Capital

Question 1

How many parts does Capital consist of?

Answer 1

Three

Question 2

Who wrote the book that Capital was adapted from?

Answer 2

John Lanchester

Question 3

Who wrote, directed and produced the show?

Answer 3

The series was written by Peter Bowker, directed by Euros Lyn and produced by Matt Strevens

Question 4

When was the first episode aired?

Answer 4

24th November 2015 on BBC One

Question 5

What road does capital take place on?

Answer 5

A fictional Pepys Road in South London

Question 6

When was the original novel published and set?

Answer 6

Published in 2012, set in 2007-08

Question 7

What does the drama explore?

Answer 7

The contemporary issues of the financial crisis, immigration, celebrity and property prices.

Question 8

What is the drama about? If you had to explain the main premesis to someone

Answer 8

The action is centred on Pepys Road in South London. Previously just a ‘normal’ residential street, properties are now approaching £2m. Residents begin receiving anonymous postcards saying “We want what you have” which residents react to differently.

Question 9

What is a ‘state of the nation’ drama?

Answer 9

A drama designed to capture the issues facing the country at the time it is written and produced

Question 10

What happened to house prices due to the global financial crisis in 2007-8?

Answer 10

House prices soared with some properties almost doubling in price in five years. By September 2015, the average London house price was £531,000.
Traditionally working-class neighbourhoods in London suddenly had houses worth £1m+.

Question 11

How is the title a pun?

Answer 11

As it is set in London, it is a critique of capitalism and the tension is ratcheted up with the ever-climbing capital created through the rising values of the houses.

Question 12

What company produced Capital?

Answer 12

Kudos, an independent British film and television production company

Question 13

What does Kudos specialise in?

Answer 13

TV series which can be sold or remade for the US market, making it typical of contemporary media institutions which operate globally rather than nationally.

Question 14

How is Kudos horizontally integrated?

Answer 14

The parent company, Endemol Shine UK, own a range of TV production companies across different formats and genres.

Question 15

Who has Kudos made programmes for?

Answer 15

BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Sky, Amazon and Netflix

Question 16

What is horizontal integration?

Answer 16

system of consolidating many firms in the same business

Question 17

Who commissioned Capital?

Answer 17

BBC

Question 18

What is meant by ‘state of the nation’ drama?

Answer 18

Aims to reflect on the ways Britain had changed in recent years.

This is why Capital includes such a wide representation of people.

Question 19

What does the series look at socially? (think geography)

Answer 19

The series looks at the way London has become very polarized; with extremes of rich and poor, has become multicultural and how working class areas have now become gentrified and expensive.

Question 20

What does PSB stand for?

Answer 20

Public Service Broardcaster

Question 21

What does the PSB nature of the BBC mean?

Answer 21

That it has a duty to reflect on the changing state of the country and it is also the place where audiences expect to see quality drama to justify the hypotheticated tax that they pay in the license fee.

Question 22

What are the BBC’s three main aims?

Answer 22

Fundamentally the BBC seek to educate, inform and entertain.

Question 23

Where are the BBC’s Public purposes set out?

Answer 23

Their public purposes are set out by the Royal Charter and Agreement which forms the constitutional basis for the BBC.

Question 24

What are the 5 BBC Public Purposes?

Answer 24

1) To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them.

2) To support learning for people of all ages

3) To show the most creative, highest quality and distinctive output and services.

4) To reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions and, in doing so, support the creative economy across the United Kingdom.

5) To reflect the United Kingdom, its culture and values to the world.

Question 25

What helps to sell the show (industry)?

Answer 25

Capital uses the status of the BBC to sell the product abroad in order to generate income.

Use of internationally recognised talent (Toby Jones) helps sell the product.

Question 26

What type of narrative is capital?

Answer 26

Multi-stranded narrative

Question 27

Analyse the opening scene

Answer 27

The opening sequence focuses on the narrative disruption, with clear enigma codes to engage the audience. We see a hooded figure taking photographs of the street, with a combination of point of view shots including on screen graphics to denote the use of a digital camera, and long shots to communicate the location to the audience. The use of nondiegetic music further anchors this crime genre representation, with an instrumental soundtrack to build tension. The camera pulls back and we see the hooded figure in extreme long shot, positioned centre frame with the houses of the street either side. The title appears on the screen in a red san serif font. This opening sequence clearly establishes the impact that this mystery figure will have on the entire street.

Question 28

What is the purpose of Pertunia’s Montage?

Answer 28

The montage sequence gives historical context for the audience, builds backstory and puts character at point of crisis

Question 29

What narrative techniques are used in the opening?

Answer 29

Dramatic Irony - Period drama. We know there is about to be a financial crash.

Omniscient perspective - the audience see the unknown photographer) and the audience is asked to link the postcards to the surveillance. Audience also knows there are multiple postcard receivers before the characters do.

Restricted narration - We are only given a fragmentary narrative. This often leaves out important exposition

Question 30

What are the conventions of a mini-series?

Answer 30

• Three long episodes
• Use of enigma codes
• Usually have a higher production value and higher artistic values
• Shown at prime-time
• Many trailers and adverts

Question 31

What are the conventions of a crime drama?

Answer 31

Use of narrative enigmas
Restricted narrative
Resolution of a mystery
Question of morality
Debates around innocence and guilt
Verisimilitude - representations of ‘ordinary’ people in everyday life are recognisable to audience
Power struggles (within different divisions of police or within community)
Teamwork and pleasures in successful resolutions
Corruption and betrayal often key theme within a narrative
Villainy is evident through the characteristics of various characters.

