My PhD research focuses on the portrayals of men’s friendships in three British television series. I ask, how close relationships between men were portrayed in television during the Thatcher era, and how the social climate affected the interpretations of friendships and the past in popular culture.

My aim is to consider the expansion of the limits regarding close relationships between men in the United Kingdom from the 1980s onwards, despite the tightening of social norms as put forth by neoconservatism and Thatcherism. The TV series on my focus, although based on the classic English literature of early 20th century, were created and produced against the social and cultural background of the 1980s and 1990s regarding, for instance, homosexuality and AIDS. The series comment strongly on the nature of relationships between men.

The dissertation is within the field of cultural history, with connection also to the critical studies on men and masculinities and media studies.