The BBC's Sherlock (July 2010-) uses a novel visual trick to show the contents of an SMS message directly on the television screen, so we can all read it without having to look at a dull phone screen.
Here's a few examples (via i heart subtitles):
Michele Tepper explains:
Now, we’re used to seeing extradiegetic text appear on screen with the characters: titles like “Three Years Earlier” or “Lisbon” serve to orient us in a scene. Those titles even can help set the tone of the narrative - think of the snarky humor of the character introduction chyrons on Burn Notice. But this is different: this is capturing the viewer’s screen as part of the narrative itself.
(Tepper also gives some other examples of on-screen typography in Sherlock, and there's some more at Wear Sherlock.)
The American re-make of House of Cards (2012) also uses this storytelling technique.
Apparently the British Married Single Other (2010) pipped Sherlock by a few months (ref), and "British teen soap opera ‘Hollyoaks’ has been doing it for years" (ref) but I couldn't find any screenshots.
What was the first TV programme (or film) to do this?
