The following is an extract from:
Blacklist
The Inside Story of Political Vetting
by Mark Hollingsworth and Richard Norton-Taylor
The Hogarth Press
Published 1988 ISBN 0 7012 0811 2
Chapter 5 – MI5 and the BBC: Stamping the ‘Christmas Tree’ Files
‘One thing I can state quite categorically is that there has never been any victimisation of anyone for their political views at the BBC.’
…
I spent money I could ill afford trying to retrieve documents relevant to me in the BBC archives, especially in the 70s. The staff were relentlessly courteous but infuriatingly retentive. As usual with the BBC one doesn’t know what one doesn’t know, and they’re not telling.
But in among the irrelevant detritus are some nuggets. I write in my memoir about the role of MI5 deciding who should and should not be employed in “your” BBC.
…
BBC Controller, Huw Wheldon, introduces the third season of The Wednesday Play. In his note he reminds readers of The Wednesday Play’s purpose and shares a brief of what is expected from new and existing playwrights.
It is one of those key series in which “broadcasting must be most willing to make mistakes; for if it does not, it will make no discoveries”. Mistakes draw criticism. Discoveries are uncomfortable. Both compel controversy.
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The following is a memo sent by Sydney Newman after Up the Junction was broadcast and the BBC received 464 complaints by the public. Sydney Newman defends the Wednesday Play and talks about its purpose, the process of commissioning plays and managing talent including producers and directors.
Transcript
Page 1
From: Head of Drama Group, Television
Subject: THE WEDNESDAY PLAY
To: C.P.Tel.
Date: 15th June 1966
The following is,
…
“Look, I know the BBC’s really short of money but not to have the travel or the weather. I mean that’s….just… your budget must be really tight! Here is the traffic and here is the weather. The traffic is heavy. What a surprise! The weather is cloudy, threatening to drizzle. A typical summer’s day.”
“That explains why you moved to America for so many years, does it?” replies Sarah.
Talking politics,
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“When I was young and arrogant, I thought we could make a film and change the world. Well… films don’t do that.”
“My work is… I want to expose the secrets.”
TV & Film Producer @TonyTGarnett
Broadcast 03 July 2016 – WATCH THE PROGRAMME HERE
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“We live our lives in a fugue state. Blissfully or painfully unaware of ourselves”
TV & Film Producer @TonyTGarnett bbc.in/294Oo9C
Broadcast 29 June 2016
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From THE OBSERVER Dated Sunday 9th June 1968
SHOUTS AND MURMURS
Kenneth Tynan
An ancient doctrinal dispute has lately been revived at the BBC Television Centre. It has to do with Artistic Categories, and is being conducted with all the hair-splitting passion that pamphleteers and polemicists wasted on the same subject four centuries ago. It arose out of ‘Five Women,’ written by Tony Parker, produced by Tony Garnett and directed by Roy Battersby for the Wednesday Plays.
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Crisis - Ending Homelessness 
Blair, Milburn and Hattersley: a modern morality Socialism without the free artist becomes Stalinism 
Villa Winning!?! 
Cathy Come Home - 50 years on 
Trumpism Obesity and the NHS 
Writing your story 
Fighting exploitation in the film & TV industry 
Corbyn and Attlee 
Events 
The Day The Music Died 
On Performance Nurturing creativity in filmmaking 
BECTU Freelancers' Fair 2016: Political Drama 
Response to the BBC White Paper 
Old books, new blog post 
On Success and Failure Goodbye Facebook? 
