Tony Garnett

Response to the BBC White Paper

Sighs of relief. Think BBC White Paper could have been worse? Read behind the PR and be very afraid.

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Tony Garnett on the BBC Files

The BBC Files

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.

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Don’t blame the old Etonians. Some of them are even good actors.

Don’t blame the old Etonians. Some of them are even good actors. Why shouldn’t they, and other posh and privileged, be free to choose a career?

When I became an actor in the 50s all actors were posh and if you spoke Brum, like me, you did your best to disguise it. Not just because the whole business had its nose in the air, don’t you know, but because nearly all the roles were of posh people.

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Trumpism

Farage, Trump, Mussolini, Hitler? Careful! The 30s were different.
And terrifyingly similar.

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Saying goodbye to Barry Hines

We buried Barry Hines’ body and shared memories of the man. His funeral shook me, ambushing me in that way only funerals can.

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Events

Upcoming book launches, screenings and signings with Tony Garnett

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Barry Hines 1939 – 2016

I worked on four films with Barry. We began our friendship in the mid-sixties. It survived intact through his last long illness.

His character and his writing were all of a piece. Direct, simple and honest. HIs simplicity was hewn out of a close analysis of others and their place in a society riven by class interests.

To the end, he knew which side he was on. He had been born to the sound of clogs,

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Events

Archive of Book launches, screenings and signings with Tony Garnett 2016-17

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Remembering Barry Hines

This is what I read at Barry Hines’ funeral. I suppose each of us has a different Barry in our heads, in our memories.

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Think these refugees are a problem?

You ain’t seen nothing yet! The gathering storm’s building.

The sufferings so far are mere hints of what is to come as it gathers momentum. The precipitating cause of each mini disaster may seem to be political – a civil war here, a spontaneous uprising there – but underneath you find land degradation, toxic poisoning, rising sea levels and “natural” disasters exacerbated by human action.

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BECTU Freelancers’ Fair 2016: Political Drama

Asked at BECTU how to get political drama made. With painful difficulty was my reply.

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‘The BBC Made Me’

The BBC did not make me. It influenced me.

Some executives gave me opportunities, for which I remain grateful. Others tried to muzzle me, stop me from working. In any case, which BBC do you mean? I’ve known at least three.

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Cathy Come Home – 50 years on

This week marks the 50th anniversary of Cathy Come Home. Cathy Come Home let everybody off the hook. It didn’t put the boot in where it should have done. Earlier this year I wrote a piece for the PCS Union explaining why I believe this.

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Arnold Wesker, Jim Allen and Perdition

The controversy over accusations of anti-semitism in political parties coincides with the death of Arnold Wesker. There is a connection.

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Junior doctors are the new miners of 1984

Ominous noises from the Tories. They see the doctors as the miners in 84-85. So, a high stakes fight to the death. Whose death will it be?

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Off-Cut: Attachments

As the internet gained momentum I made plans to work on it, thinking everyone would be as excited as I was. The only way to learn to do it, is to do it.

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Tory sale of council houses and Labour’s PFI. A connection? Sure!

Show they’re just two wings of same party. But they don’t want you to know that.

Callaghan’s Labour government in the ‘70s favourably discussed plans for the sale of council houses but lost to Thatcher before it became settled policy; the Tories thought through the wizard idea of the Private Finance Initiative. A no brainer. Build new hospitals and keep the debt off the government books.

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Villa Winning!?!

Crisis at Villa Park!!
Trashing of tradition. Fans in severe distress.
Who is to blame?

This emotionally disorientating behaviour began with the appointment of Steve Bruce as manager, though collusion right up to the boardroom is suspected.

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The inspiration behind ‘The Spongers’

I see that Elizabeth Windsor is 90. I congratulate her.

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Football is about family

I wrote this seeing my granddaughter in an Aston Villa shirt. Aila’s three. I wish Barry Hines had read it. He would have understood. Why do so many of us give pain to our children? We knowingly condemn them to suffer, year after year. Then watch this pain with pride. Are you one of the guilty parents?

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