James Leggott

Dr James Leggott

Associate Professor

Department: Northumbria School of Design, Arts and Creative Industries

I completed my doctoral thesis on British social realist cinema in 2004 (University of Newcastle), and took up a lectureship in Film and Television studies at Northumbria in 2006.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

I am a scholar of British film and television culture, with a specific interest in regional representation, contemporary screen production, popular genre, and creative figures who have been critically overlooked. I have authored monographs on contemporary British cinema, the work of the Amber film collective, and the representation of North East England on film and televsion. I have co-edited collections on traditions of UK science fiction film and television, period drama, medical representation, and the comedy of Chris Morris.

I am currently completing a book on the writer Alan Plater.

Key Publications

The Benny Hill Waltz and the Blackmail theme: Library music and television comedy in the 1970s, Leggott, J. 6 Feb 2025, Anonymous Sounds, London, Bloomsbury
The North East of England on Film and Television, Leggott, J. 30 Jun 2021
In Fading Light: The Films of the Amber Collective, Leggott, J. 9 Apr 2020
Conflicting Masculinities: Men in Television Period Drama, Leggott, J., Taddeo, J., Byrne, K. 30 May 2018
“No Need to Matronise Me!”: The Crown, the Male Consort and Conflicted Masculinity, Leggott, J. 30 Jul 2018, Conflicting Masculinities, London; New York, Bloomsbury
From Newcastle to Nashville: The Northern Soul of Jimmy Nail, Leggott, J. 9 May 2017, Social Class and Television Drama in Contemporary Britain, Palgrave Macmillan
The rise and fall of practically everyone? The independent British film production sector from the 1980s to the present, Leggott, J. Jan 2017, The Routledge Companion to British Cinema History, Abingdon, Taylor & Francis
Come to Daddy? Claiming Chris Cunningham for British Art Cinema, Leggott, J. Apr 2016, In: Journal of British Cinema and Television
Fair do’s: Tom Hadaway and the regional voice in 1970s British television, Leggott, J. 26 Aug 2016, In: Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television
'Acting Up: Gender and Television Comedy' [Editorial], Leggott, J., Lockyer, S., White, R. 1 Jun 2015, In: Critical Studies in Television

PGR Supervision

Geoffrey Matthews The surviving child in film Start Date: 01/10/2019
Stuart Frazer The Catherine Cookson Television Cycle: Identity, Memory and Heritage Start Date: 01/10/2018 End Date: 08/06/2025