Production company(s) | Yorkshire Television |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | ITV |
| Picture format | 4:3 |
| Original airing | 1 November 1989 |
One Day in the Life of Television is a documentary that was broadcast on ITV on 1 November 1989. Filmed by over fifty crews exactly one year earlier, it was a huge behind-the-scenes look at a wide range of activities involved in the production, reception and marketing of British television.[2] The project was organised by the British Film Institute and produced and directed for television by Peter Kosminsky.
The documentary opens with TV-am's industrial conflict, with picketers outside of the studio at Camden Lock. The documentary also looks at Breakfast Time, Lucky Ladders and EastEnders. Reactions to the latter's representation of a prison storyline were garnered from inmates in HMP Dartmoor.[2]
The documentary also showed the marketing of cable television, and the availability of pornography through satellite television during the early evening.
A book by Sean Day-Lewis was published to accompany the documentary. It contained the thoughts of people throughout Britain, including industry professionals, who recorded their feelings and experiences of television viewing on 1 November 1988, the day that the documentary was filmed.[3][4]