CBI and Mussolini 
Orgreave 
CBEEBIES 
Junior doctors are the new miners of 1984 
The inspiration behind 'The Spongers' 
Arnold Wesker, Jim Allen and Perdition Remembering Barry Hines 
Saying goodbye to Barry Hines Villa Park 
Off-Cut: Law and Order - 1916 Off-Cut: Kes - the football scene Football is about family Barry Hines 1939 - 2016 
Don’t blame the old Etonians. Some of them are even good actors. Tory sale of council houses and Labour’s PFI. A connection? Sure! “Two steps forward, one step back”: Vladimir Ilyich Hunt goes into enemy territory, The Guardian, and becomes Nye Bevan. Beware a Tory with his “hurt” face on So the penny has finally dropped, eh? Get with the programme, Dave Prentis! Privatisation of the NHS by stealth started with Blair. Think these refugees are a problem? @yanisvaroufakis - find your answer to Europe vote. Remembering Jim Allen Kids Company Google Tax The Aneurin Bevan Memorial Lecture, 2060 Steve Hilton Today 'The BBC Made Me' 
Off-Cut: Attachments 
Off-Cut: Ballykissangel 
Tony Garnett on the BBC Files The Wednesday Play: Aims and Policy Sydney Newman defends The Wednesday Play D.A.N. Jones on Sidney Newman [sic] - The Listener 1967 A Discussion with Frank Kermode "Committed" Plays in Television Huw Wheldon's near resignation over 'Up The Junction' 'Days of Hope' - going to extremes (The Listener 1975) 'Days of Hope': various BBC correspondence 'Five Women': correspondence with Huw Wheldon 'Law and Order': various BBC correspondence Control over Subject Matter in BBC Television MI5 and the Christmas Tree files - secret political vetting at the BBC 
Details 
'A typical reaction was a snigger... I was making a film about the wrong kind of bird' Football is about family Off-Cut: Kes - the football scene Saying goodbye to Barry Hines 
Youtube
Details "We need drama people believe in" Grace Wyndham Goldie Article 1967 Cathy Come Home - 50 years on Gallery Cathy Come Home left out in cold by BBC row ‘Cathy Come Home’ and ‘Accuracy’ in British Television Drama Youtube (not free)Off-Cut: The Parachute Off-Cut: Arturo Ui Off-Cut: The Price of Coal Off-Cut: Save the Children Fund Off-Cut: The Ones That Got Away Off-Cut: Cardiac Arrest Off-Cut: The Producing MA 
Off-Cut: Beautiful Thing Off-Cut: Attachments 
Off-Cut: The Golden Vision 
Off-Cut: Prostitute The Aneurin Bevan Memorial Lecture, 2060 Off-Cut: Kes - the football scene 
Off-Cut: Between The Lines Production Notes from Beautiful Thing Doyen attacks “poison” in TV industry Ken Loach Variety Dec 15, 1997 The Observer - TV's Secret Godfather Cathy Come Home left out in cold by BBC row Kes It's a Cop Out ‘Cathy Come Home’ and ‘Accuracy’ in British Television Drama When This Life entered our lives... Dot.com drama starts up on BBC2 Welcome to seethru INTERFERENCE - CV: Tony Garnett In Praise of the Great Unknowns Autumn 2000 BBC 2 Season The Cops call it a day after three series Setting sites on the Net The beat goes on... (Bafta 2000 magazine) Attachments article AfterLife (circa 2000) A REAL BOBBY World Champion It’s a Big World After All Research by Karen Shepherdson (2001) Jim Allen Obituary Off-Cut: The Ones That Got Away Off-Cut: The Producing MA Off-Cut: Attachments Barry Hines 1939 - 2016 Remembering Barry Hines How to kill creativity while claiming to help it grow. 
Tracking Changes - BFI Interview 2014 'A typical reaction was a snigger... I was making a film about the wrong kind of bird' 
On BBC Radio 3 'Free Thinking' with Matthew Sweet 
On BBC News 'HARDtalk' with Stephen Sackur Podcast - BBC Radio 5 Live Afternoon Edition - July 11 Theatre Quarterly, Vol. II, No. 6, April-June 1972 THIS LIFE, THIS ART KICKING OVER THE TRACES – Interview with Tony Garnett Extracts from an Interview August 2000 A REAL BOBBY Meet the producer Recipe for a dust-up (Drama Forum) Sydney Newman Memorial Service - 5th February 1998 Performance With Banners Held High - the BBC and miners strikes Screenplay A Message For Graduates - Creatively Disrupt Crisis - Ending Homelessness Notes from the Raymond Williams Memorial Lecture, 1996 Reading University Speech 1998 For the love of it: in praise of the amateur 
