Dr Thomas Alcott

I teach on modules across the Film and Television, Media and Communications and Filmmaking. 

My main research interests lie in Celebrity and Stardom and Audience Studies. My PhD was an audience study that focused on the stars of Professional Wrestling. I supervise on the dissertation module in these areas and more. 

I am also a former CYFLE apprentice where I was trained as an Assistant Director for film. I have worked on a number of feature films and television programmes such as Made in Dagenham (2010), Killer Elite (2011), One Chance (2013) and Doctor Who Confidential. I have also worked for Maddog Casting and been trained in script reporting and editing in the Script Factory. My Masters Degree is in Scriptwriting and this remains a real passion of mine.

My main research interests lie in the fields of celebrity/star and audience studies. My PhD explored the relationship between audiences, stars and industry within the world of Professional Wrestling. This involved an audience study and political economy/labour analysis of working structures and branding practices as well as analysis of the wrestling images. Due to this project, I also have a strong interest in the developing field of wrestling studies which has been growing rapidly over the last ten years. The findings of my work were recently used and quoted in a UK parlimentary inquiry into professional wrestling (All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Professional Wrestling in Britain, London 2021) and participation in the parlimentary symposium at Westmisnter. The recomendations of this report and symposium were reported on here:British professional wrestling should be classified as a sport, All-Party Parliamentary Group finds - BBC Sport

 Academic Publications

‘Welsh Football Stardom: Hierarchies and national identity in newspaper coverage of the Welsh national team’ (Forthcoming) Sport and Society. 

‘Editor’s introduction: professional wrestling and authenticity’ with Tom Phillips (2024), Celebrity Studies 15:1 pp. 1-6

‘Being ‘real’ in a staged sport: the process and negotiation of authenticity in wrestling star images’ (2024) Celebrity Studies 15:1 pp. 7-22.

‘Putting the football back into football stardom: a case study of Gareth Bale as a national football ‘star’ (2023), Soccer & Society, DOI: 10.1080/14660970.2023.2266679

‘Professional Wrestling’ in Creeber, Glen (ed.) (2023) The Television Studies Genre Book 4^rd Edition, BFI, Bloomsbury, New York and London pp. 243-245

‘Not Putting Away Childish Things: the importance of childhood in the audience reception of professional wrestling’ (2019) Participations 16:1 pp. 3-29.

Other Publications/Contributions

The All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry into Professional Wrestling in Britain: Report (2021) appg Wrestling committee. 

‘Peter Pan in a Bullet-Proof Jacket’ (2017) Planet: The Welsh Internationalist issue 225 pp 60-65