Offering a critical reappraisal of a prolific and popular genre, this text also brings new material into the broader field of television studies. Sarah Cardwell surveys the traditional discourses about adaptation, unearthing the unspoken assumptions and common misconceptions that underlie them, and explores the problems inherent in previous approaches, developing an original perspective that considers the particularly televisual nature of this genre. She examines four major British serials: "Brideshead Revisited", "Pride and Prejudice", "Moll Flanders", and "The Tenant of Wildfell Hall", revealing the genre's importance in constituting and moderating our understanding of the past and of television itself.