Question 32

What are the conventions of a social realism drama?

Answer 32

Strive to represent regions of UK with authenticity.
Narratives explore social issues (such as economic inequalities/immigration/Islamophobia)
Triumph over adversity
Shooting on location to offer authenticity
Wide shots used to establish the location and setting as this is often key to understanding the narrative and themes
Humour and seriousness intertwined in a narrative.

Question 33

How does the audience figure out the characters roles?

Answer 33

The interactions between the characters reflect the tensions between different cultures and costume

Question 34

Analyse Rodger

Answer 34

Roger is quickly established as a stereotypical banker (wealthy, outside of the community, sees himself above the rules). His costume includes the visual signifiers, but his reaction to receiving a parking ticket from Quentina also builds this stereotypical representation. Roger is rude, and makes it clear he holds Quentina and her job role in contempt.

The multi-stranded narrative uses binary oppositions throughout to highlight the difference or inequality in Pepys Road, and then raise questions about inequality in London more widely. The character of Roger Yount is a clear example of this. During his own narrative development, we see binary oppositions within his own character (the money driven banker starts to yearn for a life with more meaning).

Question 35

State an Arabella quote

Answer 35

Their initial highly stereotyped dialogue (“How do you feel about cedar wood cladding?”) serves to position the audience to understand the change in society and the Pepys Road community from ‘normal’ residential street to million-pound properties.

Question 36

Analyse final scene

Answer 36

The final sequence of episode sees Roger meet Machinko in a park. The camerawork establishes a binary opposition between the two men, who are literally at different ends of the social and economic spectrum - sitting at different ends of the bench. The dialogue, however, seeks to challenge these stereotypes about Roger. He reveals that he too feels poor by London standards. Machinko reveals he does not like the capital city, again another subversion of the negative stereotype often associated with immigrant workers perhaps.

Question 37

Representation of place

Answer 37

The regular establishing shots (some aerial) help to make the street into an any-place. Peppy’s road becomes a microcosm for the UK.

Question 38

What does capital remind the audience of?

Answer 38

The show reminds the viewer of an earlier representation of London (still running), Eastenders. Both shows aimed to reflect the nation to itself (social realism).

Question 39

Analyse Arabella

Answer 39

The audience are meant to find her attitudes and behaviour awful. - It is interesting to see how different she appears in the scene where she visits the Kamal’s shop for the first time. The fact that she has never been there shows the audience how isolated she is within her cossetted existence but she also appears genuinely moved when Ahmed and his wife give her a bunch of coriander for free from their kitchen. She is unfamiliar with a world where actions are not motivated by money or any other thought of gain

Question 40

Apply Van Zoonen

Answer 40

The montage sequence which depicts her married life puts emphasis on her domestic and maternal roles Again Van Zoonen’s approach would focus on the way that Petunia is now surplus to requirements. Her functions of wife and mother in the discourse of domesticity have ceased and now she is waiting to die.

Question 41

Apply bell hooks

Answer 41

Do the Quentina’s misfortunes that befall her stem from her gender, her race, her immigrant status, her poverty or a combination of all of them Note that she has taken on one of the most loathed public duties and that she finds solace in the church. At the end of the episode, despite the hope the audience have of her salvation through love, she is placed in a cell.

Question 42

When was capital broadcasted? Where can it be watched?

Answer 42

Capital was originally broadcast on BBC 1, Tuesday 24 November at 9pm. This primetime slot reflects the intended audience for the drama. It was also available to download and stream on iPlayer for a time. It can now be purchased on DVD, and some clips from the three episodes are still available to view on the BBC’s mini-site.

Question 43

Analyse the trailer

Answer 43

The audience is positioned quickly to understand the location using the geographical markers. The non-diegetic soundtrack of Bastille’s ‘These Streets’ offers a temporal marker and positions the audience in a contemporary society. The following medium shots of Quentina, Ahmed and Bogdan the builder and juxtaposed with a reverse track of Roger leaving his home. The encoded cultural signifiers (soft leather briefcase, large watch, mobile phone) denote his status quickly to the audience, and this is anchored by Petunia’s voiceover. Instantly, an unequal binary opposition is established between the residents, one of working class and wealthy upper class, the shop keeper and the banker.

Question 44

Analyse the DVD cover

Answer 44

The silhouette skyline of London contains clear geographical markers that denote the setting, and also establish the themes of British culture and financial issues (as both the Houses of Parliament and the Gherkin are featured).

The reference to Kudos’ previous productions serves to give credibility to the TV drama and is designed to appeal to audiences who may not be familiar with the BBC

The layout of the characters on the cover carries a connotation to the crime drama. The intertextual reference to a mug shot is evident here, and gently hints at the crime genre.

The colour, however, seeks to draw the audience away from a stereotypical crime drama and as yellow is not associated with crime, but instead moves towards the contemporary state of the nation representation.

Question 45

Apply Gerbner

Answer 45

Audiences may use their viewing of Capital to inform them as to the “State of the Nation.” In psychogeographic terms do they understand that this is a constructed product but see it as being truthful in the way it aims to represent the world. The social realist element of the show is important here. Additionally do they forget that this is a period drama and view it as a representation of the present (out by over a decade). If they do then pre-crash London is read as being contemporary London; which is not the case.

Question 46

Apply Hall

Answer 46

Readings by particular groups. Those who accept the preferred reading will accept the satirical “State of the Nation” representation.

Negotiated readings will accept parts but view other characters as un-realistic or caricatured (Arabella?).

Oppositional readings will reject the whole representational structure. Given the wide range of representations it would seem odd to find those who were able to produce an oppositional reading.