No Other Way To Tell It

Book excerpt: Drama documentary is a program category unique to television. Combining the factual approach of documentary with the entertainment values of drama, dramadoc/docudrama has featured in television schedules for over forty years, and has often been the focus of controversy. Questions are frequently asked about how the viewer is to judge between fact and fiction, and whether such programs invade individuals’ privacy. No Other Way to Tell It is an introductory book which defines the form, and reviews its history and development on British and American television. The people who make the programs--television producers, writers, actors and lawyers--give their views, and recent co-production work between Granada TV in Britain and Home Box Office in America is examined. Hostages, a co-production which was bitterly opposed by the British and American hostages released from captivity in Beirut at the beginning of the decade, is used to illustrate the changes that are now taking place within the medium.