BBC rebels in the 1970s

The BBC is often portrayed by critical commentators as a monolith, inherently biased and strictly regulated from within. This characterisation both denies the agency of its workers, and deserves further investigation. This talk considers the BBC in the 1970s in Bristol and London, as government intervention in the Corporation increased, particularly over the representation of the conflict in Ireland. At the same time control over programme content was increased by the casualisation of programme […]

How the news is made

Propaganda and self-censorship in the media

Seasoned media journalists Nicholas Jones and Dorothy Byrne give an inside look at how the news is made. A former BBC correspondent, Nicholas Jones reflects on the dangers of being overwhelmed by a tsunami of propaganda orchestrated by the UK’s mass media. Looking back on a 50-year career reporting on the home front, Jones describes the impact of the coverage fueled by the British press, from the 1982 Falklands War to the 1984 miners’ strike and the Brexit referendum of 2016. All too often the […]

100 Years of Struggle

100 Years of Struggle (30 mins) is a film made in 1973 to mark the centenary of the Bristol Trades Union Council. Although it was transmitted by BBC Bristol, it was produced and narrated by members of the Council. Each of them linked key events in the past - in 1873, 1892, 1914 and 1926 - to the industrial and political struggles of the time when the documentary was made.

John Deed: Heart of Darkness

Was the BBC right not to rebroadcast this programme?

“Heart of Darkness” is a drama from the controversial Judge Deed series. It was transmitted in 2006 but the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit decided that this episode should not be shown again. It focusses on two legal cases, a judicial review of the U.S. government’s demand for the extradition of a politically active Iraqi woman and a courtroom disagreement between a married couple on whether their child should be given the MMR vaccine. G.F. Newman, the writer and producer of the Judge Deed […]