From Shakespeare to cop shows, sitcoms to docudramas, for over three decades the CBC has presented viewers with every variety of television drama and has become Canada's closest equivalent to a national theatre. Turn Up the Contrast is the first book to explore the content of Canadian television drama and is both a critical analysis and a survey history of how Canadians have used the medium to tell themselves their own stories.

As a part of her research, Mary Jane Miller watched thousands of hours of television, sampling series and viewing in their entirety shorter programs such as movies and mini-series. Asking a variety of questions, she selected a number of programs for detailed analysis, and devotees of The Beachcombers, King of Kensington, Seeing Things, Cariboo Country, Wojeck or A Gift to Last will be pleased to find their favourites among those discussed at length.

A University of British Columbia Press / CBC Enterprises Co-Publication.

Mary Jane Miller is professor emerita, Brock University, and author of Rewind and Search: Conversations with the Makers and Decision-Makers of CBC Television Drama and Turn of the Contrast: CBC Television Drama since 1952.

Mary Jane Miller's profile page

Turn Up the Contrast will be the essential reference book for some time; it is full, informative, discussable, and well indexed.

Canadian Theatre Review

This book offers much more than a digest of review pieces; it stands on its own as valid and scholarly criticism.

Choice