Looking at Genre; British Drama

Having looked into the very broad genre of British Drama, we found that it has a number of sub-genres;

• Social drama
• Comedy
• Love
• War
• Thriller
• Costume/Period Drama
• Horror

Social Realism within British Drama

As a group we decided that social drama, more specifically social realism was the sub-genre we were keen to pursue.

Social realism within British Drama was designed to make the audience think critically about their own lives as social realism usually represents the reality of life with all its difficulties. The stories and characters portrayed within social realist films are 'everyday' people, usually from working class backgrounds or with characters in a state of poverty.
Typically, films within the Social Realist canon are gritty, urban dramas which reflect the struggle to survive the daily grind.

Changes of Social realism over time

In the 1950's the story lines were mostly based on the harshness of the war, as this was reflective of the time. the story lines were also usually based on literature that was already popular.

These days, the story lines are more often based about the unfairness of life and how this in turn affects people's lives. It is very usual to base story lines about current pressing issues that affect the 'normal people' in the UK. For example, gang violence and knife crime as well as the recession and the effects of these problems.

Throughout time the editing has become a lot more complex to show the brutal reality on a deeper level to the audience. It has also now become acceptable to have British drama films based on more controversial subjects such as terrorism and racism (This is England, 2006).