Making Masterpiece by Rebecca Eaton

Making Masterpiece by Rebecca Eaton

The Emmy Award-winning producer of PBS's Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery reveals the secrets to Downton Abbey, Sherlock, and its other hit programs. For more than twenty-five years and counting, Rebecca Eaton has presided over PBS's Masterpiece Theatre, the longest-running weekly prime-time drama series in American history. From the runaway hits Upstairs, Downstairs and The Buccaneers to the hugely popular Inspector Morse, Prime Suspect, and Poirot, Masterpiece Theatre and its sibling series Mystery have been required viewing for fans of quality drama. Eaton interviews many of the writers, directors, producers, and other contributors and shares personal anecdotes about her decades-long career. She reveals what went on behind the scenes during such triumphs as Cranford and the multiple, highly rated programs made from Jane Austen's novels, as well as her aggressive campaign to attract younger viewers via social media and online streaming. Along the way she shares stories about actors and other luminaries such as Alistair Cooke, Maggie Smith, Diana Rigg, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Daniel Radcliffe, whose first television role was as the title character in David Copperfield.Readers will also get to know Eaton on a personal level. With a childhood steeped in theater, an affinity for nineteenth-century novels and culture, and an accidental apprenticeship with the BC, Eaton was practically born to lead the Masterpiece and Mystery franchises. Making Masterpiece marks the first time the driving force behind the enduring flagship show reveals all.

Rebecca Eaton regards her decades-long stewardship of Masterpiece as the ideal job for the daughter of an English professor and an actress. She has been the executive producer of the show for twenty-eight of its forty-two years on the air. Awards on her watch include forty-three prime-time Emmy awards, fifteen Peabody awards, two Golden Globes, and two Academy Award nominations.

At Masterpiece Theatre and Mystery! she extended the programs' reach with contemporary dramas; initiated co-productions with the BBC (Middlemarch, The Buccaneers); co-produced feature films such as Jane Austen's Persuasion and Mrs. Brown starring Dame Judi Dench; and oversaw the rebranding of the series in 2008. Queen Elizabeth II awarded her an honorary OBE (Officer, Order of the British Empire) in 2003.

She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and spends time at the family house in Kennebunkport, Maine.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780143126041
ISBN 10	0143126040
Title	Making Masterpiece
Author	Rebecca Eaton
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Penguin Putnam Inc
Year published	2014-11-25
Number of pages	302
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable