British TV 1956-1997
Old people can mull over the rubbish fed to them by Jew-owned propaganda; young people can understand why old people know nothing; and intelligent media studies types—if there are any—can draw lessons.
©Rae West. A few later interpolations; mainly notes taken from 3.5" computer disks and later hard disks. Unedited to try to leave the flavour of TV up to about fifty years after the Second World War. I have not inserted comments on Jews, who of course are underrepresented. This file is long: 1,066,965 bytes). v. 30 Jan 2023
List of Jew Correspondents and editors in the 'British' Broadcasting Corporation. I have not found the source of this 'meme'.
1956: 'A Show Called Fred' with Sellers and Milligan
1956: Friday night with the Crazy Gang
1961: Arthur Haynes (discussing the Common Market)
1965 or earlier: Frankie Howerd
1966 Dave Allen
1975 or earlier: Norman Rossiter in 'Rising Damp'
1981 or earlier: Kenny Everett
- 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' with Richard Greene and well known title sequence with boinging arrow, a Lew Grade series which 'made millions' [Source for most Lew Grade things TV Times 27 Aug-2 Sep 1994].
'William Tell' and 'Buccaneers' were similar things from the same source, presumably somewhat later as Robin Hood seems to have come first.
'Gunsmoke' first broadcast in US 10 Sept 1955; last original broadcast 1 Sept 1975, according to Radio Times 22-28 May 1993. 635 'editions' as they put it. Some longer than others, some ~25 mins, others ~50. Transferred from radio, where it 'starred' William Conrad. Characters have names like Doc, Kitty, Festus, Thad, Shaver, and Marshall Matt Dillon, played by James Arness, 'a role originally offered to John Wayne.' Presumably influenced Bob Dylan, whose first billed appearances were as 'Bob Dillon'.
Screened by ITV as Gun Law, not I think very long after.
Quatermass II. Written by Nigel Kneale. 'Quatermarse'. Planets music. At that stage still had stage pronunciation, which [Matthew says] nobody actually spoke. "Four dimensional roads metalled with relativity' 'asteroid.. its closest approach every 48 hours' 'organisms which can't live in our atmosphere; the oxygen would kill them in a few seconds; they have a shell of stone..' '.. poison gas.. ammonia.. hydrogen.. methane..' "Where is he?" "He was ill. He was sent away. He was cured. Only a day.." And views of some plant, perhaps oil refinery, perhaps a model, perhaps a Lime Grove studio set
Panorama showed 'Chris Mayhew' [man in suit with apparently too many teeth] taking mescaline. Talks about time, not knowing what 'now' means, fixed grin.
1956
Start of 'this Week', ITV's reply to Panorama, with music by Sibelius and motif of iris diaphragm closed, at left, open with title in capitals right.
'What the Papers Say' BBC filler "started in 1956", claimed BBC on Feb 1993, as part of obituary of someone called Brian Inglis [who'd just died].
'First Japanese TV' say my notes [NB: comparison between Japanese 'royal wedding' and British, both of which promoted TV sales]
My notes also say Australian TV began; first face broadcast was Bruce Gingell, pronounced jingle, who later appeared as an Australian game show host, and much later became famous for taking over TV am in Britain and making it lucrative, but losing the tv am contract on 16 Oct 1991, outbid by 'Sunrise'
- 'Zoo Time' (1956) [source: Internet] With Desmond Morris. The programme was transmitted from a studio built inside London Zoo. So the surroundings would be more familiar. Desmond was not the only star of Zoo Time, Congo, the chimp always appeared in the early shows.
- Children's [source: Internet]: 'Felix the Cat' In February 1956 ITV began to use some old Felix cartoons in a short series. The cat had been created by Otto Mesmer and developed by Pat Sullivan after Paramount had been interested enough in the original artwork to sign him up for the Paramount Screen Magazine. The first moving cartoon was made in 1919 and was called Feline Follies. In the second, called Musical Mews, Felix was officially named. With Sullivan's promotion, the cat's popularity grew even greater in Britain than in the USA. He was not, however, able to survive the transition to sound; in fact many of the visual gags were essentially due to the absence of a soundtrack the antics of speechbubbles, the animation of punctuation marks. He had a few revivals, one in 1935 with a new series of cartoons being produced, and television showings in the 50's and '60s. The comic strip continued for many years into the fifties but Felix eventually stopped walking.
-Children's: [source: Internet - whirligig.co.uk] 'The Black Brigand' (1956) starred William Devlin as Carl the White King, Laidman Browne as Don Rogano and Anthony Newlands played Fernando. Carl the White King was a Macchiavellian figure who ruled the country with cruelty and oppression. Don Fernando, exiled from court, was a Robin Hood/ Zorro type figure who redressed ordinary people's grievances, but whose identity was unknown to the King. There were several traps set for him which he escaped in a thrilling manner. There was a love interest with Esmeralda, a gipsy girl and on one occasion separated from his followers, they were trapped in a cave on a cliff top by the advancing members of the government forces. Deciding to finish off the Black Brigand and his men once and for all, the White King gives the order to set fire to the dry corn on the cliff top. He knows that the only 'escape route' for the Black Brigand and his men is a quick death by throwing themselves off the cliff. The fire rages towards the Black Brigand and his men - The White King rubs his hands together knowing that this is the end of the Black Brigand. With the fire raging towards them and the cliff face, the Black Brigand’s men know they are certain to die - However, the Black Brigand has an idea up his sleeve. There is one way to possibly save themselves and the Black Brigand gives the order for his men to form a line. With the fire now raging at their backs, the men light second fires in front of them. Now there are two lines of fire raging towards the cliff with the Black Brigand and his men situated in the division between the two lines. However, when the first line of fire reaches the already burnt out corn lighted by the Black Brigand. It's extinguished because something that's already burnt will not burn again! The Black Brigand and his men are saved! Esmeralda was found to have a better claim to the throne than Carl. The climax was a banquet at which Carl attempted to poison Fernando, whose identity was now known to him. He was saved by the sudden death of a retainer who had taken a swig from the poisoned chalice. There was an exciting sword duel between the King and the Black Brigand in which Carl was killed. Esmeralda was crowned Queen and married Fernando. The signature tune of this swashbuckling adventure series featured words which were something like :
"Black are their hats, Black Hats,
Black are their boots, Black boots,
With swords gleaming in the sun,
The Black Brigand and his men riding together,
saddles of leather,
With swords gleaming in the sun...in the sun....in the sun."
This was accompanied by footage of the aforementioned brigands galloping across the screen.
-Children's [source: Internet]
1956 'The Gordon Honour' Chronicled the continuing (over several generations) family feud between The Gordon family and The Fitzwilliam family over the disputed possession of a candlestick which had been presented to one of them for a service rendered. Each generation was played by the same actors just a change of beards. Paul Whitsun Jones (a ubiquitous character actor of the time) played The Duke of Tyburn, the head of the Gordons, who had a somewhat ineffectual nephew called Freddy who fell in love with the only retainer, Poppy the maid. One episode was set in the court of Queen Elizabeth the First and was based around an assassination attempt on the Queen. The main characters were an eccentric alchemist, Sir Walter Raleigh, Queen Elizabeth and, of course, the Gordon heroes and the villains. The Queen was presented with a unique delicacy by Sir Walter a potato which she tried to eat but which was raw. Someone shouted, "You fool. It is supposed to be cooked!" The alchemist immediately rushed to assist. He speared the potato on a fork placed it in a candle flame to cook and then said, "Funny. This burns with the colour of the poison I have in my laboratory." etc. etc.
There were two series of the Gordon Honour and there were 2 simultaneous plots. In the present was the attempt by the two Fitzwilliams, just criminals, to steal the Gordon Honour, a candle stick which sprouted every time the Gordons performed a service for the crown. During the setting there would be a lull, while Paul Whitsun Jones, would tell his nephew all about an exploit of one of the ancestors which would be shown as a separate action. The Fitzwilliams were not only trying to steal the candle stick, but were every generation showing treachery to the king. The first episode was a servant boy saving the life of King Arthur from the Fitzwilliam, a knight of the Round Table and being knighted Sir Varlet Gordon. There would be a love interest with a servant girl each time. In another episode, the Gordon of the time was with King Richard in the holy land. a memorable line was him saying to the King "Who will kill the Saracens while I am away?" (on a desperate mission) with the King replying "I'll do that". The final episode of the 1st series had the earlier Gordon based in Ireland in 1916 watching a suspected German agent. In the second series, the Fitzwilliams escaped from prison and again invaded the castle. By the end of the series, Freddy had changed from a feeble youth to physically knocking both the Fitzwilliams out to the delayed delight of his irascable uncle. The Fitzwilliam family seemed eternally doomed in their quest to recover the candlestick and were represented by actors Colin Douglas and Barry Letts.
The signature tune was "The Yeomen of England" by Edward German.
1957
Occasional art piece on 'Tonight', e.g. 1957: Song of the Valley, by John Schlesinger - children, mothers etc, shots of coal tips and some outdoor machinery, with sound track of appallingly sentimental song of slight Welsh suggestion.
- April 1st 1957: Hoax with Dimbleby voiceover: ".. mildest spring in living memory.. Swiss-Italian border.. spaghetti harvest.. damp weather impairs the flavour.. the farmer may not get the best price in the world market.. many people find it puzzling that the spaghetti is of such uniform length.. selective breeding has produced the perfect spaghetti.. traditional meal of, of course, spaghetti, dried in the sun that day..."
- April 1957 first 'Sky at Night'. Pre-dates the 'Space Age'?
- See notes for a Jack Benny Show of this year
1958
Harris interviews Bertrand Russell (see notes)
About 1958 or 1959: Phil Silvers
Christmas 'Hancock' had Viking chase scenes
William Tell about this time
Blue Peter: started [I presume; 35th anniversary in Oct 1993 Radio Times] Oct 1958; first presenter Leila something.
Valerie Singleton started 1962; in trousers
Peter Purves, John Noakes, Simon somebody, and others came later. Same hornpipe, or hornpipe-like, tune. Why the name I don't know. Still going in Oct 1993, 35 years later.
General themes seemed to be lightweight domestic e.g. making things from plastic bottles, seeing animals in the studio and out (e.g. elephant shit scene, I think), cooking, using 'sticky backed plastic'/ 'education' in light sense - I seem to remember a programme in which children sang and/or played musical instruments for some event/ concern for the rest of the world at charity level, collecting things like stamps or tinfoil/ Noakes out and about e.g. swinging on long rope and falling in mud. Note: Noakes by 1993 grey haired; still makes loud noises, grins, laughs, falls about, has fun, believes he was a tough act to follow; evidently selected for cheerful mediocrity.
In 1969 they had a baby, Daniel, of about a year, I guess; scenes of baby being bathed, bottle-fed by men, watching TV, crying. Shots of Singleton counting slices of cake, 'finding' Daniel in a cupboard, saying in stentorian voice he IS a naughty boy, you're not supposed to eat it yet. Later interview showed him product of a broken family, ex-skinhead, probably unemployable, ambition to buy his own house and own a smallholding, saying that TV misrepresents the world and people lap it up.
Your Life in Their Hands intermittently started. The filming or TV must have been technically difficult. I'm inserting this to draw attention to Robert Winston, a Jew of typically unreliable type. Here's a link to my reviews of two of his books, published and publicised the the BBC: The Story of God
- See note for Nov 1992
-Children's [source: Internet]: The Silver Sword serialised in 1958, was about a Polish family separated during the Second World War and trying to find each other again when the war is over. The author of the book, Ian Serraillier, spent five years on the research. Ruth was defined by the calm, unselfish way she dealt with the setbacks which befell them, her good humour in appalling circumstances, and her sure sense of right and wrong. Jan was a thieving urchin who loved animals and hated Germans. The Silver Sword was a sort of mascot (actually a paper knife), turning up at various key points and threading the story together. Gwen Watford played Margrit Balicki, Jan was played by Frazer Hines, and Ruth's brother, Edek, by Melvyn Hayes (looking particularly consumptive and malnourished). Other parts were Barry Letts as Joseph Baliki, Pat Pleasence as Ruth and Ingrid Sylvester as Bronia.
-children's [source: Internet] Popeye and Olive was first presented on ITV in February 1958. The on off love affair of Popeye and Olive Oyl, aggravated by the usually villainous Bluto, the innocuous hamburger munching J. Wellington Wimpy ('I'd gladly pay you Tuesday'), and the amusingly irritating Swee' Pea, were the regular attractions of this long running cartoon series. Some of his adventures, especially the two reelers of Popeye Meets Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, Sinbad, and Popeye Meets Aladdin and his Wonderful Lamp, are classics, having such memorable asides as 'Abul Hassan got 'em any more', 'Open sez me' and 'Salame, salame, baloney'. It was the 'goons' who appeared in the cartoon Goons of Goon Island that inspired Spike Milligan to name his famous radio shows. [NB first appeared 1929, but I think as a comic book. 1937 was colour version with 'Ali Baba'. These ITV ones must have been made for TV I presume].
1959
'Face to Face' has John Freeman interviewing Bertrand Russell
'Bonanza' starts; continued till 1971 [shown in Rhodesia; I recall Minerva remembering 'Hoss' and other characters, I think from this, with great affection]
'Tonight' shows coin weighing problem
1960
Coronation Street starts 1960; in 1993, [TV interview 22nd Oct 93] the actor playing Ken Barlow [I think his surname's Roach or Loach] is the only one who's been in it from the first episode. [Now, he's having trouble with his daughter, who has a boyfriend who doesn't like him, so he's getting nearer together with her mother, who he's separated from, as a result of some sexual adventure which he described as 'French lessons' - I don't know anything about the plot. I think the 'Rover's Return' pub still exists. This actor, Roach or Loach, said Olivier once said to him: "Don't give up", when he was asked to say to him "Don't give up." Twenty years later on or around the Coronation Street set Olivier said he enjoyed his performances. In fact, it was planned to write a cameo part for Olivier in Coronation Street; negotiations went on, but this didn't happen].
1960s; hard to date: Land of the Giants, Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, (see notes) all essentially from the same American stable
- 1960s, I think: 'University Challenge' on Granada TV; it runs for 25 years. Bamber Gascoigne, -Children's [source: Internet] Johnny Morris 'Tales of the Riverbank' stories 'bringing to life the antics of a group of animal friends.' Some time in the 1950s - unsure of the date - 'The Hot Chestnut Man' stories told by Johnny Morris. Johnny Morris' catchphrase was used near the beginning of the programme, when he gave his young viewers a brief outline of the week's story and asked whether he'd told it before: "Didn't I ? ............ I thought I did".
- 1962: b/w Oliver Twist on BBC with killing of Nancy scene, with actress trying to do plebby voice about starting a new life, Bill, I love you, Bill, in claustrophobic tiny set. 'Brutal and inexcusable' said newspapers; in fact thud sounds and shot of a single hand attempting to hold a bedpost. Tiny studios and with bits of filmed carriages etc in between; script supplied by silly women adaptors, now quite old, who all agree there was very little money.
- 1962: The Wall, by Fyfe Robertson, showing a dispute between neighbours jealous of privacy and view of the Derwent Valley.
- 1962: 'The Saint' starts, with Roger Moore as Simon Templar. Sample episode has Germans speaking English with accents and baddies trying to kill 'the girl' at the border type of thing.
- 1962: First 'Steptoe' father-and-son rag and bone merchants 'created' for Comedy Playhouse by Ray Galton & Alan Simpson. 'Steptoe and Son' continued until 1974. Wilfrid Brambell & Harry H Corbett. Oddly, the older one outlived the younger. Main themes intergeneration culture clash (e.g. about wine drinking, clothes, hygiene, sex) plus also suggestion of superior wisdom of old dodderers (e.g. I recall an episode in which a smart woman led on 'arold, and his dad said sadly when she dropped him "She was only usin you, son" accompanied by droop-cornered mouth and clip-clop theme tune played in very miserable mode.)
- November 1962: 'That Was The Week That Was' [abbreviated TWTWTW or TW3] started; viewing figures vague - seem to have been about 6 million. Millicent Martin sings; band sounds badly reproduced. 'That Was the Week That Was/ It's Over Let it Go/ Oh What a Week That Was/ Dum de dum de dum de.. That was the week that was.' followed by band-backed sort of rhyming couplets in ascending tune: "Fifty-two times a year de doody do do/ ../ The sex life of film stars a general mess/ ... / The next week April Ashley says 'Nothing has changed'..
- SIDE 2 OF MY AUDIO TAPE: Broadcast Fri 8 Oct 1993. 1963. Largely music. Satirical piece in the style of this is your life, David Frost doing part-Oirish accent and with forced laughs. "Henry, you were born as home secretary just 9 months ago", reviewing the record of Home Secretary Henry Brook[?e]s, who seems to have done some illiberal things like 'not standing in the way of her return to Jamaica' of a shoplifting woman, apparently from Brixton (and also not known that e.g. American Nazi leader and French private army bloke were in the country).
- Late 1962: 'Dr Finlay's Casebook' starts. A J Cronin living in Switzerland at the time took some interest in the commissioned stories, and apparently nearly stopped the series. However it continued nine years, two hundred episodes; stopping in 1971
** Note on Mary Whitehouse: extraordinary fuss by people like Ned Sherrin ['little school assistant' I think he said], Hugh Carleton-Greene [director general of BBC 1960-1970] etc about her National Viewers and Listeners Association. Her book 'Cleaning Up TV' put into an episode [or more]? of Till Death Us Do Part'. [Clive James said Till Death Us Do Part was 'the biggest moral challenge on tv'!!]. She said an entire programme was made against her: for the life of me I can't remember the name - The Mayor of something? CarrotTown? Clocktown? Candlewick? - I remember seeing some episodes and being unimpressed. Carleton-Greene refused to ever meet her. Clive James talked of her in a patronising way. Curious example of house radicalism in an inverted way - she was perfectly entitled to do it and her criticisms were in any case not very important.
-'Animal Magic' through to 1984 - over 400 editions presented by Johnny Morris. 'Phenomenal success'.
1963: 'Ready Steady Go' started on ITV. Thanks to online videos, we can see retrospective notes. It's often stated Cathy McGowan made the show; she in fact didn't start with it, and I presume was fished for to modernise it. Without trying too hard, let's explore the Jewish element. This seems to have been the work of Elkan Allen, name changed from Cohen, and WW2 evader—something common enough in Jews, though I'd seen no careful investigation. It was housed in a small basement studio, with an even smaller green room next to it, getting on for 10 years after ITV was founded; I'd guess with the experience of the BBC, always controlled by Jew, it was felt safe to open a new broadcasting source. Two presenters were Keith Fordyce and Michael Aldred, probably Jews. (Their Wiki biographies don't list their parents, though they probably had them). It hadn't occurred to me that Ray Davies is probably a Jew; he modestly stated that he was told the TV exposure would put their record to number 1. As it did. Now I think of it, he was stated to have been connected with Chrissie Hinde, who again might have been Jew. (Chrissie? Surely not Christine?) 'Manfred Mann' was in there; the general impression is that the more forgettable performers were Jews; Buffalo Springfield? Bob Dylan and 'E H' Elton Hercules John seem to be two others, though later than these. I even wondered about Gerry Marsden, who now looks a bit like George Soros. Helen Shapiro and Lesley Gore and Helen Reddy seem to be Jews. I seem to remember Elvis being outed by Miles Mathis. I think we must allow special places to the Beatles, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, and as something like a one-hit wonder, Procul Harum. And, later, Dire Straits which of course had Jewish fronting. Miles Mathis thinks—with ancestor information—John Lennon, and Roger Waters, were Jewish. (14 dec 2020 - I noticed Roger Waters on Facebook has a video of him singing 'Mother Do You Think They'll Drop The Bomb'; I posted a message saying he didn't seem to know 'nuclear weapons' are a Jewish fraud, but Fuckerberg stopped it). No doubt there were others.
- April 13th 1970. Splashdown of Apollo 13. James Lovell, Swaggart, Hayes; they get out, salute to badly-played music of Also Sprach Zarathustra. '.. First time.. admitted they were in trouble..' Heater in liquid oxygen tank caused an explosion; and 'redundant' [Lovell's word] tank also damaged, so they had no oxygen, no electricity, no propulsion. Four days of worry for them. "We were heading in the wrong direction.. our breaths.. carbon deoxide buildin up.." says Lovell. .. We jury-rigged.." [with the re-entry vehicle, or something] Took off 1313 central time, he said. Lovell: "Anyone seeing the earth.. ordinary planet.. some feeling of a supreme being putting all this together.."
- 1970s: 'Call My Bluff' with Robert Robinson
- 1970: 'World in Action' covers Maudling fraud thing with Jerome Hoffmann
- 1971: 'The Persuaders', a Lew Grade series, follow up of three series of The Saint, I think, with Roger Moore and Tony Curtis (the contract of each gave him first billing; so two sets of title sequences had to be prepared..) Curtis shown without much detail as banker - mock-extracts from financial press on oil etc; Moore as Oxford blue type, with mock-press things on racing cars etc. Sample episode set in France, with daughter of jeweller shot at by crap marksman etc.
- 17 June 1971, 'Yesterday's Men': [Labour had been 'thrown out' in 1970]. BBC programme on the labour opposition called 'Yesterday's Men'. They commissioned 'The Scaffold' to write a ditty, which seemed to be played throughout much of the programme; and caricatures vaguely of the Scarfe type of pug-faced Wilson as a shooting target.
- 1971: 'Elizabeth R' [reshown starting Sat 17 Sep 94; it had already been repeated three times. Cost £237,000 to make 'at 1970 prices' says 1994 Radio Times] of six 90-minute 'plays'. First is 'The Lion's Cub' which more or less ends with Elizabeth (Glenda Jackson) being given a ring from her sister Mary's finger - signalling she's dead. She throws her cap in the air and says this news is marvellous to our ears. [Joke: Earlier, Mary says to her "We must talk in private" or something. The joke is of course there's no multiple 'we'].
-[2006 note:] 'Love Thy Neighbour' sitcom starts; 1972-1976. Nignog, sambo, honky etc; short extract showed white couple with young Jamaican? blacks next door shown as well spoken and well dressed. Part of the race industry presumably; not stated where the ideas came from. (Curry and Chips, It Aint Alf Ot Mum, ..)
-[2006 note:] 1977-1979: 'Mind Your Language' sitcom. By Vince Powell. (cp. 'Love Thy Neighbour') Set in adult education room, as far as I know; male teacher and stream of rather stereotyped foreigners. "I am Brown" "Oh no no no you are white" "You can sit by him" "Oh no I cannot sit there" "Why not?" "I am Sikh." "Oh I'm sorry" "No, not sick. Sikh" "You're early" "No, I'm Ali!"
-1978-1981 Larry Grayson 'Generation Game' I think a standing-up put-questions-to-people thing. Puns about getting into the ring, Mr Everard and so on - somewhat in the vein Julian Clary later used.
- 1979: 'Citizen Smith' appears to have started in this year; cp unfavourable review in 'women's Voice'
- 1979-1980: 'Shoestring' with Trevor Eve as a vaguely altenative detective, who also works as a DJ or announcer for Bristol Radio West, appears on BBC. [This radio thing later appeared rather widely: e.g. there was a whole US series, I think 'Midnight caller', and another US series 'Frasier', and e.g. occasionally later in 'Cracker' [fat Scots police psychologist].
- 'To the Manor Born' starts
- 1979: National Geographic Magazine [presentation with WQED of Pittsburgh] in MCMLXXIX. Written, produced, directed by Irwin Rosten.
- 1979: Radio Times clichés listed in a letter about radio plays
- 1979: 'Man Alive'; 'A Life with Crime' [Ludovic Kennedy interview]
- "There was no way I'd work in a factory. The police force was attractive. And it offered a career. Also it offered a pension, which was a considerable attraction. / was police champion boxer / started on the beat in 1947 .. the increase in volume is quite disproportionate ... change in violence .."
[Leonard 'Nipper' ?Read]
- 'Horizon' programme on BBC [don't know date, time] called 'No One Will Take Me Seriously' in which Harold Hillman was briefly shown (he was filmed with dinosaurs in the Natural History Museum as a kind of implied insult). Written & produced by John Palfreman & Jeremy Taylor. Taylor had visited Hillman five years before, he told me 30 Nov 1995.
- TV am [Breakfast time TV] started from its eggcup topped modern ?Grand ?Union canal-side building. Slightly interesting private sector/ advertising/ unions/ franchise etc experiment.
-It's a Royal Knockout - fiasco this year according to Pimlott on The Queen
-1989: 'The Simpsons' started this year; some people think it's the best ever children's programme, along with things like The Muppets and Bagpuss and Grange Hill.
Written or started or 'created' by Matt ?Groenig - started as kids' viewpoint, but then he became a dad, so parents's viewpoint too.
2005 UK vote-in programme said so, at least. Typical comments thinks like 'celebrates the under achiever' and 'every official is corrupt or inept' or [letter in mag, from memory:] '.. the family has two cars and a big house - why does everyone say it's a dysfunctional household'
My view on watching a few is that there are interesting things that could be said about the USA and this, like every widely broadcast media thing, doesn't say any of them.
- Feb 1989 [Radio 4 news on salmonella then listeria scares which happened this year; audiotape 32. See also \english\official for leading questions on salmonella, listeria; assumptions; and evasions by solicitor]
MALE: "Sixteen minutes past five. The main headlines again this afternoon the government is setting up a special committee to look into the question of food safety. Poultry farmers are being told that from now on they MUST slaughter all laying hens found to be contaminated with salmonella. British Steel is cutting nearly a thousand jobs in South Wales most of them in Swansea. And President Bush has arrived in Canada on his first visit abroad since taking office."
FEMALE: "The United Nations has finally managed to get a shipment of wheat and flour into the Afghan capital Kabul after three days of frustrating delays at Islamabad airport in Pakistan. Meanwhile, in Rawalpindi, leaders of Mujahadin guerilla groups gathered this morning to discuss the formation of an interim government in Afghanistan if the regime there falls [sic] after the departure of Soviet forces. But the ?shura, as it's called, was unexpectedly adjourned after only two hours. Our foreign affairs reporter Alex Brodie is in Pakistan and he told me why it was adjourned.
NEW.MALE: [Noise on line] The problem partially is the problem of the Shi-ite guerillas based in Iran, who were invited to the Shura but were not given enough seats as far as they're concerned. And and this this is because there is a lot of dispute about exactly how many Shi-ites there ARE in Afghanistan. They claim to be at least a quarter of the population. Wan guerilla leader here has been heard to say that he reckons there are only two percent. Huh so it's obviously a lot of ground for dispute there and also they clearly have not made any decision and made any agreement on who should be in their interim government and who should hold what portfolios and who should be prime minister
FEMALE: So what are they going to do now?
SAME.NEW.MALE: Very good question! M-more talking. WE had expected this Shura to be of uncertain duration but we were looking at three days, possibly even a week, we never expected it to last [short a] two hours but officially they have adjourned until a later date but no date specified. ... seven leaders.. seven guerilla leaders based in Pakistan..
FEMALE: Meanwhile, there has been some good news in the the United Nations flight from Islamabad has finally arrived in Kabul..
SAME.MALE: Yes. Er this is the flight that has been sitting on the tarmac at Islamabad airport with thirty tons of wheat and other food [sic] on board essentially for people at highest risk in Kabul, young children, pregnant women, nursing mothers, and the UN decided that this had to go in because the situation in Kabul being THROTTLED as it is by the guerilla siege had got to such a state that something had to be done. It wasn't taking off probably because pilots weren't for sure that they were getting through safely. Er But it has got through now and the UN will hope that this is the first of many consignments
FEMALE: How much are they trying to take in in all?
SAME.MALE: Well, this was thirty tons. I understand that er at least ten times that is the plan
FEMALE: Alex Brodie in Islamabad.
- April 1989: [BBC TV News:]
- 31 July '89 TV News Headline:
[Woman Newsreader:] AN EXTREMIST MUSLIM GROUP IN LEBANON SAYS IT HAS HANGED LIEUTENANT-COLONEL WILLIAM HIGGINS IN RETALIATION FOR THE KIDNAPPING BY ISRAELIS OF SHEIKH ABDUL ?KARIM OF ?BEID.
- ?1989: BBC: IRAN: 'If a mild-mannered academic can be the victim of an assassin, -- fear that anyone who opposes the state could be a victim...'
- BBC Aug 31 1989: "Skull Valley Utah.. when the history of US chemical weapons comes to be written.. huge stockpiles in the 60s.. & destroyed not even ? ? in 80s ? ? that even ? ? ? ?"
- 14 Sept. 89: 'Rich, clever, homeless', Jack Pizzey on Chinese
- October 1989: Channel 4 about this time doing late night chat programmes; see my notes on one about the monarchy and European Aristocracy
- Nov 25 1989: Royal Variety Show; see notes
- Nov 1989, 'Smith and Jones - The Uncut Version' starts
- November 1989: Victoria Wood series; see notes for transcript
Blurb: [first episode I watched:] '1957: Michael Jordan is offered the chance to write a West End musical. It will mean working with the beautiful Sally Raglan, the celebrated Ned Corman, and the successful composer Aubrey Jellinek. For a promising young dramatist, this must be the chance of a lifetime. Michael's sister Rachael also receives a proposal which could change the rest of her life. [but it probably won't - the guy isn't listed in the credits]'
Includes songs in Noel Coward style; the lyrics have only one interesting characteristic (apart perhaps from uneven line lengths), namely the use of forced rhymes:
- It's a simulation of the 1920s, 'a loving salute to those far-off days of the cloche hat and the short skirt' as Wilson says. [He seems to have been influenced by elder sisters learning the Charleston, playing Tea for Two and Lady Be Good and a song called 'Do Shrimps Make Good Mothers?' He also collected sheet music etc. His degree (class unspecified) was in English lit.
- Disappointingly, this is totally frivolous: three acts set around a French finishing school, in which three girls are all proposed to and all accept at midnight; one's pretended to be poor & met a young man, also pretending to be poor, son of a married but still lascivious Lord, or Colonel; also Mme Dubonnet, the headmistress, is discovered to be the long-lost lover of a man who turns up (don't you remember Maxim's on the might of the Armistice..?)
- Strikes me some of this was copied or modified; 61 'A Room in Bloomsbury' reminds me of 'All I Want is a Room Somewhere' from 'My Fair Lady'; the parts about remembering Maxim's etc are vaguely like a surely-you-haven't-forgotten-scene in Maurice Chevalier. Cast: Notes: [2. Schoolboy. Games, sex, nursery references] [3. Personal Importance] [4. Word-based jokes: puns, over- or under-literal interpretations, cliche modification with the unexpected] [5. Descriptions of emotions in would-be Oscar-Wildish way] [6. Serious stuff. I.e. Jews first; then e.g. war and how insignificant Britain is] Can you two really want to work with each other? Mr Chalk and Mr Cheese? Enough royalties to make Croesus wonder where he went wrong Laugh at me if you will, and you will. I happen to think that Zenda is the best idea I've ever copied I haven't said yes, have I? Philippa Jordan? Smiling on a cruel world [song] I'm longing to play the Queen of Ruritania and make everyone cry and cry... Aubs said ... Have I had the pleasure, sir? And if so, have I heard of you? And if so, hello! I must go ?Sauf le verité 1 minute Miss Jordan Who are you? [ungrammatical strings] Something she kitted me out with The question is should I or should I not work with Aubrey Jellinek. I wanted to talk to somebody and since I couldn't think of anybody I naturally came to you In the end.. it'll be a Jewish racket to have worked in concentration camps. They'll persecute us for having been persecuted [Phone rings] Are you expecting anyone? Have you ever been to Israel? ...Pretending you've got a couple of complementary tickets to the future He said you decided not to get married. Then he gave me your telephone number He'll never leave his wife. At least not more than once a week. We can't have a girl naked on stage The more freedom we have, the more grotesquely we manage to tie each other up [Ad break. Odd sense that the tricksy slogans are by the same author] [Piano. Duet:] My characteristic stroke of genius ends with a whimper which is also a bang It's our musical, Michael. There's no mine and ours Women are first class [indecipherable: readers?] but they rarely write first class [indecipherable: dialogue?] [Song:] I gave strict instructions that it wasn't to be shown to anyone I've got the very thing here What did I do? You've cut all my work [Song] Envy and a sort of barely-concealed contempt worked in me - her happiness put me in my place. I couldn't quite be happy with it How was the wedding? There were about 30 [lines]. Now there are about 10 I'll sleep on it All good overtime comes to an end I hear you are quite wonderful, Miss Raglan Can you seriously doubt how I feel? You're not upset about the new scenes then? [song:-] No more parting Love - like this It's over in a lifetime : Do you believe a painter can see things in a face that ordinary mortals can't? : You're looking very pretentious : Not so much a whodunit as who was ?doing whom : Felt like some bank clerk who'd done well enough at lunch to be asked to stay for dinner : Are you really planning to marry Sally? : We were an old peoples' home since we failed to crush Nasser. We'll be tied to America's apron strings... : I hope we'll meet again [returns]
- Bill Cotton, in about 1990; some award beano: "..late 70s in US, cable TV added to traditional three networks. In UK, I told the politicians a two party system works best. .. I understand our programmes decorate TV screens round the world" [fatuous beaming pride in the untruth or half-truth of this statement]
- Misleading: [Note: Statistics] "Americans change TV channels on average once every three minutes." Presumably means twenty switches per hour, say, scanning the channels. This gives an average of three - but it may be completely misleading, since all the switching may take place at the end of programmes or be used to avoid ads
- 1990: [BBC Radio] Nowhere was the impact of Tiananmen Square felt more powerfully than in Hong Kong .. We go to the colony to assess the reaction of the colony's artists. [Cacophonous noise] Wan Two Three was a student protestor and is now a successful film producer. "Ah we contacted all the song liters in Hongkong to ask who can ride the fastest song? And etc etc played in Tiananmen Square"
- 1990: TV prog on cars: '..shows used to be enthusiasts polishing their cars. Now you're knee deep in dealers quoting more digits than a chassis number. Cars it seems have replaced art as the bolt hole for the nervous investor'
-1990: [actually from Writers Guild newsletter:] The article [on CD-ROMs and electronic transfer of information] is more than timely. In retrospect it might even be historic.
- 1990? 'The Mind Machine' - '.. this is the landscape of the human mind..' [picture of plastic brain plus ears etc]
- 1990: Nigeria economy; see notes
- 1990: BBC Rough Guide to Senegal
- April 1990: F W de Klerk interviewed by Brian Walden. See notes
- 11 July 1990: Kenya demonstrations. 'Moi.. kept in place by foreign aid from Britain and presumably US' See notes
- about 25 Oct 1990: Caste system in India
- Nov 1990: Harry Enfield Show begins
- 4 Nov 1990: part of series on Japan; see notes
- Dec 18th 1990: BBC news says 3000 sleeping rough in London, 2000 in other cities. Plan to provide beds for 1000.
- Dec 23 1990, Radio Times letter: '.. One of the all-time great items of trivia has been Columbo's first name. In the original series - and the books - we were never told. .. collage of photos includes.. Columbo's ID and we see his first name is Frank. ..'
- Late 1990: Lockerbie programme on TV. See \accidents-disasters
- Sunday 6 January 1991, 9 p.m., BBC1, 'See For Yourself', supposedly an opportunity for viewers to ask questions of the BBC management. About 1 1/2 hours in total, preceded by a film of considerable length. See complete transcript in \tv\see-for-y.ou
- 7 Jan 1991: BBC Programme on Sudden Death; see \notes\medical. I concluded this was probably a whitewash.
- 21 Jan 1991: Parliamentary Debate on the Gulf War broadcast on Radio 4 up to 6.30 pm. Then cut off, despite supposed continual broadcasting on other wavelength.
- Wed 23 Jan, 1991, 8:10pm: 'Half of what we know we learn before the age of five.. those crucial years.. yet Britain's nursery education lags far behind the rest of Europe..'
- Thurs 7th Feb 1991: 'Fears that a major [U.K.] nuclear research laboratory would have to close have receded...'
- Bafta awards on ITV about 6 pm, Sun 10 March 1991: 'British academy awards for film and TV'/ 3rd year of collaboration with Shell Oil: The Shell-Bafta Awards/ 'Craft' award winner was John Box: who helped 'create' Zhivago's snow and iced-up lake in 90 degree heat midsummer Spain; also worked on Passage to India; Lawrence of Arabia; and the Oliver! musical, creating the 'authentic' Cockney London./ Award ceremonies in US and UK included in GENRES\ADS/ See -DIARY\ITALY for Americans who worked on the staging of award ceremonies in Hollywood
- 12 March 1991, BBC TV 'Nature', 'The Fourth Hurdle', supposedly about genetic engineering. Typically shows slomo shots of runners [to symbolise competition] and hurdlers [with 'whoosh' sound effects and ponderous music] 'illustrating' what they describe as three hurdles plus the fourth - restriction by the European Parliament. Usual unchallenged ragbag of 'opinion' and vested interest.
- 19th March 1991: [Jokey 'science' programme about cars with man with funny voices]: 'We spend more time with it than with our best friend. It costs more than almost anything else we buy. It...'
- 23 March 1991, Radio Times: letter: 'Top Gear.. the benefits of running diesels, until the point where it said that there was a drawback - they were not as fast as petrol cars...' Tom Ross, editor, 'Top Gear': I am glad to say more and more potential buyers do seem to be putting environmental consideration first. Reflecting this concern, 'Top Gear' now states at the end of each road test if the car runs on unleaded, is catalyst equipped or is a 'friendlier' diesel
- 23 March 91, Radio Times Letter: 'the sexual abuse of Disa, and the dilemma she faced in the struggle to confront her mother with the truth, was handled with the utmost sensitivity in East Enders. It evoked many memories (sic) as I faced the decision to tell my family of the abuse I suffered as a child. Incest thrives on secrecy, silence and shame. Only by taking the courageous risk in breaking the silence etc etc.
- Radio Times, 23 March 91: letter on censorship: '.. Leamington-born composer Dr Robert Simpson .. interviewed to mark his 70th birthday.. I was deeply disturbed to learn that, prior to the interview he was asked by the BBC not to mention the reasons why he wrote Quartet for Peace or the fact that he has been a life-long pacifist and conscientious objector during the Second World War. How can such 'hidden' (sic) censorship be justified? A composer's approach to the music he writes is informed by his own philosophy..'
- 23 March 91, Radio Times letter: 'CELEBRATION. 10.45 ITV Tonight's edition of the award-winning arts series investigates the disappearance of photographers Sean Flynn (above) [We see close-up of seated-on-ground jeans and rolled-up-sleeved pale coloured shirt white male with slender moustache, floppy hat in camouflage colours, portable camera to his right eye with 3 lenses on turret, rectangle frame, and obvious enclosure for pair of film reels mounted above and to the back. Face largely invisible] son of actor Errol, and Dana Stone, who vanished while on assignment in Cambodia almost 21 years ago. British photographer Tim Page - still remembered for his daredevil coverage of the Vietnam war - returns to South Vietnam and Cambodia to try to discover what happened to his friends and to relive the exploits of the men in the Saigon Press Corps who were known as the 'Wild Bunch'.' Producers Brian Eads and John Sheppard.
- Sat 6 April, 1991, News, BBC1, 9:45pm: '.. from the first Seagram looked like a horse destined to make history..' [Grand National; after Kurdish refugees, Saddam Hussein 'trying to cling to power.. ?son-in-law as ?security chief..']
- Thursday 11 April, 1991, 10 o'clock ITV morning programme. Blonde woman brightly reads autocue:] Is a man who has a vasectomy being kind to his wife but putting himself at risk of cancer or even death?
- Mon 15 April, 1991, 9 pm Channel 4: 'The Truth About Lies: The Big Lies of the 20th Century. Part of the banned season. The programme exposes and examines the major state 'lies' [sic] of our century: Stalin's Ukraine famine and the Moscow show trials; the Nazi 'racial hygiene' programmes and their influence on American racial policies; and the Chinese cover-up of the 1958 famine and the big new lie about Tiananmen Square in 1989. Commentary by Charlotte Cornwell. .. Producer Michael Jones.'
- Thu 18 Apr, 1991: [Coastal erosion:] "The fight to hold back the sea has never been more urgent"
- 22 April 1991: [Must be the second part of 'the Truth About Lies':] Archive survey with American commentators of 1930s to 1980s, Channel 4: 'Has American TV in fact created a new type of lie about reality?..' [Notes in \tv]
- 23 Apr 91, TV Times: 'Their holiest shrine, the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, is a magnet to the world's Jews. What prospects for peaceful co-existence as anti-Semitism spreads?' 'The Longest Hatred'
- 23 Apr 91, TV Times: 'The Sealed Knot re-enact 17th-century battles, but what actually led England to bitter and bloody division, pitching Englishmen against each other? 'The Civil War'
- May 1991: Burma railroad programme; see notes
- End of May 1991: 1/2 hour programme on Sizewell and nuclear power: largely between 'the actress Diana Quick', and a 'teacher married to a fisherman', presented as though it's a serious contribution.
- June & July 1991, 'Selling Hitler' by Alan Bennett
- 12 June 1991 sceptic on South Africa violence thinks it could be stopped ina few days. See notes
- Thursday 27 Jun, 1991, 9:00 pm BBC1 News says that it's been admitted that British Special Forces had trained Cambodians. It says they trained only the two group opposed to the Vietnamese regime in Phnom Penh; Pilger says it beggars belief, and Ann[e] Clwyd that she'd had a letter from Thatcher saying that Britain had provided no support to any groups in Cambodia.
- Thursday 11 July, 1991, BBC programme with David Bellamy, naturalist, on the sulphur cycle. Goes on about acid rain, use of lime to absorb it, but it gives off CO2, so down to your DIY centre where you can save 20% of your energy bill and recover the cost of all the insulation in only two years.
- Sunday 21 July, 1991: Repeat of 1987 programme: Opening Doors. Open University course in 'New Forms of Democratic Government and Policy in Britain' .. This programme is about women.. women who traditionally have been oppressed [sic; note ambiguity] .. women who have done something about it.. patriarchy.. opening doors [Nothing of course about legal facts]
- ? Aug 1991: TV filler suggesting north Koreans cruel, see notes
- Fri 9 Aug, 1991: announced on TV news that Britain has no defence against attack by Scud-type missiles, so they want to buy Patriot missiles from Raytheon or the one other supplier
- 13 August 1991: BBC Radio Times on an ITV series, called 'Legacy': 'Present-day Iraq might not seem an ideal place to launch a series on civilisation, but popular historian and presenter .. Michael Wood says: 'Iraq had to be our starting-place.' .. between the Tigris and Euphrates the first cities were built, and where, consequently, writing, law, and science were founded. As Wood points out, '.. for 5000 years Iraq has been a country either under seige from aggressive neighbours or ruled by terrible tyrants'
- Thur 15 August 91: [seasonally adjusted] unemployment increase was the highest for any July since 1945.. [and pictures of estate agents' boards, to show how bad things are; 'property prices haven't improved yet'
- Mon 19 Aug, 1991: TV; mid-afternoon: "The newspapers are frantically busy.. they've been wrong-footed.. It sounds hard to say it, but from one point of view the timing is good [i.e. Gorbachev 'coup']. There's absolutely nothing happening." [At a time when e.g. 100,000 Iraqi children were estimated to have died of starvation etc]
- Fri 23 Aug 1991: BBC censorship: takes off 'The Wicker Man', replacing with silly Alan Alda 'witchcraft' programme. They think in view of forthcoming trials in The Orkneys it may be unsuitable.
- Sat 24th Aug, 1991: BBC bans a 1989 US film, 'By Dawn's Early Light'; their own blurb is: 'This is the President. The unthinkable has happened. An unidentified nuclear missile has landed in Russia causing massive loss of life, and the Soviets have launched a counter-attack against us. A nuclear war has begun, and I don't know how to stop it. God help us all.' As the Hawks and the Doves claw at the President's ear, a lone B52 bomber could be the only chance to avert Armageddon. A nail-biting thriller starring Powers Boothe, Rebecca DeMornay, Martin Landau. Director Jack Sholder.'
- Mon 26 August 1991, Bank Holiday; BBC1, 6pm: 'Disney Time. Phillip Schofield takes an aerial trip through the magical world of Walt Disney. With the chance to see clips from such timeless classics as Dumbo, Peter Pan, and the latest smash hit - The Rocketeer.' [In fact, the rocketeer - adventures of man in a funny helmet with aqua-style 'rocket' strapped to his back - was notorious as a high-budget flop]
- Sept 1991: Episode of Michael Woods series on 'civilization' nominally about Egyptian history and archaeology. He's called 'the thinking woman's crumpet'
- Monday 9th Sept, 1991: Vietnamese films series starts on Channel 4; announcer says it's the first of its kind anywhere in the world. Some film are cancelled when the Gulf War starts.
- Thurs 12 Sept, 1991: BBC TV news: Pentagon spokesman on report 2000 Iraqis were buried alive by US tanks making a way through to Kuwait; denied it contravened the Geneva Convention
- Sun 15 Sep 1991: BBC2: Photo with caption: 'Some experts now feel [sic] Lyndon Johnson was one of the great US presidents.'
- Wed 2nd 3 Oct, 1991: 'Tomorrow night.. for the first time the Bank of England defends itself against the charge it acted hastily and high handedly in closing down BCCI..' [In fact of course the objection was that it hadn't been closed down years before]
- Fri 4 Oct, 1991: DOCUMENTARY: 8 pm BBC2 'Caribbean Connection'. Blurb 'Former detective Chris Moyse believes Britain should take a more military approach to beating the drug traffickers in the Caribbean. He has been to the British Virgin Islands, where he was Drugs Intelligence Officer, to give his views on the fight against the cocaine smugglers. Chris also travels to Puerto Rico to discover the American attitude to British drug detection in the Caribbean.'
- BBC1, Fri 11 Oct, 1991: Blurb promoting a programme about Martha Gellhorn: 'the war correspondent Martha Gellhorn who has written from such places as Dachau, Vietnam, El Salvador..'
- ? Nov 1991: BBC Rough Guide to Zimbabwe. See notes
- Nov 2 1991 [Radio Times; plug for Radio 4 six-part series, apparently part of a plug for her identical film role. Kathleen Turner says, or is quoted as saying, of 'tough, independent, Chicago private eye, V I Warshawski':] "If people accept V I they'll realise that women can run their own lives quite contentedly, thank you. She's practical, has no hesitation in making her own decisions and implementing them - just like a man. ...' [Article says she gets £500 an episode, which "will cost me".. 'memories of her childhood, part of which was spent in London, where her father was a diplomat at the American embassy.. I decided not only to act, but earn my living at it.. After her father died in 1971, the family returned to America, where she studied acting at university and then went to New York determined on a stage career.. After this wide range of roles in Romancing the Stone, Crimes of Passion, Peggy Sue Got Married, Prizzi's Honor, The War of the Roses.. in 1981 made Body Heat for which she was paid $27,500... married to New York property developer Jay Weiss..'
- Nov 5, 1991: [Ch 4] 'Down to Earth. Archaeology magazine. What was ancient monastic life like? Well, it wasn't all holy - more like a factory where monks and nuns lived together and wealthy barons used them as an Anglo-Saxon tax dodge. Presented by Catherine Hills. Directors Alex West and David Wilson.'
- Nov 6 1991, Channel 4, 'Despatches' ['new information' about US pilots still held in Vietnam '17 years after the ending of the war' and enquiries 'meeting an official wall of silence']
- Sun 17 Nov, 1991, 6.25 BBC1 News: Main was from ? Bell, 'the only reporter
.. at Vukovar [town right on N-S border between Croatia, ?Slovenia] .. Federal Yugoslav army.. town about to fall after three months.. Croats said they would surrender if the safety of civilians was guaranteed..' [Shots of Yugoslav forces, presumably, a shell being fired into a tower block, men in green greeting people who'd lived for weeks in some building, interview with a man in broken English who made inconsequential remarks. Civil war. Some are among friends. Wouldn't give guarantees.. intensive bombardment.. here's what the commander said.. intensive bombardment.. what's happened to the Croatians is anybody's guess.. Nothing whatever about Dubrovnik]. Familiar technique of random mixture of pictures, interviews, comment, biased and silly expressions like 'fall', providing nothing useful on what's happening, who equips which side, what they hope to gain etc etc
- Sun 17 Nov, 1991, 6.25 BBC 1 News: St Albans explosion, man and woman, apparently bombers, died, 'near an army bandstand' I think it said. Kenneth Clark said "Those who live by terror will die by terror"
- More items of 17 November 1991 6.25 BBC1 news: Maastricht, European Monetary Union, Mrs Thatcher's views etc, Parkinson's views, dangers of not joining etc, series of strung-together comments with no analysis of likely effects on interested groups/ Phnom Penh; 'Khmer Rouge killings in 1970s when hundreds of thousands (sic) of Cambodians died'/ Baker, on China on international pact 'promising to limit export of missile technology'/ Governorship of Louisiana; Duke lost 'defeated by a coalition united only by the aim to keep Duke out'/ Football! Sheffield Wednesday move off from the bottom of the ?the division.. Bruce Grobelaar..'
- 17 Nov 1991: Radio Times blurb, BBC1, 7.15 pm: 'The Birth of Europe. The last of a seven-part series about the development of European civilisation. Hostages to Oil. The Gulf War showed how Europe's survival depends on imported oil. This programme reveals how the economic and political power of European countries now hangs on their energy supplies.' [sic. NB: Nothing to do with 'birth'; NB: cart-before-horse absurdity of supposing Gulf War 'showed' Europe depend on imported oil.]
- 17 Nov 1991: 'The Dream Machine. First in a five-part series about the origins, history and impact of the computer, a machine that changed the world. Giant Brains. Englishman Charles Babbage conceived the basic idea of a computer about 150 years ago, as a machine that would eliminate error and relieve humans of the tedium of calculation. But it was not until the Second World war that the race to build the first computer began. In 1946, the Americans unveiled the ENIAC - it filled a large room, cost the equivalent of $3 million to build and had less power than a modern pocket calculator. Narrated by Andrew Sachs [best known as comic actor playing 'Manuel'] and Lesley Judd. Producer Fiona Holmes. Series producer Jon Palfreman.'
- Mon 18 Nov, 1991, 9 o'clock BBC News: Terry Waite freed after about five years. His brother sitting at TV news console exchanging words with newscaster; and broadcast of live, or supposed live, interview, in which Waite (and an American, Thomas Sutherland) in Syria were thanking various governments - Syria, Iran, whatever. Media atmosphere somewhat similar to that in US at time of Iran hostages' release. Naturally, no indication of what if anything Waite had done etc. Sutherland thanks VoA and BBC World Service.. Waite makes ponderous speech: 'Terrorism is self defeating.. some men are so desperate etc.. there's no short cut to justice and peace.. we have to keep our intelligence and integrity.. I am proud to have been locked up with Tom Sutherland and Terry Anderson.'
- [Documentary Technique:] 'Panorama' on BBC1 scheduled for Monday 11 November 1991, in fact broadcast on 18th November at 10 p.m. TV Times blurb says: 'Fred Emery [oldish middle-aged chap, usually shown in a shirt, bouffant greyish hairstyle] takes a look at what is now being called the greatest bank fraud in history. In an unprecedented move last July, banking authorities in 69 countries shut down BCCI, own of the world's largest international banks. As BCCI's career came to an end, the questions began. When did the Bank of England first know of the fraud, and why was nothing done to stop it sooner?' [Neither of these questions in fact was answered by the 40-minute programme:]
- Tues 19 Nov 1991: BBC2 Programme, 'Assignment: Addicted to Aid' producer Caroline Pare. Blurb in Radio Times: 'Bangladesh has been given more aid than almost any other country in the world. Yet Bangladeshis are hungrier than ever (sic). Mark Tully investigates how the country became hooked on aid and challenges accepted ideas about "doing good".'
- 25 Nov 1991: 'World in Action' on mortgages and repossession; see \notes\business
- Mon 25 Nov, 1991: BBC documentary on domesticated animals: 'The bond between people and dogs is the oldest there is'
- 28 Nov 1991: Radio 4 man just 'posted' to S Africa with racist 'report' on how like everyone else before getting used to the situation he gave a lift in his car to a black man; I think I have this on tape somewhere; or some notes
- Late November BBC 'Panorama' on school education; see \education
- 1st Dec 1991, 4.15 pm, 40 minute tribute on Channel 4 to Dame Peggy Ashcroft, 'the leading British actress who died earlier this year.' People like Judy Dench declaim 'Shakespeare', including passage from 'Antony and Cleopatra'
- Sun 1st Dec 91: 'World Aids Day'. Radio Times blurb on an ITV programme: 'Aids- What Do we Tell Our Children? .. This documentary examines the major global issues presented by a viral, sexually transmitted and blood-borne disease that is fatal in more than half the cases and for which so far there is no vaccine and no cure - only prevention. Prevention, including the promotion of safer sex and changing drug users' practices, has had great social, ethical and legal consequences. How does the next generation grow up with this killer disease affecting the conduct of their lives?'
- Sun 1st Dec 91: [Another Aids programme, on ITV:] 'Drama based on a true story, starring GEORGE C SCOTT [who of course is old] A 13-year old haemophiliac contracts the AIDS virus and is given six months to live. He is eager to return to school but the suspicious small-town folk turn against him and his family. They decide to go to court to fight the prejudice.'
- Mon 2 Dec, 1991, 8 pm, BBC2 on Greenpeace. See \notes\science-
- Mon 2 Dec, 1991, 9.30 Panorama: 'has the Thatcherite housing agenda led to a housing crisis, with family homes being repossessed because of over-extended mortgages and too little money going into public housing? In the month when the housing charity Shelter is 25 years old, Nisha Pillai examines the housing crisis in Britain.' [Shelter was set up 2 weeks after Cathy Come Home] [Phrase for council housing seems to be 'social housing' now. One group wants 100,000 'social homes' per year built; minister of housing says the figures for people sleeping rough, 2500, and in temporary accommodation - I think he said 70,000 families - were tiny in proportion to a country with 60 million people. Typically, nothing was said further about this, for example detailing just how housing is allocated, how much vacant accommodation exists in councils and of what sort, how much of this is illegally held by people selling keys, how many empty houses are in the private sector or held by the army etc, or how much new housing actually costs councils - just interviews with single parents living: on caravan site in Cornwall, in old tenement building after divorce and eviction 'it's been standing since 1904', and man with a Scots accent apparently sleeping out in Croydon. Curious coded language about the 1980s etc - "We were told to better ourselves.." "The councils were supposed to help the working man, who couldn't afford mortgages and that" "I'm a single man. The council said no chance. Maybe five years." 1950s Macmillan saying ".. the quicker we build the more we build.. we will help the building industry.. I will make sure the order books are full." Shelter spokeswoman, Sheila McKechnie I think, saying that expenditure was £10 bn a year, now is down to [I think] £5 bn, or perhaps less - "It's now below 'miscellaneous' items!" On eviction, Mark Boleat says that some people, supplied with money by the DSS for mortgage payments, still don't use it. Other 'cures' shown, e.g. attempt to persuade people with unoccupied space over shops to rent them to the council. We see printed brochure, with title 'profit from your overheads', and hear that several hundred shopkeepers or rather 'landlords' have already turned it down.
- Note on forthcoming 1992 election: Belief expressed that report to be made on education is a gimmick [see my notes on such a documentary]. In other words, the Tories will be implicitly attacking their own record! We see people like Jack Straw talking about rows of children sitting all day, all doing the same things. Certainly true that the NHS is an issue; witness my Conservative circular inviting comments, accusing labour of 'the politics of the gutter', whatever that is, and asserting that the consultants at Ashford Hospital were very much in favour of becoming a trust, which Ena Shave claims is untrue.
- Fri 6 Dec 91: A Dimbleby and another announce they're going to have an emergency guide to Maastricht! Joke! Joke! They don't mention they've consistently said nothing useful about European issues
- 8 Dec 1991: BBC1 promo for BBC2: "Consumer confidence at its lowest for 11 years.." [i.e. since 1980]
- Sun 8 Dec, 1991, 6:25 - 6:40 news: Moira Stewart:
- 9 Dec 91 debate from Banqueting House in London: Motion something like "accepting the European treaty has little to offer the UK" before and audience of young people coming up to first vote, ie born c 1973
yes no don't know
before: 16 46 38
after: 20 65 15
- Tuesday 10 Dec, 1991: Nato Rapid Reaction Corps. New Territorial Army role announced by Tom King
- High spending by labour and a few liberal authorities with poor exam results, says Kenneth Clarke in Parliament on Tue 10 Dec, 1991. Note idea of avoiding what amounts to capital [I meant to refer to fact that many or most Labour areas have crap facilities]
- Main news c December 91: leading item John Major supposedly altered wording at Maastricht from 'federal' Europe to 'ever-closer union'
- Sun 15 Dec 91, 1 pm, Jonathan Dimbleby 'On the Record', interviews Douglas Hurd, or "Foreign Secretary" about the Treaty already signed in Maastricht. Nothing about effects on the rest of the world, except as implied in phrases like EC 'defence' and 'foreign policy'. Mainly concerned with the social 'chapter' of the treaty, esp paragraph 118b; Dimbleby used expression Strikers Charter, admitted that wasn't John Major's phrase, but quoted Major on millions of days lost in strikes in 1979 as opposed to 1990. Naturally no discussion of content of those days - e.g. coal miners. Hurd simply said attempts at "Corporatism" like workers on boards had been tried, and didn't work for Britain, however they may work for other countries. Nothing on internal effects on individual industries; e.g. east coast fish industry had complained on the same day I think that EC restrictions on fish catches meant they needed to be subsidised like farmers with set-aside money. No attempt to explore resulting balance of influence on part agreement with treaty, i.e. what would have happened had UK had its full complement of influence in deciding joint policy. Very little on effects on relatively poor countries, e.g. Portugal, of EC policies.
- Mon 16 Dec 1991; news says: 'Churchill Hotel: one of the biggest ever auction sales. 140 properties, 80% of them repossessions..'
- 16 Dec 1991: Serbs vs Croats and ?Slovenes - boundary of dispute exactly where Ottoman empire boundary was/ Nazis set up Croat state; Vladimir Djilas, on BBC news briefly, says fears of a repetition on the part of Croats are 'nonsense'; or at least that's what they said he said/ By 5 May, 1992, We're told 'Bosnia.. most explosive ethnic mix.. Serbs, Croats, and Moslems.. Moslems fear they will be without a homeland
- 29 Dec 1991 news: Russian republic says it'll discontinue aid to Cuba, Afghanistan [sic], Vietnam. Deadpan report about Afghanistan follows; nature of 'aid' of course goes unmentioned.
- 30 Dec 91: shows TV pictures of 'the city' near Chelyabinsk where USSR nuclear weapons were supposedly designed and built. Site of a nuclear accident 'greater than Chernobyl' it said, with mentions of sites, e.g. small lake, into which radioactive waste had been dumped by lorries for years. This may be the first, or almost the first, time this 1950s accident, if it's the same one, has been referred to.
- 31 Dec 1991: Radio Times, BBC2, 'Global Report' of 8.15 pm: 'The last decade has been one of the most violent in India's history: Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv were murdered, the caste war raged and separatist forces in various states threatened to break up the nation. ...'
- December 1991 and January 1992: See my notes for typical extracts from 'Tomorrow's World'
- 16 Dec 1991: Serbs vs Croats and ?Slovenes - boundary of dispute exactly where Ottoman empire boundary was/ Nazis set up Croat state; Vladimir Djilas, on BBC news briefly, says fears of a repetition on the part of Croats are 'nonsense'; or at least that's what they said he said/ By 5 May, 1992, We're told 'Bosnia.. most explosive ethnic mix.. Serbs, Croats, and Moslems.. Moslems fear they will be without a homeland
- 29 Dec 1991 news: Russian republic says it'll discontinue aid to Cuba, Afghanistan [sic], Vietnam. Deadpan report about Afghanistan follows; nature of 'aid' of course goes unmentioned.
- 30 Dec 91: shows TV pictures of 'the city' near Chelyabinsk where USSR nuclear weapons were supposedly designed and built. Site of a nuclear accident 'greater than Chernobyl' it said, with mentions of sites, e.g. small lake, into which radioactive waste had been dumped by lorries for years. This may be the first, or almost the first, time this 1950s accident, if it's the same one, has been referred to.
- 31 Dec 1991: Radio Times, BBC2, 'Global Report' of 8.15 pm: 'The last decade has been one of the most violent in India's history: Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv were murdered, the caste war raged and separatist forces in various states threatened to break up the nation. ...'
- December 1991 and January 1992: See my notes for typical extracts from 'Tomorrow's World'
E:\WORK\TV\!92
- 2 Jan, 1992, Radio news programme approx 1.25 p.m.: 'Medecin sans Frontieres [badly pronounced by the BBC people; founded about 20 years ago to give help without regard to race, religion, politics].. increasing criticism from British charities.. has been in serious trouble.. in 1985 [?pretty sure] the Ethiopian government ?threw them out.. [Frenchman interviewed:] "There was an organised famine.. Band Aid and Bob Geldof and all ze rest were going in.. much of the aid was being 'igh jacked.. people were moved into, well, labour camps.. ze aid was killing more people zan it elped.. what were we to do?" But trouble with foreign governments is not the only criticism.. Some British charities believe the fund raising methods etc..' [one criticism was that the response to an ad for one-franc-a-day direct debiting was too large for their switchboard to handle; another that they used sexy images, e.g. ponytailed young doctors jetting into war situations viewed as most marriageable French males]
- 2 Jan, 1992: BBC2 TV news summary 2.50 p.m. shows prices in Russian shops; we see man looking at empty shop, another contemplating trebled prices and 'unbelievable prices they are now asked to pay.. 100 roubles for a kilo of sausages.. one week's wages..'
- Sat 4 Jan, 1992: [TV news at about mid-day shows picture of hall, with 'Islamic Parliament of Great Britain' on a banner, plus Arabic writing, and audience of Islamic women etc; voiceover says 'It claims to speak for every section of Islamic opinion.. all the ?paraphernalia of parliamentary representation..' We see speech from man saying something like ".. make it clear we will ?ignore repressive legislation.. domination of the majority posing as democracy" and voiceover says "it is the nature of Islam to seek power.. they claim the west is decadent.. etc"
- Mon 6 Jan, 1992: Typical programme intro: 'On BBC1 after the news The Hillside Stranglers based on a true story of a series of brutal murders [of women] in Los Angeles in the 1970s.. On 2, Sue Johnson and Alun Armstrong star in a powerful drama.. couple having to come to terms with a rare and fatal disease. Goodbye Cruel World.' [Does suggest a joke take-off; "Ee doctor says Ah got a rare and fatal disease" "By 'eck we best coom t terms wi it."]
- Tue 7 Jan 1992: ITV, 10.40, 'First Tuesday': Caption to photo: 'For 16 years East Timor has been forgotten by the outside world. [sic] But independent observers believe that in that time 200,000 East Timorese have died in successive atrocities.'
- Tue 7th and 14th Jan, 1992, BBC2: 2 programmes called 'Learning to Fail' on British Education. Complete absence of concept of desire for truth, interest in learning. And complete absence of social factors of great importance, especially elitist schools: by mid-March, when general election date had been fixed, and education was supposedly 'becoming a major issue', the only discussion is about comprehensives and grammar schools or potential back-door grammar schools; public schools completely unmentioned.
- 14 Jan 1992. Note: anti-'chemical' idea. BBC2 programme '40 minutes: When the Canaries Stop Singing' Canaries were used by miners to alert them to the presence of poisonous gases underground. This film is about human canaries - some of the first victims of a newly recognised and devastating illness emerging in America. People are being poisoned by some of the 60,000 chemicals in everyday use. A group of chemically ill people have found refuge in unusual homes in the clean air of the small Texan town of Wimberley - with painful and bizarre results. Producer John Edginton..'
- 22 Jan, 1992. Lamont [Chancellor] announces date of the budget in March, which apparently implies two possible election dates. Tory party political broadcasts which start up about now have fixed on motif of 'Labour's £1000 bombshell' which claims costing up Labour's promises will cost so many billion, amounting to £1000 per year for an 'average family of 4' I think they said, with income tax rate at 35%, as it was before. [No mention of National Insurance, VAT, inheritance]. "We all want more schools, hospitals.. good things." "Where will it come from. Going on strike? .. [figure quoted of millions of ?days 'lost' by strikes under labour; I think the largest figure implied to apply to every single year] The rich? There just aren't enough of them.. How will you earn £1000? .. Minicabbing.. Nurses.. will they work an extra shift? Teachers..?" [We see appropriately clad people - actors? - interrupt their busy day and look at the camera with critical expressions. Emphasis on idea that taxed income vanishes, rather than that a community benefits.]
- Wed 29 Jan, 1992, 'Tomorrow's World': comments on annual Toy Show; we see balls with piezo-electric thing so they light up, American toy cars with bar code reader triggering message ['police.. investigate incident on building site'], American model soldiers with LCD 'faces' etc. Director of a child research place, semi-bearded man, says "The imagination of children is unlimited. And there's more product than ever before. So they're doubly lucky."
- Sun 16 Feb, 1992: Early evening BBC news announces killing by Israelis of Sheikh [name] and baby, wife I think, in Lebanon. No comment as to whether this is against international law etc.
- Sun 16 Feb, 1992: Early evening BBC news gives result of trial, in US, of white mass killer of about ten blacks [not their words] who sometimes 'practised cannibalism' on the victims. The judge decided he wasn't insane [a verdict which would have allowed him to apply for parole in two years]. To be sentenced tomorrow. Note that this is a US case! British legal cases, particularly reflecting discredit on the system, rarely get coverage.
- 'Elizabeth R': BBC1 TV programme 6 Feb, 1992 - see my notes
- March 1992: Panorama mentioned by Private Eye as one unbroadcast programme scandal showing BBC has 'no balls'
- [I think March 1992]: BBC documentary on Samoan gangs in Los Angeles said in Radio Times blurb that they were allowed control over organising the documentary [or similar formula] and showed why they killed - because they liked it. As far as I could see, this was nonsense: plenty of stuff about working in the beer factory, having a little daughter, remorse for the fact that in gaol only his girlfriend came, if they killed her he'd kill them, etc etc. And they didn't think much of Margaret Mead.
- Tue 3 Mar, 1992: BBC2: 'Assignment' 45 min 'Foreign-affairs reports' 'Trading with the Enemy' [sic] Producer Martin Smith/ Editor John Morrison. Radio Times blurb says: 'Vietnam was the only country ever to defeat the United States in war. But is America now exacting revenge? As Vietnam struggles to modernise its economy, international loans are blocked and trade embargoed. However, as Jonathan Dimbleby discovers, the Marxist nation with its entrepreneurial millionaires has already travelled a remarkably long way down the capitalist road.' At the end of this programme, Dimbleby does a shot to the camera saying something like "Diplomats will say privately that the United States is acting in revenge. But is the situation in America still too painful?" Finish.
- March 3rd excited BBC announcement: television cameras inside Rampton top security mental hospital FOR THE FIRST TIME.. some of the MOST DANGEROUS men.. etc
- BBC2, 9 March 92, 'Horizon': 50 minute programme on Alan Turing. [Cp also \notes\science BBC2, 17 Nov 91]. Interesting to see 'history' of computers being written on nationalistic etc lines. He was credited with inventing the 'stored program computer' I think several times, something he himself credited to Babbage. Three points: first is a paper of his on a problem of Hilbert's; the second was his work at Bletchley on codebreaking; apparently 10,000 people including linguists etc etc worked at Bletchley [or presumably in related work] on this. However, I think R V Jones reveals the true story, viz that Enigmas codes were cracked by listening by means of concealed mike to wire-recording of the machines' cogs being set. Since they had billions of settings, this is not surprising. Finally, people like Marvin Minsky and other nondescript Americans on the 'Turing Test' and whether machines think and how unfair it is that people only live to be 80 or whatever; a man says another test would be to build a mechanical owl, but it would cost millions in research dollars, and the boring problems with the Turing test are things like cost: the extra cost in removing the last 10 per cent etc argument. We see a sort of contest between programs; to make it easier, only questions on a narrow range of topics are put to the computers. One of them convinces 5 'judges' out of ten it could be human. Applause from seated people. Overwhelming impression left: do Americans think?
- 15 March 1992 'Screaming' by Carla Lane starts
- Sunday 15 Mar, 1992; one of a series of 6.15 BBC short programmes by Anneka Rice, trying to make parents safety conscious; e.g. this episode showed woman who was trying to make people understand why play is important for children. Introduction is always same: Rice: "Every day three children die.. thousands are injured.. and all because of accidents in the home."
- Sunday 15 March 1992: 'Heart of the Matter', BBC2, 35 minutes introduced by Joan Bakewell, 'Just Obeying Orders'; blurbs says 'the reunification of Germany is complete. But investigations into the Communist past are re-opening wounds, as police files are revealing a complex web of betrayals..' [This from TV Times blurb]. Starts with Bakewell in somewhere like Brandenburger Tor announcing to the camera that East Germans are just beginning to understand how corrupt etc. Then goes into a story about someone who tried to cross the wall, took a rope, etc, interview with mother, reconstruction of what looked like a vegetable garden late at night, door silently opens, etc etc. It seems impossible for these people to present intelligent analyses of any subject.
Mon 16 Mar, 1992: 8.10 to 9, BBC2: 'Horizon. Hot Jam in the Doughnut.' programme on fusion power, which it says at the earliest might work by mid-21 C, at unknown cost. We see spokespeople, e.g. American chap says some places on earth don't have hydrocarbons or hydroelectric power, but they all have water. Fails to mention they may not have money. ZETA an example of a British 'breakthrough'; we see newsreel film of the time, trumpeting claims of benefit to the human race, and of subsequent withdrawal of the claim. Some US installations shown; fairly clear that the whole thing is tied up with weapons research and investigation. probably they're afraid of losing money. Note that Sakharov worked on a torus process [torus with electromagnet wrapped around encloses core; if in addition you apply electricity, this heats as well as adding an extra magnetic field. He called this a tokamuk I think and succeeded in getting high temperatures in the plasma. Another experimental approach [we see US plant] involves small plastic beads with presumably deuterium and tritium in them which are compressed by 'the world's biggest laser' at Lawrence Livermore for a ?trillionth of a second; at any rate, long enough for light to move 1 foot. They got out a 10,000th of the amount of energy they put in. 'now admitted there would be radioactive by-products.. estimated 1/3 to 1/2 of fission reactors.. caused by ?neutrons which have to be absorbed..' [Distressing inarticulacy of these people; or am I just biased? Something like: it shines on a 1 cm square size of area that's about the size of a pea']
- 16 March 92: BBC1: 'Panorama. David Dimbleby chairs a debate on some of the crucial issues which shall determine the outcome of the General Election.' Vaguely worded: I think perhaps this may have been the slot for a meeting between Major, Kinnock, and Ashdwon, which Major declined. Turned out to be all three potential Chancellors, Lamont, John Smith, and another. Note that questions were put by Dimbleby, not known for his economics knowledge or academic contributions
- 17 March, 24th March 92: ITV 2 1-hour programmes, Prod Martin Proctor, Dir Michael Houldey, 'Extraordinary people', about 'Dr Pauline Cutting, renowned for her work under fire in the Lebanese refugee camps. Her time in the Gaza strip, however, went virtually unmarked by the outside world. ... area still taut with the constant tension between the Palestinians and the Israeli military.' [Radio Times. In one of these magazines, which unfortunately I didn't note, she was quoted in effect as saying she was disturbed, when she went, at her lack of knowledge of the situation there. Obvious retort is - how would she know; the media never mention it]
- Wed 18 Mar, 1992: Extended edition of Channel 4, Dispatches, with title implying Democracy is in danger through political soft sell and attempts to influence TV. Certain amount of historic stuff, e.g. Labour under Michael Foot, when labour eschewed image [cp. Thatcher holding a calf, Thatcher standing still in front of big union jack] and paying the price, followed by change - Pat Hewitt, ?Mandelstam, ?Brian Gould and others introducing image. Also stuff about Thatcher - including her flustering over Diana Gould, Cirencester geography teacher, asking her about sinking the Belgrano.
- Mon 30 Mar, 1992, Horizon [BBC2 8.10-9] Prof Barker of a University of Southampton research outfit, relying on birthweight records from c 1910 and a different set from c 1940 finds correlation between low birthweight, and low weight at one year, with death from 'heart disease' later in life. Seems to be saying that northern diet, worse in those times in mothers, in a deterministic way was responsible for later deaths.
- April 1992: Japanese planes sunk in Truk lagoon; museum? see notes
- Wed 1 Apr, 1992: 'Tomorrow's World': [Enthusiastic voice] IT COMES FROM AMERICA AND IT'S THE LATEST IN JOGGING TREADMILLS! End of programme had simulated buttons to press on screen as April Fool Joke
- Sat 4 Apr, 1992: Midnight Channel 4 debate on proportional representation. Tory MP [northerner called Harris, I think] followed party line, which Major restated, that it's a dead issue, only losing parties want PR; Major said it led to weak government - "Belgium took 100 days to form a government.. The Netherlands.. (something similar).. Italians unhappy with their system.."
- Wed 8 Apr, 1992, BBC Tomorrow's World: '.. [Shots of what could be A4 sized reports].. Depression.. The economic forecasters have been having a field day.. All with their own methods.. One of the problems with predictions of the economy is that they, predictably, vary! .. But one forecaster has no axe to grind, because ?he works on no theory. All right. [Shot of a desktop computer] He's not much of an interviewee. But this computer gets its predictions based on the way our brains work. It learns etc etc. Here are figures for the Gross Domestic Product.. Here are the predictions.. this was the miners' strike; it couldn't have predicted that.."
- [Wed 8 April 1992, 8.10, 'Timewatch', BBC2, last of three programmes on Nietzsche; this one on Elisabeth Nietzsche. Writer Candida Pryce-Jones.]
- Fri 10th April 1992; 'Nature' 8 to 8.30. Julian Pettifer reads script, perhaps his own; at any rate, nobody else is credited - some to camera, inc his Berkshire cottage, which scores low on two scales of energy efficiency, apparently uncorrectably; Pettifer gives no indication of what, if anything, he'll do about it. And contrast with Denmark, with 5 million people; stuff on labelling etc, every high street electrical shop has a label with information on energy use! The gas and electricity industries advertise how LITTLE they sell! 'Pollution' identified with CO2 from oil or coal power stations. No mention of alternative power sources, or whether Danes have hydroelectric power etc. [Pop songs of tiresome repetitive disco type interspersed: some like it hot; one about energy; etc] BBC2 blurb: Thermal images reveal how wasteful of money - and energy - Julian Pettifer's country cottage is, in spite of Britain's efforts as saving energy for the last 50 years. First [sic] it was necessary for the war effort; it was rationed during the oil crisis; saved for economical reasons; [this means SAVE IT campaign]; and now it should be saved for the sake of the planet. Tonight's film examines how the EC intends to make energy saving work'
- Fri 10 Apr, 1992, BBC1 9 o'clock news [Day after general election; results completely counted by about 4 p.m., I think]
- 11 Apr 1992: BBC nes item about Etna; some oposition from landowners to efforts to divert lava flow
- Sat 11 April 1992 c 11.45 pm BBC2 plug for programme: Voiceover is female; following in entirety:
- 13 April 1992: BBC2, 7.40-8.10, Radio Times says in full: 'Open Space NEW The series in which members of the public make programmes under their own editorial control. No Licence to Kill the BBC. On behalf of the Voice of the Listener and Viewer Jocelyn Hay calls on the new government to set up a public enquiry to decide the future of the BBC before the renewal of its charter in 1996. In their programme she and her supporters forcefully defend the licence fee but also argue that the BBC should be far more accountable to licence payers and should not implement its far-reaching proposals for internal change before full public debate. Producer Antonia Benedek. Executive producer Giles Oakley. Teletext Subtitles: page 888 SUGGESTIONS: write to Open Space, BBCtv, 39 Wales Farm Road, London W3 6XJ.' [There's also a colour photo, one of only two on the page, showing oldish woman, with title: Campaigner Jocelyn Hay wants a full public debate on the future of the BBC']
- Tues 14 Apr, 1992: 9 o'clock news about this time described Labour Party as never having been noted for paying attention to intellectuals, or similar expression
- Fri 17 Apr 1992: 6.55 programme, Nature: Radio Times blurb: '.. North Sea cod and haddock are on the verge of extinction and EC quotas mean that European fisherman have to throw back nearly half of their catch. Julian Pettifer examines why fisherman from Shetland and Spain agree that Europe's fishing policy is unsatisfactory.' [Shots of fish markets, fish, fish begin moved between containers; interviews with Spaniards: None of us like the sea, but we are not prepared for work on shore, senor; accusations of breaking of quotas: this ship.. registered in Brixham.. some Spaniards have bought out British boats for the quota.. seven thousand tons of hake.. I know on good authority its quota for the whole of February is 2000 tons of hake. .. Each nation's fishing boats are monitored, by the navy of its own country.. Shots of Spanish style music, with tambourine being expertly rattled etc. Did it make its point? Did it prove its point? I doubt it]
- Mon 20 Apr, 1992 [Easter Monday]: BBC1 9.25 News: 'Government officials in Afghanistan said the deposed President ?Najibullar would be permitted to leave the country.. but the UN .. has not confirmed..' [Day before, it was wondered whether after 14 years of war, the 'rebels' would demand 'revenge'. For some reason - secret documents? Something to do with the Russians? They want him to get away]
- 20 April 1992: 85 min BBC1 TV film called 'Thacker' with Leslie Phillips, Margaret Tyzack, revolves around 'Retired colonial army officer .. after a lifetime of meting out justice in .. the Far East [Malaysia]..' who comes to an English village to meet thieves, drunks in pubs, etc, ['violence, voodoo and a damsel brandishing a shotgun'].
- April 1992: "Benny Hill.. [death].. comic genius.. will go down in history.."
- April 1992: [Shots of Greek family in Leicester, owed £1 million by Russia for tights, phoning Russian trade dept, being fobbed off for another week, and looking disconsolate. Voiceover says:] "French and German governments are lending to Russia to repay sums owed to their ?nationals/?businessmen'". [Cp Morton Mintz on bias of 'subsidy' vs 'handouts']
- 25 April 1992, main headline of BBC TV news, something like: 'After fourteen years of civil war the Mujaheddin are finally in control of the Afghan capital of Kabul.. Looting has begun here.. Shi-ites.. ?discriminated against for centuries.. invaded the Police Academy and took everything..'
- May 1992, I think: see notes to 'Top Gear' car programme for car wanker types. Episode describes Hitler's car with maximum speed of 5 m.p.h. and Mussolini's
- 8.05-8.55 Sun 3 May, 1992: Blurb: ''One World' The Natural World. 'The Mpingo Tree That Makes Music. The Mpingo tree in Tanzania has a jet-black heartwood so heavy that it sinks like a stone in water. .. David Attenborough narrates' A Green Umbrella Production for BBCtv'
- Hawking [Sun March 3 1992, ITV, i.e. channel 3, film with family, friends, scientists like Penrose etc and interminable anecdotes about motor neurone disease.
- Mayday Bank Holiday, Mon 4 May, 1992, BBC1, 11.00pm -11.40, PANORAMA. Blurb in Radio Times which omits to mention this was the programme they banned from just before the election: 'The Slide into Slump. Now that it is officially admitted that Britain's current economic recession is the longest since the Second World War, a bitter debate has broken out about its origins. Economists and politicians are divided over a question which lay behind the election campaign: what caused Britain's recession and was it avoidable? Peter Jay, the BBC's Economics Editor [capitals sic], talks to those who have shaped Britain's recent policy [sic; in fact Lamont wasn't interviewed, or Thatcher or Major, whereas Bernard Ingham, a press officer, Nicholas Ridley, Jenkins, Healey etc were] and asks was the slump inevitable?'
- 5 May 1992: Jonathon Porritt on Tunisia. See notes
- Tuesday 5 May, 1992, BBC 1 O'clock News, trying to pretend an announcement on interest rates is interesting and exciting, and unreservedly good news, of course with no sort of comment on likely effects:
- Tue 5 May, 1992, BBC2, 'the Racing Game' 6 part series, produced Richard Hines. First episode featured 'stable yard of Newmarket trainer Luca Cumani' and 'Vivienne West is a semi-professional gambler who uses her education in psychology to help her on the track. "If you're a loser in life," she says, "you'll be a loser betting, because you'll bring that negative psychology.." [Latter turned out to be platinum blonde, accompanied by gormless turned-up moustache man, who assesses horses on the basis of trainer, jockey, course, and a couple of other things. She works out her theoretical odds for each horse, and sees if she can get better for the ones she fancies for some reason, apparently guided by newspapers, using binocular and directing her mate to the best odds above her target, if she can find them, on-course. Her earnings or losses were not mentioned, I think; certainly not while I was watching. I'm sure this as put in to make it look a rational business
- Sat 9th May 1992: first of four 110 minute-less-ads part series on Channel 4: The Nightmare Years: Nazi Germany as a media hack thing; see \the-nightmare
- Sat 9th May 1992: another media hack thing: first of four one hour programmes called 'Frankie's House' on ITV; Producers Matt Carroll, Eric Fellner; Director Peter Fish; '... about the legendary [sic] English war photographer Tim Page, starring Iain Glenn, Kevin Dillon. 1964: a 19-year old boy is recruited to Saigon's growing press corps as a rookie photographer. Living in "the best accommodation in Saigon", he begins an extraordinary friendship with Sean Flynn, son of American movie idol Errol Flynn. Iain Glen recently starred in the BBC drama Adam Bede.
- 12 May 1992: 'Viewpoint 92', 10.40 pm -11.40 ITV Supposedly a remarkable story of Tibet's humble and witty leader, the 14th Dalai Lama, ['the face of compassion'] set in the splendour of the Himalayas, also featuring rare archive footage of the atrocities committed by the Chinese. Director/ producer Mickie Lemie. VO is by an American male.
- Sat 16 May, 1992: 'One World' BBC1, 50 minute programme with Alexei Sayle entitled Sex, Drugs, and Dinner. A number of suggestions; naturally no overview of the whole situation - but then I've been unable to get that myself; nor had Harris; etc
- Sun 17 May, 1992, 'Songs of Praise' had ordinary all-white congregation, with extremely fat vicar or whatever dressed in goldish, mouthing the songs in the traditional way; right at the end they had a tambourine-bashing, flag-waving [I think an eight-pointed solid yellow star on red background], and instrument-playing song. This turned out to be 'I'll go in the strength of the Lord'
- Sun May 17, 1992: report of demonstration in Bangkok, Thailand. A hundred thousand demonstrators [described as 'pro-democracy', I think]. News says it started peacefully but violence soon began [or similar formulation]. Mentions General [name] and coup, some time earlier, which was mentioned in the Guardian but not I think on TV. [Next day bulletins included hunger striker, who may have precipitated it; leader of the demonstration being 'arrested'; name of the General being pronounced better, I expect; he said they are rabble; water cannon, hundreds of Thai police; soldiers shooting indiscriminately, into the air
- Jonathan Porritt, Tue 19 May, 1992: 'Clean air and social justice go hand in hand. And that goes for the north as well as the south. The fight is now on to make sure the burden doesn't fall on the low-income classes. ..' Programme ends with more or less 'ethnic' music - South American pan pipes, chanting, vaguely Spanish influenced music if L.A. [Typical of 1. Cocksure statements with no scientific evidence about global warming, ozone depletion, acid rain, visibly reduced air pollution because of gasohol, etc 2. Concern over richest countries 3. Implicit racism, grouping together of underclasses etc 4. Concern for banks, multinationals, agencies etc the powers of which are never analysed 5. 'The fight is on' type of thing 6. Persistent confusion of possibly really dangerous issues with others which are uncomfortable but not lethal; cp. Tory women debating pollution, where it turns into discussion on litter]
- Thurs 21 May, 1992, BBC1, 'Question Time': Home Secretary, Kenneth Clarke: [Boateng, who's a barrister and a Christian, said aid to Africa etc had been cut by seventeen percent during the Tories' governments:] ".. aid.. We're insisting more on democracy.. third world governments in the 80s.. spent money on weapons.. And it's wrong to say the er west is rich because it consumes 80% of the world's resources.. I'm concerned that many people of the general public seem to think that the police are being let off prosecution.. prosecutions happen all the time.. someone talked about middle class crime.. well, many frauds have been uncovered and people sent to prison.." [laughter; I think he may have mentioned Saunders of Guinness]
- June 1992: Zambia 'about to move to democracy' - see notes
- Tue 2 June, 1992, BBC1 9 o'clock news included:
- Sun 7 June 92 [I think. BBC news: Note: hypocrisy: Brian Barron in Peking, says "behind him there are posters telling people not to smile. Meanwhile, in Hong Kong, pro Democracy demonstrators.. [we see people apparently sitting, with lighted candles or maybe matches etc held aloft] .. in the wake of Tiananmen Square.. Shows what John Major has to contend with.."
- Sun 7 Jun 92: 50 min BBC1 programme: 'Everyman. My Brother, My Sister. In the concentration camp of Auschwitz, Dr Josef Mengele performed experiments on more than 3,000 twin children. Only 200 survived. .. Peter Greenfield still has nightmares every time he visits a hospital. He is convinced [i.e. believes] that his twin sister Miriam survived, and he has spent the past twenty five years searching for her. Other survivors, like Vera Kriegal, have broken all contact with their twin because of memories too painful to bear.'
- Mon 8 Jun 1992, 'Panorama' on a 'scandal in the intelligence service'; portentous music then 'Anti terrorism is a dirty game. But how far are the security forces justified..' etc [i.e. assumes the position that there should be secret operations]. About an unimpressive bespectacled man, now 'serving' in jail 'for ten years', who helped ten or so Catholics get murdered by 'Ulster Loyalists'. At one point we see a shot of a telephone relay clicking. Plenty of other irrelevant shots. Head of Military Intelligence 'at centre of scandal.' Mentioned, in passing, that the loyalists 'now kill more people than the IRA'. Next morning, on CEEFAX, the story reappears: '[name] .. Head of Military Intelligence.. centre of scandal..'
- Tue 9 Jun, 1992: [6 a m; 'SKY news for ITV']: ''Which' report on anti-wrinkle creams and cosmetics.. some £35 a jar.. [man in white coat, I think, blank computer screen behind him:] ".. transient influence on the visual appearance because they are fairly good moisturisers. But that's all." VO: Manufacturers say if they didn't work people wouldn't continue to buy them.
- Tue 9 Jun 92: 45 minute BBC2 programme: 'Assignment. Under the Volcano. Indonesia is the fourth biggest country in the world [sic] - 188 million people spread over a thousand islands. Yet little is known about how it works and visits by journalists are discouraged. Granted unusual access, Peter Goodwin reports on a nation determined to become a major world power and an industrial giant. But political reform has not accomplished economic progress and now there are demands for change. How long can strongman President Suharto cling to power?'
- [Thu 11 Jun 92: Radio Times has blurb for BBC2 programme: 'Soaring skyscrapers are a testament to Hong Kong's flourishing economy. Business Matters investigates what lessons British companies can learn from its success.' below photo of Hong Kong waterside skyscrapers.
- Thu 11 Jun 92: BBC1 9 o'clock news: [John Major in Rio for the 'earth summit'; President Bush has said he won't sign the agreement on endangered species (no information given about this).] Major speaks; more or less verbatim: "America [sic] is a very large, very powerful country.. it has all the problems which other countries have, magnified.. British aid is the sixth largest in the world.. by almost universal agreement Britain has one of the best aid packages in the world.."
- Thu 11 Jun 1992: [Anti-science attitude by BBC2; 'Pandora's Box' title of six 'fables using archive, feature films, cartoons and home movies' to explore the cultural impact of 20 C science. Blurb says: 'Producer Adam Curtis explains: "In the years following the war, people in America, Europe and the Soviet Union were captivated by the idea that science could be used to build a better world. It inspired politicians to apply the methods of science on a vast scale to try to solve the social and political problems of the age. .." The Russian revolutionaries who toppled the Tsar in 1917 believed science had the power to create a new world. This film reveals how the Soviet technocrats came to run the Plan, which would order their society along rational, scientific lines, and how they ended by creating a bizarre, bewildering world for millions of people. .. includes Magnitogorsk Choir of Industrial progress.. two men who planned toothbrushes for the whole of the Soviet Union.. and a planner who tells how she scientifically decided the people wanted platform shoes, only to discover that they were out of fashion by the time the factory was built.']
- Mon 15 Jun, 1992: BBC1 News, 9 p.m., Michael Buerk reads [and there are reports by others]: "The National River Authority has given warning.. drought.. some rivers are at their lowest levels for one HUNDRED years.. Forty rivers named by the NRA.. [pictures of a dry river bed] .. the River Darent.. the poet called it the silvery Darent.. ? Water Authority takes twenty million gallons a day.. they have been given until 1995 to cut down their extraction rate by ?up to a quarter.." [i.e. portentous buildup, then interviews by vested interest people - "We will have to find new sources.. that means even more expensive water.. Considering consumer metering etc" and finally apparently ludicrously inadequate 'action'. It's possible, indeed I suppose almost certain, this piece was inserted as a reaction to a recent TV programme on water quality which maintained that the NRA was being negligent, e.g. not taking action on water contaminated by organic solvents which had leaked etc]
- Mon 15 Jun 1992: [British football fans in Malmo, Sweden; minority, apparently, shown throwing things, running about etc; Swedish police horses shown at night, bloke in T-shirt throwing longish stick thing, couple of fans apologising etc. Amusing Buerk commentary, all from a 'British' viewpoint:] ".. OUR fans in Sweden.. [name of British politician or football official] didn't criticise the Swedish police.. UEFA.. may reconsider ?its ?attitude to British fans in Europe.. Kenneth Clarke [we see Home Secretary talking about beer and British fans not mixing; implicit blame on Swedes, though in fact they'd specially laid on supplies of weak beer]" [Next day, Scottish MP in PM Question Time says it was ENGLISH fans; Scots behaved impeccably]
- Mon 15 Jan 92, BBC1 9 o'clock news; Excitement about Robert Maxwell. According to a Financial Times report he'd been bugged by GCHQ for at least two years, and his nefarious deeds were known about. Programme announces as a matter of fact that GCHQ routinely 'monitors economic targets' and that a building [we see 1930s nondescript metal-windowed brick building] "near Scotland Yard" intercepts telephone and fax messages etc. VO says it raises a tricky matter; a 'source' said something to the effect that if you're playing golf with a captain of industry you might raise the point, but if you say the wrong thing, you get all the ?flak, if you say the right thing you get all the credit.' Naive piece about CIA and NSA and FBI, only the latter allowed to monitor economic targets within US 'but carefully regulated.' We see opposition MPs raising the question of Maxwell; if his dishonesty was known to the government, why didn't they do something? [P M Question Time, c 3 pm next day, John Major declined to say who'd signed the order - "This government, like all preceding governments, has consistently ?refused to answer questions on matters of this kind" or something similar.
- Mon 15 Jun 1992, 9.30-10.10, Panorama. Blurb says: 'Are the police now calling a truce in the war on drugs? Fewer users are being prosecuted, but does this mean there is a move towards a decriminalisation of drugs use? Michael Crick reports.' [The main point of the programme seemed to be that the police have an 'increasing amount' to do, and it's easier for them to caution users, or summon them in with the condition that they present themselves in two weeks, than go through the business of collecting evidence and prosecuting. Sundry police authority people all give different views on their policies, and Lady Somebody says the ?arrest rate varies from 1 in 20 to 'better than' 1 in 2 in different parts of the country. But there was a related argument that much crime is supposedly drug related. We see small part of Liverpool with comment that Liverpool is known as 'Crack City' etc and voiceover 'some police authorities estimate as many as a ?third of serious crimes etc.' We see shots of two young men supposedly snorting amphetamine (what seemed a huge amount to snort) and taking an 'E' to prepare themselves for all-night dancing at a 'rave'. Club manager says all they do is dance, there's never any fighting. Lots of stuff about marijuana 'and even LSD'. At no point was the question of criminality raised, except implicity: we see extract from Government TV film ["You can go now" "But we're her friends" Lift door closes without comment] and contrast with Government comic about E [Sid the Sniffer or something; voice balloon says something like 'Don't take E every weekend or you forget what it's like"] and other official literature. No experts on biochemistry or drugs.]
- BBC TV Monday 20 Jan 1992 Horizon: Programme on Buckminsterfullerene first broadcast; see notes\science & technology
- Wed 24 June, BBC starts series called 'CIA'.
- Thursday 25 June, 1992, BBC1, 9.30 pm. '999'; Guardian review says ripped off from 911. Introduced by Michael Buerk. Rather odd programme; perhaps intended to revamp image of police etc.
- Sun 29 Jun, 1992, [Marc on the phone, evening. Note: propaganda] "Sarajevo: What's going on Slobodan ?Milanovitch only communist still in power so all stuff about Serbian aggression is exaggerated, Croats Nazi roots [in ww2 puppet government installed - forced conversions, bumped off lots of Serbians, I think] ignored - Serbs all guilty - cameras conveniently round every corner - always about how bad the Serbs are. Serbia is the only country still ruled by a communist; when the whole thing disintegrated, various parties sprang up, and he was elected; as far as US concerned wrong person elected.. on the news.. marches telling him to resign.. dropping troops making safe for aid.. why aren't we doing it everywhere?.. [Asset stripping in East Europe factories.. reunion supposed to be imposing heavy costs..] [What's needed is guarantees for minorities - land use] my central theory is they want to get rid of him.. say humanitarian aid.. need to make airport safe.. bomb AA positions.. but there's never been any problem about airlifts.. it makes me furious these pipesmoking analysts are shown on the news saying these things with obvious holes in them..."
- 4th July 1992 (I presume - 4/7/92 is how the video showed it. These notes made 20 May, 98 from a video lent to me by Richard Ennals, and obtained, absurdly, from the BBC).
VO: "For some, private healthcare has meant private grief"
[Surgeons' etc names, below, were not spelt out, but I expect are correct; victims and family names usually were spelt.]
VO: "When things go wrong, relatives discover there are few controls on private hospitals or the doctors who work there."
SIDNEY CABLE: BUPA. Minor investigation for ulcers. Three weeks later taken to NHS hospital in critical condition. Dr Peter Bates was consultant: "failed to order sufficient tests to monitor Mr Cable's condition."
-No team as in NHS
-Nurses approached Bates. Cable's daughter said the nurses said: "If they went against [what he said] they'd never work again."
-Report [by anonymous 'top surgeon'] said Bates should have realised the case was beyond the scope of a small hospital. "It was more likely than not that Mr Cable could have been saved."
-VO: ".. Cable's lawyers.. six years later.. settled out of court.."
-John Scurr, Consultant Surgeon ".. those cares that are really negligent are settled out of court.. lessons to be learned but nobody knows anything.. they are just dismissed, settled.. no records.."
-".. the only option available to the family was legal action.. only results in a cash settlement.."
-Arnold Simanowitz of AVMA (presumably a lawyer): ".. they want to know what happened.. accountability.."
-"Fawkham Manor has a new owner.. one special bed that can be used for seriously ill people, but no intensive care unit. Mr Bates still treats patients there. .."
GEORGE RYB: [widow Wendy, daughter Samantha] Died after a heart procedure in London Bridge private hospital. Angioplasty (i.e. attempt to increase internal diameter of arteries). Edgar Sowton was the surgeon; paid £300 fee, even if not needed, for cardiac surgeon and backup team standing by. Procedure caused one artery to block; caused heart attack. Sowton came to the wife, told her not to worry; he'd have a bypass operation; three to four hours. Philip Deverill 'would be up to see me shortly'. Never came; and she never saw Sowton again.
-Daughter says they were treated with 'such callous disregard'. She (then a law student!) went to see Deverill, who said "by the time I got there.. I was in the middle of operating in Guys hospital a few streets away.. it was very fortunate that we were able to find an anaesthetist.. by the time I opened the chest there was too much damage.. only thing that might have saved him would have been a heart transplant.." She thought, what do you mean; 'by the time I got there'. They'd paid £300 for a standby surgeon.
-London Bridge Hospital's own records showed Deverill listed as covering both for Ryb and the previous patient's angioplasty.. "There have since been several versions of what happened that fateful day"
-A 'top cardiac consultant' seeing the X-ray movie film of Ryb's heart wrote: ".. wouldn't recommend angioplasty.. the standby cardiac surgeon would have to be in immediate proximity and ready for instant action.."
-Consultants hire the facilities in private hospitals. Prof Maureen Lahiff of R Coll of Nursing. "the consultant will work at the hospital over a period of years. So it's very important for the hospital to keep on good terms with the consultant."
ROY GRAY: Died in NHS intensive care unit. BUPA Chalybeate private hospital in Southampton. Private Intensive Care; money might run out. After some days, £23,000. Continued to get worse. Cover extended by PPP £32,000 but no more. They said he could be transferred to nearby NHS hospital. Gray ill; died after 5 days. Bills for the family addressed to the deceased man. Also £4,000 bill from the NHS hospital, as Dept of Health guidelines allow charging if treatment started in a private hospital. Southampton General has agreed to substantially reduce the bill. PPP rules don't tell the patient what happens after the limit is reached.
Simanowitz: ".. it seems to be that nobody is looking after their [private patients] interests"
SUE HEAP: Removal of small stone from saliva gland by Brian Littler, in Holly House private hospital in Essex. ['NO EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT. NEAREST CASUALTY WHIPPS CROSS HOSPITAL' says a sign]. Operation lasted 2 hours, much longer than planned. They checked her in the recovery room 'several times' then left in her private room. Soon became unable to breathe; transferred to Whipps Cross NHS intensive care unit. 2 1/2 years lay in a ward at Whipps Cross until death. Too late - severely brain damaged.
-Report by 'a senior consultant surgeon' concluded op was 'inappropriate and ill-advised'... 'had post op management been more thorough, obstruction to the airway would not have occurred and she would no have suffered respiratory arrest.'
-Inquest revealed neither the young resident doctor nor the anaesthetist had been able to open an airway as her tongue was swollen... anaesthetist called for an instrument for tracheotomy. 'By the time a scalpel was found it was too late.'
-Heap benefited form a small life insurance policy; no longer qualified for legal aid.
-Compensation for bereavement: £3,500
-Simanowitz: 'mainly cases.. equipment not available.. when something goes wrong.. very often.. serious trouble..' 'if you don't qualify for legal aid you can't get justice. Because litigating in medical negligence is extremely expensive.. most people can't afford it. In the private sector, .. most people don't qualify for legal aid. that means that they can't get compensation even if they're entitled to it.'
Scurr: client can't find out whether he's in safe hands.. solely reliant on the judgment of the surgeon... cases where the facilities have been inadequate
VO: "The Independent Healthcare Association (charity) refused to be interviewed."
VO: "The majority of private hospitals would not tell us how they dealt with complaints."
(Unlike NHS patient charter).
VO: "The Dept of Health have no plans to review the private healthcare system."
- Mon 20 July 1992, BBC2, Panorama; programme about "hetrosexuals" and AIDS. Tom Mangold, in raincoat, craggy faced, older than he was, with a wig? in the middle of a fairly dense crowd in, I think, a market: "The HIV virus (sic; cp. VD disease!) DOES discriminate. And how. It discriminates against the poor. It discriminates against the injecting drug user.." [Later mentions 'hookers', 'gays', and words meaning people who fuck a lot. Forty minutes or so to say that people who don't fuck people with AIDS don't catch it].
- Wed 22 July 92 News: [Note: Economics: One item is a cabinet decision that public spending will be subject to an inflexible ceiling; we see Norman Lamont and others entering Downing Street, with two burly cops around the door, and journalists calling out questions from the other side of the street. There are several points: First, this is probably contrary to the Tory manifesto of just a few months ago. No commentator refers to it.
- Sat 8 Aug, 1992: [Part of Nicholas Wichell- led BBC1 9 o'clock news on Serbia-Croatia etc: "Two American mercenaries have been released. International pressure apparently can bring results!" [Bright childish voice]
- Mon 17 Aug, 92, 9 o'clock BBC 1 news leads with Somalia, where apparently a quarter of the population [presumably of six million], one and a quarter million people, are 'on the verge [or brink] of starvation'. Comment about '?forgotten by world news'. Shots of starving children surrounded by an aid worker/ shots in remains of villages where 'bandit' have shot people of e.g. dying daughters/ man comes from hut, trying to smile, arms dangling and extremely emaciated/ Buildings without doors etc, perhaps shelled, possibly built like that.
- August 19, 1992: Woody Allen accused by Mia Farrow of child abuse of [adopted and half-Asian, I think] daughter, apparently same one as in Manhattan. He says her lawyers demanded $7 million and then they'd not press the accusation. Allen at mike: "my first appearance in years and it's all straight lines." Shrugs. Leaves. He looks older than in his films.
- [I think this must also have been 19th August] "1.6 m cars expected to be sold 1992 after August K reg fails - 350K instead of hoped 400k, says Ford. .. so Ford introduces 3 day working in two of its plants.. 10,000 workers on short time"
- TV news August 19, 1992 talks of lance corporal Vince Bramley paperback on Falklands, 'Excursion to Hell' [TV talks of enemy PoWs being taken 15 metres, he let them have it. Marc a couple of days ago referred to reading the same incident in the Sunday Times; must have been long ago. Apparently they were US mercenaries who'd held out, sniping at British soldiers and killing some, then given up and said say, we can go home, we've made quite a lot of money
- Aug 20 1992: News: A level results best ever; I think 9/10 passed, and half of those who passed got A,B, or C. A spokesman expressed worry that the system might be losing credibility; another said careful checks ensured the standard remained constant; a third said not enough people were selecting maths, physics, and chemistry
- August 20, 1992 [2 a.m. 21st in UK] George Bush speech to Republican Convention
- 22-23 August 1992, weekend, 'Shoah' about Jewish holocaust on Channel 4
- 24 Aug 1992: BBC1 9.30-10.10 Panorama changed from 'One Rule for the Bosses' to an interview between David Dimbleby and Douglas Hurd. [Incidentally the credits included twenty three people; I counted them]. Margaret commented: "Um, he isn't very good at explaining himself, is he." Dimbleby started by contrasting use of air power to prevent Saddam Hussein bombing Shi-ites in Southern Iraq with lack of support for Moslems in Bosnia, who apparently have largely been dispossessed by Serbs. Hurd said they were different - the Iraqis invaded Kuwait and had been driven out. Dimbleby said in effect that both situations were civil war. Hurd said the situation was very complicated in Bosnia; there'd be no front line, no unified command, just local commanders and war lords. Dimbleby said: it appears that if you're to hope for defence you must live in a flat country. [He didn't mention oil, of course]. Hurd said the question was whether the UN should be an imperial power like Britain in the last century: going [he pronounces this word 'gawing'] in, saying 'this bad ruler. We'll put in a governor, and a set of rules, and we mean to impose them.' This would be very expensive to the taxpayer! And look at Cyprus; we keep trying to reduce our troops, but then we're told it's difficult! Why have we got troops in Belize? Because it's threatened by Guatemala! He also said, using a familiar first name, that [name] Carrington had worked wonders getting people to talk together, and that the conference in London about to come off was 'unprecedented.' There's no chance of Yugoslavia, which served its purpose for seventy years, being reconstructed. Similar dissolution could occur in the countries of the CIS. Afghanistan, where there are no cameras, Ethiopia, horrible things are going on... The trouble was that with the end of the Cold War, the UN, the EC, and other agencies hadn't had time to develop the new systems needed to deal with trouble. That's why he doesn't use the expression 'New Order', because there isn't one. He doesn't think the Moslems should be armed; Dimbleby suggested they may think if they were they could have a 'fair fight'. Hurd said: there are enough weapons of murder there already. The meeting is not an assured success!
- 1st September 1992, 9 o'clock news says H M Inspectors of schools have doubts about GCSE results. Teachers and examiners don't agree. Parts of the report will be published, but not the whole of it!
- 4th Sept 1992: BBC 1 news mentions child abuse allegations at Gwynedd, some going back eight years. Cp Private Eye on all this
- 5th September 1992: BBC news on German interest rates; they won't lower them.. but some compromise for the first time in many decades; pound; lire in difficulties; demonstrators against the ERM outside the meeting [hotel in Bath, I think]
- 8th September 1992, 7.30-8 pm ITV program on 'Stuart' - obsessed by the universe. Dad panel beater. He 'explains' about small black holes; universe being either infinite or closed but also infinite; gravity travels at the speed of light as gravitons; nothing can travel faster than light or time would go backwards; mentions relativity. Distressingly clear he's parroting things, but of course the parents don't know this, and perhaps more importantly this allows him to make assertions unchallenged and confidently. Nor it seems do some of the teachers: 'special needs teacher' says he gave her something to thing about - if pi is irrational, the circumference or the diameter of a circle must be irrational too! Teacher says he trusts him with anything to do with his computer [an Archimedes] He's now at 6th Form College doing science and physics; didn't want to board at Winchester - and not made clear whether Winchester would have had him.
- Mon 14 Sept through Saturday 19th Sept 1992: NOTE: 'FINANCIAL CRISIS', incidentally predicted in Private Eye of 11 Sept: 9 o'clock news has pound 'slumping' or 'collapsing' in the ERM [exchange rate mechanism]: graph shows narrow range greatly and no doubt misleadingly expanded, just as they do with interest rates. At its lowest level relative to the Deutschmark etc. Washed-out colour pictures of beaming Denis Healey with a battered case, who devalued in 1978 [I think]. Bearded bore from some merchant bank talks about 'Free Fall'
- Tues 15 Sept 1992 BBC2, 5-5.30 pm, presumably a repeat [Note: Economic Blacklists of Job Applicants/ Important note: organisation with files on employers - crooks, swindlers, war profiteers, corrupt social service people, policemen - doesn't exist; why shouldn't it?] Titled absurdly 'Spies in the Works'
Monday 21 Sept, 1992, 9 pm BBC1 news: Buerk, John Cole, Peter Jay:
- Tues 22 Sept 1992: BBC1 9 o'clock news. 1% drop has been made in Bank of England interest rate. Lamont says it'll go up if inflation does.. we cannot take any risks with inflation.. It would be a TRAGEDY if we threw away everything etc etc/ Bearded currency dealers make mournful comments.
- Tue 22 Sept, 1992, BBC1 9.30-10.25 first of I think six episodes of 'Civvies' by Linda la Plante. Billed as tough, violent, cameo appearance by Peter O'Toole with small moustache. Still in Radio Times shows posed actors around a car. Can they resist the lure of organised crime? Titles show grey effect with red berets, and children in Northern Ireland with headlines like 'troops behaved like madmen.' Soundtrack of sort of gritty pop music about 'men'.
- Tues 22nd Sept 92: Epidemic of things about British hostages, if that's what they were, in Lebanon; one was John McCarthy; I forget the other names. Last couple of weekends had ads for Guardian with the 'story' of one of them, ad illustrated by man with bag on head having vinyl tape wound round. Tomorrow at 6 a.m. a breakfast programme is going to have another 'story'. Meanwhile ITV is advertising a series or dramatised episode: snatches include VO "a story of deprivation.. tiny cell.. three men driven to the brink.. their own resources.." and girl saying "Dere most be sometin we can do other dan pray!" [I exaggerate accent] and a man in black underwear on a floor shouting to nobody in a sort of actor-y shout "Will you take off these chains from me and give me my rights as a human being!" and a quiet-spoken man saying "Er, there must be a mistake. I'm not American. Will you at least tell me what I'm charged with?" before being dealt somewhat roughly with - as roughly as a child being shaken by an unintelligent parent.
- Tues 22nd Sept 92: Legal action involves Mellor and a woman who's daughter of man in PLO; a tabloid said, two years ago, Mellor shouldn't have gone on holiday with her, and taken money for the plane ticket, to Marbella. The jury split 6-6, apparently an almost unprecedented outcome. The woman was blonde and articulate and regretted that the jury was unable to reach a verdict; "There will be an ?appeal/?retrial." Later I heard on the radio this took place two years ago; also that Mossad had been shadowing Mellor. Unstated implication, which editor of ?Express left unsaid, that Mossad had helped unearth the Antonia da Sancha toe-sucking sex scandal with Mellor.
- Early Oct 1992: Amsterdam plane crash of four-engine Boeing just refuelled, apparently because fuel is cheap there, and carrying cargo; so no passengers killed. Hit 'Belvedere' flats, neglected place full of illegal immigrants, we're told.
- Friday 9 Oct 92 Madonna's 7 minute 'Erotica' video. Largely b/w or sepia, with Madonna made up like Dietrich plus a gold left front tooth with people in whiplash uniforms, long nails etc. Part of promotion for her [or 'her'] book [or 'book'] 'Sex'
- Sunday 11 Oct 92 US peak time, i.e. I think starting about midnight in UK, Bush and Bill Clinton, and Ross Perot, start what's planned as a series of TV debates extending for ?nine days. There turn out to be four of them. [See \politics for notes on one]
- Tues 13: news: mines to be cut to 1/3 present size. 'Union leaders summoned to be given the news..' Chairman, or whatever, of British Coal, and other spokesmen give vent to crocodile tears.
- Sun 18 October 1992: Radio Times says:
- 'The Royal Collection': 6-part series on Paintings from 18 Oct 92; see my notes elsewhere
- Mon 19 October/ Tue 20: Radio Times blurb says '1.50-3.35 am The Road to the White House The third and final [in fact according to D Dimbleby fourth] Presidential debate from East Lansing in Michigan where President Bush, Governor Bill Clinton and Ross Perot debate the issues before a panel of journalists. Presented by David Dimbleby.'
- 24-30 Oct Radio Times: [Amusing example of failure to mention capital etc in assessing person's wealth.] This is about 'Dr Fey Probst', age 34, Senior House Officer in Anaesthetics, Royal London Hospital, Whitechapel: '.. giving up the chance to read biochemistry at Oxford, for marriage at 18 to a childhood friend.. housewife and mother of three.. her marriage failing.. she retook her A levels to improve her grades [sic] and, pregnant with her fourth child, applied to medical school. .. St Mary's was the only one to invite her for an interview and then offer her a place [sic]. By the time she began her studies, the marriage was over and she faced bringing up her four children alone. .. undaunted.. without any doubts.. cheerfully and honestly says that she loves being a junior doctor.. optimistic.. "I had an honest picture painted for me of what it would be like. [OK. Got that? Now the slight contrast:] .. I've had phenomenal nannies and au pairs and the children have been very supportive [they are now 16, 13, 11 and 9]. I explained it all to them.. kiss and a hug.. haven't seen you for a week.. I gave them such a good start and they're all at public school and doing very well. .. my colleagues are spending their free time swotting [sic].. I am spending my time ironing and sewing on name tapes.. With all the school fees I have to find, I have to take on extra jobs. Life can really be quite tough at times.. I came into medicine believing in the holistic approach.."
- Mon 26 Oct 1992: ITV blurb for 'Soldier, Soldier': 'Drama Series charting the lives, and loves, of the King's Fusiliers. "Midnight" Rawlings becomes disenchanted with the army when he is refused permission to marry. Rachel Fortune jeopardises her husband's career when she decides to look after the child of illegal immigrants. There are repercussions after the lads visit a Hong Kong brothel. [Cast list includes 'Madame Chow' and 'Suzi'] .. mother-to-be.. her King's Fusilier husband brings back more than just memories from a night out in Hong Kong.'
- October 26, 1992 BBC1 9 o'clock news has Peter Jay on GATT talks foiled 'by hard-line French ?intransigence'. 100 thousand million ?pounds every year.. farmers.. French farmers mainly in the south..' He puts entire cost of Common Agricultural policy on the French.
- Fri 30 Oct: BBC2 7.15 - 7.45 has 'Sounds of the 60s': hilarious extracts from the late 1960s of Hans Keller, hefty Germanic accent, explaining that "The Pink Floyd is very loud; perheps I should explain zet I vos brought up viz ze string quartet" and expressing the opinion that it represented a "Regression to infantile values. And [unconvincingly:] why not?" [The extract of Pink Floyd was terrible: man in baggy sleeved wizard-style loose costume, arms out, strobe shadows behind him; projected coloured oil blobs; repetitive and dull stuff with vocal near-chanting effects. Also Jimi Hendrix doing an obscure number, and 'The Nice' doing an uninteresting version of Leonard Bernstein's 'America.]
- Fri 30 October 92: BBC1 'Forty Glorious Years', a quite disgusting title" 'celebrating the first 40 years [sic] of the Queen's reign'. See \notes\royalty
- Sat 31 Oct 1992: BBC1 9.25-11.00 'Ghostwatch': 'A Screen One special for Hallowe'en. Ghosts have grown up. They no longer rattle chains and inhabit stately homes. They live in ordinary council houses like Pamela Earley's. It's the most haunted house in Britain. And tonight the BBC is out to catch ghosts. Presenter.. Michael Parkinson Reporter .. Sarah Greene Phone-in Presenter.. Mike Smith Interviewer.. Craig Charles Dr Lin Pascoe .. Gillian Bevan etc.'
- Sun 1 Nov 1992: BBC1 1-2 pm: 'On the Record': Jonathan Dimbleby and John Cole in a supposedly political programme. Its vidgo is snapping crocodile made of Gothic bits suggesting Houses of Parliament.
- Sun 1 Nov 1992: BBC1 10.10 - 10.50: 'Everyman. The Isle is Full of Noises. The Celtic reverence for landscape and literature still echoes in literature and festivals. At the Celtic New Year, which survives as Hallowe'en and was adopted by the Church as All Souls', Everyman explores how the tribal roots of Britain are still discernible today.'
- Tues 3rd November/ Thursday 4th 1992: US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION:
- Thurs 12 Nov 1992: 5.05 - 5.35 BBC1, Blue Peter. 'Last year 'Blue Peter' viewers collected 19 million aluminium cans in aid of the Golden Age Appeal for the elderly. The 1990 appeal raised £6 1/2 million to help Romanian orphans. Now the programme launches its 1992 appeal in aid of a campaign to wipe out river blindness, an eye disease that has blinded more than a million people in Central and West Africa.'
- Thurs 12 Nov, 1992: Start of BBC2 'The Essential History of Europe', 'an innovative series that offers some unusual insights into each of the 12 member states of the EC.' See \notes\Denmark for blurb on the first programme, about Denmark.
- Thurs 12 November: BB2 9.30-10.20: [Repeated Wed 6 July 1993, and following two weeks] 'We Have Ways of Making You Think': 'A three part series that reveals how propagandists use popular film and TV to manipulate the truth. Goebbels- Master of Propaganda Using archive examples of the Nazi propagandist's film work and interviews with those who knew him, this film examines Goebbels's techniques. He created the myth of Adolf Hitler [sic] and prepared the Germans for the Final Solution.'
- Fri 13 Nov BBC2 blurb: '.. Queen inherited 200 acres of royal garden in 1952. The story of her reign has been mostly one of survival, with little opportunity for creativity. Prince Charles, however, has not been subjected to such pressure, and has been able to create a stunning new country-house garden at Highgrove.. in Gloucestershire. ..' [Cp \notes on royalty; Queen has more money, more secrecy, less criticism than ever]
- Sun 15 Nov 1992: BBC2 starts six-part series on Russian wildlife; see notes in \notes and promotional 'feature' from Radio Times in \boxfiles
- Mon 16 Nov, 1992: Channel 4 has one hour [or, allowing for ads, say 50 mins] programme on the House of Lords; the first time cameras have been permitted access to everyday life in Britain's second chamber [!].
- Nov 19 BBC1 9 o'clock news: Report of man using metal detector who discovered a Roman hoard; comment included things like "Most valuable hoard ever found.. inclaculable value.. he will be a millionaire.. gold and silver bracelets still impacted together by earth.. just some of the coins.. [infantile money thing. However an archaeologist does say this is one of the rare occasions where proper excavation of a new site can be made]
- November 20, 1992: Windsor Castle on fire; apparently since about 11.30 am. Sympathy for Queen approach: e.g she helped save art treasures with her own hands, and with her dean or chaplain or something. A lackey in reply to "How does the Queen feel?" reportedly said "I expect the way you'd feel if your home was burning." Apparently started in a 'private chapel'; Margaret said the burning bits were those facing Eton College Chapel, i.e. away from the town. One or two mentions of the fire in Hampton Court caused by a Bowes-Lyon loony relative; this seems to be much worse.
- November 20, 1992 'Children In Need' on BBC1, hosted by that Irish johnny with the dimples; impersonators of Elvis and Lulu etc have a 'sudden death karaoke playoff'; Bobby Davro introduces them; many rather pathetic stories read out - children with sponsored silence, children who'd been helped by being talked to when their parents divorced, children who'd donated £5, naval or army men abseiling from Gibraltar; people with a cheque who'd also collected £50 cash in their train to London; ...
- Nov 21st 1992: [Windsor Castle fire]: '.. nation's heart went out to the Queen.. other members of the royal family were said to be 'devastated'.. [shots of e.g. ?St George's Hall, before and after, and other state rooms 'little more than a mass of rubble'] .. The Government announced it will meet the cost of repairing the fabric of the building.. [Something like:] The Queen will bear the loss of ?other ?treasures out of her own pocket.' [This seems to mean that the loss of e.g. 13th century paintings, irreplaceable, will be 'borne' by the Queen]. Man from 'English heritage' shown: he says the damage is about five times as extensive as in Hampton Court in 1986.
- Nov 26 1992: Queen announces she will pay income tax. Charles already pays 25% tax voluntarily on income from Duchy of Cornwall. Various quasi-history examples given: Start of reign of George VI when no income tax for Royal Family. [Windsor Castle 'restoration' reportedly £60m; we're assured the Queen's income is exaggerated, so her income tax might raise £10 m!]
- Sun Nov 29th 1992: In South Africa, country club 'bombed by terrorists'. Speculation etc - extremists? Damage the 'peace process'? [A couple of days earlier de Klerk announced there would be full elections in, I'm pretty sure, 1994.] No mention of course of white attacks on blacks.
- Approx December 1992: Rough Guide to the Philippines; see \NOTES\ASIA
- 1 Dec 1992: 'Kinsey. Drama Series about a maverick lawyer. The Waste Watchers. Councillor Sutton has two problems - an itinerant's camp and his ex-wife's insistence that he pay up. Can Kinsey use one problem to solve the other?' [Cast has: Kinsey/ Tricia Mabbott/ Val/ Max Barker/ Gerry Hollis/ Billy Smith/ Councillor Sutton/ Eva Sutton/ Judge Critchley/ Roach/ Kath Morris/ Gary etc etc] Amusing thing is the stereotyped portrayal of types of baddy; cp. e.g. drawings of negroes under slavery, and of the Irish in 19 C publications. Various people called 'Smith' assumed to be doing illegal business, violent, attacking solicitor, demanding camera with threats from two women in a car sent by solicitor to photograph e.g. health and safety violations. Also shots e.g. of the solicitor on his first visit kicking a Smith in the balls.
- 1 Dec 1992: 'Troubleshooter 2' Harvey-Jones looking at South Yorkshire police [not, note, ?East Midlands Serious Crime Squad] See notes in \business
- 1 Dec 1992: 10.25 - 12.55 on BBC2 Omnibus on John Ford, then 'She Wore a Yellow Ribbon'. See \film notes on this rather fatous promotion of crap cowboy films.
- 1 Dec 92: ITV 10.50-11.50: Galina Brezhnev story; the "Royal princess", married three times, succession of loves etc. Similar story previously by Nick Rosen in the 'Guardian'
- Wed 9 Dec 1992: Tomorrows World: Judith Hann announces fatuously: "Anything green sells.." as introduction to item on ways of marking trees with barcodes and radio implants under bark, holding earth's coordinates of place it was felled. Timber importers have untill 1999 or something to impose policing.
- Wed 9th December 1992: [I'm pretty certain this was the date, though it may have been a day before or after.] 9 o'clock BBC1 news on three men, inevitably termed the 'Cardiff Three', [Stephen Miller, Yusuf ?Abdulafi, ?Tony P?] all black or blackish, who were freed from hefty prison sentences, accused of murdering prostitute Lynette White in Cardiff's red light district in 1990. A Panorama programme broadcast some time ago was re-shown; heavy stress on seediness of the area, unpleasant music and images etc, all the people involved described as 'petty criminals' and so on, all apparently gnarled and wrinkled, smoking cigarettes and watching bisexuals give stage shows in pubs. My notes say Feb 15 1988 and address given as Butetown, Tiger Bay, dock area: hard to actually tell where this was etc.
- Thu 10 Dec, 1992: BBC1 8.30-9, Radio Times blurb:
- Thu 10 Dec, 1992, Question Time John MacGregor says there's been more debate in Britain [in 'the media' and in Parliament] on Europe than in the rest of Europe. Interesting example of claim that's hard to check. A Dane in the panel said he supported a referendum; the Danes had printed [I think] one booklet for every ten in the population. [And of course France had a similar exercise]. He said ironically "The danger is the result may not be the one you want." MacGregor spoke as though the object was to prevent another European War.
- Ch 4 10 Dec 1992 11.35-12-35: 'Stalinism'/ 'Maoism': ['Trotskyism' not mentioned] Seems to be a persistent trend in France to identify with overseas people of this sort: 'Spirit of Freedom In the last of the series, Bernard-Henri Levy traces the birth of the Maoist intellectual. He looks at the advent of Maoist extremism, the terror campaign of the Baader-Meinhof gang, the upheavals in Eastern Europe and the massacre at Tiananmen Square. .. Director Alain Ferrari'. Among the people and events mentioned were: '16.7.1966: Mao's swim in the Yangtze' [monochrome film shows bobbing head]/ Various cultural revolution scenes, including some opera in what appear crude colours; struck me that this genre owes more to Hollywood than might be imagined, with poses being struck etc, and crude emotions/ '1972: Maoist French worker killed outside Renault works' [I think by police in some sort of disturbance]/ early film of Regis Debray/ Sartre shown chairing the, or a, Russell War Crimes Tribunal - surprisingly extensive roomful, like a large lecture theatre with not very steep seats, of people, equipment etc/ Philippe Sollers/ Jacques Lacon/ Barthes/ Althusser/ Levi-Strauss/ Sami Frey/ Simone de Beauvoir.
- [LOST THE DATE REFERENCE: in a Radio Times of mid to late 1992, Vanessa Redgrave's sister Lynn features (Trouser suit, big grin etc) and is reported as saying the name is an issue because "Americans take politics ?much more seriously than we do."]
- Fri 11 Dec 1992: BBC2: 7.55-8 pm: 'Prisoners of Conscience "In over a hundred countries in the world, governments can lock you up and torture you if they don't like you. The odd squash of protest seems to help. It's also a way of saying 'thank you' for the relatively safe and comfortable lives we live in the UK" - actor John Cleese [sic].
- Fri 11 Dec 1992: BBC2: 8 - 8.30 pm: 'Public Eye In Search of Safety The civil war in former Yugoslavia us creating a flood of desperate refugees, and Britain provides a safe haven for some of them. But many refugees from other countries are treated with less compassion by the authorities. David Lomax reports.'
- Fri 11 Dec 1992: 'The Face of Tutankhamun': Written and presented by Christopher Frayling. This 50 min programme the last, I think, of 5 on BBC2
- Sun 3 Oct 1993: BBC1: Sun 10.25 'Heart of the Matter. Beggar, Thy Neighbour. Some clergymen believe it is wrong to give money to beggars.. The Bible, of course, encourages generosity, but what of fraudulent beggars on the streets? .. Joan Bakewell spends a day on the streets with a beggar..
- Wednesday 6 Oct 1993: [BBC short news item, morning, during Tory conference; and later during day:] 'Chris Patten.. governor of Hong Kong.. annual speech on the state of the ?colony.. ?expressed ?frustration at the lack of progress of the talks on democratisation with Beijing.. problems of dealing with China.. the issues must be resolved in only a matter of weeks.."
- Fri 15 Oct 1993: 'The Living Soap' BBC2 7.15-7.45: First of a series in a supposed 'fly on the wall' series. Blurb in Radio Times begins: 'it's a new college term, and as six students from different backgrounds, studying different courses, move in under the same roof, so does a camera team. Compatibility cannot be guaranteed..'
- Monday 18 Oct 1993: News; both BBC and IBA similar: [1] Britain's 'defence': £1 billion to be cut from defence; supposedly now to make air force non-nuclear [nothing said about Trident etc]. Labour party people in House of Commons shown apparently supporting increases, wondering whether Britain cannot be defended - despite fact that it was announced to be indefensible even against Scud missile attacks in 1991. And of course believed indefensible in 1960s - cf. Russell on this subject.
- Fri 29 Oct 1993: Torrent of mediocre programmes on Thatcher, sparked off by, or planned to coincide with, her book of memoirs. In one, an actor reveals that Thatcher came to the first night of a performance of Kipling poems. Kipling was her favourite poet, he said. Suggestion that 'If' was important to her.
- Fri 29 Oct 1993: Clive Anderson Talks Back, 10.30-11.10 pm: one of his three or so guests is Trevor McDonald, black ITN newsreader; Anderson jokes about listening to the BBC 9 o'clock news, write it down, and read it out again! McDonald says in the west Indies there was poverty, but as his dad said you can educate yourself out of it. [Note: naivete of news announcer:] But in South Africa it was illegal.. When he was in South Africa he saw no real hate. But in Ireland there is hate! And in his book (unlike David Frost, a week or two before, he didn't bring a copy, as Anderson said) he says he got an interview with Saddam Hussein; John Simpson in his book said he hadn't. Anderson comments on possible rivalry. McDonald denies he's been offered a million a year by Sky tv, or somebody like that; "Don't let my wife hear, or she'll send me straight there" he said, or something similar.
- Sat 30 Oct 93: BBC1 News item on Ireland; continual claims of some sort of rapprochement - following various recent bombs. John Major has seen 'his opposite number' in Ireland [man's name I didn't recognise]. The terrorists, it appears, [1] will not be negotiated with. This seems a standard line: no deals were done! is the cry. [2] That is, unless they 'lay down their guns'. Presumably it's hoped people won't notice that there will be unpunished crimes. [3] Blame implicitly always laid with IRA and people like Gerry Adams (though I think just once 'loyalists' were mentioned, perhaps even 'loyalist murders').
- Monday 1 Nov 1993: ITV News at Ten: Last Feb 2 year old infant stoned to death etc etc; 2 boys, now eleven, charged with abducting him from shopping centre, in No 1 court in Preston, I think, with their social workers and on special platforms so they can see over the dock.
- Wed 3 Nov 1993 [Comedy. repeated from Sat] 11.05-11.45 Rory Bremner - Who Else?
- Sun 7th Nov 1993: [Sunday Mirror publishes pictures taken of Princess of Wales exercising in a gym, taken with a hidden camera; much talk of the money the photographer and the owner of the club hope to make; photographer £1 million - says radio report. The pictures apparently just show an 'attractive young woman' exercising. Radio gives interview with someone called I think MacDonald, Chairman of P C C, the Press Complaints Commission.]
- Sun 7th Nov: Medecins sans Frontieres based in Belgium talk about UN bungling and recklessness and indecisiveness with persecuted minorities
- Sun 7th Nov: 10 ANC murders. Ordered by Inkatha? wonders Classic FM radio
- Mon 8th Nov 1993: BBC1 9 o'clock news starts with Princess Diana photos, which the Daily Mirror ran that morning on top of the Sunday ones. Something like this:
- Approx Wed 10 Nov 1993: [Sizewell B software being tested: a virus reportedly made a system play 'Yankee Doodle Dandy'. Testing apparently revealed that half the system failed; or something like that]
- Sun 14 Nov 1993: [Channel 4 has programme on the Kennedy murder, or 'assassination', of 1963; blurb in TV Times seems to imply it reveals everything that happened. I've recorded the last half; I imagine the claim is of course nonsense]
- Sun 14th Nov 1993 BBC1 News: 'Queen [M comments on her black coat] led the nation's remembrance ceremony at the Cenotaph.. remained silent for two minutes.. members of the royal family .. service chiefs laid wreathes.. died for their country..' [with either boings of Big Ben or extracts from band music playing Elgar - exactly from the start, probably therefore superimposed. earlier in the week the 'Queen Mother' had been at the tomb of the 'unknown soldier' - in St Paul's I think. This was the Great war and second world war, I think; the date is right for the 75 anniversary of the end of the First World War, but of course it sems a bit silly not to include the next]
- Tue 16 Nov 93: BBC2 7.45-8.30: 'Do Schools Fail Children?' [Blurb in a paper says it coincides with the publication of a report of the/a 'National Commission on Education'].
- NOTE: Important to note that the conclusions (resembling those of A S Neill and others) say nothing about the content! Contrast e.g. with Wells's views on history teaching.
Royal Variety Performance I think on Saturday 20 Nov 1993; see notes
Sun 28 Nov 93: BBC TV News announces as main item that the government has been talking to the IRA for years; presented as a great revelation. People speaking include Michael Mates, ?Christopher Mayhew, Paddy Ashdown, and Gerry Adams saying (I think) John Major and members of the Cabinet were in touch with actor's dubbed voice. Usual voicoever stuff inc. 'everyone wants peace' and variations.
Mon 29 Nov 93: 8.30-9 ITV 'World in Action' about a little man living in the suburbs of the capital of San Salvador, El Salvador (or the other way round) called Robert del Cyd or Cid who apparently arranges for $10,000 US plus another £2,000 for babies to be shipped to e.g. UK for adoption by anxious British couples. Since he fills in bogus information on the forms, there's worry that the babies might be stolen. There was a secretly filmed interview, and confrontation, and interview with some not very pleasant looking British official of an international adoption agency (possibly a UN thing) who waffles and expresses disturbance and concern.
Mon 29 Nov 93: ITV 9-19: First Episode of three of 'A Woman's Guide to Adultery'. Radio Times blurb says: 'Rose [Theresa Russell; now older, frown lines] lives by simple rules. .. eleventh commandment: "Thou shalt not hurt another woman." [This it seem means adultery; author apparently assumes wives are necessarily hurt by adultery]. But her principles are not proof against the power of sexual attraction, and when she falls for a solidly-married university lecturer she finds herself embroiled with the best of them.
- Tue 30 Nov 93: Revealed [or claimed] in the budget for the first time that the budget for 'Secret Service' is about £1 billion per year.
- Wed 1 Dec 93: 9-10: 'Despatches' on ITV: Aims of Industry [in Doughty St; same one as Dickens House, I think] which always calls itself Aims and the Conservative election campaign; their barrister says according to his understanding of the Companies Act 1985 [we see him look at it] aims of industry is a political organisation & therefore donations should be declared in published annual accounts. But they write to everybody telling them that donations are liable to VAT and are not political. [The point about VAT is that it's VATable if it's a business expense, or something]. I only watched the early part, to get the message.
- Wed 1 Dec about 6.30-7.10: 'Def II Rough Guide'. Includes piece on Washington, the government city, something like: "like a promotional video for government' or something. "The heart of this fine democracy."
- Thurs 2 Dec 93: Top of the Pops 7-7.30 BBC1 has one of a week's experiments in stereo broadcasting; normal looking TV outdoor film looks reasonably stereo; and prepared stuff, computer generated and substituted by chromakey or whatever in background of a pop group on stage ['Take That'] also gives a stereo effect. 'Glasses' have left eye with straw-yellow, tight eye with relatively deep purplish tone, which however lets much of the colour through; I wasn't able to work out how the effect was obtained, though I suspect they must have used the 50 c.p.s. half-frames and alternated slightly different versions, for each eye. But I still find the overall effect puzzling. The right eye, for instance, must get a dimer and presumably less colour saturated image than the left, but this didn't seem to matter.
- Thu 2 Dec 93, 9-10 pm Channel 4, 'Hollywood Women': first episode of four. This one on cosmetic surgery. A few shots of an actual operation under local anaesthetic, perhaps to save paying for an anaesthetist. Woman with iodine-like stuff on face and lines on neck, sides of face apparently in black felt-tip. Skin being tugged, in a way reminiscent of horror films with mask-like face. Pulled over ear, then reattached. Woman in semi-conscious state was asked if she felt discomfort, and asked to give a big smile. Seemed to work reasonably well for many of them. Some women get something done every month. [Passing mention of keeping thin, exercising, two hours a day at the gym for divorced daughter to keep up with the competition; muscular and rather stringy woman says "You can't buy what you see. You gotta work for it."] Roseanne Barr says it's like having your nails filed, let's not make anything political of it. [she's had her neck tautened, and just about everything else done that's possible]. Certain amount of anti-silicone-implant stuff, including interview with female real estate woman who'd been given the name of a surgeon or 'surgeon'; she didn't bother to check him out. He said he'd make her beautiful, and she was his. Her face was lumpy and puffy, especially the top half and round the cheekbones. She said the implants grew (something which seemed not credible) and a grapefruit sized lump of silicone was extracted from her cheek etc etc but now she's been lucky with her surgeon and her 18 eye operations etc etc. Another elderly smug woman says it does take some resources to be able to afford surgery, yes. Zsa Zsa Gabor talks of make up people, hairdressers, close, surgeons, of course we look glamorous.
- 27 Nov - 3 Dec 1993 [Note: Royalty:] Radio Times has four letters on 'Scarlet and Black'; one says 'They [yokels greeting King Charles X] sported not the white flag of the Bourbons but the tricolour [sic] of the Revolutionary republic - the French equivalent of waving a swastika in a synagogue.'
- Mon 6 Dec 1993: 'Panorama' at a low point in its career, 9.30-10.10: 'Race, Violence and the Law' on 'Racially Motivated' Attacks; see blurb in \notes\crime
- [Radio Times blurb Sunday 5 Dec 1993 8.10-9 p.m. 'Locomotion':] 'In America railway corporations were the first big businesses. They created Wall Street and the famous Chicago stockyards. America's railways caused the world's first financial booms and busts. But cut-throat competition and corruption brought them into disrepute, and they were soon in unequal battle against the aeroplane and the automobile.'
- Sun 5 Dec 1993: [NOTE: HYPOCRISY:] HUMAN RIGHTS, HUMAN WRONGS Radio Times blurb: When this series began as Prisoners of Conscience five years ago, it created a unique tradition of involving British TV audiences in human rights campaigning. "We simply wanted to transpose the prisoners of conscience concept to television and alert people to the plight of innocent men, women and children shut up in jails all over the world", says producer Rex Bloomstein.
- 7 Dec 1993: Channel 4 9-10pm: Radio Times blurb: [same day as Suzman's broadcast:] 'From Beirut to Bosnia. The Martyr's Smile. Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent of The Independent and resident of Beirut, traces the physical and spiritual journey of Islamic fundamentalism in a three-part journey to the flashpoints of the movement.
- 18 Dec Radio Times has Polly Toynbee; 'resolutions' including: 'NEW CLOTHES FOR WEATHER PRESENTERS No brown jackets, no mustard shirts, no baggy suits sliding off the shoulders, or too tightly buttoned over the paunch. No suit that bulges in odd places when an extended arm gestures stiffly towards what looks like a map of poached eggs over Britain.. Hardy Amies should design military-style boiler suits for them..' and 'NO MORE STORIES ON THE NEWS FROM FAR-AWAY COUNTRIES we would never hear about if they hadn't started killing each other. Why do massacres make a country we never report from more newsworthy? (Especially now the Cold War is over and tribal battles don't threaten world conflict). Is it because men dominate the newsroom, and men have a penchant for boys' toys. And why do the reporters who get closest to guns and dead bodies carry off the TV awards, as if pointing the camera at bodies or ricocheting bullets was the best journalism? Instead, more stories from abroad that tell us how others live, not die.'
- 24 Dec 1993: 6 am-7 am: BBC2: 'Carols from King's The choir of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, celebrates Christmas with 13 carols interspersed with four Christmas readings in a service recorded specially for television.
- 24 December 1993: Channel 4 10-11.05 pm: 'Camp Christmas', set as a meeting in a 'home' (i.e. giant studio with sofas etc; and Julian Clary's voice as a talking reindeer) 'where all the guests are gay'.
- 24 Dec 1993: 11.45pm-12.55 BBC1: 'Christmas Midnight Eucharist' 'Live from Winchester Cathedral, a traditional celebration of the first eucharist of Christmas is led by the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Colin James, and the preacher is the Dean, the Very Rev Trevor Beeson. Carols include Once on Royal David's City, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, In the Bleak Mid-Winter, O Come, All Ye Faithful.'
- Fri 30 Dec 93: News items include Sudan instructing British ?Ambassador to leave; he's actually in Britain now, but "has to go back to clear his desk"/ 'Israel and the Vatican sign an accord'; item sounds as though the Vatican has never 'recognised' Israel in some sense.
ho knows what might be out there to discover?"
- Thur 23 July 1993: 9.30-10.30 BBC2 Radio Times blurb: 'Pandora's Box. [repeat] To the Brink of Eternity The first episode tells the story of the rise and fall of the men whom Dr Strangelove was based, men who believed the world could be controlled by the scientific manipulation of fear. Mathematical geniuses employed by the Rand Corporation, they were convinced they could apply the methods of science to the dark terrors of the Cold War and so build a new age of peace and reason. In the end, with the dream of Star Wars, their vision degenerated into fantasy.' [Note absence of acknowledgment of fact that Britain is still developing Trident (I think), and that no criticism was made of this stuff at the time, the 'mathematical geniuses' bit is no doubt nonsense, etc]
- Fri 23 July 1993: 11.20 pm-12.10 am BBC2. Repeat; probably first shown 1991 or so, I'd guess. Radio Times blurb says: 'Frank Zappa Another chance to see this Late Show special in which Frank Zappa gave his first TV interview since becoming seriously ill with cancer in 1990. He talks about his family background, early musical influences, the 60s counterculture and the legendary Mothers of Invention. The film examines Zappa's impact on American politics, culture and society, as well as his recent involvement with the leaders of Czechoslovakia's velvet revolution. With contributions from members of the original Mothers, family and friends, it showcases rare material from Zappa's own private vaults.'
- Sun 25 July 1993: 11.15pm-12.15, Channel 4: 'Out of Africa.' Radio Times blurb: 'Africa should be able to produce more than enough food to feed itself - yet it doesn't. Is this due to a lack of investment or a reliance on cash crops over subsistence? Zeinab Badawi [female black Islamic] chairs a debate with former Zambian finance minister Guy Scott [white in suit with fairly thick South African accent]; Malawian Thandika Mkandawire, [plump bespectacled black woman; i think] who works for an international research organisation; and food expert Alasebu Gebre Selassie. Directors/ Producers Nick Powell and Moses Shewa.'
- Thu 29 Jul 1993: BBC 9 o'clock news: main item was exchange rates: 'German Bundesbank refuses to lower interest rate' and this does not 'support the French franc'. Then long article on John/Ivan Demyanjuk, found by five Israeli Supreme Court judges not to be 'Ivan the Terrible', who turns out (they said) to be some other Ivan whose whereabouts isn't now known. Lots of people standing outside were 'stunned' by the decision etc.
Tue 3 Aug 1993: BBC2 has 'documentary' on rock extraction in Britain
Thu 5 Aug 1993: Channel 4, three programmes on Bosnia:
- Mon 16 Aug 1993: 8.30-9 ITV, World In Action. About a tax inspector called Allcock, whose suspended on full pay [shots practising golf] who worked 'from an unmarked building' for a tax department which investigates the rich, partly apparently by looking through Country Life and Private Eye and other sources, partly by using arithmetic - going to Chinese restaurants and costing up the ingredients, partly by going to places like Marbella and looking at yachts casinos. Suggestion that the City fiddles tax: he'd looked at the Stock Exchange, been on the 'floor' to see how it works [sic; I thought this no longer was used?] because it's complicated, established that profits tend to be assigned to Jersey Companies, while the losses are declared. He'd started investigating a cabinet minister [their tax records are closely ?guarded, said VO] and was suspended when Michael Mates, then an MP, accused him in the House of Commons of irregularities over Asil Nadir of Polly Peck, whose now in Turkish Cyprus with no extradition treaty. This seemed to be the cause of his suspension. No charges have been brought; he's still suspended..
- Mon 16 Aug 1993: BBC 9 o'clock news: Michael Buerk's first statement is "The world's woken up to the tragedy of Sarajevo. Offers flood in [from six countries I think] to help war victims.. triggered by Operation Irma.. British initiative.." [Irma is a reference to a girl of five, I think, still unconscious. Various hospital people interviewed. It becomes clear that the Serbs have 're-occupied' or perhaps never left their sites overlooking Sarajevo]
- Sun 22 Aug 1993: Channel 4, 'Equinox', 7-8 pm less ads. Radio Times blurb says: 'The Emperor's New Mind This scientific essay develops the arguments in the book of the same name by distinguished mathematician Jonathan Penrose. Appalled by scientists who attempt to reduce all human emotions and abilities to the level of calculations, Penrose takes a vigorous common sense approach to the subject to show that computers cannot ever be human beings.' [This was a first showing.]
- Tuesday 31 Aug 1993: BBC 9 o'clock news: see \NEWS for account of this typical news programme.
- Thursday 2 Sep 1993: Ch 4 9-10 Ludovic Kennedy in Consider The End on euthanasia [He's in favour. Interview with clerical type who compares visit to dentist with Christ on cross/ shots of Rome/ doctors in Holland who say in confused testimony it's illegal but doctors can administer injections if the request is in writing and repeatedly expressed or something/ similar stuff by BMA, evasive, despite Kennedy (now with stick, old coat, white hair) repeately putting the same question to spokeswoman]
- Sun 5 Sept 93: 11.05p.m. -12.50 Channel 4: Radio Times blurb: 'The Panama Deception In 1989, the USA invaded Panama, ostensibly to put an end to drug-trafficking. Since then the illegal trade has doubled. This film asks whether the invasion was, in fact, connected with the future governing of this essential waterway. Winner of this year's Oscar for the best documentary feature, this is the first of two American documentaries to be co-produced by Channel 4. The second will be shown next week. Director/Producer Barbara Trent'
- Mon 6 Sept: BBC 2 9.40-10.30 'Mas Celebration' "Mas" is short for masquerade or carnival - the Notting Hill Carnival, the largest street festival in Europe, which took place [NB: This was shown AFTER] over the Bank Holiday weekend. This film goes behind the scenes to look at the planners, the players and the personalitles..'
- Tuesday 7 Sep 1993 BBC2 9.30-10.20: 'Cracking the Genetic Code': (1) States that 'all life has always had DNA' (2) Margaret says: pictures of cuddly goats. I ask: did they show the pig with growth hormone that couldn't walk? No. (3) Margaret says it had a hack US presenter
- Tues 7 sept 1993: 11.45-12.20 Channel 4 'World Chess Analysis of tonight's first game in the 24-match championship between Nigel Short and Gary Kasparov. Experts lok at the day's play etc..' says Radio Times blurb. [Experts were I think Bill ?Hartston and a FIDE official, I think Spanish or Dutch. BBC version had Peter Snow (elderly, white-haired, knows nothing about chess: "Why did he make that move?" - expert: "If I knew that I'd be playing.." .. "Oh, the BLACK pawn moves.." .. "So um Kasparov is likely to win?") with a rather comic effect]
- Fri 10 Sept 1993: BBC1 7.30: Radio Times blurb: 'Tomorrow's World .. the strange tale of how Vietnam is funding scientific research with the help of a French aperitif. The highest grades of anisette liqueur get their flavour from the fruit of the star anise, a rare tree that grows only in the mountains on the border of China and Vietnam, generating funds for the National centre for Scientific Research and bringing in an extra source of income to the local people. With Howard Stableford, Judith Hann, Carmen Price and Kate Bellingham. ..'
- Mon 13 Sept 93: BBC1 9.30-10.10 Panorama; Radio Times blurb: 'Babies on Benefit Rachel got pregnant at 15 because she wanted to leave school and get her own home. Michele is 22 and expecting the fifth of her babies she's had by two different fathers. Janet lied to the authorities to gain extra welfare benefits for her children. Panorama investigates the cost to the state of young single motherhood. Margaret Gilmore reports. Producer Barbara Want Editor Glenwyn Benson'
- Wednesday 15 Sep 1993: BBC1, 9.30-10.20: 'Inside Story The New Principal': Education Programme about a Battersea School, in Wandsworth, exam results 4,382 from top = 18th from bottom in Britain, to be converted into 'city technology college' known as Battersea Technology College, abolishing comprehensive entry and with technology "aptitude testing" for entrants experimentally under headship of man called Michael Clark. Radio announcement shown; £2 1/2 million pounds I think (perhaps 2) being spent on refurbishment.
- Thur 16 Sep 1993: 7.30-8 ITV/Carlton: Radio Times says: 'The Big Story. Presented by ITN newsreader Dermot Murnaghan, this current affairs series covers the week's crucial news event. Series producer Simon Berthon'
- Friday 17 Sep 1993: Ch 4 8-8.30 'Class Action' on education [no details beyond things like names of presenters in Radio Times]. First item looked at a R.C. 'College' I think it was called, probably 'St Joseph's', I think in effect a school for over-11s, a 'grant maintained' place [I think!] receiving most of its money from the tax-payer, but which is controlled by a small group of 'fathers' who after having the place refurbished for a million or so are trying to sell it or close it or something [details vague; as always, expressions like 'grant maintained' are never explained, presumably in part because the whole basis of biased education might be exposed]. We see Clare Short MP whose brothers went there complaining not that they'd infringed honesty in any legal sense, but that the 'fathers' had been morally dishonest. Various amusing sequences, e.g. one of the 'fathers' in long black garment being advised by a 'press officer' not to continue an interview, I think when the interviewer posed a question about the 'atmosphere of fear' and teachers being afraid to 'speak out' or they'd lose their jobs.
- Sat 18 Sept 93: 6.55 pm-9.30 BBC2 Leeds International Piano Competition [with results of phone poll 11-11.15]. See \music
- Sat 18 Sept 93 also start of eighth series of 'Casualty': Holby City's Accident and Emergency department getting back to business as usual after the devastating fire that ended the last episode. Newcomers include Clinical Nurse Ken Hodges (.. A Woman of Substance) and Senior House Officer, Dr Karen Goodliffe. .. joyriders cause a major disaster..'
- Sat 18 Sept 1993, 8.50-9.40 BBC1: 'Harry NEW Michael Elphick says goodbye to eight years of Boon with the starring role in this new 12-part series from Franc [sic] Roddam, the man behind Auf Wiedersehen, Pet and Making Out. Harry Salter was once a Fleet Street high-flier: he got the stories, he got the expense account and he got drunk. But now he is living on his wits running a news agency in Darlington. His first task is to investigate a death that looks like suicide and track down a rogue tattooist. .. Written by Mick Ford. Producer Martin McKeand. Director Mary McMurray. A Union Pictures production for BBCtv. Stereo. Subtitled.'
- Fri 1 Oct 1993: 'Eurotrash' starts [I'm pretty certain this was the date] on Channel 4: 'Rapido' TV, producer Lissa Evans, director Patti Marr, introduced by Antoine de Caunes and Jean-Paul Gaultier.
- Sun 3 Oct 1993: BBC1: Sun 10.25 'Heart of the Matter. Beggar, Thy Neighbour. Some clergymen believe it is wrong to give money to beggars.. The Bible, of course, encourages generosity, but what of fraudulent beggars on the streets? .. Joan Bakewell spends a day on the streets with a beggar..
- Wednesday 6 Oct 1993: [BBC short news item, morning, during Tory conference; and later during day:] 'Chris Patten.. governor of Hong Kong.. annual speech on the state of the ?colony.. ?expressed ?frustration at the lack of progress of the talks on democratisation with Beijing.. problems of dealing with China.. the issues must be resolved in only a matter of weeks.."
- Fri 15 Oct 1993: 'The Living Soap' BBC2 7.15-7.45: First of a series in a supposed 'fly on the wall' series. Blurb in Radio Times begins: 'it's a new college term, and as six students from different backgrounds, studying different courses, move in under the same roof, so does a camera team. Compatibility cannot be guaranteed..'
- Monday 18 Oct 1993: News; both BBC and IBA similar: [1] Britain's 'defence': £1 billion to be cut from defence; supposedly now to make air force non-nuclear [nothing said about Trident etc]. Labour party people in House of Commons shown apparently supporting increases, wondering whether Britain cannot be defended - despite fact that it was announced to be indefensible even against Scud missile attacks in 1991. And of course believed indefensible in 1960s - cf. Russell on this subject.
- Fri 29 Oct 1993: Torrent of mediocre programmes on Thatcher, sparked off by, or planned to coincide with, her book of memoirs. In one, an actor reveals that Thatcher came to the first night of a performance of Kipling poems. Kipling was her favourite poet, he said. Suggestion that 'If' was important to her.
- Fri 29 Oct 1993: Clive Anderson Talks Back, 10.30-11.10 pm: one of his three or so guests is Trevor McDonald, black ITN newsreader; Anderson jokes about listening to the BBC 9 o'clock news, write it down, and read it out again! McDonald says in the west Indies there was poverty, but as his dad said you can educate yourself out of it. [Note: naivete of news announcer:] But in South Africa it was illegal.. When he was in South Africa he saw no real hate. But in Ireland there is hate! And in his book (unlike David Frost, a week or two before, he didn't bring a copy, as Anderson said) he says he got an interview with Saddam Hussein; John Simpson in his book said he hadn't. Anderson comments on possible rivalry. McDonald denies he's been offered a million a year by Sky tv, or somebody like that; "Don't let my wife hear, or she'll send me straight there" he said, or something similar.
- Sat 30 Oct 93: BBC1 News item on Ireland; continual claims of some sort of rapprochement - following various recent bombs. John Major has seen 'his opposite number' in Ireland [man's name I didn't recognise]. The terrorists, it appears, [1] will not be negotiated with. This seems a standard line: no deals were done! is the cry. [2] That is, unless they 'lay down their guns'. Presumably it's hoped people won't notice that there will be unpunished crimes. [3] Blame implicitly always laid with IRA and people like Gerry Adams (though I think just once 'loyalists' were mentioned, perhaps even 'loyalist murders').
- Monday 1 Nov 1993: ITV News at Ten: Last Feb 2 year old infant stoned to death etc etc; 2 boys, now eleven, charged with abducting him from shopping centre, in No 1 court in Preston, I think, with their social workers and on special platforms so they can see over the dock.
- Wed 3 Nov 1993 [Comedy. repeated from Sat] 11.05-11.45 Rory Bremner - Who Else?
- Sun 7th Nov 1993: [Sunday Mirror publishes pictures taken of Princess of Wales exercising in a gym, taken with a hidden camera; much talk of the money the photographer and the owner of the club hope to make; photographer £1 million - says radio report. The pictures apparently just show an 'attractive young woman' exercising. Radio gives interview with someone called I think MacDonald, Chairman of P C C, the Press Complaints Commission.]
- Sun 7th Nov: Medecins sans Frontieres based in Belgium talk about UN bungling and recklessness and indecisiveness with persecuted minorities
- Sun 7th Nov: 10 ANC murders. Ordered by Inkatha? wonders Classic FM radio
- Mon 8th Nov 1993: BBC1 9 o'clock news starts with Princess Diana photos, which the Daily Mirror ran that morning on top of the Sunday ones. Something like this:
- Approx Wed 10 Nov 1993: [Sizewell B software being tested: a virus reportedly made a system play 'Yankee Doodle Dandy'. Testing apparently revealed that half the system failed; or something like that]
- Sun 14 Nov 1993: [Channel 4 has programme on the Kennedy murder, or 'assassination', of 1963; blurb in TV Times seems to imply it reveals everything that happened. I've recorded the last half; I imagine the claim is of course nonsense]
- Sun 14th Nov 1993 BBC1 News: 'Queen [M comments on her black coat] led the nation's remembrance ceremony at the Cenotaph.. remained silent for two minutes.. members of the royal family .. service chiefs laid wreathes.. died for their country..' [with either boings of Big Ben or extracts from band music playing Elgar - exactly from the start, probably therefore superimposed. earlier in the week the 'Queen Mother' had been at the tomb of the 'unknown soldier' - in St Paul's I think. This was the Great war and second world war, I think; the date is right for the 75 anniversary of the end of the First World War, but of course it sems a bit silly not to include the next]
- Tue 16 Nov 93: BBC2 7.45-8.30: 'Do Schools Fail Children?' [Blurb in a paper says it coincides with the publication of a report of the/a 'National Commission on Education'].
- NOTE: Important to note that the conclusions (resembling those of A S Neill and others) say nothing about the content! Contrast e.g. with Wells's views on history teaching.
Royal Variety Performance I think on Saturday 20 Nov 1993; see notes
Sun 28 Nov 93: BBC TV News announces as main item that the government has been talking to the IRA for years; presented as a great revelation. People speaking include Michael Mates, ?Christopher Mayhew, Paddy Ashdown, and Gerry Adams saying (I think) John Major and members of the Cabinet were in touch with actor's dubbed voice. Usual voicoever stuff inc. 'everyone wants peace' and variations.
Mon 29 Nov 93: 8.30-9 ITV 'World in Action' about a little man living in the suburbs of the capital of San Salvador, El Salvador (or the other way round) called Robert del Cyd or Cid who apparently arranges for $10,000 US plus another £2,000 for babies to be shipped to e.g. UK for adoption by anxious British couples. Since he fills in bogus information on the forms, there's worry that the babies might be stolen. There was a secretly filmed interview, and confrontation, and interview with some not very pleasant looking British official of an international adoption agency (possibly a UN thing) who waffles and expresses disturbance and concern.
Mon 29 Nov 93: ITV 9-19: First Episode of three of 'A Woman's Guide to Adultery'. Radio Times blurb says: 'Rose [Theresa Russell; now older, frown lines] lives by simple rules. .. eleventh commandment: "Thou shalt not hurt another woman." [This it seem means adultery; author apparently assumes wives are necessarily hurt by adultery]. But her principles are not proof against the power of sexual attraction, and when she falls for a solidly-married university lecturer she finds herself embroiled with the best of them.
- Tue 30 Nov 93: Revealed [or claimed] in the budget for the first time that the budget for 'Secret Service' is about £1 billion per year.
- Wed 1 Dec 93: 9-10: 'Despatches' on ITV: Aims of Industry [in Doughty St; same one as Dickens House, I think] which always calls itself Aims and the Conservative election campaign; their barrister says according to his understanding of the Companies Act 1985 [we see him look at it] aims of industry is a political organisation & therefore donations should be declared in published annual accounts. But they write to everybody telling them that donations are liable to VAT and are not political. [The point about VAT is that it's VATable if it's a business expense, or something]. I only watched the early part, to get the message.
- Wed 1 Dec about 6.30-7.10: 'Def II Rough Guide'. Includes piece on Washington, the government city, something like: "like a promotional video for government' or something. "The heart of this fine democracy."
- Thurs 2 Dec 93: Top of the Pops 7-7.30 BBC1 has one of a week's experiments in stereo broadcasting; normal looking TV outdoor film looks reasonably stereo; and prepared stuff, computer generated and substituted by chromakey or whatever in background of a pop group on stage ['Take That'] also gives a stereo effect. 'Glasses' have left eye with straw-yellow, tight eye with relatively deep purplish tone, which however lets much of the colour through; I wasn't able to work out how the effect was obtained, though I suspect they must have used the 50 c.p.s. half-frames and alternated slightly different versions, for each eye. But I still find the overall effect puzzling. The right eye, for instance, must get a dimer and presumably less colour saturated image than the left, but this didn't seem to matter.
- Thu 2 Dec 93, 9-10 pm Channel 4, 'Hollywood Women': first episode of four. This one on cosmetic surgery. A few shots of an actual operation under local anaesthetic, perhaps to save paying for an anaesthetist. Woman with iodine-like stuff on face and lines on neck, sides of face apparently in black felt-tip. Skin being tugged, in a way reminiscent of horror films with mask-like face. Pulled over ear, then reattached. Woman in semi-conscious state was asked if she felt discomfort, and asked to give a big smile. Seemed to work reasonably well for many of them. Some women get something done every month. [Passing mention of keeping thin, exercising, two hours a day at the gym for divorced daughter to keep up with the competition; muscular and rather stringy woman says "You can't buy what you see. You gotta work for it."] Roseanne Barr says it's like having your nails filed, let's not make anything political of it. [she's had her neck tautened, and just about everything else done that's possible]. Certain amount of anti-silicone-implant stuff, including interview with female real estate woman who'd been given the name of a surgeon or 'surgeon'; she didn't bother to check him out. He said he'd make her beautiful, and she was his. Her face was lumpy and puffy, especially the top half and round the cheekbones. She said the implants grew (something which seemed not credible) and a grapefruit sized lump of silicone was extracted from her cheek etc etc but now she's been lucky with her surgeon and her 18 eye operations etc etc. Another elderly smug woman says it does take some resources to be able to afford surgery, yes. Zsa Zsa Gabor talks of make up people, hairdressers, close, surgeons, of course we look glamorous.
- 27 Nov - 3 Dec 1993 [Note: Royalty:] Radio Times has four letters on 'Scarlet and Black'; one says 'They [yokels greeting King Charles X] sported not the white flag of the Bourbons but the tricolour [sic] of the Revolutionary republic - the French equivalent of waving a swastika in a synagogue.'
- Mon 6 Dec 1993: 'Panorama' at a low point in its career, 9.30-10.10: 'Race, Violence and the Law' on 'Racially Motivated' Attacks; see blurb in \notes\crime
- [Radio Times blurb Sunday 5 Dec 1993 8.10-9 p.m. 'Locomotion':] 'In America railway corporations were the first big businesses. They created Wall Street and the famous Chicago stockyards. America's railways caused the world's first financial booms and busts. But cut-throat competition and corruption brought them into disrepute, and they were soon in unequal battle against the aeroplane and the automobile.'
- Sun 5 Dec 1993: [NOTE: HYPOCRISY:] HUMAN RIGHTS, HUMAN WRONGS Radio Times blurb: When this series began as Prisoners of Conscience five years ago, it created a unique tradition of involving British TV audiences in human rights campaigning. "We simply wanted to transpose the prisoners of conscience concept to television and alert people to the plight of innocent men, women and children shut up in jails all over the world", says producer Rex Bloomstein.
- 7 Dec 1993: Channel 4 9-10pm: Radio Times blurb: [same day as Suzman's broadcast:] 'From Beirut to Bosnia. The Martyr's Smile. Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent of The Independent and resident of Beirut, traces the physical and spiritual journey of Islamic fundamentalism in a three-part journey to the flashpoints of the movement.
- 18 Dec Radio Times has Polly Toynbee; 'resolutions' including: 'NEW CLOTHES FOR WEATHER PRESENTERS No brown jackets, no mustard shirts, no baggy suits sliding off the shoulders, or too tightly buttoned over the paunch. No suit that bulges in odd places when an extended arm gestures stiffly towards what looks like a map of poached eggs over Britain.. Hardy Amies should design military-style boiler suits for them..' and 'NO MORE STORIES ON THE NEWS FROM FAR-AWAY COUNTRIES we would never hear about if they hadn't started killing each other. Why do massacres make a country we never report from more newsworthy? (Especially now the Cold War is over and tribal battles don't threaten world conflict). Is it because men dominate the newsroom, and men have a penchant for boys' toys. And why do the reporters who get closest to guns and dead bodies carry off the TV awards, as if pointing the camera at bodies or ricocheting bullets was the best journalism? Instead, more stories from abroad that tell us how others live, not die.'
- 24 Dec 1993: 6 am-7 am: BBC2: 'Carols from King's The choir of King's College Chapel, Cambridge, celebrates Christmas with 13 carols interspersed with four Christmas readings in a service recorded specially for television.
- 24 December 1993: Channel 4 10-11.05 pm: 'Camp Christmas', set as a meeting in a 'home' (i.e. giant studio with sofas etc; and Julian Clary's voice as a talking reindeer) 'where all the guests are gay'.
- 24 Dec 1993: 11.45pm-12.55 BBC1: 'Christmas Midnight Eucharist' 'Live from Winchester Cathedral, a traditional celebration of the first eucharist of Christmas is led by the Bishop of Winchester, the Rt Rev Colin James, and the preacher is the Dean, the Very Rev Trevor Beeson. Carols include Once on Royal David's City, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, In the Bleak Mid-Winter, O Come, All Ye Faithful.'
- Fri 30 Dec 93: News items include Sudan instructing British ?Ambassador to leave; he's actually in Britain now, but "has to go back to clear his desk"/ 'Israel and the Vatican sign an accord'; item sounds as though the Vatican has never 'recognised' Israel in some sense.
[repeat Jan 97] BBC: Timewatch: 1869 Rasputin born [I think in ?Pekrovskoye Siberia; they said they'd found a birth register, with date 10 Jan 1869.]
Rasputin. Ein Werkzeug der Juden by Kummer, Rudolf. Published by Der Stürmer-Buchverlag, Nürnberg, 1941. A Tool of the Jews.
- Wed 3 Feb 1994: 9 - 10 pm Channel 4: 'Secret History The Dambusters' Raid'. [Programme was completed in November 1993] Radio Times blurb: 'The legend of the Dambusters is familiar to anyone who has lived through the Second World War or who has seen the 1954 film starring Michael Redgrave as Barnes Wallis, the inventor of the bouncing bomb. The raids of 16 and 17 May 1943 on the industrial Ruhr Valley were certainly successful in propaganda terms, but how much did they actually damage the Nazis?
- Thurs 3 Feb 1994: Newsnight, BBC2 10.30 pm - 11.15: [Piece introduced by Jeremy Paxman, with colour film of US troops, on Vietnam, to do with a US embargo being stopped. Not much information, I think, as to the nature of the 'embargo'. Some transatlantic interviews, one with a man with red-white-and-blue striped tie who wants to trade, says there are thousands of job opportunities etc and that Vietnam should have an American presence, meaning, I think, troops; and a woman I think representing a 'veteran's association'; in the studio a Vietnamese man in specs. All I scribbled was:] VO by Paxman: ".. Americans assign the pain of this war to history.. But.. 2000.. MIAs.. missing in action.. But some cannot.. veteran group who have been continuing the search.." [then a gap; Snow abruptly cuts of US chap in the tie and reads tomorrow's British newspaper headlines]
- LBC on Fri 4 Feb 94 says '2000 miners jobs are to go.. the last mine in NE England closed'; in a fortnight to be reduced to 'care and maintenance' status. Naturally no information positioning this. Listening carefully to other messages it appears the 2000 jobs aren't all from this one pit; some are e.g. Nottingham.
- Fri 4 Feb 94: mid-day news programme says John Major has a new press secretary this week, Chris ?Mare. It's not revealed what happened to his presumed predecessor; sacked? At any rate, he issued a list of supposed points he'd apply in dealing with the press. This must be part of campaign against the poor image of Major; the day before there were reports that he'd dismissed in 30 seconds (or something) some delegation of right-wing Tories, perhaps about Gerry Adams and the IRA, presumably to show determination.
- Sun 6 Feb 94: Ch 4 money programme. Radio Times blurb: 'An investigation into tobacco giant Philip Morris's sudden decision to cut the price of their most popular cigarette by 20 per cent, causing panic in Wall Street.' [I didn't watch this]
- Sun 6 Feb 94: 7-8 pm: Archaeology programme on Channel 4, 'Time Team. The Fortress in the Lake'. See notes in C:\work\history
- Sun 6th Feb 1994: (repeated Sept 1994) 9.30-10.20: 'The Great Pyramid - Gateway to the Stars'. Write up in Radio Times [see Boxfiles; it omits the theory that the three Giza pyramids mimic Orion's belt] and this blurb: 'The Great Pyramid of Egypt is one of the world's most perplexing enigmas, but if writers Robert Bauval and Adrian Gilbert [article says they are the co-authors of 'a new book, The Orion Mystery'] are to be believed, it may be about to yield many of its secrets. [Sic; they claim of course to have solved it]
- Sat 12th Feb 1994: BBC2 starts series of TV programmes on Picasso [some sort of tie-in with an exhibition at the Tate Gallery, 'Picasso: Sculptor and Painter' opening Wednesday 16th Feb. Radio Times had short article on this in its stuff at the beginning.
- 28th Feb 1994: Horizon [q.v.] with dubious stuff on 'catastrophism'
- Sun 6 Mar 94: 'The Goldring Audit' 8-9 pm Channel 4 'written and presented by Mary Goldring.' She turns out to be a clipped-white-haired elderly unpleasant woman in uncompromising brogues and average-length skirts with a background of ten years' radio broadcasting and an accent like reconstructed Irish; "Bee Bee See" but occasional 'fillum'.
- Thur 10 March 1994: BBC2 9.30-10.20 'In Search of Our Ancestors' final of three programmes by or about 'Don Johanson' which 'asks when we became human. .. travels from the tip of southern Africa to the Australian outback and searches for the answer in the caves of France and Israel.' 'A Green Umbrella production for BBCtv.'
-Fri 11 Mar 94: Mobatu: S Troops pour into Bophutaswana 'an insuperable force'. Black 'president' refuses to allow mixed race elections; President ?Mangope entered into alliance with Terreblanche's ultra right group..
- Tue 15 Mar 1994: BBC Science Programme has material (according to Margaret) on the theory that cooling the brain was related to evolution of upright posture in Africa - e.g. 'Lucy' skull shows evidence of cooling in way inappropriate to erect creature. NB: Joke: Much or all of this in the New Scientist in about 1988; naturally not credited (Margaret implies)
- Sun 24 Apr 94: 1/4 hour BBC1 News at about 9; includes reports of about 100,000 deaths in Rwanda. Martyn Lewis announces the main points of the news again: there are two: one is an IRA bomb; I forget the other, though it wasn't Sir Matt Busby's funeral, and it also wasn't anything about Africa.
-Radio Times issue sometime in April 1994 on oil rig disaster in North Sea; man quoted as 'seeing the sea burn'/ [cp chap I'd seen who said he'd seen concrete burn]
- Approx. end of April 94: TV News item on Iran's 'top man' in London summoned to the F.O.; suspicions of support for the IRA.. contact made in several capitals with IRA ?officials.. though no evidence of arms supplies unlike [Swedish-sounding name of ship] in [year - several years ago]" [Then shot of suited man in British Parliament, House of Commons I think, talking about this in indignant way, without of course mentioning arms supplies to Iraq etc..]
- End of April 94; Nixon funeral: BBC News: ".. all four living presidents.. The successes of his foreign policy have now wiped out his disgraces at home' [Pic of youngish man in tears; pix of men in florid uniforms and presumably no brains standing rigid each side of 'casket' with US flag horizontal over the top, suspended in some way. Kissinger in heavy accent says something like: "Richard Nixon would have been so proud to be ere.."
- 29 April 94: Angus Deayton in BBC 'Have I Got News For You': ".. South Africa.. first ?ever free elections.. years of brutal white dictatorship.. now become a normal African state.. a brutal black dictatorship!" [Blank laughter]
- Mon 16th May 1994: BBC 9 o'clock news had Prince Charles in St Petersburg saying (says female announcer who resembles Polly Toynbee) that capitalism has a heart
- Mon 16 May 1994: 9.30-10.10 pm 'Panorama' on 'Another in-depth investigation into an issue of current concern.' In fact, this was the withdrawn programme (withdrawn before recent local elections!) on Westminster Council under 'dame Shirley Porter'; I imagine the reasons for withdrawal were of course not given. There was they said an earlier, 1988, programme on the same subject.
- BBC Mon 16 May 1994: Two Vietnam references: 10.10 BBC1 Ben Elton's Stark film, second of three, with 'veterans' set in Australia; and 9-10.30 1986 film called 'resting Place' about which blurb says 'Georgia 1972: a routine assignment for a US Army Survival Assistant Officer turns into an investigation of the mysterious death of a young black soldier in Vietnam.'
- 19th May 1994: Death of Jacqueline Kennedy/ Onassis - I think on this day. Various old film bits hauled out; see eg \notes\usa
- Thurs 19 May 1994: Funny and ironic and deliberately non-slick video about Thatcher on US tour promoting her biography, and carefully not talking to Channel 4; I have this on videotape, along with Radio Times blurb.
- ?20th May 1994 Channel 4 start 'Visions of Light', on films; there's a programme about cameramen or I think camera directors; see considerable notes in \film\notes. First film was 'The Third Man'. Next was 'Apocalypse Now'.
- Tues 5th July 1994 & other dates: BBC2 10-10.30: 'Heretic', six-part series supposedly about scientists with controversial views. Sound track includes whispered voices saying things like 'heretic', 'shocking', 'unorthodox', etc.
- Wed 20th July 1994: 4-4.45 p.m. on BBC2: 'Strasbourg Live'. '.. live coverage from the European Parliament, Strasbourg, as newly elected MEPs debate the troubled succession to Jacques Delors as President of the European Commission' says TV Times; this is the first time I've noticed such a transmission.
- Wed 20th July 1994: BBC1, 7.30-8, 'CountryFile'. TV Times blurb: 'For more than 50 years, thousands of farmers have kept an astonishing wartime secret. Now, for the first time on television , [sic] they reveal their double lives as members of the British Resistance Organisation. Highly trained and heavily armed, they were to be the official line of defence if Germany had invaded the country. There's also a look ahead at the weekend weather..'
- Wed 27 Jul 94: 9 o'clock news BBC1 begins: ".. Martyn Lewis" "Armed police are mounting round the clock guard on ?potential Jewish and Israeli targets in London.. ?police reacted following a complaint ?by a ?member of the Israeli Embassy. [Couple of other things] Armed police are mounting twenty-four hour guard on over one hundred Jewish and Israeli ?targets in London's Jewish Community. .. Five people were injured outside a Jewish charity in North London.. A police spokesman.. suicide bombers on the streets of London. ... Strongly denied bungling..
- Sat 30 July 1994: Channel 4: 7-8 pm: 'The People's Parliament' starts. Radio Times blurb: 'One hundred men and women, representative of society at large, make up their own Parliament to debate a controversial topic each week. Broadcast from a replica of the House of Commons, the first issue for debate in this new ten-part series is: "persistent young offenders between the ages of 12-14 should be locked up". Lesley Riddoch is the speaker, and Rajan Datar the lobby correspondent. Repeated on Thursday, 1.35 am.'
- Mon 1st August 1994: BBC1 9 o'clock news: ".. fourth year of United Nations sanctions against Iraq.. Before the invasion of Kuwait.. But Saddam is still there.. sanctions against Iraq.. some of the people they are intended to help.. Kurds.." [Nothing about children in Iraq. On Tue 2 Aug 94 I spoke to Dr Al Saidi, who said sanctions hit Iraqis not just Kurds: they are too busy surviving to care who runs the country. I said the BBC news talked about the Kurds, but not e.g. children. She said well, they wouldn't, would they. It is very hard in Iraq. Even a doctor died; she needed intravenous antibiotic which wasn't available and died of septicaemia. In theory export is allowed, but a drug exporter in Britain said he needed 23 permits and to see 18 officials (or something) before he gave up. Some man she mentioned wrote to Time saying what they wrote was rubbish. She thought they'd published his letter, which surprised me.]
- Mon 1st August 1994: BBC1 9.30: Panorama on child care. 1989 Children Act for day care; specifies things like good quality interaction between children and carers etc. But it doesn't apply to independent schools with more than a certain number of children - five, I think; hence abuses are possible - this programme had secretly filmed stuff about a Birmingham nursery type of place which looked good, but wasn't, with rather depressing footage of carers chatting while small kids didn't do anything much or poked about and were occasionally propelled about in their walking frame things.
- Mon 1st Aug 94: 'The O J Simpson Hearing'. BBC2, 9-10pm. [This is an American televised law case, a black football player 'charged with murdering his ex-wife and her friend'. I think this is one of the first examples of a sensational American trial being broadcast by the BBC].
- .. 1 HIERARCHY deals with who you are. 2 TERRITORY deals with where you are. .. We differ from most primates.. we are territorial.. a home base was necessary for hunters to return to.. it needed defence..
- Sun 9th October 1994: BBC1 Songs of Praise has something like US style religious TV, the first example I can recall of this. See notes in \religion.
- Sun 9th Oct 1994: Start of an 'epic' on 8.30 pm, called 'Seaforth' about a 'fictional northern town'. Nine parts, 95 minutes each!
- Sun 16th Oct 1994: The Car's the Star 7.40-8 p.m.: 1959 Cadillac is the 'two fin caddy' with a pair of little red lights on the fins. Convertibles are the 'classic' symbol. $7,400 in 1959. Went up to $125,000 then down to $65,000 (or so) said 1994 TV programme. Stupid BBC man says "Ooooh! So it went up tenfold!"
- 8-8.50 p.m. 'The Irresistible Rise of William Shakespeare' fortunately with a few intelligent people, even though generally only commenting on their own 'period'; the only exception is rather vague things like ".. has been remodelled.. reinterpreted for each time.. this is what gives the sense of timelessness.." Voiceover by John Tusa, not known for knowledge of this subject. The topic of how the plays came to survive at all skated over. Usual presumptions made without any evidence on exact date of birth, place of birth, date of death etc. Nothing on Spanish War etc. The more intelligent people comment on rewriting and re-staging; though Bowdler, oddly, was not mentioned at all. Nor is the fact that modern productions omit big chunks. Nor the faking (apart from Ireland).
- Fri 4 Nov 1994: Start (I think - perhaps the week before) of Good Fortune!, 8-8.50 BBC1. See note in \psychology\coincidence for example.
- Sun 6 Nov 94: BBC thing on Ukraine, Byelorussia etc says the Russians poisoned the soil of Byelorussia - most of the radiation from Chernobyl landed there. Pretty much impossible to tell what truth in this. Cp Vietnam.
- [STARTS: Over song: 'It's Only Make Believe' interspersed with Monty Python sketches and some uncredited black and white film of actors playing 'devil', witches, baby being bled and killed, drum beating, torture by monkish figures in hoods etc, presumably early 20th century.
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- 1568: Philip II's son Don Carlos died suddenly..
- Tue 8 Nov 94: Without Walls, Channel 4, 8 Nov 1994: 'Hell's Angel?' Producer Tariq Ali, VO by journalist Christopher Hitchens, with caricature behind him, interspersed with film. He'd been to Calcutta in early 1980s and wasn't impressed.
- [Note: BBC Charter: The 'prize crossword' in Radio Times has a prize: 'Dillons Bookstores wordfinder. Win £50 to spend in any branch of Dillons, Britain's favourite bookstore.']
- Sat 19 Nov 94: [Note: advertising: an issue of Red Pepper states someone's to try legal action against BBC for going against its charter:] First ever draw of the 'National Lottery' on BBC, introduced in long programme by Noel Edmonds, with people doing silly things to have the honour of pressing a button six times to select numbers from a rotating ball machine. The numbers [1 to 49] arranged in columns and coloured, so (I forget the exact details) e.g. 1-9 are white, 10-19 pink, .., 40-49 some other colour. Presumably the 00 slot wasn't filled. Two scoop like things resembling Isle of Man three legs rotated in opposite direction to mix the balls up. [Actually, looking again in later editions, I thnk this is wrong; there's a rotating circumference at the behind part of the machine, but only one three-legged thing]. I think psychologically this was correct - many people I imagine don't trust electronic number generators.
- Sun 27 Nov 94: Equinox 7-8 pm Channel 4: 'Dismantling the Bomb' Radio Times: 'Now that the Cold War is over, there remains the new [sic] and sinister dilemma of how to dismantle nuclear weapons. ..'
- Sun 27 Nov 94: 8-9 pm Channel 4: Note: British history: [First of four: 'What Has Become of Us?' by 'author Prof Peter Hennessy.' [Radio Times] Hennessy is exactly my age and has tortoiseshell rimmed NHS specs. It's not revealed where he's a professor. Sources include BBC and other newsreels etc. and also documents, some of which he says haven't been released yet (and were presumably supplied to support, and because he has, strictly conventional views on Russia, Communists, Korea etc).
- [SUEZ: Joke: newsreel extract states, perfectly clearly, after flourish: '.. Suez canal.. in the news since it was built.. Nasser.. ?seized the Suez Canal.. to try to finish the Aswan dam after Britain and the US withdrew ?support.."
- Sun 27 Nov 1994: BBC2: Programme on the Sphinx:
- Mon 28 Nov 1994: BBC2: [Note: BBC 'scientist': Note: oddly, this is credited: 'Written and produced by Martin Belderson':] 8-8.50 pm 'Horizon. Close Encounters. Dr Sue Blackmore, [Joke: Blackamoor?] researcher into the paranormal, [Joke: more like the subnormal] investigates some of the many abduction-by-aliens claims. Her search leads from victims, to UFO specialists and a psychiatrist, who believes the claims. Finally she undergoes an extraordinary experience that provides a physical explanation for the stories she has heard.'
- Winfrey recalled the ?Marva Collins school in Chicago with 'learning disabled' etc kids; she 'assumed they were smart..' [This sounded like a famous experiment in education. I just couldn't make out the first word, which sounded as though it rhymed with 'Barbara' though it didn't seem clear how it could.]
- Final part had several others, I think about 10 to 12. They were 'inventors'; something like 'Invent US' competition.
- Last: OW, imperiously: "Parents of a gifted child need to remember things. They are?" "Absolutely. .." and Galbraith does her prepared speech but is rudely cut off by music and titles at about item two.
- Wed 30 Nov 1994: Dispatches, Channel 4, 9-9.45 p.m. [Repeated, though 5 minutes shorter, next day late night at 12.05 am; with less ads presumably].
- Sun 18 Dec 1994: Channel 4 5.10-6pm: Failures in the Restaurant 'industry'
- Wed 28 Dec 1994: BBC2 2-3 p.m.: 'The Royal Institution Christmas Lectures Journey to the Centre of the Brain. 1: The Electric Ape. Dr Susan Greenfield is the first woman to present the lectures since they were introduced by Faraday in 1826. She asks how what we do, think, feel and experience is related to electrical signals [sic] travelling to and from the brain. .. Producers William Woollard and Richard Melman; Executive producer Caroline van den Brul.. Through a Glass Darkly, tomorrow.. '
- Wed 28 Dec 94: 8.30-10pm Channel 4 'Equinox' 'Incredible Evidence': Radio Times blurb: '.. 90 minute special.. examines three main areas of forensic science: DNA profiling, fingerprinting and video enhancement. [sic; in fact the order was reverse of this]. What was [sic] once seen as a revolutionary and unimpeachable source of criminal detection, forensic science now finds its foundations rocked as a series of cases based upon its evidence have been overturned in court.'
BRITISH LAW
LAW OVERSEAS
CANNABIS AS HEMP
FILMS
I Love You, Alice B. Toklas (1968)
Easy Rider (1969)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
The Harder They Come (1973)
Midnight Express (1978)
Cheech & Chong series
Up in Smoke (1978)
Cheech & Chong's Next Movie (1980)
Still Smokin' (1983)
The Corsican Brothers (1984)
Withnail & I (1987)
Dazed and Confused (1994)
- Channel 4, when closed, broadcasts a Ceefax type thing; one item was:
- Joke: VO starts: 'Ruling Passions.. takes a look at how a growth in the economy brought with it a growth of prostitution.'
- Thurs 9 March 95: Channel 4 9-10 p.m. Radio Times blurb: 'Secret Lives. Mountbatten. Tonight's programme examines the public and private life of Lord Louis Mountbatten and looks behind the heroic image that he was so desperate to present to the world. Director Tim Shawcross. Executive producer Anthony Geffen.'
- Mon 27 Mar 95: Shortish item on computer porn, and 'moral panic' idea of the coverage in newspapers. A BCS chap says a disk can give A4 pages, pictures are very difficult, videos are impossible. A sort of Tory type talks of infections eating into children's minds. Similar comment about neo Fascist groups; April 20th & Hitler's birthday.
- 12.25-1.20 BBC1 John Humphrys 'and the team' in 'News; on the Record'. A few days after local elections in which the Tories were described as 'massacred'. Curious lack of pretence among various presented hacks in locations and studios to lack of bias:
- Sun 21 May 1995: BBC news item on deaths off Australia of huge numbers of pilchards. Intro talks of 'mystery virus'. Item then has two interviews: one says it may be a virus; another says it may be microflora which grows in the gills, choking the fish. In other words they don't seem to have a clue. VO said it definitely wasn't pollution 'as only pilchard are affected.'
- Sun 28 May 95: See notes in \art on 'Plunder' three part series & Germans & 'The Pergamon Altar'
- Mon 5 Jun 95: BBC consumer programme: juice plus [supposedly equivalent to eating fruit and veg; in fact very little fibre - other ingredients not commented on] and its individual person-to-person salespeople style again on TV as claims are denied & it's found that salespeople still make medical claims they supposedly shouldn't
-Wed 14 Jun 95: Joy Gardner: 2 police (one woman?) found innocent by jury; 'reasonable force'.. "Joy's lying in the cemetery .. I will fight till I die.."
- Sun 25 June 1995: [I have this on video tape:] BBC2 9.10-10.00 pm: Radio Times: 'Myths and Memories of World War II. The second in a four-parts series presented by peter Taylor in which radical stances about the Second World War are proposed and challenged. In tonight's programme, investigative journalist Tom Bower questions the role played by Britain in the prosecution of Nazi war criminals. [sic; Italian, Japanese, others not mentioned in blurb]
- Tue 25 July, 95: Radio Times on BBC2, 8.30-9 pm, 'Public Eye Islam's Militant Tendency ...Hizb'ut Tahrir.. With a hardcore following estimated at 2,000, how much of a threat does it pose to Muslims and others?'
-Wed 2 August, 95: Second and last part of Steven King's 'The Tommyknockers'. Margaret tells me breathlessly the green light in the woods came from an alien space ship underground. The man with the plate in his head pretend he was one of them to his girlfriend and went into it, and rescued the two little children. Then he took off (he had a sort of drill thing going into his head, that's how he knew how to!) and by just force of his will he blew it up!
-Fri 11 August, 95: Joke: aged John Hurt acting as ex Brit held by Japanese in PoW thing. Making him say 75? Promo thing shows Hurt saying he'd "remember his voice anywhere.. it wasn't the emperor in this room. It was you!.. admit your guilt!" "I was forrowing olders!"
- Tue 22 August, 95: BBC2 programme 7.30-8 'big science' promotional thing, Edward Teller still alive: thick accent, trousers up chest, promoting nuclear weapons as defence against 'asteroids'
- Sunday 27th August 1995, Channel 4, 9-10 p.m.
- Sun 3/10/17 Sept 1995: 'Pharaohs and Kings: a Biblical Quest' by 'Egyptologist David Rohl.' 3 episodes 8-9 p.m. Rohl has a hefty Mancunian accent, a northern receding chin, beard, and nearly always seems to wear dark glasses - though this may be an effect of Levantine sunlight.
- THREE ANOMALIES: [All incidentally in 'Centuries of Darkness']
- Mon 4 Sept 95: 9-9.45 BBC2: 'The X Files' returns.
- Sun 22 Oct 95: [Radio Times blurb: 'Timewatch' 7.30-8.20:] 'Kamikaze. The word.. is synonymous with death. But not every kamikaze who vowed to die in the Second World War fulfilled his promise. Shot down on route [sic] .. Or still waiting to be called when the war ended, .. A handful.. Survived. Tonight's film.. First-time interviews [sic]. Special fury of the kamikaze.. Interviews with us veterans.. Difficulty of fighting an enemy determined to die.'
- Mon 27 Nov 95: BBC2 8-8.50 pm. Horizon. 'A Code in the Nose' [with £3 booklet] Tonight's big programme follows the development by biophysicist Luca Turin of a radical theory to decipher the language of smell.'
- Thurs 7 Dec 95: Channel 4, Secret Lives on Baden-Powell, I think partly based on the work of a historian, called something like Lear or Jeal:
- Thu 14 December, 95 "..tough new rules to prevent any possibility of BSE entering the food chain announced today", says TV news. [Later this turns out to mean the use of ground up spine is not to be tolerated in 'burgers'! as some evidence exists of occasional slight traces etc in the enormously decreasing number of cows with BSE - or something]
- 1995 Royal Institution lectures on Geology, by someone called Jackson; at this time I haven't made PC notes on this (though I thought I had.. I think I've written them down)
heroically, "largely invented" said VO. 1/3 died, one for each sleeper etc. The number who died in the other services etc naturally not given for comparison; nor of course figures for Burmese.
- Tue 22 August, 95: BBC2 programme 7.30-8 'big science' promotional thing, Edward Teller still alive: thick accent, trousers up chest, promoting nuclear weapons as defence against 'asteroids'
- Sunday 27th August 1995, Channel 4, 9-10 p.m.
- Sun 3/10/17 Sept 1995: 'Pharaohs and Kings: a Biblical Quest' by 'Egyptologist David Rohl.' 3 episodes 8-9 p.m. Rohl has a hefty Mancunian accent, a northern receding chin, beard, and nearly always seems to wear dark glasses - though this may be an effect of Levantine sunlight.
- THREE ANOMALIES: [All incidentally in 'Centuries of Darkness']
- Mon 4 Sept 95: 9-9.45 BBC2: 'The X Files' returns.
- Sun 22 Oct 95: [Radio Times blurb: 'Timewatch' 7.30-8.20:] 'Kamikaze. The word.. is synonymous with death. But not every kamikaze who vowed to die in the Second World War fulfilled his promise. Shot down on route [sic] .. Or still waiting to be called when the war ended, .. A handful.. Survived. Tonight's film.. First-time interviews [sic]. Special fury of the kamikaze.. Interviews with us veterans.. Difficulty of fighting an enemy determined to die.'
- Mon 27 Nov 95: BBC2 8-8.50 pm. Horizon. 'A Code in the Nose' [with £3 booklet] Tonight's big programme follows the development by biophysicist Luca Turin of a radical theory to decipher the language of smell.'
- Thurs 7 Dec 95: Channel 4, Secret Lives on Baden-Powell, I think partly based on the work of a historian, called something like Lear or Jeal:
- Thu 14 December, 95 "..tough new rules to prevent any possibility of BSE entering the food chain announced today", says TV news. [Later this turns out to mean the use of ground up spine is not to be tolerated in 'burgers'! as some evidence exists of occasional slight traces etc in the enormously decreasing number of cows with BSE - or something]
- 1995 Royal Institution lectures on Geology, by someone called Jackson; at this time I haven't made PC notes on this (though I thought I had.. I think I've written them down)
[I didn't think to ask how Feldman got it onto tv]. Chris said the interviewees sign a release form; their interview can be used in any way, except, Short said, ridiculously short or misleading bits etc, though he didn't state whether this was contractual or just a convention. He said he wouldn't be surprised if Feldman was responsible for the fake.
- Tue 2 Jan 96: 'Food and Drink' BBC2 8.30-9 p.m. For some reason parts of this struck me as insanely silly. In particular Jill Goulden on coffee. Ageing, silly finicky voice; this is a plunger type coffee maker! A million are sold every year! Instant coffee is all very well if you like that sort of thing. Here are green beans, like the kernel of the cherry. They have to be roasted. The thing to watch for is the ?grind. If it's too coarse, the coffee will be watery. If it's too fine, the coffee will be cloudy. So buy medium. [Then we see her drink, with slight but distinct slurp; since of course the flavour can't be communicated, this struck me as particularly ludicrous. She drinks cups of a few blends - e.g. Marks and Spencer 'Connoisseur Blend', or something.] Don't have too much or too little!
-4 January 1996 BBC TV on forensic medical evdience; odontologist (=teeth man?) from southern USA says 9/10 victims are female: "there is a war against females in the U.S.A"
- BBC 14 January 1996 Timewatch - Karnak, a Hidden History Producer Michael Stewart; Editor Laurence Rees. VO Andrew Sachs. [Ends with lots on Christianity - somewhat irrelevant; but this is Sunday after all!]
-15 Jan 1996: 'Fermat's Last Theorem' on BBC2, Horizon. A letter in 10-16 Feb 96 Radio Times, congratulating 'Simon Singh in particular' [producer, I guess], though the letter, from Datta Gumaste, might have had an axe to grind.
- Thur 18 January, 96 BBC2 programme 'Traces of Guilt' 9 - 9.50 on forensic science; psychiatrists/ psychologists discuss male patients, one who shot a woman whose car he'd stolen, with a woman accomplice; in the back (in US); the other in Britain, man I think black who'd murdered a woman in whose house, which he said he'd believed empty, he'd been prowling.
-Sun 21 Jan 96: "Director of Public Prosecutions to step down; denies.. connection with failure.. case against the.. Maxwell brothers.."
-22 Jan 1966: BBC2 Horizon 8-8.50 'A Miracle for cancer?' with several mentions in the Radio Times which I've filed away. Dr Donald Morton of the John Wayne Cancer Institute in California main subject here; article by Dr Mark Porter, on skin cancer, describes his supposed immunisation approach (the programme showed his huge collection of sample melanomas, kept apparently in liquid nitrogen; he selected two or three for his 'vaccine', though I forget the criteria he used.
-Thu 1 February, 96: Dorinda Hafner on Caribbean food, in Dominica, Channel 4, says Caribs got reserve in 1904 (I think; certainly about then) under British. there are now 3400 or so, though this seems to include 1/2., 1/4 etc. They seem to make castor oil from seeds and squeeze sugar sap from sugar cane with simple ecological wooden pole. A, or the, 'community leader' says [in English] he didn't think they ever were cannibals; but if say a man was smart, his skull would be kept in a hut where everyone could be influenced by it; or if (I think) strong, bits of muscle. "This is how the Carib thought. So they came and they thought, these fellows eat people." Anecdote by Hafner about Spanish being stringy, French something else, Dutch bland - presumably therefore made up.
-Thu 1 February, 96: news I think ITV on the end of an inquiry on disposal of radioactive waste proposal in Sellafield. 10,000 year figure quoted. ".. With the cold war, the plutonium the military needed was an asset, and nuclear power stations could not have been economic.. there is now a glut in uranium.." style of thing. Many protests; and several anguished suited people drivelling. Maybe nuclear power won't be privatised after all.
-Wed 7 February, 96: Channel 4, 'Dispatches', 9-10 p.m. on forthcoming Scott report: 'profile' of ?Chief Justice Scott, including disgruntled Geoffrey Howe, nothing from Waldegrave, [first name] Cohen, a Labour M.P. on the Iran/Iraq war and deaths for profit greater than those of Second World War (he claims) including children & Britain supplying arms in second place to US as merchants of death, Bernard Ingham saying even card players play with cards hidden & Scott wasn't an expert on public administration and governments in future will avoid reports, Scrivener Q.C. on Scott's horsemanship & incidentally how the reduction in secrecy will bring "Britain into the 20th century.." as no other country has such secrecy, he claims (without evidence), other miscellaneous comments on family army Indian background and his cycling in central London, Allason ('Nigel West') being smarmy and saying there's a joke that the wrong Scott was picked by mistake and PIICs [I think] public interest immunity certificates with civil servant coming to minister -please sign this but it's complicated so don't bother reading it - Allason says "won't happen again", Tory MP in a taxi talking about the 'standards we set ourselves' being too high & the French are completely unscrupulous (no evidence).
- Thu 8 Feb, 96: BBC1 9 pm News: obituary item on Warlock, I think Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool.
-Thur Feb 8 1996: BBC1 9pm News: Quite a long piece on currency union, trying to promote it, despite the interviewers clearly having no idea what to make of it. Presumably their brief is to take the official line. What they did was examine far east competition. What would they think? Would Europe be more of a threat?
-Sat 10 Feb 1996: South Africa: [I'm pretty sure this is the right date:] SABC relaunched with a 3 hour special programme on the 'rainbow nation'. Mandela in it, with Stevie Wonder and O J Simpson's black lawyer flown in, to an air base, to help. A11 languages to be represented.
-1996: At some point Trevor McDonald in the 'main news' read out a story on the Spice Girls. By about 2020 McDonald is being presented as a sort of black sage, with anecdotes about Jew puppets such as Mandela. Very sad.
-Sat 10th Feb 1996: 'Scott of the Arms Antics' presented by Sheena McDonald [".. this is the head of the civil service, remember"], Rory Bremner (doing mimic jokes inc Heseltine character, did he plan it so he'd emerge looking well?), Paul Foot (making rather brief appearances, summing up at intervals: .. elected by no-one, .. elected by no-one, ..) and actors acting the main parts. With b/w scratchy mock-newsreel film with VO possibly by Foot.
-Sun 11 Feb 96: 7-8 p.m. 'Time Team' digs up a 'Roman field' near Lavenham.
-Sun 11 Feb 1996: Channel 4, 8-8.30 pm, 'Wired World' supposedly surveys the world's media. E.g. a soap in Lebanon with discussion of adultery etc, apparently going down a storm. Unclear whether it's received in Saudi Arabia!
-Mon 12 Feb 1996: Horizon 8 pm BBC2. BBC science is invariably bad. Radio Times blurb: 'High above our heads, beyond the clouds, there is a strange sandwich of space that lies between the earth's atmosphere and a hostile [sic] universe. This is the ionosphere, little understood but vital for survival. [cp. 'hole in the ozone layer' as hard impression of something vague.] [Joke:] Without it we would burn up from the scorching solar winds.
- Tue 13 February, 96: 9 pm BBC1 news:
- Wed 14 Feb 1996: 11.15-11.45 BBC2. Radio Times blurb: 'The Big Idea Andrew Marr's last guest of the series is Noam Chomsky, linguist and critic of the American establishment.
- Wed 28 Feb 96: Dispatches on Channel 4 investigates the Post Office! Seemed rather dull stuff on company, given contract to produce new logo stationery etc, tooling up in the £100s of thousands and then refusing to do something or other and having business taken away.
-?MARCH 1996; I didn't note the date; certainly before May 1996. Einstein, but with emphasis on his personality, including his illegitimate daughter (and also a son who seems to have been more or less insane); played by Andrew Sachs as rather quaint little old man with German accent.
-March 1996, no other date noted by me: Maya glyphs on 'Tomorrow's World' (BBC)
-5 March 1996: 9-9.30 Channel 4 Without Walls: In Search of the Holy Foreskin presented by Miles Kington. Before being stolen in 1983, this was reputedly housed in a jewelled reliquary in a church at Calcata, north of Rome. [The point was, after the 'ascension', every bit of the body disappeared; then someone thought..] [He states at very end that the Pope in 1900 forbade any mention of it on pain of excommunication]. He found this church, but it was locked and the priest had gone away; could be related to the fact that jewels from the reliquary had disappeared while in his care & the preputio [a certificate of authentication was shown - sort of early printing effort] had been stolen while he kept it at home in a shoe box during refurbishment. He got a view into the church through a grill in a wall in the house next door, which looked down into it!
Other oddities inc medieval ads offering for sale feather from wing of Gabriel, breath in crystal of I think two apostles, milk from Mary. More or less mummified body of 'saint Rita' though I think the eyes looked fake. And a house of Mary ?(I think) carried across the sea by angels. Built into a building, inside a church. Jokes about devil having the best tunes - & must also have the tasteful souvenirs. Another saint was I think Christina, or perhaps Catherine, who had invisible stigmata! Only she could see them.
-Sun 17 March, 96: Clive Anderson on Sunday evening BBC in Palestine and Beirut; goes to ?Chatila camp, and to TV channel run by 'Islamic fundamentalists' [he doesn't challenge this description; he asks them whether they'd give the Israeli point of view] and to refugees for 50 years or so in Lebanon with accounts of attacks and burials etc; generally talks to various people - including [Joke: rather seedy etc] 'beautiful people' in advertising and publishing (sic) by hotel swimming pool. Probably one of the first times ever?
- Sunday 24th March 1996: Radio Times: 7.30-8.20 BBC2 'Wheeler on America [this is a grey haired actor type] Charles Wheeler presents the last of five examinations of American society. The Reagan Legacy. Once derided as a minor movie actor with unrealistic political ambitions, Ronald Reagan has turned out to be one of the most lastingly influential US presidents in modern history. Reagan was more communicator than political activist [sic; cp Chomsky on 'the great communicator' I think he was nicknamed by hacks] but his legacy lives on, especially in the House of Representatives, controlled by the New Right. President Clinton's hopes of election to a second term are threatened by such opposition. Director/ producer David C Taylor.'
-Tue 26 March, 96 Indian sounding neurologist produces a report on 'gulf war syndrome'; TV shows a veteran, i.e. a youth, concerned about his health.
-Tue 26 March 96 in Warsaw the Queen, Elizabeth, didn't read out a sentence about the suffering of the Jews. At 'Warsaw National Theatre' for ballet performance. You could see a pause in the TV showing of this brief event. This followed protests about her not being scheduled to see Auschwitz.
- John Durant = Professor of Public Understanding of Science (2nd in UK?) at Imperial College, some time in April 1996, in TV programme on possibility box containing Jesus Christ's remains was found]
- Sunday 14th April 1996: Radio Times blurb:
-Sunday 14th April 1996: [Note: medical malpractice, corruption:] Channel 4 9-10 p.m. 'Deep Sleep' in 'Secret History strand'. This was a repeat. Radio Times blurb says: 'Developed by psychiatrists in Britain and the USSR in the 1930s, deep sleep therapy was believed to be beneficial to people suffering from anxiety, depression and some forms of mental illness. Tonight's film suggests that these attempts to manipulate the human mind led to people being subjected to brutal experimental treatment at a hospital in Australia between 1963 and 1978. It tells a disturbing story of uninvestigated malpractice, secrecy and cover-up at the highest levels. .. Director/Producer John Edginton.'
-Radio Times blurb doesn't give any of the doctors' names
-'DST', or 'coma' therapy
-Dr William Sargant's techniques. His patients were fed three times a day (not from tubes).
- Tues 16 Ap 96, 8-8.30 pm BBC2: engineer William Le Messurier 'discovered that a flaw in the skyscraper he designed threatened thousands of lives in one of the most densely populated areas on Earth' Producer Roiger Parsons/ series editor Michael Poole
- Tuesday 16 April 1996 Channel 4: 'Without Walls: the Elgin Marbles A Fifteen to One Special.'
- Wed 17 April, 96: 8.30-9 pm, Lonely Planet Channel 4 has US Jewish woman Justine Shapiro in SW China going on about speaking English and inter alia seeing Chinese folk costume/ hair with horn of wood, headpieces worn by the 'Long Horn Miao tribe'/ dance/ song/ greetings in remote hill tribe; also Tibetan style life on a plateau/ eating dog, government hotels, hiring bike, motor bike to the hills, limestone (she calls them) steep sided hills - some interesting geological thing. And giant pandas.
- Sun 21 April 96: BBC 7.30-8.20. 6-part 'History of British Art' [i.e. from 1066] 'During the Middle Ages, the British Isles produced a magical and visually inventive landscape full of saints, sinners and demons. But the Reformation in the 16th century started a destructive tradition of image-smashing. Andrew Graham-Dixon travels across the country viewing some of the greatest pieces that managed to escape the bonfires of Protestant extremism.
- Sun 21 April 96: BBC2 8.20-9 pm: 'The Money Programme Electricity What is known about the Americans who are buying British electricity companies? After a spate of takeovers by giant US corporations, questions are being raised about their suitability as owners of Britain's regional electricity boards. Simon Gompertz asks whether the electricity regulator will be able to keep the newcomers under control.
Producer James Stephenson; Editor Jane Ellison.' says Radio Times blurb.
- Sun 21 April, 96: Channel 4 had an apparently one-off programme on 'Ebola Fever', 8-9 pm, 'Encounters Plague Doctors':
-Tues 23 April 96: 8.30-9pm ITV 'The Cook Report'. Roger Cook's 13th series. He's now rather plump.
- Timothy Leary died Fri 31 May, 96 aged 75. BBC news says 'President Nixon called him the most dangerous man in America'
- Wed 12th June 96: Channel 4 'Dispatches' 9-9.45 pm on BSE (with slight mention of CJD). Introduced with typical teaser VOs: '.. controversial NEW evidence.. one man's search for the true cause of BSE.. government policy on slaughtering.. the implications for British beef and FOR ALL OF US.. reveals important and growing support.. why slaughtering our cattle could be the WORST thing we could do..'
-Mon 17 June, 96: Panorama on BBC1 (and also IBA, though this only appears in the Radio Times as 'World in Action Another hard-hitting investigation from the current affairs programme') have items on meat: Harold Hillman described it to me as follows - the government imposed a ban on offal in feed, but no policing of this. For four years manufacturers continued, and farmers used it. Found 50% of slaughterhouses still used banned offal. Government vet and others all say there's no danger. Harold didn't know which years; he thought about 1990-4, whereas looking at the Purdey item above I suspect it was from 1988. Radio Times blurb says 'So far BSE.. deaths of 160,000 cows.. may lead to Creutzfeldt Jakob disease in humans [sic]. .. Government's handling.. threatens to split Europe, Gerry Northam reports on a decade of official mistakes and cover-ups. .. Note: .. the above programme is liable to change.'
-Tue 18 June, 96: 9 pm-10 pm Will Hutton three part 'critique' based on 'The State We're In'.
-Tue 18 June, 96: [NB: Copy of Randi's TV series of I think 1991?] BBC2 11.15-11.35 pm 'Strange Days' three part series 'investigating' superstition in modern times. With journalist Catherine Bennett. [Watch for the taboos!]:
[1] stone blocks: use of round stone to square off blocks (and ?smaller ones for bevelled edges.
- Another (I think the first) in the 'Secrets of Lost Empires' series [repeated Jan 1997) dealt with stonehenge; or at least tried to. Mostly about Mark Whitby, 'an engineer', who in summer 1995 constructed a trilithon along with a few hundred volunteers. Narrated by Art Malik. 'Producer Cynthia Page. Executive producer Robin Brightwell.' For my notes on this programme, and similar stuff, see \prehistory.
-[Around this time ?Wellcome-Glaxo are advertising themselves as a caring company etc; I noted one ad for tuberculosis, i.e. we are working on it; and one on 'HIV', claiming more deaths than in some part of the First World War. Visual had moving blobby pictures looking like cells with implication they were showing viruses or cells damaged by viruses.]
-Mon 19 Aug 96: ITV 9-10 pm: 'Sex and the Scientists: Our Brilliant Careers'.
- At least two use the phrase "lateral thinking"/ lots of group photos
MUIR: [Note: Research Institute:] "molecule which holds water molecules in place" - 1950s "discovered protoglycan" - retired in 1990 from K.I. - BTHM means "I've been to Helen Muir"; this is what people who work at her Institute say when applying for jobs elsewhere. Whether her Institute has discovered anything is not revealed.
CARTWRIGHT: She worked with Hardy and Littlewood, who supposedly worked on radar during the war.
STEWART:
-Thur 22nd Aug 1996: Channel 4, 'Secret History', 'Konkordski' - this had been cancelled previous to this showing.
-DST='French Intelligence Service'
-16 Concordes built. 1967: Concorde just rolled out.
-17 TU144s built. TU144 bigger than Concord. First version's wings weren't right; European version thin at the front, thick at the back - or something. Revised version had little planes (canards) behind the nose. It I think was i service in the Soviet Union and perhaps still is.
-It was a sort of milestone in industrial spying, says someone. Unfortunately not much evidence given; and what there was at the level of someone putting chewing-gum like rubber on the tarmac so someone sampling it would report that to the Russians.
-Technical chap said I think Concorde was designed to take -1G at top, +7G at bottom; TU144 only 5G at bottom.
-Some American said we took the TU144 very seriously indeed.
-Joint French-Russian report stated the black box had been destroyed
-$20 bn required for development of new supersonic plane for Pacific rim.
-8 French citizens killed. The French
-Sat 24, & Sun 25 August, 1996: pair of BBC2 programmes; supposedly a biography of H G Wells. Rather sad pair of misrepresentations.
-Sun 25 August, 96: Channel 4: third and last part of 'Brainspotting', with rather gormless bald actor Ken Campbell interviewing some 'thinkers' and doing hefty VO; lots of rather irrelevant shots of car journeys, man in trunks apparently floating underwater (suggesting this is like a flotation tank), model of brain lit up blue in bubbly water etc.
-Bank Holiday Mon 26 August, 96: BBC2 has whole evening on Star Trek, perhaps to do with '30th anniversary', perhaps with showing a 1 1/2 hour long 'pilot' for a new series apparently with a female captain.
- Sun 1 Sept 96: Channel 4, 7-8 p.m. 'Break the Science Barrier with Richard Dawkins'
-Prof Joceyn Bell Burnell (of OU) "discovered pulsars" with story of Jodrell Bank radio telescope trace & her inspection of it revealing regular one per second or so pulses (I think); presumably as the telescope swept the sky the trace would stop. This at Jodrell Bank is "example of the kind of science that really inspires me."
-Dr Matthew ?Britain of 'Save British Science'
-Prof Sir Alec Jeffreys, on DNA fingerprinting: he says "lawyers demand absolute certainty"
-Sun 8 Sept 96: Ch 4: Equinox 7 p.m. [Note: 'tests':] 'The Mystery of the Cocaine Mummies'. Radio Times blurb says: 'In 1992, routine tests on a mummy in a Munich museum revealed high levels of cocaine and nicotine. But, when the results were published, they were heavily criticised because such substances come from the Americas, and were, apparently, not discovered until thousands off years after the passing of the Egyptian dynasties.
- 27 Sept 96: Afghanistan: ex-Russian plant ?Najib Bullah killed by new people, always referred to as Islamic fundamentalists on BBC news.
- Sun 29 Sept, 96: 7-8 p.m. Channel 4, 'Equinox' 'The science documentary series.'
-Hislop on BBC TV's 'Have I Got News For You..', first programme of new series, started Oct 96; says the prosecution against Kevin Maxwell was dropped, apparently, said Hislop, on the grounds that his wife found it a strain. Pity the Birmingham 6 didn't think of that, he says.
-Tues 8 Oct 96: Radio Times on BBC2 'Timewatch'; blurb for 9-9.50 pm BBC2:
-Thurs 10th Oct 1996: BBC news says tablet near the Unknown Soldier was unveiled by the Queen; it was to children and innocents caught in war. The queen's speech referred to the 'Dean and Chapter.'
-Fri 11th Oct 1996. Radio Times on 'Strange but True?' Encounters (not BBC); their blurb says 'Continuing the extraordinary story of American psychic, Dixie Yeterian, who helps the police solve crimes by giving them detailed information from her visions. Presented by Michael Aspel. Executive producer Ralph Jones. ..' [sic. I.e. presented as though true.]
BBC1 9 o'clock news Fri 11 Oct 96:
-Sun 27 Oct 96, Channel 4: 'Equinox' 7 pm:
-[Note: twin studies: NB I think I have notes on a similar rather silly programme, including American twins whose same brand of beer was taken as evidence of similarity]
- [Also obligatory stuff about Nazis, this time by heavily bearded American:} ".. deemed inferior.. we had sterilisation, we had immigration laws.." [sic; as though these things don't apply now! Consider abortion, oral contraceptives, and of course immigration laws]
- [Seems to be doubt about the number of studies: Prof Nick Martin, of Queensland Institute for Medical Research, talks of 100,000 twin pairs; Prof Robert Plomin (American) of Institute of Psychiatry seems to switch from dozens to tens of thousands, tested 'for mental abilities'.
VO: "A very strange view is emerging"
Prof: ".. surprising fact.. e.g. unrelated, adopted children brought up together.. being reared together doesn't tend to make people alike. It makes children alike, but when they grow up.. no more alike.. than random pairs of people.." [Prob. measure of being 'alike' is in terms of thousands of 'measurements' made, in Minnesota; not stated what these were.]
-In fact this dealt with only two main cases, an English woman who seems to have caught it after moving to Turkey, and Mayho, a nurse, who showed the huge pile of drugs he was to take.
-November 1996: BBC: Richard Dimbleby lecture given by Richard Dawkins. These notes made after one listening. Smallish theatre with bust of RD to one side, and David Dimbleby, getting older, delivering introduction, praising Dawkins' lack of slides.
-Mon 4 November, 96: BBC1 Panorama on 'The worst school in England' - The Ridings, in Yorkshire. A 'sink' school. The thrust of the programme seemed to be to blame the teachers; one official (Chief Inspector of Schools!) says children get bored if not stimulated. Chap who's head for Yorkshire says waffly things. NUSAWT (I think) secretary seems to say the problem can't exist, as teachers would be disciplined. When Oftel inspectors visited, a classroom was filmed from a building opposite and showed some scenes of e.g. kids throwing things, and a boy outside the school, presumably sent out, intermittently kicking a door handle; and at the end of a lesson [deafening be;l] lights going on and off 'simulating a disco'; impossible to guess how widespread such activity was. Girl of 13 there famous for having a child. The headmistress seemed rather pathetic and kept 'excluding' children - perhaps a euphemism for expel. Not one single child interviewed; and not one single teacher (confirmed by Margaret!) - unless you count the Headmistress, who complained in a report she had to teach too much. The 13 year old girl was shown with her mother and grandmother, having tried unsuccessfully to arrange for the girl to attend classes. The chairman of the school governors a bearded vicar, one of quite a few not very impressive types. There were however bits shown from a home video of a school play, a musical, which seemed quite cheerful and jolly. Note: fake picture style: some shots reversed out, and with chunky click superimposed, to emphasize (or invent) flashgun shots of e.g. official.
-?7th November 1996: Despatches 'The Truth About CS' appeared acc. to Robert Jones of Freedom to Care. E.g. on its use to separate a woman from her baby; when supposedly only for serious cases.
- Mon 2 December, 96: 'Horizon' on BBC; 'Time Lords' about 'time travel', 'worm holes', interference with single photons through two slits, negative energy (or matter?) etc. with e.g. bald Sagan & electric-voiced Hawking, plus lots of heavily accented men (German, Russian?).
- Sat 14 Dec 96: 8-9 pm Channel 4. 'The Saga of Life' Radio Times says: 'Lennart Nilsson, the Photographer. The last of three programmes celebrating the innovatory work of the acclaimed Swedish. Tonight a look at how Nilsson discovered the techniques he has used, and how he aims to extend his impressive portfolio.' {I've just found an Internet site in a Skeptics group linking to
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/nova/odyssey - Jan 98}
- Sun 15 December, 96: 'Equinox' on Channel 4 has programme supposedly on anti-science; unfortunately very trashy.
-Tues 17 Dec 96: 7.30-8 BBC2 'The Verdict'. [Note: pseudo-documentary]
-In a way rather comic. Rather sad working class balding chap whose job is to walk along a few corridors wearing ballet tights among other thing carrying the 'purse'. He says "it's like anything else, really." He's pleased with his good job. And uninterviewed woman is the 'train bearer'. The secretary was some sort of civil servant, short, bearded, in a shirt. His job is to arrange the desk - in tray on left, presumably (no details) pre-sorted in some way or passed up from lower courts, or something; meetings in top right, diary page, and out-tray. Also a big blotter; things not complete 'hit the blotter'. No information as to what work he did or how it managed to be exactly enough to fill a day. A couple of Scottish or 'Scottish' chaps shown, one making a few vague statements of praise, the other very disgruntled, accusing him of playing the pantaloon (I think that was his expression) & saying how they all laugh when he walks backwards after I think presenting the queen with 'her' ?speech.
-No evidence given for any of the statements in this programme; what e.g. does it take to 'quickly rise' etc through the various judge hierarchies? Is he in fact mathematically analytical? For example there was no evidence in the few sentences he uttered that he even understood the way legal systems operate. Was he in fact a reformer? The blurb given above assumes it; but is it true? For that matter, would that be anything new? He seems to have incurred the wrath of barristers (apparently only about 400 solicitors do the work of barristers; there were some formidable obstacles. Mackay said he thought the distinction was in terms of the type of work they do - I think he meant looking up technical stuff vs appearing in court.) Somehow, in a way not explained, he incurred the wrath of solicitors too; this seems to have been related to legal aid, about which, of course, little information was given. Except that, in reply to a claim her was a hit man for the Treasury, Mackay said the legal aid bill had increased every year since (some date; 1980s?) Also he incurred the wrath of Law Lords; Hogg was shown laughing at his own weak joke about a grocers shop in Grahn-tham, and others saying e.g. that tyranny doesn't always arrive in the shape of a man in a toothbrush moustache. The impression was of moneyed people under attack. The was a twelve hour 'debate', through all of which Mackay remained 'on the woolsack'. His working class purse chappie looked up his diary for that debate to confirm the time. Was Mackay in fact cutting back on 'liberty'? What effects would his reforms have? No attempt of course was made to answer these questions.
-Tue 17 Dec 96: BBC2: 9.40-10.30: 'The Seventh Wonder of the World'. Radio Times blurb: 'The lighthouse of Alexandria in Egypt, erected in the third century BC, was regarded as the seventh wonder of the ancient world. An ancestor of modern skyscrapers, it was 400 feet high, had 300 rooms, and alerted shipping with a lantern visible for more than 40 miles.
-Wed 18 Dec: 8-8.30 'Discovery Channel' with Arthur C Clarke had an account of four fakes:
1961
David Attenborough: after Zoo Quest in 1950s/ 1961 controller of BBC2 (see 1962 entry), then subsequently [don't know date] controller of TV programmes
- 'Anglia Television's Survival Series first appeared on the TV screen in 1961. Since then this wildlife programme has become world-famous. It is shown in 93 countries and is the only British television programme to be fully networked (by NBC) in the United States. Anglia set out .. etc'
[From the jacket of 'Orang Utan', the book of a programme about two Swiss women in Sumatra; programme was voiceovered by Peter Ustinov. It seems to give the lie to the idea that Attenborough achieved first great success in this field and generally invented the genre.]
1962
16th April 1962 start of BBC2; at any rate Sat 16 Apr 94 had a thirtieth anniversary programme in the evening, consisting of not very much (e.g. bit of Call My Bluff, embarrassingly bad, in which actors and actresses read out and seem to embroider for themselves bogus definitions of words from the C.O.D., but are so ignorant and stupid that even the correct definitions have blunders incorporated into their comic 'explanations'.
Joke: cp Chomsky on thirty years of American TV; never once been acknowledged that "we invaded South Vietnam"
I think this marked the start of the infinitely boring Dickens serials, praised as 'classics', which what always struck me as hopeless actors, invariably posed from a distance, perhaps to show the sets and clothes, and therefore failing to show the mannerisms of the characters [joke:] as of by people taking snaps.
Another b/w thing has church, cut to little boy, cut to suddenly hopping up 'convict', cut to hand across mouth of boy etc in hard-to-pin-down unconvincing sequence.
BBC and then ITV did mid 1970s Hard Times (ITV) then Bleak House (BBC) attempting to be realistic and also costing a lot.
Music has rather grating theme (which reappeared in a somewhat changed form in two further series. Like all Lew Grade things the titles include hand-drawn cartoon-like images and shapes).
1962: [Note: 1960s architecture?] Bucknell's House [in at least 27 episodes; don't know total] through this year, the house being a place in Ealing; a Radio Times note says he 'did for hardboard what Blue Peter later did for cardboard', and encouraged people to box in banisters, rip out dadoes, and cut off knobs from newel posts of banisters. I don't know how fair this comment is.
- Following transcribed from \reference\audio tapes, which are taken from TV, and which had extracts from programmes broadcast originally in 1993
- Side 1 is incomplete, because the programmes were running late:
On video, the layout was 'innovative': cameramen in pullovers and shirts (by today's standards stuffily dressed) firmly in technician mode; desk for Frost et al, and a barstool for Millicent Martin to prop up her bum; tiered audience visible on some views, apparently with staged couple of claqueurs right at the front, applauding enthusiastically and with beaming smiles for piffling items. Orchestra seemed over to one side. Interesting use of, I think, back projection: one scene, supposedly of civil servants, had a marble fireplace behind; another had an ordinary domestic interior with 1960s crazy paved chimney etc. Not very large screen visible when the cameras panned back. Though we don't see the projector turned on/off. Possibly, therefore, a backdrop. Worth noting much use of recorded music, e.g. the 'Maria' scenes and Norrie Paramor; I wondered whether out-of-sync thing was deliberate, to show it wasn't live, or perhaps just to look more interesting.
1962. Lots and lots of music: Millicent Martin at the start; Millicent Martin sings jazz song in the style of somebody - "a new songwriting style"; Millicent Martin mimes with another chap to Norrie Paramor - there's a whole section on Norrie Paramor, some headlines read out in Jewish voice, at one point a slushy song being backed by a scene of an atom bomb exploding in slow motion, and his ordinary music and ordinariness and his great power and his name on record jackets, presumably inspired by personal dislike by Ned Sherrin; a couple of Marias from West Side story. And [note: class assumption:] Millicent Martin sings a song about illegitimate babies, up to 1 in 8 in London. Long thing about not knowing its father, end of Second World War, soon be a majority, the world is full of bastards, and list of famous ones including William the Conqueror, various early church people, Lawrence of Arabia, Leonardo, whom Martin, as a mother, is implausibly supposed to know, naturally no recognition of housing and the economics of the situation, of course. Note: It includes an offensive line about the north being dirty, dreary and bleak, or something similar. Worth noting class interests at many points, e.g. attitude to police as working class, attitude to homosexuality as something acceptable (no doubt a public school thing), etc.
Unemployment figures, and the 'Church of Rome' approving a vernacular translation, are two of the important topics included in songs.
David Frost at some point mentions the weakness of a "link" he's just done.
Timothy Birdsall does a cartoon: he shows what happens, e.g. Macmillan kneeling, under a cloud, wooing Britain represented by woman on a pillar; then the editor comes along, has names written on everything ['Mac', 'British opinion'], expresses pleasure, says he'll get somebody to draw it. Looked like the first of a dull series. I don't think the audience can have shared his interest in the behind-the-scenes dynamics of cartoons.
'Civil servants' sketch shows Lance Percival scrutinising a letter by a junior, standing beside him as he sits: [related to Vassall, who started a letter My Dear Profumo - or something:] ".. the favour of an early reply.. are you a homosexual? (pron. hommosexual) That's practically the same as being a traitor. Or are you one of these ?subversives who think the law should be changed so they won't be etc.." "It had crossed my mind sir" ".. Yours faithfully.. are you doing this on purpose? Just your name. masculine.. What is our name by the way?" "Er Fairey sir.." "Well I don't think you'll last long in the Civil Service.."
[Background of interior:] Lance Percival as a policeman says something like "Good evenin sir" in approved funny-voice style to Roy Kinnear. Then worldlessly punches him.
South Africa: series of newspaper ads paid for by South Africa House have been appearing, reasonable conversations between two very reasonable people. Cope asks questions of Frost on things like aren't blacks in the majority [that's why it's important that the whites' voice should be heard], house arrest, [it's a status symbol], etc. Nothing of course on actual economic involvement or military involvement etc.
Thing about 'Cross-Bencher' of the Sunday Express, and predictions he got wrong. Rushton with big book labelled scrapbook, reading out, intercut with Kenneth Cope reading out what actually happened. Probably about seven items; absurdly, no indication of how right he was generally.
Bernard Levin [looking young, tightly curled hair, beaming very attractively in between barbs]: "If there is one word to describe British catering, and there is, then that word is disgusting. .." on British catering; he explicitly compares France, Germany, Belgium, Holland in a sort of debate with Charles Forte, who responds in a rather stolid way on trainee caterers etc. Video tape ran out in the middle of this.
Bernard Levin interviews (or rather accuses of excessive Puritanism) an MP called Sir Cyril Osborne, described in subtitle as 'the extreme right wing MP'. Interesting completely phoney and inconclusive discussion. Osborne said he'd been invited to talk on the Denning Report on an affair [presumably Profumo] and made at tedious length four points, basically that only one MP of 630 wasn't an honourable man, and the others, despite intense and prolonged attacked, had been found innocent - by a High Court Judge [He stressed the title]. He favours work; "The socialist creed has been that wealth is only through work" or something; "if satire was all we had in this country we'd be hungry." "Hunger through satire has never been my slogan" said Levin, adjusting his specs, perhaps it occurs to me, a request for applause; at any rate, many in the audience applauded. Osborne produced HMSO annual volume of criminal statistics, from which he read, to Levin's simulated or real weariness; "What has this got to do with morality?" Levin agreed rising crime was deplorable. Osborne said he [himself] considers himself and is considered a wise man, and accused Levin of being young. He said he would get rid of dirty words. The voices were stopped with drumbeats, followed by the chords of the TWTWTW theme.
Before this Levin conducted an interview with some Aldermaston marchers, though this wasn't broadcast - just the bit before where a man punched Levin ineffectually for a disagreeable review of his (I presume) book or play.
Timothy Birdsall does a pointless piece 'forging a Picasso', painting on glass in uninspired and unimpressive way.
A song about 'Republic of South Africa' in which something happened in 1963; not quite sure what: man dressed in light shirt etc tries to sing in Sar Theffrican about nig-nogs working hard etc; nothing of course on economics of it. Ends with "Jesus Christ was a white man as well" - I'm not sure whether the song's author believed this.
Another rather odd song on Noel Coward ["Card"] and why not try the teenage market. Coward always seems to be pictured as young man with cigarette holder etc and fancy voice. Song starts "Teenager teenager/ selling your soul to the nearest bidder/ why don't you stop and consider/ where it will lead you at last... glittering child of tender years who's only half alive.. Saxophones in Greek Street, haze of marijuana, and "No wonder the beggars/ are all preggers" and ends "Teenager beware." Perhaps this was co-written by Christopher Booker.
Kenneth Cope does 'Maria', miming not well, in white jacket and black tie almost hidden under points of white shirt. It goes on and on. In comes Lance Percival. Cope: "for 23 weeks you've never been late what kept you?" Percival: slips on jacket: "Heh heh. Maria"
Some 'dirty talk' by Roy Kinnear and Millicent Martin, e.g. you can use the word 'bum' and 'po' on TV now. And an agile mind will detect things like 'take them off' means, you know, like, take your knickers off. "Ooh you dirty old man."
I voiceovered the names of the writers [inc Christopher Booker, Herbert Kretzmer, Eric Sykes] at the end.
1963
1963: 'Not So Much a Programme More a Way of Life' replaced TWTWTW; no doubt, though nobody says so, after many complaints
1963: 'World in Action' from Granada, part of ITV, starts
1963: 'Dr Who' starts November 23 (I think - day after Kennedy allegedly murdered). Daleks' first appearance in 'Doctor Who' my notes say. I presume this was just the right year to get at Matthew Lawrence's son.
- Sat 13 Nov 1993: 30th anniversary of Dr Who [caricature of tune.. exhibition.. bright toy daleks.. "these are very collectable.. things you wish you hadn't thrown away.."
Then a repeat; this one has a grey haired slim 'Doctor Who' in violet velvet suit, I think: "You seem to know a lot about daleks, doctor" ".. I've never come across a dalek that had mastered invisibility before" "reflection of light rays with (some shit)" "Myron.. was the expedition commander.. doctor [name] was second in line.. a fine mess he's got us into.. three more dead.. destroy them.." Ends in characteristic way: ".. we intercepted their communication.. they use (some radio type shit) .. there are ten thousand daleks here!" (Electric razor type noise, then Radiophonic theme tune)]
- Hack producer or something says the doctor was not human, though they didn't know at first.. and he could be 'regenerated' [we see woman saying she saw grandfather in a white wig so she knew he would be OK .. script writer or editor [Jewish I think] says the daleks were based on the Nazis; hence all the 'exterminate' stuff. Hack producer or director for a few years says the police asked specially not to portray policemen in horrific ways (we see a policeman with face ripped off, dummy underneath) because a proper monster should be remote. Another hack days monsters can be organic, [Note: fear conventions?] like supposedly giant maggots or caterpillars, or mechanical like Daleks. He didn't seem to take proper cognisance of blokes with silly masks on, e.g. 'Cybermen' of whom Toyah Wilcox said she thought they were sexy - butch in silver fetish suits. For my taste, most of the 'monsters' were in this last category. Also various 'Dr Whos' talked: William Hartnell, the um next one, Jon Pertwee of whom a make up girl said he was one of only two men in England who could wear a purple velvet jacket and frilly shirt, and also that the doctors were all Edwardian gentlemen, the one with the question-mark umbrella, and the vet. We're told Pertwee liked cars and gadgets (and indeed see a Blue Peter program, in which he drives a silly little very low car and is interviewed by bell-bottomed prat) and was really a James Bond figure. We're also told that of the 17 or so young girls, three met untimely deaths and the rest mostly screamed and looked sexy [Clips: "You said you had A level general science" "I didn't say I passed, doctor!"/ girl in leotard hung with 'shammy leather' and with pistol/ probably various mini-skirted girls etc], though apparently later at least one was told she should have a mind of her own, as Ken Livingston had noted.
There must have been innumerable managers, tour arrangers, studio recorders, sound engineers, musicians, and—old-fashioned as it sounds—composers.
&nsbp; McGowan, if that's her real name, seems to have started in women's magazines, her main interest being expensive fashions, of the sort now called 'designer'. Which she wore and promoted, just as no doubt Carnaby Street was promoted by males. She seems to have teamed up with Michael Ball, despite being 15 years older.
1964
BBC record issued, with album of monochrome pictures, '1914'. Great deal of emphasis on the outbreak of war and the 'Christmas Truce'. Twenty or so voices, some military people etc with their memoirs, others BBC announcer types; plus extracts from popular songs of the period and parts of plays/ novels. Includes a woman dancer saying they thought the suffragettes were very, very silly. Nothing intelligent of course about the war itself. I imagine the slant of this record is related to the approach of the EEC.
1964-1967: Michael Peacock BBC2 Controller
Very young children dancing to a three-man pop group, singing 'The Hippy Hippy Shake'
Easy to forget it was live. Example on BBC2 where discussion between several pseuds was interrupted by chap from nearby BBC bar - evasive, embarrassed expressions and silence as he was pulled out, apparently by a cameraman. Intruder supposed to be the author of 'The Bed Sitting Room'
Early or mid-1960s; 1964?: Note: Anti-working class bias? 'Armchair Theatre' on 'ABC': play by Alun Owen about workers in 'Liverpool' - composite of men umpin' wholesale groceries into little van, and women doing light industrial work with hand pressing machines, in the same studio set 'factory'! Not one single accurate Liverpool accent; all, presumably, middle-class actors [and actresses, including Billie Holliday] pretending, by voice and slumped etc body language, to be plebbos. Only exception is young male student who is supposed to look clean like.
1964: Lightweight cameras: World in Action shows Rolling Stones concert
1964: Top of the Pops starts, symbolically perhaps in a converted church in Manchester, with Jimmy Savile. [Info from Xmas 1993 Radio Times]
1965
1965, 20th Jan, 'Fable'. A 'Wednesday Play' on the subject of Britain under the thumb of blacks, a topic of course dear to Jews. I don't think the original is online, even if it survived, but readers may be curious about it.
'Vote vote vote for Nigel Barton' by Dennis Potter and I think withdrawn at the last moment; cf audio tape of Potter's 1993 lecture
J B Priestley documentary '1940' made for 25th anniversary of Battle of Britain (wrote Angus Calder); i.e. 1965, presumably
1965, Summer: 'Cathy Come Home' shown
1965: see notes for 'Human Jungle' episode [psychiatry thing]
1965: Ian Hislop on TV Sept 97 said there was a BBC b/w film on Eton this year, apparently including shots of calling for fags. Shot in high contrast or filtered style for grim grubby appearance.
About 1965: John Betjeman filmed at railway stations and trundling about generally in the West Country: black and white film with fruity commentary of jingly rhyme (largely class based) on brown magnetic sound track on the same reels rediscovered thirty years later by ITV, shown Channel 4 in 3 1/2 hour episodes, first on Fri 2 Sep 1994.
Note: education: illustrates point that reminiscers about their own education omit the work (if any) they did; 10 mins or so on Marlborough (apart from brief bit on sport, hockey balls, showers, snow) almost entirely on food - morning in a guest house where he presumably stayed, with gong summoning people - one in a shirt with sleeves rolled tightly right up high, Betjeman imagining him wondering if he should have worn a 'coat'; pupils who'd run out of pocket money having tea, of a bun and jam tart and tea; Betjeman's own enormous appetite for tea; another building, 'upper school', supposedly (he VOs) democratically run, where bread is toasted on gas and unlikely things eaten - choc ice dipped in fizzy drink, split long bun thing with frankfurter; tea shop in the town with embarrassed pupils hoping their parents won't shame them in some way, and eating ("tumpty tum so delightful - No more ?fat please my figure's frightful"); someone else somewhere bunging sauce on a fatty British meal in some caff style place.
Another theme is old buildings; he likes to think (note: one reason he's socially acceptable, became poet laureate) that the roofs have been there for 'centuries' and similarly cathedrals (Bath cathedral shown panoramically), church bells etc. We see an alley which leads to the main market area of Marlborough (no white lines in those days), brick built and with a bike; very likely 19th century bricks (though I can't be sure) - he has no conception of fakery, except perhaps: joke: when he looks around an 'attraction' at Weston Super Mare, a model village, and remarks on how 'nowadays' the only things we like to look at are make believe.
Next week: similar programme on a retirement otel & on Malmesbury, latter being interesting quasi-history thing - "What faith the men who built it must have had" style. I have this on videotape.
[Another short b/w film made very early 1960s I think on 'North Lew and Swindon'. Starts with Betjeman on foot [no nasty transport!] in town suit but with rather floppy hat as compromise; plus pipe. Sub-classical chirpy or emotional strings. VO: "Traffic changes everything. | [shot of lane with cows] Except cows, which never take notice of traffic. Wise creatures. | Traffic changes everything. Let's go back in this remote part of north Devon to the age before railways, the time of carts. Where are these lanes leading? Each comes a cart's distance from one farm or hamlet to one secret hidden village. They're all coming to North Lew, which was once marked quite big, on the old maps of Devon. It's a very hard place to find, this [hesitates a bit] once more important place. In fact you can only discover it with a 1" map and someone sitting in the car with you to read it. Is it all deserted? No. But we don't want too many strangers feet on these old causeways. [with shot of irregular ground cobbled with flat topped stone; one pair of feet walks]. North Lew was once a market place to which all the many local lanes led and like all old English market towns, it had a market crorse, there on the left, and like all marker crorses the crorse is near the parish church.. North Lew church full of that carved woodwork which is characteristic of the age of faith in Devon when farms prospered and wool sold well and men gave their best because everyone believed that Christ is god to the grandest building in the parish, the church. You can easily imagine the inside of this church as it was in the fifteenth century, the last time it was extensively rebuilt. The windows full of red, yellow and silver stained glass twinkling like the ?sunset altars, the smell of trodden yew boughs on the floor, and the carved pews filled with people.. cob walled hovels.. white magic.. what would they know of politics.. the Reformation..
.. Chapels.. Billy Bray's Bible Christian .. from Cornwall.."
Etc; then Swindon - the point being that railways came and traffic changes everything. "London & South-Western in north Devon and its rival the Great Western at Swindon." Oddly he says he likes the Swindon railway works, which 'made Swindon great'. "There they are [picture], the Swindon works where steam engines have been made.. since 1841.. Between the North Stare and the broad gauge, to county class, the last to be made for the Great Western, between Daniel ?Gooch and Hawksworth, there's a long list of names thrilling to lovers of railways. .." He's less enthusiastic about the new town aspect of Swindon, but pleased planners spared the old centre of it - shots of terraces, hedges, several story old buildings with few windows, occasional manor houses - if that's what they were.]
1965: 'Not Only But Also' now or earlier
1965: 'Going for a Song' starts (inc Arthur Negus); supposedly loosened up peoples' feelings about buying antiques (or near antiques) and helped fuel interior design move to re-used old furniture
1965: 'Crossroads' starts on ITA, with Meg Richardson; Noelle Gordon is 'motel owner' unless she replaced Richardson later. Notorious as butt of jokes.
1965: 'The Likely Lads' starts [combination of British class system, distinctions between things like preferring rugby to football, and including northern elements. By Clements and le Frenais, presumably essentially putting their own attitudes into it]
1965: 'The Power Game' a Lew Grade thing, 'boardroom drama starring Jack Watling and Patrick Wymark.' Grade considered it the forerunner of Dynasty (or Dallas, in another version).
1966
August 1966: First 'It's a Knockout' based, presumably, in Britain, e.g. ?Alnwick vs some other town, with energetic water/ tightrope/ swinging on rope/ water games out in some field. Rechristened at some point 'Jeux sans Frontieres'. Ran 16 years
Between 1966 and 1968 (unsure of date) World in Action shows 'Ward F13' on geriatric women: chamber pots, public wards, etc etc [NB: I think mum may have watched this]
1966: World in Action on divorce in Nevada: credit cards then very new
1967
About now, 'Mastermind' began - it had a 25th anniversary in 1991 or 1992, I think
About now, Forsyte Saga in 24 episodes b/w on tv: 'still showing' in USA in 1993 [see \theatre, Susan Hampshire]
-1967-1971: 'All Gas and Gaiters' sitcom with Robertson Hare as an archdeacon, William Mervyn as a Bishop, Derek Nimmo [Joke: cutrate] as a 'saintly curate', 'all living in mortal fear of the dean (Ernest Clark)'. This is Radio Times information; doesn't state whether BBC, though one imagines, since it's promoting something called 'Ballykissangel' on BBC1, Feb 96, with poor old Stephen Tomkinson (who was in Drop the Dead Donkey), that it's BBC.
1967: 'The Prisoner' with 'ex-secret agent (Patrick McGoohan)' was a Lew Grade production: 'It was so crazy it worked'. In fact it had a predecessor - another crappy thing with a car drawing up and files on some bloke being looked at, and his being taken away and asked to co-operate or something - NOTE: Is this Kafka applied to cheap TV? I've never heard this comparison made, I think. It also fits my general idea of 'surrealism'.
I have some information on this, collected from Portmeirion
Deaths: selected by a retrospective TV programme about 1992: Brian Epstein died at 32/ Malcolm Sargeant/ Joe Orton/ Guevara
Also petrol and wheat prices went up
1968
1968 to 1971: Man called Smith: of a BBC programme called '24 Hours': "I never felt so powerful.. At the age of 29.. anyone could be at one's disposal.. could go anywhere in the world.. adequate budget for what we wanted to do.." [Interviewed in Bank Holiday 26 Aug 1991 BBC2 programme]
1968-1970: 'Oh Brother!' sitcom with Derek Nimmo as 'Brother Dominic'. Not clear whether this was BBC. It was followed by something called 'Oh Father!'.
1968: Start of Omnibus, still going 25 years later. 9-15 Jan 1993 Radio Times: 'When the arts series began 25 years ago, its declared aim was to produce "television to remember". Some of its most memorable programmes are being shown over the next 11 weeks, including films about Kathleen Ferrier, David Bowie, the Brothers Grimm, Whale Nation, and West Side Story. 'A Song of Summer', Ken Russell's film about the blind and paralysed composer Frederick Delius.. 1968.. tells the story of Delius's extraordinary relationship with the young organist and companion of five years, Eric Fenby.' ['Delius As I Knew Him' is a book by Fenby, who in the film is a rather callow northerner who can play the organ but not much else, struggling with the irascible German-accented man and noting down his music]
'World in Action' cover demonstration in Grosvenor Square (with camera on top of Nelson's column)
1969
19 June 1969 National Film Theatre/ 21 June 1969 BBC/ ITV 29 June 1969 (I presume - '8 days later') 'Royal Family' says Pimlott
14 Nov 1969: BBC starts color broadcasts
1969: First series of 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'
1969: 'Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)' a 'private eye' series, supposedly popular in Britain, with Kenneth Cope, from TWTWTW who always struck me as unpleasant, as the dead partner, killed in a road accident. "Are you a ghost?" "I suppose I must be! Yes" type of dialogue. Cope dressed all in white (suit, shirt, bow-tie) with ability to stand around listening, unobserved by everyone except his friend, and then report to him - e.g what cards gamblers were holding. Also able to vanish and reappear some distance away. For a detective, naturally a great help. Failed in the US. Was in colour when shown again in 1992 by Frank Muir as retrospective
1969: First Star Trek about this time; ran three years
1969; BBC, Muggeridge thing called 'Something Beautiful for God' has colour programme of Malcolm Muggeridge with 'Mother Teresa of Calcutta'; see 1994
1969: Twenty minutes of a pilot [was some cut out?] for BBC 'Mainly for Men' in monochrome shown in 1992. Strange attempt at a soft porn 'magazine' on the lines of e.g. Playboy. Introduced by middle-of-the-road man in casual clothes which also attempted to be smart. Included: Paul Jones, David Bailey, George Best talking about ideal women: Jones came across unfairly as arrogant (odd experimental shots of forehead and eyes only, among others), Bailey thought every woman was fine though he seemed to lean to tall skinny ones; he used the word 'tits', and George Best seemed a homely type forced into travelling / scenes of a model being photographed, accompanied by tom-tom style music, flashes interrupting her as she posed, pouted, twirled/ shark fishing from Looe, including cost of a boat plus skipper of something like twelve pounds a day; we see 'rubby dubby' = rotten fish hung overboard and TV man in Roman senator hairstyle and funny beard with fishing rod and pilchard on a large hook catching a shark about three or four feet long, brought on board by a 'gaff' in its mouth./ Car item with mini equipped with photo electric cell in top left corner of mini, with bellows arrangement under the bonnet, so car headlamps behind move the mirror. And a lit up sign in tiny lettering saying 'MANY THANKS' on being allowed to overtake a lorry, just before speeding away from it./ Final item of a girl with music; illuminated only slightly, with bare tits and lying on her back, she smoked to sax music. Nipple outlined at one point.
1970
1970s - don't know date: Upstairs Downstairs with elaborate kitchen etc interiors with hefty pine tables, earthenware, oil lamps.. Supposed to have fuelled move to Habitat style simpler interiors. (Tho' another view puts stripped pine vogue to some sort of mistake - I think at the V & A - involving an unfinished interior.
[1970, but Don't know exact date]: Miss World: Bob Hope on stage. He starts: "This fight to save wild life has many ?good ?points not the least of which is getting your wife to wear a cloth coat." Retrospective commentary says soon ink bombs, stink bombs, and bras were thrown [tho' probably only one of each] with shouts about 'disgusting cattle market'. Bob Hope takes mike: "This is a wonderful conditioning course for Vietnam. .. Anyone who would try to ? ?a ?show ?like ?this .. Have got to be on some kind a dope, believe me"
1970s: 'Father, Dear Father' runs for five years and fifty-two episodes in the 'early 70s'; not sure of exact dates
1970: World in Action: 'The Quiet Mutiny' by John Pilger about Vietnam War (see notes)
1970: World in Action 'dramatic reconstruction' of Grigorenko's prison diaries
1971
[2006 note:] 1971-1973 'The Comedians' with jokes about Jews, Irish, Welsh, poofs, I can't stand em etc - rather like rag mags of the time. Apparently comletely unabashed. Not I imagine jokes about royalty, Jesus, politicians. Part of the race industry movement surely - complaints must have started. [NB Al Murray Pub Landlord sketches in 2001 or so have him, apparently with a 1st in biology from Oxbridge, mouthing the words German and French with a sort of spit]
1971: 'The Two Ronnies' starts; continues seventeen years
1971: World in Action films start of a riot in Ireland
1971: 'The Generation Game' starts on BBC [acc. to TV Times, Oct 1992, which suggested a failed ambition of Forsyth has been to transfer to Broadway] with Bruce Forsyth and catchphrase 'Nice to see you, to see you | nice.' 'Within weeks' with Anthea Redfern [they married Xmas eve 1973] 'they combined brilliantly to create a Saturday night institution.' This is the one with 'gifts' on a conveyor belt: all you remembered you got. Other catchphrases were: 'Here kitty, kitty!', 'Good game, good game', 'Give us a twirl' [apparently to Anthea] and 'Didn't he/she do well?' Dominated for a decade, with '26 million viewers at its peak.'
1978-Xmas 1981 Larry Grayson ran it with Isla St Clair, after Forsyth tried abortive ventures - West End production called The Travelling Music Show, which didn't go to Broadway, and ITV's 'Bruce Forsyth's Big Night'.
Revived Sept 1990 by BBC's light entertainment boss, Jim Moir. Brought back with 'hostess' Rosemarie Ford. Xmas 1990: 16 million viewers. Pilot in US didn't go down well because American producers like everything to be scripted, he says
David Dimbleby in 1991: 'We thought of the title as a newspaper headline.. a story with pretty well any headline above it, like newspapers.. in retrospect that was perhaps naive..'
David Dimbleby, in big-collared yellow shirt and abundant Beatly hair: "Is it proper that a man who hopes to be Prime Minister again should write about his colleagues in this way? .. How much money did you make from your books?.." [apparently figures of £300,000 were mentioned]
Another man; Antony Jay? in 1991: [Grey-bearded man resembling Steve Race] 'We are no longer freewheeling.. the politicians have become very clever in using our weapons.. became adroit at not replying, at evading the question, at rephrasing the question.. spin doctors, hairdressers, goodness knows what'
Music 'by David Munrow' (who taught Marc music, played many woodwind instruments, e.g recorder in Brandenburg Concerto on the proms with authentic twiddly bits, and committed suicide.)
Lots of stuff on Elizabeth being the bastard daughter of a whore etc, and scheming, here shown only between French ambassador and Spanish ambassador (or similar officials). Not much detail about Henry VIII.
The Tower of London and other interiors, and things like executions, all have a naff studio set look. Exteriors understandably are patchy. Only the costumes have some work put into them.
A theme running through is that the 'people' love Elizabeth, the 'people' would rise in support of Elizabeth, everywhere Elizabeth is the favourite, the people don't love me [Mary], etc etc. And presumably how disastrous it would have been had Mary had a son of Philip (she seemed to have been 'barren') with whom she went to some lengths to marry, and how disastrous it would have been in Edward VI had lived (he's shown with rather ugly growths and thinning hair).
Presumably of course if the old religion had been reimposed, or some sort of union with Spain set in train, the people would have had bugger all interest or influence.
Joke: Glenda Jackson as Labour M.P.
1972
Filming of 'Last of the Summer Wine' begins
[Note: scares; BBC 'science':] ABOUT 1972: Sir John Mason ex-UMIST at lecture to 'Friends of Kew' on 20 Apr 1995: said BBC in about 1972 spent £2m on program fronted by Magnus Magnusson on supposed 'ice age' to come, based on a few years temperature results from the 1950s where the temperature went below average [later years then being above average].
1973
David Attenborough left administration
'Bionic Man' starts; continues in 1974
Third series of 'Monty Python' on TV; Cleese thinks it covers old ground
'Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads?' starts
November: 'Last of the Summer Wine' broadcast for the first time
November: David Dimbleby and Uri Geller on TV; 'The Dimbleby Talk-in'. Dimbleby's car key supposedly bent etc. [Written up in Prof John Taylor's 'Superminds' which may have been published in 1974 though a lavish edition I saw in 1995 was dated 1975. John Taylor Prof of Maths at King's (Kings'?) College London] [According to an article in 'Retreat' David Dimbleby invited Geller onto his TV programme.][NB Mike Molloy editor of Daily Mirror believed in Geller; interview in Equinox, Channel 4, Sun 24 August, 97 had now older Molloy saying this.][Equinox also showed Russell Targ of Stanford Research Institute still standing by the claim that Geller duplicated drawings made separately.][Nature printed Stanford Research Institute = S.R.I. article in October 18th 1974. The only claim they made seems to have been on this one thing, that duplication of 'concealed' or whatever drawings was performed by Geller; everything else failed.][NB Jinx magazine, US conjuring thing, 1938, headline 'Was [Dr?] Rhine Hoodwinked?' listed ways card readers might have cheated; example staged used delay, so approximate under-the-breath timing enabled prediction of one of the five Zener cards, arranged in the same elft-to-right order for reader as guesser. Prob explanation of one pair getting 23 out of 25 or similar figure.][Dawkins as Prof of Public Understanding of Science, giving pragmatist comment: if they could do these things, they'd get a Nobel Prize. Every scientist wants a Nobel Prize. Therefore they can't do it.]
'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em' starts on BBC 15 Feb 1973/ last original broadcast 25 December 1978/ 22 'editions' in total. 'Series writer' Frank Allen. Michael Crawford with wimpish voice and black beret as Frank Spencer, 'a human Titanic' says Radio Times Nov 1992. Michele Dotrice starred as his wife Betty and, from the end of the second series, mother to Jessica.
Top ten programmes in a June week: And Mother Makes Three/ Special Branch/ Sam/ My Good Woman/ Hunter's Talk/ News at Ten/ Coronation Street/ Crossroads/ International football/ The Dick Emery Show
- THE WORLD AT WAR: (Possibly as a result of thirty-year rule] Thames TV starts 'The World at War' in 26 one hour episodes; 1 is 'A New Germany'. Radio Times 5 Sept 1994, when it's reshown, ON BBC2!, says: '.. acclaimed documentary series.. Germany, a nation stricken by humiliating defeat and emerging from economic depression, looks to one man for resurgence of hope. That man is Adolf Hitler. Narrated by Laurence Olivier. Director Hugh Raggett. Producer Jeremy Isaacs. First shown on ITV.'
Nothing is said about the writers! '.. music by Carl Davis and featuring an interview with Traudl Junge, Hitler's private secretary. .. award-laden.. .. Home movies of Hitler and Eva Braun contrast with the sinister machinations of the Nazi machine, already gearing itself up to the "final solution".
[I watched some of this episode; rather snide VO and completely standard version with nothing on support for Hitler externally, Catholic support, marvel of Hitler's oratory, etc etc. The pattern of course continues: possible French support for Nazis? Irish neutrality? Surely the Americans could have guessed about Pearl Harbor? French hypocrisy over colonies? Starvation in India?]
Episode 3, WORLD AT WAR reshown Monday 19 Sept 1994
VO by Olivier [and interviews with German General, French people, odd English chap in an armchair I think talking about the propertied classes in France, & newsreel]
'Blitzkrieg' idea credited to a book unstudied by British and French called Achtung Panzer
1939: French went over Maginot Line but not much; German General says in retrospect that with French superiority in armoured cars etc [and incomplete Siegfried line too?] the Germans could have lasted only a week. French went back, did nothing, except occasional shots with big guns from Maginot line to impress visitors e.g. Duke of Windsor.
May 10th 1940 5 30 am: Ardennes defended by not many, not well trained Frenchmen; the French supposed to know German troops were in motion, and even the date of attack; preferred to await events.
.. Gamelin assumed he'd been betrayed.. began to sack his comanders almost at random..
Pétain was recalled.. old man.. it was assumed memories of the First World War etc etc..
?Vegun's appointment.. ambassador in Spain.. he told Franco France has lost.. this is the result of thirty years of Marxism..
.. the French soldiers did not show the same soldierly discipline as during the First World War..
.. tragic plight of the refugees.. at one time 12 million people were on the roads of northern France.. bound for who knows where..
On May 25 Boulogne fell. .. on May 26th Calais.. .. Dunkirk fell.. Hitler ordered church bells to be rung for three days.. to celebrate what he called the greatest German victory EVER..
.. Pétain asked for an armistice.. Hitler insisted on using the railway carriage used by Foch to sign the ?1918 armistice.. it was the supreme humiliation for France..
It had taken the Wehrmacht just five weeks to humble their historic foe. In the words of Churchill, the Battle of France was over. The battle of Britain was about to begin.
Episode ?6: THE WORLD AT WAR:
Japanese ?General: .. felt they would lose conventional war; wanted oil in ?Philippines, ?Burma and also to get it to Japan past Royal Navy, US Fleet. Something about Thailand too. Hence ships -> Pearl Harbor (with shallow torpedoes, which worried them) and also Malaya which was 'believed impregnable', by the British, who assumed it could only be attacked by sea; guns all pointed to sea, none inland. The Japanese took Singapore (getting control of the water supply) and I suppose went to Malaya. 130K British and I think Australian soldiers surrendered. Part of a whole list of places which 'fell'. Japanese explains how their soldiers were taught never to surrender; an so regarded these thousands of men with contempt.
The point is they felt, no doubt rightly, that to stand a chance (this was 1940) they had to do something like a 'blitz'.
1974
1974-1977: Brian Cowgill BBC1 controller
'Happy Days', US 1950s sitcom, first shown Jan 1974; 255 episodes to June 1984. [Radio Times Dec 1992. I'm not sure whether these dates are UK or US showings]
'Porridge' with Ronnie Barker by La Frenais and Clement starts
1975
1975: Edward VII according to Lew Grade was 'one of the milestones of TV drama' with Tomothy West and Deborah Grant.
1975-1981: Humphrey Burton BBC ?Head of Music and Arts
About mid 1970s a 26 part series called 'Churchill's People' because it sounded better with a name on I think BBC launched studio plays supposedly showing episodes in the life of 'The British' and based on 'History of the English Speaking Peoples' if that's the correct title. First one is called 'Pritain'. Shows two pale skinned men in something like loincloths squatting and bashing rocks. Man in a dark toga leaning against a tree looks at them; he's a 'Roman spy' before the invasion. The two others gibber saying things like 'Ug' and run away. [Rebroadcast Bank holiday Monday 31 Aug, 1992, by the BBC]. Started at 9.30; became scheduled for later in the evening on general recognition of terrible quality.
The Sweeney (with John Thaw, later to become famous as 'Inspector Morse') starts 1975 ITV
1976
1976: 'The Muppets' (rejected by everyone, except Lew Grade) start and become, apparently, very popular. Lew Grade quoted: "Did I know a frog and a pig would become stars? No. But I knew we had something very special.'
'One Man and His Dog' sheepdog show starts about this time
'The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin'
1977
Series 'Jesus of Nazareth' by Lew Grade shown Easter, 1977; 'cost around £9 million.. seen by an estimated 500 million viewers.. made a star of Robert Powell..' There's a story somewhere of him selling it, I think to somebody like Colgate, for £25 million.
November 1977; following from my handwritten notes made about then: BBC1 on RUSSIAN TV DOCUMENTARIES: Boris Kalyagin interviewed by a BBC 'roving reporter'. Russian film extracts with dubbed voices shown between programmes.
"... Saigon, cynically described by General Westmoreland as "the war's authentic strategic village." Designed for 500,000 it contains 4 million - ex -peasants in shanties and hovels, driven from the countryside by unprincipled bombing and chemical defoliation. Forced to work for Americans and members of the puppet regime, in laundries, illegal distilleries, petrol trading. Some figures put the number of prostitutes at 30,000, others as high as 100,000... This shot of the Café Bourdin was taken at liberation [room with some girls running out of a door at the end.] The Vietnamese people don't like the 6-legged - their word for bureaucrats. The other four are the legs of the chair. ..."
BK: ".. won against 500,000 troops - really extraordinary."
".. then Angola, 1976: Russian arms, Cuban soldiers shown; but emphasis on Africans - so and so learnt to read for the first time in his communist group; now he's directing his unit, he's keen as mustard..." [Photos of a bespectacled African looking at a map; of an arrow-headed stick on a map; of tank wheels; and of shelling, plus cloud of smoke in the distance. A bunch of 24 or so rocket tubes was shown, in action.]
"China. .." [A studio programme. An Izvestia politics observer - a fat, double-chinned, very 'Caucasian' chap, in open-necked shirt, cardigan and longish hair and moustache, talked and talked. The substance was that things hadn't changed between China and Russia.]
BK: "We don't want to stress differences in the communist movement. There are differences, of course, but we don't want to emphasise small details."
[Programme on post-Franco Spain:] "from the air the Catalonian landscape looks like paradise. ... On the ground the biggest landowner is [name], 90-year-old grandson of [name], who established the firm of Domecq. For two weeks in the year peasant labourers pick the grapes, owned by [name], to produce the beautiful golden wine, known as sherry, with the bitter after-taste. ... This is a meeting of the new C.P.; these men do not know that already the owner has summoned the police with orders to break down the door, and take down the names."
BK: "Yes, I suppose it's my style." (Nice country, nice music; politics introduced midway). ... Yes, I do find the Western obsession with human rights quite strange. The most essential human right is to be in a socialist society."
[Another film clip:] "The right to work is not guaranteed in capitalist countries.. this German teacher was thrown out of her job for her activities in the Communist Party. 'I was considered one of the best teachers in my year, but I got thrown out because of my politics.' Courageous political heretics in capitalist countries with progressive ideas are oppressed. While bourgeois Americans celebrated the Declaration of Independence 200 years ago, .. [name] said from [name] prison: "Is there freedom for negroes? For Puerto Ricans? ..." New York demonstrators support the Wilmington 10. [Picture of demo]. These imprisoned negroes struggling for democracy include Marvin Patrick [pron. Marveen Patreek], etc.. 'We demand direct implementation of the Bill...'"
[And another; 9 o'clock news type programme: chap at desk, back projected pictures of the Capitol, newspaper headlines and so on:] ".. warnings of new threats from the U.S. .. an article by William Krufts in the New York Times said 'This is the real Carter..' ["Carter's first 100 days' projected] ... and an article by P Samuelson in 'Newsweek' warned that these trends could feed the Americans' latent imperialism.. [article shown, panning down the screen].
BBC REPORTER: I notice you always use labels - fascist Vorster, racist Smith, bourgeois TV commentator...
BK: Well, people know this... otherwise how can you explain to them... I notice you do the same.
[Another clip:] ".. the fanatical Zionist Menachem Begin is shown here reading his holy book, the Torah. As the Romans say, fear a man who reads only one book." [Reference to Roman Catholics?]
[Another:] "The warmongers of the racist regime of Rhodesia have committed 130 acts of aggression against the Peoples Republic of Mozambique. Many peaceful peasants died..."
[Another:] "London. The Grunwick struggle is an example of the awareness of the British people struggling against exploitation. Violent struggles broke out against double-decker buses carrying strikebreakers. Specially trained police divisions have committed real acts of violence against the pickets. MP [name]* [*Footnote: In Nov 77 a Geordie MP was widely reported as having said on a visit to the USSR that it was "nice to be in a place with no unemployment, and a steady growth in the living standards of ordinary workers." On his return he was quizzed by reporters & made rather a poor showing. One assumes that the first part of this tale was liberally publicised in the USSR.] stated that the police had behaved like a band of hooligans. When they organised the attacks on the pickets, police miscalculated... comrades included Birmingham car-workers, Yorkshire miners, left-wing democratic associations, and members of the British proletariat."
BBC REPORTER: "Since the police were shown with their arms linked, it might seem your story was a bit difficult to believe."
BK: "Didn't you know there were wiolent attacks? I know the police started them... In Belfast I made an attempt to understand - I met people from various camps.."
[Clip:] "Belfast has become the foremost point of conflict between left and right, Catholic and Protestant, Britain and Ireland. British soldiers armed to the teeth act as if they own the place. The centre of Belfast is enclosed by a high metal screen. Everyone who enters is searched. Patrols, arrests, house searchings are daily occurrences. British authorities try to give the impression that they are keeping peace, but in fact act mainly against Catholic minorities. Progressives demand the removal of troops, and end to discrimination against Catholics, and civil rights granted to all."
BK: "I was trying to explain that there's still repression of Catholics by Protestants. Of course I agree the situation is not simple. ... If we talk about social and economical problems, we can [poss. can't pronounced with short a?] be neutral. We share the sides of the oppressed peoples.
... Restrictions in GB? First, I'm not allowed to travel more than 35 miles from London without two days' notification to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. My car number and hotels have to be given. Yes, I'm watched and followed... sometimes I can see it, the same car driving behind."
BBC REPORTER: "But when we're in the USSR, everything has to go through the State. ... how can we arrange to interview dissidents?"
BK: "I've seen some of these interviews. They were done illegally. I don't know how they were done. I don't think you'll be able to interview people who break our laws..."
DESERT VOYAGE: THROUGH SYRIA WITH DAME FREYA STARK. 1st shown 1977; reshown 10th and 17th June 1993 on BBC2, presumably because she died in 1993. Since making the following note I bought one of her books, of essays, dated 1976.
- Unconsciously hilarious piece of Orientalism.
- [Cp Edmund Leach story told me by Chris Baxter ("You take a hire car, of course") Parkinson on silly wife; Ethical Society chap on Englishman in control; Everest film and others in which it becomes clear that the people doing all the work are kept out of the way. Moreover I suspect this is an unconscious attempt to copy, (or a pastiche) of the Kon-Tiki and other Heyerdahl reconstruction adventures.]
- Colour film. Radio Times blurb of 1993: '.. Dame Freya Stark returns to Jerbalus on the Turkish-Syrian border for a second attempt at an extraordinary river journey down the Euphrates by raft. The venture is beset with problems, humorous and perilous, as the raft sinks, is abandoned, reclaimed and twice beached on shingle. The landscape of biblical antiquity (sic; mostly water and dam and people in Arab clothes) inspires Dame Freya to discourse on her basic philosophy of travel, history, God and death, and to explain her love of the Arab people.'
- Actually, she seems to have a couple as factotum, man and wife, both with U English voices; these have the raft - built by the locals, perhaps according to a traditional pattern - ready for her. She rolls up in a car, and people, whether spontaneously or as told, applaud for the camera. Previously we've seen some shopping for rather long list of 'necessaries' including things like camping Gaz stove, cane chairs. There's a plummy male voiceover with foolish and empty long words. No detail of cost, how much they spent, where the money came from, how competent she really is in Arabic, whether she has a clue about ancient civilizations, or any other information. When she speaks, she has a fluting high-pitched U voice. Now read on..
VO: [Over outdoor sunshiny shot in Italy of old woman, probably in red headscarf, shoes tapping on dry paving, steps] "Don't be misled.. Italy.. setting orf.. she is one of the great British travellers of the 20th century.."
Stark VO: "I ran away when I was three to become a cabin boy. I was returned by the postman .. at Palmyra.. gateway to the Orient.. Aleppo has 80 km of bazaar.. it's the best known bazaar.."
VO: ".. buy supplies.. raft sailing is a skilled art (apparently built by locals; no info on this large structure with reedy house-like structure on it and space for locals to paddle standing up] .. plenty of food.. chairs.. rush matting.. camp bed.. [we see a plastic toilet in cardboard box being loaded] .. must be self-contained down to the smallest luxury.. .. weather.. the ?perfunctory traveller.. in the sky.. warning of the storm perhaps to come"
[Dame Freya decides to do some Arabic]
Stark: .. very rusty.. [Shots of her saying Allah, to a man in a room lit only with sun; this seems her main Arabic piece of knowledge] when you speak a different language.. *forget people are the same underneath.. you refer to the same thing in different words.. a little Arabic is better than none.. I see the horizon as the gateway to a new world.. I was attracted.. not so much to the desert.. the freedom of the nomads.. the orient..
[Car pulls up by riverside. Dame gets out, rather doddery. Applause. Wife of the couple gives her an insincere hug and kiss]
Wife: .. Dame Freya's camp bed ready?
Plummy man: I don't know the answer to that. There's always a little bit of chaos. .. You should never hurry in the east
[Shots of storm, natives running, getting wet, in what looks like flat hard sand, now with largish rivulets]
Stark: ".. when I was in [place].. rain.. like a white curtain across the landscape.. I've never seen anything like it."
Plummy man: "Now if you told people it could rain like this in Syria in May they wouldn't believe you!"
Stark: "I like the feel of the thunderstorm. Look at those waves! Of course the Euphrates is running high.. we must wait until it goes down"
VO: "Next morning at the hotel breakfast.."
One chap: "Is it safe?"
Another chap: "No"
Stark: "We will go if we feel it to be worthwhile.."
[Later on: shots of villagers helping them shove off]
Plummy man: "There are the villagers! (Something like) wonders will never cease!"
[Later; in trouble, perhaps caught on a bank]
Stark: "..twelve more barrels | should be put in | to keep it floating | high | above the water" [they watch the natives working in muddy water]
Wife: "Did you hear.. singing of the Koran.. early morning?"
Stark: ".. It was beautiful.. I was very surprised that a village should produce such an educated voice!"
[Meanwhile plummy man up to his knees is in command: Arabic equivalent presumably of 1 2 3 heave]
Stark: "We must keep assistance fairly near!"
Plummy man: "What else can happen?"
Stark: "Lots of things, I'm sure!" chuckles. [Embarrassingly clear she has no further idea]
Plummy VO: "Third day on the river and the wireliss brings thoughts of home. 'This is London'. Lilliburlero plays. Silly woman's voice: . .. President Carter's firmness on human rights. .. president of the European commission, Lord Jenkins. .. last night lunched with the Queen. .. policy on unemployment.. China..
[We watch natives paddle, tug, push, shove watch from bank etc. Things going smoothly]
Stark: ".. quite different. They take the things that one needn't care about rather lightly!"
Plummy man: "Like engagements!"
Stark: "Well certainly engagements"
Plummy man: "Plans!"
Stark: "Certainly plans."
Plummy man: "Punctuality!"
Stark: "Certainly punctuality. But also life and death. That is | what my | "
Plummy man: "They live closer to nature | perhaps."
Stark: "No. They live closer to Allah. | I had a friend on the Sudan frontier commission. And he had a guide whom he was very fond of | who got stung by one of those vipers | those with a little thing on their head"
Plummy man: "A cobra?"
Stark: "No. It was a horned viper. And so my friend gave him a little bottle of cognac. He said it isn't a sin. It's medicine. He said no, I'm much too near paradise for that, and he lay down dead"
Plummy man: "Amazing .. You have to have faith.. Which we don't have."
Stark: "Well, exactly. Perhaps that's why I like the Arabs"
...
[Shot of tower at side of a dam. Deafening noise]
Stark: "It's really much more beautiful than I ever imagined. To see a whole river imprisoned.."
1978
March: 'Rutles' take-off of Beatles by ex-Monty Python man; written notes elsewhere
'Butterflies' [Carla Lane] starts
'Roots' on TV about this time
Pilot episode of 'Rumpole of the Bailey'
Rancho ?Seco nuclear accident; see notes
'Black and White Minstrel Show' finally closed - it started in the black and white TV era [males made up, white round eyes and mouths in costume parodies of evenings dress - for example silver glitter bowler hats/ women all whites in bare legged spangled parodies of formal dresses]
1979
1979: 'Question Time' begins on BBC, conducted by Robin Day from Sept 26 '79/ 22 June '89: It's revealed, or asserted, later that he doesn't seem to even own his own flat, and didn't make much money from his TV appearances. Robin Day says: "I sleep easy in the sense that my conscience is clear. I've done the best I can ..."
Credits include 'Brain cell and synapse sculpture' to a Greek-named man; probably refers to computer graphics of cross-section straight-line-segments, bright colors on black, lines type
And American Narcolepsy Association, Eiheiji Temple Tokyo, The Exploratorium San Francisco, Muscular Dystrophy Association, VA Medical Center Palo Alto [i.e. Veterans Administration]
Certain amount on hypnosis; apparently one variety is alert hypnosis; we see girl on exercise bike being told a pencil in her hand is a heating element, by white-coated man reading his spiel from a pad. After a bit she drops it, when it's supposedly too hot to hold. Voiceover, and plenty of film, suggests it may resemble second wind in athletes. Someone says second wind "has no physiology; it's subjective."
Also little Indian, shown being 'buried alive' i.e. closed up in a sealed box [with a window], who stays alive 'long after the oxygen would normally be used up', according to the voiceover. We see EEG or ECG readings, or both, or other things, much less wiggly than when he started. No indication of what happens to ordinary people or people with or without biofeedback training who try this.
[Actor Voiceover, accompanied by view of edge of pink moist brain, perhaps a real one, on black background; and then netlike computer graphics of brain slowly spinning, then graphics between hemispheres etc] "Behold a human brain and think of the wonders it contains. One hundred billion living cells that together can think, feel, create, remember, and seek to solve the mysteries of their own behavior."
White coated youngish man: ".. [four times as many chemicals discovered in the last four years as in the previous two decades.. or something similar] So that in 100 years we may begin to approach this very desired state and we'll how the brain of man processes information, remembers, perhaps even how he begins to have creative thoughts which will then use that tremendous brain power in a way more effective than we are able to use it now."
Another white-coated youngish man; this one I think bearded: "I doubt that we'll ever know all the answers.."
[Final voiceover; computer graphics again:] "Behold a human brain. What wonders lie within."
"I was about 16 or 17 when I started. I'd have preferred to be somebody who earned an honest living but I didn't have much choice really, lack of work, lack of money, a very poor upbringing. I was paid 2 or 300 pounds for the first job.. eventually it was £2000 a week.. There was a foreign guy, he supplied the orders and the cash and got the cars out of the country... sometimes we had to travel 2 or 300 miles to get the car we wanted. If you were ?involved in a Rolls, you had to have something to suit the part. ... I've got no criminal convictions against me whatever ... there's no excuse whatsoever for my son ever to have to do anything like it.."
...".. people who were involved in crime were stigmatised, and their families, so they didn't .."
Informers: 'have to rely to an inorn-inordinate extent. They are the ones who knows, who know, the story ...
Yes, it has happened that informers set up crimes to claim money..
1980
1980. Dallas: 'British viewing estimated 21 million'
1980s: I don't have dates: 'The Tube' on Channel 4; 1995 Guardian blurb said: 'The 80s answer to Crackerjack.. Streamlined to the point of near chaos.. lit up many an adolescent tea-time.. early days of a preponderance of soon-to-be-stadium acts - Paul Young, U2, Wet Wet Wet.. Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Julian Cope.. maybe it was all in our minds, a bad dream responsible only for the emergence of Paula Yates. [Wife of Geldof] And The Word.'
1981
1981-1984: Alan Hart BBC1 controller
'The History Man' with Anthony Sher as Howard Kirk shown
BBC2 'documentary' '40 minutes' starts this year; I think - see April 1994 for final programme. (I honestly can't remember actually ever having heard this title before.)
'Bergerac' police detective series based in Jersey started.
Smiley's People (John le Carre) a 1981 series, says biog of Guinness, in This England mag.
I listened to his hissy videotape, some of which I audiotaped.
-1926 J Fibiker [?Norwegian] was a Nobel Prize winner for work linking a parasite with cancer; three years later this was disproved.
-Dramatised in 18th century clothing account of Johann Beringer
-William F Summerlin, skin specialist, at Sloan-Kettering Institute who used felt pen to mark patches of skin of white ?mice
-Blondlot, who wrote 300 papers on N rays (and there's a Rue Blondlot) all accepted in France; in 1904 Wood visited and published his demolition in Nature
-?Hasted, British scientist who was impressed by Geller; we see him watching a pimply youth in a Faraday cage massage a fork.
-Eric Laithwaite, who admitted he couldn't understand the complex maths of gyroscopes. Hillman thinks it could be a simple matter of resolving weight into horizontal and vertical components; i.e. part of the weight is converted into movement sideways, which seemed to be the point of a demonstration of a toy gyroscope on tiny ball bearings pirouetting in an orbital way.
- A physicist in the late 1960s I think looking at gravity waves; gentleman's agreement to hush up a blunder that came to light - clocks in U.S. weren't set to the same time zone, hence a 'simultaneous' result was nonsense - but apparently someone thought it should be 'publicised'; according to a Bath University sociologist.
1982
1982: First ever 'Allo 'Allo; Final series starts November 1992. 'Has been shown in 42 countries including France, where the voices are dubbed to sound ludicrously provincial'.
1982: First Cagney and Lacey; may not have been shown in UK then
1980: Cheers started in UK
1983
Top ten programmes in a June week: Coronation Street/ Crossroads/ Emmerdale Farm/ Morecambe and Wise/ Family Fortunes/ Knight Rider/ That's Life!/ Where There's Life/ Fame/ Cagney and Lacey
1983: 'Auf Wiedersehen, Pet' building gang in Germany by La Frenais and Clement [northern influence. Actors inc. Kevin Whately]
?1983: Falklands War: Well-known BBC magazine programme [with Sue Lawley, I think] in which Mrs Thatcher came to Lime Grove for the last time. Mrs Gould, described as 'this obscure, grey-haired geography teacher', 'would not let Mrs Thatcher off the hook.' She asked a question on the Belgrano: Something like: ".. outside the exclusion zone, sailing away from the Falklands.. In the first part of your statement you said it was sailing towards the Falklands. In fact it was on a bearing of ?200.. west of the Falklands.. sailing away." "It was a danger to our shipping.." "But in your statement you said it was.." "Mrs.. I've forgotten your name.. Gould.. Do you accept it was a danger to..?" "Well, no. You said.." "I'm sorry.." They assured Thatcher it went well, but faces in the Hospitality Suite after revealed they thought "The BBC was liberal, or worse."
On a Bank Holiday Monday BBC2 programme, 26 August 1991, this was repeated, and Mrs Gould reinterviewed: "Of course I couldn't see her, I could only hear her voice.. I thought she sounded rattled.. In a sense, I had nothing to lose.. I wish more of them would ask questions.."
Voiceover said: "No professionals dared do it.."
1 Feb 1983 tv am started. But it had taken so long the BBC started first with Frank Bough and 'Breakfast Time'. The critics liked tv am until the viewing figures plummeted - within three weeks down to 300,000. They were unequipped for three hours live TV a day. Also there was some sort of dispute between advertisers and equity; advertising revenue was much less than anticipated. We see snatch of programme called 'Good Morning Britain' though I'm unsure which programme it was from.
Slogan was 'mission to explain' which, an actress said, meant being condescending; she didn't say the condescenders were ignorant people themselves.
Founding people were Barclays Merchant Bank, Angela Rippon, Anna Ford, Peter Jay who was 'chief executive' from 1980-88, Parkinson, David Frost and Robert Kee, later two at least looking rather old.
After six weeks there was a boardroom 'coup' and Jonathan Aitken replaced Jay. Later, Tmothy Aitken replaced Jonathan and ruthlessly cost cut, or so the story goes; Anna Ford and Angela Rippon were sacked, perhaps on a technicality that they breached their contract by discussing internal problems on TV and with the press.
Anne Diamond came in from the provinces from 1983-1988. Roland Rat [a puppet; nobody revealed who operated it] from 1983-1985 became their most successful presenter.
Bruce Gingell took over TV am and made it lucrative, but lost the tv am contract on 16 Oct 1991, outbid by 'Sunrise', on which he read out a letter from Thatcher saying she regretted this had happened
1984
'Spitting Image' on ITV, latex puppets worn by actors, starts on ITV about this time
'Alas Smith and Jones' first series dated 1984 on BBC2 I think, probably at 9-9.30, i.e. same time as 'Not the Nine O'Clock News' which it followed after Pamela Stephenson and Rowan Atkinson separaetd from the group - or whatever happened.
1984? Brighton Bomb at the Grand Hotel about this time. TV am embarrassed because they had to cover this by phone, with one man 'and a 23 year old researcher', and with an archive picture of the hotel in the 1950s. 'The BBC probably had a hundred people there.' A TV person said the bomb incident was "Probably the biggest picture story of the decade."
Miami Vice starts (at any rate in UK) with two male actors playing Crockett and Tubbs; I think Tubbs is the blackish one. They always have very fancy cars and special clothes and were posed against special backgrounds. Plenty of burning boats, burning cars.
1985
'Real Lives' unbroadcast BBC scandal says Private Eye
'Bread' starts here - or maybe earlier
'Moonlighting' starts in UK [finishes 1989]; I think it started in 1984 in USA
EastEnders started in 1985; 'Highest rated Eastenders was Xmas 1985'
See my files for indifferent Feb 1995 article by Julie Burchill on the women in EastEnders, which includes quite funny summaries of their 'lives' - pregnancies, violent men, rape, concealed fathers, etc etc.
About the peak of 'Miami Vice' in UK
'The Munsters Today' starts, at least in UK
1986
Jan: Space Shuttle Crash
1987
'Secret Society' unbroadcast BBC scandal says Private Eye
World in Action broadcasts U2 Sunday Bloody Sunday concert
ACTT, described as 'the TV technicians union', involved in a strike against Bruce Gingell's management of tv am. The picket line was crossed by Anne Diamond, and various men who were once union men. When tv am lost its contract in 1991 these technicians went to bar or restaurant and celebrated.
Channel 4 Despatches broadcasts 'AIDS - THE UNHEARD VOICES' from Meditel.
1988
'My Country Right or Wrong' unbroadcast BBC scandal, says Private Eye
See Links
21 Dec 1988, Lockerbie air explosion, crash: disaster reporting conventions are wheeled out: "must never happen again" etc,
Top ten programmes in a June week: EastEnders/ Coronation Street/ Neighbours/ Bread/ Steptoe and Son/ That's Life!/ The Equalizer/ Ruth Rendell Mysteries/ Every Second Counts/ Brush Strokes
Desmond's [black sitcom, about a barber in Peckham] started 1988 on Channel 4; ran 6 years (at least.. still going in 1994, when leading actor in it, man of about 60, died).
1989
1989; unsure of date: 'Around the World in Eighty Days' is shown; filming finished December 1988
1989: ITV 'World in Action' top policeman and drugs scandal
April 1989: Sitcom 'May to September' begins
1989: Blackadder series set in First World War
1989: Cameras are arranged in Parliament
1989: Channel 4 does 26 episodes of 'Club X', filmed in a deafeningly loud disco so 'even the world's greatest sound engineer' couldn't make the interviewees heard. Plus sensational items, e.g. naked women standing against wall, one smearing blue paint on the others. Supposedly to present art, drama and music.
Jan 1989: [TV News]: The only noise in the southern suburbs was of rumour.. the ?official was less than clear.. meanwhile, their friends and wellwishers alike can only hope that their wishes for freedom at some time in the future for the hostages will come to realisation
6th April 1989: BBC TV News refers to KGB as a 'service': 'The KGB ... new image for the service - ?Deputy Vladimir ?Khuchov explained their action [after showing ??hyzchars ?bundled from ?plane] then press conference..'
The Hillsborough disaster [half hour report on this] ".. One of the most famous football stands in the world .. [the 'kop'] .. built in 1906.. The city of Liverpool will grieve as few cities have ever grieved.
Fears that interest rates would rise wiped £3 billion off the stock market today.."
Hillsborough football accident: '.. police banned from making further comment. Our only concern to make sure such a tragedy can never happen again'
.. Reported anger about remarks that fans urinated on police, robbed dying victims. BBC quoted these people. No concern over truth or otherwise of the accusation: it was simply nasty to say these things.
BBC presentation of football ID cards scheme: 'some government backbenchers concede that the bill stands little chance as it stands ... the government is gambling on [majority following party line??]...'
Reported anger about remarks that fans urinated on police, robbed dying victims. BBC quoted these people. No concern over truth or otherwise of the accusation: it was simply nasty to say these things.
"Terry Waite has been 1000 days in captivity". Note journalistic idea to introduce tired story
[Picture without sound of round-faced fatigue-wearing American's face, probably reading out a prepared statement]
ISRAEL SAYS THE SHEIKH HAD CONFESSED TO BEING PERSONALLY INVOLVED IN KIDNAPPING COLONEL HIGGINS AND THE ISRAELIS SAY IT WOULD BE THE WORST MISTAKE TO GIVE IN TO THREATS.
ANOTHER AMERICAN HOSTAGE JOSEPH ?SISCIPIO [Picture of hornrimmed, smug looking American] IS THREATENED WITH DEATH LATER TODAY UNLESS THE HOSTAGE IS FREED.
AN ANONYMOUS PHONE CALL WHICH COULD NOT BE VERIFIED SAID BRITAIN'S TERRY WAITE [Picture of the bearded Waite looking into the distance] WOULD BE KILLED UNLESS THE SHEIKH WAS RELEASED.
[Distorted male phone voice with still photo of balding reporter:] AFTER MARINE COLONEL WILLIAM HIGGINS WAS KIDNAPPED [moving pictures of young-looking American with several other people] BY A RADICAL SHI-ITE GROUP CALLED THE ORGANIZATION OF THE WORLD'S OPPRESSED LAST FEBRUARY, THE AMERICAN WAS BRANDED A SPY AND HE'D BEEN PREVIOUSLY REPORTED AS HAVING BEEN KILLED BY HIS CAPTORS BUT IN BEIRUT [Pictures of newspaper - in Arabic] LITTLE CREDIT WAS GIVEN TO THE REPORT THAT THE MARINE OFFICER WAS KILLED MONTHS AGO.
THE ABSENCE SO FAR OF A BODY RAISES DOUBTS ABOUT WHAT PRECISELY THE KIDNAPPERS DID TO COLONEL HIGGINS. HOWEVER IN BEIRUT THERE IS LITTLE DOUBT THE MARINE IS DEAD AND THAT THE KILLING IS MEANT TO SERVE AS A HEZBOLLAH WARNING TO ISRAEL AND AMERICA THAT MILITARY ACTION AGAINST THEM RISKS THE LIFE OF HOSTAGES.
[Woman newsreader:] PRESIDENT BUSH FLEW INTO WASHINGTON WHEN HE HEARD THE STORY. HE SAID THE KILLING HAD SHOCKED THE AMERICAN PEOPLE RIGHT TO THE CORE.
[Video of very pitted-faced looking Bush, at what looks like an impromptu press session, perhaps in Washington. Bush speaks:] "THERE IS NO WAY THAT I CAN PROPERLY EXPRESS [Pause. Looks at or thinks of his words] THE OUTRAGE THAT I FEEL. AND ER SOMEHOW THERE HAS GOT TO BE A RETURN TO DECENCY AND HONOR EVEN IN MATTERS OF THIS NATURE."
AFTER THE WAR
Frederic Raphael. [Director John Glenister. Producer Michael Cox. Designers Stephen Fineren, Chris Wilkinson]
ITV serial. 50 minute episodes. These notes made 1989
Reminds me of the totally frivolous 'The Boy Friend' of 1953 credited to Sandy Wilson.
Sandy Wilson b 1924 Sale, Cheshire & went to Harrow and Oriel College, Oxford; he wrote three reviews at Oxford, and wrote through 1948-1952 for sundry things, including Hermione Gingold.
'Life without us is quite impossible/ ../ No amount of idle gossip'll' | '.. Let others go to Sweden or Siam/ I think I'll stay exactly where I am.. | I've heard that the Italians/ Are very fond of dalliance..'
[Next episode:] 'Michael is now an established writer and film-maker, hoping for his big international break. So it makes sense to escort Sally Raglan on a glittering weekend with Ned Corman and Irene, Benedict Bligh and a powerful American film producer. On the same occasion Guy Falcon delivers his provocative portrait of Irene.'
[A further episode:] 'Rachel is now living with her husband David Lucas in the newly-independent West African federation. When they travel north on business, they find themselves caught up in a growing rebellion against the Federation and its president. David is shot and Dr Jerome Leblanc attempts to save his life. Rachel leaves for England as the rebels advance on the presidential palace' [Cast includes: Colonel Ramsden/ Sir Stafford Canning/ Wesley Idun [Luois Mahoney]/ Johnny Quashie [John Adewole]/ Trevor and Bunty Flint]
[And another: Michael Jordan working on a film [in 1967] in UK. Plot revolves mostly around him - producer says 'a big hand for our talented writer', 'what I need is a writer who doesn't give a damn about family life. Do you know one?' in the middle of rewriting on-set. Jordan says 'What I most regret is unspilt milk' [to a 'dishy' actress.] 'Do I follow?' 'No - you stay in the garden and think about it'. [Later]: 'I've already spoken to a dishy actress' - 'No-one will ever know' - 'Yes they will. I'll tell them'.
[2] means second of these episodes]
Philippa Jordan .. Ingrid Hafner
Michael Jordan .. Adrian Lukis [the important one. Presumably=Raphael]
Rachael Jordan .. Clare Higgins [nice looking ?younger sister]
Samuel Jordan .. Anton Rogers [paterfamilias]
[2] Clarissa Jordan .. Vivienne Burgess
Ned Corman .. Denis Quilley [powdered embarrassing poofter type]
Aubrey Jellinek .. Gary Bond
Bob Sander .. James Griffiths
Irene Jameson .. Susannah York [old actress playing an old actress]
[2] Chester Flam .. Edward de Souza
Jessica Flam .. Melanie Jessop
David Lucas .. Michael Siberry
Benedict Bligh .. Shaughan Seymour
Karen Bligh .. Jan Chappell
[2] Sally .. Caroline Goodall
[2] Joe .. Robert Reynolds
[2] Brian Routh .. Jeremy Sinden
[2] Davina Routh .. Sara Roach
[2] Mireille Lehmann .. Liza Ross
[2] Guy Falcon .. Gareth Thomas
[2] Wendy Falcon .. Frances Jeater
[1. 'Terribly terribly..' style of speech]
Really want to/ Best / conceivably/ very much want /Smiling on a cruel world/ couldn't be more/ longing/ make everyone cry and cry/ your greatest admirers/ very much doubt/ brilliant/ clever/ grotesquely/ bliss/ stroke of genius/ first class/ angel/ delectable/ thoroughly / royal/ adore/ treason/ the very thing/ rotten/ incredibly beautiful/ quite wonderful/seriously / success/ perfectly/ hateful/ sacrifice/ never again/ lifetime/ ordinary mortals/ awfully civil/ pretentious/ unlimited/ weird and wonderful/ repugnant
I caught your last play/ You must have been in the slips|| Did you say Zenda?/I tried/ As in Prisoner Of?/ You're getting warm || I haven't said yes, have I?/ No. But you haven't said no. || Have I had the pleasure, sir? And if so, have I heard of you? And if so, hello! || I must go/ Stay. Unless you have someone better to do || What's your third wish? The golden horses and coach? || Tittle tattle on the stairs. You've never outgrown school have you?/ Where else would we have unlimited access to canes and pristine buttocks
I wanted to talk to somebody and since I couldn't think of anybody I naturally came to you || [Phone rings] Are you expecting anyone?/ You're the one who lives here/ Then it must be for me/ Jessica Flam [sic]/ Any relation to the man of property?/ Daughter/ And you never knew till you got her dress off and saw the mark || I didn't want to be married to an artist. He'd always have something more important than me. || You should have been an accountant/ And you should have been an actor/ That's it. I will not be a sprat to catch a mackerel/ This is not Prompt Corner || I hear you are quite wonderful, Miss Raglan/ Ah, but I know you are! || Felt like some bank clerk who'd done well enough at lunch to be asked to stay for dinner || Are you really planning to marry Sally?/ Is that a well-know columnist's question? || Who the hell are you?
Who are you?/ I'm just leaving/ Shall I call you Mr Leaving? Or just plain Just? || Aren't you wearing a tie?/ It seems not || He'll never leave his wife. At least not more than once a week. || Laugh at me if you will, and you will. || I happen to think that Zenda is the best idea I've ever copied || Can't you take a joke/ whatever gave you that idea? || Hips that go bump in the night || Don't leave the sinking shit ||
Pretending you've got a couple of complementary tickets to the future || Envy and a sort of barely-concealed contempt worked in me - her happiness put me in my place. I couldn't quite be happy with it || You're looking very pretentious/ That's because it's my afternoon off. Unpretentiousness is such hard work
In the end.. it'll be a Jewish racket to have worked in concentration camps. They'll persecute us for having been persecuted || We were an old peoples' home since we failed to crush Nasser. We'll be tied to America's apron strings... || Would have had to prop up the pound .. our pathetic pretence of an ?independent currency
Script Notes:
I'm going now
Aren't you wearing a tie?
It seems not
Will you be in for lunch?
...
Good luck
But do I need it? And what is it?
I caught your last play
You must have been in the slips
Best dialogue I've ever heard
Did you say Zenda?
I tried
As in Prisoner Of?
You're getting warm
No. But you haven't said no.
I do hope you'll forgive me, will you?
You'd better tell me who you are
I don't suppose you remember -- Miller?
...
Are you conceivably free tonight?
Tonight?
I do very much want to see you
All right
What do you say?
All right
Aubrey Jellinek thought you were much too clever...
Come to sunny Ruritania
Where life couldn't be more ...
Stay. Unless you have someone better to do
I'm just leaving
Shall I call you Mr Leaving? Or just plain Just?
I'm one of your greatest admirers
I very much doubt if you're in the first 500
...
Are you a critic?
No
then be comforted. There are lower forms of life
My uniform is purely to get the respect I wasn't entitled to. It's a bit of a dog's breakfast, I'm afraid
Why am I talking so much instead of ordering dinner?
You're the one who lives here
Then it must be for me
Jessica Flam [sic]
Any relation to the man of property?
Daughter
And you never knew till you got her dress off and saw the mark
I don't want to be a journalist
Bit fussy for a hack aren't you?
Now -- writes brilliant scripts
You think property, ??, money is ?vulgar. You're an innocent Jewish lamb, waiting to be hung for English mutton. ... He's afraid we'll start screwing. That's why he's got a running-away expression
[outside in downpour at night]
I'm not what you think I am
You are. You're a beautiful woman
It was a lovely dinner
Damn the dinner
... sense
Have you looked round at the world recently?
Did Owen tell you what happened when we went to bed?
He didn't discuss you. .,.. nothing
That's pretty much what happened
Look can we continue this in a more suitable place even if it's only a dustbin with a lid on?
I didn't want to be married to an artist. He'd always have something more important than me.
We'll find her furniture to hide behind. Nothing the ?Lord Chamberlain hasn't seen before
I almost certainly won't do it [musical comedy]
.. the human capacity to hop out of the frying-pan the better to enjoy the fire
Your jokes have a --. Tears run down their faces without first making them laugh
I'm confused
You're confused. We're contused
I intend to marry -- even if no-one likes it
Well, I hope you two like it. Without it it seems hardly worth it!
It's your decision. You're over 21. Well over
Love - like this
Per - fect bliss
Your smile - your kiss
I wish you'd trust me. I wish you'd trust yourself!
What's your third wish? The golden horses and coach?
Why do I put up with you?
She's an angel changel..
Why go from bed to verse..
Eyes that are delectable..
Remind me of hips that go bump in the night
And since when was I anyone?
It's a brilliant idea to make it into a film
So this is where the workers of the world unite
And which actor have you been thoroughly disappointed to see in which play tonight?
I'm sorry to disappoint you but the royal coach is without and the little lady will ?never be willing
I do adore Benny... Probably be treason not to go
That's the last thing I want to do - sorry to be so rotten
I'll take care of the ?fox - you can't argue with nature
Look I'll give the printers a bollocking
I went to the park. It's incredibly beautiful first thing - the bulbs!
Look, we'll rehearse the lines we're going to use, and if there's time we'll rehearse the cuts!
I was just thinking
Nothing wrong with that at all
Welcome welcome to Ruritania
This is the land of ?? mania
Bibulous. Nice.
Four and a half years into labour and we still don't know if it's a boy or a girl
You'd better get into the delivery room
Twelve
You should have been an accountant
And you should have been an actor
That's it. I will not be a sprat to catch a mackerel
This is not Prompt Corner...
Can't you take a joke?
Huh. Whatever gave you that idea?
We've got to cut 'Goodbye ?Englishmen'
That's not only his only song in the show. It's my only song in the show
I'll resist the obvious
For the first time
It's late
Likewise your apology
Is it too late to eat do you suppose?
Ah, but I know you are!
I feel how you feel
..Aubrey
..promise
You know what he wants, don't you?
He wants to have a success
My name off the show
Over my dead body
It's been discussed, has it?
Not in so many words
Only a few terse tactless paragraphs
NEW SCENES?
We rehearsed them in the morning, when you were in ?bed/ ?love/ ?Dave
..
You're being perfectly hateful
It's a bit late in the second act for a high sacrifice, isn't it?
Never
Never Again
The time will
Lose me
Choose me
[The time will etc.. Never again..]
Starting
Ever again
Per - fect bliss
Husband and wife - time
============================ NEXT EPISODE: ============================
: It's awfully civil of you to ask these questions. I hope it's for your own good
: ... Like a mortal disease for example?
: We all are. It's called life
: That's because it's my afternoon off. Unpretentiousness is such hard work
: Is that a well-know columnist's question?
: I won't pretend to like you. ?I like no one and no-one likes a bastard. Jews ought to be traitors
: Tittle tattle on the stairs. You've never outgrown school have you
: Where else would we have unlimited access to canes and pristine buttocks
...
: What does an ordinary socialist millionaire you do at night?
: I go to bed, taking advantage of one of the apertures of that lady to your right. I smoke. I sleep
: I think perhaps we'd better...
: I won't offend the ladies. I'll only offend the gentleman
: How can a so-called socialist MP take a -- line (however many apertures may be available to him) and sleep at night?
:I knew it was -- good wine. I didn't know it was this good
: If Anthony [i.e. Eden] had gone through with it we'd have had Abdul back selling dirty postcards within a week
: But wouldn't ?the Americans ?have refused to support ?Sterling etc?
: Who the hell are you?
: I'm the man who's just asked if the ?Americans wouldn't have ?refused to ?support sterling
: .. Would have had to prop up the pound .. our pathetic pretence of an ?independent currency
: Your trouble is you've got bigger tits than your wife
...
: He doesn't want -- he wants --
: Don't leave the sinking shit
: A duel? Soup at ten paces? Shall we ask cook if there's suitable broth ready...
: What are you playing at, Ned Corman?
: It's called having a few people in for the weekend. Any number can play
: The dogs of peace can be more demanding than the dogs of war
: Not on this blasted heath
: Popular acclaim is the thing. Make sure you have one big success. After that you can be as weird and wonderful as you like.
: Fire. Upstairs. I think
: She's locked the door
: Thank heavens it's deliberate
: That portrait of Guy Falcon that was so repugnant to her. She tried to burn it
: Vandals in the crypt of St ?Joseph. In neither case could it be established what was done on purpose, or what the purpose might be
========= END ===========
1990
1990: 'The AIDS Catch' by Joan Shenton, Meditel broadcast by Channel 4's Dispatches
1990: British animals transported to continent: see \notes\food
1990: 'World in Action' on 'pin down' in Staffordshire children's homes
1990: 'World in Action' and first Birmingham 6 programme, they claim
1990: 'The Greenhouse Conspiracy' by Hilary Lawson broadcast on Channel 4 (says Richard Milton; this film pretty much banned in USA)
1990: March, Channel 4 TV series on Soviet Union [see \notes\USSR]
1990: Aug 1990: programme on Trostky; I guess Channel 4 [see \notes]
1990: Sept: TV interview by Tom Bower (prob BBC; author of 'Blkind Eye to Murder') with George Blake
1990: Oct. BBC Series on USSR Famines etc [\notes]
1991
1991: sex play by Andrea Newman; see my notes in \SEX
1991: 'World in Action' on Queen and tax: 'consistent concealment'
1991, I think: Breakfast TV: 'Husband and wife team Richard and Judy start the week with astrology, gardening and fashion. Susan Brookes is in the kitchen with more tasty recipes. Charles Metcalfe talks about wine and Moyra Bremner has some handy household tips. .. Janet Walton, mother of sextuplets, presents her personal guide to baby and toddler care. .. Practical advice, legal help and emotional support for those going through the difficulties of divorce. ...'
1991: Jonathan Miller presents 'Madness' on BBC2; or so John McCrone states in 'The Myth of Irrationality', published 1993 by Macmillan.
7 May 1991: ch 4 on Tanzania and elephants. See notes
23 May 1991: ITV Uganda AIDS see notes
No mention of the fact that British coal is relatively high in sulphur; presumably, switch to US coal would be better. What would the unions say? Or that switching from baths to showers could save more than 20%.
8 Aug 1991: BBC 'Escape from Kampala' in Uganda. See notes
BBC blurb says: '.. His journey takes us from Kurdish citadels to the desert ruins of the world's first cities, from the Garden of Eden to Babylon and Baghdad, and shows how the tragic legacy of Iraq's past has shaped not only the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein, but also the lives of all of us in the world today.'
Another BBC blurb: 'Yet it is not an archaeological series. 'We stay firmly in the present,' says Wood, adding that the films, which look closely at the teachings of Confucius, Mohammed, and Buddha [sic; in fact, many more, Plato, Asoka, etc] demonstrate that many of our ways of thinking haven't changed over 150 generations.'
'First of a four-part Timewatch reassessment of the life and work of Lyndon Baines Johnson, who took over as US President following the assassination of John F Kennedy in 1963. LBJ will always be remembered for his role in the conflict in Vietnam: he came to power only to see his unprecedented social agenda undermined by a war he supported but never really understood.
Beautiful Texas. This first programme examines his ambition and the political instinct which took him from small town rural affairs in Texas via Dallas to the highest office in the USA.'
'.. My Fellow Americans. The new president reassured a nation stunned by John F Kennedy's assassination and then surprised America with his forceful stand on civil rights and his programme for a Great Society.'
[What follows are out of sequence and not exactly verbatim notes, but they give the flavour of typical documentaries, with their mixture of scandalous anecdote with comment involving typically one side only using questionable 'facts', statistics, beliefs etc, accompanied by silly background music, effects etc:]
[Combination of voiceover with stills or moving pictures; customs officials casually dressed; customs police shown in their stations; men in boats intercepting other men; pilots; American vague 'operatives'; British government representatives of smug appearance; 'live' recordings of e.g. chases in boats, planes; interviews of course in a wide range of backdrops, places of work etc etc]
I was a British customs official with the British Virgin islands coastguard. I have been deeply concerned with the situation in these islands, and I wanted to put my case. .. BVI.. Her Majesty's government.. these is some input from the British of that there is no doubt but maybe we could have more. We have always worked well together in the past.. the assets, we have boats like this still they take time to make contact at ?rendezvous.. an aircraft, preferably a helicopter.. The Americans have a military attitude to the problem.. there are a lot of islands here, you can see, there's an impossible number, it's hard to know where you are, there's a lotta water.. the British Virgin islands are about 60 islands and marinas. Where we are now you can see three pleasure craft. This is not a recognised port of entry. We estimate 20% of vessels are searched by customs. That's 20% of the vessels that declare themselves. I repeat, this is not a recognised port of entry. These boats could come from anywhere. They may be from Porto Rico. They may be from the American Virgin Islands. Or they may be from anywhere. .. The cartel can afford to lose nine planes out of ten, so great are the profits. .. [we see plane sink down] [Radio crackle voices:] It's crashed! It's crashed! The planes, from Colombia, seek intermediate destinations anywhere in the Caribbean. American surveillance [shot of man with binoculars] is so overall that smugglers are increasingly moving to the British Virgin islands... Black Hawk helicopters are amongst the fastest. We can cover one hundred fifty knots easy going. That's the airspeed a the twin engine craft drug smugglers use. We can keep up with em provided we're not too far behind. we escort them in... Porto Rico, the BVI, and the American Virgin Islands are almost inseparable.. this is how they look to the smugglers,.. we're below radar now, it's important to realise that, we're going in low just the way a smuggler would do it.. The area to all intents and purposes is part of the federal united states.. Last year the British Virgin Islands customs destroyed ?500 kilograms of cocaine. This is a video of the operation [we see bags being cut open, then sluiced overboard] I'm told this is more than was intercepted in the entire United Kingdom last year so that's not a bad record. But we could do better. .. It's often said that British assets in comparison with the assets of the United States and the Cartels are insignificant.. Of course it would be nice to direct more resources to the problem of drug trafficking and its detection and of course Her Majesty's government is concerned with this problem and keeping careful track of developments. However, we have many other calls on resources. We have examined the matter and we are confident the balance we have struck is the right one. .. They maintain the market in the US is saturated. They can't sell any more drugs there. So they will look for any other market where people can buy drugs. If these drugs get to Europe you will have a problem. If crack cocaine gets to Europe, the situation will be very serious.. This boat is fairly typical. here we have two outboard motors. 125 horse power each. This boat will move real fast. 80 knots I'd say. The man said they were fisherman. On board, there was no trace of fishing equipment. That was one thing that made us suspicious. We unscrewed the screws here, the hidden head screws, and he lifted out the panel, under where you can see the stairwell. We found these stairs that we lifted out. You can see the bulkhead was sawed through, probably from the inside. There's 125 cubic feet of space in there. The plan was to pick up the drop, quickly hide it in the bulkhead, then mingle with the return traffic to Porto Rico. The chances of detection in Porto Rico would then be very low. .. Colombia has close links with Porto Rico. They are both Spanish speaking countries. They have families and relations in common. Colombians can visit England without a visa. [Shots of airport, Air Iberia, blacks and lack children in big airport lounge areas] Couriers come to Spain, as many as forty in one flight. Miguel [name] travelled to Spain. He was carrying ?$10 million dollars worth of cocaine. He was caught, but many others get through. [name] was paid $1000 by the cartel. However many couriers are caught, the cartel can afford to pay them. One shipment of cocaine may be worth $100 million at street value by the time it is mixed with impurities. .. This is a very small community [BVI] only ?4000 people everyone knows everyone nepotism is rife there is corruption .. people may be paid in drugs. You can never tell when this might happen.. This man had cocaine sewn into his legs. [Photo of black underweared thighs, one bulgy and with strips of sticking plaster] He needed emergency surgery. Without this, he could have lost both his legs.. ideally they will develop their own policing. British policy is to train local people that's all very well as a long term policy but at the moment we need more in fact most forces are headed by officers from Britain such as myself in the CID and heading the police forces. The work of intelligence gathering is not all that difficult. We have people here we're training to do it. .. The value is £200 million. That's ten times more than the value of the whole community. That sort of money means immense power.. They are in British waters. We are not allowed to stop them. Of course, everyone is willing.. Pilots may have to contact the British embassy in Washington and the Foreign Office in London. However willing the participants may be, a boat will try to dart from the British Virgin Islands to Porto Rico or some other place and by the time permission has been obtained the boats will have disappeared.. [Black men in white shirts at desks with clipboards etc:] Yeh, that's right, we sent out the boats, we sent out three speedboats, we searched the whole island, but we couldn't find them... The problem of drugs is worldwide. It is a growing problem. It will get worse. Meanwhile, shouldn't Britain take a hand? [Portentous music and titles]
? Nov 1991: 'The Spirit of Asia' series by David Attenborough; see notes
[About Flixborough, a newly-discovered site kept secret until after excavations, it said; a pseudo-monastery. Bede quoted on them: '.. award themselves the tonsure at their pleasure.. become not monks but abbots..' Site apparently strewn with animal bones etc - perhaps similar to other medieval outfits with kitchens etc. Catherine Hills uses expressions like: 'Dirty industrial site.. Smoke.. grimy site.. workaday.. [as opposed to] the living embodiment of the word of God.. this site has transformed our view of the Middle Ages..']
Voiceover said: Europe is addicted to oil, French Nuclear Power programme has the world's biggest international commercial debt and its costs account for 1/4 of all French industry, after Chernobyl many plants including one in Spain were closed or abandoned, and that huge amounts of lignite are torn up to supply German electricity. But it ended by saying the technological problems of energy production have all been solved! [I didn't jot down the precise words]
- For more detail, see \science-tech
- See notes on TV, 9 March 92, for another BBC programme on Turing]
- Note these media assumptions: [1] Voiceover several times asserts idea of 'universal machine' [2] Its use is 'limited only by our imaginations' [3] Anglo-centric stuff: Babbage and Turing made great contributions, and that two British inventors in Manchester started the computer industry.
[Smile from Michael Buerk] Terry Waite strode off to the British Ambassador's Residence to meet his brother.. Terry Waite is now a free man after one thousand seven hundred and sixty three days in captivity.
- Voiceover: ".. Night of June 24th.. [1991].." [graphics and photographs of BCCI, banks, City of London, slamming doors, etc]
- 1. Brian Quinn, Executive Director, Bank of England. "I read the report.. I was shocked.. suspect operations.. knew probably all was not well.."
- Voiceover: "Report revealed largest fraud in the history of banking.."
- 2. Ian Brindle, Senior Partner Price Waterhouse: ".. jigsaw puzzle.. we were not given all the pieces.. we dug away.. picture started to emerge.."
- Voiceover: [Graphics of tall doors being closed, handwritten signs saying 'Closed for business' etc] ".. astonishing picture of ?? .. bogus accounts.. unrecorded deposits.."
- 1. "It wasn't open and shut"
- Voiceover: ".. well-kept secret.."
- 3. [Manager of Leeds Branch. Mr Ijaz Choudhury.. Told to close the doors.. I said are you crazy..
- Voiceover: "..consternation among Asian customers.."
- 3. ".. Bank of England was to blame.. why were Senior Executives of BCCI taken into their confidence?.."
- 4. John Smith, Shadow Chancellor. ".. system of regulation wholly failed.. they were still handling large sums of money.. shouldn't have been allowed to.."
- 5. John Maples MP, economic secretary to the Treasury: ".. First action of regulators isn't to close a bank down.. it is to try to put things right.."
- 6. Fred Emery, in effect his own voiceover: ".. the Governors of the Bank of England say.. but are they right?.. investigators.. warning signs.."
- Voiceover: "1972.. set up by a Pakistani.. with Arab money.. Third World bank.. no longer reliant on the so-called Zionist banks.."
- 7. Vivian Ambrose. [Indian type male; described as BCCI internal auditor] "Hard to know about sincerity of the philosophy, but *many though it was sincere.."
- Voiceover: ".. Mystical.. announcements in BCCI in house publications [graphics show hexagon in cover design, with clouds apparently visible through] .. God's link with BCCI.. prayer room at the bank.. some prayed 5 times a day.."
- 8. Still picture of the founder, with clouds, and voiceover, possibly by some other Asian-sounding person reading his words.
- Voiceover: ".. picking up contacts.. Jimmy Carter.. ex Prime Minister Jim Callaghan.. no single regulator of the bank.. Luxembourg.. with ?14 international branches.. the other.. BCCI [some variant of name].. in the Cayman islands.. 500+ banks.. [pictures of bank machine counting notes; pictures of cayman Islands, banks, palm trees, boards with company names, etc]
- 9. Thomas Jefferson (sic), Financial Secretary, Cayman Islands. Light Brown man at a desk. Close; almost nothing shown of his surroundings etc. Voiceover said he was one of the few officials willing to talk; though he said very little
- Voiceover: [BCCI wanted to buy an American Bank.. expand.. pictures of New York skyline, subway, man going up escalator, skyscrapers, building viewed from low angles etc etc]
- 10. John Heiman, New York Superintendent of Banking 1975-1977. They turned BCCI down: ".. our basic concern was.. BCCI had no primary regulator.."
- Voiceover: "BCCI tried Washington.. Federal reserve Bank.. [number] of years later.. got round Federal Reserve.. [name] posing as advisor only.. went before Fed and swore they were acting on their own.. Clark Clifford the ?Fed's lawyer.. surprisingly, could find no ground for turning down BCCI.. 1st American Bank [as it was renamed].. only bank with branches in both Washington and New York.." [Graphics show video of Bank, actors pretending to be dynamic customers etc, and Clark Clifford, smiling from behind a dropped newspaper, its president. More graphics of hexagons, which seem to be the theme here, showing piles of counters on some hexagons, gaps elsewhere] Voiceover: ".. moving deposits around.. left gaps.. moved other money.. continual movement.." [No attempt of course to explain what any of this means]
- 7. ".. First American.. they wanted to expand into America.. it seemed *all right.."
- Voiceover: ".. 10 billion dollar theft, theft, but those closest .. say that's wrong - the problem was mismanagement.. speculated.. Futures Market.. wiped out their entire capital.."
- Voiceover: [Pictures of Miami shore, New York, US Customs people, blacks in not very formal uniforms, etc] "..in 1988.. operation C-chase, investigating currency laundering of drug money.. joint operation between USA, Britain and France.."
- 11. Customs man: "An executive working at BCCI.. wished to disengage.. said it was a criminal organisation.. talked.. 3000 accounts.. including General Noriega's... proceeds of crime.."
- [Near the end of the programme: "1987 there was a showdown.. two firms of auditors.. complained of fragmented auditing.. a single auditor taken on, but Price Waterhouse"/ 9 of Cayman Islands says ".. suspicious whenever an auditor is dropped.. want to know why"/ Price Waterhouse discover irregularities; we see extracts from a big report including refusal to sign accounts; [unclear whether this report was shown to anybody else]/ Money from Sheikh of ?Abu ?Dhabi I think put in within a few days; note added to accounts that 77% of capital owned by them/ British academic, subject international finance or something similar, from Southampton University says "..a note like that would be treated by most people as a reassurance, not a warning.. didn't say the bank had almost *gone."/ Disgruntled American says He'd be suing Price Waterhouse/ Price Waterhouse man says "At the end of the day we behaved very professionally.. we unearthed the facts.."/ [Graphics of New York, District Attorney office etc] 12. New York investigator: ".. secrecy in Great Britain.. it's more difficult to get information out of Great Britain than out of Switzerland.."
- Fred Emery finishes with worthless summary; viewers don't know even whether there was a fraud, despite many reiterations, who gained/ lost, what could have been done, what part Arabs played, whether the Bank of England could or should have done more. Almost completely worthless programme, I'd say
Bangla Desh rebelled against West Pakistan [1971?].. war between them.. Indian Army intervened.. 1974 starvation; US apparently provided no food because Bangla Desh had traded with Cuba. Since then two Bangla Desh Prime Ministers have been murdered by the army; suggestion that the army has been often used to suppress Bangla Desh people. $25 billion in aid over last twenty years. [Note: 'aid':] It became clear, or less unclear, as the programme continued that much of the 'aid' was in fact loans, or expatriate salaries for example for people administering tea industry, or invested in worthless river embankment schemes [we see one which collapsed in 1988; interview with woman, sixteen or so of whose relatives were drowned when it failed], or bribes, or conditional on receiving dumped equipment like diesel engines, or supposedly improved rice varieties which benefit only landowners.
Rather disgusting officials interviewed; man with diesel engine factory, undercut by low tariff presumably dumped imports, says he couldn't compete; official says 'tough! Why should farmers subsidise an inefficient industry?'
Naturally, no supporting figures for 'aid' to other countries are given, or true amount of 'aid' received; how in fact does it compare? No indications of percentage importance of river works, which may be negligible as far as could be told; no indication of the costs of building shelters from cyclones, which are a peril on the low-lying estuarine areas at the south and the islands off them.
Showed 'Grameen Bank' run by a Bengali with PhD in economics from USA, which he regarded as irrelevant, talking about 'eyes in his head put there by other people.' He specialises in making loans 'so small the other banks wouldn't touch them', and we see mostly women, in rural area, chanting a sort of encouraging chant, with their pass books. We see woman who borrowed £75 to buy a cow; we see her milking it, intending to sell milk etc, and hence help stop drift from villagers to towns of landless people. Landless people typically operate rickshaws, i.e. bike powered things; 'not many rickshaw operators reach old age.. good day £1 or £1.50.. hire of rickshaw 50p.. rent £5/ month for his shack.. ankle deep in mud..'
Included: interview with US Military Medical man, talking about 'understanding the enemy' etc; shots of Thailand, voiceover saying 'There are more sex workers than teachers in Thailand..' and estimates that most prostitutes have syphilis and many have Aids. Shots of aircraft; comment that these assist transmission. Naturally no connection with imperialism etc is made. Shots of dusty African scenes - 1 in 30 in some parts of Africa have HIV. Apparently also India is quite heavily infected; voiceover said by ?the year 2000 there may be more HIV positive people in India than all the rest of the world.
Usual confusing comments by 'researchers' etc of unspecified expertise and credentials: one says it's sexually transmitted, though we used to think it was homosexual; another is certain only sex and blood can transmit it; another isn't sure, since the virus is variable; another seems to think nothing about it can be said to be certain; shots of labs say 'more research has been done than on any other virus' etc.
Note: typical British documentary, with scrappy bits of human interest of extreme sort mixed with a few facts and speakers who appear selected to be either impassioned or evasively cold.
[1] Fire bombs in Blackpool; and in Arndale centre, Manchester. [Various interviewees talk about rectangular objects with batteries, speed of clearing the buildings, last thing they need with trade the way it is].
[2] Jacques Delors says Europe must be on course for federalism. Great Britain 'dit no, no, no.' [Comments on central bank and EMU, social charter and policy decided for the whole of Europe. Shots of Maastricht's picturesque bridge. Demonstrators with e.g. banner with green lettering, POUR L'UNION EUROPEENNE
[3] Labour Party: Dave Nellist and Frank Field expelled from Labour Party. Nellist: "I'm not a member of Militant or unfortunately now of the Labour Party. But I'm still a socialist.." Clare Short: ".. a deceitful organisation that doesn't admit its membership.."
[4] Dame Judith Hart.. died.. cancer.. MP for Lanark..
[5] Judge in Libya.. two men wanted for the Lockerbie bombing.. under house arrest.. Will face death if they are found guilty in Libya.. no question of extradition..
[6] From Lebanon.. news.. last two western hostages in Beirut may be freed.. Germans..
[7] Police stopped a £40 million bullion and jewellery raid.. Heathrow.. [Shots of KLM, man's suburban house near Heathrow, neighbour saying she heard shouting, Heathrow hotels etc; man who was to have been kidnapped, but was replaced by police, a warehouse supervisor for KLM, says he was "gobsmacked." Six month operation planned between two police forces called Operation Daedalus]
[8] Yesterday's train crash in the Severn Tunnel
[9] Football: Arsenal..
[probably guesstimated from show of hands, since the result came almost immediately]
Hosted by David Dimbleby; Owner of a small steelworks, and Norman Tebbit, on one side; the pro-more-Europe side included Richard Branson. Much talk of a 'level playing field'.
1992
1992: 'World in Action' film homeless people for a month
1992: 'AZT, Cause for Concern' by Joan Shenton, Meditel, broadcast by Channel 4's Dispatches. States they'll hand a dossier to British officials, as Wellcome's claims may be illegal.
1992: Sky TV report by Joan Shenton from Amsterdam, on alternative voices in AIDS (with response by a young-looking British Professor, and Duesberg on a phone line.)
'Cold Blood: the Massacre of East Timor. The massacre of more than 100 mourners at Santa Cruz cemetery on the little known island of East Timor shocked all those who saw the footage on news bulletins around the world. Cameraman Max Stahl had been filming secretly with the mountain guerillas and under the noses of the Indonesian military occupation. He was arrested but still managed to smuggle his footage back to the west. With Olivia O'Leary. Director/ Producer Peter Gordon. Series editor Grant McKee.'
[Actually there were no 'painful and bizarre results'. Shots of horrible Americans with an 'exterminator' spraying against 'bugs' in their 'beautiful home', woman who used to live in a moble home until, she says, her system was full of formaldehyde, woman who jogged and was buzzed by a crop spraying plane. Woman says she had reactive airways disease and azzmer. A doctor mentions chronic fatigue syndrome and another, named after two probably American doctors, expressing doubt whether these are genuine 'diseases'. Title at end, over shots of toilet cleaners, fly sprays etc, says something like '60,000 ?new chemicals are in use every day']
In addition, of course, a lot on his homosexuality; his college apparently was tolerant of it, the programme said. Half the interviewees, old Oxbridge people, seemed homosexual: "He said if he'd buggered a sheep it could have been ten years! Uh uh uh He had to have hormone tweatment.. he was vewy tickled.. he was gwowing bweasts! Uh uh uh" recounted amused bearded man with unpleasant laugh. He picked up some 'rough trade', whose friend burgled his house; he told the police "I know who did it!" and the story came out. He had a file: 'Burglary and Buggery' on it. A now-old woman was interviewed who'd been proposed to by Turing, when working at Bletchley; she said there was little physical contact between them, and he told her of his homosexual leanings. She seemed a frightful woman, dry, bland, quasi-intelligent. [Producer: Christopher Sykes. Series Editor: Jana Bennett]
Interesting point is buckpassing nature of the hacks, e.g. Peter Snow saying it wasn't clear to him whether he was supposed to report events on the road, e.g. labour, balloons etc and stage-managed specially timed events, e.g. in Birmingham Town Hall [where I'd seen The Young Tradition!] where he and Hattersley raised arms together, but despondent, and Tories in Scotland, speeches but little actual local support; or report what the politicians said. Rather absurd buck-passing. Elinor Goodman, Channel 4 political editor, saying you can't caption against the picture - e.g. can't show jubilant stage managed thing but voiceover saying they're despondent, because 'it isn't good television'. Another hack commented on poll tax riot reporting, and the fact that viewers were left none the wiser after the reporting. This is of course commonplace, though none of them pointed this out.
Programme is illustrated by shots of such things as: football match - scenes from a northern team vs Brighton; engraving of South African war, with added sounds; concern over the decadence of the nation illustrated by on screen words, plenty of shots of wordprocessor keys taping out circular letter, archives being dusted over and got out, shots of columns of breast or bottle feeding, weights etc; critics from Texas [view of car bumper, US music, fat shoppers etc]; lab shots of rat experiments - divided into two groups etc says voiceover; solemn female voice. Part of the evidence supposedly from Holland; we see black and white shots of parachutes dropping. In 1944 there was the 'hunger winter'. Ends in answer to the question what should pregnant women eat? The short answer is nobody knows. Prof Barker appears in yet another clip: ".. more research is needed.. results need to be assembled.. and the results are going to come through in the next few years." [i.e. completely at variance with what he's supposedly been saying about a whole generation being necessary for effects to show] [Worth noting the complete Eurocentricity of this programme
The point is that the others in the debate [woman from 'Democratic Left'; man from 'Charter 88'; Scottish liberal ?MP; lecturer from LSE in suit and rather silly precisian voice; Italian foreign editor or contributor to la Repubblica] had no overview at all in reply, and were therefore frivolous in the Russell sense. E.g. Scots chap said 1 Only France in Europe didn't have PR, and 2 it was unfair that liberals were under-represented, just as it was unfair that Tories were unrepresented in Scotland; Democratic left woman said so many % had voted green, or liberal, and had no Euro MPs, in the case of Britain, and disproportionately few liberal MPs; and the Charter 88 chap, replying to the argument that PR allowed in Hitler, said that he never had a majority, and minorities whether left or right would have a voice, but not, he suggested, much influence. The lecturer said it isn't true that Britons are disillusioned - the voting percentages are higher than the US, where whole blocks of people had abandoned politics; and there's not much popular feeling for PR, which comes quite low in a list of public concerns
None of them had any theory, e.g. of the way evenness of distribution of beliefs is handicapped by first-past-the-post, which favours local variations; or of how decisions would actually be made in such a parliament, beyond comments on shifting alliances, and remarks by the Italian than tens of thousands of candidates were standing in the Italian elections [also about to take place!] and that candidates stand against others in the same party, and corruption and the Mafia Camorra get called in.
BBC, Horizon, April 6, 1992. I'm pretty sure these notes all belong together:
UK documentaries: US academic speakers included (presumably for sales reasons) are very ponderous. [To be fair, so are UK ones, of course]
- Indo-European: Urvolk, Ursprache, Urheimat
- Skulls, etc: 40,000 years ago here must have been language: .. groups.. ritual.. art. 100,000 years old skull.. [from Ethiopia, I think] fully human.. anthropologist expresses doubt as to whether language then existed
- Interesting to see genetic and linguistic links being revived, mainly by US linguists
- 'Nostradic' hypothetical group of languages, I think though only of Indo-European type and a few others, though suggestion was word for milk or suckling found 'all over' globe [Australia omitted]
- Typical word list [extended to 2000 words, by comparison, and search for common mutations and 'precise correspondence'] included: to eat, to be, water, man, woman, body parts, blood, some internal organs, dust, earth, hole, 1, 2, [couldn't or didn't need to count more], fire, to make magic, spear, hunt.. Inference [criticised in Indo-European book as perhaps projected back] of hunting etc lifestyle
Tuesday 7 April, 1992: BBC2: Hackney: we see squatters being evicted to make way for normal council tenants. About three central; squatter characters: one has intense Irish accent; another single male talks about "When he came out of prison.. They haven't even got places for couples with kids.. So he won't get anywhere.. He splashed some paint on.. It took me three days to clear it, you should have seen it.. I've got 48 hours.. Stay with friends, relations.. You got to have your own door key, haven't you.. Well, a door key.. It's a pain in the arse.."; and a younger single male, more presentable, who says he'll find another closed-up place, probably in the public sector, and do the same thing there, until it happens again - "they'll let it to someone else, or get me out and close it up again.."
An interleaved sequence shows tenants: elderly couple: "What if we don't want it?" "Well, you signed.." "But etc"/ Young woman with child: "It's terrible.. the kitchen's tiny.. you couldn't get an oven in it.. you couldn't get nuffin in it.. Would you want to live there.."/ and a crowded official room: 123 didn't turn up, 34 signed the papers etc etc
Point is, nothing about legal obligations of the council, size of waiting lists, size of council's roll of tenants, number of empty places, effects of government restrictions on council's use of money, or population movements: nothing to help judge whether the council was being reasonable or not.
Nietzsche Archive, in Weimar, [E Germany] newly 'unsealed' in 1991. (We see film of small boxes, like shoe boxes with lids, on shelves up to the ceiling, each with a small tag attached). Elisabeth manipulated it to legitimise fascism. She became 'one of the most prominent women in the Third Reich'. Archive also celebrated Bernard Förster, her husband, a 'notorious anti-Semitic agitator' disliked by Friedrich. Between them they founded an Aryan colony in Paraguay: [See Reith Lecture]. In 1886, 14 North German families went there; surnames Fischer, Hermann, etc. Förster killed himself in 1889, buried in tiny graveyard, and Elisabeth 'took control as queen'. his grave ["grab"] given a beautiful marble headstone when visitors from the third Reich ["dritten Reich"] visited; things marked with swastika ["hackenkreuz"] and the ceremony watched by ?Schulekinden. Later Paraguay became a 'haven for Nazis': Josef Mengele, Auschwitz doctor, apparently there, always with a false name; a man talks about strange character eating a tin of dried yeast.
Friedrich 'unknown in his lifetime' had syphilis; in 1889 he collapsed, and was pronounced insane. Elisabeth 'vowed to make him famous'. She 'gained control of unpublished manuscripts'. He was exhibited 'dressed in the white robes of a Brahmin'; no one could see him without her consent. Friedrich died August 1900 aged 55. [We see several images of very heftily moustached man, perhaps, as his sister appeared to be, slightly cross-eyed, giving him somewhat maniacal expression]. FN: 'God is dead and we have killed him. There has never been a greater deed.' He 'wanted to descend his tomb an honest pagan', but Elisabeth 'gave him full Lutheran rites'; he 'lies where he was born'. Voiceover: "Nietzsche turned into a tool for the ugliest mass movement in history."
In fact, Elisabeth and Friedrich 'grew apart' [says voiceover]; he 'thundered against anti-Semites and nationalists'. Elisabeth said 'I more than any one am duty bound to .. and repel errors.. accuracy.. for none stood closer to him than I..' 'Elisabeth faked some letters [we see a letter with charred top; she made complimentary letters look as though written to her. However some had kept copies] .. wrote a popular biography of her brother.. lies to pretend intimacy.. Forged book, 'The Will to Power', her title, composed of jottings he'd rejected from the 1880s, with her section titles on breeding, eugenics, the ideal race.' An academic says she did it quite cleverly, really. [NOTE: Actual number of letters forged, basis of evidence that they weren't intimate, and evidence that 'The Will to Power' wasn't just an edited book in the ordinary way, is not given]
Elisabeth on First World War: 'Imperialist and warmonger.. her views.. Elisabeth urged the German nation to war.. There is a fighter in every German.. this warrior comes to the fore whenever the Fatherland is threatened.' [Voiceover said: 'Friedrich.. shatter the sword, demolish the military machine..'] 'Copies of 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' for German knapsacks.. Furious at the end of the war.. our troops in the front line were undefeated.. Our stupid home guard, fools and children, have stabbed our soldiers in the back..'
Elisabeth after the war: 'Became a friend of the fashionable and famous.. In 1923, rich on the profits of her brother's work.. she was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature (I'm sure that's what they said; but surely??) .. Wanted Weimar to become the intellectual centre of Germany: servants, lawyers, editors, relatives there inc her cousin, Max Oehler, archivist.' Expenditure was high; she 'looked for a permanent patron. 1920s press report of Mussolini's approval of Nietzsche's politics of individualism, the superman, overriding institutions. Zarathustra said the kind of disciples he admired would have such a high opinion of him [Zarathustra] that they'd reject what he said.' Elisabeth called him 'the new Caesar.. pre-eminent statesman of Europe.. wonderful man.. happy, powerful and triumphant.. offers mankind the hope of salvation. When in 1922 he marched on Rome, Elisabeth was ecstatic.'
- In February 1932, a play by Mussolini at the National Theatre, Weimar, Adolf Hitler in the auditorium flanked by stormtroopers entered her box and presented her with red roses. 'His eyes.. fascinating.. stare right through you.. at the head of our government such a wonderful man.. our chancellor.. a state which our poets have written about for ? centuries.. Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer.' And she said: 'I like his simplicity and naturalness.. he wants nothing for himself, but only for Germany.. I admire him utterly..' Elisabeth became friendly with Welsh-born Winifred, [related to Wagner].. Hitler greeted with rapture at Bayreuth Playhouse. Performance of Tristan marked 30th anniversary of Wagner's death. (Fifty years earlier Elisabeth had met Förster at the Playhouse).
Nietzsche had said: 'Do the Germans think at all? The Germans are bored with philosophy.. Deutschland Uber Alles.. the end of German philosophy.' .. Nietzsche was a 'trenchant opponent of anti-Semitism'
- [Shots of Hitler:] ' 'If German culture doesn't rise, and also German art..' They promoted all they thought best in german art.. Massive, muscular sterility.. Hitler thought of himself as a great appreciator.. a neglected artist, architect, and philosopher..' And Goebbels: 'Book and sword remains the signs of our time..' followed by black and white film of a bonfire, apparently rural, remains of square wood enclosure filled with fire, and chanting people going by, throwing in works of Marx, Lenin, Thomas Mann, Glaeser, Kastner, Freud, Remarque. I know, because a voice called these out. Thinking about it, perhaps a dubbed-on voice quoting from some speech.
- 1934: Mussolini and Hitler meet. Elisabeth at 88; 'fit subject for discussion among world leaders. .. They said they'd felt the philosophers presence..' Hitler's favourite hotel, the Hotel Elephant at Weimar.. 'great man.. holy flame of a watchful priestess' type of stuff. She presented Hitler with Nietzsche's walking stick and an (or the) anti-Semitic petition that her husband had presented to Bismarck. She felt her dead husband wasn't appreciated, wanted him elevated into mythical historiography of Nazism: Race, gospel of back to the land, and 'the Jew' an enemy behind all the other enemies.
- 1935: Eye operation. She read Mein Kampf: '.. deeply stirring insights into the new German character.. strength and courage to approve the trials of faith..' etc.
- 1935, Nov 9th, she died alone. Fuhrer ordered a state funeral, visited Weimar Nov 11th.
Programme continued with Nuremburg Laws against Jews, ?Socialists, Social Democrats; stuff on Alfred Rosenberg, 'main race theorist', Hans Frank, Hitler's personal lawyer, later sadistic governor of Poland, Wilhelm Frick, Fritz ?Zalkol; all four died at 1946 Nuremburg trials.]
Said night before the election [colour graphics:] 38% C 39% L 10% SDP based on a pooled sample of four polls by MORI, Gallup etc totalling 8000 with a 'limit of error +- 1.5'; both the Conservative and Labour figures were outside the 'limit of error'... 1983, 1987 pools 'very accurate' say poll organisations.. Jeffrey Archer looking, or pretending to look, furious, saying it's ridiculous..
Patten might stay on as chairman of the conservative party...
[Major's speech in the morning; shot of him walking down the carpet to the front door:] VO: "None of the staff [at Downing Street] had expected a result so good.. feelings of relief.. President Bush wanted Mr Major to win..
City.. Stock Market.. FTSE index soared.. up 136 to 2572.. strong pound.. pressures on interest rates reduced.. good news on inflation.. down ?4.1 to 4..
Peter Jay makes conventional remarks [cp letter to Private Eye 10 April 92 from a 'Genuine Economist']
VO: A new series of three programmes for the new season [Monroe-like voice: I'm so pretty don't you like me] VO: Is the mind merely a recreatable machine? Is humanity cast adrift in a meaningless universe? Such pessimism may be displaced by new scientific thinking which seems to converge with religious ideas, ancient and new. [Anthony Clare voiceover; i.e. Irish accent: Science is rediscovering soul at the heart of the universe in which we live] VO: Anthony Clare asks is science about to rediscover God in Soul beginning tomorrow at 5 past 8 on [BBC]2" [Visuals include rotating blonde doll, X-ray of skull, landscape/ seascape/ sunset pictures, and Clare in outdoor clothing positioned off-centre]
- Sat 11 Apr, 1992: Euro-Disney: time of opening c 10.40 pm, UK time: ITV broadcasts lead up to opening, with two male interviewers (plus French, Spanish, German TV crews) showing Main Street USA, shots of porcelain etc shops, horse and cart running on rails, 'Toad Hall' restaurant with 'English fish and chips', 4 man barbershop people from northern England, all staff speaking two languages at least, man with large Captain Hook head thing, lots of people dressed as dwarfs, mice with big smiles, dancing jungle-book-cartoon bears, etc, the visual confusion perhaps concealing the fact that the rides and attractions are inevitably somewhat voyeuristic and non-participatory:
'.. 5000 acres, 'biggest construction project apart from the Channel Tunnel', '1/5 the size of Paris', with '5 kingdoms'. Cher sings a song; Gloria Estefan sings or mimes with the Miami Sound Machine, wearing a red frilly chiffony dress in two halves, one each side of her red underpants; The Four Tops (blue spangly jackets) sing with The Foundations (five of them in bright yellow ordinary cloth jackets) 'on stage together for the first time': 'it's the same | | old song | But with a diffrent meanin since you bin gone..'; Jose Carreras sings, or mimes, with an orchestra, and no microphone, something I failed to recognise
Discoverland is about the 'future'; Jules Verne-dressed type introduces it; we see mainly rides in rockets etc, and 'Animatronic' figure of skeletal robot looking quite realistic. Verne says they got cars, aeroplanes, space travel, but one thing the visionaries didn't predict was Michael Jackson: we see what's presumably a video, of Jackson leading a squad of dancers in less striking clothes against a baddy, yellow lights zapping the baddies from his hands.
Michael Eisner, Chief Executive Officer and Roy Disney [nephew of Walt] perform opening ceremony by snipping wide red ribbon with huge pair of scissors. Eisner makes announcement in Franglais about "Euro-Disnee ay oovert", Roy, who's been involved creatively all his working life, he tells us, seems too receding-chinned and introvert to make the announcement. Fireworks start.
"In the words of Walt Disney: this was all started by a mouse"
- Iconography: Announcer said that though American, the inspiration was from Europe, attributing a few of the cartoon images, as below, [though I've added some]:
Italy: Pinocchio, and another I've forgotten
France: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty
Germany: Snow White & Seven Dwarfs, Mad King Ludwig style castle
England: Peter Pan [and pirates], Alice, Jungle Book
US: Buffalo Bill Show [ring with horses, lassooing, real bison, stagecoach, indians whooping and with spears, two on horse etc etc]
Middle East: adventure world with suggestion of Arabian nights
[But what about: Sorcerers Apprentice; Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy etc; underground cave with dolls, and that repetitive tune which, by the end, gets extremely on one's nerves; Fantasia; Bambi; Dumbo; Red Baron I think I saw in US]
Following are extracts; the programme mostly showed Hay talking about, or to, other people, including a supporter of free market air space; also shots of BBC centre, Marmaduke Hussey and his fellow hacks starting a meeting, nod to radio [Radio 2 now has lots of pop..]. No indication, as far as I know [missed earliest part] where this organisation sprang from, who chose Hay as 'chairman', whose money it uses, or that they're aware of BBC function as spy or listening-in organisation etc.
[Their organisation referred to as 'VLV'; I wonder if it was modelled on Viewers and Listeners Association of Mary Whitehouse?]
"BBC .. has been the standard setter and training ground for the whole industry.. We believe this situation should remain" [Shots of studios, equipment, lots of hacks]
"Do you think the licence fee should remain?" Channel 4 programme controller [female]: "Absolutely.." [Channel 4 at present gets guaranteed income from ITV; they're scheduled to compete soon, and when they do ITV will ?try to buy their most popular programmes (Cheers, perhaps?) and will compete against their slots, said ITV man.]
"The ?beauty of the BBC is that it has definite funding" [ITV man!]
".. framework of debate.. public inquiry.. [?we want the] major interest groups to make their submissions.." [Shots of Willie Whitelaw and Lord Thomson, who appear to know Hay]
".. Centre of excellence.. We'll all be the poorer.. public debate.. I think the Philistines.." [Cp Russell's short story: "What about architecture? What about art?"]
".. [Man's name] the leading competition theorist" [subtitle says: Institute of Economic Affairs, referring to a 1980s report]
[Vice-Chairman of 'VLV', grey-bearded man with less polished accent:] ".. it is expensive.. the free market is NOT what the market wants.. A programme.. ?Marmaduke Hussey says he thinks we've got it about right.. Attitude is ?smug.."
"BBC.. as a result of the Broadcasting Act.. 25% of its output has to be made by independents.. In fact they've gone far beyond that, ?unnecessarily we feel.."
"Most older people thought it represented good value.. only one third of younger people thought so.. so again there's that ignorance problem.. We commissioned a survey of attitudes to the licence fee.." [Woman from market survey company shows a simple histogram..:] "we asked people to value programmes [i.e. on the same basis as hired videos] .. value of £500 a year" Hay beams: "That really is tremendous!"
[Schoolkids; one says he doesn't want to pay for BBC, would prefer not to pay the licence:] Hay: "The licence is a licence to receive.. and surveys show most people, 90% of people, watch some of one, some of the other.."
[Shots of a BBC meeting: square table, four seats along each side I think, Hussey the Chairman shuffles papers, grins uneasily; greenish-brown decor]
LATER: 27 Nov - 3 Dec 1993 'Radio Times' has a letter: '.. It was extraordinary that the Citizen's Charter included no mention of broadcasting; and, in its response to the 1992 government Green paper on the "Future of the BBC", Voice of the Listener and Viewer (VLW) included a Viewers' and Listeners' charter. Some of the main points were:
* The BBC's role as the standard setter for British broadcasting should be maintained through its Royal Charter. The licence should remain its principal source of income.
* Broadcasting in Britain should be editorially independent.
* All national TV channels should provide a comprehensive service of high-quality news, current affairs, arts, drama, music, educational, children's and religious programmes, as well as high-quality entertainment.
* Major sporting fixtures should be accessible to all licence-holders.
* The BBC should commission research into viewers' and listeners' perceptions of programme quality and publish the results.
* Mechanisms to improve accountability in broadcasting should be published.
Mrs Jocelyn Hay Chairman, VLW, 101 King's Drive, Gravesend, Kent DA12 5BQ.'
Monday 13 April, 1992: BBC2 Horizon, 8.10 - 9 pm. [Very long tedious programme apparently intended to show that a Briton, who emigrated to New Zealand, by his observations that Southern Alps of New Zealand south island show evidence of past movements, invented idea behind plate tectonics and behind 'fluid crust' explanations of earth. Spun out to inordinate length, as usual. Some suggestion - cp. Turing - the motive of these programmes is nationalistic:]
Radio Times blurb: 'HORIZON. THE MAN WHO MOVED THE MOUNTAINS The story of the pioneering scientist Harold Wellman. Arriving in New Zealand in 1931 to search for gold, he made the then remarkable observation that the landscape around us is constantly moving. Sixty years on, his discovery has revolutionised the understanding of earthquakes and the way they shape the vast mountain ranges of the planet. Producer David Singleton. Series editor Jana Bennett]
Voiceover: ".. Harold Wellman.. little formal education.. 1930s.. New Zealand.. here he gained independence of mind.. plane.. prospector.. when the gold ran out.." [Interminable shots, inc Prof Wellman talking about universities and a colleague in lumberjack shirts hitting rocks with geological hammer, and picking two from river bed:] "I noticed there are only two types.. granite and [?].. Granite has ?gneiss, the shiny bits etc etc..." And finding a soft green rock: comments of "Look a that colour" "Wow. It's green." perhaps intended to recreate the first discovery. [The green rock, boundary between granite and ?, wears away selectively, making boundary relatively easy to follow. Wellman found long straight line of it in South Island, with one end displaced from another bit. Hence, it must have moved! Wow!]
[Most of the programme then dealt first with plate tectonics. Showed Wellman 1955 paper, New Zealand Quaternary Tectonics. "Ten years later scientists were prepared to listen.. plate tectonics.." Man: "Three types.. push.. pull.. sideways, as at California" "At New Zealand.. India and Pacific and Antarctic plates meet.." "Line is 10 km wide in the ocean; but 250 km wide in New Zealand.. anomaly.." Wellman: "fortunate... Iran Afghanistan, and Pakistan.. air photographs.. made this diagram.." "Fault lines, but no trace of a single plate.." ".. early 1970s.. satellite photographs became available." Man: ".. photos.. mostly black and white.. Tibet.. fault.. traced it hundreds of kilometres.. must post date the last ice age.." "India known to have moved north.. Plotted on a map earthquake zones in Asia.." (we see graphics effect; whole area into China, excluding India and I think Burma, like an inverted V, seems prone to earthquakes; i.e. not a single plate moving with a precise edge)
Then dealt with modifications of plate tectonics to allow for rocks not being completely rigid; various spokespeople, academics of Britain and France, wheeled on with models, following Wellman: W's model had diagonal slices of wood about 1/2 inch thick, on a 1/2 inch thick floppy arrangement of leather with laths or something like that; at a vertical edge, it rises, and faults occur. That's his model of west coast New Zealand, I think. Someone else's model [foam rubber, two blocks separated by sandpaper] showed how earthquakes happen along the break, but the overall effect is from a long perspective continuous motion. Other New Zealanders repeat a 'very accurate survey' of about 100 years ago; triangles now slightly different. Foam model shows deformation, presumably much exaggerated - the commentary talks of 5 cm a year per 10 km or something, "about the rate fingernails grow". Other people tried to model India impacting Asia with yellow-and-deep purple plasticine in strips, which buckles, but remains flat; then idea of treating the crust as 'fluid' - "Much more sticky than treacle, much more sticky than glass.. gets weaker when pushed hard.. fluid earth.. more dynamic.. model means you have to keep pushing to keep the mountains up.." [Trays of honey, silicone rubber, fine sand, and computer models using 'Newton's laws of motion' give vague approximation to Himalayas, Tibetan plateau etc./ Another man has three-d model of Greek end of Mediterranean, showing where mountains have sunk back, some now existing as islands. This happened over [millions] of years.."
[Voiceover at end, with shots, taken by helicopter, [the pilot got a credit!] of man standing on snowy and rocky mountain, looking at nothing in particular:] "Mountins that move. Mountins that flow. What the young Wellman discovered nearly sixty years ago is finally changing the way we picture the surface of our planet. Once, the world seemed fixed. Then Harold Wellman opened our eyes."
Seems to revolve around ejection of girl from cottage, by black dog of Arthur from the tump etc, so that a centre for reflexology, crystal healing, etc can be set up, apparently for money: "We'll do well by doing good, and do good by doing well"
Point is a four or six part series with Millicent Martin, called Moon and Son, just finished; she was given clairvoyant, astrological, card-reading etc powers; lived I think in a caravan, in France, plying her trade, when a rival opened a shop near the market. Something like that. Mingled with detective story conventions, e.g. detectives treat her seriously etc., and naive technology conventions, e.g. personal computer running new improved astrology program!
Attenborough, mostly; tenor sing song voice: "One of the greatest treasures of the continent.. once part of a forest stretching from South Africa to ?.. now only found in Tanzania and Northern Mozambique.. also known as [list of names, with] ebony.. what you're hearing is nature's voice.. worth $10,000 a cubic metre.. [shots of lathes etc in Boosey and Hawkes' Paris factory. No indication of cost of bit for e.g. clarinet].. an orchestra is a miniature mpingo forest.. black keys of a piano [piano music].. woodwind [clarinet music; and some oboe].. some of the loveliest sounds in Europe's orchestras.. Japanese, American and European collectors are developing such a demand for these pieces [sculptures] that they can command a thousand dollar price tags..'
NOTE: Striking how a firm statement makes it sound credible: is this how Hawking et al get on? For example, Hawking talks in computer monotone of "entering Addenbrookes, X Ray opaque substance injected into spine, rocking on table, diagnosis of ?AST or [expanded version of name] or Motor Neurone Disease as it's also called" as though expert in the history of medical names given to certain illnesses]
NOTE: my rule of unprovability seems to apply to Hawking and his hangers on and the subjects they select; following pretty much verbatim from computer monotone:-
".. the very small, and cosmology, the very big.. elementary particles.. no theory.. all they can do is classify them like in botany.. in cosmology, there is an accepted theory.. Einstein's theory of relativity.. Einstein proved the universe is expanding.."
"Einstein said God does not play dice with the universe [sic]. It would seem Einstein was doubly wrong. Not only does he play dice but he throws them where they can't be seen"
1967: An American coins the expression 'black hole' to replace 'gravitationally completely collapsed object'. Hawking thinks if time runs backwards, a singularity will expand into the universe! Hence the 'big bang'
"What distinguishes past from future is the increase in entropy or disorder in the universe.."
"Collapse into a singularity.. but in a singularity the laws of physics no longer apply"
"The laws of physics are independent of time" [sic; or very near]
"When the universe started to contract again, would we see the cup gather together and leap back on the table? Would we be able to make a fortune by remembering prices on the stock exchange?"
"The universe has only two possible destinies; it may continue to expand or it may go into reverse.. into a big crunch.."
[Jonathan Penrose, I think; we see wondering about the timing of consciousness, where there's something very odd indeed, the future influencing the past, only in a small period of time mind you!, but perhaps a fraction of a second, so after death people may become someone else, in the past; and the idea that the universe just happens to be there, well that's not a very fruitful way of looking at it etc.]
- What follows is only a sketchy outline of this dismal programme; note that I've combined some speeches by an individual where they were disjected:
- Note: just one argument in the whole thing: graph shows 'growth' presumably in GNP according to naive official figures; there's a kink up in the late 80s, then down; a straight line from Jay's presumably arbitrary start just goes ahead of the downturn; suggesting Lawson made no difference to total output:
- [Some northern town] Jay VO: ".. chamber of commerce.. their worse year ever.. Voters.. the coming election.. once prosperous.."
- [Same town. Man in suit at door:] "May I ask if you will support the Conservative Party?" Replies include: "I down't support anybody and Oi never vowt" and "I don't now. I've just lost my job." - "Surely that's not the fault of the Conservative Party?" "I don't now."
- Jay VO: "Some say Lawson took his eye off the ball"
- [Some conservative or bank statement is read out a sentence at a time:] ".. near the end of the 1980s.. great expansion in the growth rate.. further unnecessary stimulus was applied.. inevitable later correction.."
- Jay VO: ".. he ?claimed the right to play his own hunches about the economy, coupled with the idea of keeping the value of the pound as close as possible to the German mark.. There were three theories about the ?process of inflation.."
- [Pounding noises at intervals between waffle]
- Jay VO: ".. Black Monday.. stock exchanges around the world crashed.. talk of the crash, of the 1930s all over again.. may have overreacted.. [shots of floor of some building littered with papers] .. But Mr Lawson is unrepentant .."
- Lawson: [Looks plump, eyebrowed:] ".. led to climate of optimism.. excessive borrowing and lending.. Breaking up of monopolies.. privatisation.. competition.. trade union ?reform.. improving productivity.. you can't expect them to bring results instantaneously.."
- Ingham: [I wonder if he's from East Anglia? Plump, strange voice, not very audible, suited, would-be confidential manner, sense that his contacts are deserting him] ".. enterprise culture.. the Prime Minister.. a great lady.. every day she said we must beat inflation.. Thatcher message that fighting inflation comes first.. perhaps it's more than yuman nature can manage huh huh huh Business confidence.. I'm not going to insult your intelligence by claiming there's ?any miracle ?cure etc etc"
- John Biffen: [Said a few timid and shyish things]
- Healey: ".. same mistakes.. throughout the world.. but excessive money supply.. everyone believes that causes inflation.. everyone believes that.. but the private sector borrowing ?counts too.. everyone in Britain was living on tick in the 80s.. As I've got older I've concluded most of the theories are bunkum.. economics is a behavioural science, and peoples' behaviour changes over decades.. unpredictability of people in the mass.."
- Jay VO [and sometimes to the camera, in glasses, in anonymous study or with official looking building behind him:] ".. Lawson.. slashed the top rate of income tax from ? to ? .. Some top Tories were queasy about the scale of the cuts.. In two years Lawson went from hero of the party to its ?black sheep.. We may never know which version of [set of theories?].. interest rates.. ?% to 10.9%.. tripling in just fourteen months.. Mr Lawson believed it to be a flop.. serious errors handling the economy.. so it is fair to say she knew the chancellor was doing the wrong thing.. So compassion was ?thrown out by conviction.. In hindsight too the economy has clearly gone wrong.. prices rose faster and faster.. rancour among top politicians in the party.. blame another.. bitter phrases bandied about between number ten and number eleven..
- Sir Alan Walters [Soft voice, suggestion of tenor lisp and petulance; he has shorn white hair] ".. why Lawson resigned.. I would conjecture he knew he'd made a mess of things and he wanted to get out.. even he knew it had gone wrong.. this is pure conjecture on my part.. I thought perhaps he behaved like a gambler.. cutting his losses.. people do behave in that way.."
- Jenkins: "The miracle in 1989 exaggerated.. [looks serious through specs:] pilot ewwors were made.. if there hadn't been the economy wouldn't have responded as it did.. underlying problems remain.. I can't think of a single chancellor who weally influenced the course of events! .. Feeling .. we're not doing much more than making footpwints in the sands of time.."
- Jay VO and camera: ".. The question is will voters in the coming election buy Thatcherite arguments.. ?thirteen years is a long instant.. could still prove true.. union reform.. privatisation.. free market.. and not evidence of structural weakness.. if the recession permits.. the miracle of the achievements.. long term changes which have taken place.. Lawson believes the patient who has taken so much good medicine must get better.. What we know now is the recession was the inevitable result of the boom.. It's possible that the tree of Mrs Thatcher's miracle will bear fruit.. "
- Jay: "While some favoured a ?free-floating pound and others ?linkage to the Mark, Sir Kit McMahon thought the policy of shadowing the deutschmark fell between two stools" McMahon [Blondish old-middle aged man, who seems cautious and unwilling to speak directly, and undistinguished in any way. Subtitle says: Deputy Governor of the Bank of England and two dates in 80s or 90s] "I think the policy.. worst of both worlds.."
- [Interviewee; ?manager from some factory] ".. dramatic change in economic attitudes of the country.. a whole raft of changes have come about.. fundamental change.. change in everyone.. management, staff, the workforce [sic; no mention of banks etc!].. no point in inflationary growth.."
- [Another interviewee] "There has of course been a sea change.."
- Jay VO and camera: "Time like an ever-rolling stream bears all its sons away.. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity, said the prophet. But the prophet also said [another quote].. illness.. ?.. everlasting seesaw of unemployment and inflation.. economists must first find the long-lost key." END
Man with mike: "half percent cut.. business confidence.. not really feeding through to the rest of the economy.. the business community.. expecting interest rate change especially after the Bank of England signalled this last week.." Another man: "..settled down after the election result.. (i.e. now Tories are in).. it's good news for business, it's good news for mortgage holders, it's good news for the economy as a whole" ".. Interest rates.. were nearly twice the level in Germany.. (we see graph).. now the gap with Germany has almost disappeared.. with German economic problems including a strike at ?Frankfurt Airport.. It is possible that Britain's interest rates will fall below Germany's.."
- Says owners spend £220 m per year; only ?£15 m is won in prize money
- Says £4 bn is bet per year [£10m a day] "yet the sport is in crisis attendances are down.. on course bookmakers say it is hard to make a decent living.." [One is interviewed; licence costs four times the entrance for Tattersalls he says, whatever that means. He pays £35,000 a year. And that's before any question of making a profit! No mention of what he actually earns, of course]
- [We see a 'stable boy' combing and brushing horse; and watch him - pale blue simple eyes - lose £50 on a horse he's been tipped]
- VO: ".. The big money.. big bookmakers.. ?managing director of ?Ladbrokes.." [Man in suit, weasly racing type:] "The British bookmaker is a PIONEER.. he built up the off-course betting system in this country.. the best in the world.. all in all 15 million pound a year"
Picture shows man in casual shirt with Nikon and longish lens; caption 'Sharp focus: British war photographer Tim Page (Iain Glen) risks his life in war-torn Vietnam to capture the images that shock the world and influence American politicians.'
Starts with music of alien type. Then shots of Dalai Lama walking in a garden. VO says reader met him [number] years ago. He has a terrific sense of humour. [We see him giggle, say "I go this way. in my small garden". He walks. VO says he likes to repair watches. We see him with jeweller's eyepiece, and small jewellers screwdrivers. He says some watches are not worth repairing, they cannot be repaired. We're told Tibet is big, there are or were six million Tibetans, and that the Chinese invaded in 1950; we see black and white film. There's also film supposedly or actually showing three or four Chinese kicking six or eight Tibetans, I think beside a bus. And a woman who said she enrolled as a nurse, but was raped by Chinese officers; they were expected to sleep with three officers a night. How much, if any, is true, and whether the Dalai Lama has in fact any entitlements, what the British did when they invaded, whether he is 'compassionate' etc, whether the Chinese were entitled strategically to Tibet, every important issue is of course not met.
At one point Sayle talked about 'fascist dictatorships.. spent the money on little toys like helicopter gunships which they used to beat the shit out of the people..'
Dominican Republic: Columbus's favourite place. ?Killed them and shipped them home chopped in small pieces.. [What? Really?]; Trujillo; lots of bank money for cash crops, sugar plantations; Sayle interviews chap who says loans went up, on the theory that they export, they can import and industrialise, although it hasn't happened yet; but interest rates soared, and prices dropped 'because the same advice was given to all these countries. And it still is been'. [And e.g. fertiliser prices rose]. Now 200,000 families living in the hills, thrown off their land; now a family called I think Velasquez, who live abroad, claims to own it. In ?1984 poor revolted against food prices going up again.. several hundred killed.. nothing happened
We see a co-operative of co-operatives which a man from I think the Dominican Republic is trying to set up: made up of 1.5 million small producers of coffee in South America and Africa. Subtitles say: We're trying to sell in the alternative market.. we can't sell all we produce, only about 1/4 like that.. we sell the rest at a loss. Another critic says: if they sell through the channels that are there, futures markets and big companies, nothing will change; why should it? [But see Guardian letter on trying to sell coffee through British food chains] We see man looking at what purports to be 'the futures market'; black chap says in effect it's unethical because it doesn't take costs of production into account. Reinforcing the point we see Sayle in a supermarket with a pineapple, grown somewhere like the Dominican Republic; should we not buy it and reduce multinational profits, or buy it so the grower gets his tiny amount of money? [Both statements unquantified of course]
[Occurred to me this coffee idea resembles a food version of OPEC]
He gave an example of a producer apparently recommended: Geest's policy to buy Windward Island bananas from smallholders
Junk food in third world: Sayle walks in an urban street towards us, reading or pretending to read from a magazine. He quotes [no acknowledgements] president of a ?giant ?American ?food company that sells 'junk food and drink that rots your teeth'.. said [reads from mag] very poor.. buy luxuries, not what they really need. It worked for us. Maybe it'll work for you!
Denmark votes no on Maastricht Treaty.. [shots of voting, Danes, Denmark, one person saying yes, it's the future, another no, we'll be too small, ballot boxes being emptied etc, leader of the vote no party looking pleased.] Technically EC must ?renegotiate treaty with all its other [number] members.. [Extraordinary feeling, as shot of misleading blue flag with circle of equal-size white stars come up, of complete absence of democracy in this country - being hurried into this]
Russia confirms .. bodies of the Tsar's family.. murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1917.. well kept secret.. technical expertise.. [shots of skulls, with faces superimposed, I think by computer].. genetic matching.. chanting orthodox priests] .. burial with the remainder of his family.. Tsar and Tsarina.. their doctor.. in a pit.. sulphuric acid.. petrol.. burnt.. this crime..
Brazil conference.. poor countries of the south.. the rich countries of the industrialised world.. they will say they require more money.. they fear expensive measures to save the environment.. John Major will say the west ?cannot give much away.. expensive.. costs.. afraid the expense will fall on the rich countries.. [Malaysian woman speaker at a dais: apparently-confusing speech about other countries which have destroyed their own forests and want ours]
Item about aid - Under labour .5% or something, under Tories .3% now or something. Naturally no indication of what 'aid' means in practice. Lynda Chalker says things like "It is not .27%. It is .3%"
.. Germany may pull out of the European [fighter plane] .. biggest defence project since Trident.. as many as twenty thousand jobs may be lost.. Ministry of Defence will continue to support the project.. Lancashire.. fears that junior partners Italy and ?Spain will pull out.. need to sell four hundred.. Italy has already cut its order to [number].. [German speaker:] Ve need billions to pay for East Germany.. reconstruction.. zis expensive project.. [Voiceover] However, it is believed that Germany pulling out may not raise costs by more than eight percent.. Or even less if construction is based in Lancashire..
The President of Syria has accused Israel of bombing.. self-proclaimed security zone.. etc.. [We see him; voiceovered] Doing this for their elections.. convenient excuse to bomb Hezbollah
Item about house prices, market set to rise, stamp duty to be reimposed on house sales in August will mean a rush to beat it; moneylender type says things; histograms show repossessions weren't 100,000 in 1991 [c 70,000 the year before] because of social security payments being made direct to mortgagors, and 'special action' by building societies.
Mainly interviews with translation, so far as I watched, padded out with special effects; e.g. starts with sinister music, and whited-out hospital effects, with white coated people and barely visible faces in a white glow. Presumably shot in a modern hospital. Voiceover translates voice as something like: "Every time I went there.. I would know they wanted the worst for me.."
Other blurb says: 'The Miracle workers. Hong Kong and Singapore - both founded by the British - are now economic powerhouses of the Far East. They have no natural resources and are thousands of miles away from markets in the rest of the world, yet both continue to boom. David Lomax asks how and why have their economies grown faster than Britain's.' Note: cp Chomsky on these tiny islands and pretence they're a nation]
Thu 11 Jun, 1992: BBC1 9 o'clock news item on 'the economy'. Perhaps some sort of report. Phrase repeated at least six or eight times was 'confidence', usually as 'spending confidence' or 'consumer confidence'. Various people say 'confidence' is low, or hasn't 'recovered' as expected, or is 'expected to grow steadily but not spectacularly'. Some representative of 'High Street retailers' says something about confidence. Figures for 'the car industry' are quoted: 'still six percent down on last year' or some such formula. Voiceover says something like 'the expected house price improvement has fizzled out.. Building Societies say people are looking but not buying..' Then a spokesman for mortgages or something says: ".. confidence.. The housing market of course gives it a lead.. this suggests the government should do something..'. The word 'caution' is used once or twice. Unemployment and aversion to debt and debt reduction are mentioned. Finally man says to the camera: "It's looking more and more unlikely there'll be recovery this year."
This episode had three parts: 1. [Showing how good firemen, doctors, and ambulance men, sic, and nurses, are] Story of two Czech blonde women; we see reconstruction with actors as porter or boilerman comes to the door; something like this: "Good mornink Greenybaum. Ooh a letter! Zere is smell of gas very strong, I mean to phone ze Gas Board, you will phone zem Greenybaum?" VO by male voice: But Greenybaum never made the call. As Crejka turned on the bath tap, their lives were to change forever." [Explosion wrecked centre section of low-rise block; six or so people killed. Reconstruction has original news film plus shots of hardhat firefighters et al closer, working with rubble] VO: "By a miracle, Crejka was trapped but alive.. bath supporting the remains of the building.. trapped in that space.. her leg severely crushed.." [reconstruction of firefighter holding her hand, being told she felt nothing; doctor saying "I'm a doctor. I've come to help you." VO: "She did not know her sister Frcka had been killed." And despite 'threatening' overhanging masonry which "would have killed them all" they pulled her out by the legs etc. Then subsequent interview about her relationship with the doctor [meaning apparently just talking etc], the fact her leg hadn't been amputated at the knee, the fact that she was getting married. Impression I got, though no evidence one way or the other was adduced, was that she or her sister might have left the gas on and killed the lot of them. But comment of the "I was so relieved that I still have my leg. It changed my life.. I am happy to be married" sort with oh how wonderful style of voiceover
2. Skydiving incident "with what seems to us a near miraculous escape" said Buerk. 21st present of beginner with two supposedly experienced men [one oldish Yorkshire chap who inspired little confidence] one of whom got his neck entangled in a trailing cord but was saved by the other swooping 'as they fell at 120 mph' onto him and freeing him in some way. The oddity, to me, was the '999' business; difficult to see how they could have phoned for 'emergency services!'
3. VO: ".. incident when the coast of [some county] was terrorised by a runaway speedboat. [Male] being towed.. [[female] in the boat.. half an hour.. then something happened which no-one could have predicted.. turned right into the cove.." [Shot of the bloke letting go, and the girl sliding out of the boat! No seat belt, presumably? And the boat continued to circle:] "The boat came within inches of his face.. bravest rescue I have ever seen" 'I wondered if she had any face left..' 'Her face was badly cut.. screaming..' [Reconstruction shows them holding her legs etc. Interview showed her with Sloany voice and expressions:] 'Yah and er I became epileptic.. that's when I met [name].. he's epileptic.. we've been together for eighteen months..' [Then an interview with a ?harbourmaster, who kept saying 'if you like': "If you like, a four year old child can drive one.. there's a boy, no more than er eleven.. anyone is allowed to drive if you like the equivalent of a racing car.. perhaps there should be a.." "A driving test?" "A driving test. And I think if you like a system of taking away your licence.."
PRIVATE GRIEF World in Action Granada for ITV 4/7/92. Research Kate Middleton Producer Sarah Manwaring-White. (VO male voice not credited).
Mon 13 July, 1992, BBC2, Panorama, 9.30 - 10.10, Gavin Hewitt 'Dollars, Deals and the Old Guard': '.. almost a year after the abortive coup against Gorbachev, the communist old ghost still flourishes in the former Soviet Union. And many of the economic reins of power have since been seized by hardliners.' [Actually, it doesn't prove anything about the reins; nobody seemed to know who's buying assets - the main culprit seemed to be banks who've stashed away money made e.g. by black market deals and aren't telling anyone.
And Gorbachev was explicitly stated to have known about the plan (plans?) to build a set of companies owned by ex-C P figures]
Then, it's been said, see e.g. Pilger in 26 Jun 1992 New Statesman, that e.g. social security increases can be paid for out of 'defence' cuts; this of course is never mentioned, except to the extent that John Cole [absurd Oirish voice] says "Despoite hopes after the ending of the cold war, noy it seems there's to be noy peace dividund."
The obvious high spending area targeted is of course unemployment benefit.
Then there's a comment that increasingly the trade gap is increasing: £700 million in the last month, it claims.
There are more comments on 'the recovery' not having happened, because people don't feel like going on a spree 'in the high street' or buying goods which importers allegedly have stocked up in warehouses, a 'boomlet'.
Finally, 'economists', always young men in suits, from companies like Kleinwort-Benson or, increasingly, Japanese companies make brief prepared speeches; at present, interest rates are the concern, so they say "[Something we don't like] will lead to increasing pressure on interest rates.. The city has been worried about ballooning PSBR.. This is welcome news.. We expect the stock exchange index to improve tomorrow.."
[Another item on 'travellers'; no explanation of what this is supposed to mean; could be 'new age travellers', or gipsies, or tinkers:] VO: ".. travellers.. police ?operation to keep the travellers travelling.. illegal party planned for Romsey tonight.. the travellers were on ?four campsites.. converging onto Romsey.." [Shot of several policemen etc; one, an unimpressive bespectacled mumbling man, is subtitled I think Chief Constable] "by all means.. if we have to use force, force will be used.. we've done it before.. we have to think of the local people.." VO: ".. cat and mouse game.. seem to have let at least some of the mice through.. but the numbers will be a great deal less than ?intended.. [NOT 'by the organisers']" Film of man in cab of what looks like a lorry, saying he's licensed and taxed for the public roads, what right have they ..? To which no comment is made.
Main interrogative thrust is that an aid agency has in effect said the UN is incompetent. We see UN chap interviewed, saying not much. Naturally no questions about who is fighting in the 'civil war', who supplies the weapons and training, how long the situation has been like it is [probably a long time], how hard it would be to restore food supplies, and whether it is in fact a famine or whether there's hoarding and stocks; in short, no analysis at all. Picture of Stars and Stripes: US said they'd drop ?100,000 tons of ?supplies 'away from the fighting'. Britain's contribution by the Union Jack graphic I remember: 10,000 tons.
[It's conceivably relevant that a letter in Saturday's Guardian, from a Moslem, deplored the lack of reporting of the starvation]
Followed by hotel in Sarajevo 'shelled from Serbian positions' [BBC is pro-Croat].
Followed by comment that one million mortgage holders in Britain now have 'homes' worth less than their mortgages. A crudely drawn graph seemed to imply this was out of about ten million mortgage holders.
Then stuff on George Bush election campaign and Iraqis bombing the Kurds, again.
News adds: "the recession is officially over: slight rises in ?GNP in two consecutive quarters"
Marc reports to me that Panic expresed fury that American mercenaries who'd been caught and who'd been released had then sniped at and killed other people, I think; he said he wished he'd hanged them. Later BBC news said "Mr Panic became incoherent" and censored out this passage
What causes people to believe in boy geniuses? Love of marvellous? Parental pride? Distraction from the serious?
Next day: On 'markets' opening [perhaps Bank of England starting at say 9 am] run on the pound. Chancellor [Lamont] announces 2% interest rate rise; John Major [Prime Minister] having cancelled visit to Spain yesterday agrees this. A few hours later a 3% rise is announced, so Bank of England ?base rate goes from 10 to 15%. Later, we're told dealing on the pound in the ERM is 'suspended', and this later increase will not take place. Usual 'experts', youngish men with titles like 'Chief Economist Salomon Brothers' or ditto ?BZW waffle. John Smith speaks from Berlin about the real economy which needs to be got going; he mentions the building sector. And so it goes on. We see a dealing room: young men say "It was hell. That's it" and "Five and a half pounds to you" [pointing at another man. Meaning five and a half million] and Bank of America shirtsleeved person "We dealt in ooh half a billion.. we did very well" "Say, a hundred thousand?" "About ten million. We did very well!" Poor John Snow, all on his own, asking for 'reports' from various hacks, male and female, who repeat unclear stories, says "It's been a good day for some" with a rather naive smile, and adds a meeting of European Finance Ministers in Brussels perhaps will make a decision at about 1 Brussels time, that's about midnight. At some point it's anounced the additional 3% won't go on after all.
Thur 17th: Pound it seems is out of the ERM, and 'floating' "in effect devalued by 10%." The lire seems to have come out too, but the Italians promise to put it back in a day or too. I think the peseta also may have come out. However, the 2% interest increase is removed. BBC1, 9 o'clock news: Peter Jay ['economics editor'] and John Cole ['political editor' I think] are consulted by Anna Ford. Jay interviewed Norman Lamont, who said he was just carrying out the policy of the entire cabinet, and he certainly wouldn't retire. The situation wa unforeseeable. At any rate he hadn't foreseen it. Cole [perhaps following Tory commentators] said they would keep Lamont on in case they needed a scapegoat later. The news started with something like 'Chancellor Lamont's action forced by currency ?dealers' and mentioned '.. losing patience with the Germans'. I think Lasmont mentioned Scandinavian 500% interest rates. A couple of plebbos were interviewed and expressed unoriginal views on mortgages and businesses. At some point about this time a plebbo said the government were wimps, Mrs Thatcher wasn't like that
Fri 18: More blaming of the Germans: the hack read out part of a statement of Major to the effect that 'Britain would stay out of the ERM until the policy was not operated in the interests of just one country' and said this was a 'thinly disguised reference to Germany.' The best they could do to explain the 'crisis' was say the Deutsche ?Bundesbank was suspected of conducting 'a whispering campaign'. John Cole on 9 o'clock news actually talked of a taxi driver saying 'the Germans' wanted an admission that a goal in the ?1968 World Cup should have been disallowed, as though that deserved to be part of the news. Peter Jay said the Prime Minister and the cabinet were going through 'an agonising reappraisal' of economic policy following these 'unprecedented foreign exchange dealings' the like of which had not 'happened in a generation'.
Sat 19th: Still more blaming of the Germans; Financial Times has some of this too. BBC's Buerk new opens by saying the Germans accept no responsibility, or some such formula. A speech on Europe by 'the one-time Lady Thatcher' [sic: slip of tongue for one-time Prime Minister no doubt] shown talking to inert crowd in dark room, with CNN adverts behind her, and no mention of her speech writers etc. Polite applause etc, several men shake her hand! We're also told that the Duchess of York [i.e. 'Fergie'] 'broke down' at some sort of motor neurone charity do; then she received a standing ovation. Also there have been floods in Pakistan: three million people are homeless. Now over for news of sport
Voiceover with old newsreel says 'The Economic League' was founded 1919 in UK: essentially apparently bare lists of names and addresses with suspicion, often taken from sources like the Socialist Worker. In about 1989 it moved into Temple Chambers, where it seems to occupy about a floor, and employ about thirty people. Keeps paper or card-index type records; Data Protection Act therefore doesn't apply, as boring 'registrar' in Cheshire says. League says it offers: 'vetting service, staff training, business security advice'. Suggestion that information is 'often' wrong: black chap in the labour party described as 'suspected Communist'/ Social worker's name and two addresses misspelled/ Two people who signed an article as 'Richard Simon' listed - so wrong people may be blacklisted
Some organisations listed as appearing, presumably in association with names and addresses: ANIMAL LIBERATION FRONT/ ANTIAPARTHEID MOVEMENT/ CAMPAIGN AGAINST THE ARMS TRADE/ CHRISTIAN AID/ CAMPAIGN FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT/ COMMUNIST PARTY/ GREENPEACE/ LABOUR PARTY/ MILITANT TENDENCY/ NATIONAL FRONT/ OXFAM/ SOCIALIST WORKER PARTY/ TRADE UNIONS/ WAR ON WANT
'Overwhelming majority on the left
Companies listed as financially supporting them included [from an internal memo of I think 1989] ASDA/ BARCLAYS/ BASS CHARRINGTON PLC/ B H BLACKWELL LTD/ BHS/ BRITISH TELECOM/ BURTON GROUP/ DOWTY GROUP/ DRG PLC/ FORD MOTOR CO LTD/ HANSON TRUST PLC/ HAWKER SIDDELEY GROUP/ HORSTMAN GEAR GROUP/ IBM (UK) LTD/ ICI PLC/ LLOYDS BANK PLC/ JOHN LAING CONSTRUCTION/ MIDLAND BANK LTD/ SIR ROBERT McALPINE AND SONS LTD/ NAT WEST PLC/ NESTLE & CO LTD/ ROVER GROUP PLC/ SMITHS INDUSTRIES AEROSPACE AND DEFENCE SYSTEMS PLC/ SUN ALLIANCE PLC/ TRUST HOUSE FORTE PLC/ USHERS BREWERY LTD/ WESTLAND PLC/ WHITBREAD PLC
In 1989, it was supported by 700 companies. Many support the Conservative Party. However, most never reveal the size of their contribution to the 'Economic League'. In 1989, for the first time, it lost £160,000; in 1990, £76,000; 1991 figure not known at the time the programme was made: '.. won't say.. not obliged to publish figures until end of the year'
BROTHER INTERNATIONAL [500 young people work in Wales] when it started contributed to the 'league'. its General Manager said the "League is good for addresses.. of.. risks", suggesting parents' views may influence offspring's jobs
HANSON: Part of his empire in the south west includes Imperial Tobacco factory in Bristol, ARC quarrying, Visa Homes based in Bath who build houses
"Whistle was blown by Richard Brett, 'north west regional director 1985-1988' says subtitle, on the grounds that it affects "the employment prospects of hundreds of thousands of people." His requests were: files must be factually correct and known about by the job seeker; application forms should say references will be taken up with former employers and the Economic League will be contacted. It should be regulated by Act of Parliament 1 licensing in the same way as Employment Agency Act, 2 Record should be available for inspection
Possibly as a result of this, 150 firms cancelled in 1986-1989; the 'League' blamed the recession, but 'companies we contacted said.. followed bad publicity.'
In 1990, MPs had an inquiry. We see Employment Select Committee questions and answers by Stan Hardy, 'Director General', plebby type with plain brown straight hair; and Jack Winder, described as 'ex-military'; head down, shorn blond hair, right eye diverges slightly from left, half-mad image
RON LEIGHTON MP: "In Ceaucescu's Rumania.. securitate kept files.." HARDY: ".. I would argue sir .. we encourage and advise all our client companies who utilise our pre-employment vetting service that they should supply the information - IF ANY! - in its entirety.. and quote the Economic League as its source.." "You keep files of names?" "We do not create blacklists.." You keep files?" "We have records" "You have records."/ LEIGHTON: "we are saying sir.. throughout.. companies should provide that information in its entirety. We have no legal immunity therefore sir" "Does the employer? .." "We hope so.." "You hope so! That isn't the question.. Will you give the names of job applicants who were informed.. in the last year, information.. given to them?" "No sir I can't" "You can't can you. So it seems that in most cases this secret information is not given and the individual is unable to see that or challenge it. Isn't that a denial of natural justice?" "No sir"
GREVILLE JANNER MP: ".. ruin peoples' careers.." ".. if a person happens to be a member of the Socialist Workers Party.. [something like: he will go right, or go left, or cross the road] .. the odds are overhelming [pronunciation sic] .. so I do not accept this ruining of careers.."
ERNIE ROSS MP: ".. what do you know..?" WINDER: "Well if we're going to personalise it, I know about YOU." "Wha do you know about me?" "Again [head down; right eye up] Liason Committee for the Defence of Trade Unionism some five years ago?" [He says this in question form as though a sinister devastating charge] "Wha' else?" "I can't tell you" .. "Well, what's on your card?" "I can't remember"
A Tory MP was asked whether government action was slow because many of these companies contributed to Tory Party funds. He quickly changed the subject into a prolonged oration on the Labour Party and Activists. As always the interviewer asked no questions involving figures to assess total importance.
VO: '.. EC harmonisation.. by 1995 manual files as available for inspection as computer files now
BUERK: .. discussions on economic policy..
COLE: [Shots of cars parked behind barriers, 'advisors' getting out. Absurd Oirish accent:] .. the roof fell in on Conservative policy.. the Prime Minister's Advisers.. [other silly cliches: on the lines of in turmoil all day, cast the whole policy afresh, discussions on the future of Europe, Germans, the pound fell still further today..]
BUERK: .. yesterday's French referendum result.. slight two percent majority [note figures left confused] in favour..
COLE: [Says in effect John Major chose the Evening Standard to issue his message. I imagine this puzzled most out-of-London people. I didn't note the four or so points Cole quoted; banal passages of a sentence or so each]
JAY: [Graph of exchange rates; left axis has about 3 down to 2.5] .. On Monday etc.. [Note: hack cliché which will stick:] On Black Monday.. lost ?50 pfennigs.. a German integrated area.. countries already integrated with Germany.. Belgium, Netherlands, Holland, Austria, Switzerland and PERHAPS France.. other countries like England [sic] and Italy in the so-called slow lane..
[VO from Brussels] .. Germany.. reunification.. concentrating on Ein volk.. What IS clear is that the Maastricht Treaty has come near to disaster..
BUERK: [Note amusing bit of hypocrisy:] France.. the rural areas opposed the treaty, the cities voted for it.. After the euphoria of pro-Treaty etc.. France is waking up to hard reality.. a day of soul searching.. certainly the [French] government hasn't had a good press.. there's a downbeat feel.. country everyone had relied upon to say yes.. [Interview with French farmer who says the politicians say we'll be heard etc; considering that Britain's had no democratic consultation this is a bit rich]
MISCELLANEOUS INTERVIEWS:
HEATH says people don't want to spend winter evenings poring over details. No! That's what they elected politicians to do. Politicians should take a lead!
HESELTINE says the policy everyone says is Lamont's was in fact taken by The Thatcher cabinet so it represents continuity etc
[Note that yesterday morning's papers were full of a speech by Thatcher (tabloids giving it front page headlines, non-tabloids also front page story)]
LAMONT: [Looking grey round the eyes; alone I think at a table] .. Unexpected.. Cost a good deal of our reserves.. the housing market hasn't exactly been ?strong.. we can't just go back into the ERM and hope the same thing doesn't happen again..
FOREIGN POLITICIANS: [One says he's not a strong European, but he feels a nod to it, or similar expression/ German says: Britain ALREADY HAS special treatment! So go on, show ze flag of Nelson [pron. -z-], do your dudy!]
VO: .. Limousines.. Brussels.. off to work this morning..
[NOTE: It occurs to me the net effect of all this is to transfer money from government reserves into private sector hands; is that the idea?]
BUERK: .. run on the Franc.. Deutschmark.. spent ?billions propping it up.. ERM.. discussions.. Maastricht.. Danes know the treaty cannot be ratified after their No vote..
PETER JAY: .. new superfast lane.. Bundesbank with France as a sort of subsidiary.. perhaps unification of currencies by a previously ?unthought-of route..
BERRY: [MD of Abbey National; unimpressive Jewish type] 1%.. it is better than nothing.. we must be grateful.. [drivel along this sort of line]
VO: .. retailers..
SPOKESMAN: .. difficult.. electrical goods industry.. High Street..
VO: .. Construction industry is not happy.. Spokesman..
SPOKESMAN: [Hardhats mixing concrete; then bloke with background suggestive of buildings. This is at a time when hotels and offices in London are a third and ?half full respectively] We're not saying we don't like the reduction.. but we need further measures.. to stimulate confidence in the economy..
Link has something like: Paras. Now they're civvies. But honest work is not easy to come by. [Scenes of fighting, I think. Then plebby voice on phone:] Nobody tews ME what a do. [O'Toole in plebby voice; perhaps with hiccup:] I can pick up your kids any day, Alf
Amusing review in next day's Guardian on La Plante's cardboard characters, like looking for the soul of Action Man, jokes about beer drinking and never talking to their wives, and how O'Toole could only be a thug dressed like that
And article by a real 'para' in Guardian 12 Oct 92]
Next day I read in dad's Guardian that, on Monday, a letter from all four of McCarthy, Keenan, Terry Waite and Terry Anderson had objected to the ITV quasi-reconstruction, which apparently was done with HBO [US Home Box Office] on the grounds that they were all writing their own stories.
Cp about 1972 'B E A Trident jet which had just taken off from Heathrow crashed into a field near the Crooked Billet roundabout, barely 1/2 a mile from Staines town centre, 'only yards from the busy Staines bypass on one side, and a housing estate on the other'. All 110 passengers were killed. Says local paper in 1992.
Scargill talks of 'industrial vandalism' and says gas fired power stations cost more; ?Ray ?Link says something less strong. NOTE: There's a somewhat inapposite historical survey complete with newsreel type black and white film, perhaps to deliberately imply that coal is history: .. 1947 nationalised; at that time c 1 million or 1.25 m miners I think; etc. [A day or two later, Ray Link of Nottingham Democratic Union of Mineworkers goes on hunger strike down a mine; technically illegally, because he's not a miner and isn't allowed down.]
BBC2.. 'Mike Scott tours Europe in a lorry.. How will the French respond to the British goods on Scott's lorry? Will they let them into the French market, ignore the 1992 rules - or bend them?'
Ch 4: '..In the [19]80s, the streets of the City were jammed with Porsches, the wine bars were overflowing, and ten million British citizens owned shares - most of them for the first time in their lives. But for many the boom has ended in disaster. What caused it, who is to blame, and who will have to pay?'
Unfortunately, they got it wrong: I woke myself up at 1.50, dragged myself in front of the TV, and found Dimbleby thanking a small assortment of US hacks and I think ?Jon Snow, the latter of whom said it was another victory for Clinton. Then closedown of BBC2, with silly comment by woman broadcaster about 'the land of nod'.
Spurious documentary, about 'Foxhill Drive, Northolt', which, at least in TV Times, wasn't immediately obvious as such. Naive woman 'parapsychologist', people phoning in, sceptical Michael Parkinson, jocular Craig, sympathetic female interviewer, woman with two supposedly haunted kids etc. Typical scenes show camera awkwardly manoeuvring round a corner to show a little girl bashing water pipes. Needed more than a caual glance to work out that the whole thing was a 'drama'.
- Jonathan Dimbleby interviewed an obscure man, a Tory MP on Major's side, the supposedly big issue being whether the Tories will decide to support Major over the Maastricht Treaty, or whether there'll be a split, a 'crushing defeat' for John Major. "We were told over and over again that negotiating the Treaty was a triumph for Britain, now you're saying it wasn't.." "Er well getting the agreement was a triumph.." The interviewee refused to consider the possibility of defeat. "We won't be defeated." "But what if you were? Wouldn't that be a crushing defeat?" "Well, we won't be.."
Naturally, absolutely no discussion of the effect of the EC on the rest of the world, and nothing on farm subsidies, as Private Eye point out. "There are queues of countries trying to get in.. European democracies.. free trade area.."
There are film clips, edited in a way which suggests nobody had any idea what they were supposed to be about: an academic from London University says the Executive are in firm control, which is one of the distinguishing aspects of the twentieth century.
Another film segment, quite long, proposes to investigate the split further. What we get is a look at Gravesend, which has a by-election, I think. This is a 'weathervane' constituency: in every election this century the government which came to power won it, or something like that. Old woman interviewed: ".. I had a bit of a struggle when I was young.. I ope everyone will be as comfortable as I am when they're older." Dozy looking man who works in a paper factory making toilet rolls: "Nobody has any confidence. They have no confidence." Miscellaneous people in some Conservative Club, obviously without any conception of things, talk over their drinks without being 'disloyal.' 'We know it's world wide.' VO says Gravesend used to have ferries, but now there's only one. Heavy industry was paper and something else, but now it's only paper. We see leaflets being delivered through doors; this is a red door numbered 13.
- John Cole: Comparison of John Major with Harold Wilson, relying on a book by Ben Pimlott on Harold Wilson, apparently some sort of attempt at 'reassessment'. Some trivial anecdotes which he experienced himself or can pass off as his own: sample something like this: "When I was walking with Harold Wilson, some way behind Jim Callaghan, on ?Brighton ?Pier, Oi asked him where Jim Calligan stood on Europe. Harold Wilson said "Can't you see the marks of the fence on his trousers?"". Among the comments made is that both supported a ?feeble football team - Huddersfield Town [Wilson] and Chelsea [Major]. Wilson "had a Rolls Royce brain" [sic; repetition of untruths seems to make them stick!] while Major had - well, Cole said nothing much; probably a silly cliché about a bank manager. Wilson felt ill at ease amongst the Hampstead intellectuals, I think Crossman, Gaitskell, Foot probably mentioned; cartoon shows dwarf figure. And of course Major is probably uneasy etc etc. Another cartoon shows right of Labour party and left of Tories as Tweedledum and Tweedledee.
In fact, very disappointing: someone says the Celts reverenced boundaries, and heads made of stone, apparently as boundary markers and/or protection; someone else talks about Celtic goddesses and wells, [e.g. Ellen, he says christianised into St Helen's Well] and says they were worshipped, and stone heads were sometimes found in them, and that stagnant or 'black water' sometimes accepted sacrifices of a king or a chief to the water goddess, to ensure it wouldn't spread all over the land. Some silly person talks as though it's instinctive to throw things into water, like coins! Trees: VO: "In those days Britain was covered in forests.." Another woman, silly one, who talks as though Celts flourished when she was young: ".. the May Tree or blackthorn; the ash - "We liked the ash, though it was supposed to be the home of evil spirits.. if it was, they didn't do us any harm"; the oak, which somebody maintained was often grown inside temples, liable to be cut down by enemies.. the rowan.. a tree on the outskirts of a wood.. pieces of cloth tied to it, usually white.. sometimes red.. people asking favours.." And a thing about horses, including the White Horse at Uffington, which they seemed to think was of incredible age, and the Padstow Obby Oss festival worked in - "Sinister.. fertile.."
All these little film clips were interspersed with a berk, subtitled Professor of English at either Cambridge or Oxbridge, who drew attention to modern poems, e.g. one of a boy given sixpence to hold a horse, "Something that still happens in the west of Ireland", looking up at the horses's head and seeing it expand into a magnificent icon; or something; his poems were often by 'Celtic Fringe' people which I suppose was intended to make them seem relevant to the subject. And film of wild horses with voiceover of part of 'Mabinogion' on Arthur's horse in fruity translation.
Difficult to deconstruct this; as a Sunday programme, probably has to be 'religious' but not in competition with Christianity; also of course mustn't challenge myths about Romans, and Normans.
BBC1: Charade, 1963 romantic comedy thriller and scrambled 'Executive Business Club'
BBC2: 12 midnight - 6 am: 'The US ElectionResults: David Dimbleby presents live coverage of the final hours in the race for the White House. He in joined in Washington by Charles Wheeler and Peter Snow and a panel of US pundits. Other BBC corespondents will report reaction from around the country.'
ITV: 12.30 Video Viwe, 1.30 The Equalizer
CHANNEL 4: 11.45 to 4 a.m.: 'As It Happens: US Presidential Election. .. Andy Kershaw, Shyama Perera and Richard Denton try to gatecrash the smart parties and interview those in the know, and those in the streets.'
See \notes\USA inc comments on BBC News, after the election, mentioning 'doubts about Clinton' but avoiding any mention of corruption under Bush
- Sat 7 Nov 1992: [Guardian blurb:] 'EYE OF THE STORM BBC2 8.05 pm. Michael Buerk, no stranger to uncomfortable places, is writer and presenter of this documentary, filmed in Somalia, Bosnia, Albania, about television's frontline troops - the men and women who risk their lives to bring back the news and pictures from war zone and trouble spot.' [About this time there was another TV programme on war photographers. Idea is to repeat the myth that wars etc are covered accurately in Britain.]
- Sun 8 Nov 1992, BBC2 blurb: [Doesn't actually mention the IRA:] 'Enniskillen. .. 1987 a terrorist bomb killed 11 bystanders at the armistice day service in Enniskillen. .. traumatised and galvanised a community..'
'Preview' blurb says: 'The art of persuasion is as old as human speech and today a legion of consultants and image-makers make a living out of it. .. perpetrators of the Fuehrer myth during the Second World War.. backroom boys shaping America's politicians.. today's TV hosts and actors carving paths to power [sic; I presume these are the subjects of these three 'documentaries'] .. Goebbels.. a keen student of Hollywood artistry.. one of his favourite films was Gone With the Wind.. ordered the making of Baron Munchhausen in a bid to raise Nazi prestige.. first to make a big-budget movie about the Titanic.. in the Nazi version the ship sank because of "capitalistic intrigues" of the aristocratic English officers.
Goebbels lived a life at odds with his own message. While he advocated that Germans should own only one home, he owned several. While he claimed they should despise decadence, he was secretly going to night clubs. And while he advocated happy marriage, he habitually cheated on [sic] his wife. He even had a long-term affair with a Slav, a racial group he was later to call sub-human.'
- The actual programme had little 'revelation' as to how Goebbels 'manipulated the truth'. There were extracts from various films, stressing that Goebbels preferred entertainment [which seemed to mean either leggy girls in musicals, or hefty thighed Aryan women on horseback, or versions of history about as accurate as British or American histories] to anti-Semitic propaganda, which people on the whole didn't flock to watch. Goebbels was frequently referred to as a 'genius' though with no supporting evidence. No doubt there's a certain fellow-feeling with the BBC. Amusingly, the actresses often 'slept with' Goebbels; since he could and did select who should play in what part, no doubt economics played a part in this. But he was also 'charming', said several; in view of Goebbels' short size [details characteristically not given] and, apparently, defective leg, not to mention black leather coat and maniac expression, this seems hard to believe, but nonetheless here are these women, now old: "He vos very charmink.. he knew how to be charmink to ze ladies.." etc.
- See \films\German for detail on this
- [Director/producer Rhonda Evans; an Evans-Woofe Production. Vidgo has dog wagging tail.]
- See \notes\aristocracy
Next day BBC TV news announced that £11.5 million had been collected. Terry Wogan said it was down on last year, but times were hard.
TV News presented the 'unsafe conviction' decision as though severe interview was the only problem. In fact the 'murder room' had spays of blood on two walls, of a 'rare' type also found on the bottom of the girl's jeans, and also a palm print on the wall, none of which matched any of the eight or so people who'd been supposedly in the room, on the word of another girl described as a prostitute. The police had at first looked for a white man [of the usual seedy description] seen by one or two witnesses looking in pain, before the girl came up an great length of time later with her 'evidence'.
".. interviews lasted thirteen hours over five days.. [sic; uncertain what this means] Lord Taylor said.. It is almost beyond belief.. knowing the interviews were being taped.. Royal Commission investigating the whole criminal legal system.."
'Sitting Pretty. Comedy series by John Sullivan following the fortunes of a 60s swinger whose life has taken some very different turns. [Sic] Starring Diane Bull. Daddy's Home. A surprise visitor from Tenerife arrives to comfort Annie in her "hour of need". There's just one proviso - all references to the Orient are strictly taboo.'
[Photo with caption: 'Don't mention the war: Annie.. is happy to have Justin.. back in her life, but she soon learns that his experiences in Vietnam have left emotional scars.']
Cast's stage names: Annie/ Sylvie/ George/ Tiffany/ Kitty/ Justin
- See transcription of this episode
Picture and caption: 'John Cleese concludes the first week of appeals on behalf of prisoners of conscience worldwide, inviting viewers to send greetings to them and letters to their governments.'
"Everything has been translated.. plethora of translations.. demotic, hieratic, and hieroglyphic.. hasn't made a pennorth of difference.." [i.e. to cranks who dress as Osiris, Anubis etc and 're-enact' ancient ceremonial. Frayling doesn't of course state what the translations say or in what respects these people are believed to be wrong, though a talking head is introduced who says in effect the Egyptians were 'pragmatic', they liked living, they had a long-lived civilisation etc.
"They turned mummification into a science."
"Their obsession with death etc"
Quite amusing sequences on the 'curse', supposedly made up by a guard outside the dig, who wanted to drive away tiresome reporters. Frayling doesn't seem to know whether to treat it as a myth, or not. Story of Lord Carnarfon's being bitten by a mosquito on exit from the tomb, nicking the wound with his razor, and contracting "Blood poisoning". At the EXACT time of his death in I think Cairo, the lights went out. .. All four generators.. failed.. Report.. NO EXPLANATION WAS EVER FOUND. .. At the exact time of his death, back in his ancestral home, his dog had a heart attack and died.."
NOTE: Eventual silly sell-it-to-American thing tagged on: in this case, it's a man with a plan to build tombs in the Rocky mountains 'with a beautiful frontage', in which people probably with face masks made during life with latex moulds then lost-wax - but with wrinkles smoothed out - will be immured. And a woman coming to see her ex-dog, preserved by some new process. We see a white-swathed dog sized object which she pokes and prods, calling it her baby, shaking her head, shrugging, pursing lips. Frayling says all this is obviously derived from ancient Egypt.
13 Dec 1992: 11.50-1.10 Channel 4: NOTE: example of surrealism attached to very emotionally charged events. Radio Times blurb: 'After the Gulf Another chance to see [not stated when first shown] four short films by leading Arab directors reflecting on the Gulf War and its implications. Tunisian Nekia Ben Mabrouk travels to Iraq In Search of the Shaima to find a witnes [sic] to the slaughter in the Baghdad bomb shelters. [Found one boy of say 20 who survived by being near the door; only his father in his family was left alive. He says if one of them is killed, they all talk about it. If we are killed, it is nothing. Preceding this: footage of napalming in Vietnam, well-known sequence, Cyprus, Sabra-Chatila camp.]
Lebanese Borhane Alaouie's Eclipse of the Black Night shows an Arab film director in a Paris apartment, watching the war unfold on CNN. Other contributors are Tunisian Nouri Bouzid, and Moroccan Darkaoui Mustapha. Producer Ahmed Attia.'
The latter of these films had only one actor, at the end of a white press button phone, flickering colour TV over on a wall somewhere. Caption fleetingly mentions America. Phone rings. Effusive Arabic greeting. He's got two days to present an idea, on paper - 'British TV' has asked four Arabs etc. Clean script, anything, but it must mention the Gulf War. Sure! OK [Name]! He agonises, phones genius writer #1, male voice. Phone rings with non-British tone. No reply. Hm. He tries Magda. She has an idea involving a tent. A white tent. A tent of love. An Egyptian soldier, there were many in Saddam's army, and one with the Allies [as the film calls them] negotiate, call for a cease-fire, sit in the tent. A tent of love! He laughs. She says What's wrong with love? Rings off. He thinks more: His journalist friend! Man picks up phone, not happy. Becomes clear he's been sacked: "Arab newspapers are a waste of trees.. They asked for constructive criticism.. We wrote an article on women drivers in Saudi Arabia.. they are banned.. Saudi Arabia withdrew all its advertising.. we're all sacked.. How did you hear?" and our hero rings off, not having heard this. Tries again: another male voice. This one suggests a touch of comedy. "What? Are you mad? Comedy?" Reply along the lines that sometimes comedy can make a point etc etc. "Comedy? But what about peoples' feelings? Have you no respect for peoples' feelings?" Laughter comes from the phone, becoming slightly but noticeably maniacal. It goes on. Film ends.
December 20, 1992 Channel 4: early evening: mystical experiences with earth 'surprisingly common' Sheldrake, a 'biologist' who also says until 1960s physicists didn't believe in evolutionary model of universe; he doesn't seem to know Kant gave arguments for the universe having a start in time/ woman 'Oxford' quantum physics and my soul, Newton no place for us etc/ eccentric German accented American from Big Sur on sacredness of the earth.
This struck me as very funny. Caunes wears a suit, usually, and presents himself as the professional TV man, paid (not much), to do this. Jean-Paul, a 'designer', wears kilts and earrings and short blond hair with dyed dark bits and a smile; he plays the ingenu, learning from de Caunes. The topics mostly are sex-related: French woman who makes her own sex videos, usually of weddings, in which she takes part, and sells, from her shop/ Restaurant in Belgium which serves rats [some sort of water rat, in fact]/ Golf course with nude players to make the image less boring, in France; voiceover (by a woman) has plenty on balls etc/ Man who takes into Eurodisney a Wombles suit, to see how long he lasts before he's thrown out/ Transvestite contest from Italy, mostly apparently with men from South America, quite a few still with male genitals, waiting for the five-year-waiting list to diminish, and with spectators saying things like "Men are better at everything - they're even better at being women!"/ Two man team in Paris who take photos, at two weeks a time, and do things like pop videos, in pinsharp colour photo plus airbrush/acrylic style plus oriental/ Catholic/ similar-sized-bits-of-fine-detail imagery in what could be called kitsch style, and who e.g. did a Britvic orange juice poster with Eros with large posing pouch.
The filler/ introductory matter is slightly like Julian Clary as part of a double-act with a suited man; plus jokes about French/English. The title sequence has what looks like cardboard models of things like the Eiffel tower, and cut out heads of Gaultier and de Caunes with things coming out of the tops of their heads etc; and a couple of girls in short outfits pulling back cardboard curtains to reveal the great presenters.
- ".. and zis is Jean-Paul Gaultier, in his mini-kilt.."
- "Hello, my English cherms" says J-P, and Caunes ironically calls them 'cherms' too.
- "Antoine, I ave noteeced zet we are Fronsh" "Yes, Jean-Paul. We are French." "And zis is Eenglish television" "Yes, Jean-Paul.. " "Zen why ave zey two presenteurs 'oo are Fronsh? I zink perhaps zey are making ze fun.."
- ".. Practise my Eenglish, Antoine. Zis is ze nose, le nez. Zis is ze face, la ?face. Zis is le teton, the nipple. And zis is ze most important part (points to Antoine) ze pe-nis." "You cannot say penis on English television, Jean-Paul" "Why not? Do zey not ave ze penis?" "Yes, zey ave, but you cannot say it." [Later:] "You cannot say poo poo on English Television, Jean-Paul.. Poo poo is for babies.." [A couple of episodes later: Antoine: "Because I am seeck of all this bull shit" "You cannot say bull sheet on English television, Antoine."]
- ".. ow we do ze introduction?" ".. professional.. if you look.. you see ze words on ze liddle screen.. zat is called an autocue.." "Antoine, why ave you not told me zis until ze end of ze pro-gramme?" "So zat I look better zan you, Jean-Paul!"
- ".. For centuries.. 'ave come to Paris for artistic inspiration" "Jean-Paul, ze reason zey came to Paris is ze cheap wine and ze cheap women. Still, you can call that inspeeration if you weesh!" ".. And now, Malcolm Maclaren ees in Paris.." ".. Jean-Paul, you cannot compare Malcolm Maclaren weez Picasso. It is true he has presented ze world wiz ze Sex-Pistols. And it is true he has an unusual haircut. Anuzzer (chuckles at Gaultier) unusual haircut. But you cannot compare eem. E will be like zis.." [Holds finger and thumb an inch apart]
- [background pic of Gaultier, who proceeds to announce an item himself. On walks Antoine, looking peeved..]
- [de Caunes comes on wearing a black dress with fancy stuff at the shoulders and a light brown wig. He looks glum.] Jean-Paul: ".. introduce ze next item, ze transvestite contest in Italy." "Wait, Jean-Paul. You ave made me put on zis silly dress, which I do not like, yet, for such a short introduction?" "Yes, Antoine. Eet is a joke!"
- "Jean-Luc Godard.. film.. King Lear.. so strange zat nobody understands it, not even Jean-Luc imself.." [Guide to Godard films follows: monochrome thing with jump cuts, love scenes with punching, if in doubt stare; then extracts from, I presume, Godard's film, inc. Godard as the fool with electric cables plaited in his hair, and Woody Allen reading out bits of script in a cutting or editing room]
- [End of programme sequence:] "And if anyone is coming through Paris and wishes to call on us, forget it! We are busy men" "Antoine! Why are you so mean?" "Jean-Paul, I know ze English. Zey are sado-masochistic!" "Sado-masochiste?" "Yes, Jean-Paul." [Mimes punching face held by left hand]
- (Later programme: group of ugly men in Italy; one says Charles is our hero - he left Diana for an ugly woman.)
Sun Oct 3 1992: Channel 4: Radio Times blurb: 'Visionaries: .. profile of Frances Moore Lappe, an American writer and activist living in San Francisco, who is a world expert on the politics of food. For the last 17 years, she has campaigned to make aid agencies see that foreign aid can frequently do more harm than good to the countries to which it is given. Moreover, if all countries have the physical resources to feed their people, despite climatic upheavals [sic], then she believes [sic] much of world hunger must come not from a lack of food, but from a lack of democracy. This film follows Moore Lappe's work in Nicaragua and the USA. Producer Julian Russell.'
1993
Sun 3 Oct 1993: BBC1 9.05 - 10.25: Much hyped by the BBC (e.g. little circle with 'CHOICE' in Radio Times) 'Screen One: Tender Loving Care' with plump Dawn French who 'stars in her first dramatic role as night nurse Elaine Dobbs, who takes a sinister approach to tender loving care.' She has a photo: clipboard, stripy nurse uniform, dark blue or black coat or jacket or cardigan, hanging watch, and stethoscope! [Note: standard iconography for 'medical']. Blurb starts: 'Inspired by the real-life case of four nurses in Austria who were tried for the murder of 42 patients in their care.. stars comedian [sic] Dawn French in her first serious role, as an apparently irreproachable carer. ..'
[Note added 18 March 2020: It occurs to me that Dawn French, who was widely promoted as having a black child, may have been a fake. It's the sort of thing Jews do. Just watching some shit on TV]
[In fact, surely 'inspired' by the real-life case in Britain of Beverley Allitt]
Blurb continues: 'It is written by Lucy Gannon (Peak Practice and Soldier, Soldier), herself a former night nurse. "When we look for outward signs of evil or madness, we are playing the innocent fool. [sic] The worst murderer in the world can appear to be the most benevolent, mild, ordinary creature," says Gannon, whose additional drama credits include Testimony of a Child and Keeping Tom Nice. ..'
"The governor of Hong Kong... expressed disappointment.. no agreement on democratic reforms.. after six months of talks with China.." [At some other point it said "40 hours" of talks]
"The Governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten has warned China that there are now only weeks left in which to reach agreement on democratic reforms in the colony. In his annual speech he said he regretted that after six months of talks no real progress had been made. The deadlock revolves around Britain's electoral reform proposals, specifically plans to slightly extend democracy in preparation for the local elections in 1994 and for the legislative elections in 1995. The people of Hong Kong would then have the right to elect the majority of their legislature for the first time ever. But after twelve rounds of talks since April, Mr Patten has now made a significant concession. By agreeing to cut by one third the number of eligible voters in a number of constituencies.
[Outside broadcast: shout of Chinese like hubbub. Voiceover; Brian Barron who in any case always sounds urgent and hoarse and fanatical and near panic., over traffic noise: "One year on from his democracy blueprint, Mr Patten's governorship is at the crossroads. He admitted before Hong Kong's legislature today that British concessions have failed to move communist China, which will take over here in 1997."
Patten at a dais: "We will go on working as hard as we can for an agreement. We believe it should be possible to reach an accord that meets the concerns of both sides. But we are NOT | not prepared to give away our principles in order to sign a piece of paper. What would that be worth?"
VO: "Worryingly for the governor, the latest polls [sic; no evidence of whom, or who by] suggest Hong Kong people put good relations with Beijing way ahead of his democracy ideal."
Patten fades in again: "If we are not prepared to stand up for Hong Kong's way of life today, what chance of doing so tomorrow?"
[More noises:] VO: "Hong Kong's volatile stick market had decided already that Mr Patten would keep the negotiating door open. Today it soared to a record level of over 8,000 points. That the Governor spelled out alarming consequences of the Sino-British deadlock, with key development projects imperiled and the risk of a legal vacuum when Britain leaves. Mr Patten's political allies are outraged by Britain's concession.
[Chinese ish chap in suit:] "I don't see | how | he can be so hypocritical er on the one hand to arse us to show that we are people with backbone and on the other hand he himself hasn't shown it."
Another: "By putting the blame on the other side, and stressing the shortage of time he is not | thinking of, he is not trying to find, positive ways | to create a good atmosphere | for the talks to conclude | wi a good agreement."
VO: "So now, criticised by friend and foe [sic], the Governor seems rather boxed in. Personally, he's still popular here, but there's no public stomach for any serious confrontation with Beijing. The chances of Mr Patten's original democracy proposals becoming law are fast diminishing. Brian Barron, Hong Kong."
[Studio man:] "Mr Patten joins me | live | now. Mr Patten, it sounds as if you're under enormous pressure from all sides. Do you sense that support is ebbing for your democratic proposals in Hong Kong?" "No. I thank that er over the past year support has been very solid. Er for trying to put in place arrangements for the last elections under British sovereignty, which are fair and open. The argument isn't actually about trying to increase the pace of democratisation it's about trying to put in place arrangements which are reasonable. And that's what we're determined to do." "The opinion polls say they would rather have good relations with China than advance on local democracy..." [End of tape]
First programme in fact - possibly because of the poor quality of the material? - is devoted to showing how the thing was set up; it's completely bogus, involving, first, a trawl involving interviews or questionnaires from several thousand people; then a house with large rooms, large garden being provided rent-free in Manchester, in some suburb. They were chosen then shown, whether accurately or not, as arriving at the house unseen, tossing up etc for rooms.
Two of the students are 22 or over; one is a lone woman parent with a little boy and a car, shown driving at night looking at 'glitzy clubs'/ another's a politics student from Essex who shoots clay pigeons and has a car/ another is a woman refugee from an art school in Chelsea, where she found the others all better, and is supported by her father; now she's doing art history. There's a blackish girl from London, who calls herself 'Spider', doing 'Russian and Italian'. One slightly-bearded chap does some sort of audio course in the loft. Someone else does advertising. None knew each other; moreover, they are studying in different places. They have a room allocated to make their own videos - what they think of the others. I imagine they were chosen essentially for bland ordinary cheerfulness and, if possible, symbolic or real attractiveness. A few disputes over vegetarian food, washing-up, people talking with TV in corner, car drawing up outside with the last arrival, are shown.
[2] Note: new 'civil war' use: Vietnamese film shown on Channel 4 a day or two ago described in Radio Times as being about the 'civil war'. Similar presentation about Angola; despite fact that several people state Unita is shelling a town having lost elections etc etc.
[3] Item about a doctor called Lustman or Lustmann who does cervical smears wrongly! And has continued to do so. There seems a whole subculture of doctors who do this wrongly. I did wonder whether there was a Jewish taboo against looking, since he was stated not to use, or to refuse to use, a speculum.
[4] I saw Mayer [sic] Hillman as spokesman for a movement not to move summer time next week; claim is that earlier dark causes schoolchildren etc statistically to die; I think a figure of a thousand or so was mentioned. Opposition apparently from farmers, and others, and Scots. In effect, I suppose this means farmers would have to pay employees to get up earlier, to maintain the status quo; hard to see why it should make a serious difference.
[5] Another major headline piece is George Michael, apparently resentful of a 25-year contract he has with Sony, which requires him to make 8 records or something and allows Sony full freedom to drop them or promote them as they think fit. He says he'll refuse to record anything since he's a bit of software and has no artistic freedom! Shots of him outside a court building. Seemed rather laughable to me; he signed it, after all. Some music industry hack shown as saying the company has changed since he joined it etc. If he wins his case, there'll be lots of other similar ones, we're assured.
Tuesday 26 Oct 1993: Channel 3: Paul McKenna, 8.30-9, first time I've ever seen a stage hypnotist show on TV. Chap (a Jan 1996 TV Times says he's an ex-disk jockey, among other things) in suit shown with studio full of seated lower orders, all casually dressed. At the start a sort of stampede of volunteers is shown onto the stage; then a selected ten are hypnotised. Unfortunately, to ensure nobody viewing TV could inadvertently become hypnotised, we're not shown either the process of hypnosis or the selection method by which ten are selected. Just as disappointingly, we're told he won't attempt to make people do things contrary to their fundamental beliefs - "For example, I won't ask an estate agent to tell the truth.." We just see a row of slumped, seated, young people behind McKenna on stage.
I hadn't appreciated that plebbos are always, it seems, the victims; may be suggestibility requires a class bias.
The climax, in the second half ["after the break"] involved a sort of organised chaos: one chap was told, while 'hypnotised', and when gripped on the shoulder, that when 'awakened' he'd return to his seat, then believe he'd lost his scarf and return to the stage for it, returning to his seat; on reaching his seat, he'd again return for a supposed lost scarf. A woman was told she was 'cementing' the floor, and given a flat thing [a hawk?] to do it with. She would become annoyed when people put footprints in her handiwork. Another bloke was told that when "this music plays" [theme of a sports TV programme plays; naturally he'd be assumed to know it] he'd believe he was a footballer doing a slow-motion action replay, and would plant a wet kiss on the nearest male in the audience; he seemed not to quite understand, racing about and moving in a way reminiscent of a male stripper. Another was told that when this plays [James Bond like theme music] his Walther PPK would be in his hand and he'd act like Kames Bond. Ah yes! A fat woman was instructed that she believed the studio was becoming too noisy, and would shout to people to shut up, in Chinese. She was given a conical hat. [She interpreted her instruction by shouting "Shut up" rather like, say, "Shot opp!" and perhaps adding something else.
The first half I think had one-off performances; e.g. rather pathetic chap who was told that, on waking, he'd believe the glove puppet he was given would whisper insulting things in his ear and he'd get very annoyed about it. He didn't seem to have the imagination to construct much of a dialogue, contenting himself with "I'm not! Don't you say that. I'm not!" and punching the Sooty-like puppet.
Another exciting turn was pretending to mind read: a dimbo chap said he was 100% sure his mind couldn't be read - unconscious joke: at this point. he was asked what things McKenna couldn't possibly know - e.g. name of his parents' dog - put to sleep, asked, wakened, questioned again (whereupon he gave the same questions) and told. Expression of quizzical incredulity. McKenna asked whether he had dark secrets he'd be embarrassed about. He said yes - apparently everybody thinks he/she has. He was put under, and the audience told that when he woke up he'd believe the audience had just been told a deeply shameful thing. "Wake up and he said to the vicar you've got no clothes on!" Man hides his face in his fists.
Another one-person thing was a chap who was told that when arm-wrestling, however hard he'd try, it would be as though a greater force would overcome him and he would lose etc. McKenna wheeled in under a silly name on old woman, who duly beats him, and who moreover lifts a heavy-looking weight the chap can't manage etc. Incidentally, the faces of the hypnotised victims, after recovery, are shown laughing or looking astonished at their own behaviour.
[Right Said Fred - largely bald pop group - provides musical entertainment].
For some reason I'd expected suggestible people not to be so ordinary and plebby; it hadn't occurred to me that advertising-prone gullible people might well be plebs. I was left adhering to my belief that the whole thing is probably nonsense.
Wed 27 Oct 1993: ITV 9-10 pm, 'Stalag Luft', written by David Nobbs of 1976 'The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin', and with Stephen Fry as a Wing Commander, Nicholas Lyndhurst as a prisoner, Geoffrey Palmer as the Kommandant.
Attempt at a jokey treatment: Fry attempts to get the prisoners together (stereotyped Jewish tailor who explains he always says 'already', already; and stereotyped Cockney, Yorkshire types, grammar school people etc. Joke is that the Germans want to escape too; there are plenty of tunnels - Tom, Dick, Harry, a couple more; the Germans, with papers in order etc, all go; the Brits and New Zealander etc decide to stay, but for verisimilitude have to have German staff; amusing stuff on German lessons conducted by Welshman etc. Eventually Fry is summoned to Berlin to be awarded with the Iron Cross by the Fuhrer, since nobody has escaped and the Fuhrer is feeling low. He talks about going back to painting, biting off more than he can chew. Fry meets the ex-Kommandant, who eats rats etc. In between there are SS inspections (the first gets a tip off by a friend of the brother of the Kommandant) who want disgusting soup, dank cooler full of non-uppity prisoners etc, no shouting back in Polish. One hundred Germans have laryngitis joke.
The thing that amused me was Fry playing a German: "The master race isn't such a bad idea. I rather wish we had thought of it!"
Later, I think 10 pm or so, machine-gunning incident; see \notes\news
- Bit about Haiti, apparently still blockaded to ensure sanctions. Military 'rulers' perhaps won't be too worried about them; at any rate, what they're supposed to achieve is never made clear. The elected leader isn't there and seems unlikely to get there; or so the story goes
- Bit about Croats supposedly having massacred many Moslems. Shots of UN persons. No background or explanatory matter.
- BBC2 has 3 hours of programmes on President Clinton's first year; I've recorded these programmes on video.
Elton John I think reveals story of 'fight against alcoholism' and so on.
Wed 3rd Nov 1993: Channel 4, 9-9.45 pm, 'Dispatches'. No information in Radio Times. In fact, on pension fund managers; three possible problems, each illustrated with rather piffling examples.
[1] Inappropriate investment. Example was Vancouver Stock Exchange, in V S E tower, started in about 1908 to finance a Canadian gold rush; they claim to be the largest market for speculative investment in the world, and with a "reputation for fraud" such that Canadians don't put their money into it, we're told. A list was given of 'history littered by fraudulent opportunities' though I'm not sure whether they were supposed to be specific to this organisation; included super rabbits of which every part of the animal was supposed to be usable/ edible knife and fork/ King Solomon's Mines/ baldness cure involving beehive hat 'treatment'/ company claiming to grow the largest pearl in the world to be cultured in a giant clam [lost $10 m)/ and a medical instrument manufacturer run by a man who forged his credentials and which then went bust. Anyway, West Midland Council, or Wolverhampton - the story seemed to use both - pension funds had money in this; it wasn't revealed what proportion of their fund they'd lost (assuming their claim that the money put in was indeed all lost). The point about 'inappropriate' was that evidently this sort of thing isn't suitable for widows and orphans - though some people get a buzz out of putting a bit in, said a portly Canadian in a bow tie.
[2] Conflict of interests: what should be avoided is relatives, friends, family running companies which get money from pension schemes; man called Kennedy, who after I think being sacked worked for Barings and put money into a company run by his own brother, was given, plus diverting interviews [Note: women:] at a home with fairly u-voiced woman of the familiar frightened but defensive wife type evading questions, outside offices etc, getting a pin-stripe cold shoulder, as I think they said.
[3] Fraud, secret bribes and commissions and insider dealing; e.g. rings formed of fund managers who'd each buy in turn - not clear why this was corrupt; buying personally shares of which fund(s) then bought huge amounts, so you could be pretty sure they'd go up; insider dealing, contrary to the 1985 Insider Dealing Act which apparently acted on the principle that if information was not available to all, i.e. presumably published for shareholders etc, then it should be available to no-one.
[Note: 'everyone a winner':] ".. 1980s.. Stock Exchange.. for a while it looked like no-one could lose.."
Example given was a (I think) construction company; a member of its board talked on the phone (and was recorded) after a board meeting to the corrupt manager, who presumably acted on this information. Problem was no-one would go on the record. And we see interview with a man who was sacked because after three months agonising he reported a colleague, or colleagues, to the official ?Stock ?Exchange policing body.
Another example involved USS, Universities Superannuation Scheme; 7th largest, I think, fund in the country. Chairman was Jack Spink: various accounts of the power, one of the major fund managers, can make or break, people sitting next to him, expensive lunches in Browns Hotel, etc. He put money into a company run by Levitt, called 'Mint & Boxed', which tried to trade in things like Dinky Toys. Spink put £5 million in, and Levitt 'expanded' into America and elsewhere, before crashing. Spink took cash retainer of £2,500 per quarter in an envelope. Levitt taped their conversations.
Interspersed with sardonic remarks from a sacked man who'd been crooked in some way, talking about the power of money, and the reason they all wear pin-stripe suits is to look respectable, and the temptations are huge, and respectability isn't after all what the City is about.
Mainly with Bremner, a comedian who, on stage, specialises in quick-fire mimicry with minimum of props, except when he has done a complete image change: e.g. specs on for John Major [Rebel Tories against pit closures.. rebel tories and poll tax.. rebel tories and Exchange Rate Mechanism.. are there any left in the Party? Who is he? [luaghter] - John Major figure who says, I think, fairly inconsequent things]/ to Ben Elton [comedian] or Brian Walden [TV political interviewer] a string of TV 'celebrities' like Wogan ["Recently Oi've bin as quiet as a labour party employment spokesman during a pit closure"] to whoever presents the '$64,000' Question' and joke voiceover: "How many home secretaries does it take to change a light bulb?" Douglas Hurd impersnation: "What's wrong with staying in the dark?"
I hadn't realised how left wing, or at least Labour oriented, this was. E.g. "The Conservatives lost ?267 out of ?269 seats last week. That was in Canada to the Liberals - well, it's a start!"
Bremner's filmed characters include John Birt, interviewed by real Emma Freud [he sits (permanent smile) with his right leg apparently missing: a management report said it worked only 23% of the time; he'd also taken advice on his left arm, and rips it off to go freelance; and Douglas Hurd - plenty of white hair and booklined study effect. [Hurd character implausibly sings a song on a theme like rooking people; is that right? he says]
Sort of filmed report on privatisation, starting with three columns, what percentage of officials in the Department of Transport work on public transport? Is it 30%, 24%, or 14%? wrong! It's 1.3%. Then interview sequence clearly done with colour-overlay backgrounds (of Gatwick, trains, tubes, etc) in the style of someone I didn't recognise, suggesting that a privatised rail bureaucracy would cost more; and the results would be confusing and chaotic (e.g. with return tickets being for different rail companies); and a couple of other things which I forget
John Bird and William Rushton figure too; latter seems to do VO only; Bird looks older than in TWTWTW; poses as wearied interviewer mostly. 1, background of wrecked terrace housing, Bird in fawn mac does quite authentic Beirut style VO but with Christian terrorists, Christian fundamentalists, Christian fanatics revenge on Christians, Christians crossed the line separating Christians from Christians, etc, and ends "the only thing ordinary people are left with is the comfort of their religion" 2, quasi-interview with smarmy suited Tory MP type, who says he's ashamed; after leaving the ministry and privatising an industry, and making lots of money from grants, salary, etc; and sacking half the work force, and paying himself the money saved as salary? No, he's not ashamed of that. That's business. Or his affair with a girl in the executive er washroom, old enough to be his granddaughter.. of course, he supports the child, in his capacity as a taxpayer; he's not ashamed of that. He went to see the C of E, home-grown product, found [he said] they had no business class, like airline companies; he wanted to be told he had a soul and felt guilty and could forget it. 3. Bird also in one of two 'Where are they now?' things: first was Oliver North, apparently standing for election somewhere in US, and likely to get in; and chairman of Wessex Health Authority, which lost £92 million [I think] on a computer system in 1991, I think; he's still chairman of Wessex Health Authority.
Joke sequence posing as a TV cook, getting drunk on glasses of red wine: Jokes with model Bank of England, perhaps as a cake; I don't remember - with jokes about 'impartiality' as it goes to the Chancellor, with perfect impartiality, then takes part of its reserves with prefect impartiality etc etc; I presume this was written by a researcher, since it seemed recherché to me.
Finishes with credits for the customary six or so writers, three or so researchers, and sundry others. Visuals are shots of colliery winding equipment and similar things apparently being demolished (could of course just be stuff due for renovation]. Sound track is pop music; refrain "Another one bites the dust. Another one that's another one that's another one bites the dust..'
".. and the head of the RAF has accused some Ministers of a conspiracy to undermine the service.
The Princess of Wales has won an injunction ?against Mirror newspapers.. The pictures have been published in.. The Princess has let it be known that she ?has been distressed.. The ? have withdrawn.. Her solicitors issued a toughly-worded statement.. distress and ?anguish.. .. orders were obtained from the High Court against the ? and editors of the Sunday Mirror and Daily Mirror to restrain them from publishing..
The Mirror is in a circulation war.. 2.84 million last year.. fallen more than 7% to 2.63m.. The other newspapers were outraged.. new laws.. [indecipherable: perhaps:] to protect journalistic integrity/ to prevent journalistic intrusion..
The Heritage Secretary agreed.. Those who said this made more [unreadable; but not 'censorship'] likely are right..
The Chairman went further.. "I very much hope those who advertise in the Daily Mirror will consider their advertising.. I hope will consider withdrawing..
VO: At least two.. including the RAC have pulled their advertisements
RAC chap [they had an ad opposite the photos; they say (right at the end, in coded way, in this ponderous babble) they had no choice of where the ad appears; personally, I find this hard to believe; still, who knows?] .. The decision was taken this morning to remove the advertising..
[reporter, with building behind saying 'Daily Mirror' on it] it's ? to see how self-regulation can remove.. Nick Hyam outside the Daily Mirror
VO: Joshua, what's the legal position? Joshua Rozenburg, 'legal correspondent': Well this is breach of confidence.. Usually for ? people.. most people haven't realised it could be ?available.. [Etc; in fact it seems, at least according to the radio, there's absolutely no law covering this, as, at the end of all this, the newsreader says in pre-planned way; Rozenburg goes on a bit]
Three men were charged in the gun attack on the Rising Sun in.. etc
Also shots of Diana in Northern Ireland reading in crap voice "Blessed are the peacemakers.."
Another news item is Bosnian mental hospital, with 600 deserted patients, the staff having got away from invading Croats, it said. It's freezing cold; the hospital has no running water. [Food isn't mentioned]. The UN troops are helping them out (except at nights). [NB: I presume this is a reaction to unfavourable publicity of a few days before]
Format was: introduce about 8 kids from about 15-17 or 18, vaguely giving amid the background information and personal stuff suggestions as to why they were dissatisfied with school. [NB: Token black girl; token bloke with shirt out, woolly hat, possibly pony-tail and semi-shaven hair; token girl with northern accent; all I think middle class, and all fairly picturesque]/ Then film meetings: people on trains and at stations etc, being met by a Canadian specialist in organisation research - or some such thing. Exterior of brick building with landscaping shown; then the kids in a room trying their hand at 'brainstorming'. In this case, it involves writing on individual A4 sheets, horizontally, in large coloured felt-tip lettering, a summary of some point of objection to the education system as they've experienced it. Here are some, as they appeared on TV:
1. Too many conflicting interest groups. [chap explained: government have their views, teachers, pupils, parents]
2. Teachers ignoring truancy and other pupil behaviour/ Need for social counselling, youth work, taking account of problems of young people should be part of teachers' duty
3. Emphasis on league tables and results [explanation: so that some pupils who would bring down the average are removed]
4. Too much paperwork for teachers. [Explanation: The national curriculum; science teacher said he'd spent all last night looking through it, so he couldn't teach the actual subject in the lesson - or something]
5. Pupils who aren't brilliant, and pupils who aren't a nuisance, are treated as invisible, they don't exist
6. Subjects should be more relevant to the outside world [Explanation: girl studying English dislikes the irrelevance of British 20th C. war poetry: ".. from the beginning of time, it feels like.. the Boer war, the first world war, the second world war.."]
7. .. more discussion.. more respect.. [girl says in parts of the school you're interrogated as you walk along the corridor..]
/ Next bit is 'the computer' which in some unspecified way produces results: I think people, possibly parents, were asked to rank these objections, or something. At any rate, the 'first model' was:
RELEVANCE -> RESPECT -> STUDENT ADVICE
COUNSELLING - FLEXIBILITY
INDIVIDUAL CHOICE - PETTY RULES - SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT
/Out of this comes the 'final report', which seems a TV-only thing:
Teacher respect/ Listen to students/ more choice
Tues 16 Nov 1993: 9-9.45 pm, Channel 4, 'Without Walls' (with armadillo intro which appealed to Simon), an attack on Freud, 'no holds barred' or something, said TV Times blurb.
NOTE: (1) Doesn't squarely face the question of unprovability, which in my opinion is important in the survival of odd beliefs. So any 'Freudist' presumably would remain unmoved.
(2) Omits the possible importance of the unconscious (as cp Russell, who thought this was important, though not the detail)
(3) The critics have a naive attitude to religion; see generalisations below and note also omission of Freud's Jewishness (and atheism)
(4) The critics haven't realised that an ideology made up of collections of things is stronger than its separate parts
- Dr Fuller Forrey, author of 'Freudian Fraud' was one contributor; most of the VO done by an American whose name I didn't note, possibly 'Peter Swales, a historian of psychoanalysis.'
- Car ride in New York: Central Park West has anonymous faceless blocks which we're told are full of practising psychoanalysts. $125 per quarter hour quoted at one point. The New York Psychoanalytic Institute [we see entrance doorway with carved stone block over top] the temple: lectures on id, ego, superego etc etc. We see a rather comic black and white film, with man in white coat I think giving heavily Germanic talk from notes.
- Amusing interview with now-elderly woman in large brownstone apartment in New York; she's written about sixty books on psychoanalysis; and seems a vague-minded person. She assures her interviewer that yes, her dreams are all wish-fulfilments.
- 'Spellbound' an 'advertisement for psychoanalysis'. We see Ingrid Bergman in specs as an 'analyst'. We're told almost all publishers and everyone in Hollywood has an 'analyst'; it's taken for granted, and there's a prestige thing - the important people visit their analysts at 2-3 p.m.; otherwise it's early in the morning or late in the afternoon.
- "Woody Allen films.. his entire family and children.. and his dogs.. are in analysis.. just like his films.. we assumed it was joking, but the truth is his films are like his life.." [Brief extract shows Allen protesting he wouldn't molest his adopted children; whether this is actually relevant isn't made clear. Scenes from Annie Hall: it's "Full of psychoanalytical cliches" [pron. Cli-shays']
- They have a private language
- "Freud lied continuously.. Freud only offered five case studies.. we know from his letters that none of his patients were cured.. The ?first was Anna O.. Freud never met her.. [Story that ?Breuer wishes she would die: man says: What sort of cure is that?].. We hear about Freud's greatness from him. He compared himself with Newton and Darwin.."
- [Bearded indignant American man:] "If he'd said a fuck mommy and murder daddy complex, nobody would take it ?seriously. But the lovely classical name.. Oedipus.."/ "One of Freud's ideas.. virgin with migraine.. defloration fantasy of penetration by her father.. deflected upwards by suppression.. People ask the wrong questions. They shouldn't ask ?whether a migraine is caused.. but whether there's any evidence at all for any of this.."
- ".. It's a religion.. Freud's own analysis we're asked to believe was a unique descent.. this resembles myths of descent and return found in ?all religions.. There's certainly confession.. father and mother images/ a better world when analysis has been completed/ there's a creation myth, 'Totem and Taboo'/ there are ?disciples/ there's an attitude of submission.."
- ['He wasn't original' argument: shows black and white film of Freud writing at a desk or going through papers. The subconscious, or unconscious, I'm not sure which, they stated occurred before Freud - as the title of the Penguin paperback on Freud suggests; cp. also Eysenck's comment that 'extravert' and 'introvert' though often attributed to Jung weren't originated by him. This in my opinion falls foul of my comment (4) above, that perceived originality often consists of a whole collection of beliefs, which appear to have a mutually supporting effect; like Marxism, or Christianity (according to McCabe, Christianity has not one single novel point)]
- [Presentation as a 'cult', i.e. minority thing which the mass can turn on:] Male: "It reminds me of mind control.. certain aspects of the 20th century.." Female: ".. it's a very intimate relation.. He told me he loved me, he told me he would leave his wife.. People don't realise your mind is completely under the analyst's control.."
Wed 17 Nov 93: Channel 4, 15 minute programme 9.45-10, 'The Almost Complete History of the 20th Century': [TV Times blurb: 'Offbeat look at history using archive film. Tonight, the Yalta conference with Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt when the subject of a free Poland wasn't discussed - despite the fact that World War Two was supposedly fought to keep Poland free.' [The point about archive film is that it's dubbed with comic voices.]
NOTE: Confused thing about three separate meetings, not kept very separate. The notes below don't distinguish Yalta (and its predecessor) properly from Potsdam.
VO: '.. After four years of war.. 1943.. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin.. Eureka Conference.. [I forget where] .. Joint declaration at the end.. greeted with enthusiasm.. piece of paper which meant practically nothing..
.. Eureka 2 in 1944.. by July 1944 need for conference clear.. Russians were in Poland; they paused to watch the Nazis liberate the Free Polish Army.. Stalin 'didn't like flying'.. Yalta agreed.. Roosevelt said he couldn't make it; he had an election back home..
So February 1945.. Churchill and Roosevelt met at Malta.. Joke: chosen only because it rhymed with Yalta.. Joke: VO mimics 'Churchillian' speech about do not palter, .. falter.. Malta.. Yalta. Churchill was depressed; his black dog and election looming; Roosevelt died in two weeks, after the famous line "I have a terrific headache".
We see shots of the three men surrounded by others; Stalin looks a bit out of place, though smiling. VO: "Stalin had the big cards.. Stalin had Poland.." Joke voices: "I want to start the U.N." "All right" "I want the headquarters in New York" "Er, all right" "We'd like to take over the Pacific basin. .. China and Japan" "All right" "We want India and the Empire" "All right" "Stalin wants Poland, sir. He says it's a matter of life and death that USSR should have Poland." VO says they agreed not to discuss the Polish question then.. Over the next few weeks it became clear how Stalin was interpreting the Yalta agreement.. Churchill came on Monday. Lost the election by Friday..
Churchill's matchstick model: we see triangle of matches on a plate; he shoved Poland west to make more room for Russia. "Poland was kept in the dark about this.." [Film shows men by field gun - presumably Poles - saying in Polish accents "Well, how would you like your country to be given away.."]
July 1945: Potsdam. [Truman, not Roosevelt, was at Potsdam]
Mon 22 Nov 93: 'Specially extended Panorama', BBC, on British 'secret services' including interview with old woman, supposedly a super agent, and old bloke likewise; also stuff with Jack Cunningham, saying he wants a statutory basis etc. Interviews with the supposed agents on rather predictable lines, with of course no evidence: ".. we set them against each other.. they destroyed each other.. what a pity that so and so isn't loyal.. that's an unsophisticated example.. I couldn't possibly tell you that.." / ".. in a dangerous world.. Britain's interests.. Britain has on the whole enjoyed stability.. successes which pass unnoticed.. the bomb which didn't go off.. action which wasn't taken.."
This was introduced by Tom Mangold, of a BBC series on the CIA; Mangold now has white hair. We see ridiculous footage of a room with a 'four inch steel door', 'the most secure in America', containing a room in which democracy decides the policy of the CIA.
Carol Clewlow's debut novel Keeping the Faith was nominated for the Whitbread First Novel Award in 1988; when A Woman's Guide to Adultery was published the following year, competition was fierce to secure the film rights. Hartswood Films won and took the project to Carlton, and a star cast was put together.. Theresa Russell stars as Rose, and Sean Bean consolidates his screen lover statues as Paul.' [He's blond, appears to be tall, and has a rather impish expression etc etc. In the series he's married to Monica, who never appears, at least not in part one. Actualy there's only one star; three other wopmen friends are Amanda Donohoe (blonde woman in Drop the Dead Donkey), Ingrid Lacey, and Fiona Gillies of whom I recognise nothing. The writer is Frank Cottrell Boyce; it's unclear how much is dependent on the original book.]
ACTUALITY: Vaguely set in Bristol. Four single women who visit each other and seem to live in one house.
Theresa Russell is a photographer, and does hotel rooms for brochures etc. She starts a photography course [at a university!] with the brother of one of the women; he lectures, comments at his interview of her on how most people get in as a result of style or fashion magazines, her portfolio is holiday snaps vs real photos in the war zone, and she has to take and show her pictures to him for his approval - very conventional motif in fact; he of course makes the aesthetic appraisals. One of her pix is a snap of the bloke's wife. He says don't give up the course, you're really good, invites her to a Cartier-Bresson show (in Paris). Lots of facial working before she says yes.
Drop the Dead Donkey woman works in advertising and they get some 'important' contract. She's having it off with her boss, portrayed, although I'm not sure whether deliberately, as a superficial type. She finds (we see graphical depictions of kissing in office) he hasn't told his wife and her rather boring Irish hubby discovers the same thing. Again, note the motif of her being subdominant in her job. And of her being sure he loves her and will leave his wife; it's taken for granted that this career move is a good thing.
Another woman is an art tutor who fancies a young pupil, who appears to be financed by his girlfriend (or I suppose, in view of the title, wife). We've just seen her invite him to her studio. His girl friend is shown as jealous or suspecting. Again there's the flattery of his drawing although modestly he says he practised in the kitchen with a pad on his knee, or something, though it seems odd to establish him as incompetent. This is the only woman not having a fuck for career reasons.
The fourth woman is having it off with a rather vaguely limned character, a politician who however seems more of a TV 'personality' - we see phone calls from 'Question Time', and recognition from a woman in a station who says she always votes for the other lot, and a strange Africa Aid event at which hardly any people were present, perhaps for budget reasons, where the woman watches him holding hands with his wife etc etc.
Now, with 43 of the 60 [see \boxfiles for extract] featured prisoners released, the aim remains to draw attention to human rights abuses wherever they occur. This year's new format reflects a dangerous worldwide trend. Potential troublemakers are more likely to be executed or "disappeared" than taken prisoner, and torture is becoming a way of life in many prisons.
Tonight's introduction by John Simpson examines these changes and looks back at some of the prisoners featured in previous years. "They can't fight back, they can't organise, they can't protect themselves."
Through the week five presenters will outline different human rights abuses and explain how viewers can campaign for justice.'
Stereo Subtitles.
One of the week's series on Tues 7 Dec: [NB 10 mins only] Radio Times blurb for that says: '"The appalling use of torture is widespread in many countries," says Helen Suzman, former member of parliament for the opposition in South Africa, "and ignored, even condoned, in other countries that profess to respect human rights and civilised values."
She describes how torture is now endemic in China and is spreading rapidly worldwide despite determined international efforts to halt it.'
- [Following is a transcript of short advertising thing:]
[Helen Mirren:] Children as young as five are at work in virtually every country of the world
[Henry Miller; gruffish US old voice:] Censorship undermines all other human rights
[Suzman: rather cracked SA voice:] Torture is routinely practised in over 90 countries
[? Male voice] Ethnic cleansing | is the genocide of the 1990s
[Anthony Hopkins. Coincidence: exact same issue of Radio Times, but on ITV page, is 'Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins' apparently doing voiceovers for one hour wildlife programme on lions in Africa] Several million people have been disappeared since the 1960s
[Male VO; slight S African accent; possibly the producer?:] A week of special programmes. Human rights, human wrongs. Starts tomorrow at nine thutty five on BBC2
- [Radio Times blurbs for following days: Mon 6: 'Disappearance is the most sinister of human rights abuses. Anthony Hopkins describes how this tactic is taken to unparalleled extremes in Iraq. "Not to know what has happened to your loved ones because they have been 'disappeared' is another form of torture. ..'
Tue 7: [Suzman; transcript below; blurb is:] '"The appalling use of torture is widespread in many countries," says Helen Suzman.. She describes how torture is now endemic in China and is spreading rapidly worldwide despite determined international efforts to halt it.'
Wed 8: 'Introduced by Salman Rushdie. This year, six of Algeria's intelligentsia have been assassinated. The Armed Islamic Group has now issued an ultimatum to the 100,000 foreigners in the country: leave or become legitimate [sic] targets. The country is moving towards full-scale civil war between Islamic fundamentalism and western values. [sic] This film tells the story of assassinated writer Tahar Djaout.'
Thu 9: 'Freedom of expression is the touchstone [sic] of all freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Playwright Arthur Miller explains how, all over the world, violence is replacing imprisonment as the main method of silencing writers. "East and west no longer stand eyeball to eyeball, threatening life on earth. Now the struggle is against the silencing of opinions, of inconvenient facts, of truth."'
Fri 10: 'Over 150 million children, some as young as 5 or 6, are at work in the world today. Actress Helen Mirren examines this phenomenon and follows the lives of a family of young girls working in Paksitan's carpet factories. "What affects me most," she says, "is children's vulnerability to exploitation. They can't fight back..'
- [Following is a transcript from audiotape of most of Suzman's 7th Dec programme; this was one I watched at random:]
[Suzman; cracked and rather halting female voice:] ".. ?political prisoners in China. They are held in the ?Lao ?Gai, the largest prison system in the world, with a network of over 2,000 penal institutions and labour camps. These camps are essential to the Chinese economy, bringing millions of dollars in export earnings. They produce everything. Tea, spicers, copper, even nuclear reactors. They sell | to fotty countries | despite the Chinese government's pledge to bring an end to prison labour. Here is Harry Wu, who spent | nineteen years in the Lao Gai, and risked his life to expose them to the outside world."
[Wu. Wears suit, tie, glasses etc. Voice dubbed, I think, though perhaps not:] "Chinese labour camp is liddle bit different with de soviet camp also different with the concentration camp. Chinese say it is labour reform camp. So rabour reform you, become useful to the people and it's never happen in de world. In a past forty years is at leas fifty million people have been through in the labour camp | to reform | to have the brain wash an force into remodel themselves you have to give up your political viewpoint you have to give up your consciousness give up your religious even your morality remodel yourself reform yourself become a socialist people."
[Suzman:] "China is one of 71 countries who have signed and ratified the UN convention against torture, but China is not alone among countries which have ratified the convention and where serious allegations of torture continue to be made. [NB: come to think of it, Wu didn't say that] In THESE countries, any prisoner, political or otherwise, is at risk of torture, either as a form of punishment or in order to extract information. Electronic torture chambers, known as the house of fun, leg irons, manacles, electric battens [sic] and stun guns, thumb cuffs and execution equipment are made by western companies, some of them in the United Kingdom, and sold as instruments of torture. It doesn't take many steps to turn an ordinary man into a torturer."
[South American bloke from El Salvador; René Hurtado speaking Spanish English with subtitles in tidied form:] "Erm like you know you take somebody eyes you know an this is actually what they did an torture you know you take with pincers you know one eye you know out an you say if you don talk I will take out the other one you know an I say I will pull your teeth you know out an they do you know one by one an this person you know bleed to death and you laugh around him drinking an smoking marijuana an using LSD all kinds of drugs"
[Suzman:] "Torture is becoming more sophisticated. It is spreading. New forms emerge all the time. Rape by government officials for instance is now widely accepted as a form of torture. Let us take the case of India. Here the rape of women detainees by police and prison officers is so common that a headline in a newspaper not long ago read: Another mass rape by Bihar cops. For an Indian woman to be raped is the ultimate stigma, leading to rejection by the entire community. Padmini Nandagopal was raped by local police in her village in southern India, but while SHE survived her husband died under torture."
[Indian woman in sari etc:] "They had my husband in the room also. They were beating him up mercilessly. One of them got hold of my hands. And the other of my legs. One of them caught my husband. They raped me. The first one to rape me was the S.I. After he had raped me he said, I have finished. Now the rest can take over. Then the S.I. went outside. Then all the policemen took turns and raped me."
[Suzman:] "In the last seven years, 415 people are known to have died as a result of torture in Indian prisons. The real figure is certainly higher. Is there a more haunting photograph of a torturer and his victim than 12-year old Manoj Singh who was arrested for stealing a purse? Manoj was eventually freed, his body swollen with cuts and bruises. His father, who went with him to the police station, died after prolonged beating. The Indian government continues to deny that torture takes place, and rarely punishes the soldiers and policemen who are known to be torturers. In South Africa, my own country, solitary confinement and physical torture were by no means unknown during the apartheid years. There is also torture in EUROPE. In Spain, as in Portugal and Italy, there have been allegations of brutality by the police. Spanish criminal and terrorist suspects, and even tourists, thought to be illegal immigrants have described being kicked, given electric shocks, and almost asphyxiated with plastic bags. In September 1991, an Egyptian musician called Mohammed ?Mugassi was arrested while on holiday in the island of Ibiza. After his release two days later, he alleged that he had been punched, kicked and beaten with rubber truncheons by civil guard officers he had spoken to in the street, then taken back to the police station and again beaten.
Let us finish by again returning to China and ?Leo ?Gang. He has four more years to serve in a labour camp in ?Leoning province, where some of the worst atrocities occur. After going on hunger strike in protest, he has spent several months in what the Chinese call disciplinary isolation. If you want to protest against the heinous practice of torture, and in particular against the heinous practice of torture in China today, then please send a stamped addressed onvelope for more information to human rights human wrongs, PO Box 7, London W3 6XJ. Or you can call this number now [Pop music starts] free of charge. 0800 767 800."
[Female VO:] "Tonight's programme with Helen Suzman can be seen again at midnight. Tomorrow evening Salman Rushdie describes the horrors of ethnic cleansing, which he sees as one of the worst atrocities in the world today. ..'
The Israeli invasion of the Lebanon in 1982 led to the creation of Hezbollah, the most aggressively anti-western of Arab groups.
In this first film, Fisk travels from ruined Beirut to the war zone in the south of the country, where he meets the fanatical fighters who will embrace death rather than recognise their neighbour Israel.
Fisk visits the cellars in which hostages were held, and sometimes died, and Khiam prison where, according to Amnesty International, Israel carries out torture.
Uniquely for a western television journalist, he talks to Hezbollah fighters who expect to die fighting against Israel, and witnesses a chilling and blood-soaked ritual carried out by Shiite Muslims.
Director Mike Dutfield. Producer Dennis Walsh.'
Baritone Paul Robinson and cellist Peter Dixon join the choir for Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on Christmas Carols, and other highlights include the Polish carol Bogoroditse Dyevo (Infant Holy). The Director of Music is Stephen Cleobury.
Producer David Kremer. Executive producer Helen Alexander Stereo Subtitled' [i.e. with words of songs]
List is: 'Erasure's Andy Bell and American singer Melissa Etheridge, .. Stephen Fry, Quentin Crisp, Martina Navratilova, Ian McKellen, Pam StClement (Pat from Eastenders), Polly Perkins (Trish from Eldorado) and Julian Clary. ..
Also featured are Sandra Bernhard, Justin Fashanu [?footballer], Lily Savage, Anthony Sher, Simon Callow, Pierre et Gilles [two French young men; singers?], Jimmy Somerville and many more surprise guests.'
[NB: A few weeks recently Fry had asserted that two members of the Cabinet are gay. Perhaps he was speaking from experience?]
".. Yellow flag or iris was hung around church doors to keep off EVIL SPIWITS!"
About this time: Radio Times blurb on 'One Foot in the Past', lightweight history/ archaeology programme:
After the fire: how should the devastation at Windsor Castle be restored?
[Most of this is on my videotape. In fact, highly pedestrian piece: 'early musical influences' mainly illustrated by bizarre music by some avant garde composer, Zappa saying of crashing discords that he liked them, they sounded mean. The 'Mothers', now oldish, say they weren't musically very good, couldn't read classical music, not good enough for Frank. They played in bars and if the people didn't dance they didn't drink and if they didn't drink the man who owned the bar got unhappy and we didn't want to do that to him. [Zappa's 'involvement with classical musicians' (Pierre Boulez mentioned to me by Mike Rourke) seems only to mean he used them to improve his stuff.] We see stage performances, mostly tedious long repetitive things supposedly influenced by Dada in the sense that e.g. sometimes Zappa would just sit in a chair and scowl at the audiences, or generally "You never knew what would happen" as then-young woman trainee formal musician said; Zappa plays the electric guitar like many other electric guitar players; pretentious commentary talks about 'sculpting with air', and his sons Dweezil and Ahmet (yes!) make illiterate chat to each other about pa hearing wrong notes even with all that noise going on - he's got magic ears. The stuff in the Radio Times about political impact seems complete crap; no suggestion he had views or anyone else was influenced, except in the negative/surreal sense. Much emphasis of course on sex: Zappa says something "It feels good but it looks real silly. Why not say so? Time for the magazine" [Shows front cover of a thing called SEX, showing two people with strap-on dildoes who connect them to a computer, or something.] "There's gotta be an album in there somewhere." We see him on stage pointing to his bum in the course of a song, and singing about balls etc. He also says: "I got about 1800 titles, I'd be surprised if 100 are about sex." The programme doesn't go any further! What about Valley Girls cutting their toenails, Teenage Prostitute, Yellow Snow and the other 1700 odd? All we see is some other person saying something like: "With satire, the trick is to satirise people who hate it. He'd satirise targets I never thought of." We see Zappa singing, not interestingly, a song involving the words 'Women's Liberation'. He made lots of records; after a lawsuit against Warner Brothers, he started or was allowed to start his own label, and produced records every couple of months. The programme showed a lot of the cover designs.
I'm uncertain whether the trashy quality of this programme was partly Zappa's responsibility; one imagines it must be to a large extent. Virtually nothing serious came across.
Badawi said: "30 years ago Africa was self-sufficient in food; it isn't now." Mkandawire criticised lack of attention to African food: "We eat grasshoppers, but no-one knows when they come - we just have to wait." [Similar idea in New Scientist, e.g. on wheat bread being high status food]
The most interesting was Scott, who presented confused market forces ideas (and of course ignored western intervention, both in the past and now) with fairly ferocious childishness: "The pr-roblem is socialist governments in Africa which do everything to ?ruin any economics.. these crops bring in foreign currency ?tranche to the central government.. they won't permit market forces to come into play.. they expect agriculture to support these layabouts in the copper belt [sic, I'm pretty sure].. The problem is poverty.."
Israel used 1000 missiles and 25,000 shells or something today in southern Lebanon, hitting two refugee camps and two towns at least. General exodus from the area. Yitzhak Shamir at the front line: baldish man in shirt talks into the microphone in accented English that the operation will not stop at 1800. Shots of Lebanese P.M. and of Hezbollah receiving refugees; close ups of photos of e.g. Khomeini on walls. A 'spiritual leader' [i.e. man in black turban] supposedly says, though his actual words aren't of course translated or subtitles, that the Israelis won't achieve their ends.
Stuff on a church in South Africa.. desecrated.. [i.e. by killers of I think 8 whites].. no peaceful again.. and mixed congregation listening to Desmond Tutu. VO says 500 political deaths this month, which I think they said was above average.
Also Japan: 'Liberal Democratic Party.. over 40 years.. moneyed corruption.. New Japan party.. led by an ariostcrat.. family ruled southern Japan for 300 years under the Shoguns.. ?awesome sense of history..' We see youngish man say something; translation is in fact three sentences of banality. Then reporter in outside street who says something like: "Change will have to come to Japan. Increasing democracy won't be fast" which appears to be a complete non sequitur with what's preceded it.
The main points of the news again: [Repeat just of the 'franc under heavy pressure' 'story']
Local news had an item on man with 123 convictions some [not clear how many] for violence - including tying up, breaking nose, raping, and sawing open chest with a breadknife of a 25-year old barmaid - let out of jail for four days' home leave; I think he murdered someone. Unusual sort of crit; however naturally of course it doesn't include anything of wider significance.
I.e. 'fresh' rock as opposed to re-used; they had some word for this. VO says there are 20 million tons of builder's rubble made every year - or something. Naturally no information as to whether this is at all usable, or even how much it really is; film clip of big modernish tenement, possibly not even in Britain, being blown up substitutes for any argument.
Mendips are something like 'the most mined site in Europe' with no indication what this means
VO says in effect if you can't visualize the amount, this may help: it would fill greater London to a depth of ten feet (or something); visual shows cars in somewhere like Trafalgar Square being covered by stuff.
Interview with unpleasant man who is chairman or something of an extraction company; rather laughable stuff about "We are borrowing the land!.. return it to landscape in 25 years as the planning permit allows.. perhaps a lake.. probably more use.. Jobs.. full employment.. houses.. shopping centres.. a ?thriving economy means a thriving building industry.. that's the way it is.."
VO: 'increasing' amounts.. government plan [which apparently requires different parts of the country to produce in effect quotas of 'aggregate' as they seem to call the whole extraction thing, including sand and gravel]. Naturally no indication of what the forecasts are based on, if the are forecasts at all.
Shots of lorries and comments that this village may have a lorry a minute fourteen hours a day.
Rather amusing scenes of a site on which a battle in the 'Wars of the Roses' was fought, and chunks of which would disappear; no indication of course that the people protesting had any interest in history
Another site: man who was it's said an ambassador, said VO, talking about site of special scientific interest, yews which had been pollarded to make bows for Agincourt, irreplaceable as Wells Cathedral or Westminster Abbey, it's like suggesting Wells Cathedral is a load of old stone and should be demolished for it. It's valued at nothing!
Another man talking about the Mendips says extraction below the water table has contaminated water supplies and forced the closure of some supplies. At some point somebody adds that the Mendips are like a huge sponge and etc and at present extraction has made only a small percentage difference but later..
Then, perhaps the point of the programme: somewhere in Scotland a landowning woman who owns some quarry in the Mendips apparently has switched to a site in Scotland and has a new technique with a mile-long conveyor and stone falling on it from the inside of a mountain. So the extraction can't be seen. A new £60 million technique (apparently). We see a few shots of Scots who dislike the idea.
Most stone's apparently for roads.
Some shots of a quarry from the air; evident idea is to get people to say "Ooh how horrid"
First is 9-9.15 Bosnia Season: The essential guide. Second World War is outlined, and Tito, and suggestion that present-day children of twenty or whatever who are fighting talk about wartime atrocities 'as though they were present'; the country hadn't come to terms with its past. Tito was the first to break with Stalin, Stalin said I'll soon be dead and Europe needs Tito, etc. Visual style is to flash lettering in shallow 3-d gold finish to echo little parts of phrases like 'EUROPE NEEDS TITO'. As always, I think, the actual differences perceived by the people themselves which separate Serbs, Croats, Muslims, Slovenians, and others, are taboo, just as the proportion of Jews in Russia was and is. Several academics were interviewed, shown talking in little frames, all male and middle-aged with accents and I think from universities and from School of Slavonic Studies. In the past (one said) Serbs and Croats etc had not fought each other, except as parts of different armies; the present nationalism is inflamed and (in effect) irrational and non-historical. The Serbs had their Mein Kampf in the shape of 1986 manifesto by something like the Academy of Arts, stressing 1939/ 1989 and anniversary of the battle of Kosova. Slobodan Milesovic 'fanned nationalism', dropped his communist past, wanted Greater Serbia. On June 27th 1991 Serbs attacked Slovenia and Croatia: 'the end of Yugoslavia'
Second: Radio Times blurbs say 9.15-10.45: 'True Stories: the Unforgiving A gripping psychological journey [sic] through the Republic of Serbs in Bosnia, seen through the eyes [sic] of both Serbian soldiers and a mother seeking her son. The programme also exposes the horrors of prison camps where Muslims and Croats were held. Director/Producer Clive Gordon.'
[In fact attempt at cinema verité with two motifs: one is woman in black, and her rather shabby hubby, looking for their young son of whom only a red-and-white pullover and little colour photo survive; being driven in a smallish vehicle in search of a town where the boy was reportedly tortured, fingers cut off etc, and buried in the grave he dug; with them was a moustached man in light blue, who denied having had anything to do with it, despite believing he knew where the body was. She bewails from time to time, throws stones from little bucket at lorryloads of people going by. The other was interviews with soldiers, e.g. bearded commander type telling the UN he's not shelling a road, soldiers who say they have no morale; most people were killed; broadcasting of what seemed to be hate stuff against Chetniks, apparently played on a strip-of-metal tape recorder. The first group found a shallow grave with a body. The second group e.g. shown being praised by civilian-clothed suited type who praises Serbia, with a raucous background probably of the or a Serbian anthem. And saying they're portrayed as animals, but they're not - they're fighting for their womans and childrens too. Finishes with yet more shots of scattered housing in attractive orchard-like land which has roofs, windows etc missing. I didn't watch enough of this to work out who the people were, or even where they were - the blurb seems to anticipate the plan to divide Bosnia which e.g. seems only to have appeared on July 31st.]
Third was a 15 minute programme, 'Tourist Sarajevo 93 Sarajevo [capital of Bosnia] is a city steeped in history, but now as one of the world's most infamous trouble zones [sic], it is an unlikely holiday destination. However, this city guide, for any would-be tourists, is full of black humour, cruel parody, and biting wit.'
In short sections with titles in English (in this version) in red capitals; otherwise in Serbo-Croat with subtitles. Each ends with a frozen shot, and a superimposed set of tick-boxes: Is this Bosnian CROAT? SERB? MUSLIM? Starts with customary view of city as in the palm of your hands. Unfortunately, here it is.. unfortunately because it can be shot at. HOW TO MOVE AROUND TOWN Shots of scurrying pedestrians, crouching behind walls HOW TO PROFIT FROM WAR Man in large blue dungarees says he used to spend a lot of food, masseurs, exercise, food replacements. But since the war he's lost 48 kilos (or whatever). Look! HOW TO SAVE WATER People with plastic bucket, plastic hosepipe, carefully filling little portable containers HOW TO VISIT THE THEATRE Shots of people running diagonally across square overlooked by flats to doorway; spectators in small number watching gruelling performance of simulated rape, man saying he's going to screw her from front, from behind, from the side.. ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE Man with two jars; puts in alcohol, then distilled water, then gentian because it dissolves most slowly, then valerian which I've just discovered is of the species .. He goes outside, with two unattractive containers. If my flat had not been destroyed by this mortar (holds up bit of metal) I'd blends the ingredients with this mixer (another bit of metal).
Final shot shows young Frenchman, presumably a journalist; he says "In 48 hours the shelling could be stopped.. Europe could not decide to strike these hills.. to its shame." Black screen; end of film.
[Brief notes, roughish outline:] Penrose doing VO and also appearing in the shots (often with blackboard behind with things like contour integrals on) says: relativity was not a solution to empirical problems [this seems only half-true; Einstein said Michelson-Morley played little part in his theory, but even so it was surely not divorced from 'problems']/ Godel was a genius who proved 'non-computability' [Penrose seemed to confuse this with consistency within a closed system]. He assumed Godel was right; didn't seem aware of Spencer-Brown's assertion that Godel's theorem is trivial/ idea of mathematical ideal world 'goes back to Plato'; more correct to say it comes down from Plato [shots outside Bodleian as he muses on eternal perfection of the world]/ Penrose seems to think mathematical models of the world are completely accurate; one example [forget details - no doubt standard - of one part in 10^14]/ Unctuous reference to 'God' or God's mind/ he uses 'mind' and 'consciousness' freely without definition/ believes the brain has microtubules etc/ believes brain might need to be explained at quantum level/ concludes no computer will ever be able to display consciousness/
[Stableford introduced this item: stuff on scientific tradition in Vietnam, and people going at a certain time of year to pick these fruits. [For Pernod or something like that?] Naturally the value of these wasn't given. Stableford said something to the effect that with the collapse of the U.S.S.R. they are short of money. Vietnam needs entrepreneurs for its scientists (or something similar). [Truth of course is that much, probably most, science has been state supported]
Interesting contrast with books like e.g. 'Risinghill: Death of a Comprehensive', which no doubt would appear different filmed: entire emphasis on the principal, who in this case is making all the teachers reapply for jobs which apparently are all new (or at least somewhat redefined, with six departments, one of which is 'humanities' and two of which are groupings of fairly miscellaneous things). The man is shown as decisive and outputter of clichés and being smiling with pupils: ".. reapply for jobs.. better than death by a thousand cuts.. that's more demoralising.. I know.. I've been made redundant.. enthusiasm.. centre of excellence.. small minority of teachers in any school I've worked in.. Resources.. who did I tell to climb the ladder? That's right.. We say learning is fun.. I'm suggesting you should climb the ladder.. I can't climb it for you.."
Union rep shown as advising them that if they don't apply for their jobs they'll be deemed to be not interested.
Whole emphasis on the staff and their discomfiture. We see interviews with staff. Nine left; some ex-heads of department were kept as 'ordinary teachers'. Various people of supposedly high calibre atracted in, e.g. head of a department imported from the first C.T.C.; man with five science degrees including a Ph.D. 'as well as being an excellent teacher'; head of humanities department also has R.E., which [principal with blond hair (and sticking out ears) assures us] is almost unprecedented. This was at what appeared to be a request for more 'resources'. He was told after all there are other schools.
The only pupil involvement that I saw, in watching 90% of the programme, was a shot of children sitting a SAT exam and shuffling about and fidgeting, and a smal crowd of black kids shouting support for the Principal as he was being interviewed about SATs: ".. children need to learn.. we need to demonstrate to the outside world they're learning. Yeh? Do we want to be winners? [Yeh!] Do you trust me?" [Yeh!]
No other information. In fact, about side-effects of radiation treatment for breast cancer. Several women shown, including one called 'Lady Ironside' I think, who'd had one arm [left, in her case] damaged by radiation; now withering, useless, she said likely to fall out of its socket, and who'd spent £100,000 on legal action, but didn't want to risk going further in case she had to pay damages. She wanted a public enquiry. Several odd interviews, including an elderly woman from the 'Royal College of Radiographers' who assured women that courses of tweatment for women in the early stages of breast cancer are perfectly safe - despite being challenged by the fact that there are 50 different proportions of treatment (the question of how different cancers were from each other wasn't gone into) dosages vary in a ratio of about 1:4 in different parts of the country, and 'fractionation' [sic; note pseudo-scientific expression; and cp. 'chemo-' pronounced with long e. Used to mean number of separate treatments. E.g. stated that in US six weeks' treatment is usual, whereas here, because of budget constraints, they try to get it over with in three. Nobody pointed out the American system might be to make more money.] This woman also said: "Where are we to get this information?" when asked how come such serious side effects [one person said 6%; another said the must therefore be higher, since many weren't reported] hadn't been noticed by her 'profession'. The interviewer said, well, you do the treatments. [The question of women not in the early stages wasn't gone into.]
Another set of interviews with [male] radiographers or heads of radiography departments said that some people were sloppy in their procedures: three I think beams are used, one from side, one perhaps at nodes in armpit, one from I think the front; if they overlapped, cells could receive an overdose. One of these men cheerfully said none of his patients had any trouble.
[Recently there was publicity over a department or hospital which over a long period had given underdoses - I think - because their machine was wrongly calibrated or set.]
[Private Eye criticised this move as a BBC attempt to be safe and cash in on Elphick's presumed popularity.]
I formed a dislike for this, as I watched with Simon.
Link: ".. starring.. new series.. takes his thrusting talents to the provinces.."
Shot in pub which I explained to Simon was a studio set and would appear with boring frequency/ woman sits on his hand; implausible sex thing; she's a policewoman in plain clothes/ scenes of car always with tyre squeals; absurdly moves fast in the town/ his building has been attacked; there's acid on his computer, acid being of course a pleb word/ inscription on the wall: 'SALTER HAS SMALL TESTICLES'/ Conflicts with (a) Police: man seems contemptuous, Elphick refuses to be interviewed; (b) another local paper - he tells interviewer she's late, he won't say anything, or something' (c) his own junior who's supposed to be getting a story. He tells him a tattooist has been tattooing obscene things (or something); then he says, I made it up. His photographer goes along with him. He has to make something up. "Help me." "I can't help you."
Sun 19 Sept 1993: BBC1 9.05-10.35: 'Screen One: Down among the Big Boys' Radio Times blurb: 'Comedian Billy Connolly returns to Glasgow to star in a film written by Peter McDougall, a fellow worker in the Clydeside shipyards of his youth and screenwriter of The Long Good Friday. Connolly plays JoJo, a big-time operator in Glasgow's criminal underworld, who masterminds a daring bank robbery. But his steps are dogged by a young police officer who also happens to be his son-in-law. .. Producer Andy Park; Director Charles Gormley Subtitled.' ['Feature' on Connolly to launch this from Radio Times is in \boxfiles]
Wed 22 Sept 93: BBC2 8-8.50 pm 'The Huw Wheldon Lecture: the Craft of Television'. Radio Times blurb: 'John Simpson, BBC Foreign Editor, addresses an invited audience at the Royal Television Society Convention in Cambridge. Just back from an assignment in Angola, Simpson reflects on the nature of television news. What are the elements involved in putting a news report together? What determines the priorities for a television journalist and how far are they influenced by the wider context in which the reporter operates? Producer Nigel Sharman.'
[Format is lecture theatre, with quiet audience, and clips shown from TV news programmes; presumably on a screen to the side of Simpson, but shown in this broadcast on actual TV, i.e. slightly different presentation from what the audience saw.]
Joke: "piece de camera" [sic!] [I think this was in reference to an item about Iraq, showing a demonstration, with VO saying it was frenzied near the camera, but quiet further away. The Iraqi censor, said Simpson, had passed the expression 'going through the motions' - You British! What does that mean? Another man; my producer? You know, like this! Waves arm. Simpson laughs slightly sneeringly.
Douglas Hurd.. most successful foreign secretary since Ernest ?Bevin.. foreign policy favourable comparison with .. America, of France.. Difficult to have sympathy with him,.. [With reference to clip of Iraqi Kurds; I think somewhere in Iran - pouring rain - wet - tents of plastic sheeting. Front man says they can't understand why the world does nothing]
That was before Bosnia.. Foreign Office handout.. Bosnia - the ?serious newspapers and we belong to the something must be done school.. we do think something should be done.. alerted the British public..
[Visit to Angola; much stress on logistics, with of course no serious information:] .. needs a team of five.. cameraman.. producer.. editor.. cost [I think] £60,000.. decided to satellite it.. frustrating.. finally we got a feed-through.. in a difficult country.. [Banal piece shown fronted by Simpson with man showing a mine in the ground, interview with black girl with foot blown off] ".. worked on my script,... work I enjoy.. great pleasure to me.. work with the picture editor.. five hundred words.. about the amount which a serious newspaper would devote to the story.."
In an ideal world.. pictures should speak for themselves.. convey what is happening.. [plus some other platitudes on this stupid tack]
[Then plug for BBC readjustments:]
.. we recognised ITN were ahead.. switch from [in-house description of supposed style before and supposed style after] .. under John Birt and Michael Checkland..
[At some point he said it was absurd that e.g. Sinn Fein people should be dubbed, with deliberately out-of-sync voices, when the visuals etc were seen; audience politely applauded this daring comment.]
[Then idea that modern world is recent creation:]
".. political change.. 1988 (I think).. we're still living through the consequences of those changes.. will be violence.. impartiality.. it's sometimes said we should have feelgood programmes.. American.. news programmes with happy stories.."
[Final, or near-final, clip was a US piece on Congressmen/women or Senators and flights paid for by lobbyists, to top resorts like Honolulu, um, Los Angeles, titled something like 'Most flights club': [leading lobbyists: tobacco lobby, AMA] nothing about the purposes of the flights; just e.g. interview with female politician who says not much. Simpson expressed great pleasure in this wonderful piece of news reporting.]
This struck me as very funny. Caunes wears a suit, usually, and presents himself as the professional TV man, paid (not much), to do this. Jean-Paul, a 'designer', wears kilts and earrings and short blond hair with dyed dark bits and a smile; he plays the ingenu, learning from de Caunes. The topics mostly are sex-related: French woman who makes her own sex videos, usually of weddings, in which she takes part, and sells, from her shop/ Restaurant in Belgium which serves rats [some sort of water rat, in fact]/ Golf course with nude players to make the image less boring, in France; voiceover (by a woman) has plenty on balls etc/ Man who takes into Eurodisney a Wombles suit, to see how long he lasts before he's thrown out/ Transvestite contest from Italy, mostly apparently with men from South America, quite a few still with male genitals, waiting for the five-year-waiting list to diminish, and with spectators saying things like "Men are better at everything - they're even better at being women!"/ Two man team in Paris who take photos, at two weeks a time, and do things like pop videos, in pinsharp colour photo plus airbrush/acrylic style plus oriental/ Catholic/ similar-sized-bits-of-fine-detail imagery in what could be called kitsch style, and who e.g. did a Britvic orange juice poster with Eros with large posing pouch.
The filler/ introductory matter is slightly like Julian Clary as part of a double-act with a suited man; plus jokes about French/English. The title sequence has what looks like cardboard models of things like the Eiffel tower, and cut out heads of Gaultier and de Caunes with things coming out of the tops of their heads etc; and a couple of girls in short outfits pulling back cardboard curtains to reveal the great presenters.
- ".. and zis is Jean-Paul Gaultier, in his mini-kilt.."
- "Hello, my English cherms" says J-P, and Caunes ironically calls them 'cherms' too.
- "Antoine, I ave noteeced zet we are Fronsh" "Yes, Jean-Paul. We are French." "And zis is Eenglish television" "Yes, Jean-Paul.. " "Zen why ave zey two presenteurs 'oo are Fronsh? I zink perhaps zey are making ze fun.."
- ".. Practise my Eenglish, Antoine. Zis is ze nose, le nez. Zis is ze face, la ?face. Zis is le teton, the nipple. And zis is ze most important part (points to Antoine) ze pe-nis." "You cannot say penis on English television, Jean-Paul" "Why not? Do zey not ave ze penis?" "Yes, zey ave, but you cannot say it." [Later:] "You cannot say poo poo on English Television, Jean-Paul.. Poo poo is for babies.." [A couple of episodes later: Antoine: "Because I am seeck of all this bull shit" "You cannot say bull sheet on English television, Antoine."]
- ".. ow we do ze introduction?" ".. professional.. if you look.. you see ze words on ze liddle screen.. zat is called an autocue.." "Antoine, why ave you not told me zis until ze end of ze pro-gramme?" "So zat I look better zan you, Jean-Paul!"
- ".. For centuries.. 'ave come to Paris for artistic inspiration" "Jean-Paul, ze reason zey came to Paris is ze cheap wine and ze cheap women. Still, you can call that inspeeration if you weesh!" ".. And now, Malcolm Maclaren ees in Paris.." ".. Jean-Paul, you cannot compare Malcolm Maclaren weez Picasso. It is true he has presented ze world wiz ze Sex-Pistols. And it is true he has an unusual haircut. Anuzzer (chuckles at Gaultier) unusual haircut. But you cannot compare eem. E will be like zis.." [Holds finger and thumb an inch apart]
- [background pic of Gaultier, who proceeds to announce an item himself. On walks Antoine, looking peeved..]
- [de Caunes comes on wearing a black dress with fancy stuff at the shoulders and a light brown wig. He looks glum.] Jean-Paul: ".. introduce ze next item, ze transvestite contest in Italy." "Wait, Jean-Paul. You ave made me put on zis silly dress, which I do not like, yet, for such a short introduction?" "Yes, Antoine. Eet is a joke!"
- "Jean-Luc Godard.. film.. King Lear.. so strange zat nobody understands it, not even Jean-Luc imself.." [Guide to Godard films follows: monochrome thing with jump cuts, love scenes with punching, if in doubt stare; then extracts from, I presume, Godard's film, inc. Godard as the fool with electric cables plaited in his hair, and Woody Allen reading out bits of script in a cutting or editing room]
- [End of programme sequence:] "And if anyone is coming through Paris and wishes to call on us, forget it! We are busy men" "Antoine! Why are you so mean?" "Jean-Paul, I know ze English. Zey are sado-masochistic!" "Sado-masochiste?" "Yes, Jean-Paul." [Mimes punching face held by left hand]
- (Later programme: group of ugly men in Italy; one says Charles is our hero - he left Diana for an ugly woman.)
Sun Oct 3 1992: Channel 4: Radio Times blurb: 'Visionaries: .. profile of Frances Moore Lappe, an American writer and activist living in San Francisco, who is a world expert on the politics of food. For the last 17 years, she has campaigned to make aid agencies see that foreign aid can frequently do more harm than good to the countries to which it is given. Moreover, if all countries have the physical resources to feed their people, despite climatic upheavals [sic], then she believes [sic] much of world hunger must come not from a lack of food, but from a lack of democracy. This film follows Moore Lappe's work in Nicaragua and the USA. Producer Julian Russell.'
Sun 3 Oct 1993: BBC1 9.05 - 10.25: Much hyped by the BBC (e.g. little circle with 'CHOICE' in Radio Times) 'Screen One: Tender Loving Care' with plump Dawn French who 'stars in her first dramatic role as night nurse Elaine Dobbs, who takes a sinister approach to tender loving care.' She has a photo: clipboard, stripy nurse uniform, dark blue or black coat or jacket or cardigan, hanging watch, and stethoscope! [Note: standard iconography for 'medical']. Blurb starts: 'Inspired by the real-life case of four nurses in Austria who were tried for the murder of 42 patients in their care.. stars comedian [sic] Dawn French in her first serious role, as an apparently irreproachable carer. ..'
[In fact, surely 'inspired' by the real-life case in Britain of Beverley Allitt]
Blurb continues: 'It is written by Lucy Gannon (Peak Practice and Soldier, Soldier), herself a former night nurse. "When we look for outward signs of evil or madness, we are playing the innocent fool. [sic] The worst murderer in the world can appear to be the most benevolent, mild, ordinary creature," says Gannon, whose additional drama credits include Testimony of a Child and Keeping Tom Nice. ..'
"The governor of Hong Kong... expressed disappointment.. no agreement on democratic reforms.. after six months of talks with China.." [At some other point it said "40 hours" of talks]
"The Governor of Hong Kong Chris Patten has warned China that there are now only weeks left in which to reach agreement on democratic reforms in the colony. In his annual speech he said he regretted that after six months of talks no real progress had been made. The deadlock revolves around Britain's electoral reform proposals, specifically plans to slightly extend democracy in preparation for the local elections in 1994 and for the legislative elections in 1995. The people of Hong Kong would then have the right to elect the majority of their legislature for the first time ever. But after twelve rounds of talks since April, Mr Patten has now made a significant concession. By agreeing to cut by one third the number of eligible voters in a number of constituencies.
[Outside broadcast: shout of Chinese like hubbub. Voiceover; Brian Barron who in any case always sounds urgent and hoarse and fanatical and near panic., over traffic noise: "One year on from his democracy blueprint, Mr Patten's governorship is at the crossroads. He admitted before Hong Kong's legislature today that British concessions have failed to move communist China, which will take over here in 1997."
Patten at a dais: "We will go on working as hard as we can for an agreement. We believe it should be possible to reach an accord that meets the concerns of both sides. But we are NOT | not prepared to give away our principles in order to sign a piece of paper. What would that be worth?"
VO: "Worryingly for the governor, the latest polls [sic; no evidence of whom, or who by] suggest Hong Kong people put good relations with Beijing way ahead of his democracy ideal."
Patten fades in again: "If we are not prepared to stand up for Hong Kong's way of life today, what chance of doing so tomorrow?"
[More noises:] VO: "Hong Kong's volatile stick market had decided already that Mr Patten would keep the negotiating door open. Today it soared to a record level of over 8,000 points. That the Governor spelled out alarming consequences of the Sino-British deadlock, with key development projects imperiled and the risk of a legal vacuum when Britain leaves. Mr Patten's political allies are outraged by Britain's concession.
[Chinese ish chap in suit:] "I don't see | how | he can be so hypocritical er on the one hand to arse us to show that we are people with backbone and on the other hand he himself hasn't shown it."
Another: "By putting the blame on the other side, and stressing the shortage of time he is not | thinking of, he is not trying to find, positive ways | to create a good atmosphere | for the talks to conclude | wi a good agreement."
VO: "So now, criticised by friend and foe [sic], the Governor seems rather boxed in. Personally, he's still popular here, but there's no public stomach for any serious confrontation with Beijing. The chances of Mr Patten's original democracy proposals becoming law are fast diminishing. Brian Barron, Hong Kong."
[Studio man:] "Mr Patten joins me | live | now. Mr Patten, it sounds as if you're under enormous pressure from all sides. Do you sense that support is ebbing for your democratic proposals in Hong Kong?" "No. I thank that er over the past year support has been very solid. Er for trying to put in place arrangements for the last elections under British sovereignty, which are fair and open. The argument isn't actually about trying to increase the pace of democratisation it's about trying to put in place arrangements which are reasonable. And that's what we're determined to do." "The opinion polls say they would rather have good relations with China than advance on local democracy..." [End of tape]
First programme in fact - possibly because of the poor quality of the material? - is devoted to showing how the thing was set up; it's completely bogus, involving, first, a trawl involving interviews or questionnaires from several thousand people; then a house with large rooms, large garden being provided rent-free in Manchester, in some suburb. They were chosen then shown, whether accurately or not, as arriving at the house unseen, tossing up etc for rooms.
Two of the students are 22 or over; one is a lone woman parent with a little boy and a car, shown driving at night looking at 'glitzy clubs'/ another's a politics student from Essex who shoots clay pigeons and has a car/ another is a woman refugee from an art school in Chelsea, where she found the others all better, and is supported by her father; now she's doing art history. There's a blackish girl from London, who calls herself 'Spider', doing 'Russian and Italian'. One slightly-bearded chap does some sort of audio course in the loft. Someone else does advertising. None knew each other; moreover, they are studying in different places. They have a room allocated to make their own videos - what they think of the others. I imagine they were chosen essentially for bland ordinary cheerfulness and, if possible, symbolic or real attractiveness. A few disputes over vegetarian food, washing-up, people talking with TV in corner, car drawing up outside with the last arrival, are shown.
[2] Note: new 'civil war' use: Vietnamese film shown on Channel 4 a day or two ago described in Radio Times as being about the 'civil war'. Similar presentation about Angola; despite fact that several people state Unita is shelling a town having lost elections etc etc.
[3] Item about a doctor called Lustman or Lustmann who does cervical smears wrongly! And has continued to do so. There seems a whole subculture of doctors who do this wrongly. I did wonder whether there was a Jewish taboo against looking, since he was stated not to use, or to refuse to use, a speculum.
[4] I saw Mayer [sic] Hillman as spokesman for a movement not to move summer time next week; claim is that earlier dark causes schoolchildren etc statistically to die; I think a figure of a thousand or so was mentioned. Opposition apparently from farmers, and others, and Scots. In effect, I suppose this means farmers would have to pay employees to get up earlier, to maintain the status quo; hard to see why it should make a serious difference.
[5] Another major headline piece is George Michael, apparently resentful of a 25-year contract he has with Sony, which requires him to make 8 records or something and allows Sony full freedom to drop them or promote them as they think fit. He says he'll refuse to record anything since he's a bit of software and has no artistic freedom! Shots of him outside a court building. Seemed rather laughable to me; he signed it, after all. Some music industry hack shown as saying the company has changed since he joined it etc. If he wins his case, there'll be lots of other similar ones, we're assured.
Tuesday 26 Oct 1993: Channel 3: Paul McKenna, 8.30-9, first time I've ever seen a stage hypnotist show on TV. Chap (a Jan 1996 TV Times says he's an ex-disk jockey, among other things) in suit shown with studio full of seated lower orders, all casually dressed. At the start a sort of stampede of volunteers is shown onto the stage; then a selected ten are hypnotised. Unfortunately, to ensure nobody viewing TV could inadvertently become hypnotised, we're not shown either the process of hypnosis or the selection method by which ten are selected. Just as disappointingly, we're told he won't attempt to make people do things contrary to their fundamental beliefs - "For example, I won't ask an estate agent to tell the truth.." We just see a row of slumped, seated, young people behind McKenna on stage.
I hadn't appreciated that plebbos are always, it seems, the victims; may be suggestibility requires a class bias.
The climax, in the second half ["after the break"] involved a sort of organised chaos: one chap was told, while 'hypnotised', and when gripped on the shoulder, that when 'awakened' he'd return to his seat, then believe he'd lost his scarf and return to the stage for it, returning to his seat; on reaching his seat, he'd again return for a supposed lost scarf. A woman was told she was 'cementing' the floor, and given a flat thing [a hawk?] to do it with. She would become annoyed when people put footprints in her handiwork. Another bloke was told that when "this music plays" [theme of a sports TV programme plays; naturally he'd be assumed to know it] he'd believe he was a footballer doing a slow-motion action replay, and would plant a wet kiss on the nearest male in the audience; he seemed not to quite understand, racing about and moving in a way reminiscent of a male stripper. Another was told that when this plays [James Bond like theme music] his Walther PPK would be in his hand and he'd act like Kames Bond. Ah yes! A fat woman was instructed that she believed the studio was becoming too noisy, and would shout to people to shut up, in Chinese. She was given a conical hat. [She interpreted her instruction by shouting "Shut up" rather like, say, "Shot opp!" and perhaps adding something else.
The first half I think had one-off performances; e.g. rather pathetic chap who was told that, on waking, he'd believe the glove puppet he was given would whisper insulting things in his ear and he'd get very annoyed about it. He didn't seem to have the imagination to construct much of a dialogue, contenting himself with "I'm not! Don't you say that. I'm not!" and punching the Sooty-like puppet.
Another exciting turn was pretending to mind read: a dimbo chap said he was 100% sure his mind couldn't be read - unconscious joke: at this point. he was asked what things McKenna couldn't possibly know - e.g. name of his parents' dog - put to sleep, asked, wakened, questioned again (whereupon he gave the same questions) and told. Expression of quizzical incredulity. McKenna asked whether he had dark secrets he'd be embarrassed about. He said yes - apparently everybody thinks he/she has. He was put under, and the audience told that when he woke up he'd believe the audience had just been told a deeply shameful thing. "Wake up and he said to the vicar you've got no clothes on!" Man hides his face in his fists.
Another one-person thing was a chap who was told that when arm-wrestling, however hard he'd try, it would be as though a greater force would overcome him and he would lose etc. McKenna wheeled in under a silly name on old woman, who duly beats him, and who moreover lifts a heavy-looking weight the chap can't manage etc. Incidentally, the faces of the hypnotised victims, after recovery, are shown laughing or looking astonished at their own behaviour.
[Right Said Fred - largely bald pop group - provides musical entertainment].
For some reason I'd expected suggestible people not to be so ordinary and plebby; it hadn't occurred to me that advertising-prone gullible people might well be plebs. I was left adhering to my belief that the whole thing is probably nonsense.
Wed 27 Oct 1993: ITV 9-10 pm, 'Stalag Luft', written by David Nobbs of 1976 'The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin', and with Stephen Fry as a Wing Commander, Nicholas Lyndhurst as a prisoner, Geoffrey Palmer as the Kommandant.
Attempt at a jokey treatment: Fry attempts to get the prisoners together (stereotyped Jewish tailor who explains he always says 'already', already; and stereotyped Cockney, Yorkshire types, grammar school people etc. Joke is that the Germans want to escape too; there are plenty of tunnels - Tom, Dick, Harry, a couple more; the Germans, with papers in order etc, all go; the Brits and New Zealander etc decide to stay, but for verisimilitude have to have German staff; amusing stuff on German lessons conducted by Welshman etc. Eventually Fry is summoned to Berlin to be awarded with the Iron Cross by the Fuhrer, since nobody has escaped and the Fuhrer is feeling low. He talks about going back to painting, biting off more than he can chew. Fry meets the ex-Kommandant, who eats rats etc. In between there are SS inspections (the first gets a tip off by a friend of the brother of the Kommandant) who want disgusting soup, dank cooler full of non-uppity prisoners etc, no shouting back in Polish. One hundred Germans have laryngitis joke.
The thing that amused me was Fry playing a German: "The master race isn't such a bad idea. I rather wish we had thought of it!"
Later, I think 10 pm or so, machine-gunning incident; see \notes\news
- Bit about Haiti, apparently still blockaded to ensure sanctions. Military 'rulers' perhaps won't be too worried about them; at any rate, what they're supposed to achieve is never made clear. The elected leader isn't there and seems unlikely to get there; or so the story goes
- Bit about Croats supposedly having massacred many Moslems. Shots of UN persons. No background or explanatory matter.
- BBC2 has 3 hours of programmes on President Clinton's first year; I've recorded these programmes on video.
Elton John I think reveals story of 'fight against alcoholism' and so on.
Wed 3rd Nov 1993: Channel 4, 9-9.45 pm, 'Dispatches'. No information in Radio Times. In fact, on pension fund managers; three possible problems, each illustrated with rather piffling examples.
[1] Inappropriate investment. Example was Vancouver Stock Exchange, in V S E tower, started in about 1908 to finance a Canadian gold rush; they claim to be the largest market for speculative investment in the world, and with a "reputation for fraud" such that Canadians don't put their money into it, we're told. A list was given of 'history littered by fraudulent opportunities' though I'm not sure whether they were supposed to be specific to this organisation; included super rabbits of which every part of the animal was supposed to be usable/ edible knife and fork/ King Solomon's Mines/ baldness cure involving beehive hat 'treatment'/ company claiming to grow the largest pearl in the world to be cultured in a giant clam [lost $10 m)/ and a medical instrument manufacturer run by a man who forged his credentials and which then went bust. Anyway, West Midland Council, or Wolverhampton - the story seemed to use both - pension funds had money in this; it wasn't revealed what proportion of their fund they'd lost (assuming their claim that the money put in was indeed all lost). The point about 'inappropriate' was that evidently this sort of thing isn't suitable for widows and orphans - though some people get a buzz out of putting a bit in, said a portly Canadian in a bow tie.
[2] Conflict of interests: what should be avoided is relatives, friends, family running companies which get money from pension schemes; man called Kennedy, who after I think being sacked worked for Barings and put money into a company run by his own brother, was given, plus diverting interviews [Note: women:] at a home with fairly u-voiced woman of the familiar frightened but defensive wife type evading questions, outside offices etc, getting a pin-stripe cold shoulder, as I think they said.
[3] Fraud, secret bribes and commissions and insider dealing; e.g. rings formed of fund managers who'd each buy in turn - not clear why this was corrupt; buying personally shares of which fund(s) then bought huge amounts, so you could be pretty sure they'd go up; insider dealing, contrary to the 1985 Insider Dealing Act which apparently acted on the principle that if information was not available to all, i.e. presumably published for shareholders etc, then it should be available to no-one.
[Note: 'everyone a winner':] ".. 1980s.. Stock Exchange.. for a while it looked like no-one could lose.."
Example given was a (I think) construction company; a member of its board talked on the phone (and was recorded) after a board meeting to the corrupt manager, who presumably acted on this information. Problem was no-one would go on the record. And we see interview with a man who was sacked because after three months agonising he reported a colleague, or colleagues, to the official ?Stock ?Exchange policing body.
Another example involved USS, Universities Superannuation Scheme; 7th largest, I think, fund in the country. Chairman was Jack Spink: various accounts of the power, one of the major fund managers, can make or break, people sitting next to him, expensive lunches in Browns Hotel, etc. He put money into a company run by Levitt, called 'Mint & Boxed', which tried to trade in things like Dinky Toys. Spink put £5 million in, and Levitt 'expanded' into America and elsewhere, before crashing. Spink took cash retainer of £2,500 per quarter in an envelope. Levitt taped their conversations.
Interspersed with sardonic remarks from a sacked man who'd been crooked in some way, talking about the power of money, and the reason they all wear pin-stripe suits is to look respectable, and the temptations are huge, and respectability isn't after all what the City is about.
Mainly with Bremner, a comedian who, on stage, specialises in quick-fire mimicry with minimum of props, except when he has done a complete image change: e.g. specs on for John Major [Rebel Tories against pit closures.. rebel tories and poll tax.. rebel tories and Exchange Rate Mechanism.. are there any left in the Party? Who is he? [luaghter] - John Major figure who says, I think, fairly inconsequent things]/ to Ben Elton [comedian] or Brian Walden [TV political interviewer] a string of TV 'celebrities' like Wogan ["Recently Oi've bin as quiet as a labour party employment spokesman during a pit closure"] to whoever presents the '$64,000' Question' and joke voiceover: "How many home secretaries does it take to change a light bulb?" Douglas Hurd impersnation: "What's wrong with staying in the dark?"
I hadn't realised how left wing, or at least Labour oriented, this was. E.g. "The Conservatives lost ?267 out of ?269 seats last week. That was in Canada to the Liberals - well, it's a start!"
Bremner's filmed characters include John Birt, interviewed by real Emma Freud [he sits (permanent smile) with his right leg apparently missing: a management report said it worked only 23% of the time; he'd also taken advice on his left arm, and rips it off to go freelance; and Douglas Hurd - plenty of white hair and booklined study effect. [Hurd character implausibly sings a song on a theme like rooking people; is that right? he says]
Sort of filmed report on privatisation, starting with three columns, what percentage of officials in the Department of Transport work on public transport? Is it 30%, 24%, or 14%? wrong! It's 1.3%. Then interview sequence clearly done with colour-overlay backgrounds (of Gatwick, trains, tubes, etc) in the style of someone I didn't recognise, suggesting that a privatised rail bureaucracy would cost more; and the results would be confusing and chaotic (e.g. with return tickets being for different rail companies); and a couple of other things which I forget
John Bird and William Rushton figure too; latter seems to do VO only; Bird looks older than in TWTWTW; poses as wearied interviewer mostly. 1, background of wrecked terrace housing, Bird in fawn mac does quite authentic Beirut style VO but with Christian terrorists, Christian fundamentalists, Christian fanatics revenge on Christians, Christians crossed the line separating Christians from Christians, etc, and ends "the only thing ordinary people are left with is the comfort of their religion" 2, quasi-interview with smarmy suited Tory MP type, who says he's ashamed; after leaving the ministry and privatising an industry, and making lots of money from grants, salary, etc; and sacking half the work force, and paying himself the money saved as salary? No, he's not ashamed of that. That's business. Or his affair with a girl in the executive er washroom, old enough to be his granddaughter.. of course, he supports the child, in his capacity as a taxpayer; he's not ashamed of that. He went to see the C of E, home-grown product, found [he said] they had no business class, like airline companies; he wanted to be told he had a soul and felt guilty and could forget it. 3. Bird also in one of two 'Where are they now?' things: first was Oliver North, apparently standing for election somewhere in US, and likely to get in; and chairman of Wessex Health Authority, which lost £92 million [I think] on a computer system in 1991, I think; he's still chairman of Wessex Health Authority.
Joke sequence posing as a TV cook, getting drunk on glasses of red wine: Jokes with model Bank of England, perhaps as a cake; I don't remember - with jokes about 'impartiality' as it goes to the Chancellor, with perfect impartiality, then takes part of its reserves with prefect impartiality etc etc; I presume this was written by a researcher, since it seemed recherché to me.
Finishes with credits for the customary six or so writers, three or so researchers, and sundry others. Visuals are shots of colliery winding equipment and similar things apparently being demolished (could of course just be stuff due for renovation]. Sound track is pop music; refrain "Another one bites the dust. Another one that's another one that's another one bites the dust..'
".. and the head of the RAF has accused some Ministers of a conspiracy to undermine the service.
The Princess of Wales has won an injunction ?against Mirror newspapers.. The pictures have been published in.. The Princess has let it be known that she ?has been distressed.. The ? have withdrawn.. Her solicitors issued a toughly-worded statement.. distress and ?anguish.. .. orders were obtained from the High Court against the ? and editors of the Sunday Mirror and Daily Mirror to restrain them from publishing..
The Mirror is in a circulation war.. 2.84 million last year.. fallen more than 7% to 2.63m.. The other newspapers were outraged.. new laws.. [indecipherable: perhaps:] to protect journalistic integrity/ to prevent journalistic intrusion..
The Heritage Secretary agreed.. Those who said this made more [unreadable; but not 'censorship'] likely are right..
The Chairman went further.. "I very much hope those who advertise in the Daily Mirror will consider their advertising.. I hope will consider withdrawing..
VO: At least two.. including the RAC have pulled their advertisements
RAC chap [they had an ad opposite the photos; they say (right at the end, in coded way, in this ponderous babble) they had no choice of where the ad appears; personally, I find this hard to believe; still, who knows?] .. The decision was taken this morning to remove the advertising..
[reporter, with building behind saying 'Daily Mirror' on it] it's ? to see how self-regulation can remove.. Nick Hyam outside the Daily Mirror
VO: Joshua, what's the legal position? Joshua Rozenburg, 'legal correspondent': Well this is breach of confidence.. Usually for ? people.. most people haven't realised it could be ?available.. [Etc; in fact it seems, at least according to the radio, there's absolutely no law covering this, as, at the end of all this, the newsreader says in pre-planned way; Rozenburg goes on a bit]
Three men were charged in the gun attack on the Rising Sun in.. etc
Also shots of Diana in Northern Ireland reading in crap voice "Blessed are the peacemakers.."
Another news item is Bosnian mental hospital, with 600 deserted patients, the staff having got away from invading Croats, it said. It's freezing cold; the hospital has no running water. [Food isn't mentioned]. The UN troops are helping them out (except at nights). [NB: I presume this is a reaction to unfavourable publicity of a few days before]
Format was: introduce about 8 kids from about 15-17 or 18, vaguely giving amid the background information and personal stuff suggestions as to why they were dissatisfied with school. [NB: Token black girl; token bloke with shirt out, woolly hat, possibly pony-tail and semi-shaven hair; token girl with northern accent; all I think middle class, and all fairly picturesque]/ Then film meetings: people on trains and at stations etc, being met by a Canadian specialist in organisation research - or some such thing. Exterior of brick building with landscaping shown; then the kids in a room trying their hand at 'brainstorming'. In this case, it involves writing on individual A4 sheets, horizontally, in large coloured felt-tip lettering, a summary of some point of objection to the education system as they've experienced it. Here are some, as they appeared on TV:
1. Too many conflicting interest groups. [chap explained: government have their views, teachers, pupils, parents]
2. Teachers ignoring truancy and other pupil behaviour/ Need for social counselling, youth work, taking account of problems of young people should be part of teachers' duty
3. Emphasis on league tables and results [explanation: so that some pupils who would bring down the average are removed]
4. Too much paperwork for teachers. [Explanation: The national curriculum; science teacher said he'd spent all last night looking through it, so he couldn't teach the actual subject in the lesson - or something]
5. Pupils who aren't brilliant, and pupils who aren't a nuisance, are treated as invisible, they don't exist
6. Subjects should be more relevant to the outside world [Explanation: girl studying English dislikes the irrelevance of British 20th C. war poetry: ".. from the beginning of time, it feels like.. the Boer war, the first world war, the second world war.."]
7. .. more discussion.. more respect.. [girl says in parts of the school you're interrogated as you walk along the corridor..]
/ Next bit is 'the computer' which in some unspecified way produces results: I think people, possibly parents, were asked to rank these objections, or something. At any rate, the 'first model' was:
RELEVANCE -> RESPECT -> STUDENT ADVICE
COUNSELLING - FLEXIBILITY
INDIVIDUAL CHOICE - PETTY RULES - SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT
/Out of this comes the 'final report', which seems a TV-only thing:
Teacher respect/ Listen to students/ more choice
Tues 16 Nov 1993: 9-9.45 pm, Channel 4, 'Without Walls' (with armadillo intro which appealed to Simon), an attack on Freud, 'no holds barred' or something, said TV Times blurb.
NOTE: (1) Doesn't squarely face the question of unprovability, which in my opinion is important in the survival of odd beliefs. So any 'Freudist' presumably would remain unmoved.
(2) Omits the possible importance of the unconscious (as cp Russell, who thought this was important, though not the detail)
(3) The critics have a naive attitude to religion; see generalisations below and note also omission of Freud's Jewishness (and atheism)
(4) The critics haven't realised that an ideology made up of collections of things is stronger than its separate parts
- Dr Fuller Forrey, author of 'Freudian Fraud' was one contributor; most of the VO done by an American whose name I didn't note, possibly 'Peter Swales, a historian of psychoanalysis.'
- Car ride in New York: Central Park West has anonymous faceless blocks which we're told are full of practising psychoanalysts. $125 per quarter hour quoted at one point. The New York Psychoanalytic Institute [we see entrance doorway with carved stone block over top] the temple: lectures on id, ego, superego etc etc. We see a rather comic black and white film, with man in white coat I think giving heavily Germanic talk from notes.
- Amusing interview with now-elderly woman in large brownstone apartment in New York; she's written about sixty books on psychoanalysis; and seems a vague-minded person. She assures her interviewer that yes, her dreams are all wish-fulfilments.
- 'Spellbound' an 'advertisement for psychoanalysis'. We see Ingrid Bergman in specs as an 'analyst'. We're told almost all publishers and everyone in Hollywood has an 'analyst'; it's taken for granted, and there's a prestige thing - the important people visit their analysts at 2-3 p.m.; otherwise it's early in the morning or late in the afternoon.
- "Woody Allen films.. his entire family and children.. and his dogs.. are in analysis.. just like his films.. we assumed it was joking, but the truth is his films are like his life.." [Brief extract shows Allen protesting he wouldn't molest his adopted children; whether this is actually relevant isn't made clear. Scenes from Annie Hall: it's "Full of psychoanalytical cliches" [pron. Cli-shays']
- They have a private language
- "Freud lied continuously.. Freud only offered five case studies.. we know from his letters that none of his patients were cured.. The ?first was Anna O.. Freud never met her.. [Story that ?Breuer wishes she would die: man says: What sort of cure is that?].. We hear about Freud's greatness from him. He compared himself with Newton and Darwin.."
- [Bearded indignant American man:] "If he'd said a fuck mommy and murder daddy complex, nobody would take it ?seriously. But the lovely classical name.. Oedipus.."/ "One of Freud's ideas.. virgin with migraine.. defloration fantasy of penetration by her father.. deflected upwards by suppression.. People ask the wrong questions. They shouldn't ask ?whether a migraine is caused.. but whether there's any evidence at all for any of this.."
- ".. It's a religion.. Freud's own analysis we're asked to believe was a unique descent.. this resembles myths of descent and return found in ?all religions.. There's certainly confession.. father and mother images/ a better world when analysis has been completed/ there's a creation myth, 'Totem and Taboo'/ there are ?disciples/ there's an attitude of submission.."
- ['He wasn't original' argument: shows black and white film of Freud writing at a desk or going through papers. The subconscious, or unconscious, I'm not sure which, they stated occurred before Freud - as the title of the Penguin paperback on Freud suggests; cp. also Eysenck's comment that 'extravert' and 'introvert' though often attributed to Jung weren't originated by him. This in my opinion falls foul of my comment (4) above, that perceived originality often consists of a whole collection of beliefs, which appear to have a mutually supporting effect; like Marxism, or Christianity (according to McCabe, Christianity has not one single novel point)]
- [Presentation as a 'cult', i.e. minority thing which the mass can turn on:] Male: "It reminds me of mind control.. certain aspects of the 20th century.." Female: ".. it's a very intimate relation.. He told me he loved me, he told me he would leave his wife.. People don't realise your mind is completely under the analyst's control.."
Wed 17 Nov 93: Channel 4, 15 minute programme 9.45-10, 'The Almost Complete History of the 20th Century': [TV Times blurb: 'Offbeat look at history using archive film. Tonight, the Yalta conference with Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt when the subject of a free Poland wasn't discussed - despite the fact that World War Two was supposedly fought to keep Poland free.' [The point about archive film is that it's dubbed with comic voices.]
NOTE: Confused thing about three separate meetings, not kept very separate. The notes below don't distinguish Yalta (and its predecessor) properly from Potsdam.
VO: '.. After four years of war.. 1943.. Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin.. Eureka Conference.. [I forget where] .. Joint declaration at the end.. greeted with enthusiasm.. piece of paper which meant practically nothing..
.. Eureka 2 in 1944.. by July 1944 need for conference clear.. Russians were in Poland; they paused to watch the Nazis liberate the Free Polish Army.. Stalin 'didn't like flying'.. Yalta agreed.. Roosevelt said he couldn't make it; he had an election back home..
So February 1945.. Churchill and Roosevelt met at Malta.. Joke: chosen only because it rhymed with Yalta.. Joke: VO mimics 'Churchillian' speech about do not palter, .. falter.. Malta.. Yalta. Churchill was depressed; his black dog and election looming; Roosevelt died in two weeks, after the famous line "I have a terrific headache".
We see shots of the three men surrounded by others; Stalin looks a bit out of place, though smiling. VO: "Stalin had the big cards.. Stalin had Poland.." Joke voices: "I want to start the U.N." "All right" "I want the headquarters in New York" "Er, all right" "We'd like to take over the Pacific basin. .. China and Japan" "All right" "We want India and the Empire" "All right" "Stalin wants Poland, sir. He says it's a matter of life and death that USSR should have Poland." VO says they agreed not to discuss the Polish question then.. Over the next few weeks it became clear how Stalin was interpreting the Yalta agreement.. Churchill came on Monday. Lost the election by Friday..
Churchill's matchstick model: we see triangle of matches on a plate; he shoved Poland west to make more room for Russia. "Poland was kept in the dark about this.." [Film shows men by field gun - presumably Poles - saying in Polish accents "Well, how would you like your country to be given away.."]
July 1945: Potsdam. [Truman, not Roosevelt, was at Potsdam]
Mon 22 Nov 93: 'Specially extended Panorama', BBC, on British 'secret services' including interview with old woman, supposedly a super agent, and old bloke likewise; also stuff with Jack Cunningham, saying he wants a statutory basis etc. Interviews with the supposed agents on rather predictable lines, with of course no evidence: ".. we set them against each other.. they destroyed each other.. what a pity that so and so isn't loyal.. that's an unsophisticated example.. I couldn't possibly tell you that.." / ".. in a dangerous world.. Britain's interests.. Britain has on the whole enjoyed stability.. successes which pass unnoticed.. the bomb which didn't go off.. action which wasn't taken.."
This was introduced by Tom Mangold, of a BBC series on the CIA; Mangold now has white hair. We see ridiculous footage of a room with a 'four inch steel door', 'the most secure in America', containing a room in which democracy decides the policy of the CIA.
Carol Clewlow's debut novel Keeping the Faith was nominated for the Whitbread First Novel Award in 1988; when A Woman's Guide to Adultery was published the following year, competition was fierce to secure the film rights. Hartswood Films won and took the project to Carlton, and a star cast was put together.. Theresa Russell stars as Rose, and Sean Bean consolidates his screen lover statues as Paul.' [He's blond, appears to be tall, and has a rather impish expression etc etc. In the series he's married to Monica, who never appears, at least not in part one. Actualy there's only one star; three other wopmen friends are Amanda Donohoe (blonde woman in Drop the Dead Donkey), Ingrid Lacey, and Fiona Gillies of whom I recognise nothing. The writer is Frank Cottrell Boyce; it's unclear how much is dependent on the original book.]
ACTUALITY: Vaguely set in Bristol. Four single women who visit each other and seem to live in one house.
Theresa Russell is a photographer, and does hotel rooms for brochures etc. She starts a photography course [at a university!] with the brother of one of the women; he lectures, comments at his interview of her on how most people get in as a result of style or fashion magazines, her portfolio is holiday snaps vs real photos in the war zone, and she has to take and show her pictures to him for his approval - very conventional motif in fact; he of course makes the aesthetic appraisals. One of her pix is a snap of the bloke's wife. He says don't give up the course, you're really good, invites her to a Cartier-Bresson show (in Paris). Lots of facial working before she says yes.
Drop the Dead Donkey woman works in advertising and they get some 'important' contract. She's having it off with her boss, portrayed, although I'm not sure whether deliberately, as a superficial type. She finds (we see graphical depictions of kissing in office) he hasn't told his wife and her rather boring Irish hubby discovers the same thing. Again, note the motif of her being subdominant in her job. And of her being sure he loves her and will leave his wife; it's taken for granted that this career move is a good thing.
Another woman is an art tutor who fancies a young pupil, who appears to be financed by his girlfriend (or I suppose, in view of the title, wife). We've just seen her invite him to her studio. His girl friend is shown as jealous or suspecting. Again there's the flattery of his drawing although modestly he says he practised in the kitchen with a pad on his knee, or something, though it seems odd to establish him as incompetent. This is the only woman not having a fuck for career reasons.
The fourth woman is having it off with a rather vaguely limned character, a politician who however seems more of a TV 'personality' - we see phone calls from 'Question Time', and recognition from a woman in a station who says she always votes for the other lot, and a strange Africa Aid event at which hardly any people were present, perhaps for budget reasons, where the woman watches him holding hands with his wife etc etc.
Now, with 43 of the 60 [see \boxfiles for extract] featured prisoners released, the aim remains to draw attention to human rights abuses wherever they occur. This year's new format reflects a dangerous worldwide trend. Potential troublemakers are more likely to be executed or "disappeared" than taken prisoner, and torture is becoming a way of life in many prisons.
Tonight's introduction by John Simpson examines these changes and looks back at some of the prisoners featured in previous years. "They can't fight back, they can't organise, they can't protect themselves."
Through the week five presenters will outline different human rights abuses and explain how viewers can campaign for justice.'
Stereo Subtitles.
One of the week's series on Tues 7 Dec: [NB 10 mins only] Radio Times blurb for that says: '"The appalling use of torture is widespread in many countries," says Helen Suzman, former member of parliament for the opposition in South Africa, "and ignored, even condoned, in other countries that profess to respect human rights and civilised values."
She describes how torture is now endemic in China and is spreading rapidly worldwide despite determined international efforts to halt it.'
- [Following is a transcript of short advertising thing:]
[Helen Mirren:] Children as young as five are at work in virtually every country of the world
[Henry Miller; gruffish US old voice:] Censorship undermines all other human rights
[Suzman: rather cracked SA voice:] Torture is routinely practised in over 90 countries
[? Male voice] Ethnic cleansing | is the genocide of the 1990s
[Anthony Hopkins. Coincidence: exact same issue of Radio Times, but on ITV page, is 'Oscar-winning actor Anthony Hopkins' apparently doing voiceovers for one hour wildlife programme on lions in Africa] Several million people have been disappeared since the 1960s
[Male VO; slight S African accent; possibly the producer?:] A week of special programmes. Human rights, human wrongs. Starts tomorrow at nine thutty five on BBC2
- [Radio Times blurbs for following days: Mon 6: 'Disappearance is the most sinister of human rights abuses. Anthony Hopkins describes how this tactic is taken to unparalleled extremes in Iraq. "Not to know what has happened to your loved ones because they have been 'disappeared' is another form of torture. ..'
Tue 7: [Suzman; transcript below; blurb is:] '"The appalling use of torture is widespread in many countries," says Helen Suzman.. She describes how torture is now endemic in China and is spreading rapidly worldwide despite determined international efforts to halt it.'
Wed 8: 'Introduced by Salman Rushdie. This year, six of Algeria's intelligentsia have been assassinated. The Armed Islamic Group has now issued an ultimatum to the 100,000 foreigners in the country: leave or become legitimate [sic] targets. The country is moving towards full-scale civil war between Islamic fundamentalism and western values. [sic] This film tells the story of assassinated writer Tahar Djaout.'
Thu 9: 'Freedom of expression is the touchstone [sic] of all freedoms enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Playwright Arthur Miller explains how, all over the world, violence is replacing imprisonment as the main method of silencing writers. "East and west no longer stand eyeball to eyeball, threatening life on earth. Now the struggle is against the silencing of opinions, of inconvenient facts, of truth."'
Fri 10: 'Over 150 million children, some as young as 5 or 6, are at work in the world today. Actress Helen Mirren examines this phenomenon and follows the lives of a family of young girls working in Paksitan's carpet factories. "What affects me most," she says, "is children's vulnerability to exploitation. They can't fight back..'
- [Following is a transcript from audiotape of most of Suzman's 7th Dec programme; this was one I watched at random:]
[Suzman; cracked and rather halting female voice:] ".. ?political prisoners in China. They are held in the ?Lao ?Gai, the largest prison system in the world, with a network of over 2,000 penal institutions and labour camps. These camps are essential to the Chinese economy, bringing millions of dollars in export earnings. They produce everything. Tea, spicers, copper, even nuclear reactors. They sell | to fotty countries | despite the Chinese government's pledge to bring an end to prison labour. Here is Harry Wu, who spent | nineteen years in the Lao Gai, and risked his life to expose them to the outside world."
[Wu. Wears suit, tie, glasses etc. Voice dubbed, I think, though perhaps not:] "Chinese labour camp is liddle bit different with de soviet camp also different with the concentration camp. Chinese say it is labour reform camp. So rabour reform you, become useful to the people and it's never happen in de world. In a past forty years is at leas fifty million people have been through in the labour camp | to reform | to have the brain wash an force into remodel themselves you have to give up your political viewpoint you have to give up your consciousness give up your religious even your morality remodel yourself reform yourself become a socialist people."
[Suzman:] "China is one of 71 countries who have signed and ratified the UN convention against torture, but China is not alone among countries which have ratified the convention and where serious allegations of torture continue to be made. [NB: come to think of it, Wu didn't say that] In THESE countries, any prisoner, political or otherwise, is at risk of torture, either as a form of punishment or in order to extract information. Electronic torture chambers, known as the house of fun, leg irons, manacles, electric battens [sic] and stun guns, thumb cuffs and execution equipment are made by western companies, some of them in the United Kingdom, and sold as instruments of torture. It doesn't take many steps to turn an ordinary man into a torturer."
[South American bloke from El Salvador; René Hurtado speaking Spanish English with subtitles in tidied form:] "Erm like you know you take somebody eyes you know an this is actually what they did an torture you know you take with pincers you know one eye you know out an you say if you don talk I will take out the other one you know an I say I will pull your teeth you know out an they do you know one by one an this person you know bleed to death and you laugh around him drinking an smoking marijuana an using LSD all kinds of drugs"
[Suzman:] "Torture is becoming more sophisticated. It is spreading. New forms emerge all the time. Rape by government officials for instance is now widely accepted as a form of torture. Let us take the case of India. Here the rape of women detainees by police and prison officers is so common that a headline in a newspaper not long ago read: Another mass rape by Bihar cops. For an Indian woman to be raped is the ultimate stigma, leading to rejection by the entire community. Padmini Nandagopal was raped by local police in her village in southern India, but while SHE survived her husband died under torture."
[Indian woman in sari etc:] "They had my husband in the room also. They were beating him up mercilessly. One of them got hold of my hands. And the other of my legs. One of them caught my husband. They raped me. The first one to rape me was the S.I. After he had raped me he said, I have finished. Now the rest can take over. Then the S.I. went outside. Then all the policemen took turns and raped me."
[Suzman:] "In the last seven years, 415 people are known to have died as a result of torture in Indian prisons. The real figure is certainly higher. Is there a more haunting photograph of a torturer and his victim than 12-year old Manoj Singh who was arrested for stealing a purse? Manoj was eventually freed, his body swollen with cuts and bruises. His father, who went with him to the police station, died after prolonged beating. The Indian government continues to deny that torture takes place, and rarely punishes the soldiers and policemen who are known to be torturers. In South Africa, my own country, solitary confinement and physical torture were by no means unknown during the apartheid years. There is also torture in EUROPE. In Spain, as in Portugal and Italy, there have been allegations of brutality by the police. Spanish criminal and terrorist suspects, and even tourists, thought to be illegal immigrants have described being kicked, given electric shocks, and almost asphyxiated with plastic bags. In September 1991, an Egyptian musician called Mohammed ?Mugassi was arrested while on holiday in the island of Ibiza. After his release two days later, he alleged that he had been punched, kicked and beaten with rubber truncheons by civil guard officers he had spoken to in the street, then taken back to the police station and again beaten.
Let us finish by again returning to China and ?Leo ?Gang. He has four more years to serve in a labour camp in ?Leoning province, where some of the worst atrocities occur. After going on hunger strike in protest, he has spent several months in what the Chinese call disciplinary isolation. If you want to protest against the heinous practice of torture, and in particular against the heinous practice of torture in China today, then please send a stamped addressed onvelope for more information to human rights human wrongs, PO Box 7, London W3 6XJ. Or you can call this number now [Pop music starts] free of charge. 0800 767 800."
[Female VO:] "Tonight's programme with Helen Suzman can be seen again at midnight. Tomorrow evening Salman Rushdie describes the horrors of ethnic cleansing, which he sees as one of the worst atrocities in the world today. ..'
The Israeli invasion of the Lebanon in 1982 led to the creation of Hezbollah, the most aggressively anti-western of Arab groups.
In this first film, Fisk travels from ruined Beirut to the war zone in the south of the country, where he meets the fanatical fighters who will embrace death rather than recognise their neighbour Israel.
Fisk visits the cellars in which hostages were held, and sometimes died, and Khiam prison where, according to Amnesty International, Israel carries out torture.
Uniquely for a western television journalist, he talks to Hezbollah fighters who expect to die fighting against Israel, and witnesses a chilling and blood-soaked ritual carried out by Shiite Muslims.
Director Mike Dutfield. Producer Dennis Walsh.'
Baritone Paul Robinson and cellist Peter Dixon join the choir for Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on Christmas Carols, and other highlights include the Polish carol Bogoroditse Dyevo (Infant Holy). The Director of Music is Stephen Cleobury.
Producer David Kremer. Executive producer Helen Alexander Stereo Subtitled' [i.e. with words of songs]
List is: 'Erasure's Andy Bell and American singer Melissa Etheridge, .. Stephen Fry, Quentin Crisp, Martina Navratilova, Ian McKellen, Pam StClement (Pat from Eastenders), Polly Perkins (Trish from Eldorado) and Julian Clary. ..
Also featured are Sandra Bernhard, Justin Fashanu [?footballer], Lily Savage, Anthony Sher, Simon Callow, Pierre et Gilles [two French young men; singers?], Jimmy Somerville and many more surprise guests.'
[NB: A few weeks recently Fry had asserted that two members of the Cabinet are gay. Perhaps he was speaking from experience?]
1994
Communal bathhouses and religious 'healing' supposedly were in vogue. NB: I was reminded of Japanese baths; they were whipped with beech twigs, which sounds Scandinavian. Also someone said that Russia had a tradition of wandering mystics in search of enlightenment; there were hundreds or thousands of Rasputins, who travelled between monasteries. Here I was struck by the similarity with India.
Quite a lot on sex, including idea popular in a sect called the ?Klysts that sex then repentance were jolly good. R apparently pointed to the naturalness of farm animals mating. A comment on 'little Christs' born as a result; Tsarina probably not broadminded enough to take a lover, says bald Russian commentator with sly smile. R's activities with 'actresses and prostitutes', and an occasion where he talked with his part exposed at some formal dance or ball, mentioned (though the evidence, apparently from secret police reports, sounded a bit feeble. These men followed anyone intimate with the Tsar.)
Apparently his generosity and unselfishness were legendary; he'd give money away etc. He also handed out little notes to people, giving advice or something - I forget the details. A woman called Anfisa Motorina, who knew GR in her teens, was interviewed.
VO credits him with a 'gift' in naive style. Programme maintained that his authoritative calming manner does in fact work with haemophilia.
Note: censorship: W W 1: fact (according to Russell) he said he could stop it not revealed.
Story of his murder (though not of course whether his killers got off) in some detail. The Yusupov family described as one of the richest in Russia, even more so than the Romanoffs. However, this wasn't successful; instead of Russia's war effort improving as a result of a meddler being removed, the Tsar took direct command and things remained bad or got worse, I think the VO said.
NB: Joke: Blurb to 1971 film, 'Nicholas and Alexandra', in Radio Times, says 'Meanwhile, the Russian people grow unhappy with Nicholas's rule and his inability to keep their country out of the First World War.'
Note: mythology: contrast this with the Encarta95 entries, which seem full of crap. (They included an extract from the Hammer film with Christopher Lee, who in fact looked quite like him, tho' probably much too tall. The pop song wasn't included.)
Wed 26 Jan 1994. Channel 4: Dispatches about BSE. NOTE: Next day, BBC 'big science' programme seems to have been rescheduled to reply feebly to this.
####
Mon 31 Jan 94: 'Horizon' on BBC2, I think 50 mins, [Note: intellectual fashion:] filler thing on girl called 'Genie' in c 1971 Los Angeles found by social workers to have been kept in one room for ten years by father who thought she was retarded & also by oppressed mum. She seemed to spend much time roped to a 'potty chair' and had a round weal on her bum as a result. The father shot himself later. No coherent view put as to what they thought they were doing. Rather terrifying programme, in which inarticulate 'experts' and 'scientists' on children, child development, scientific developments, etc wheeled themselves on and explain in effect the case was real bad weren't no-one seen such a bad case before: one man said "A doctor isn't supposed to fall in love with his patients. If there was another word that means the same, then I was!" meaning, I imagine, that she provided him with material for 'research' and publication and fame.
We see also inarticulate slow talking 'child expert', oldish man now in suit, who was probably part of the social worker team. He talks about 'the Wild Child', a Godard film [I think - French, anyway] which they saw in a private viewing; he attempts to express the deep emotions conveyed to the group by this film.
We see a similar, but short haired unattractive faster talking female who was then a noo graduate stoodent unencumbered by family..
We see sound film, monochrome, of the girl, rather gawky etc and uttering not very clear words or sounds; she's outdoors, being hectored by female with aluminium voice: "Her-ry up there isn' any time [name] will be back he'll be ee-angry Where did you live in the poddy chair? Where did you sleep in the poddy chair?" [Cp. idea that teachers ask little kids what colour something is as a pseudo-question]. Earlier the child had been seen in a kitchen being hectored: "When did you eat the cereal?" style of thing. I don't know whether she recovered; later I think a woman taking care of her refused to let 'scientists' get to her.
Ends with funding renooal being denied, girl returning to her ma (whose sight is restored - cataracts removed) & who sues 'scientists', no doubt unsuccessfully. There are notes in drawers, film lying about and nothing written up or conclusive. She's now about 36.
Wed 2 Feb 1994: 11.05-11.40 Channel 4: 3rd episode of 6 of 'Walk on the Wild Side': Radio Times blurb: '.. aspects of youth culture that "youth programming" tends to ignore. Hackers and Phreakers. From suburban Surrey, two teenage hackers rip off secret information from industry and government files; steal from credit-card companies to buy new computer equipment; and make international calls free of charge. Their goal is to prove that modern telecommunications systems are simply channels by which global corporations fleece the public. Their own crimes are incidental to the huge scams that go on at another level.'
[I missed this programme. Very rare example of critique of information systems. I have a few books on this subject; the problem is I think that the broadcasting ('news' etc) side isn't usually distinguished from the 'information' side (facts and figures..) where the workings of monopolies have different effects]
Unique archive footage [in fact, just a few sequences of part-submerged German village were claimed as never before shown; shots of drowned cows etc when water subsided, and of rebuilding the Moehne dam, weren't claimed as new, though they might have been] and interviews with [sc. the actual] bomber crews reveal hitherto unknown details of the mission, and suggest that, contrary to British military claims, details of the bomb fell into enemy hands.
The intended breaching of the Moehne and Sorpe dams was not as extensive as newspapers claimed; pilot Ken Brown, who led the unsuccessful Sorpe raid, is reunited with his crew to tell the story that didn't find its way into cinema history. Director Alex Beetham. Producer Chris Haws. Stereo. Subtitled]
NOTES: Shows Daily Mirror and Daily Telegraph front pages of 1943: 'flood blitz' with aerial photo showing large area flooded - which presumably people were expected to decipher; Gibson and the squadron became celebrities; we see newsreel of visit by His Majesty to 'an air station in Northern England'. VO: 'destruction and flooding were plain to see'.
Plenty of monochrome film largely from the film.
Man says: 'Strategically.. the targets were the wrong targets.. Idea was they could cripple German industry and factories..' German says: '.. It was just an act of terror.. two days to get back electricity.. in two days the Pioneer Corps laid on poles and wires..'
VO: Mid 1930s: air staff making plans against Germany. 1937 'Western Air Plans'. Certain elements: Ruhr Industry 45 locations especially coking plants and electricity plants. Another committee identified Moehne and Sorpe dams in Westphalia, believed to supply 70% of industry. So the Ministry of Economic Warfare wanted BOTH dams damaged. Wallis [said the documentary] believed that breaching just the Moehne would cause serious damage. He also thought Bradfield dam in Sheffield, constructed like the Sorpe, and which had given way when a crack in concrete propagated itself, would be easy to breach. We see diagrams and impressive looking typed stuff, all apparently by Wallis. But apparently it had a clay core, not concrete, and was much weaker.
Sorpe dam 'two sloping earth banks each side of concrete' [we see a sort of lake with a waist, across which is a thin grey straight line, with gently sloping earth each side.] Moehne was a curved masonry wall construction, 'immensely strong', against which a 500 pound bomb would be 'like peanuts'.
Wellington bomber could carry 4,500 lbs. In 1939 a ten ton bomb from 30,000 feet was considered by Wallis, who also designed a 6 engined bomber, 'Victory', for it. Both rejected by the Air Ministry in 1941. A Lancaster at 15,000 feet was required, to drop a bomb 'within inches' of the dam. However the Butt report with statistical tables concluded only 10% of bombs fell within five miles of their target. Claims of accuracy were 'largely bogus'; implication was they were more or less made up to boost the air departments
A colleague [not Wallis] discovered that backspin was important, both to make it bounce, and to make it adhere to the side of the dam when it eventually hit it and sank.
Man says: ".. some sympathy with ?Air ?Ministry... many crazy ideas were put forward.. most were tried and didn't work.. [no examples; no figures].." Bomber Harris in a letter said '.. tripe of the wildest description..' He though bouncing a five ton bomb across a lake was 'lunacy'.
26 May 1944 'very latest' date - when water high because of spring, and moonlight. Wallis had eight days to prepare. Lancasters had to fly all the way to Germany at 200 feet. Then they revised this down to 60 feet. "I ask you!" says a survivor. If they flew too low water splash from the dropped bomb would catch the plane: we see spectacular filmed crash of plane into water from this cause.
At the same time, also in secret, 618 squadron was formed, to experiment with 'high ball' smaller bombs, carried by Mosquitoes, with which they wanted to sink the Tirpitz. However, [note: power structure:] there was mutual fear that the idea would be 'compromised'. This was moved to Australia with the idea of using it against the Japanese. It was never used.
Dudley Heal said it was a clear moonlit night; they felt exposed. The main concern was high tension cables. Could see them far off glinting. If you didn't see them in time, had to decide whether to go over or under. Some of them didn't see them till late - when they were high and glinted less - and attempted to go over but smashed into them.
".. total of six dams to be attacked.. Sorpe had no towers.. so even more difficult.."
The cylindrical bombs were called 'Upkeep' bombs. Five were dropped on the Moehne. They were slung under the planes, and some device made them spin; I think each plane had only one. Three I think hit the Eder. Other planes, about 30 or 60 seconds behind, made for the Sorpe.
".. aircraft hit by tracer.. saw it stop.. probably hit the pilot.. plane climbed.. big explosion.. the whole valley a big orange ball.. I went down the port side and went along a road.." Three were shot down; others turned back; only two got to the Sorpe. [NB: no maps in this documentary; one guesses this dam is further inland.] "The whole valley was filled with fog.. only the church spire.. had to make three visits just to find the dam.. about eight ?approaches to get the right speed, direction,, looked down, tilted the plane to show the others.. huge plume of water.. But the concrete held.." "Its immediate effect was not great. Arguably raids on Essen and Dusseldorf were as damaging."
A crashed plane had intact bomb; German blueprint dated 26 May 1943 just ten days after showed they'd taken it to bits and worked out how it works.
Left from RAF ?Skampton. 8 of 19 Lancasters failed to return. 53 killed of 130 odd.
Germans give account of e.g. waves 15 metres high, people just swept away. Bodies found kilometres downstream. "Labour camp with Russian women locked inside barracks: smashed to pieces on a concrete bridge.. the screams are still with me.." Torrent of water going down the valley.. "..Ruhr Valley covered in animal carcasses for months afterwards.. bodies being found.. 1300 people drowned. 700 foreign workers and slave labourers from Holland, France, Russia. Footage of village called ?Neheim 'never shown before'. Nazi propaganda film: moral outrage; then stoicism. Photos of drowned [Germans only of course] with numbers attached circulated to bereaved. Hitler blamed Luftwaffe. Speer said the Eder dam had nothing to do with industry - only cows, pigs, farmers. The Sorpe dam was much more important.
VO: "Just as the Ministry of Economic Warfare had said.. both dams.."
"First low level precision night bombing raid ever carried out.." Photo reconnaissance Spitfire next day: Squadron Leader Jerry Fray went to photograph it: he said the glint of sun from the muddy river was something out of the ordinary.
By October 1943 it was rebuilt with elaborate buoys, nets, wire to keep out more bouncing bombs; we see shots of scaffolding etc. A German says it would have been easy to bomb it again, but probably the British thought there were elaborate guns etc. It was left unclear whether or not this was so.
Propaganda effect: ".. well received.. real boost.. tremendously effective.. helped with Stalin who had doubts as to British seriousness; also helped with US, to keep them in Europe: we see Churchill speaking in US - I think in Washington.
Thur 3 Feb 1994: 9.30 - 10 pm. 'Scotland Yard', ITV programme. Radio Times blurb: 'The horrors of the Brighton bomb, during a Conservative Party conference, still haunt Baroness Thatcher. In Terrorism, tonight's episode in the documentary series about the Metropolitan Police's nerve centre, she talks about the grim reality of the terrorist threat.
For the first time on television, Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Howley, Detective Chief Superintendent Eileen Egglington and Detective Chief Inspector Barry Strevens [sic] talk about the pressures and resources needed for the job.
There is also an insight unto the dangerous world of dealing with unexploded bombs like author Salman Rushdie are protected. Producer Robert Fleming.'
[Last ten minutes or so; Joke: absurdly uninformative and piffling stuff, I think, made to look more impressive by verbiage and ?persiflage. Narrated by Philip Tibenham. Copyright message dated 1994.
".. ?fundamentalists.. individuals.. happy.. willing to die for the cause. .. our advantage.. if you can call it an advantage.. members of the IRA don't like to be caught and imprisoned on the mainland. They also don't like to be killed. So they operate very carefully.. ?clear the inside of the building.. the point of entry and exit.. vulnerable time.. [shot of John Major arriving at a hotel; with Hurd].. make sure there's no one lurking about.. the protection officers get to know their principals.." [shot of car flying Japanese flag; men in busbies and red coats posture about as it stops]
"There are special branch officers at every seaport and airport.. may have a surveillance team.. there may be an intelligence tip-off.. many of our enquiries are intelligence driven.. that's the driving force.. clearly we're very reliant on good intelligence.. point of arrival.. discreetly.. we may decide to take pre-emptive activity at the airport.. we do make arrests.. using a policeman's eye.. identify people who don't quite look right.."
".. much like other crimes.. detailed examination of the area for forensic evidence.. in this case a bomb.. it may establish a linkage.. evidence.. fragmentation.. components.. modus operandi.. looking at the effects.."
".. our experience is these things go in peaks and troughs.. like everyone else we hope terrorism will ?go away.."
VO: '.. the special branches of each of the 52 constabularies in the U.K. .. and [joke:] MI5 who since 1992 have taken the lead in intelligence gathering.. There is a view that one national agency would be more effective" [Man in uniform: '.. and I stress this is a personal view.. need a national body to deal with crimes having an international dimension: drugs.. major fraud, money laundering.. terrorism..'
VO: 'In the last 20 years 1,058 terrorist bombing incidents on the mainland. 148 people have been killed. 223 people since 1973 have been charged with terrorist offences.
.. Lady Thatcher's book signing tour cost £300,000. [We see suited men standing round behind her, in I think small back room in Waterstone's, and apparently against bookshop wall too. She makes thank you, and is escorted by two ?more men into car by roadside.] IRA terrorism has cost billions of pounds.' [End]
[Ends with credits; and of course no estimate of cost of Protestant terrorism. This film may, or may not, have been related to the campaign to negotiate with the IRA, but only after they 'renounce violence'; and may or may not have been related to Gerry Adams' visit to USA]
Thurs 3 Feb 1994: 'The Late Review' BBC2 11.15-11.55: Radio Times blurb says: 'Mark Lawson with some cultural highlights of the week'.
[Is this the same as 'The Late Show'? My scribble for Jan 1994: "tonight's Late Show Caryl Churchill talks about her new play.. Sir Peter Hall.. etc]
This is a transcription, with omissions due to my scribble, of introductory stuff:
Woman's voiceover over '2' logo sounds like "A late review with Mark Lawson"; then wolf against moon and obviously fake baying; then man with unpleasant beard and specs reads autocue:
"Critics including the novelist Robert Harris and the satirist Ian Hislop decide whether Edwina Currie's Westminster ? should be pelted with rotten eggs
And whether Les Visiteurs, a movie billed as the French Monty Python, really is something different
The Independent. [Shots of newspapers being printed; this refers to takeover offer] It was [sic] but is it still and for how much longer?
And Womack and Womack back but in a different guise [shot of two people with electric guitars on a stage]
But first an independent perspective on the events of the past week
.. film.. sweeping America.. Free Willy.. tear-jerker.. boy and a killer whale.. British audiences regard it as a comedy.. trailer has them rolling in the aisles..
MPs .. once received a fee for [BBC] television appearances. .. Now they won't.. They complain about public expenditure.. but some are unhappy about this!
Liz Forgan on Radio 3 and Brummie accents; joke, I presume, that Radio 3 will be called Radio Free; stuff about 'plummeting radio audiences'
Beano.. Bash Street Kids.. shining new academy has been built.. this is fiction, remember.. [I'd heard another Beano thing on LBC, their editor discussing this experiment in three weeks]
Glyndebourne also has a gleaming new building.. Michael Hopkins's auditorium..
[Then extract from 'Absolutely Fabulous', crap BBC series with two airheaded women playing PR women and having lots of money while apparently doing nothing except partly talk about branded goods.]
They claim that the 4,500-year-old pyramid, far from being simply a royal tomb, was an instrument of worship in the stellar cult of the fourth Egyptian dynasty, and that the precision with which it was constructed was an attempt to re-create heaven on earth.
Presenter Emma Freud [NB: she clearly knows nothing about this] meets Bauval and Gilbert, and talks to experts who have devoted years to the study of the pyramids. Producer Chris Mann.'
See \history for details from this programme [joke: including jokes.]
Mon 7th Feb 1994: 8-8.50 pm BBC2: 'Horizon Death Wish - the Untold Story'. Female VO starts something like: "Death is not the end of life but its ?foundation, ?saviour, and companion." This is about 'apoptosis', discovered, and the name coined by a friend of his, a Prof of Greek, 'twenty years ago' by Prof. Andrew Wyllie, now a small wiry chap in diamond-patterned-front pullover and with Scots accent and thinning near-bald head, with apparently Sir Alastair Currie, who we see with an odd cylindrical fez-like thing on his head & who didn't survive to see the programme completed. [Joke: He died of cancer; this programme trumpeted as concerning 'the greatest anti-cancer breakthrough, perhaps the most important idea of the 90s etc etc]. Wyllie though seemed to have done most of the work. Both men were 'pathologists' and accustomed to peering through optical microscopes at cells doing odd things. Joke: The funny thing is he didn't mind his paper being virtually ignored since its publication in I think 1973.
The essence of the idea is that cells 'commit suicide unless they're told not to'. They are 'genetically programmed to commit suicide' unless some message is received. What this is, wasn't specified, or, presumably, known.
['Programmed cell death' in which 'sick cells kill themselves' is another formulation, in the Radio Times blurb]
Supporting evidence: examination of development of some creatures (I think nematodes) showed after a few subdivisions a particular cell always died; i.e. they didn't all invariably proliferate. By microscopic examination of very many embryos at this stage, very occasional mutant was found which didn't do this; and the gene was found - called MYX for some reason.
The same gene (or something like it - perhaps the embryo trick was done) was engineered out of lab mice, presumably in egg stage; these lived but were prone to tumours. The idea took shape that tumours are killed normally by adjacent cells not doing something - but I think the exact substance(s) or processes weren't given - possibly for money reasons, I'd guess, though 'p43' seemed something to do with all this. At any rate the gene was similar to the nematode one. I.e. apoptosis is a genetic means by which cells may be told to die. Trying to kill proliferating cancer cells (many of which, being in tissue which has to be robust, like skin, lungs etc, require higher levels of poisons than are needed to damage e.g. bone marrow cells) is therefore being replaced by search for death-dealing stuff for proliferating cancer cells, which I think in some cases may be mutants without the gene - or something. But no indication was given as to whether this would be possible.
Opened with 'Yo Picasso'; suggestion that this was how he signed himself. [?!] Odd programme with an actor trying to pretend to be Picasso in oldish age being interviewed by TV chap. English with Spanish accent (could he in fact speak English?) and casual shirt etc; shown making casual dabs and movements at easel (we see back view only) with no paint apparently on brush. All the usual myths promoted: great lover idea, any woman would be hypnotised by his attraction [truth: certainly I recall a woman saying she thought when he was young there was nothing special about him; and he was moody and said little]; large number of lovers [so why so few kids?]; First World War treated as passing thing; Spanish Civil War and Guernica [nothing about causes of the war, or assistance for the Fascists e.g. by Britain; or about other bombings - e.g. in Iraq!]; Blue Period, Rose period, influence of African masks on Les Demoiselles, Braque being the woman who loved me best, all trotted through. Communist party not mentioned. Radio Times says he said a woman can be a goddess or a doormat.
Some time in March 1994: 'Country File' insulting item on Leslie Munro, who discovered correlation between wet soil and infant mortality.. see \medical
Sun 6 March 1994: [Radio Times blurb for 'Broken Lives', one of three programmes on divorce for 'the Year of the Family' - another is 'A Woman's History of Divorce 1945-69' - includes 18th century stuff - see \notes\history for mythology of this]
BBC Charter is apparently due for renewal in 1996.
She assumes that the BBC turns out quality programmes; she never tests or checks this belief; nor does she probe below the surface of the smug self-justifications of the Beeb's staff interviewed; see e.g. example below. She produces the occasional quasi-probing question: "I have to ask you, don't you think that's totally incompetent?" style of thing, over some point which she then doesn't follow up after a banal reply. She said to Birt: "Aren't you brainwashed?" which he laughed off. Nothing whatever on the 'governors' and their role. Nothing on e.g. the turnover of 'BBC Enterprises': only the claimed profit figure is given. At one point she produces a silly graph showing income level (after initial jump), level because it's been 'tagged to inflation'. And 'costs' going up, because talent has to be paid more and more.
What follows omits much of her characteristic VO style, typically involving clipped interjections of an exaggerated type, like tabloid headlines. "Gloom and doom. Morale is at the lowest it has ever been in my experience of the BC" might be a typical illustration; "This is a business where you get in on the ground floor or not at all" is a real one, referring to 'World Service TV' or something of the sort.]
' .. It is a colossus.. seventy years' experience.. professional competence is breathtaking.. its charter is expiring in a couple of years.. eight previous occasions.. the charter.. renewed, extended.. it's been a rubber stamp job.. But not this time.. the licence fee.. a tax in all but name..
[After the drivel - including shots of suburban housing at evening with little snatches played of BBC radio and TV programmes, falsely suggesting they're all equally listened to - there's a long section on, of all things, sport!]
"Talent holds the whip hand.. there's no television without it" [Illustrated by Noel's House Party, which the Beeb pays Noel Edmonds' production company £1 million (or it may have been 1.5) per year. Then official behind desk says in effect as people get better known they want more money.
"Wimbledon.. the biggest operation of the year.. cooks, drivers, crews, scaffolders, backroom men.. the unsung heroes of quality broadcasting. 29 cameras on 5 separate courts.. public service broadcasting at its best.." [Then interviews with various technicians and managers: If it moves we colour it green.. green knitted covers for the microphones.. we have to blend in.. Wimbledon is a public event and it goes round the world.. the BBC has always taken the view that it has a public duty etc.." [Lots of shots of Wimbledon, cables on ground, girls of course with clipboards - the sexism goes unremarked by Goldring: all the 'senior' people involve are men, women chatter and do 'Woman's Hour' on slimming, leaking bladders, etc]
DESMOND LYNAM: [Says something like: "Everywhere in the world the BBC name is respected, cross my heart, yes! immense pride about working for the BBC.. sincere pride in technical expertise.. And I don't think you get their level of expertise anywhere.. There's only one criteria.. what's best.."]
BUERK: "It's driven by a sense of decency. .. its instinct is fundamentally decent.. it hasn't been corrupted by journalistic practices.."
9 O'CLOCK NEWS: "The 9 o'clock news.. the BBC's irreducible core.. teams primed to move as fast and smooth as mechanics at a pit stop.. the ?team begins on time.. briefing.. running on undiluted adrenalin.. in and out of the editing suites.." [Interview with some bore whose 'head of television news' or something. Shots showing backroom scenes with huge banks of TVs- I'd guess 100 on a wall; and roomfuls of people looking at them and standing around. Also shot of man running I think downstairs, to indicate activity. One of the desks had a 'Time' magazine on it.]
LOCAL RADIO: VO wonders whether BBC local radio should have been started, apparently to 'poke in the eye' commercial local radio stations. It costs a few hundred million and she thinks has little audience - "too low to be easily measured" she says. Stupid looking oldish man in specs and suit, perhaps terrified of losing his job, says ".. we have carried out objective research.. the second most popular BBC service in their region.." And Goldring's VO, asking no questions about this pseudo-statistic, says "Another cost-cutting ?exercise scotched.."
BBC's Manchester Studio [shown being hired by Channel 4] "was rarely used more than half a year.."
"Even before the caskings the BBC had ?massive over-capacity.. the BBC has sacked thousands of technicians.. Perhaps the ?object is to maintain average staffing levels with hirings to cover the peak.. but nobody knows.." [why didn't she interview the Governors to find out?]
[Man in shirt, a lighting man or something, interviewed:] 'Producer choice is a myth. .. I've been asked.. they know me.. the BBC was known as the company that looked after the technical people etc etc of the country.. after twenty years at the BBC.." [Expresses sort of grudging unintelligent disapproval]
[Goldring asks whether the BBC can raise money through merchandise. Naturally, the question of whether it should do this simply isn't asked. It's taken for granted that they can't do their programmes much more cheaply, if at all. No evidence of course is produced as to any of this] ".. videos.. Noddy.. archives.. collection to rival Walt Disney, Warner Brothers, the French, Italians.. the trouble is archives date.. much is not saleable outside Britain.. [Margaret comments on upper class stuff. "You mean it's not even saleable inside Britain?" Laugh] cassettes of well-loved radio programmes.. Brand name has been marketed incompetently.. unbusinesslike.. product makes a contribution of £60 million.. pocket money.. spends two billion.. Government restrictions.. you mustn't borrow big [sic] money, it's naughty.. commercial organisations might object.. you mustn't [something else].. it's naughty.. the BBC has potentially the most powerful voice anywhere.. competition with CNN, with [various names].. world service funded historically [sic] by the Foreign Office...."
[We see World Service TV, apparently with '100 m viewers in Asia and Africa.' Laughably, it has white presenters of its 'news' and looks unutterably dull and stilted.]
Following is jotted verbatim from Johanson, seen in car in traffic jam in California, and also walking in caves etc and with aborigines and a few anthropological speculators. The banal inconsequence appealed to me. [NB: Margaret says the treatment in his books is so different that it's hard to believe it's the same man]:-
[Subtitle: Donald Johanson, President, Institute of Human Origins, Berkeley, California.]
'.. Today we cover the entire globe and we alter the world around us with our vast numbers and our modern way of life. Depending on where we come from we appear very different on the surface [Eerie music plays] but beneath our skin we are all one species. Homo sapiens. [Pron. long a] Blood proteins and DNA reveal an INCREDIBLE similarity among people from EVERY part of the world. But our species is not defined by biology alone. The lives of people everywhere are shaped by technology, religion, art and language.
So how did we become modern people, Homo sapiens?
The answer to that question isn't so easy because it's not just about what our ancestors look like much more importantly it's about how they behaved. And while the hard evidence the fossils the stone tools is fascinating, it's also highly provocative. And it seems that the more close in time we come to our selves the less agreement we see between scientists as to how and when our ancestors became modern. ..'
[Plus stuff about people 'appearing' about 1 1/2 million years ago as Homo Erectus.
Australian anthropologist: hearth discovered, dated to 50-60,000 years ago, after Australia had been cut off by kilometres of water for millions of years, as the vegetation etc show, 'a new animal arrived..'
?Nullabore Plain: apparently featureless apart from a few scrubby low green things; aborigine indicates pattern of stones, apparently a scatter of rather insignificant flat ones, with a foot-square one covering what I take literally to be a water hole, i.e. round thing full of stagnant looking water at ground level. He says it's half a day to the next one, indicating the direction. [NB: cp. Watkins and leys.] There are also underground flint mines. The Ozzie anthropologist thinks that evolution into Homo sapiens took place in the last 100,00 years or so separately, i.e. in different parts of the globe, rather than evolving in Africa, then migrating. He has a collection of skulls from Java, Indonesia, Australia and perhaps Sinanthropus which he says shows this progression; it appears prominent eyebrow ridges indicate the less superior brand of creature. Johanson, I think, says: "It's [jawbone] lightly built, it has small teeth, and most importantly it has this projection, a chin.."
Programme moves to south Africa where an east-facing cave by the water gives in effect shelter, an alarm clock, and regular shellfish. Another standard belief (of Johanson, apparently) is that Homo sapiens evolved, then moved from Africa 100,000 years ago, and met Neanderthal man, who seem to have previously moved about and also moved back into southern Europe during the last Ice Age. Unfortunately for this theory, Neanderthal man seemed very reluctant to move, which makes the theory look odd. 'cave.. south west France.. evidence of occupation for 200,000 years..' '.. near east.. like a central bus station.. caves in this strip of land near the Mediterranean.. they may have met.. but the cave sites may have been separated by tens of thousands of years.. 35,000 years ago modern looking people moved into Europe.. Cro-Magnon..' 'even south west France was cold.. snow.. ox.. reindeer.. caves of ?Lascaux.. (and, we hear, many more in the region, some where farmers have stored things but never bothered to venture in) 17,000 years ago.. technique reconstructed by Frenchman copying aborigines - charcoal outlines; take charcoal in mouth, chew, and spit onto wall shading the bits to be kept clear with the hand to give airbrush effect. [Desmond Morris on these animals being dead (I think - qv) not mentioned]. 'Homo sapiens found in southern France on high commanding sites. Neanderthals 'almost never' occupied such sites; man who strides around doing this research concludes Neanderthals were confined to inferior sites or flushed out.
Fri 11 Mar 94 18:02 reports of lioness in Winchmore Hill; turns out to be a cat [cp headline in a local paper of people 'terrorisesd by a stag beetle']
Tue 22 Mar 94: TV programme on Torville and Dean [ice skating partners who danced on the ice together]: surprising lack of technical terms as Christopher Torvil
Fri 25 Mar 94: 8.30 am BBC breakfast programme on British Science Week: Prof Thompson in suit, prematurely white hair, and accent (not ?now strong); Professor Hilary Rose of Bradford; and 'inventor' Clive Sinclair, in lightish nondescript clothing, later falsely described as having 'gone through all the hoops' in education
Hilary Rose smug somewhat aggressive-looking with smooth helmet of dark hair
Why aren't British schoolchildren interested in science? Hilary Rose on girls says watch the girls in the museum at the displays being shouldered aside and that's about her lot. Sinclair talks of reluctance of British industry to finance long term investment. Thompson said something vague.
Interviewer switches from one to the other trying to be fair. We're told that Mr Waldegrave is thinking of holding another science week. All nod sagely.
Sun 17 April 94: Link: announcer before start of BBC2 programme on diamonds and South Africa and one of the richest families in the world, controllers of de Beers, the Oppenheimers. [some details of one of them in International Who's Who, including information about his connection with Oxford University.]
".. South Africa.. opening of a new ?phase in its history.. [shot of sun rising - or setting?] .. teetering on the brink of civil war.." [Idea is to ensure that everyone accepts that 'civil war' is likely to happen]
Mon 18 April 94: ITV has an hour-long Coronation Street from 7.30 to 8.30 pm, conflicting with 8-8.30 EastEnders; ITV claim 2:1 audience in their favour among the 26 million watchers. On a morning TV programme this was presented as a new clash.
[However, on checking, a Radio Times of a few weeks ago had Coronation Street from 7.20 - 7.50; so it clearly isn't that new. The Radio Times claimed a regular audience of 20 million for EastEnders.]
Tue 19 April 1994: BBC2: TV Times says: '40 Minutes. Times Remembered. Tonight, 40 Minutes comes to an end after 13 years and 325 programmes. [The blurb says 324; perhaps this is number 325.] This farewell looks back at memorable moments from past documentaries.' Presumably therefore started in 1981 & one guesses was shown once a fortnight or perhaps just in summer or winter. I'd never heard of this. On from 9.50-10.30.
TV Times blurb says there are forty clips in all, including: 'Alison French.. 1981.. the disabled girl.. zest for life.. seven years later.. film her wedding/ four Hooray Henries who outraged viewers with their opinions on marriage, hanging and shooting cats, and Colonel Hilary Hook, who returned to England after 50 years in Empire outposts to fight new battles with supermarket trolleys and Top of the Pops.'
I watched about half, including:
Monochrome shots shown in slow motion of I think doves flying inside a darkened room, accompanied by classical music
Marriage of a woman with a form of spasticity causing erratic movements; she says things in erratic voice about how she felt she didn't have much to give to a relationship etc, but along came Mark; we see church wedding with rather stony faced relatives perhaps not relishing TV cameras. Nothing of course about her finance, at least in this clip
Two young girls from the north of course, short of monn-[long a], I think Birmingham, talking about prostitution, who wants to die of AIDS, doing it orally without a durex is totally out of order, I have to like their face.
Rent boys: interview with man apparently in a bar who looked old and seedy and appeared to have small pustular ball at the corner of one eye; talking about fear of women & how he felt dirty and disgusting and stayed indoors for three days after each boy etc
Scenes of a Conservative party selection committee to choose candidate for MP; filmed 'for the first time ever'. Unpleasant oldish women seemed to dominate; and they usually choose men - "Women like to serve. They like to take care of men. And they vote for men." Staring-eyed bespectacled man who says he's a committed Christian and thinks the world's ordained that way, not that he has anything against the ladies, without them none of us would be here today. The clip didn't actually show any interviewees & it's uncertain whether they would have done so, I imagine.
Man talking about a mistress whose grown old and bitter; just like that he'd come back to England, his mistress. He seemed to be an ex-colonial of some sort & was shown taking pot shots at a chandelier. Final shot shows light bulb going out (the shot was apparently fixed in some way - the light seemed to go on and off in an implausible way)
[Joke: little Heinrich being told by his ma on fleeing Nazis that he is one of the race chosen by god]
[NB: soon after, saw Kennedy funeral, I think November 1963, in rather faded color of the time, apparently with men wearing white sailor cap things as they do in MacDonald's, and with odd three-lobed loop of cord on the cloth over the 'casket'.]
Fri 13 May 1994: BBC1's Tomorrow's World: [black woman says with cheerful gormlessness:] " ... the days are getting longer.. and [something like] the days really are getting longer.. the earth is slowing down.. but there's no panic.. .1 msec per century.. days getting longer.. gravity will be lower.. we will weigh more. because the centrifugal force will be less.. this will effect the egg ?market.. chickens lay eggs.. internal clock.. a mature hen can lay one egg per day.. our internal clock is set to 25 hours.. if a day is more than 27 hours, then we will be permanently jet-lagged etc .."
15 May 1994 (I think): Genetics: Channel 4 assumes, apparently following Dawkins, object is to get variation; but surely it's more important to keep continuity of complicated organisms by chucking away half of each. I.e. clones, if anything goes wrong, likely to be genetically defective and therefore fail for entire future; but with sex this is not so. [could speculate on having say three sexes..]
Sun 15th May: Channel 4 programme, 'Encounters. Fire Mountains' on Java & volcanoes. See \notes\asia
Mon 16 May 1994: Horizon, 'Ulcer Wars' BBC2 8-8.50 on Dr Barry Marshall, originally from Australia, who put together the theory of bacterial cause of peptic ulcers. Suggestion the medical profession now was less against the idea because acid suppressant drugs are soon going out of patent.
Possibly this programme part of state campaign for generic (and cheap) drugs?
Note that all the people who suppressed or didn't help with this discovery or made money from outdated drugs are untouched; the discoverer now has about the most junior post in what I imagine is one of the US's least prestigious institutions.
I made quite detailed notes on this, currently in \notes\medical
My scribbled notes include:
'Under Dame Shirley Porter seem to have spent £35 million (& central govt, from now-dead Nicholas Ridley, supplied £10 million; there was also a £2 million grant for hotels which I think had already been built - supposedly some sort of recognition of their value; NB Margaret said the Gore's rates bill was less than it should be - the Gore hadn't queried it) for such purposes as: selling property cheaply to property developers to convert to good flats for sale (to presumed Tory voters), spending on exceptional street-cleaning in eight targeted marginal wards, closing and selling a hostel for the homeless (despite promise they wouldn't), paying council tenants £13,000 to move out & sell to house owners, subsidising flats for (presumably Tory) buyers, spending money on PR people; despite their supposed 'tenants charter' sabotaging tenants getting together to be their own landlord - chap called Rosenberg spoke about some block he'd been involved with.
Latter things under much-trumpeted scheme called 'Building Community Stability'.
Mrs ?Kirwin, who'd been a fellow Tory on the council, now living in France, plump woman, said there'd been "a climate of fear... high turnover of senior officials." Not explained why these senior officials all seem to have kept quiet.
Also aimed at sitting Tory MP.
Part of the reason seems attitudes to Westminster: Westminster has the Palace, the Houses of Parliament, 'The Shopping Centre' whatever that means, and its loss would be "devastating for Conservative morale." It wasn't made clear whether the MP had anything to do with all this.
'Poll tax': worked out at £428, half as much again as the 'model amount', so they lobbied Ridley in 1989 and got £10.5 million grants from the government, £75 per household, bringing the figure down to the psychologically important amount of £195, "second lowest in the country."
- On this, my LBC tape of Ken Livingstone et al has a few interesting things - e.g. relative speed with which Ted Knight in Lambeth was dealt with, I think when he didn't set a rate, being surcharged etc I think within a year with no nonsense about waiting for legal process etc; this has been going on for a decade. The Porters applying for Israeli citizenship.
FIRST: JACQUES BENVENISTE, of the famed 'memory of water' disgrace-of-French-science episode. Unintelligent VO by a woman; included Maddox, editor of Nature, shown in brown tweed and with one point of his shirt collar out, and voice converting r to w. Benveniste was investigated by three men, including a journalist and also James Randi, not proper scientists, as he complained. [B was good looking and distinguished with good English]. Final part left the viewer imagining his experiments had been vindicated, as it claimed the experiments had been repeated in a double blind way making them undoubtedly proved. In fact of course they could have been juggled consciously or otherwise. Basic experiment seemed to be to dilute 'allergens', which in strength burst or damage some type of blood cell I didn't get; when diluted umpteen times, the same effect supposedly was got - the experiment needing a person with a microscope and hand counting device and presumably viewing system with graticles. Maddox said one neat note book kept by 'Elizabeth' omitted experiments which didn't work, and was filled in after the experiments; which in any case weren't double blind
SECOND: LINUS PAULING; the main thrust seemed to be that he might be right about vitamin C after all - various people say 'antioxidants' are important, and some studies show this or that. Other less impressed people say when his first wife was dying of cancer he said snappily: "It's OK. She's taking vitamin C." Incidentally, pronunciation with long 'i' throughout. Pauling, in his 90s, seemed quite well-preserved. He has a Pacific Ocean-side house which looked ranch type, and his own lab paid for by various contributors; it wasn't clear whether most of his research was into vitamin C, but it looked like it. No evidence was produced for the properties of vitamin C, apparently; he just found it made him feel good & started advocating it - or at least that's what the presentation implied, incredible though it sounds.
THIRD: RUPERT SHELDRAKE; I found I have quite a few PC notes on this man, who's been on TV before. E.g. on 'morphic resonance' and his book 'The Presence of the Past'. (He's also written a book with 'science' in the title.) TV showed man with amiable curly hair, singing what were presented as 'Christian' songs (VO said he was a believing, or practising, Christian) over bread while holding hands with two kids in Hampstead house (how could he afford it?), and being supported as a man with interesting ideas (by a psychiatrist or psychologist with plummy voice from Downing College!). He said the idea he'd got was that form wasn't inherent in DNA, which was just a chemical, and 'morphic resonance' was needed, something like revealed in the behaviour of huge flocks of birds and shoals of fish. He also is disturbed by the supposed absence of 'purpose' in biology, and believes in the inheritance of acquired characteristics [he was shown with his son, looking at giraffes; the son says their necks are long because they reach up for food, or something similar. Note: Sheldrake maintains Darwin believed in the inheritance of acquired characteristics; a passage from 'The Origin of Species', using that phrase, was briefly shown on screen.
Steven Rose said he had nothing to do with science and the interesting question was the social one of what made him decide to take this cheap path to publicity, and Maddox said it introduced magic, and the book would be a candidate for burning if such things were allowed. Sheldrake seemed a prat (how did he get into Cambridge?), and although the programme had its obligatory suggestive formula: "But recently, a small group of scientists have been reconsidering these ideas.." the best they could come up with was a ridiculous quasi-experiment performed by I think Blue Peter, in which a picture made up of black splashes, which was shown as a cowboy on a horse, ought to be recognised by more viewers more easily than a similar, unrevealed, picture. It didn't seem to occur to them or the stupid woman presenter (stereotyped as a 'scientific' person: Maggie Philbin) that simple comment "they showed a picture on TV of a cowboy on a horse" might make recognition easier without any sort of form.
NB: Strikes me the phrase might owe something to 'nuclear magnetic resonance' and/or 'cognitive dissonance'
FOURTH: 26 July 94: EYSENCK: Good example of stupid presentation, as the people filmed weren't addressing the same points. Incidentally the astrology episode was unmentioned:
[Daily Mail headlines, 1970-something, like 'I defied Hitler - now I defy these students' and shots of students or supposed students in I think Melbourne, with solarisation style effects.]
[Following quotations were taken down by me from videotape and when in quotes are verbatim:]
HJE: [Incidentally in brownish shirt with lightish yellowish tie, with huge knot under his double chin. Mentions Galileo, Darwin:] "Obviously, if you have original creative ideas they must be novel and therefore the people who hold the orthodox views must dislike it and criticise you for it. That's obvious, it always happens. So you have to have a certain degree of intellectual courage to keep on with it regardless of that sort of criticism."
VO: ".. written more than seventy books.. 'Test Your Own Personality'.. set up the first department of psychology in London.. Eysenck Personality Questionnaire.. a professor for more than thirty years.. Left Germany at 18.. By 39 professor of his own department.." [Camera scans table and bookshelves, full of ordinary looking miscellaneous mostly modern books on psychology, including things like 'Know Your Own Psi-Q' and various titles on personality, mostly in jackets, some paperback; the only name I was able to read, and recognised, was B F Skinner.]
[Liam Hudson, Professor of Psychology at the Tavistock Institute, appeared several times; he said he had no desire to talk to Eysenck, since he felt in his bones that however long he talked Eysenck would learn nothing from him, but merely present his own views and dismiss Hudson's. He said the race issue was dirty or nasty or something rather inconclusive.]
[DR SYBIL EYSENCK, HJE's wife, had quite a large chunk of appearances in the programme; she added nothing of any relevance to science, but said he was stable, perhaps too stable, etc, and opponents undoubtedly argue from ideologies (short i), and "I've never known him to be wrong.. so much research.. until he's absolutely sure.." They had two sons and a daughter, and changed their names in case of danger; the names remain changed to this day, apparently.]
VO: ".. 1970.. book on race and intelligence.." [Shots of urban US blacks]
HJE: ".. known for eighty years or more the United States.. quite marked differences.. 18, 15 points of IQ.. Used to be taken for granted the cause was environmental.. when tested by blacks rather than whites.. children from equal socio-economic status difference about twelve points..
So really [sic] the only conclusion I made was to summarise the evidence and to suggest that this was a very important area in which we simply didn't know the answer. ..."
[STEVE JONES: Prof of Genetics, University College, London (and Reith Lecturer):] "I like to think - perhaps wrongly - that I know the literature fairly well in human genetics. I have never seen a single piece of published evidence, which I believe, that shows any genetic difference of ability between black people and white people."
[Newspaper small article with headline 'Eysenck beaten up at LSE' giving his age as 57; looked to me like The Times typography. Inevitable rather dull stuff about Germany, Nazis, apart from the Jews practically everybody in the class were Nazis, I was the biggest and strongest in the class.. tennis and football.. It became dangerous.. settled at Herne Hill. We see yellow rectangular 1930s building with red painted metal framed windows, & cube-like yellow painted extension at middle of the back. With lawn and lawn-umbrella etc.]
HJE: "I don't see that any parents wiz more zan one child can possibly doubt the importance of genetic factors, because siblings can be so very and usually are so very different - my elder son is very introverted. My daughter is extraverted.. they differ in almost everything you can think of... a very powerful proof of the importance of genetic factors.."
VO: "In the 50s, psychoanalysis was the dominant and unquestioned form of treatment.." [sic; surely not true - especially for people with no money].
HJE: ".. Here you have an alleged method of treatment which has never been shown to work.. costs an enormous amount.. in many cases has a negative effect.. propagandised very heavily as the only way in which you can cure neurotic patients. Well, I think this is ethically wrong..
.. Behaviourists believe that behaviour is primary and causes the attitude to change - if you change the behaviour you change the attitude, whereas Freudians.. all sorts of complexes.. treatment based on an entirely mental concept doesn't work.
... a few other people read the same evidence.. [sic; he didn't state what it was, who'd collected it] I said, if you tone it down, nobody will listen.. What I said wasn't particularly original.. but my article is the only one that is remembered and is believed by many people to have started this revolution [i.e. against Freud]..."
LIAM HUDSON: ".. the evidence [in favour of psychoanalysis].. much stronger for example than in an expensive form of surgery like heart bypasses where the evidence is often very thin indeed."
[No evidence given for this statement.
Then there follows a Professor of Psychoanalysis saying that Eysenck was ignored when very small etc. Eysenck says being interviewed his parents travelled all round the country, acting, making films; he was brought up by his grandmother, who was loving & not a disciplinarian]
[Times, I think, article: Professor defends Smoking - Christina Doyle.]
HJE: [Following are full interviews; Peto's which follows is complete too, at least as broadcast - they may of course have said more:] "Zere is a lot of propaganda about ze terrible effects of smoking on cancer, coronary heart disease and so on. People producing all sorts of wholly imaginary figures [yes, sic] of how many millions of people lose their lives because of that. Now, I'm not denying for a minute that smoking is a risk factor for cancer and coronary heart disease, but there is no direct evidence that it is a cause of cancer and coronary heart disease. There are hundreds of different risk factors for all these diseases...
I predicted that cigarette smoking would be much more common among extraverted people than among introverted people. We did a large scale study to discover this was indeed so. The people who had strong difficulties in expressing their emotions were six times as likely as those who did manage to express their emotions to contract lung cancer."
RICHARD PETO: [ICRF Prof of Medical Statistics, Oxford:] "As far as lung cancer is concerned, since more than 90% of the deaths from lung cancer in Britain are caused by tobacco I can't see how any other factor could be a cause of six times as many deaths as smoking is. I mean, y'know, you've only got 100%, you can't cause more than 100% of the disease. I'm quite happy to say that there might be some psychological genetic, nutritional factors which make smoking more dangerous or less dangerous to the individual. But still, smoking is a cause of more than 90% of the deaths from lung cancer in this country, and you can't have anything being six times as important as that as a cause of lung cancer."
[VO talks of stress and personality, and shows film of Frenchmen playing boules. NB: I wonder whether 'stress' comes from Selye?]
HJE: "The medical profession hasn't been taught anything about stress and personality and so on, and they don't want to know. But in 10, 20 years time I'm sure they'll get down to it and find this really is important."
[Steve Jones says a bit of buffoonery helps to enliven science; & Eysenck is a caricature of what he set out to be and should re-examine himself; Liam Hudson says something about race and pseudo-science]
HJE: "Most of the controversy, so called, I've had, is rather as if my little boy said two and two is five and I say no two and two is four. It's not really a controversy. I'm putting the facts forward and people who don't like the facts then make a controversy out of it."
[He said also that he wasn't a maverick - the media falsely (not his word) like to describe or present him in that way.
Another professor said he had no knighthood; he though one honorary degree. ".. should have 20, 30 doctorates.."]
FIFTH: (Tue 2nd Aug) ROBERT JAHN. Was Dean of Engineering at Princeton University, [shots of greenery, pseudo-Latin being pronounced in American (Princeton in Latin, "-atis" as "-adis")], until he was demoted to a professor after he took to haunting a basement lab of his own in which a technician ran up a white noise generator using some sort of diode and used it to generate 'random' numbers. A PhD researcher, I think, found this equipment supposedly could be influenced up or down by someone in the room with it. Then Jahn took this set-up over. He collected huge quantities of results, using 'operators' who were left alone in the room with his machine. He also experimented with balls falling down the familiar type of grid of wall-mounted collection of small wooden posts, to see if 'operators' could influence the distribution pattern of the balls as they fell. He said they could; most other people said they couldn't, though nobody seemed to trouble to look at the actual results; the nearest was a chap in a red checked shirt who said something like statistical results don't operate with these big numbers of data, maybe. I didn't take to the professor: he had an ugly bulbous nose, a dull voice, talked pompously making mistakes in his English ('broached'), was clearly a naive technocrat type and in his old age had his room filled with what he said were beautiful or fun things, mostly meaning furry toys, and even they were an ill-chosen and unattractive bunch.
VO was usual female voice, with history of e.g. J B Rhine, 19th century physicists, and how mind over matter 'used to be widely accepted' or similar rubbish.
SIXTH: ERIC LAITHWAITE anti-gravity inventor; he's from Yorkshire and was an engineering professor at Imperial College, apparently famed for inventing the 'linear motor': we see a monochrome TV programme where he unzips a round bundle corresponding to the winding around a motor, lays it flat, and makes a sheet of metal fly off to one side. For some time he was a TV science 'personality': he conforms to the type of Moore and Pyke and others - socially unaware, interested in toys, not first rate.
He's famous for a lecture he delivered at the Royal Institution, which they never subsequently published or even seemed to acknowledge, in which he demonstrated properties of gyroscopes, showing e.g. a hefty one which he said he couldn't lift above his shoulder, but, when spinning, rose apparently by magic...
The impression I got was of an experimentalist who couldn't understand the theory: several people said (without evidence of course) that Newton's Laws (Laithwaite was emphatic about the 3rd) were obeyed in fact by gyroscopes. I think the mode of motion is sufficiently un-intuitive that he simply didn't understand it. In this sense he conformed to the engineering crank type - cf. Martin Gardner's book.
At the very end VO said he'd experimented in a lab of his own after retirement, I think with another man (who'd brought to him a demonstration of a gyroscope, mounted on a moving board on a wheeled trolley, which Laithwaite felt operated not according to Newton's laws. He said "We've cracked it" (i.e. developed an anti-gravity drive). Unfortunately nothing more was said about this!
.. The scenes inside reminded the staff as if they needed it that they are potential targets.
[Israeli Ambassador to London, says subtitle, giving name:] .. we have to do everything in our power to reduce terrorist incidents
[Middle East specialist, says subtitle, without I think even giving name:] "Iran.. but it has a weak government.. many extremist groups.."
".. top of the list.. Hezbollah.. last night denied involvement.. one of the few organisations able to mount such an attack..
[Name] and [name].. Islamic ?fundamentalists denied involvement..
[Final thing in this bit:] If Israel is planning a response the chances are it will be against Hezbollah."
Stuff about Rwanda. VO says "It is impossible to avoid Biblical allusions here." Evasion of the point that the refugees were on the side of the murderers, though there is some talk of soldiers of the deposed regime telling people they'll be killed if they go back (it wasn't made clear whether they meant the other regime, or themselves). The reason for inclusion is probably that a few hundred British troops are going.
'Independent' newspaper down to 30p, joining the 'price war' of the 'broadsheets'. Graph shows Telegraph sales at about a million a day; Independent below Times, Guardian. 'Analyst' type says if a paper is going to go, the Independent is the most likely. [This judgement seems based solely on the number of sales].
Meeting or ceremony of the 50th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising in Warsaw; we see John Major, Lech Walensa now looking plump; German president Roman Herzog asks forgiveness in German from his lectern. We see old people, presumably Poles, seated at the front who don't clap. Typical elderly British woman interviewee talks about loading people into cattle trucks. 200,000 Poles died; nine out of ten were civilians (says VO, over b/w film).
Note: is this an example of gaps in the law, deliberately left for establishment people, backfiring?
THE HUMAN ANIMAL, Desmond Morris: Wed 27th July 1994 (I think. Series of four programmes - part of the reason presumably to promote a BBC-published book, 'The Human Zoo')
-".. make us the king of all the animals.."
-".. for a million years our ancestors were hunter-gatherers.."
-"we've inherited a love of fruit and vegetables" [shows experiment with children, half a table with sweet goodies, other half lettuce etc. This is supposed to prove etc. Then he mentions sugar; hence, sugary snacks are the ones consumed at random times.]
-".. we drink more water than any other mammal.. our urine is dilute.. our dung is moist.. we sweat.. not adapted to ?hot ?dry ?climates.."
-".. while we were conquering the skies.." [rocket launch shot]
-".. [?some ?Africans] have a name for ten different types of honey."
-"it is no accident that the first fermented drink our species discovered was mead."
-"weak jaws.."
-"3 million years ago invented flint knives.."
-"1 million years ago discovery of fire.."
-"we adapted our food to our teeth.."
-"carnivores only need to eat occasionally.. they binge together.. it is no accident.. mealtimes.."
-"cocktail parties.. drink when they aren't thirsty, eat when they aren't hungry.. significantly, the food offered is meat.. savoury.. eating an accessory .. social event.."
-"insects are a favourite with ?peasant people throughout the world.. our ?bias against them is irrational.." [shots of fried caterpillars with warning colouration, in I think South Africa]
-".. earth eating.. some clays.. in ?Kenya.. [grey stuff shown being dug, shaped into eggs] .. contains calcium, magnesium, and traces of copper, zinc and iron.."
[43-44 of Naked Ape, and bibliography, on possible aquatic or seashore phase of man; bibliography has New Scientist article of 1960 I think.]
Gap about 7 million years ago to 4 million.. East African coast estuaries? streamline body without hair/ hairs pointing back/ shape of nose, nostrils down/ flexible spine/ blubber layer/ partial webbing of hands and feet/ dive reflex (heart slows)/ neonates under water keep eyes open, hold their breath
-".. tree-living.. fruit.. berries.. nuts.. occasional mat.. to the plains for reasons we can't now know.. compete with carnivores.. [shot of hyenas, big teeth etc].. co-operation.. hunting.."
-"Maasai .. bleed the cattle.. blood in long thin gourd.. add milk.. mixed.. coagulates.. stick has mixture adhering to it.. treat for children.. in effect a parasite of cattle.. very efficient.."
-[scenes of caribou walking in single file through snow being hunted by ?eskimos; these have modern rifles, hunting knives, binoculars, special clothing; and perhaps never belonged in the area, but were pushed out there. But Morris thinks this is a remnant of the days of living as hunters, and praises the effect of smell of cookery after three days of uncertainty and not eating.]
-[Scenes of French people eating: Morris gives the scientific name for order or whatever; cp Cambridge chap somewhere saying something similar about species of vegetables: ... ? [mussels], amphibia [frogs' legs], reptiles [turtle soup], echinoderms [sea urchins], fish, birds, root vegetables, leaf vegetables, fungi [mushrooms], decomposing animal fat.
"Bringing home the bacon.. making a killing.. from hunter gatherer to credit card shopper.."
[Another Episode; this one Wed 10 Aug 1994; Radio Times blurb includes: 'He shows how we deal with the stranger-filled urban environment by forming our own small personal "tribes" of friends, each with a territory and social hierarchy of its own. Everyone else is a non-person to be blanked out. However, although this is a successful recipe for peaceful living, sometimes violence and mayhem does break out - usually between tribes but even within a tribe. ..']
-".. settlement.. invented the village.. then with agriculture it grew.. towns.. 150 people.. [Dogon people in Mali, I think].. they all know each other.. very elaborate greeting ceremonies.. people hardly ever alone.. move about in small groups.."
-"What happened to man the ?mighty hunter?"
-"Overcrowding is the problem with tribes"
-".. People walk along.. not meeting each others' gaze.. can't possibly greet everyone.. treat them as trees.. some people call it the human jungle. But a jungle's not like that.. When I wrote.. Naked Ape.. lived in Malta.. sequel.. it's a Human Zoo.."
-".. tribe to supertribe.."
-"This [address book] is his tribe.. colleagues, family, friends.."
-"They [shoplifters] co-operate skilfully.. but feel nothing for their victims.."
VISUAL AND VOCAL SIGNALS: Most disputes resolved by threat and counter threat.. Like most animals .. go to great lengths to avoid fighting.. This man will lie down.. [We see chap behind Italian car, apparently pushing it; dago type gets out, and the man does retreat to the pavement, and lies down!]
INITIATION: [Shots of girl being hit and kicked by two other girls, wearing trainers, in L.A., for thirty seconds; she says she feels great when it's over/ New employees in Japanese company; they sing a sort of hymn, bow, the tribal elders bow etc.
CEREMONIES: "Synchronized movement and music.. warm feeling of membership of a tribe.. rituals grow with amazing speed..
.. Ancient ceremonies, like the Freemasons.. [shot of huge roomful of seated people, and people processing across black and white checkerboard]
.. Twice a year in Siena.. ?Palio.. stylised aggression.. all the trappings of ancient warfare.. flag waving.. colours.. Before the ceremony the young males.. displays of aggression [this means singing]
COSTUME.. Hell's angels in black leather.. striped blazers at Henley Regatta... Japanese [girl] tourists look exuberant (all in black tights, white shirty things, coloured jackets]
HIERARCHY How are people arranged within tribes? ... people similar to us.. feel comfortable.. the English pub.. Lounge Bar, Public Bar, smoking.. a number of levels each feeling at home in its own [indecipherable; short word].
.. .. Size.. big.. simple as that.. height.. high status.. headgear.. elevation.. at this coronation.. high status person.. elevated.. tall headgear.. Low status.. down.. prostrate.. literally looks up..
.. Looking at this small town [I think Muslim desert place; North Africa?].. largest building.. I'd think the dominant individual lived in that building.. I'd be right; but the individual [doesn't exist?].. invention [?discovery] of God.. treated as a dominant figure.. exploited by holy men setting up as agents.. more extreme prostration than any other human activity.. this Tibetan.. must fully prostrate himself on every step of his journey.. may be hundreds of miles..
TERRITORY .. Cherry Blossom ceremony.. arrive with markers for the ground.. mark out areas of space.. civilized.. most people respect the markers.. [we see people pick way along intervening narrow paths].. disputes like this one are quickly settled..
Wherever we look bodies are spaced out at regular intervals..
.. cars in a car park.. room conjured out of ?tables and chairs.. [what looks like regatta style event]
.. car as an extension of territory.. defend their cars with extraordinary tenacity.. [shots of what might be travellers being extracted from their vehicles, carried off by police with shields etc] .. These Korean students.. Bangkok students prostrate themselves.. [we see machine gun carrying troops and young men on ground being walked over, kicked etc]
.. Los Angeles gangs.. every square inch of this surface [walls] painted.. signals of occupation.. some animals mark territory with scent.. we use visual signals..
.. National territory.. threat displays.. others may find these offensive, as indeed was the intention.. [Rule Britannia plays at Last Night of the Proms]
"we know overcrowding causes stress and the weakening of the immune system.. Why do we go to the city? Why not live.. village.. calm.. away from noise and pollution.. The answer is personal freedom, the feeling that anything is possible in the city.. We can make it [in effect, a prison or exciting and interesting]. The choice is up to us."
Wed 17th August 1994: Desmond Morris on sex. I missed this. Margaret assures me it showed both male and female orgasms, filmed internally presumably with an optical cable and CCD or something. One view showed red walls and a red thing coming in and out, then a whoosh of white stuff; the other a cervix apparently thrusting about in, presumably, a sucking sort of way. And sperms apparently fighting [how could they know they were rivals??] - part of the idea extending competition into every possible area. Plus holding hands, putting arm round etc.
[Note: joke: letter in Radio Times from a woman criticized with some bitterness the idea that women have affairs so that sperm can fight it out internally. Doesn't he realise that boredom is the real reason?]
Wed 24th August (or perhaps 31st; I lost track) entitled 'BEYOND SURVIVAL'. [Credits included 6 photographers, 4 sound people, 2 lighting people, 2 composers in addition to Schubert's D956 String Quintet in C, and large numbers of producers, directors, pre-and post-production people etc etc.]
[Joke: occurs to me the main characteristic of this programme is its facile optimism - it's telling people they are jolly super. More precisely, that they are intelligent, sensitive, creative, artistic - cp astrology! (Having briefly met an 'integrated therapist', female, perhaps one could add 'intuitive' as opposed to 'logical')]
Joke: he's an advocate of creativity who I think has not a single original idea in all this; cf bibliography to Naked Ape; only exception I can think of is his unimpressive work on 'chimp art'.
[Note: Paradox of creativity: - at least, I think there's some sort of paradox, at any rate: on the lines: obviously, animals are never creative; they may arrange things etc in strange ways but clearly they're subhuman etc. But if human beings are instinctively or innately creative, that aspect of them is purely animal.]
Another feature is inconsistency; we're often told some type of activity is innate, and when we note that lots of people don't do it, a substitute is suggested - cf e.g. art (most people don't do it - it's suggested because of the 'burden of representing reality', sport by proxy, 'people who fear physical risks'. A variation of this is stretched interpretation: cf e.g. the suggestion that the cinema is 'symbolic play'
And another is almost unconscious belief that buying countries - US, UK, Japan - have natural patterns; cf e.g. cars as commonplace, credit card buying as natural (somewhere above), children's art showing windows as 'universal'. I think this is probably a manifestation of the sort of thing you get in 'developmental psychology', in which all the kids and all the psychologists have the same backgrounds and therefore there's an inevitable tendency for every single kid to be presumed to fit into a mould.]
- ".. Prison [we've seen a man in a 7 foot by 7 foot cell, whose physical needs we are told will be taken care of for the rest of his life] is one of the worst punishments society can bestow... why?
- ".. our greatest of rewards are obtained when we go beyond survival.. closer look at our finer moments and see if we can trace their biological roots.. [we see oddly lit stage; curtain goes up; an opera] .. these displays are quite different from the activities of the rest of the animal world. They are not threat displays, territorial displays, or courtship displays.. deep and ancient part of human nature to be imaginative and inventive. The human species is biologically a creative species. ..." [Joke: by coincidence, after watching this on the videotape, was an 'Antiques Hunt' programme in which the object was to buy things and sell them at a profit (and also identify 'valuable' items, these being scarce rather than interesting)]
- ".. Probably the oldest and most widespread way in which humans display their creativity is by decorating themselves. Nowhere is this more evident than among the tribespeople of Papua New Guinea. [who use sump oil & correcting fluid, among other things] .. their aim is for maximum uninhibited visual ?.."
- ".. in the west.. a great deal of time and effort.. as this view through a two-way mirror.. [shows girls, presumably working class, apparently in the toilet area during a dance] .. sexually it makes sense to redden lips, expand the eyes, smooth the texture of the skin, and make the hair look clean.. but it's not as simple as that.. there are hundreds of shades of lipstick.. the decisions are aesthetic.. every time we appear in public we make statements about ourselves.."
- ".. the visual element of a costume lasts as long as we wear it" [unlike e.g. a gesture]
- ".. tattooing is an even more permanent form of body decoration.. willingness to tolerate prolonged pain.." [Morris suggests there's an association familiar to everyone between tattooing and pain]
- ".. because it demonstrates.. tolerate pain.. unyielding devotion to the group.. has survived in modern western society.."
- "When we go out on the town we like to feel good.. Why? .. satisfies a deep need to feel special. The Ndebele people are renowned for their elaborately patterned houses. Instead of snoozing in the sun they express the complexity of their human brains with creative acts. They spend hours painting and repainting their houses.." [We see lowish walls, apparently, around enclosures of houses; walls and houses seem whitewashed then painted in basically horizontal patterns with zigs and zags, resembling a geometrical blanket. Several colours used, though the design seems the strongest feature. When in Zimbabwe I never heard of or saw anything of the sort.]
- ".. Occasionally there's a small rebellion against the dead hand of the urban planners and creativity forces its way back [Shots show graffiti, a 'donut hole' through which buyers drive, a roadside stall designed like a huge 'burger', imitation teepees by a road, and the famous flats in a bit of Vienna with different-sized windows and irregular painted lines on the outside walls (and plants - which Morris doesn't notice. Poor Rudolf Steiner never seems to get noticed in these things.)
- ".. disturbing the geometry.. the key.. is contrast with their environment.. geometric shapes are more surprising when seen against a rugged background.." [Navajo Indians, I think, weaving very stark patterned mats; cp with impressionist painting reproduction of poppies in a 'company boardroom', which contrast because of their 'irrelevance'.]
- "As you move from culture to culture you find the focus of creativity constantly relocates itself.. the body.. the buildings.. for many societies, vehicles.. donkey carts in Sicily.. every square inch covered in elaborate carvings.. Long-established fishing communities.. Malta.. fishing boats.. works of art.. repaint every year.. When I analysed the colour patterns of these boats, I found that no two are the same [sic]
- "The principle of variations on a theme is one of the most fundamental properties of a work of art. .."
- "Sometimes varying a theme becomes an obsession.. these decorated vehicles are the ultimate expression of the urge to make the ordinary and commonplace something extraordinary and special.." [This accompanied by film of evidently US cars; one like a 'shark' in 'Jaws' sense with tail moving; one covered with beer cans; one with model fruit; one with dogs in a suburban garden, I think]
- ".. a vivid form.. shifted to the garden.. gardeners may not think of themselves as serious artists, but that's what they are.."
- ".. the peacock.. what's called the handicap principle.. [i.e. theory that such a hefty and useless decoration must show a superior bird] .. It's the same for us.. if we take the trouble to display ourself.. we send out signals saying we can afford to do this.. cars, hairstyles, houses.. emphasize we've risen above mere survival.. if we can spare the energy to be special then we must have the ordinary under control.."
- [Joke: even in inhibited societies - Britain a couple of times referred to like this] ".. aesthetic.. [hidden camera of man looking at ties].. with that act of choosing just for a moment he becomes an artist.." [even though mass production 'may blunt this']
- "It's the same with cars. We know all about their technical qualities [sic; surely this is nonsense?] but we're still strongly influenced by tiny differences of appearances - body shape, colour, and style..
.. studying a menu.. aesthetic decisions about taste, aroma, and texture.. hundreds of small aesthetic decisions every day.. the faces of people show intense concentration.." [We see close ups of middle aged women, presumably taken secretly, in rather hideous close up as they inspect some crap or other]
- ".. Australopithecus.. a small ape man species.. the so-called missing link.. this cave in the Transvaal.. the ?Makapan pebble.. a type of stone found three miles north.. [they had to bring it back, so:] .. obviously a treasured possession.. here it is.. it doesn't look much.. [he holds up a palm-sized dark stone; turns it around to reveal two depressions, nose and mouth style shapes of ape like type] a face appears.. three million years ago.."
- ".. the Middle East.. startling discovery just a few months ago.. world's oldest man made art object [the pebble was found, he says].. Golan Venus.. 300,000 years old.. tiny female form.." [Note: could these things be fakes?]
- ".. exciting rock art that's scattered all over the globe.. [sic] .. for nearly 50,000 years native Australians.." [Film etc of paintings being repainted etc on rocks; no evidence whether this is original, copied, fake, revived custom, or whatever]
- ".. as far as we can tell the phenomenon that we today call art has always been part of human existence as universal as eating, sleeping or talking.. the fact is that creativity has always been an essential part of our make-up.."
- [Film of the ?vogelkop gardener bird, from somewhere not specified, which builds a 'woven hut' above ground level and constructs a 'garden' below, collecting together similarly coloured plant things in clumps. This (of course!) is not true aesthetic appreciation, since the bird "lacks the curiosity and inventiveness of human art".]
- "To trace the biological roots of human art .. turn to our nearest living relatives, the apes.. in the 1950s.. chimpanzee.. Congo.. [paper which he painted within the boundaries of; then when a square introduced he filled it in, or, when off-centre (and solid!) balanced it with an opposite scribble] .. radiating fan shape.. he started to vary it.. that most essential element of all art, thematic variation... The primate origins of the art which we see unfolding in our own species.."
- There follow quite a few long sequences of children painting and scribbling on ?glass so we can see what happens; plus what must be a faked mock-up illustrating dynamically what the process is supposed to be. Morris explicitly says "the sequence is always the same": [Note: this seems to come from Gessell - cf eg Sandstrom. Note: example of hard to tell phenomenon]
- Scribbles [described as "completely abstract" by Morris]
- A clear circle
- circle is criss crossed
- ring of small radiating lines around circle ["like the sun"]
- circles and marks juggled about inside the circle until a face emerges - cp ?Makapan pebble.
- arms, legs, bodies, more and more detail.
"A huge threshold has been passed, one that no chimp has yet ?managed.. human creativity is unleashed.. even at this stage the images are still universal." [Joke: in fact we see skirts, 'flowers' with four or five loops around centre, windows of plus inside square type; I expect many more non-universal things censored out]
- "[Art students painting nude woman:] ".. life-like.. no longer have the thrill of using their imaginations.. burdened with an arduous new task.. over the centuries great art became more and more the preserve of a brilliant elite.. ?ordinary people ?simply couldn't compete.. Then science.. photography.. later, film and video.. 20th century art has thrown off its representational chains.. adult sophistication.. for some a bewildering change.. returning to its imaginatively playful roots.." [All this in a picture gallery; e.g. a Picasso nude in background, and I think Matisse]
- "Almost all adults are playful when they are young.. but.. [e.g. well-fed adult lions sleep 16 hours a day] .. human playfulness survives into adulthood.." [we see shots of people on a sort of fairground thing which is difficult to walk on]. [Joke: it seems that young animals' play is 'genuine' in some sense, whereas animals' creativity isn't - though perhaps this is unfair.]
- [Note: hard to prove:] "Individuals that play a great deal when young are better at surviving later in life.. may be ?significant that so much play.. prey-predator behaviour as though we feel the need to act out our ancient past.." [Outdoor hide and seek game shown]
- "As adults when we are given a playful and stimulating environment we perform at our best. .. This may seem obvious but.." [Shots of a Los Angeles Advertising Agency, surrounded by stuffed toys, and with indoor basketball gym] ".. the [joke:] creative staff play basketball.. techniques that foster creative processes.."
"But for most of us.. special occasions.. we dress up and become decidedly childlike.." [Note: surrealism, evasion: Shot of three or so very elaborate huge carnival costumes at night]
- ".. many cultures.. [in effect, with spare time, do purposeless things] .. Finnish ice sculptures.. allowed to melt away.. Dutch sandcastle.. biggest in the world.. sport.. a serious activity.. [joke:] whether as a participant or as an observer.. this is playing by proxy.." [shots rather embarrassingly staged of people including token woman applauding a TV game of football, a sort of British caricature of US fans].
- ".. We survive not by having one big trick but by having many small tricks.. during our evolution, we never knew where our next meal was coming from.. often involved us in taking risks.. a risk-taking species.. physically not really very well equipped.. [shot of chap in swimming trunks climbing seaside rocks; then a little girl in some sort of playground, wondering whether to jump onto soft stuff a few feet below].. ?wants to jump, even though there's no special need to do so..
[Shots of a dangerous sports club, with odd huge catapult propelled by rope tugging at lower end of pole and worked by some sort of tension device which wasn't clear; bloke in crash helmet is projected not very far
into a pool with a splash].
[Joke: now the exception:] for those who fear physical risks.. gambling.. ?Patchenko hall.. thousands of Japanese indulge in this type ...
[Fijian fire-walking, which Morris says is still not explained by science. We see pit, ashes, night-time scene:] ".. A handkerchief placed on these ?stones would burst into flames.. Even today, nobody knows how injury to the feet is avoided."
- [Shot of cat playing with a leaf introduces 'symbolic play':] ".. play.. element of make believe.. kitten.. [Joke:] leaf symbolises a mouse.. René Magritte.. Ceci n'est pas un pipe.. He explained you couldn't stuff tobacco into it, so it wasn't a real pipe.. symbolic play.. whole industries.. cinema.. [hidden camera or cameras record people watching what we're told are scenes of torture] .. they know the scenes are performed by actors.. Navajo Indian sand paintings.. coloured sand.. ceremonies may take four days.. [person who's the object of the ceremony sits in the middle, we're told].. suggestible.. heady world of brain games and mind play.. You may say ?who would believe in the magic properties of sand paintings; but then who would believe in ?film actors.."
- [Joke: see above on 'creativity':] "The naked ape should really be rechristened the creative ape.. [some people think achievements in technology, economics, or politics are wonderful; but not Morris:] .. means to one of two ends.. better survival, or better adult play.. [shots of people with a huge truckful of tomatoes, pelting each other] if ever we become pious, earnest.. we'll have betrayed our biological heritage as the most exuberant, most mischievous imaginative animal on the planet.
Of all the species that have ever lived, we, the human animal, are by far the most extraordinary.. magic combination.. the threshold ?bucker, the risk taker, the venerable child." [Ends with repeat shot of naked pair walking unsmiling through a shopping centre].
[More notes on this subject; I didn't note the source, and much is unreadable and inscrutable:
-One species .. dominate the natural world.. unprecedented success.. anatomically unusual, to say the least..
-Nod not always yes/ Indian head wobble means yes/ Bulgaria: nod AND wobble.
-Gestures preceded language? Visible a long way (as in tic tac men)/ secret
-Attract attention/ allows silence
- The secret is patient observation/ study them in their natural environment/ villages, towns, in real-life situations/ all round the world
- Smile 'evolved from anti-aggressive fear display'; muscles at corner of mouth and around eye developed later
- Breasts of the females.. smaller [can't read].. penis largest.. only species with rounded [can't read]..
- Importance of bipedalism
-Facial muscles originally for feeding etc
-Stare always a threat.. evil eye.. all over the Mediterranean, eyes are painted on boats..
- Laughter works as well as any ..]
BBC1 9 O'clock News, Wed 3 Aug 94 0:22:
- Metropolitan police commissioner (after some shooting, I think in London, had been sorted out) says "70% of guns originate in legitimate sources." Someone described as from the gun lobby 'refutes' this.
- '.. Cornwall.. Last tin mine.. 'traditional industry'.. 'conditions have hardly changed since the ?mine ?opened..' [in fact, the film shows electric light, machinery, pumps, lifts etc etc]
- Piece (presumably 50 years later) on the 1944 Butler Act and Butler shown as stating in b/w that he expects it will bring about one single nation standing together (or something) instead of two nations that are little talked about. It proposed grammar, technical, and secondary modern schools. And goes on to say after the war technical schools could not be afforded, and secondary moderns were 'burdened with elementary school stigma'. Leaving age was raised to 15. In 1944, 1/3 went to church schools but it's implied this was too expensive for them, so they were taken over by the state. [No mention of public schools! These are always censored out of education information.]
Sunday 14th August 1994: Start of an antiques programme with 'Jilly Goolden' (previously presented as a wine connoisseur) in which three teams of two people but stuff in presumably fairs etc and resell it at auction - acting as their own auctioneers - and the object is to make a profit. The more pounds they make, the more points they get! The prize is to try to select from a display of ten things the one which is worth the most money.
Thursday 8th Sept 94: ITV/ Carlton 7.30 - 8 'The Big story' - New Series, presented by Dermot Murnaghan. Radio Times blurb says last year The Big Story team responded to Fleet Street pictures of Princess Diana in a gym by sending cameras to "invade the privacy" of the papers' editors. .. five million viewers enjoyed it.
.. Among the topics they are "keeping an eye on".. are the Scott Inquiry, the events of Central Africa and Britain's budgetary payments to the EC.'
Turns out to be about Rwandans who incited genocide - some of them in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, etc.
Thu 8 Sept: 8-8.30 Channel 4 'Stories from an African Hospital': 6th of 7. Shows girl called Gertrude Aldo, aged 7, who contracted tetanus when 5 days old and has had lockjaw ever since. We see her eating slurry type food with difficulty. Oddly-shaped jaw; looks undershot. Her mother earns 70 p a day as a teacher (I think) father unemployed. Black surgeon, apparently the husband of white German anaesthetist, explains with a skull (using Latin terms) what is to be done. They pay £7 for operation, shown in some detail, including difficulties with anaesthesia, halothane seeming not to work - perhaps because of her mouth etc. When they get going, the right end of the jaw is found to be freeable fairly easily, but the left needs unpleasant looking hammering. As she wakes, she has bandaged jaw with red splodges at about where would be expected. Despite the pain she does her best to open her mouth. Parents had to wait several hours etc. Still photos so she was completely cured, though this happy ending was kept till the very last moment.
Thu 8 Sept: Ch 4 9-10, 'Sex, Sin and Survival'. Jonathon Porritt on 'the global population time bomb'. Porritt is somewhat optimistic ('.. past 20 years.. dramatic reductions in the population growth rates in one country after another..'); he dislikes the Catholic church 'which opposes all forms of artificial contraception'. This programme partly has reports of contraception etc, partly women's meetings on education, and partly interviews with unpleasant clerics and Opus Dei types.
Unfortunately he seems to have little feeling for currents in society which mould ppualtion: other religions (what about India?), desire of some prsumably for huge struggling popaulations for cheap labour or whatever, idea that kids support you in old age.
Joke: many of the interviewees are American-voiced people
American: "Over 25 years .. average family.. six.. or slightly more.. now four or slightly less.. average family size in the developing world.."
VO: ".. Women's needs.. women's rights.."
Egypt: ".. Average of seven to four children in twenty years.." and we see TV cartoon of huge family etc, interview with woman of about 20 already with two or three kids, "first Muslim country with half families using contraception..", Cairo we're told is a vibrant city, partly no doubt as half (or something) of its population is below 15, dramatic change in attitudes..
VO: ".. Cairo Conference should agree.. when it ?completes its report.. all important task could be completed in 18 to 20 years were it not for the opposition of the few and the ?indifference of the many.."
".. since 1930.. 4 1/2 billion onto the population then of 1 billion." [I think that's what they said; 2.7% per year, this works out at. But Porritt didn't seem to realise that medical improvements would make older people last longer too]
[South America:] VO: ".. newest barrio in Bogota.. [i.e. slum].. Women's organisation called Gabriela.."
VO: "before the Second World War, the Philippines were the richest country in South East Asia.." [is that true??]
[Manila, with 12 million population: Interviews with Catholic Filipino bishop with staring eyes and odd name and chain round neck/ and Opus Dei person, 'a powerful and ?shadowy organisation'/ and advertising slogan 'pushing language to its limits', 'contraception aborts'.
Porritt in a hospital ward with female victims of abortions which went wrong.]
Mon 19 Sept 94: BBC's Radio Times promoting BBC1 two part thing called 'The Healer': 'A mysterious young Irish doctor breezes into a job at a large teaching hospital, befriends all the patients and nurses, and immediately arouses the hostility of his seniors. .. [he] has a gift: he can heal the sick, not by conventional medicine, but by the laying on of hands.
.. G F Newman's parable points out the limitations of an overtaxed hierarchical health service; it's also a poignant piece of wish fulfilment, with Dr John exercising his powers on sick children, wounded animals and plucky old ladies. ..'
An earlier blurb says: 'The scourge of the Establishment, G F Newman, is back with a new drama about the Health Service, 'The Healer'
.. [His food] [a set] [his clothes] [people at the set] '.. Bland is not the word for Newman, or his work. Only the late Dennis Potter has upset the established order quite as much, and Newman could claim to be the bigger thorn in official side. For whereas Potter outraged morals, Newman outrages the most cherished of the Establishment's flagships: health policy, law and order.
"My television work is campaigning," he says.. I did The Nation's Health 12 years ago. ..
.. Newman's experience of healing starts close to home. His partner, the writer Rebecca Hall, is a healer. .. Mainstream cures involve the exploitation of animals and I don't believe you can justify taking one life to save another. ..'
Sat 1 Oct 94: TV: 'The Moral Maze' on high ranking person in Church of England who had been charged with gross indecency a long time ago; was a tabloid justified in claiming it was in the public interest to publish?
Sat 8 Oct 94 21:40: TV: 'Moral Maze'. Buerk wonders if it's right that Gerry Adams should be greeted by government ministers, American officials etc
'An epic story in nine parts, following the progress of ambitious rogue Bob Longman, an ambitious working-class Yorkshire lad. .. begins with feature-length episode.. Bob, a young criminal on the young, rescues Paula while posing as an air-raid warden. From this moment on they develop a passionate obsession for each other.'
'As the bombs rain down.. Bob Longman is taking advantage of the blackout to break into big houses, disguised as an ARP warden, and help himself to the silverware. A chance encounter with a frightened young woman during the blitz sparks off a chain of events, romantic and violent, that fuels this nine-part rags-to-riches drama..
Seaforth will make a star of Linus Roache.. who plays the amoral, violent Bob as an attractive hero. .. the innocent Paula ends this first feature-length episode carrying Bob's child while he fights a dirty war in france. This is epic BBC drama in the When the Boat Comes In mould, and a second series is already planned.'
Mon 10th Oct 1994: ITV 8.30 World in Action: Human Growth Hormone and CJD (=Creutzfeldt-Jacob) cases in UK (13 or so deaths out of 2,000 treated)/ see \notes\medical
Mon 10 Oct 94: funeral of white killed by Asians (London, I think) on TV. Bengali suspects released through lack of evidence. Cf incidents the other way round
Sun 16 Oct 94: 7-8 pm Channel 4, 'Equinox: Hypnosis - The Big Sleep'. Repeated Mon 10th April early afternoon. Producer David Birtland. Director Graham Moore. Voiceover by Geordie actor Michael Angelis, acting the part of a US detective. Script by Shaun Prendergast.
Interesting programme which by coincidence suggested exactly a conclusion I'd arrived at, viz that hypnosis is a myth, bolstered up by the difficulties 1 that it involves mental states, 2 and by having untrained observers, 3 and by becoming associated with spectacular unfamiliar phenomena which are difficult to assess, 4 with social pressure applied e.g. by enthusiastic believers in UFO abductions or past life regressions, to e.g. audiences at Blackpool wanting entertainment.
- Open heart surgery at first was done on people with rheumatic heart disease, who were expected to die of heart failure in their early 30s, of calcified heart valves; they were too ill to be given anaesthetic and so they used 'hypno-anaesthesia'. Says Dabney Ewin MD, Tulane Medical School, New Orleans. He says they were in a trance; you can change your perception of hearing; you can become hysterically blind. The point of this anecdote is that of course the pain of operations is hard to assess (cp Corina assuring me that vasectomies are agonisingly painful!). We see a male Spanish surgeon, Angel Escadero (perhaps Escudero), operating on a leg, chipping away, while the woman is given tender loving care and comforted by her family!
- Anyone can bite into an onion, being told it's an apple; we see an 'ordinary student', not an actor, not rehearsed, but older than most I think, being told to simulate the behaviour of a 'hypnotised person', which he does very well.
One of the things the student does is allow himself to be placed across chair backs (one at shoulders, other calfs) after which the chap conducting the experiment sat on his chest! Admittedly, uneasily, and very much toward the front. "Virtually every adult male can carry a weight of 300 pounds on his chest." He also pretends to be seven years old; his act consists of being feeble and lispy. When he 'wakes up' and is asked if he remembers anything, he says no; because, he says, he thought that's what he was supposed to say.
VO says: Perhaps he was under the evil eye. He says no, I was definitely not hypnotised.
- Shots of people from a show being contacted next day; had they really been hypnotised? We'd seen the process (in part) in which essentially a crowd is whittled down to those who do what they're told, typically ending with them 'relaxed completely' slumped in a chair. This was a bit vague; they seemed stupid. But of a classroom of people who were told they were being hypnotised, almost all said they didn't really feel they were in a genuine 'trance'; they were simply going along with the chap's voice.
- Some technical stuff; e.g. woman aged 50s 'associate professor' in a polytechnic or university of technology in Virginia somewhere; various things, e.g. EEGs plus some sort of coloured map of the brain; some of these obtained by causing the subject to inhale radioactive xenon, and imaging the result in some unexplained way. 'High hypnotisables' had red patterns; but low hypnotisables didn't. She thought this meant "high hypnotisables making ?active decision, sending messages to the limbic system staying stop the pain!". This evidence of brain activity, computer enhanced into glowing colours, seemed to show one brain (under hypnosis) differed from another (not).
- But a Canadian sceptic, Nicholas P Spanos of Carleton University, Ottawa, plump & moustached in t-shirt with 'Bad Attitude' on it & in cap, [and who died soon after the program] said there's a biochemical analogue to every activity: ".. gotta be at some level neurological core-lates [correlates] just like you get neurological core-lates .. breathing.. eating your lunch.." I.e. I suppose in Hillman's words so what? He also said people are put under social pressure, and are "convinced by the drama."
Spanos shown doing experiments with pain; person with finger on little support like say a chopstick stand & weight at end of lever, which is placed on it like a level crossing gate. 'Pain tolerance' experiment. He said low hypnotisables, through not wanting to be led or what not, showed different score from high hypnotisables. BUT when they're told, no longer need the hypothesis of hypnosis, everyone has an inbuilt capacity to resist pain, just use that, their scores became the same as the high hypnotisables.
- Work here dated 1962 of Stanley Milgram, chap who told people to administer electric shocks if questions were answered wrongly while the actor/actress being 'electrocuted' shouted back things like "You've no right to hold me" in between muffled screams. Old style wood boxed b/w TV shows shirtsleeved man posing simple multiple choice questions and administering 285 volts, or something, to offscreen person or recorded voice, then looking uneasy. Impossible to know whether this was genuine. Similar experiments were tried again later, with a real live puppy, and again about 70% of people administered the 'maximum' dose of electricity; we weren't told what this was, but we were told the shocks were 'painful'. These experiments on obedience, on behaviour in accordance with experimental demands, supposedly applied to 70% of the tested subjects. Chap said it's not helpful to say 70% of people are cruel. It's social compliance etc.. people know what's expected.. e.g. in hypnotic 'regression' they're tested once, then invited back; people come with tape recorders, notebooks etc, and that represents social pressure. Or a group of people all pretend to be on galloping horses [incidentally using the reins in stylised ways, different from each other]; a mutual effect.
- Stage hypnotists, e.g. Andrew Newton, shown; he says he doesn't think he's ever hypnotised anyone. And the day after: people filmed on stage the evening before say why they did it - rather vague and rather useless stuff, though most said they were wide awake.
SHAKESPEARE:
Sun 16 Oct 94: Start on BBC2 of 'Bard on the Box', 'the start of the most comprehensive Shakespeare season ever seen on television.' '.. to coincide with the Royal Shakespeare Company's Everybody's Shakespeare festival.' [WHY?]
Tonight .. the Irresistible Rise of William Shakespeare, charting the ups and downs of the Bard's reputation over four centuries, followed by a special Bardbrain of Britain quiz.
Programmes include film of a 'workshop' on Measure for Measure, Elizabethan gardening, a US multiracial cast by a US director moving The Merchant of Venice to Los Angeles, Elizabethan clothes, A fun investigation of conflicting authorship theories, Elizabethan food, some council estate people performing 'Shakespearean scenes', Elizabethan medicine, Laurence Olivier's filmed Henry V, actors saying how it feels to act Shakespeare, 1991 Franco Zeffirelli film with Mel Gibson as Hamlet, Elizabethan theatre (by Sandy Toksvig), animated plays, 'A Double Life, George Cukor's Othello spin-off [which] won an Oscar for Ronald Colman as a tortured actor who becomes increasingly confused between reality and his stage character', a modern-day dress Measure for Measure, Kiss Me Kate with Cole Porter score and lively dance numbers, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (1990 film), celebrities reading a favourite passage, 'Everybody's Shakespeare sets out to discover why Shakespeare is the most widely performed dramatist in the world' [radio],. Lear with Gielgud [Radio]. That's the lot.
Radio Times has an unconsciously funny quiz; 'Who discarded his stethoscope to become the first American to star in a Shakespearean production on British television?'/ 'Which real-life couples played the following lovers' roles?'/ 'In each of the following groups, all three actresses have played a certain Shakespearian [sic; spelling varied] role - but which? e.g. Norma Shearer, Virginia McKenna, Olivia Hussey etc.
Also unconsciously funnny was:
9-9.30 pm 'Bardbrain of Britain' with Robert Robinson wasting time and hogging things with heavy wit from his autocue, and what appeared as near-sarcastic "well dones" when the people managed to get their questions right. With four unfortunate people 'whittled down from over 100 applicants' (no detail; the most qualified was called 'doctor' and I think had retired from something). The questions were identifying banal quotes, trying to remember the meaning of fairly obscure words, identifying the utterer of certain insults and so on; a greater inslut perhaps was a round in which the frequencies of words in all the plays had to be guessed, e.g. the number of occurences of 'murder', taken apparently from 'Bartlet[?]t's Concordance'. Nothing on e.g. legal ideas, battles and their outcomes, monarchs and their fates, hawking and other occupations of the aristocracy, religious themes. Or interpretations put on him. Just shit. The winner was described as something like a bank employee from Ipswich. Prize was a 'gold' mask thing of 'Shakespeare'.
Accident or whatever of survival of the plays, possibility of fakes, doubts as to authorship, possible relevance to true history: unmentioned
Patriotic stuff includes the idea that England was marginal to Europe, but this feeling is turned around into admiring the small island with its protection etc
Restoration: Davenant rewrote [though the extent is left unclear], redefining Hamlet as a Cromwell figure, the moral being how glad we are to have our monarchy. Macbeth was rewritten with far more witches singing and dancing (though the subtext of this, if any, was obscure to me; perhaps it was just to show how different his version was).
[Note: civil war:] Kenneth Baker says the great thing in Shakespeare is security, showing how thin the veneer of civilisation is, and that England had been devastated 'by civil wars for sixty years in the century before.' That's what he said; did he mean the Wars of the Roses? Or did he think Cromwell was before Shakespeare?
17th century: ignored; Dryden and others said in effect he was incomprehensible or archaic
1730 first monument to Shakespeare erected, I think at Stowe, with other eminent Englishmen; sort of nationalist statement in building. [Joke: erection]
Early 18th century rise of many symbols 'we now take as British': Union Jack, tea, Rule Britannia, God Save the Queen (says TV); My notes also say C of E, something which could be monarchy, and empire. This of course is half-truth - witness US as part of empire. And of course the C of E was established years earlier.
David Garrick in 18th century 'started the Shakespeare industry'; actor & entrepreneur, started his career in the 1740s as the cult of Shakespeare takes off. Garrick's Shakespeare Festival in ?1769 with three days of 'events' started Stratford-on-Avon on its way. Garrick declaimed a poem of his own: '.. nature instructed me..'
Ireland one of several attracted by the cult; faked documents, then a play, 'The Tragedy of Vortigern' (evidence for fakery not given). 1796 this was bid for by theatres, and Ireland selected Garrick's theatre in Drury Lane, I think the Royal something (still there, or so this programme said); it had a first night with pro- and anti- factions, fights broke out; so there was one performance only. Interest in the play thereafter declined quickly.
Christ-like imagery: humble birth, stable-like place, natural type, deer-poaching tale, gift given from above
Word 'psychoanalysis' [I don't know punctuation] coined by Coleridge discussing Shakespeare's plays
God-like character to Romantics (at least, English Romantics) who considered he'd invented or fathered them [or waffle something like that]
Late 19th century England: as with ceremonials with many horses and many 'actors', so Shakespeare was splendid and ceremonial and spectacular: e.g. Irving's 1880s Macbeth, with Lady Macbeth entering spectacularly in a tissued multi layered dress covered with beetles' wings, or something; cf also large Victorian paintings illustrating Shakespearean moments (not inappropriately analogous to moaning, long-drawn-out mouthings of a c 1900 recording of a then-famous male actor; cp Wells on conventions.)
By 1950s, start of modern stuff - films still a bit creaky, with black and white castle sets etc; but then people on trapezes, noises by rotating instruments, plain pastel backdrops etc etc. (But the style of the words is still noticeably a stumbling-block.)
Germaine Greer says Noh Theatre is precise, so is Comédie Francis, or whatever; you have to learn how to do it. [Could this apply to Commedia del'Arte, or whatever it is?] Anyway, this isn't 'the English genius'; Shakespeare's 'strength is his modesty' or some such crap.
Several French films shown with subtitles: people at a play say how vicious/ cruel/ whatever Shakespeare is.
Sun 23 Oct 8-8.50 pm BBC2 'Battle of Wills' [advertised as 'light-hearted' but in fact not really so]
Mark Twain 1909 'Is Shakespeare Dead????' [sic] seems to be book they quote from; with 9 bones Professor Osborn[?e] and I built the brontosaurus in the Natural History Museum, filling the gaps with plaster [that's what it said!] & cp. to facts about Shakespeare's life.
Others mentioned: Whitman/ Disraeli/ Bismarck/ Chaplin/ Welles/ Emerson/ Palmerston/ Henry James/ Freud and Malcolm X, who 'believed there was no such person'.
[Joke: selected for voice:] John Tusa did commentary. "What nobody or almost nobody denies is that between 1593 and 1623 .. works published and attributed to a William Shakespeare.. starting with Venus and Adonis.. a Stratford man of the same name.. baptismal record.. birth date traditionally assumed to be three days before, St George's day.. Grammar School pupil lists are missing.. We know he did not go to university.."
".. The Lord Chamberlaines men.. William Shakespeare.. [Note: misleading: what this means, despite passive appearance, is someone financed the Globe:] shareholder in the Globe Theatre.. March 1616 Shakspere [this is how Burford pronounces the 'Stratford man'] made his will.. one month later dead.. 1623 first folio edition.. edited by Ben Jonson.. Martin Droeshout engraving.. the monument in Stratford is posthumous.. gravestone without a name.. [this is the 'cursed be he' etc which was presented as though what was there was original, which seems unlikely, being a floor-level inscription].."
STRATFORDIANS REPRESENTED by someone called 'Professor Stanley Wells', grizzle-bearded 50-year old, who says at some point that the minds of Shakespeare and Bacon are completely different - on this argument cp Melsome, written about 1940-45. We see Stratford stuff, e.g. King Edward VI Grammar School with I think engraved roof beam '.. generally believed..'
BACONIANS by Thomas Bokenham, Chairman of the Francis Bacon Society [this seems to have changed its name at least once; founded 1885 by Mrs Henry Pott] described as an ex-bank clerk who started his Baconian work in 1959; grey haired, soft spoken, 60?.
And by an ex-Radio 4 man, a sort of sidekick, who calls him 'Boke'.
He has several bits of information: a 1624 book, CRYPTOMENYTICES ET CRYPTOGRAPHI’ of which we're shown title page of 'Libri IX', apparently by Gustavi Seleni à Johanne Trithenio. The engraving below and to the left of the wording shows a picture of a chap writing, a man taking his writing and giving them to another man to give to a peasant in buskins and with a spear (supposedly signifying an actor), who takes them to a round building, which 'could be the Globe Theatre'. What this has to do with Bacon isn't clear; it didn't seem to be Bacon's book. However it has stuff of cryptography, many techniques (we're told) including 'squaring a text' then selecting every 7th letter as a message. Squaring means writing it omitting spaces in a regular grid, so it can repeat (otherwise why not just pick every 7th letter without bothering). Then Boke applies this technique - or something similar - to the 1741 Poets Corner memorial 'by Lord Burlington and Alexander Pope' in Westminster Abbey, which has marble 'Shakespeare' pointing to a marble message:
'The Cloud cupt To~'rs
The Gorgeous Palaces
The Solemn Temples.
The Great Globe itfelf
Yea all ~hich it Inherit
Shall Difsolve
And like the bafelefs Fnbrick of a vision
Leave not a Wreck Behind.'
[where cupt, Fnbrick, Wreck are definite misprints. The w's looked to me like swung dashes, but Boke wasn't bothered about that.]
There's 1 more letter than a multiple of 13, so these letters where 'squared' repeat a full sequence, but fortunately we only need look at the second repeat:
LESSFNBRICKOF
AVISIONLEAVEN
OTAWRECKBEHIN
DTHECLOUDCUPT
TOWRSTHEGORGE
OUSPALACESTHE
SOLEMNTEMPLES
THEGREATGLOBE
From which Francis, Bacon, and author can be picked out. He said: Can you think of any reason why Francis Bacon should be on a monument to Shakespeare? I can't. He didn't seem to realise all it proved was that Pope and Burlington (perhaps) believed Bacon wrote Shakespeare.
Canonbury Tower houses the ?Bacon Society's library; it was leased by F B 1616-1624, and its panelling is supposedly full of unexplained symbolism. We're also told 'his muse was Pallas Athenae' shown with a spear.
Delia Bacon [American] 1857 book with Hawthorne preface & her 'descent into madness'/ then Ignatius Loyola Donnelly of 1882 'Atlantis..' (Gardner says also 'Ragnarok', Populist candidate, much else) and 1888 'The Great Crytogram: ..'/ Someone called Dr Orville Wood Owen, author of 'Sir Francis Bacon's Cipher Story', who investigated 'key words' [note: cp filing systems, card indexes, B Webb:] Bacon said something like 'take your knife and cut all books asunder and set the leaves on a great firm wheel which rolls and rolls..' which Owen did something like, with two rotating cylinders with a two foot wide canvas loop between them (or something similar).
OXFORDIANS only by 'CHARLES VERE, Earl of Burford', probably 30s, with red beard, though Looney, a 'Gateshead schoolmaster', and Charles Ogburn Senior 'The Mysterious William Shakespeare' and C O Jnr 'fired American interest in Edward de Vere'. Burford unfortunately only was shown with ordinary arguments, in Virginia, USA; he said he made a living out of this and that the sponsorship was in USA. He later said [perhaps the shot was ironical] the only interests of Shakespeare were mercenary and commercial.
" .. Grammar School.. He would have been incredibly conspicuous../ Will Willy William meant shepherd or poet; Pallas Athenae the spear-shaker was the patron goddess [sic] of the arts of the theatre.. Edward de Vere chose the name.. poet-playwright.. it would have been the most extraordinary coincidence if the world's greatest etc etc had happened to have a name which etc.. Hamlet.. noble birth.. sidelined out of his inheritance.. de Vere strange mixture of feudal aristocrat and bohemian [sic].. court audience would have recognised the play within a play.. disguised so the people wouldn't realise the court was being lampooned.. Polonius a lampoon of Cecil = Burghley.."
Tusa: Awesome feudal setting of Castle Hedingham. .. Matriculated from St Johns College Oxford at eight. [sic]. Grey's Inn.. Italy.. warfare.. politics.. Elizabethan court..
".. Whitman.. recognised the plays were undemocratic.. wolfish earls ?plenteous in the plays.. emerging middle class really only in the Merry Wives of Windsor, and then mainly to be mocked.. Death 1604. Tempest 1609? Oxfordians redate in a historical way.. 15 or 20 years earlier.. De Vere was highly well-educated, well-travelled, a favourite of the Queen, an insider at the Court, a poet, scholar, soldier, musician, composer, explorer and patron of letters and the theatre. .. The Stratford man .. easily the weakest candidate.. wilful absurdity.."
MARLOWE by A D Wraight, or 'Dolly Wraight', rather vaguely described, probably ex-school teacher of about 60. She maintains his death at 29 on 30 May 1593 was faked; in 1925 the coroner's report was unearthed at the P.R.O. (says TV): After long discussions, dispute over the bill; Frizer who stabbed Marlowe above the eye freed within a month with Queen's pardon. Devised by Walsingham to save him from the Star Chamber on a charge of Atheism, believes Wraight. Smuggled to Italy, I think; she thinks the sonnets are autobiographical and from Marlowe to Walsingham, e.g. 73 is on his own 'murder'. Went to King's School Canterbury, received 'one of the best educations in Elizabethan England' (Tusa) and went to Corpus Christi Cambridge, where portrait with arms folded supposedly reveals he was 'recruited into the Elizabethan secret service' by Walsingham, who apparently Wraight believed to have great literary interests too.
She said she'd 'discovered' the engraving was a kind of mask, with two left sleeves, meaning a pseudonymous author; typical lack of credit (since this is obviously not her 'discovery') weakened her whole case, of course.
QUEEN ELIZABETH portrait: an American called Dr Lillian Schwartz, a 'computer graphics expert', shown with computer package & with colour portrait or 'portrait' of Elizabeth (no details) with Droeshout engraving same size beside it. Close match (except for domed head and eyebrows; and also of course moustache - and sone details liked flared nose tip.)
No Shakespeare portrait from life exists. Jonson's poem says don't look at the picture, but at the works. In the 17th century, Schwartz 'had discovered', an official face pattern of Elizabeth I [sic] was supplied to all artists' studios, including that of Gower, her portrait painter.
Schwartz (or anyone else) didn't say she thought Elizabeth had written the works, just that the source of the engraving was very likely this.
30 Oct 1994: 10.45 - 11.45 ITV's 'South Bank Show' with Melvyn Bragg: film of Alan Ayckbourn at Cardiff University, 'The Plain Man's Guide to Playwriting'. This was a single part, on dialogue; no indication of how many parts there were in total.
See my \scriptwritng notes for detail.
[Incidentally also mentioned the 'closely guarded secret' of I think Dnietropetropavosk - or something - population one million, where nuclear missiles made, the factories designed to be invisible from the air, or something - presumably rubbish.]
Sun 6th Nov 1994: Ch 4 Equinox 'Rave New World': Director/Producer Paul Sen. No production company is mentioned.
Radio Times blurb: '.. rave-culture phenomenon of the 90s.. With an estimated half-million young Britons immersing themselves in the world of insistent rhythms, lurid visuals, and frenzied modes of self-expression every weekend, rave is no longer an underground fad. The programme traces the roots of rave, [i.e. Acid House which I think they dated from 1988 in venues picked at the last minute, use of DJs with turntables, samplers etc, to present performances in aircraft hangar type spaces] documents the dangers of the drug Ecstasy - and some of its possible benefits when used in psychotherapy - and illustrates how the movement has helped to make music technology more accessible. [Sic; not clear what this means; it's the other way round - programmers with graphics processing of compact disks produced graphics - 30 per second, varying in sync with the sounds - "This is modern art! Making a rude noise to people who think they know what modern art is. This is!"; and synthesiser computer programs with sampling, which produce sounds without vocals. Also chill out music - with Ecstasy, lethal overheating is possible - involving a softer version of the same]. Featuring London rave bands Orbital and Future Sound of London.'
- On MDMA and Dr Alexander Shulgin, see my film notes on drugs.
- Various inevitable scare stories about E, which is identified with MDMA. E.g. researcher maintains a moderate dose, once, can damage brains. Mechanism believed to work is something to do with serotonin, and brain receptors - graphics showed outpouring of serotonin the wrong way across 'synapses' - the effect being a feeling of beneficence but also, at least in rats, causation of repetitive movements (e.g. we see computer playback of a rat's movements - round and round a cage, as opposed to the normal random pattern of investigating walls and floors and holes, or pattern under 'speed' of erratic version of the same. This makes it suitable for repetitive dancing. Other people in white coats say it damages the brain etc, can be very dangerous. At raves not all take it (it's a class A substance with life imprisonment maximum penalty; much apparently comes from Holland). Songs like 'Ebeneezer Goode' not, for some reason, explained.
- We see psychological test: three groups - ravers without drugs, ravers with, and a control group of new people trying it: questionnaire filled in from time to time, with score from 1-7 or something on how they rate their feelings. Both with and without drugs report having a really good time. [NB: compare the idea that at a drinks party people given water flavoured with gin enjoy themselves as much - perhaps after one drink, anyway.] The control group has a less good time; they haven't learnt, presumably. Everyone seems surprised at lack of sex feeling: no chatting up, despite, because of heat, much exposure of flesh of oscillating dancers.
- Several interviewees, some more together seeming than others, say how much they enjoy the feeling of trust of others; it doesn't matter who you are.
Sun 6 Nov 94: BBC2 9.50-10.40 (rebroadcast August 98, though I forget on which channel). Timewatch 'The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition' Producer Jonathan Stamp. Author: ??????. Voiceover by Andrew Sachs (reading most of the script) with a few other actors doing e.g. translated book extracts.
- Rather confused collection of things: bits of Spanish and European history, including Reformation and rise of propaganda with printing [but much omitted - Moors, war with England, Columbian adventures]; parts of the myth - cinematic scenes of torture, fanatical clerics with supreme power able to do what they wanted, appalling dungeons - but nothing on expulsion and taking over of assets, both of supposed heretics and Moors/ Jews, nor on results of inquisitions and auto da fes - even of there was little torture, how many were shown the instruments, and gave up at that point? What happened to them?
Also stuff on burning at the stake: general idea that Spanish were no worse, if not better, than other countries.
At some point a total death toll of 3,000 - 5,000 in 350 years was stated. [I'm pretty sure the money grabbing aspect, which I think must have existed, was never mentioned].
** I've summarised the sequence below; followed by 'footnotes' which flesh out both the four interviewees - probably all Catholic - and the history, or what they pass off as history, in 'footnotes'. **
After this plenty of flames; sounds like Monks chanting; vaguely Latin music; muttering as of men chanting ritual things]
Title: 'The Myth of the Spanish Inquisition'
VO: "The Spanish Inquisition is infamous and long before Monty Python's caricature history had reached its verdict.."
[Extract read from 1567 book - see below; extract is:] 'A court without allegiance to any earthly authority, a bench of monks without appeal. There is nothing in the world to go beyond them in their most devilish examples of tyranny.. ...'
VO: "Four centuries of condemnation have made the Spanish Inquisition a byword for cruelty, terror and tyranny. But this image is false, a distortion disseminated four hundred years ago and accepted ever since. Now a new generation of historians.. Every one of the cases.. had its own file.. during its 350 years of history.. the opening up of the archives.. properly studied for the first time.. The files are detailed and exhaustive.. [sic; no evidence for this - how is it known that files haven't been removed?] its clerks wrote down every detail.. The huge task of sifting this material, previously scattered throughout Spain, daunted early historians [sic; this sounds like a tissue of lies!] .. systematic analysis is only just beginning.. but already [sic] a very different version of the Spanish Inquisition can be brought to light.'
VO: [Says the Inquisition had a book of rules, and anyone not conforming to it was sacked. No date. No evidence produced for any of this; just a title page, of a book which may have been ignored or not known:]
INSTRVCTIONES
DEL SANTO OFICIO [NB this is 'Holy Office']
DE LA INQUIFICION,
sunariamente, antiguas, y neuas.
PVESTAS POR ABECEDARIO
por Gafpar Ifidro de Arguello oficial del Confejo.
EN MADRID
VO: [Following Prof Kamen:] ".. During the same period in the rest of Europe.. In England you could be hanged for damaging shrubs in public gardens. In Germany, ?someone returned from banishment could have his eyes gouged out. In France, you could be disembowelled for sheep-stealing." [But cp. Rackham on e.g. medieval punishments - very lax, in truth]
VO: [Historical stuff which I've separated below, including Ferdinand and Isabella, the Battle of Muehlberg [on the Elbe; this is in H A L Fisher, but seems otherwise rather censored out; e.g. it's not in Montgomery's History or Perris], and printing as propaganda in the northern countries. Leads eventually after digressions on to the peak of Spain's power and then to its decline, the Spanish Inquisition myths (or facts) still continuing to operate.]
VO: ".. they were restrained interrogators sceptical of the benefits of torture and hardship in bringing heresy to light. By contrast with other tribunals they emerge as almost enlightened."
VO: ".. witchcraft.. frenzy [sic] from 1450-1750.. women burnt.." [Interviewees say 'witches' weren't burnt in Spain]
VO: [Turns to the rise of Spain and 'the new target', Philip. Shots of El Escorial (which however in the absence of scale manages to look small, like a Leonardo cathedral sketch. Alvarez-Junco talks about this aspect of the 'black legend'.
Footnotes:
INTERVIEWEES:
PROF HENRY KAMEN ['Higher Council for Scientific Research', Barcelona; slender looking chap, bald, looked vaguely foreign - perhaps partly Filipino or something?:] ".. statistics of its activity.. opened wide the debate about the Inquisition.."
"They were career men who didn't even have to be priests - in the early years we have examples.. lawyers trained in the university.. Inquisition used torture less than other [Spanish] tribunals.. and compared with other countries the Inquisition has a virtually clean record."
".. gruesome conditions.. Ironically the Inquisition probably had the best jails in Spain.. Inquisitors in mid-16th century Barcelona.. letter to their bosses in Madrid.. the Inquisitors said their prisons are full. They don't know what do to with the extra prisoners.. City jails are overcrowded, dying at the rate of twenty a week.."
".. Inquisitors were university lawyers.. lawyers look for evidence.. this woman has killed a baby. Very well. Where is the baby?.. The Spanish Inquisition declared witchcraft a delusion. No-one could be tried, let alone burnt, for it."
".. that the Inquisition encouraged Philip to kill his own son.. of course [sic] there is absolutely no evidence.. Don Carlos was insane, a very problematic teenager [sic; is there any evidence for this?] .. died in an accident.. mm.. made something like a champion of freedom.. protagonist of many plays, ??s, novels in the 17th and 18th centuries.. best known by Schiller.. made into a beautiful opera by Giuseppe Verdi.." [This opera is 'Don Carlos', which Jacobs says was produced in 1867; libretto in French by Méry & du Locle, after Schiller.] [Note: murders: cp. e.g. princes in the tower, and similar stories in English history] [Now we have scenes from this opera; I don't know the performers' names. The Grand Inquisitor (old chap) to whom everyone bows advises the king to kill his son; after all, God did so. I don't recall the reason, or pretext, given in the opera; perhaps Don Carlos wanted to free people, or something. At any rate Don Carlos gets stabbed and sinks to the floor.
PROF JOSE ALVAREZ-JUNCO [Tufts University; balding; Spanish accented English; specs:] "For the first time it was possible to wage a real propaganda campaign.. This is what the enemies of the Spanish Hapsburgs did.. very skilfully.. Spanish monarchy unable to counteract that.. they fought in the military domain.. they felt that was not proper of gentlemen.. [i.e. 'fighting with leaflets'] They fought with weapons.."
"The Black Legend is the name given by the Spanish to the legend.. greedy, cruel, tyrannical and specially intolerant in religious terms. .."
".. distortion.. the black legend.. Philip II presented as a monster.. cruelty of the Spanish race.. his policies are perfectly debatable.. personally I don't like him.. mm.. he was no more of a monster than say Henry VIII of England.. Henry VIII was cleaned up.. champion of Protestantism.."
PROF STEPHEN HALIOZER [Northern University of Illinois; unimpressive mediocre US voice and manner, open shirt:] ".. For example.. Valencia.. 2,000 cases.. only 2% experienced any torture, usually less than fifteen minutes. Less than 1% more than once.. no one more than twice. I have found instances of persons in secular prisons blaspheming.." [i.e. in order to get transferred to Inquisition jails]
PROF JAIME CONTRERAS [University of Alcalaide, Henares - at least, it looked like that. Grey suit, specs]. "The Inquisitor was a legal expert, and administrator. The image of the fanatical cleric is a product of one of the many biased interpretations of the Inquisition."
"The Holy Office was extraordinarily benign with regard to witchcraft. Other European courts, both secular and ecclesiastical, were very much less tolerant with regard to this type of crime."
HISTORY:
Sachs VO: ".. 15th century.. barren.. isolated.. fringe of Europe.. half the land unproductive.. half meagre.. burning plain.. no easy routes.. not natural centre.. no one leader.. could only dream of Hispania, united during the Roman conquest [sic]..
October 18th 1469 Ferdinand heir to Aragon and Isabella heiress of Castile were married.. wedding ended centuries of rivalries [sic].. Spain a historic fact.. The itinerant royal court often convened at Avila; at the Monastery of Santa Tomas, the facade has H.. to Ferdinand Spain could not be united without religious uniformity.. [or something similar; why not? Presumably it hadn't been uniform before].. pressure ?applied on Spain's large Jewish population to convert - many did - conversos.. practising in secret?.."
"1480.. new body.. santo etc.. its task to discover heresy.. conversos accused of Jewish worship could be burnt.. [NB; nothing on Moors!].."
".. 1480-1515.. by far the most active years of the Inquisition.. the rest of Europe did not rush to condemn.." [Interviewee:] ".. reports.. Italian and French ambassadors to the Catholic kings.. [sic; their kings?].. congratulating them because Spain has become Christian.. new age of Christian unity? It didn't last.."
"1517 the Church split in two.. It was the enormous power and wealth of the Church that the Protestant Reformers made their target. [sic. To illustrate this wealth, pictures of an annual parade at 'Spain's religious capital Toledo' of a gold object rather like a man-height gothic cathedral carried through the streets.] Until then, priests had been unquestioned mediators between God and the sinful world. But the Reformers declared that men came to god by faith alone, sola fide...
In turmoil, the Church went on the offensive. .. the defender of the Faith, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, ?leader of the Hapsburg dynasty, commanded the most powerful armies in Europe. As Ferdinand's grandson, ascended the throne of Spain. Battle of Muehlberg 1547.. enemies virtually annihilated. Routed on the battlefield the Reformers attacked elsewhere.. printing press.. it is no accident that printing was invented [sic] and spread fastest in countries [sic] sympathetic to the Reformation.. the German states, England, and the Low Countries. Within a year of the battle of Muehlberg stream of invective.. needed a focus.. found one in the Spanish Inquisition.. 1567 [see below on this book by 'Montanus'].. within the year translated into English, French, Dutch and German.
1567: 'A Discoverie and Playne Declaration of the sundry subtill practifes of the Holy Inquifition of Spain.' [British Museum stamp on this book. It may have been originally in Latin; programme didn't say. By 'Montanus', claimed by VO to be a pseudonym, anyway unidentified; author pretended to be a victim of the Inquisition - said VO.] Other things which this book supposedly invented were: '.. the image of horrors .. arrayed in canvas.. the horrors of the torture chamber, including the iron maiden [VO shows one - one of the few that survived [sic] - this one was built in Germany, it says ambiguously].'
- Sachs VO: 'The Inquisitorial Torture Chamber of popular myth [sic] never existed.' [Since even the people in this programme stated the Inquisition is known to have used torture, this statement is clearly deliberately casuistical. However it's repeated later during the programme: '.. Inquisition's torture chamber[?s] never existed.' It's also stated: '.. The Inquisition didn't ravish their female victims although a rich and undeniably popular tradition.. etc.].
"By the 1560s Spain was a superpower.. new royal palace.. El Escorial.. 16th century Pentagon.. built in the hills above Madrid.. vast structure.. miles of marble corridors.. built by Charles V's son and successor, Philip II.. Spain completed its rise in less than a century from obscurity to the domination of Europe [sic].. Philip was at the pinnacle of earthly power but like his father ?acknowledged a higher power [sic].. '... I do not wish nor do I desire [sic] to be the ruler of heretics..' .. Spain's enemies found a new target.. the king himself.."
[El Escorial shown from the air; it looks rather dinky and self contained. Basically four stories I think. This sort of layout; I've tried not very succesfully to indicate a 3 by 3 layout with a surrounding four stories (with small windows) and fairly steeply pitched roofs & with corner towers here and there. There's also a dome:]
[Undated book: accusation of instructions for the Inquisition to exterminate whole populations; 'proved a forgery' [no information how]. We see black letter text of title:
De ??Artijckelenende befluyten
der Inquifitie van Spaegnien
om die van de Nedelanden te ?overvellen ende verhinderen...]
1780, 1820: Sachs VO: '.. Inquisition.. wound up.. in a back street of Madrid.' [NB McCabe says many people believe this; and says it isn't true] [We see picture of plaque on wall, square arranged diamond fashion [there were accents which I couldn't make out:]:
EN ESTE INMUEBLE
TUVIERON SU SEDE
EL CONSEJO SUPREMO Y
TRIBUNAL DE LA
INQUISICION
DESDE LA DECADA DE 1780
HASTA SU EXTINCION
EN 1820
Mother Teresa [this title used without comment] '.. considered.. invisible means of support.. [something like:] suspension of critical faculties..'
We see her arrive by helicopter, apparently in Ireland at some shrine where last century woman had supposedly done something. An Irishman in purple praises her in rather vague terms as being saint-like.
Name something like Agnes Boyacu of Albania.
Hitchens dates the cult to 1969; BBC, Muggeridge thing called 'Something Beautiful for God'. Peter Shaffer was director - I'm not sure if this was the playwright. Photographer talked of new untried Kodak film which they were forced to try for filming the 'House of the Dying'. The pictures came out well; Muggeridge said something about 'divine light, old boy' and stories of a 'miracle' began to circulate.
Indian chap says people on the streets of Calcutta know and care nothing about her 'work'.
What this seems to be, the House of the Dying, is supposedly a hospice; in fact two rooms, one for men, one for women, with terminally ill people (with shaved heads) on stretcher beds (apparently as in WW1). No furniture. No garden. Not enough drips. Shared needles. If you're lucky, you might get an aspirin. A woman said it was like Belsen. Another said a 15-year old boy hadn't been allowed to go in a cab to hospital: if one goes, they'll all want to go, she was told.
C Hitchens visited 'Missionaries of Charity' in early 1980s, with Victorian work-house type motto; I think this was for abandoned babies. 'This is how we fight abortion and contraception in Calcutta' M T said to C H.
Then a list of friendships with right-wing leaders and a crook:
Keating, jailed after American Savings and Loan swindle, lent her his plane and other support
In 1988 'she bent the ear of the iron lady'.
Visited Lebanon: Catholics carried out massacres at Sabra and Chatila, says C H.
Visited Nicaragua (I think); some archbishop or something described as patron (or something similar) of the Contras.
Pius IX and his friend Mussolini worked in somewhere
Haiti: the church never forgave Aristide.. not allowed to take mass.. the Vatican was the last to continue to recognise the junta that ruled Haiti.. Baby Doc rewarded M T before the Duvaliers left for ever for the French Riviera..
Reagan awarded her a 'freedom medal'.. the Catholic archbishop of San Salvador and ?American nuns murdered by the death squads..
Nobel Prize & others; rather absurd scenes of tiny woman with white head dress bordered with blue stripes, head bent, in plush surroundings, with condescending men. VO says the turnover of the Mother Teresa multinational is tens of millions. This might make a difference in Calcutta. But [she talks:] '.. five hundred convents.. round the world..'
.. killing fields of Guatemala.. she said where I was, it was quiet..
In Albania, putting flowers (and a kiss) on the outdoor tomb of ?Hoxta - Stalinist tyrant who established the world's first atheist state..
Bhopal: negligent multinational. Her message? We see her saying (in English:) Forgive. Forgive.
Indian and others: "Makes us feel better.. she's a westerner.. given up her life (whatever it might have been in Albania).. combines the mission to the heathen, the colonial outpost, and Florence Nightingale. And the image of the deserving poor in whom she encourages submission [Note: cp. Wells on Christian charity]
Ends: "Demagogue, obscurantist and servant of earthly powers."
- Victoria Gillick was reported as saying Michael Grade's a Jew, and Tariq Ali is a Muslim.
- On BBC's Question Time a few days later, Barbara Smoker said it was an excellent programme and that she'd also written something in somewhat the same vein, at the time of Muggeridge's broadcasts, called 'Sacred Cow'. she, or someone in the audience, commented on Mother Teresa's Swiss bank account & house in Mustique. Incidentally, many people in the audience seemed in favour of 'Mother Teresa' -final word, at least as broadcast, was some berk saying something like "Well, she does her best" and many in the audience applauding.
- Hitchens, on an ITV Right to Reply programme Saturday 12th Nov, who looked rather different, perhaps because of the lighting; less close up, intense - in a panel, said his programme was the first ever to counter the Niagara of sycophantic praise (or some similar expression).
Wed 9 Nov 1994: Ch4 'Travelog' 8.30-9 p.m. Presented Pete McCarthy. I didn't see this. Radio Times blurb: '.. Hawaii. Known for its sun, surf and golf, Hawaii endures the lowest health standards in the US and, as he discovers, many of its inhabitants regard tourism as a curse.'
Wed 9 Nov 94: 9-9.45 Dispatches, Channel 4, on Arms dealer John Arnold Bredenkamp, who started as a Rhodesian tobacco-dealer, became involved in UDI with sanctions busting, moved to South Africa, used his company as a cover for arms dealing; moved to Britain etc. Much stress on mines - cp Red Pepper of this time in the same vein; why they should suddenly pick on this aspect of arms I don't know: perhaps the direct photographic effectiveness of victims - this program started with British soldier blinded when a mine exploded in his face, in Kuwait I think. Iran-Iraq war deaths got a mention. Suggestion and some evidence that 'security services' must be involved: 1 refusal to supply documents to a congressional committee; 2 they wouldn't appear on the programme; 3 they have spy equipment, satellites, bugging stuff - they must know about big shipments. [Almost nothing was said about the manufacturers! And their technicians, workers etc.]
Sun 13th Nov 1994: various items on remembering dead soldiers and presumably civilians too. Margaret says: 11th hour of 11th day of 11 month; they have one minute's silence. Joke: Why not 11 minutes?
Some of the things [BBC1, and ITV; BBC2 and Ch 4 cheerier non-items] unconsciously funny:
- Old man explaining how he felt; chaplain or whatever in funny clothes summarises by saying "So you feel tired..?" and the chap embarked on a new story, only to be cut short. Thank you.
- Woman talking about her husband's death.. in Nottingham.. morning.. in June.. [or whatever: joke: Hegel: cp idea that everything is connected with everything else; these people's narrative styles seem to be intended to prove this..] the Colonel came.. Mrs [name].. my husband had died in a road accident..
- Youngish chap [a 'padre'?] in religious stuff: first thought was of excitement, until a less childish attitude came over him,..
- Shots of short haired yobbo types in the audience evidently not singing and grimacing amongst themselves; presumably 'volunteered' to come along
- I imagine readings must have been from the prayer book or some such source - joke: could of course have proper genocidal Bible passages!
In the following weeks before Christmas, the audience dropped by 6 million - and this was the subject of a part-programme on Channel 4. The BBC chap who commissioned the thing and arranged the contacts said he 'couldn't' give information on the terms of the contract, which involved a young couple as well I think as Edmonds.
Note: statistical fiddle: Radio Times write-up said prizes compare favourably with Premium Bonds. Letter appeared in Christmas double issue of Radio Times criticizing this: Premium Bond prizes depend on the INTEREST only; you don't lose your money.
Note: changes in state propaganda: presumably significant that the Lottery is promoted heavily while Premium Bonds aren't; what explains the form of Premium Bonds? e.g. considered important to encourage saving/ provide capital?
Sun 20 Nov 94: [Note: medical crime, negligence:] Main news programme had item on Bassetlaw Hospital [compared by them with the Beverley Allitt 'nurse' deaths case a year or two before] playing a taped statement by the police saying something like "70 statements have been taken though none as suspects".
Local Labour MP said 20 detectives were working full-time on it, and when he tables questions in Parliament, Virginia Bottomley said it was a matter for Bassetlaw ?Hospital Trust and (in effect) palmed him off.
Suggested the question to me: how did these cases become public? As of course the enquiry into Allitt was not to be published. And is their some way to statistically guesstimate how large is the iceberg of which this presumably is the tip?
Mon 21 Nov 1994: BBC2 Horizon: Programme on snail evolution and ecology; see notes\nature
Sun 27 Nov 94: Repeat on Channel 4 of a 'Time Team' on King Alfred (a few notes in \notes\history)
Sun 27 Nov 94: 5.10 pm - 6: Channel 4: 'High Interest': 'Over My Dead Body' Producer Martin Durkin/ Director Dan Zieff: '.. costly consequences of dying.. spin-off services such as embalming and pre-paid funeral packages..' [Some of the latter presented as outright frauds on old people, some in homes; we see woman with framed certificate thing with a red embossed paper seal, costing £1000 I think; man legally went bust so she'll get nothing. Others - though not named - were said to have had no intention of providing the final 'services'.
National Association of Widows. Woman says "hundreds of calls a year.. funerals they can't afford..'
National Institute of Embalmers [Mitford asks a woman about instrument for removing fluid from 'body cavities', chemicals used, the point if any; woman tells her the chemical reacts with the blood, makes the [corpse not used] look comfortable. VO says 1/2 estimated embalmed in UK - perhaps this was just of burials, Margaret thought.
- London Casket Company [I think] imports from US fancy casks with elaborate finishes and interiors (we see one with 'Last Supper', not in eroded style, on lid of top half) and Mitford repeatedly asks wholesale cost; man evades question, then says: this is rehearsal, isn't it?
- NAFD, National Association of Funeral Directors was a leading representative organisation; apparently many companies and small undertakers have defected, apparently as a result of a story of a woman whose mum's gold 1/2 of a front tooth was found by her to be missing, body was clumsily moved with rigor mortis so it audibly creaked, heavily made up so she wasn't even sure it was her mum, wrong tune at cremation; she complained but NAFD did nothing.
Jessica Mitford talks of the peculiar nature of the transaction - body in living room.. call the first.. most unlikely to insist on a change.. [but after all what's new in this? The implicit answer seemed to be American entry into the 'industry', saving by pooling hearses so they can do four or five funerals a day instead of one or two, and buying up small family firms; one of the latter said this was very expensive. So the whole economics of it was left obscure.
Obviously insincere US sales people at some gathering - nobody wants to buy a casket.. what I call the direct approach.. the indirect approach..
In USA.. man whose dad was returned dead and put in is front room when he couldn't pay; he was filmed saying he was my dad.. I loved him.. is money everything? I don't understand/ and a black family: black baby in unmarked grave, near a road; tape measure needed to determine position. [again though this is hardly new - cf my notes on York's Victorian cemetery]
Finished with Mitford having tea and biscuits with a woman who I think saw off her hubby in a DIY way - completely legal, apparently, to bury people e.g. in garden. [The religious side including their fees was omitted, of course]. Mitford thinks it should be a right, as health and education, she thinks, are.
[Note: academic: I noticed an unread book by the same author on the same topic on Anna's bookshelf, from which one might infer it's a standard text: He's described as [Joke:] Professor of Contemporary History at Queen Mary & Westfield College/ Visiting Professor of Government at Strathclyde/ FRSA/ [some obscure school]/ St John's College Cambridge/ LSE/ Kennedy scholar at Harvard/ visiting Fellow at Reading & Nottingham/ Hon. Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and Sociology at Birkbeck/ Council Member of the Policy Studies Institute]
Disappointingly piffling and newspaper like and Brito-centric.
Various people interviewed about the 'blitz' with of course little in the way of facts and figures except that e.g. when the docks were alight, "I'd never seen anything like it.." and "You never thought you'd be killed" and so on. Suggestion that after the armistice (that was Hennessy's word) I'm not sure if it's accurate) people 'no longer feared the bomb' [sic] suggesting bombing was continued through to the end of the war - surely false. [As come to think of it is the implication it was a German idea].
Some shots of British greeting Russians and some hand-shaking etc; source not given.
RIBA b/w film: people with posters 'less monotony' and 'bigger houses'. Slogans include 'the city of the future' and 'neighbours must be able to talk over their back gardens or across the village green [sic]' woman watching this says RIBA now is very stuffy, with surprise. She doesn't seem to realise the RIBA presumably had promotional interest.
Prefab houses.. ?120,000 built by 1948.. very popular.. cost £1,000 each.. [sic; no attempt by the 'historian' to situate this figure]
'Thanks to Hitler .. half a million homes destroyed.. a quarter of a million damaged.." [Joke: Note: mathematical error: NB: Doesn't state how many homes were empty in Britain! If modern times are anything to go by, there may have been at least that number kept empty. Also of course doesn't make it clear whether a 'home' is the same as a 'building'; one can imagine a tenement in London counting as, say, ten homes, inflating the figures very satisfactorily]
1944 Education Act.. threw these up all over the country.. [single-story building, fairly steep roof with curly tiles which look like asbestos, metal windows, white outside finish]
Joke: ".. class disappeared during the war.." said RIBA woman
'.. shadow of unemployment.. 1920s and 1930s.. remembered ex-servicemen selling matches.. would there be jobs to go to.. shadow of illness.. hard to imagine now.. slay the dragon of ignorance.. [Joke: Hennessy says they must have:] education of the finest quality..
1945 election: Michael Young helped draft (or, in fact I think, edit, the manifesto, which had a red V on its cover, from the work of about four authors. He said it was composed [these weren't the authors though. NB we see Beveridge talking of systim etc] of Beveridge and Keynes and socialism, and the parts didn't hang together very well; but it didn't really matter; they didn't think they'd win. But, on the stump (we see pix of fat suited labour politicians speechmaking) it became clear from the applause that they were popular. Young goes on: We/They "thought my god we might have to put this into practice. So they started to worry about the manifesto." He added with reference to miners: grinning in what I found a sickening way: '.. Coal Nationalisation.. not thought out.. hadn't been through the civil service.. Manny Shinwell said they've asked me to nationalise it, but they haven't told me how.. there was no Beveridge Report on nationalisation.. Let Us Face the Future didn't add to the detail on that!.."
Coal nationalisation: 1 Jan 1947 NCB flags raised. Rather depressing stuff, though Hennessy skated over it: 700,000 miners; compensation paid to the owners which the miners didn't like; no miners on the board; the coal board was appointed; Note: myth: that the industry was now owned by the miners
We see Welshmen talking about Aneurin Bevan, or 'Nye' Bevan; b/w film, apparently silent, of him standing surrounded by suited (and cloth capped) men orating. A Welshman says (with no examples) that he could talk about everyday things, he could talk about etc etc. Joke: it occurs to me to wonder how he'd have been treated by modern TV - perhaps in Scargill fashion.
Michael Foot says the country wouldn't have got the coal we needed if not nationalised. Hennessy doesn't seem to heed this: next VO starts something like: "Nationalisation was not just about sentimentality.."
5 July 1948: NHS started. Various 'players'; Hennessy shown looking through what presumably was cabinet record of the discussion, in which apparently Attlee sided with Bevan; all sorts of 'players' including BMA, the 'Royal College of Physicians', the hospitals (some owned by local authorities, who wanted to retain control of them); health centres etc; famous story of 'stuffing their mouths with gold' and permitting private medical work. Barbara Castle [joke: she looks fierce and aggressive and blue eyed, like (is she blue eyed?) Thatcher] says babies had orange juice and cod liver oil; schoolchildren had free milk; they used to say 'if you want to see what the government's doing, look in the prams' or something similar. On the subject of the cost of this, they said France had been damaged, Germany wrecked, but they also, despite this, instituted social security systems; it wasn't regarded as a 'cost' so much as a necessity (or something along those lines). Family allowance: many women regarded as something for the family, not to be regarded in the same light as husband related stuff. One or two stories about people previously afraid of the cost: woman who'd had breast cancer for years finally came forward. And less appealing stories: we'd paid for it so we'd get it: "everyone suddenly got glasses and false teeth even if they didn't need them.. woman had two sets of teeth.. all these glasses and teeth.."
Charlie Chester said people were doing well; they had money but no coupons for clothes, no coupons for food; so what do you do? Go to see a show! It was family entertainment in those days.. it sort of went boom..
Following week: terrifying lack of analysis:
- Someone saying there were three things Attlee really cared for: public schools, Oxford, and the British Army.
Stuff about Britain bankrupt in 1941; later Marshall Aid despite dislike of cap-in-hand approach (and rationing of most things). How did Britain continue for years if bankrupt? How come Germany wasn't bankrupt, if it wasn't? Naturally no explanation of anything like this.
Rationing: a vicar's wife from Ealing, I think (dowdy bespectacled woman) after queuing for umpteenth time announced - apparently on TV; not clear how her publicity was generated - that something should be done. Deluged with letters; chair of an organisation called something like 'Housewives against rationing'. Barbara Castle says: ".. a group of Tory women.. we'd never bring them round.." and talks of essentialness of rationing. Without dollars the only houses built would be for miners and agricultural workers.
The 'historian' says how a country is changed forever when it decides to become a nuclear power; and 'we' came to the decision early in 1947. The Americans couldn't be trusted otherwise we could just ask for one.
We're also told the winter of 1947 was very cold, there was a coal shortage, and Buckingham Palace was very cold.
Denis Healey says the Russians only needed boots to be able to get to the English channel. Hennessy's face expresses alarm as he reads from a document (source or author not specified; I think MI6?) saying the Russians were turning out 30 tanks a month, 500 planes - or something like that.
Also they had 250,000 files and terrifyingly one person in 180 might be willing to spy for Russia. [Or something similar]
A British Ambassador [old, rather twisted arthritic fingers, in Russia 1945-1947 or so] said the Russians didn't break agreements if they were written (as in the case of the Berlin airlift, where airspace was non-Russian - or something). They would twist them, bend them in every way etc and if they went to war, which they didn't, they'd tear them up of course.
Fatuous woman ['Lady park'] who was a 'spy' in Moscow said she looked dowdy and could be taken for a Russian woman. Oh, no. You walk like a free woman. He was right! I bounced along etc, didn't shuffle etc.
"The invasion of South Korea by the Communist north..' or something; British troops dispatched.. rearmament.."
Following week [Suez]:
Extraordinarily boyish stuff from Hennessy: ".. the 'Eagle' was influential.. endless war comics.. from here I watched the Hendon air show with British jets.. leading the world in technology.. the coronation.. I had a model coach.. the thrill of seeing the real thing on television.. Everest.."
".. November 6th 1956. I'd thought the British didn't lose wars.."
'In 1948 Britain built half the merchant ships of the world [sic; no mention of other ships] .. destruction of German and Japanese ?shipyards.. and half of these were built on Clydeside.." [Then interviews with various ex-bosses and ex-workers on the excitements of launching ships etc]
"Firms like the North British Loco Co.. made three a week [engines; we see cab full of metal piping & dials etc].. two for export.." Then more interviews: '.. India, Melbourne, Spain..'
And steel: Welsh steelworks (which Hennessy points out were in remote valleys & hard to get to) with more interviews including comment on the smelliness etc and biggest customer then being Argentina for corned beef tins.
Full employment: man says you could leave a job on Friday, get another next Monday (though one doubts whether this can be true; at any rate, no other evidence produced).
1951: General Election: Tories (and comedians) endlessly promoted shotage/ queuing stories; Labour got more votes, but the Tories more seats. we see Trafalgar Square crowds and sort of scoreboard with 'Daily Telegraph' printed around it. Churchil therefore back.
1952, Feb: George VI died of lung cancer; he was a heavy smoker, we're told. Many people go on absurdly about new queen, 26 [or 25?] very beautiful etc etc
1953: Churchill had a second stroke; an earlier one had been kept secret. He was (says Hennessy) obsessed with the H-bomb and tried to persuade the Americans to negotiate with USSR after Stalin's death. We see shots of him, old, with cigar, in open topped car with grinning Nixon.
Some sort of plan to take Canberra bombers high over USSR and drop red beads, then leaflets, and say next time it could be atomic bombs. This we're told was never done.
1955? Eden becomes Prime Minister, apparently (details vague) being groomed by Churchill, who, however, had increasing doubts about him.
1955ish: [Meeting which led to the meeting in Brussels which started the EC: no British representative was sent; Thorneycroft, now old, says in retrospect this was a big mistake; but Eden said he had constituents with relatives in Australia, Canada, South Africa etc but none on the continent. He expected or hoped that Britain would pick up the pieces after the continental plan wrecked itself.
Then Hennessy's VO says ".. out of the blue.."
[I believe this action was contrary to UN obligations; nobody of course says this; there are dissenters who smile as they say e.g. "Some of us thought the best way to ?aggravate the Arabs was to mount a joint attack with the French and Jews against an Arab state" or something similar. The man who (earlier episode) accused the Russians of bending etc treaty obligations naturally doesn't mention UN obligations.]
Comparison by Hailsham [in suit, in unannounced posh surroundings] with Fisher, 'first sea lord', during WW1 who'd said he'd resign; he'd been ordered to stay, I think by Churchill, who was his superior & in the same position as Hailsham. [Hailsham said he wasn't told what was going on - even when a 100-ship ?task ?force was on its way, and I think Cyprus troops doing exercises or something].
Hennessy produces some 'declassified papers', which supposedly makes it clear that the cabinet knew about Suez plans, in particular secret discussions between France, Britain and Israel
Various cagey politicians, including Edward Heath, who says 'You know I told you I would never reveal..'
'Lady Park' says yes, she believes she can say this now, "that they were sent on long trips to look for evidence of USSR activity.. bombers etc.. there was considerable activity, yes.."
Hennessy says, with no evidence, ?Bulganin had said he would put down [sic] rockets on London and Paris. He repeats this phrase at least once.
In fact, the 'physical explanation', 'sleep paralysis', in which you're half awake/ half asleep but unable to move because 'the brain paralyses you to prevent you acting out your dreams' (or something similar). She says this is a terrifying experience; she has herself she says experienced it. She maintains that incubi and succubi are a manifestation of the same thing though under different 'cultural' conditions - she says most people in Europe have seen films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind & science fiction; "they are part of our culture".
Joke: Quite an amusing (and presumably expensive) scene somewhere in Philadelphia, with a ?Mung tribesmen, presumably an ex-mercenary or something, giving in poor English his experience of feeling helpless etc; Blackmore asks about guilt, of course he hasn't done anything he feels guilty about? Oh no.
- NB: Sue Blackmore believes in hypnosis, treats it quite seriously, says things in VO along the line "Hypnosis is a special situation with its own rules" or "the hypnotic condition is one of exceptional vulnerability" or something. She also seems to use or tolerate the idea of 'imagination' in its vague approving sense: someone on her film says e.g. "People with more imagination are known to be more easily hypnotised" or something.
However she has managed to grasp the idea of 'false memory syndrome' or fake ideas planted under hypnosis. There were some quite funny scenes with ignorant Americans (and Canadians) trying to imagine themselves in previous lives. Amusing use of the US nod gesture to try to support what they're saying.
Radio Times blurb says 'A recent survey carried out in the US suggested that two per cent of the population, 3.7 million people, think they have been abducted by aliens. Interviews.. uncanny consistency.. 4 ft high, grey-skinned with dark, opaque, oval eyes, vestigial ears and noses, small mouths'. Blackmore interviewed the compilers of the questionnaire, which asked rather vague questions about have you ever experienced strange phenomena type, and extrapolated from that. Blackmore maintained that contrary to their idea, a majority of people had experienced strange phenomena (or said they had). She had no explanation for the supposed 'uncanny consistency' of the descriptions.
Joke: a psychologist said with great earnestness one of the people was "a full colonel."
Note: hard to prove: joke: amusing sidelight is that aliens are supposed to 'erase peoples' memory' on returning them - a useful precaution, since it allows them to be able to give no coherent information whatever.
Interesting aspect was her trial (incidentally, surely possibly dangerous?) of device which (allegedly) generates magnetic fields through a headset device which she put on; these aren't simple ones but computer controlled & supposedly mimic real magnetic fields (as, I presume, established by EEG or something like that). She seemed quite impressed - after a bit, and no apparent effect, she felt e.g. something trying to move one of her legs with of course disconcertingly no apparent cause; then she felt unaccountably miserable and depressed. Joke: it didn't seem to occur to her to try a control, i.e. test it switched on and switched off, with her (and the other people) not knowing which.
Mon 28 Nov: Ch4 9 pm: 'Cutting Edge: Glasshouse'. Radio Times says 'Self-discipline is the crucial buzzword at Britain's toughest prison, the glasshouse.
Otherwise known as Colchester military corrective training centre, this is the unforgiving institution where soldiers are sent if they break the rules. It's a place where life is not worth living if you have fluff on your beret or fail to walk at the prescribed 140 paces a minute. And for those who try to buck the system [sic], like the young soldier found with a tobacco wrapper in his shoe, punishment is swift and unequivocal. [sic] The philosophy is simple. The worse you behave, the longer you stay in the establishment. Play the game, on the other hand, and you can look forward to remission days and privileges. A radio for the week is a valuable prize for the group of inmates who manage to keep their barracks spotless.
Viewed by some as the army's "best training course", the glasshouse is a harsh system designed to iron out offenders' weaknesses. "It's not a place of punishment but of rehabilitation", explains an officer, but not all the men and women see it like this. One complains that the staff develop prejudices: "If your face doesn't fit, you get put down as having an attitude problem." ..'
Truth: actually seems nowhere near as 'tough' as they claim (though the actual daily schedule isn't spelt out; nor were the severity of the causes for confinement, though we were told they varied from things like assault with a deadly weapon to murder. We are told though that 1000 a year go there, two years is the maximum sentence, and this is the strictest penal regime in Britain. And that 1/3 are being thrown out. We weren't told why they weren't in an ordinary prison. They're called 'S.U.S.' = soldiers under sentence. VO: "Only one has ever dared to try to run away.") Seemed a mixture of large dormitory [not cells] with interminable cleaning/ inspections & parades ['kit and room inspections twice a day, every day'], and hard exercise, up at ?6, bed at 8. Several of the people there explicitly stated they'd e.g. smoked marijuana in order to get thrown out of the army. A girl shown ['Private Wright'] seemed to have joined just because of the image, and found she hated Colchester. Joke: curious class thing with every variety of regional accent.
[Early morning scene; barbed wire shots; modern brick buildings, low rise, and lawn.] "Luftrightluftrightluftright.." VO: "These soldiers have broken British Military Law" [NB: cp my book 'Manual of Military Law'] [Reception chap behind office window thing:] "You will march in this establishment - Luke at me! - You will march at one hundred and forty paces a minute with your arms [swinging] shoulder high.."
Then chap with three Vs on sleeve; Scots accent: ".. and you will remain at that position of attention until that staff tells ye tae carry on"
Grenadier guards with four months detention for assault.
['Staff sergeant has absolute rule (for the time they're there)]
"112 days staff."
"Have you ever attempted or succeeding [sic] an escape from military or civil custody before?"
"Never staff"
"Have you ever participated in the taking of drugs other than those prescribed by a medical officer or a doctor?"
"Never staff"
"Do you have any homosexual tendencies?"
"No staff"
"Do you have any suicidal tendencies?"
"No staff."
"Right outside stand next tae hum"
[Guardsman Heap says:] ".. a big shock.. I'm used to a bit of riftin around.. end of civilisation as we know it.. people shouting and screaming at you.. I just want to do the time.." [I was surprised that the Grenadier Guards all seemed plebs; I suppose the high status ones are the officers?]
[Parade. Short chap with Welsh accent faces tall chap somewhere in long ?rank - absurd height differences often seem to occur.] "Where were your public duties?" "Buckingham Palace staff" "Buckingham Palace? Guarding Her Majesty the Queen?? And you don't even know how to stand to attention?"
[Private Matthews, Irish accent:] ".. locker.. take proid in havin a good locker, arbviously.."
[Private Wright, having not ironed things properly, and having had a button undone etc, and getting an E (worst is F) for attitude:] ".. I never want to have anything to do with the army again. It stinks."
"Pay more attention to them mirrors, Wright" she's told on an inspection
CPO = chief petty officer, woman who runs F section (women's quarters which are separate - though they share work tasks) has a Geordie accent.
[Private Wright, in a sort of modern lecture room, stands talking to the others:] ".. suspended from school for being disruptive.. I joined the TA on my 18th birthday.. then I wanted something better.. the army.. on the beach with a guy on my arm.. I thought yeh.."]
[Punishments included something called 'close confinement'; there are also 'trials' which look rather insignificant one-to-one things with the accused flanked by two escorting soldiers (and another who does his best to deliver evidence) and seated man delivering his decision to the 'court'. They can also lose 'remission'; three days of this seemed most common - i.e. they stay three days longer.]
[Bloke being told what to do:] ".. the Commandant.. do not move your arms.. if you make an arm movement the RSM will pounce on you.."
".. Ye forgot it? Put im on show parade. I'm getting worried about you, Murray.. You know what'll happen if you continue like this.."
[Room, i.e. dormitory of about 8 or 10 I suppose, adjudged cleanest by some officer with a clipboard [so superior he has a beret, and is allowed to question informally] get the radio set for a week - allowed for two hours in the evening. No TV]
[We see what presumably are military exercises: armed soldiers with short guns in a model house shoot etc; they race in groups carrying a telegraph pole between them by rope; they use 'controlled aggression' to bayonet hanging stuffed bags. This may save their lives. Acting element I hadn't really appreciated as they say things like "Wind em up Mathews!" "Push it in!" "You don't like 'im!", something about your mother and father, and I think "Action! Action!"
[Bloke with Liverpool accent talks about peoples' 'attitude']
[Joke: someone talks about 'if he flaunts those rules..' confusing 'flaunt' with 'flout']
Officer type [perhaps these are somewhat failed sort] ".. Some of it is carrot, some of it is stick.. if they ?do what we want, then we reward them.. if they step out of line, they know very well what will happen.. Sometimes a man refuses to co-operate.." [What happens with this latter type? We never find out]
VO: "Many are cooks and clerks, not front-line troops, unused to being pushed to the limit.."
[Note use of 'immature' as a description:] Sergeant major type says: ".. immature young men.. they have a lot of brains.. immature.. that's the sort we're getting in the army these days.."
[Strange hats these people wear, absurdly straight down the front, so there's an arc between and in fact partly covering their eyes]
[Sort of briefing: seated officer type with standing not-so-officer types:] ".. Burnley.. welfare has stated discharge is approved.. under the psychiatric as well.. emotionally disturbed.."
[A soldier says something about fluff on your berry [=beret] three times losing remission. Another says the brass polishing etc 'doesn't win wars'.]
Tue 28 Nov 94: 5-5.50 pm Ch 4: 'The Oprah Winfrey Show'. Repeat of 1988 show. [Note: US ideas of 'boy geniuses':] Radio Times: 'Child geniuses are today's guests, including British 13-year old James Charles Harries, who explains how he made his million, 5-year-old Gregory Scott who has already signed to direct two Spielberg films, despite the fact that he can't yet read or write, and 4-year-old Blake Kenyon who speaks five languages.'
Winfrey unblushingly introduced three boys with almost exactly the same blurb, except: ".. on his way to his first million.." and later ".. if you ask him to count to twenty he might ask you which language?..
They have an extract from 'Little Man Tate' (q.v. in \film) and later the authoress of a book
Truth? Harries was on longest (he was the only articulate one) with his mother, red-haired (and a brother in the audience), who had some sort of dress shop(s) and who'd introduced James to the business world. He was supposedly good with antiques, and spent some time poring over a table of things brought by members of the audience. [The whole show always emphasises money]. He looked at two items - a gold ring or pendant & a stainless steel watch - both of which he declared 'beautiful' but modern, so he couldn't comment on the value - go to a store and look. (The ring's owner, a presumably working class American woman, like much of the audience, protested it dated from 1945 and had been kept in a little bag ever since.) His mum seemed intelligent (indeed, about the only intelligent person there) and believed in being friendly with children & conversing with them. Someone in the audience asked about the great problem of bringing up children with respect for older people; ["it was established you wouldn't go over your parents" .. "I don't see.. respect.."] Harries' ma replied the older people have to rise to it. And why should they have to get on with children etc. She said the film was over-exaggerated and (in effect) not realistic. She also said the Greeks didn't go to school, they were educated at home in the home environment, and they were creative; children have stopped being creative. [Note: hard to tell:] you think children don't worry but they do - they take it in - peope are wrong about them - worry will just go on in the subconscious. James's story of a cake, made for his class but stolen and eaten by his teachers, was typical of stories of his interrupted education (four schools; now a tutor) - the teachers need watching, she said. James' idea of social concern seemed to be that people in Britain, and Britain itself, were 'deteriorating' - a word he seemed to like; it wasn't clear when the golden age of non-deterioration had been. He, or they, were suing the British government, we were told.
After this we had the film-director: three very short clips shown, first about two dogs deciding which TV program to watch: "Sandy you just wanna sit around an lie around all day watching teevee. I don't wanna do that" "This is a great film." We see two dogs on a carpet, TV screen with cartoon/ Then The Boys Looking for Buried Treasure, or something: US suburb garden with road going past; hole in grass; "Gee I found something!" Clean chest-like thing produced. "Yeh!" and arm waving. "There's somethin else!" and two colanders come out./ Third was Ghosts Rise in the Cemetery' or something similar: small boy in white sheet stands from behind stone: "Everybody's gone. Let's get up outa our graves" and others, not very well hidden, get up. Thee was a 'rap song' with it: erratic chords and slowly pronounced words "ghosts.. ghosts.. rise.. in.. the.. etc. Unfortunately no details were given of the five-year contract; all we gathered was that he'd had fun with Spielberg on the 'set of Hook' and he'd learnt that in a 'motion picture movie' there's a lot a people. His mom (she writes down his words - he can't) said he bugged her for a camra, so she got him one, he almost drove her nuts already. [sic]
Then the boy with five languages: absurdly, he was just a little prat who'd learnt after a fashion so they said 1 to 20 in e.g. French: he said "un der tra catter sing seece set weet noof [sic] deece" and stopped. He also knows, we're assured, the capitals of all the states, and the months of the year, and the name of the President (which he learnt at the age of one; he said to his mom "Don't you watch TV?" and asked her to spell the name. The mom shrugged her shoulders in amazement at this great forwardness - I imagine she'd written in following a request for 'gifted children'. His elder brother had 'made money off of me' by betting with older kids etc in the park. Joke: his mom said he did worry about the world. During the Gulf War he wondered if Iran would drop bombs on California. [Note: Gulf War: this episode said in a brief tiny message at the end it was dated 1988; possibly the phrase 'Gulf War' was used for Iran/Iraq at the time?]
?Judy Galbraith author of something like 'How to Live With Gifted Kids II' talking of her experiences as a teacher, assuming they were smart, they respect that or something, children's rights, parents expect gifted kids to be just perfeck, yes. That's a common problem. She agreed with Harries' mother, at least on the idea of being friendly etc (though not, I imagine, on the idea of children working at home etc). [More or less verbatim:] "First, see your child as a person first, gifted second. Second, parents need to learn to advocate for an education that's appropriate for their child's abilities.."
1 Boy who invented fish feeder - when phone rings, it vibrates a thing which shook powdered fish food into a tiny fish bowl.
2 Boy who invented a self-cleaning wash basin [holes around the rim; the working model he said was a 'breadboard']. The kid gave a curious spiel about circular motion of the water picks up the food an washes it down the drain and I'll run it past you again if I'm too fast for you. Unclear whether such a thing would in fact clean properly despite spiel.
3 A girl! The only one. She'd invented the pocket diaper. Attached to the disposable nappy is a tear-off 'pocket' holding a sachet of wipe stuff and a sachet of powder. We see her do her thing with a doll (decently with its genital area clothed in white).
4 Boy picked by the hand from the audience by Winfrey: he holds up two small jars: one is hemorroid cure for his mom. The other is athlete's foot that he made when he was five. [sic]. Modestly he declines to reveal the ingredients.
Tues 29th Nov 1994 (I think) Without Walls, Channel 4, ?Matthew ?Parris on Public Relations:
BLACKPOOL: 1954 BBC b/w film, 'The Blackpool Story': BBC VO: '.. where people call their midday meal dinner, not lunch.. cocks a snook at the tradition of the stiff upper lip.. there is no good form here..' Parris goes on to say after the ?honesty of working class resort, what he dislikes about the new Blackpool:
1994 'Blackpool Festival': "Her Majesty went to Blackpool Tower.. painted gold by Kodak, flashing coca cola sign.. every step planned.. monarchy feels the need for public relations to interpret itself to the world.. the Queen meets people important to the clients.. pre-planned route.. lift-riggers.. jungle world.." [Various scenes pulling a string to open a curtain, being photographed at the tower's top, etc; and youngish men with northern accents in suits, incongruously, discussing arrangements for her shaking hands etc. Shot of Rolls-Royce with Queen and Philip in the back & crowds behind barriers. Someone called Cartmell of Cartmell Public Relations says with an accent: '.. the Royal Family.. their visit was worth millions.. how their critics can under [pause] rate them I just don't know.. It's a wonderful, wonderful thing.']
JOURNALISM: [Note: source of news stories:] Parris: "The business sections of broadsheet newspapers are now dominated by stories originating from PR agencies."
MILITARISM, GULF WAR: [Starts by showing small army display at Blackpool; rifles on a trestle table & picture of a tank in which you could be photographed.] VO: "PR can make the army pacific."
VO: "Kuwait hired Hill and Knowlton to go to work.. multi-million dollar publicity campaign.. persuade a country to go to war.. [sic; Parris is a bit naive].. atrocity stories.. 'Congressional Human Rights Caucus' says sign, white letters on black cloth.. 'star witness' a girl called Nayirah" (who had an Americanized accent!). [We hear an American acting as sort of chairman asking people to respect her family's secrecy, or something like that. She came out with the story of children being taken out of incubators which Bush is also shown making use of. Later (i.e. after 'Gulf War') revealed to be the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the U.S.] ".. people call this a public relations fiasco. [He shows a headline in New York Times: Remember Nayirah?] But it served its purpose.." [And he shows a view of an/the office of Hill and Knowlton]
CIGARETTES AND HEALTH: [Anomalous item, filmed at a cemetery, with long-haired man promoting a brand of cigarettes called Death, with a skull logo. Vague stuff about a press conference being newsworthy; they called one after a man said a doctor told him he wouldn't perform a multiple bypass (or some operation) as he still smoked.]
AMERICAN HISTORY OF P.R.: [Another rather anomalous thing: old American, in black and white, subtitled 'one of PR's founding fathers', makes (or made) what seems an embittered speech about any nitwit being allowed to call himself a public relations man.
He is Edward Bernays, Freud's nephew! Described as 'a major influence on Goebbels']
IMAGE: [Yet another bit, this time two young women supposedly well known in PR; he asked what they would do with him; the result merely haircut, open neck white shirt, suit, fingernails & feet manicured/ pedicured [Note: confusion: woman doing latter confused 'Rwanda' with 'Uganda'], and a leather briefcase and filofax.
NUCLEAR POWER: #########
[Note: pesticides and possible health risks:] Lindane & possible connection with breast cancer: lindane has affinity to fat; hence perhaps connection with breast cancer, collecting in breast fat.
Used on cattle against various burrowing etc insects (in 1970s Israel where cows were treated with the stuff against cattle ticks on their skins and it we're told went through the skin just as though they were drinking it and out in milk and hence into the food chain). Two grades of lindane, pure and 'technical lindane' used, though the difference wasn't explained.
Israel banned lindane in 1978; Hanna Greenbaum [American; subtitle says 'Chair of Consumer Shield'] bought milk 'from stores and supermarkets' for analysis in Labs of Ministry of Agriculture. She 'battled the dairy industry and the Israeli government armed with just a typewriter. 'When the courts and the media took up the case the balance swung.' "I think every paper had a cartoon of a cow in a gasmask"
Some evidence that greater [presumably animal] fat intake in food -> greater breast cancer; Israeli chap, Dr Jerome Westin, of Hadrassah Hospital, Jerusalem, said more fat consumption went with more breast cancer - except that Israel was anomalously low, giving results of a ten-year survey published I think in 1986, with graph showing drop in breast cancer mortality in Israel, and claiming the lindane ban made the difference: a list of risk factors: Fat, Alcohol, Age at first birth, breast feeding, contraceptives, lindane was shown, all but the last being crossed through.
[Not entirely clear why they chose Israel, described as 'fully independent for years'. Apparently 22 countries have 'banned, withdrawn, or restricted' lindane including Bangla Desh].
Amusing quasi-logical argument by official sort of chap: Britain follows WHO, who establish ADI = acceptable daily intake = amount which if ingested every day of life has no adverse effects. So lindane must be safe "almost by definition"
genotoxic = DNA damaging: Dr H Leon Bradlow, [American, grizzly-bearded] of Strang Cornell Cancer Research Lab, says 'rates of DNA repair go up sharply, proliferation increases, cells grow in anchorage-independent manner = hallmark of conversion to tumogenic [unsure of spelling] processes.
Lindane breakdown products include beta-HCH which is apparently carcinogenic (perhaps proven in animals)
65% of milk in UK at present time has lindane in (though the amounts seem very tiny; no detail on this of course - like which shops).
Lindane has been used in UK for about 50 years. Professor from Israel says to get most cancers from a chunk of carcinogen, administer in small doses over a long time. That's the most 'efficient' if you can call it that, he said.
A New York chap said in ten years, a little ant can built a big ant-hill!
Zeneca make lindane
UK report (never published) on lindane in dusting powder for cattle started in 1981. Eleven years later, by the end of 1992 the sale of this was 'officially stopped'.
Sun 4 Dec 94: George Soros: currency speculator:
Tue 13 Dec 94: Channel 4 had ?journalist Suzanne Moore on 'Santa Claus', hoping to abolish 'him'. Rather vague programme in which it became clear she thought a couple of centuries is an awe-inspiring length of time (and ironically in which she was shown with a Christmas tree).
Dramatized as a police station interview with American-accented man in red-and-white clothes etc; among the few points made:
There was a ?British/English character, 'Father Christmas', shown in cartoons (probably 'Punch') as affable winebibber type with holly arranged around his head [Bacchus?] or as pulled by a couple of kids while seated in a large cornucopia.
'Santa Claus' [same story in my Penguin 'Dictionary of Saints' under Nicholas; the myth attached to him is patron said of children - apparently from child prostitution] from a Dutch word, presumably dating from when New York was Dutch; at any rate by the 20th century the red-and-white figure was used as a coca-cola ad [we see him drinking from a brown bottle]; also used in Harper's Bazaar to promote Christmas consumption. The various features culled from different sources; e.g. [according to VO] going down the chimney comes from a Finnish story, some houses being designed so the chimney is the only means of entrance. Presumably the sleigh is northern European. The stockings, whole idea of presents etc, not given any source. However, the red and white clothing may have come (according to a Professor from Loughborough!) from some sort of tradition called the 'boy bishops'. He also said something about the 'Lord of misrule'.
[Note: historical comparison: Cp H G Wells on failing businesses in which ex-servants etc put their life savings]
######
Sunday 18th Dec 1994: John Romer, 'The Rape of Tutankhamun' [repeat]
[Note: conservation: depressing programme on failure to conserve ancient Egyptian remains - but cp. e.g. C of E]
[Note: conflict of interests: academic career requires using monuments, e.g. to draw; if the monuments decay, or are damaged by the results of excavations, they're not interested - may perhaps even welcome it as giving their books greater value]
#########
Around Xmas: series of about five two or three hour or so programmes on the American Civil War, by Americans. Typical hack history. On this, see my notes elsewhere on American Civil War.
See \Notes on this
Video enhancement turns out to be virtually a fraud: there appears to be nothing that can be called 'enhancement', just examination of the pixels and turning up and down of contrast. A case was given of video camera picture of man in a building society raid, claimed to match an image of a black man, with measurements e.g. to .15 of a pixel from base of nose to hairline; precision which couldn't even be got in repetitions with the same person, it was stated.
Fingerprints: problems seemed to be that they look different, even from the same finger - obviously the angle or way they splay can be different & of course they may be vague or blurred or smeared or on unsuitable substrate or otherwise unclear. Apparently computers are used to narrow down searches, but experienced (8 hours a day!) fingerprint men (sic) do the actual fine detail of comparisons for islands or the other features shown by ridges. An example was given of man wrongly charged of a rape and murder (the man committed another crime and was caught.) We weren't shown how close the single print found at the crime was - the police wouldn't release them, said the programme.
DNA: seemed to be two problems; 1 the labs may get the work wrong; 2 there are occasional surprising matches - an example was two people in unrelated Amazonian tribes who has similar DNA patterns. Usual rather vague lack of detail. Interesting example of bogus science: Science mag in US, apparently most prestigious journal, said an FBI database had been checked, and no matches found; what they didn't know (or say) was that it had been cleaned up - some matches had been found, but had been assumed wrong or redundant, and just thrown away.
1995
<14 Dec. 95: found Channel 4 on Internet, 'Channel 4 Programme Support Online'; at the end of what I'd typed below I've added the downloaded items>
Note: from what I've seen it appears that the crop aspect of hemp is completely ignored, though there's just a chance I may be wrong: a colour photo on a 5 minute piece by Laurie Pike titled 'checks out how cannabis has inspired a range of fashion designs', shows a t-shirt with a 'Mr Spliff' caricature man. [The blurb for the piece says it 'explores the impact of hemp on the fashion scene']
<14 Dec 95; I haven't downloaded any of the 'images':
A CANNABIS CHRONOLOGY
C. sativa appears to have originated in Central Asia and was probably first cultivated for its fibre. It has been grown in China for at least 4500 years. It is thought to have reached Europe by 1500 BC.
2700 BC first written record of cannabis use, in the pharmacopoeia of Shen Nung, one of the fathers of Chinese medicine.
c. 550 BC the Persian prophet Zoroaster gives hemp first place in the sacred text, the Zend Avesta, which lists over 10,000 medicinal plants.
c. 450 BC the Greek historian Herodotus describes the Scythians of central Asia throwing hemp onto heated stone: 'as it burns, it smokes like incense and the smell of it makes them drunk'.
AD 45 St Mark establishes the Ethiopian Coptic Church. The Copts claim that marijuana as a sacrament has a lineage descending from the Jewish sect, the Essenes, who are considered to be responsible for the Dead Sea Scrolls.
1484 Pope Innocent VIII singles out cannabis as an unholy sacrament of the Satanic mass.
1835 the Club de Hashichines, whose bohemian membership included the poet Baudelaire, is founded.
1895 the Indian Hemp Drug Commission concludes that cannabis has some medical uses, no addictive properties and a number of positive emotional and social benefits.
1925 Cannabis becomes illegal in the UK.
1930 Louis Armstrong is arrested in Los Angeles for possession of cannabis.
1937 Following action by the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and a campaign by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, a prohibitive tax is put on hemp in the USA, effectively destroying the industry.
1966 the folk singer Donovan becomes the first celebrity hippy to fall foul of the law.
1967 in July over 3,000 people hold a mass 'smoke in' in Hyde Park in London. The same month, The Times carries a pro legalisation advertisement whose signatories include David Dimbleby and Bernard Levin.
1967 the most famous bust of all, on the home of Rolling Stone, Keith Richards, uncovered marijuana. Richards and Mick Jagger were sentenced to prison for respectively three months and one year. The sentences prompted an outcry that culminated in Lord Rees Mogg's famous Times editorial 'Who brakes
1968 a Home Office select committee, chaired by Baroness Wootton, looks at the 'cannabis question'. Its report concluded that cannabis was no more harmful than tobacco or alcohol, and recommended that the penalties for all marijuana offences be reduced.
1969 incoming Labour prime minister Jim Callaghan rejects the Wootton recommendations and introduces a new Misuse of Drugs Act, which prescribes a maximum five years' imprisonment for possession. The Act remains in force to this day.
1976 disturbances erupt at the end of the Notting Hill carnival. BBC News reports: 'Scores of young black men roamed the streets late into the night, openly smoking marijuana joints and listening to the non stop pounding of reggae music'.
1980 Paul McCartney spends ten days in prison in Japan for possession of cannabis.
1983 convictions for possession exceed 20,000, having risen from just under 15,000 in 1980.
1991 42,209 people are convicted of cannabis offences. 19,583 escape with cautions.
1994 Home Secretary Michael Howard increases maximum fines for possession from £500 to £2,500. Germany becomes the first European country apart from Holland to decriminalise possession of 'small quantities of cannabis for occasional use'.
The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 makes 'unlawful possession' of cannabis or cannabis resin an offence. Lawyers refer to 'simple' possession to distinguish it from possession with intent to supply. You can go to prison for three months (up to five years if you are tried in a higher court) for simple possession. However, the Appeal Courts generally frown on prison sentences for simple possession except when a person has already committed numerous similar offences. Fines of between £25 and £150 are commonplace, although the recent Criminal Justice Act increased maximum fines from 500 to 2,500. The practice of letting first offenders off with a warning is widespread in England, less so in Scotland.
The supplying offences are: 'supplying'; 'offering to supply'; 'attempting to supply'; 'being concerned in supplying'; or being in possession 'with intent to supply'. They all attract summary sentences of 12 months, or up to 14 years in a higher court. The one that produces the most trials and injustices is 'possession with intent to supply'. Proof often rests on the evidence of an 'expert' witness as to how much typical users need for themselves. The expert is, invariably, a drug squad police officer. Although these squads use different yardsticks, it is common for one of their number to assert that the most a user would have is, say, two ounces of hash. Anything over that and the user becomes a dealer, and the maximum penalty shoots up to 14 years in prison. Although sentences in double figures are usually reserved for major importers, generally there is great disparity in sentencing, and there are plenty of examples of people serving up to five years on the strength of such evidence.
Cannabis cannot be prescribed for medical treatment. Regulations under the 1971 Act enable the Home Secretary to issue licences for growing cannabis and even for smoking it, but only for research. Cannabis is the only Class B controlled drug for which there is no approved medicinal use, despite evidence that it may be beneficial in certain disorders.
Relevant organisations [Image]
DUTCH POLICY TURNING A BLIND EYE?
Cannabis possession in Holland is not legal, but it is tolerated. No special action is taken by the police to detect offences involving the possession of drugs for personal use, which includes the selling and possessing of up to 30 g (just over 1 oz) of cannabis.
Dutch criminal procedure allows the Public Prosecutor's Department to refrain from criminal proceedings on 'grounds deriving from the general good'. This has led to the dealing of small quantities of cannabis in coffee shops. But the common characterisation of Dutch policy as 'turning a blind eye' is misleading the authorities keep a careful eye on these outlets to ensure they follow guidelines: no sale of large quantities, no sale of harder drugs, no advertisements, no encouragement to use, and no sales to under 16s. The aim is to prevent cannabis users slipping to the fringes of society and from being exposed to harder drugs through the illegal market.
In current political discussion the lobby that seems to be strongest does not support complete legalisation, but would allow for a regulated amount of domestically produced cannabis.
SWEDEN A TIGHTENING OF POLICY
Sweden has one of the harshest drugs policies in the world, and is hardening its policy on cannabis. Offenders are now always prosecuted.
After a relatively liberal stance in the 1970s, in the 1980s the police stepped up their street level activities and prosecutions rose from 22,500 in 1979 to 68,000 in 1982. It is quite common for the police to pick up people purely on the suspicion that they have consumed cannabis, and give them urine and blood tests. This hard line in enforcement has been applied in tandem with campaigns aimed at reducing demand.
A survey of Stockholm school leavers revealed that:
+ In 1967, 23 per cent of boys had used drugs, mainly cannabis.
+ In 1970, this had reached 34 per cent.
+ Since the 1980s there has been a rapid decline, and in the last few years the figure has hovered around 5 per cent.
The authorities believe that young people smoking cannabis are a recruiting base for those who become users of harder drugs. They point to the fact that the average age of 'heavy drug abusers' has increased considerably. By international standards, the use of cannabis in Sweden is on a limited scale.
Hemp has an estimated 25,000 uses. A few are listed below. All have the attraction that they come from a renewable resource that can be grown without fertilisers or pesticides, and which is biodegradable.
ROPE
Hemp fibre strands are spun into thread to make anything from fine lace to thick rope. You probably climbed up a hemp rope in your school gymnasium. Twine is currently distributed in the UK by Vendcord (tel: 01252 727272).
FABRIC
For thousands of years everything from sacks to sails, thread to trousers, was made of hemp. In the UK Evergreen Recycled Fashions (tel: 01924 453419) use British grown hemp to make a variety of fabrics and yarns.
Several British companies produce clothes using hemp including Union Hemp in Hull (tel: 01482 225 328) and Skins in Sheffield (tel: 01742 660 392).
Producers in Europe and America include Heavytex (tel: 0031 20615 1548) in Holland and in the US there's ECO Lution in Virginia (tel: 0101 703 207 9001), The Hempstead Company (tel: 0101 714 650 8325) and the Coalition for Hemp Awareness in California (tel: 0101 602 988 9355), and Wise Up Reaction Wear in Arizona (tel: 0101 602 293 8005).
PAPER
Paper is one of the oldest hemp products, and it is becoming available again through a variety of sources, including CHT of Lyme Regis in Dorset (tel: 01297 443082), the Wookey Hole Mill (tel: 01749 672243) and Ecologically Sound Papers (ESP) in Oxford (tel: 01865 749707).
BUILDING MATERIALS
Hemp fibre pulp can be used to make pressed board, particle board and concrete construction moulds. Because hemp lets water vapour through while also insulating, it can make an energy efficient and comfortable living environment.
COSMETICS
Hemp seeds can be pressed to obtain oil that is nutty flavoured and high in essential fatty acids. The newly opened Hemporium in Bristol (tel: 01272 298 371) sells a number of cosmetics and toiletries using hemp.
ANIMAL FEED
Hemp seeds are high in protein and will be picked out first by birds when they are presented to them in a mixture. Hemp oil could have a future as an additive to breakfast cereals and as an edible oil.
PAINT AND VARNISH
Until this century hemp seed oil and linseed oil were the drying agents in nearly all paints and varnishes made in the West. This trade went to the petro chemical industry when hemp was outlawed in the 1930s.
ENVIRONMENTAL CLEANSERS
Hemp is very absorbent, and its potential use for soaking up oil from water or petrol is currently being researched. It is also possible that living hemp plants could soak up pollutants from contaminated ground.
FUEL
Hemp is highly calorific and combustible. It could be made into briquettes for burning. It is also highly attractive as a renewable biomass resource which can be composted or turned into charcoal to create methanol, methane or petrol.
Reefer Madness (1936)
Directed by Louis Gasnier
Starring David O'Brien, Dorothy Short, Carleton Young
Classic American propaganda film.
Directed by Hy Averback
Starring Peter Sellers, Jo Van Fleet, Joyce Van Patten
Satirical farce combining marijuana brownies, Gertrude Stein and Jewish mothers.
Directed by Dennis Hopper
Starring Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson
Cult oddball melodrama the road movie (and highly relevant soundtrack).
Directed by John Schlesinger
Starring Jon Voight, Dustin Hoffman, Brenda Vaccaro
Naieve Texan hustler, Voight, bogarts his way to psychedelic heaven/hell in lengthy New York bohemian party scene.
Directed by Perry Henzell
Starring Jimmy Cliff, Carl Bradshaw, Bobby Charlton
Ambitious country boy Cliff breaks into corrupt Kingston reggae scene, has hit record and becomes ganja dealing outlaw. Authentic portrayal of shanty town life includes the largest spliffs ever seen in the history of cinema.
Directed by Alan Parker
Starring Brad Davis, John Hurt
Intense story of an American student caught smuggling hash out of Turkey.
All four films star Cheech Marin and Thomas Chong.
Directed by Lou Adler
In their first pot head comedy, Cheech & Chong go in search of grass.
British title: High Encounters of the Ultimate Kind
Directed by Thomas Chong
Cheech & Chong have various rude adventures.
Directed by Thomas Chong
Cheech & Chong attend a bizarre film festival (devoted to Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton) in Amsterdam.
Directed by Thomas Chong
Cheech & Chong run amuck during the French Revolution.
Directed by Bruce Robinson
Starring Richard E. Grant, Paul McGann
A deliberately seedy comedy about two out of work actors.
Directed by Richard Linklater
With Jason London, Joey Lauren Adams, Milla Jovovich, Shawn Andrews.
Last day of High School in mid 70s mid America. Daft clothes and daft drug intake.
>
'.. Like to take part in a psychological experiment. Fax Beadi Finzi 071 603 2148 (office hours). ..'
'New science information service for everyone. .. get answers to any questions on science, technology, and medicine and the answer is only a phone call away.
If you have any questions and want to talk to a scientist, you can phone
0345 600 444.
1-7 Mon-Fri local rates.'
[They also seem to be promoting their own stuff on 'The Internet']
Monday 6 March 1995: 9-10 pm Channel 4: 'Cutting Edge. Amnesia'. Three cases of amnesia. Unfortunately, disappointingly superficial.
1: Mild mannered old chap, once supposedly a teacher of maths and physics, with remarkably un-furrowed brow when he concentrates e.g. trying to remember he's in Sheffield, perhaps as he never thinks. Remembered how to talk and walk, and seemed somewhat obsessive about the Norfolk Broads where he was last 40 years ago. VO characteristically said: ".. forty years ago could be yesterday." In fact it was hard to tell whether he really remembered anything about it; it might have been regenerated or taken from books: one phrase was about tacking at 45%; another set of things about lowering the mast, and punting, to get under a bridge. We see silly question sessions in completely uncontrolled way by men in shirts at a Sheffield hospital. We're told the doctors know the cause: "Brain scarring caused by haemhorrage." One suspects he never had much mental life since forty years ago. Ghastly wife, three daughters.
2: Stewart Norriss, we're told 17, coming up for A levels; banged his head on a kitchen nit and "in a second nearly all his memory had gone." The possibility of fake caused by worry didn't seem to be put forward. He was overweight, double chinned; and had a double chinned younger brother. Whole family were stupid and media driven. "I thought, 'ang on, there's summat wrong 'ere, 'e shouldn't be askin me do I like pizza, 'im oo's always eaten pizza"/ "What's that animal?" "A brand of cigarette. Sponsors a racing car" hints younger brother. He supposedly had forgotten his own name, how to get dressed, his own mother, etc.
3: Keith Warren, I'd guess 50, bearded man who hit his head on a 'garage door' (actually shown to be a propped-open window) three weeks after his third marriage. Absurdly, his wife said she took some time to detect memory loss; friends came to visit, showed photographs, and he said "We were all dressed up! Were we going somewhere special?" And then she began to have doubts. She says to him: "When you say you love me, I don't know whether you're saying it from yourself" or something similar. She was fat.
[Space where I did something else]
Final shot showed male middle aged white English 'hypnotist' talking to Warren, with mystical musical playing, in a 'trance' who reveals incredible new information - just before being hit on the head he went to and answered the phone. But out of the trance he didn't remember this. Amazing.
Monday 6 March 1995: BBC2: 10-10..30 p.m.: 'Ruling Passions: Sex, Race and Empire'. Radio Times blurb: 'Second of a six-part series looking at the sexual history of the British Empire.
Paying the Price. British Imperial rule encouraged a vast growth in prostitution across the Empire and, with it, disease.
Directors Alex West and David Wilson; Series producer David Wilson. BBC book Ruling Passions written by Anton Gill.. £15.99..'
####
Monday 6 Mar 95: 10 pm: ITV, 'News at Ten' on Barings: losses now apparently more like £1 billion. Some sort of buy-up offer accepted by ING, a Dutch insurance and finance group. Why should they pay a billion? VO says it's the queen's bank. We see picture of a building in the City; do they get that? No information on this point. Just stuff e.g. on lawyer type apparently having persuaded a judge that bonuses to 4000 or so staff [I'm pretty sure they said] (but not to Leeson) should come before payments to depositors, who would "very soon get most of their money back." And other press conferency things, e.g. conference by ING people, one called Aad Jacobs, I think - Aa something. We see shots of managment, elderly men, looking disconsolate as the enter the building.
Tue 7th March 95: Jonathan Meades on vegetarianism; see notes under \FOOD
More Radio Times blurb: 'Lord Louis Mountbatten's murder by terrorists in 1979 has ensured that his reputation, always glowing, has been enhanced in subsequent years. [sic] But is the legend based on fact? Tonight's Secret Lives suggests that Mountbatten was a great self-publicist whose dashing image belied a troubled personal and professional history.
Home movies shot by friend Charlie Chaplin show Mountbatten hamming with his new wife, the heiress Edwina Ashley. There's also footage of Edwina frolicking with her lovers - and biographer Philip Ziegler claims that Mountbatten's despair at her infidelities became a driving force in his naval career. There's an investigation of the rumours about Mountbatten's sexuality [sic], and historian Andrew Roberts reviews his controversial naval career, blighted by the disastrous raid on Dieppe in 1942 in which more than 3,000 Canadian troops were killed, captured or missing.'
[I saw only snatches of this; On Dieppe, 'to this date the objective has never been clear' ..' suicide mission' .. 'unmitigated disaster' .. '.. propaganda opportunity made most of by the Nazis..']
Thurs 9 March 1995: Channel 4 11-11.05 p.m.: Hearts and Minds, third and last part written by Jimmy McGovern, 'set in a Liverpool comprehensive.' Drew played by Christopher Eccleston.
Problem: teaching and TV; latter to dramatise has to make things visible, whereas intellectual insights, learning, are usually invisible.
So in this we have man and unfaithful wife, his kids yelling, schoolkids aggressive, bullying with courageous appearance of bullied girl in school, subplot of some relative wanting his kid in another school (supposedly because it's near), race element with beating up, incompetent handling by our teacher, black teacher who can't be sacked and who wrestles our hero under a shower at one point, incompetent teacher (I recognised him from 'A for Andromeda'; he was much younger) who announces he's gay and who can't get pupils to stay behind (and parents send letters not to be alone with him), and theme of school play to be handled by him since no-one else wants to, staff room mutual needling etc (but not school dinners; this would be hard to stage), and going out with a bang - because he's lost his temper with a black and also e.g. got frayed mentally since his wife received an obscene phone call, and told someone to piss off, and almost got involved in a pub brawl because of telling some pupil where to go, he's told his services won't be needed next term. [I've no idea how accurate the job theme was; it seemed highly implausible that jobs should be that secure, though there was stuff about his probationary period]. The school play, Julius Caesar was to be modern with music by the highly talented and of course black pop group and blackish girl singer. The headmaster deems it must be traditional - though since the rehearsals had been going on for weeks this seemed absurd; moreover it wasn't mentioned during the discussion over the sacking. Anyway climax was school play scene in implausibly small hall for a comprehensive; conventional Julius Caesar starts; pupils gets up and says he's not listening to this crap for the next two hours. Smash it! Others join in; this of course turns out to be staged - scenery rips down to reveal band, kids in long t-shirts singing song about being ignored, voices not heard etc. Model of headmaster with Et tu [surname] hanging in effigy moves across the air. HM walks out. The performance continues - presumably; this is all we see. Next day he clears his desk; the (big, muscular) black teacher says "nice one"; wife who's told him yes, she screwed him, someone you wouldn't know, just once, collects him in their car. Since the whole point seemed to be about keeping a job, this seemed anti-climactic - in the same mould as 'tearing up your cards' or in this cas having them torn up. End of play, credits.
Sat 11/ Sun 12 March 1995: Channel 4 show 'Chicken Ranch', 'a film by Nick Broomfield [actually most of the work was by women] which takes a look behind the scenes of America's most ritzy legalised brothel, set in the heart of the Nevada Desert.' Undated; I think about 1985 - at any rate at about the same time as 'The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas', some of the songs from which were included in little scraps, so I presume it was made after that musical or 'musical'.
In fact a smallish low building, apparently with a wire fence around, in the flat part of a rocky but not desert valley, with one main reception room and apparently imitation wood hardboard walls. Some red curtaining and whitish sofas, apparently covered in thickish clear plastic! Total of I think eight girls at most; they stay three weeks, it said. Included shots of a man who said he was a truck driver: he selected Mandy who told him there was a jacuzzi room etc for $1000. Or everything for say $400. He insisted on 40. They compromised on 'straight' for 60. So evidently there was no price list. The rooms seemed to be bugged so the aging black haired woman running it and counting the dollars could check the amounts. Amusing shots of the male owner, who gets half, plus rent, of all earnings. They have some sort of celebration lunch, perhaps Thanksgiving; he says he believes everyone there believes in God, and he repeatedly uses the word 'promulgate' for procreate.
Film ends when Mandy is sacked; he won't give her a lift in his plane and wanted to chuck all her shit outside. She said he called me a cunt and said he could buy every cunt in the world; or something. He saw them filming this and said if that was in the film I'll sue the ass off you. Various rather dismal scenes, including woman in tears because after having her hair curled her earning power seemed to have plummeted.
Sun 12 Mar 95: Songs of Praise BBC1 6.25 - 7: Radio Times had a sort of teaser promotion of Billy Graham, appearing in this programme. Part of the launch of his ambitious global mission.' In fact just prerecorded boring platitudes, with a young person called Chalke or Chalk, (evidently selected for plebby and casually-clothed image plus genial friendliness), including version of Pascal's percent thing, on his age [77] and recently 'being around' death. He's looking forward to death. Well, not the processes of death, but being in heaven with Christ. Absurdly he says he's learnt a lot about other religions and they have a right to their beliefs. He favours Christ, not Christianity. Why should the BBC promote this southern hick?
Includes some monochrome film of earlier triumphs: 'an importrant milestone' was Haringey, in 1954 or 1956 - my scribble is indecipherable. Stupid woman says these American men were so good looking and charming, and their wives wore make-up, which Christians in England didn't do then! And a stupid man says his father tapped him on the shoulder, and was deeply ?apologetic and they both became newly born.
And 1966 when Cliff Richard says he came out as a Christian; he'd been most impressed by the clonking of the seats [which he imitated] as people stood up and went down to Graham.
Mostly from ?Jesmond parish church in Newcastle [joke: absurd parochialism? Aimed at plebs? I doubt whether they ever have say a church in Kensington]
Mid-March 1985 sometime: Channel 4 put on a 'drama' about AIDS, with Jane Asher as wife of bloke having affair with man working at a garden centre. (And also soldier he sees surrounded by cans of lager on a train). She finds out by discovering a book with a phone number in it (or something like that). Much yelling about being infected, test results, negative.
Sat 18 Mar 95: Note: science promotion: Start of 'Science Week' on BBC; see Radio Times pages I've torn out. Carol Vorderman seems to be front person.
This is part of SET 95, 'Science, Engineering and Technology'. See notes\science & audiotapes on this and other state promotion attempts
Sun 26 March 1995: [between programmes BBC; static pic of queen in powder blue suit top, hat; VO:] '.. In a recent speech the Queen described the recent changes in South Africa as little short of a miracle .. You can follow the history of South Africa./. one of the oldest members of the Commonwealth and yet the youngest. And now the Antiques Road Show.'
Sun 26 March 1995: The Cu Chi Tunnels. 1 hour; impossible to tell how much edited out. Radio Times blurb gives misleading impression of Americanisation of this film; in fact the monochrome credits were mostly Vietnamese (and the date was 1990).
'Documentary.. short season.. marking the 20th anniversary of the end of the war. During the American assault of 1965, the farmers and their families of Cu Chi, just west of Saigon, survived by digging 150 miles of tunnels and building underground schools and hospitals. People got married and gave birth in the tunnels, which became a motif of the ingenuity and determination of the Vietnamese resistance. Almost 30 years on, American film-maker Mickey Grant enables the people of Cu Chi to recount their remarkable story. In English and Vietnamese with subtitles.'
Someone called Stanley Cottrell was called the executive producer.
In fact the VO was Vietnamese. One person did the translating; impossible to guess how accurate this was. I noticed 'Vietcong' was used once.
Two types of film interleaved: monochrome film, left presumably deliberately scratchy etc, mostly Vietnamese (and hence from ground viewpoint). And talking heads; people against a black background talking in Vietnamese, subtitled. Described as artist, singer, tunnel builder, guerilla, medical worker, some as NLF.
Starts "In 1965 the Americans invaded.."
Used hoes where the ground was soft; crowbars where it was hard.
About 50:50 men:woman. Almost all smiling.
"Fighting the AVRN rebels was one thing; the Americans might be different.. we didn't know what weapons they had.. etc"
Chi ?Thang's song 'The punji stick'. A punji trap is a hole with sharpened sticks in the bottom and with a covering, I think cloth, and dry leaves spread over it.
Someone says 'Land of Steel' but there's no indication what this is.
Film crews were sent to film bombed villages 'so the world would see and denounce the war' & also to get people to recruit. The translation said: propaganda films to get people to recruit etc, but one doubts whether this could have been the sense
Land had been farmland; mangoustines, lots of fruit.
Had to spread the soil from the tunnels carefully to leave no traces, or the enemy would bomb them. Took it at night in plastic bags, put it into bomb craters, in the river.
Tunnels seemed to be trenches, from which linked underground tunnels. Tunnels now are enlarged, for tourists. But then they were kept small. Some only 1/2 metre tall. "Fat men had a hard time underground" said a woman. Not generally straight, in case of shooting. Sometimes Americans came down with rifles; these were too long to turn round & the had to back out. Lay face down, static, so as not to sweat; I think this was on hot days or when tunnels rather full.
'Before the trees were destroyed large timbers were used [we see tunnels with leaning-together-at-top props of great squareness and solidity. Later fence posts from US bases.
Dug wells, ovens, toilets, workshops, meeting rooms, hospital for first aid. Largest room 15' wide, 6' high; big enough for sleeping.
Seemed to cook above ground and pass rice etc down; later cooked underground and made smoke disperse over a wide area. Shrimps, frogs, occasional snake with lemongrass. Roots. Sometimes just starved.
Air holes in roots of trees or termites nests or otherwise hidden. Sprinkled pepper on the air holes to put off US dogs.
Woman who was a 'soldier in the art field' proud of that title. Concerts with male singer, female singer, classical drama.
Medicines on the black market, US bases, bribed officials etc. Sometimes had to use herbs to staunch wounds. Bicycle pump and milk bottles system for blood transfusion; they save lives with this system.
Dark; used candles.
Sometimes next to US troops. Would shoot them and take their weapons. US puzzled over where the weapons had gone.
Awards depending on number of Americans you'd killed. If you used explosives, there had to be more dead.
A or the German secret service head (at any rate man in red framed specs) says telephone & mail send small pieces of information, which you can read, but you can send a lot across a network.
Others talk of media hype, & freedom.
Mon 27 Mar 95: Channel 4 piece maintaining science fiction is under-represented. False images: expensive special effects a woman says [Note: lie: tell them what they want to hear] that a big budget film would keep the BBC going for a year. And of things like Dr who, which are space cops and robbers.
Someone else says science fiction gives them the heeby jeebies. They prefer to play safe with Middlemarch. Bri/yan Aldiss interviewed, now somewhat old. And indeed, why haven't Arthur C Clarke, Asimov, Aldiss ever been TV'd?
Mon 27 Mar 95: BBC Vietnam; programme on images of the war and the effects on U.S.A. In Radio Times, illustration shows well known front shot of naked young girl (supposedly?) napalm burnt, showing virtually no signs of damage.
-Also Buddhist burning, I think in Saigon, with petrol can (or plastic container).
-####
Mon 3 April 1995: Horizon BBC 2 8-8.50 p.m.: 'Foetal Attraction'. Idea credited to 'biologist David Haig' (we see red bearded Aussie who pronounces escalate excalate; I presume this is Haig).
Note: conflict of interests: idea that morning sickness, swollen ankles, high blood pressure & more technically pre-eclampsia are caused by 'mother and baby .. in conflict, with each struggling for control over the available resources (such as oxygen and sugar).'
Lots of stuff about 'invasiveness' of the placenta, which is described several times as 'like a cancer'.
And about the mother deciding that an early pregnancy won't take place (up to 50% of pregnancies believed to abort - using pregnancy tests to prove, or 'prove', pregnancy). Man says not the mother herself; her body. VO, by woman who pronounces escalate as esculate, immediately talks of the mother deciding to stop the pregnancy.
Maintains pre-eclampsia is a high risk option by the foetus to increase mother's blood pressure when the placenta isn't properly formed & hence get more nutrients passing to it.
Final assertion: genetic difference of interest; half genes are father's, so father's genes have an interest in birth etc, mother can be more biased to mother's interest. And a rare defect in babies in which chromosome 11 was found to have the father's gene for, or near, some sort of growth 'switched on', while the mother's normally isn't; in this syndrome - something amusingly like Buck Wheaterman's syndrome - some of the baby's organs, e.g. ear, kidney, tongue, are oversized.
Note: statistics: study done on oldish birth records - including weight of neonate - and final records of death show 'very clearly' that lower birth weight males die e.g. of heart disease at three times higher rate; no correlation diagrams or anything were shown. Disturbing feeling (to me - this wasn't mentioned in the programme) that the man advocating this hadn't taken into account other possible factors, notably class related feeding patterns. At any rate this was presented as evidence that male genes go for big babies!
NB: Of course e.g. Ludovici ['the beloved parasite'] and Erich Fromm [baby as completely parasitic] have had views along these lines.
Mon 3rd April 1995: David Dimbleby interviews John Major (apparently mostly on low inflation, privatization, great success etc)
Wed 19 Apr 95: 9 am in Oklahoma: '1000 lb car bomb' outside a government building including FBI offices, 2 years to the day after end of Waco 'siege' says BBC1 9 o'clock news, commenting on non security-ness of US targets as opposed to Europe, 'used to terrorism'.
[Note: health scare:] Beginning of May: Anne Robinson's Consumer 'watchdog' programme has an item on UV and sunglasses, with actress VO about UVA and UVB, and pupil enlarging etc; I recall hearing exactly the same in USA in 1984.
No sources or credits etc.
Sunday 7th May 1995: [Note: VE day: 10.05-12.25 & 3.15-4.40 (7-8.10 part repeats, I think) BBC1 has celebrations with emphasis on St Pauls (Arch of Cant pronounce 'building' as 'biwding') plus royal family & later Hyde Park concert introduced by Sir Ian McKellen; evening has Dame Vera Lynn, Ute Lemper, Elaine Paige, Cliff Richard. US Vice-President Al Gore was at one of these things. John Tusa at one point interviews a 'historian', an old fool who says how splendidly things have gone and how world war was avoided and problems are different now there's no cold war.
10.10-10.30 ITV has VE Day celebrations from Hyde Park & 'importance of forgiveness' discussion with Gloria Hunniford, Leslie Thomas, Baroness Barbara Castle. 10.30-11.40 service 'from Guildhall Square, Portsmouth' with another Very Rev.
- [Infantile VO type:] "For the first time on a Sunday.. ?on course betting allowed.. but presumably the feelgood factor won't return unless they win!"
- [Sort of short summary; old bloke with VO:] ".. local taxes lowest in the country. They're hoping the electorate will judge them by their local record. Not the national one. But their hopes are in vain!"
- ".. After the massacre.. the search for scapegoat will continue"
- [Outdoor interviewer with leading question:] What do you you think of Jeremy Handley the Party Chairman?
- "Do you think there should be a change in chancellor?"
- ".. Stephen ?Dorrill is a rising star..."
- [Old chap]: "If the British public really has decided that the time has come for a change [sc. as is of course inevitable] there's little John Major can do.."
- Humphrys: "We know [Joke:] from the interview in the Mail [presumably on Sunday] that Mr Major thinks the problem is presentation.. Mr Handley.. you're party chairman.." [Handley accepts fill responsibility - presumably he has of course to say that. Then he says of course he is perfectly satisfied with his performance and has no intention of going].
8-9 p.m. Sun 7 May Channel 4: Radio Times says: 'The Goldring Audit. .. last of three [programmes] .. Britain's most successful export earners, .. pharmaceutical industry. .. "the very model of a modern manufacturing industry", contributing £4 billion a year to exports, with profit margins three times the size of average companies and dominating world markets with drugs for everything from ulcers to cold sores to Aids. [sic] But.. in turmoil.. worldwide crackdown on drug budgets and the growth of biotechnology [sic]. Mary Goldring scrutinises some of the industry's biggest, and smallest, players - and delivers a stinging critique of the way the drug companies are responding to the new challenge. [sic;' not plural]. Director/ Producer Michael Willis.'
- Goldring generally seems to approve, presumably because of the positive balance (at present).
Drugs only 10% of NHS budget.
"There's no sign doctors resent the pressure" [I think to prescribe generics].
Glaxo-Wellcome quoted; sounded as though Wellcome had amalgamated in this way.
She believes in AIDS
Regent Labs "one of the biggest and best" of the companies making generic drugs after patent expires. MD says no, they don't even add sugar - has to be the same stuff. Goldring says [later; not to him] she doesn't want decades-old drugs; she wants new ones!
Generics now 1/2 and may become 2/3 - I think this might have meant by 'value'.
Brand names tend to plummet after patent expires; she says Tagamet [I think] an ulcer drug when out of patent 'crashed' by 76%. (She doesn't seem to have heard of the Helicobacter pylori theory which might explain this better).
Explains e.g. Nurofen is widely asked for when generic is much cheaper; various people assure her advertising is effective. They don't say the fact that shops offer the expensive version is effective, too.
Seems disappointed in lack of support for genetic engineering techniques; a couple of tiny companies shown, one supported by Australian venture capital; she spoke of 'frozen genes' in tubes and probably has no idea of the theory.
10.25pm-12.05: Mon 8 May 1995: ITV's long WW2 thing with Vera Lynn and Christobel Leighton-Porter, Jane of the wartime strip with Lancaster bomber and Spitfire, I think we're told and some frigate or something.
Thurs 11 May 1995: Nolan report on standards in public life published. (It is to be debated in Parliament).
Fri 12 May 95: BBC 9 pm news has as second item foreign office warning about 'deadly Ebola fever' in Zaire. On this see Bryan Ellison/ Peter Duesberg's book and the accompanying tape.
Sun 14 May 95 & Mon 15 May & four succeeding Monday weeks: The Wild West. [Note: pseudo-radical presentation of TV programme:] Radio Times blurb says: 'New series. First of six programmes charting the history of the devastation visited on Native Americans as the white Americans moved west. 1845-1861 Westward Ho In 1845 fewer than 20,000 white Americans lived west of the Mississippi - the western third of the continent was seen as an untameable wilderness and the Native Americans were able to enjoy what was almost an idyllic existence. But all this was about to change..
Producers Ric Burns and Lisa Aides.'
[Actually a US series, made e.g. with money from Ford Foundation & with VO by rather gritty-voiced man, presumably an actor. Script available from Channel 4. Description not very accurate:]
- freest people the world had ever known/ whole continent
- it was nice in spring in mexico; it was nice in summer near canada; that was their idea
- some historians call us nomads; that makes me angry. We knew where we were going, where there were buffalo, where there was water, where there were plants to eat.. the chiefs knew about all these things..
- Above seems uneasily to coexist with population ideas; no figures ever mentioned (of course) but I wonder whether 80 million (cf e.g. Chomsky on this figure) could have lived like that. At any rate, if these figures are true, presumably there must have been many more deaths than implied in this film. Virtually nothing on killings, though there was a mention of terrible diseases without further information.
- "I don't believe they ever said they owned the land. Then the whites came, with a piece of paper, saying this is proof I own the land"
- 49 gold rush in California started by chance 1848 discovery. San Francisco grew from a few hundred to 20,000 in about a year (it says). This is one of the very few actual figures for population quoted; lots of drivel about 'endless' wagon trains crossing the land
- Europeans (supposedly) who'd 'dreamed for millennia' about owning their own land which they could then be in relationship with. [But cp story about Italian families who in new cities abandoned immemorial farming calling rather than be separated]
- Amusing background music thing: 'war drums' etc often for Indians, but harmonica backing for white settlers
- Maps (tinted yellowish; were they really parchment?) show Indian territory in huge chunks, though Mexico, east coast, and I suppose Canada are relatively occupied. NB: Slave-holding states, with blacks for generations, hardly figure in this program, yet they must have been important
- Idea that plains in middle resembled Europe; but further west the landscape was more unfamiliar and hostile, so they 'started inventing themselves as Americans and building their own mythology of themselves' etc.
- Latter I think intended to apply to Salt Lake City and Mormons; nobody comments on invented religions.
- Cow as start of war story: cp. the traditional Irish tale as mentioned e.g. in my tape of guided tour on Dingle peninsula. Red Indian steals a lame cow from a Mormon wagon train; return is demanded; Indian chief offers two in place, but no; man with cannon comes to village; he's drunk; point blank killing with cannon; enraged braves, pronounced "war-yaws" in American English, kill the lot. They could have stormed Fort Laramie and cut the lines, but VO says "they could come to no agreement" or something. Silly VO doesn't seem to take account of fact they probably realised there'd be retribution.
- Complete absence of information on e.g. how expensive it was to get a covered wagon and horse(s) and move with it, and what arrangements were made at the other end; complete blank
- Man comments on dramatic change in only about 20 years from psychologically unlimited vistas reaching indefinitely, to mapped out, settled area dotted with towns.
- Also demise of pony express mentioned - this seems a well-established (& perhaps mythical?) story. [Note: information control:] The invention of the telegraph, cutting news time to seconds, commented on - not, of course, who controlled it.
- Nothing said about extermination of buffalo (though it was stated that the wagon trains 'scared the buffalo away'!)
- Note on the 'state': repeatedly said that Union troops or soldiers sent to defend immigrants etc, and that they carried out negotiations etc; nobody comments on the flat contradiction with the idea of 'individualism'. To be fair, latter word wasn't used: the ideas of immigrants, who apparently were of two types: ones who wanted to 'better their condition', and others who thought they were building heaven on earth.
- Interviewed Indians subtitled with English names like James Will Go Wild Mother; or something - that's made up. Joke of course is that no Indian languages are used.
- Idea of U.S. as granary for Europe, Europe growing corn in U.S. as in Malthus, omitted: perhaps U.S.-centric attitude avoids dependency features. (Similarly, mention of architects, lawyers, people who presumably had to manufacture bricks, timber, etc unmentioned.
- Railroads similarly omitted.
THE WILD WEST 2ND EPISODE: I didn't watch or tape this episode. Radio Times says: '1862-1865 War Comes to the Plains. In the second.. film-maker Ric Burns charts the history of the devastation visited on the Native Americans as the whites began to move into the West. In 1862, Congress passed the Homestead Act, which offered land to anyone willing to go out and work it. In the same year, the Pacific Railroad Act became law and the West was to be changed forever. On the reservations, the Native Americans were suffering from disease, starvation and overcrowding. Finally, angry warriors joined together in an uprising to punish the white settlers. A series of battles resulted and great leaders emerged, men like Sitting Bull and George Armstrong Custer, whose actions would never be forgotten.'
Sun 21 May 1995: early afternoon had ITV programme on sex and age discrimination in jobs (supposedly illegal in US). I made a brief note on this in \research\psychology, as there as an elderly man who (the programme claimed) had spent a lifetime studying ageing and the brain. (Don't get excited: his brief comments as he e.g. looked at X rays of brains seemed banal).
Harold Wilson died Wed 24 May 95; BBC 1 had rather vomity pre-produced thing introduced by Anthony Howard about Labour, only three election leaders this century, he was the most successful, party unity, Barbara Castle saying eagle-like ability to get out of trouble etc. Note absence of view on international stuff: Vietnam, nuclear weapons, Nigeria, etc.
Looking at Margaret's northern photos: I wonder are there ones of Wilson, b/w and deckle edged on black matt paper in albums, in shabby surroundings with Blackpool pier etc occasionally..? Congratulations on birth? Congratulations on passing your exams - keep trying!
Fri 2 Jun 95 8 p.m. -8.30 BBC2: 'A Country House Reborn' [sic]: 'A documentary marking the National Trust's re-opening of Uppark, [sic; H G Wells's, and others, spelling was Up Park] an elegant country house on the Sussex Downs which was badly damaged by fire in 1989. .. six years of restoration work by skilled craftspeople to recreate its period splendour..'
Depressingly gushing VO, woman's voice: [Joke: switch sex for comic effect?] '.. romantic history.. companion to the Prince Regent.. races on the Downs.. the beautiful Emma [name].. attracted Nelson.. said to have danced naked on the table.. raffish Harry [cp Wells's version] .. married his 20 year old dairymaid..'
Re-opened 1st June 1995, it said (i.e. the day before).
Cost £20 million. Insurers of the contractors whose employees had started the fire paid, not the National Trust or its insurers. 'Biggest ever restoration project of the National Trust.' Included women carpenters, a woman wallpaper restorer shown with a yard-square wood block for printing. Man with a Greek name and slightly fussy manner says the balustrade looked simple; it turned out on examination that the turned spindles had decreasing diameters, decreasing pitch, and decreasing throat (or something very similar). He'd costed up for simple machine cutting. Fortunately he had a bearded man who modified a machine etc. Much quasi-science: slaked quicklime matured for some years should be used on the ceiling plaster details - like little grapes we see them putting up. A special pre-aged lead based paint, therefore 'toxic', was needed. Nothing like it today; skills we'd feared lost etc. Flock wallpaper rather irritatingly restored to its faded condition - deep crimson behind paintings, elsewhere faded to goldish. Woodcarving woman enthuses about huge rococo mirror frame, and the workmen who knew all the references (she said) and were in the English woodcarving tradition. Much of this frankly struck me as bosh. However, they did mention Wells and his 'surprisingly sympathetic' treatment.
Gales in January 1990 administered another bit of a shock - its site is very exposed - but manfully and womanfully they pressed on.
Nice bit of publicity.
Wed 7 June 1995: [AND SEE 18th JAN 95:] 9-9.45 pm 'Dispatches' partly a rerun, on the NHS and private medicine, again; repeats the theme that consultants break their contracts by doing more half-days of private work than they should, at the expense of NHS work [the defence of Bottomley's department seemed to be that their work frees up and reduces queues!] and that patients are offered speedy service if they pay - typical figures seemed to be 1 week wait to see consultant, 1 week wait for operation, vs 9 months' waits in each case.
- Dr John Yates of Birmingham University (shown in his room; view of ?Great Tom or whatever the tower is, some way below him) does the research; including sampling e.g. using private detectives in cars or on motor bikes to follow consultants' cars from hospital at 9.30 to one private clinic to another, e.g. the Wellington. The car was red in the example they showed - but they blurred the shot digitally, "not for legal reasons but because it's unfair to single out one man when so many .. etc" The 'so many' was said to be a minority by one man - well, a large minority.
This programme was partly about the launch of Yates's new paperback, 'Private Eye, Heart and Hip'.
Yates says: "There's doubt whether five of the top ten operations are needed." [The operations weren't named; probably in his book]. And that there should be an inspectorate.
55% of NHS operations are by junior doctors in training, it was stated.
4,300 of 7,700 i.e. over half operations by NHS heart surgeons were on private patients.
[Note: audit:] This seems to be another case in which an audit function is lacking. Collusion suggested between consultants and management and some other organisation - Dept of Health?
There was an amusing scene where an interviewee suddenly refused to talk any more on tape - so much for open government!
Thurs 8th June 1995: Channel 4 News 7-7.50 pm had an item on Hong Kong and attempt to put in place some sort of supreme or high court, called 'independent Supreme Court', apparently against the Chinese' wishes - though the reason is never given.
Channel 4 is exceptional in giving a bit of publicity to the other side; amid the old men dressed in 18th century English coats and in wigs, we see Simon Li, also oldish, Hong Kong' legal advisor to China, who we're told in VO remembers the bias of law in colonial days - no other details. VO says he's a 'fierce critic of British ?fanaticism' over the issue.
Fri BBC1 9pm News: Scott O'Grady, American apparently saved from the Serbs, shown running about and said to have thanked God and the marines. Peter Sissons.
Also piece on Newt Gingrich, grey-white haired Republican House Speaker, apparently filmed more or less wherever he goes. Various people say he could be next Republican President, as he's so much less dull than other candidates. I have some notes on him taken from Internet.
Fri 9th June 1995: 9-9.30 pm Channel 4: 'The World of Lee Eavns'.
Comedy with stories in each episode; this one's about train trip to Scotland (jokes in tiny sleeper car etc).
It occurred to me his model is Norman Wisdom.
Wed 14 June 95: BBC:
[1] 7-7.45 BBC2 Cardiff Singer of the World. English baritone Ashley Holland; longish dark hair. He sings, i soon realise, in English translation; I don't know the opera, but the effect is a joke: "Typical feminine logic. I would rather sit on a barrel of gunpowder than try to reason with a woman. ?Ah! They give me a cramp in the leg". That's word for word apart perhaps from the ?
[2] BBC1: Matthew Kelly 'Eureka' begins with amphibious car. Kelly stupidly says if we went to work like this there'd be fewer traffic jams. We see an inventor - naturally appears as something of a berk - with e.g. pair of scissors operated by foot, for a one-armed person. He also shows his clockwork radio [wind-up spring powers a small dynamo - now apparently called generator - to work the radio.] Fatuously says this is to do with AIDS in Africa - a battery can cost three months' wages. The government is making them in South Africa.
[3] BBC2: Michelin man a powerful 20th century advertising image, says programme supposedly on Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Seems to be called 'Bibendum' and be shown on a bike or with a glass of wine in France.
[4] BBC2 93.0-10.20: Troubleshooter Returns.
Sir John Harvey-Jones 'goes to Greenwich on a mission to find what is ailing the navy and make it shipshape'. Picture in Radio Times shows red brick building with wings and stone pilasters and other stone detailing, hard to classify architecture with central layered tower and roof slightly mansard like. Down steps and grass is big flat space in front for bands and marching and parades. I thought this was Dartmouth, which seemed to be near the sea, but perhaps I've confused it with Greenwich.
Segregation amusingly rules: Dartmouth is for officers; c 500 total now, in huge building. Intake this year about 60; hardly even replacement, wonders H-J. 'The cost per student must go through the roof' comments Harvey-Jones very audibly. This place used [in his day] to take boys; now it takes men and women. We see males playing cricket; H-J says they're older than in his day. But the place generally hasn't changed much. He'd been very happy there. He enjoyed the ballroom dancing in particular. They're taught how to lok smart and wear diner jackets. He finds his picture on a monochrome group photo; doesn't look anything like him. "In those days there was a marvellous certainty about life.." says H-J.
There's a completely separate place for training ratings, who seem to wear blue at least on board. Man with bands round sleeves and white shirt and accent, which I take it is less pronounced than before, supports this, talking in mixed metaphors: ".. kneecapping the officers.. without a sure foundation.."
Then on Ark Royal. We see a 'wardroom' aft, behind red-on-white 'Officers only' sign; the officers eat separately, and are waited on, and live relatively opulently, as we see; nothing has changed since the days of sail, says H-J, who talks to then 'weapons officer' who gets up from his comfy chair in a large room. They dress for dinner, even on operation of Bosnia. They don't mess together; there are three messes plus the one for officers. H-J thinks this is expensive. He approves though of the institution food, that made him the man he is - i.e. fat. It's presented in stainless steel tray things. We see H-J talk through a hatch to a crowd of cheery looking blokes in blue. We find the Ark Royal has 1200 people all told. H-J says he can calculate the salary bill from that, and looks grave. He also looks at the late 1960s-design control room at the joke: sharp end of the ship; commissioned ?; delivered I think c 1985. He jokes he's always wanted to find something that takes longer than a nuclear power station to design and deliver; now he's found it.
Sea king helicopters likely to be kept going till they're 50 years old, says someone. He thinks it's an awful waste having these people in a temperature of 130 [that's what he said, I'm sure] doing maintenance. 2 carriers is the minimum for a navy, and that's what they've got. For 7 aircraft (I think he said) and helicopters. 'A whole arm may have to go.'
'Trusty' (submarine; he applied to be a submariner) was refitted in Swan Hunters in 1944 [as he 'lost everything' in surface ships, in 'active service'] learnt a great deal from the men, what little difference there really was from the officers, wretched conditions..
Captain I think; surrounded by men all in white shirts, shorts, long white socks, epaulette things on the shirts which i think were short sleeves. One looks through binoculars.
"What it's for? .. no doubt.. feeling of purposefulness.. everyone is alert and hardworking" says a captain, I think. I remember feeling amazed that H-J should raise such a question at all. He seems a completely simple cold warrior type: ".. cold war is over now you don't know where the enemy is or where it's coming from next.."
H-J says one company, one customer, the government.. should be close relation.. ordering policy etc.. isn't??? .. H-J says he's struck by the difference with Americans who procure differently.. "And the French.. and the Germans.. even the Italians.." says chap he's talking to, I think Swan Hunter engineer. "The public don't know what policy.." This was "Swans, who failed to get that vital order and closed down. It really makes me weep."
Talking to the ?Admiralty ?Board: "MoD 22 billion per year" "My [ICI's] turnover was about 12." They talk about Government policy being competition in getting equipment. They all seem subdued but irritated and on the point of barking at H-J; who is perhaps not very aware of that - or maybe he's used to it. They also seem not able to make their points well, no doubt as a rsult of years of dodging questions about empires, imperialism, whatever.
Speaks to the First Sea Lord at Naval College at Greenwich. He should know! ".. for supporting the government's security and foreign ? policies.. strategic and sub-strategic defences.. deterrence.. want to stop wars before they start.. that's what Trident is for.."
H-J says: ".. lot of chiefs.. few indians.. and we know what that means.. they make work.. for a 70 ship navy you've got a hell of a lot of admirals.." "We are top heavy.. we're trying to get it down.."
"Officers.. training.. an officer corps.. separate.. and I'll tell you why.. what I want is for them to make their mistakes without being watched the whole time by people they're going to lead.. we recruit by merit.." [H-J guffaws; don't you think ICI does?] ".. one grade of A Level may make all the difference.."
[Parade ground. 'A Life on the Ocean Wave' plays. Men, some with swords upright, in black uniforms no doubt with brass buttons walk past swinging their arms. They have white flat hats. Passing out parade.]
[Ship in river: Man on bank commands another: "Pipe." Man peeps on little thing, no doubt for a measured time, then stops.]
[Disconcerting amount of saluting and rather formal greeting as e.g. H-J gets on board, taking off his protective helmet after a helicopter ride. H-J himself doesn't salute. No doubt he remembers his training.]
[He's in a small boat with elderly men; they don't look very happy.] ".. cut down the rank structure.. the Navy wants to have its cake and eat it I fear.. clinging to the past.." and makes a joke about the proportion of admirals in the little boat being the same as in the Navy; but then they have a cushy life, live longer.]
Thu 15 Jun 95: Ch 4 Kwame McKenzie [black; described I think as a psychiatrist] presents 'Mindscape' on power: Benn thinks he must have listened to millions of speeches. KM says when he put his white coat on, the difference was amazing.. members of the public deferred to him, assumed he knew what he was talking about..
Exposing what he sees as the myth of Britain's commitment to the spirit of Nuremburg, Bower argues that far from being a stalwart of international justice, the British government was negligent in its pursuit of Nazi war criminals. He claims that after the war's end, hundreds of Nazi criminals were allowed to settle in Britain, which became a haven for those taking flight after the defeat.
An army chaplain to the forces that liberated Belsen in 1945, historians, lawyers and one man who was incorrectly accused of being a Nazi war criminal support, oppose or debate Tom Bower's controversial standpoint. Would it be possible, or desirable, to hold war-crimes trials in Britain? Producer Paul Elston; Series producer Laurence Rees.'
Sun 2 July 1995: [see also 25 June, 9 July] BBC2 9.10-10: 'Myths and Memories of World War II. The third in a four-part series presented by Peter Taylor in which radical stances about the Second World War are proposed and debated. Dr Nick Tiratsoo, social historian at the London School of Economics, argues that the British did not pull together on the Home Front. He maintains that the cosy image of a society wholly united against the Nazis is a myth, the product of skilfully manipulated propaganda disguising escalating social conflicts. Instead, Tiratsoo pains a picture of a divided society in which the rich were better protected than the panic-stricken poor who were forced to face the Blitz with inadequate shelters. Those who lived through the war, together with historians, challenge and debate this controversial thesis.' Radio Times.
[Cp Ray Challinor, and also more specifically Clive Ponting]
Sat 8 July, 95: 8.15-9.10 pm BBC1: 'Girl Friday' [repeat]. Radio Times says: 'Joanna Lumley agrees to spend nine days on a desert island with just a basic survival kit and a film crew. After some initial rudimentary training she is left on the uninhabited island of Tsarabajina, just off the cost of Madagascar. Will it be paradise, or hell on earth? Producer Clive Tulloh.'
What actually happened: we see Lumley reporting to a British army place: "Sergeant.." she says to a uncertain bellowy man. She goes to the quartermaster and is issued clothing - apparently just for this part of her stuff. Then her training: "The four basic requirements of life hare water, food, shelter, and fire." Then some elementary building of shelters etc.
Then out to the island by air [governmental details not given] with a camera crew of about five who stay in a luxury ship off the coast; this is what we're told, anyway. She has a pile of things: groundsheet, two knives, small tin with things like 'water purification' tablets and needle and thread, an SAS survival paperback, clothes, mosquito netting, plastic bottles of water, three I think billy cans i.e. tins, somewhat corrugated, with handles, tinder and flint or modern equivalent, sketching pad and writing stuff, some rice and I think other rations, boots I think, a radio for emergencies, and more stuff I don't recall. The crew stayed with her for the day, only leaving, presumably by rowing boat, at night.
She also had a camera and filmed herself in the evening, in her cave or on the beach: I was fascinated by three things:
(1) traditional female interests projected into everything: her hair ("the old wig's coconut matting" "the roof of the cave is covered with loose stuff..") and clothes ("my vetements.. I'm wearing my green shirt back to front to give you something different to look at.." and appearance generally ("someone like me who cleans her teeth at least twice a day.. you can't imagine.." ".. I've worn these clothes for ooh ten days now.. but it doesn't matter! They're full of salt and disgustingly filthy but it doesn't matter!!" and interests ("I've arranged my kitchen here.. two pieces of driftwood which I thought too wonderful to burn.. I call them my elephants teeth.."/ ".. sketching this flower.. a cricket jumped on it and I drew Mr Cricket.."/ "I'm leaving a testament.. I, Joanna Lumley.. bequeath this recipe.. rice, yams.."/ "Yesterday I was completely naked and the crew hadn't gone back.. I jumped behind a rock! Whee!"/ "You sit here by the fire, you can put your legs anywhere, it doesn't matter.."
(2) her schoolgirl/media language (".. no skeeters" ".. fish feet.." "my espadrilles are a huge success, I'm talking major success here" [after she made her bra into shoes to replace her smelly ones] "paradise!!" [after knocking down a coconut from a tree; it cracked when it hit the ground & she drank the milk] "I poached a jar of marmalade on the plane.. file it with whiskey.. the crew left me a present, a mango.." "ho hum")
(3) something like hypocrisy: ("I wouldn't have missed it for the world!" "Nine days.. if the crew said you're going to stay another two days, I'd say there's no way in the world!.." "I am absolutely exhausted! I've been bitten all over by sandflies.. wear my clothes in bed.." "I have survived, after all. ..")
Sun 9 July, 95: [see also 25 June, 2 July] 'Myths and Memories of World War II' BBC2 9.05 pm - 10. This had 'Dr Paul Abrahams, journalist and expert in French history', arguing that the 'famed role of the French Resistance as an unyielding and heroic line of defence against Nazi aggression is little more than myth produced by propaganda.'
[I've taped some of this on audio tape; on the back of Ray Challinor's WW2 myths lecture for the AWL, where it seems appropriate.
Abrahams' claim [the first part of the programme; all on tape] is that the resistance had little real effect, was only a tiny minority, did very little (despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of weapons were parachuted in), the Maquis sometimes killed peasants, and some of the young men who ran away in fact were merely avoiding German service (as, we're told, the BBC said they should). Only about 1 in 10 joined the resistance. The myth was started to restore French morale - rather jokingly we're told the importance was political and moral. Thus the Americans were diverted from Paris (I think they said) and de Gaulle was at the front, announcing that we the French have liberated ourselves, a lie. M R D Foot said the Bretons were heroic; in nearly every village they rose, so the army (5 US divisions) could have a direct line to Brest. Abrahams agreed that Brittany was the most important case (he seemed to think the only place; his research had been done in Haut Savoie, I think he said) but still five divisions had to be there, apparently mainly to take Brest. An unimpressive professor said ?Roosevelt praised the resistance; Abrahams replied that in his report of [number -180?] pages, exactly one paragraph mentioned the resistance.
Sun 9 July, 95: 10.45-11.30 pm BBC2: 'The Trial of O J Simpson. A weekly review of the week's major developments in the Los Angeles courtroom where former American footballer, film star and national sporting hero O J Simpson is accused of the murder of his former wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman, found dead outside her home last summer. Peter Pringle presents coverage of the long-running and high-profile case that is still gripping the US public. Producer Roy Davies.' says Radio Times.
Mon 10 July, 95: ITV 'World in Action' 8.30 - 9 p.m.: dangerous contraceptive pill? Femodene (and other names) contains gestodene, described as a 'synthetic hormone' presumably meaning not found in nature, art least in its form in tablet. Made by Schering; introduced 1987 (I think they said). German findings suggest thromboses more likely with this pill than others. However, British and other health services seem at least so far to be taking no action - there are at least two studies., with contradictory results; and the programme stated that under -reporting might be taking place - e.g. coroners not mentioning use of this pill.
Wed 12 July, 95: Channel 4. 'First sex.' First part c 30 mins on Korean women taken to Japan; some seem to have gone voluntarily in the hope of earning money in ordinary ways. I think the figure given was 150,000. 1990 press conference was held by professors - I think two women - who'd researched evidence, partly I think vernal evidence of women. Flat denial by the Japanese. Solidarity group shown at a meeting in a place in Seoul - modern building called something like 'Women's Centre'. An 'international public hearing' was held in Japan. Many of the women said they couldn't talk about it, and lost contact with their parents, and couldn't marry etc; I missed some details here. Contingents apparently from Philippines, also Saipan, Saigon, Bang Kok. They were given some euphemisms, the most common being [translated as] 'comfort women'. 'Sexual slavery by the Japanese ?Army' was another phrase, with 'war crimes'. The Korean government said women who registered would be paid some sort of compensation. 45 years of silence therefore breached. We see blue clad Koreans with plastic shields etc; and women on the 155th weekly demonstration outside the Japanese embassy. No mention of U.S. analogies.
Woman said they wanted:1 full disclosure by the Japanese, 2 Punishment of the men, 3 Compensation; not just money, but [I think] restoration of dignity.
Korean and Philippine group is taking legal action against the Japanese government, but at the end titles say 'results are not expected for twenty years.'
Tues 18 July 1995: 8-8.30 pm 'Public Eye' BBC2 New medical scare: chlamydia! Suggested it helps cause a hip disease (we see interviewee woman talking of something like I.H.D.) leading to sterility, is unknown to medicos and the public, is spreading widely, is related to NSU in men (and puzzlingly therefore presumably likely to be cured), has gone up by 40% since last year, the whole thing. So where are all the sterile women, seems an obvious, and therefore unanswered, question.
No indication of source
Mostly VOd by woman; actress?
[Supposedly an organisation aiming at a world wide Islamic state]
Thu 27 July, 95: 8-8.30pm 'How Do They Do That?' with Desmond Lynam & Jenny Hull. One item [most of the stuff was special effects; now it's extended to e.g. blowing up Ham Hall &tower blocks, and the three card trick] was '.. filming under fire - how BBC correspondent Jeremy Bowen brings us words from the wars; ..'
Says things like ".. in El Salvador there was a good hotel with a war going on a few miles away.. we just stayed there.. comfortable.. but that's unusual" "It was even difficult to get fuel; we spent a lot of time buying gallons of fuel on the black market.." ".. sometimes it's quite dangerous.." Details of cost, requests for censorship, slanting of coverage, size of crew not given, I think, or at least if so in minuscule way.
Wed 2 August, 95 1.30-2.35 AM Channel 4 repeat of:
'The Decade of Destruction In the Ashes of the Forest Award-winning director Adrian Cowell's series records the human tragedies that have resulted from the exploitation of the Amazonian rainforest. Tonight's film follows Renato and his family into the forest where, like hundreds of thousands of colonists encouraged to settle by the Brazilian government and financed by the World Bank, they hoped to farm. By 1990, 60 per cent of the land cleared for farming had been returned to scrub and most farmers like Renato had been moved on.' [Blurb from Radio Times]
Wed 2 Aug 95: Channel 4 news:
Wells turbine device by seashore at Dounreay, ironically, installed and ready to go; bottle smashing ceremony. Supposed to produce 2 Megawatts, 'enough for a small town'. Its inventor (NOT Salter) says the government wasn't interested etc.
Prof Salter shown in Edinburgh with lab, funding cut ?7 years ago (see Private Eye). He says the market can't react to the future, say 15 years, when we might need gas from Algeria or Russia; he talks of the dogma of the market.
[Note: suppression of part of power structure:] BUT he doesn't realise it's technical - people can't buy electricity from an alternative supplier even if they wanted to pay more.
Wed 2 Aug 95: Scare programme on old age, selling houses, not being able to bequeath etc. We're told Belgium and another European country, not Germany, has law on children supporting parents (left unclear as to whether this is just Code Napoleon).
Scare in the sense of talk of huge increases in numbers, endless cost escalations, small percentage with private insurance (as though that would help - cp Prof Jarman's May tape!); cp more factual stuff I taped June 95 by Ray Rowden.
[yesterday I'd watched part - actors saying something like a nursery rhyme "Tommyknockers tommyknockers coming round the door"
Joke: "It's that John Hurt again. He used to be the elephant man!"
Tue 15 August, 95: BBC1 has VJ day celebration 'news' programme, links (colour) read by Sue Lawley, who after b/w film of Attlee making announcement, looking unshaven and uneven-toothed, that the last enemy had been overthrown (or something similarly Biblical sounding) and peace democracy etc, & K & Q on Buckingham Palace (Eliz & Margaret Rose (sic, I'm sure) flanked them on the balcony) read out "America of course has borne the bulk of the burden of the war against Japan."
Japanese emperor supposedly said "the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage.." or so the story goes.
Considerable amount on Tomiichi Murayama, Japanese PM, "using the word apology" at a press conference this morning (in a blue suit - not in the formal looking grey/black suited ceremony). Did he mean it? I wasn't impressed, having seen the front-page headline on the 'Independent' the previous Saturday when shopping.
Man who'd reported from Vietnam (blond - forget his name) now at Kwai railway, admitting it was a major tourist attraction. [I think he said the biggest - sic].
I'd just read Lin Yutang on Burma and the railway & the point I think he tried to make still applies.
Extracts from David Lean's film - well built bare chested men is smartish green uniforms, well fed, whistling Colonel Bogey, behaving heroically, "largely invented" said VO. 1/3 died, one for each sleeper etc. The number who died in the other services etc naturally not given for comparison; nor of course figures for Burmese.
Tue 15 August, 95: Visit to Orania, guarded white township of 500 Afrikaners who want their own state, by Nelson Mandela, to see Betsy Verwoerd, widow of the murdered ex-Prime Minister years before.
What looked like a U.S. thing, 'The Real X Files', an 'Equinox special' on 'a paranormal arms race with the USSR'. Various more or less mad US people, including a woman who said she bent a spoon, including the bowl (once). Someone called General Stubblebine [sic] 'responsible for 30,000 men and women' who was sacked after getting ever more interested in forkbending etc.
Interesting vocabulary thing: use of mediums was called 'channelling', 'incarnate ?beings' something presumably like ghosts, and 'remote viewing' for supposed ability to see what's at a place given map co-ordinates. No evidence of course (except long after the event vague supposed memories).
Man called Major Ed Dames who we're told at the tend lives in Beverl[?e]y Hills and has an agent said when the project was closed, I think in about 1984 after 12 years or so, when CIA head was looking out about the time of Oliver North 'scam' for further embarrassments, enough documents were shredded to 'burn out the motors' of two shredding machines.
Dames also said during the 'war' against Gaddafi he'd been used to say where Gaddafi was, so bombs could be dropped.
CIA, US army, Army intelligence, DIA = Defense Intelligence Agency, NSA etc involved.
[Marc thought the fact much money had gone into it for years showed there must be something in it].
Mon 28 August, 95: [Bank Holiday; Channel 4 'Science Fiction' long weekend in fact with rather weak films.]
9-10 pm Channel 4: 'Secret History' about Roswell, New Mexico, and 4 July 1947 event. [Incidentally quite near Alamagordo & White Sands; and the only nuclear bomber squadron in the world]. Several interview with hick Americans who were eleven or twelve at the time. Marc has a photocopy, which he got from some sort of convention, of the front page of that Roswell newspaper [5 cents then], which seems to have invented the 'flying saucer' idea: a "flying disk".
Retracted and a press conference said it was a weather balloon (I think Martin Gardner referred to this] - kite-like balsa wood and foil-backed papery stuff put on show. 1978 retired intelligence officer claimed it was a cover-up. Etc. Also film produced by a music video maker shown; b/w and fixed focus and wabbly hand-held and soundless and poor quality - probably a prop, said special effects man, commenting on polyurethane like 'internal organs' and absence of intestines. Absurd lettering resembling 'VIDEO' but with symmetry. No-one commented on the operating theatre stuff, costumes like beekeepers, etc.
"Very ordinary Americans" comment by a resident. Certainly they were inarticulate etc. One said metal felt like nothing and ran like water; another that it had strange writing in pinky purple. None of them seem to have taken a bit home with them.
In my opinion, noting there was a missile test range near, I'd guess some unfortunate apes or chimps, perhaps oran-utangs, chosen for similarity to people, were shaved so they could be fitted with monitoring stuff and fired in some sort of plane or rocket; this must have headed for Roswell and been luckily aborted or something before hitting the town. Hence - I'd guess - the cover up. Nothing of course was said about legal liability of the army or 'Army Air Force' for damage etc, or other cover-ups.
[Note: Plagiarism: seems a copy, but accenting only the Bible stuff and Egypt, of the 1991 book 'Centuries of Darkness'. None of the five co-authors of this book, or Colin Renfrew who wrote the introduction, gets any mention whatever in thus TV series, which also seems to be part of the promotion of a book by Rohl, 'A Test of Time', subtitled 'Pharaohs and Kings', at £17.99 a bit cheaper than the other, and with a '4' on the cover! Rohl seems to have sidekicks, e.g. Prof Bob Bianchi of USA. Conversely, Rohl isn't in the index or bibliography of 'Centuries..' which of course was earlier.]
SUNDAY 3RD:
Sack of Thebes a known point. Belief that Moses and Ramesses II were coeval. Champollion's possible misreading of a single celebratory Egyptian wall showing large numbers of defeated towns.
Bible talks of Shishak King of Egypt; now-traditionally identified with Shoshenk I.
Accepted chronology more or less based on the same reasoning for 100 years.
But Rohl believes 21st and 22nd ruled simultaneously.
Note: myth: as expressed by Russell, that the Greeks were outstandingly successful in science and in war? Egyptian empire seemed large and successful; Pharaohs decorated the external walls of temples with war trimphs, including single fgures with on chest cartiocuhe of name of the town they'd lost. [Note: cp Greeks and colour:] These were 'originally in techniciolour' says Rohl.
Incidentally Ramesses II ruled 67 years - cp Victoria
Joke: on dating, compare fun made of Ussher; the Egyptologists seem to have used more or less the same procedure.
[1] 1952 Serapeum [joke:] found by a Frenchman covered with sand; apis bulls for about 200 years missing. Sacred Apis bulls were mummified and 'given funerals fit for a king'. We see a robbed out tomb (for a bull) of hefty basalt - cortner broken off.
[2] Inaccessible temple outside the Valley of the Kings used to hide bodies of some Pharaohs; found 1870s by locals [I think as in the Egyptian film 'the Night of the..' though this wasn't in the programme. Seti I's sarcophagus was put in last, i.e. nearest top; far deeper was a minor official, whose bindings however had dates or at any rate date evidence on. Involve 21st and 22nd dynasties.
[3] Excavation at Tanis has supposedly earlier tomb built in such a way it must have been later than the other; 21st and 22nd dynasty confusion.
SUNDAY 10TH:
More on a sculptor (information on whose family tree taken from graffiti he carved out millennia ago); by allowing 20 years per generation, which "all scholars agree on", it's possible to estimate which Pharaoh his 14th-before ancestor worked for.
Solomonic myths (as in 'Centuries..'); we see Megiddo (as Jerusalem Temple is well and truly buried - we're told) and its iron age gate. But if we dig down to the late bronze age we find evidence of tiers of stone & timber just like in the bible. And there's a bit of carved ivory showing a king, with Egyptian motifs (e.g. winged sun); Solomon with his Egyptian bride? Much has been 'excavated away', but under the tell could be the rest of his palace..
He expresses disappointment that in the 'Holy Land' very little information is found; walls in Egypt are covered from top to bottom with hieroglyphics..
Also in Jerusalem, up on a hill (now with I think Franciscan building) Egyptian evidence has been found; the only bit of hieroglyphs, on a bit of stone about first-sized; the remains of a seated figure; bits of Egyptian capital and base; and a tomb, measurements all in the royal cubit, possibly the residence of Solomon's Egyptian princess bride.
Some other hack says you wouldn't expect to find anything like that here! [But if there was an Egyptian bride, why not? Projecting present day back?]
This Egyptian stiff in Jerusalem was the only thing I didn't find in 'Centuries..' and that may be only because the index didn't give that combination.
He also has wondered 'for donkeys years' about Shishak; as 'Centuries..' agrees, Ramesses was abbreviated as the two hieroglyphics S and S; why put a 'K' on the end? He says writers in Hebrew converted names in appropriate ways - e.g. Jezebel came out as something to do with dung; Shishak means 'assaulter of cities' and this would be just right!
SUNDAY 17TH:
[In more detail. Confusing presentation, e.g. with a puzzling thing on dates of eclipses as verifying the date of a coronation. There are three dating systems - Egyptian, Biblical, and excavational archaeological, which have to be juggled together. See e.g. Tubb & Chapman 1990 for conventional view, which incidentally rules out Joshua, Moses, and Joseph (going back in time, Rohl says) who can't be fitted in with the conventional archaeology.]
- ['Teaser' introduction:] Head of statue which once stood before an Egyptian tomb. Face 'attacked', decorative eyes taken out (and apparently the whole face and chin replaced by cement, though Rohl doesn't mention this). But it has faded bands of blue and red. Bit of shoulder has end of a 'throw stick', evidnece of status. Is this Joseph, who brought the children of Israel into the Land of the Pharaohs?
- Tel el ?Daba in the 'fertile Nile delta.' Austrian archaeologist, Manfred Bietak, has spent 25 years [Note: on this length of time, cp Geoghan!] excavating this city, 'inhabited in ancient times by foreigners'. [We're never ever told what evidence there is for these people being 'Asiatic' or 'Semitic']
- "My new dating" puts Ramesses II from 1200 ish to 925 BC, the time of the plunder of Jerusalem.
- His scheme is to produce new evidence that Saul and David were real people, and then project back to look for first Joshua who conquered the 'promised land', Moses who led the Israelites out of Egypt, and lastly Joseph who rose to prominence in Pharaoh's court.
- Akhenaten "was a dreamer who lost control of the great northern empire including the holy land." He abandoned the state gods and worshipped [something] Ra, the sun disc. His capital was at Amana. In the 1890s a peasant woman found a hoard of clay tablets; these were diplomatic letters to the Pharaoh. These tablets are in the British Museum, Louvre, Cairo, etc. They deal with the revolt in the hill country of Palestine. We see Rohl with case; in it are small pillow-shaped light brown rectangles, I suppose about 5 by 6 inches, with tiny cuneiform writing. Standard chronology dates these 3 1/2 centuries before; but now he redates Akhnaten and them to about 1000 BC, the same era as Saul and David, 'the first kings of Israel', as in the Book of Samuel. Dealing with the 'successful Hebrew revolt against the Philistines'.
- One group of these clay 'letters' talks of the Hebiru [my spelling] selling services as mercenaries to Philistines of the coastal plain. Disparate, stateless men, who live in the hill country.
In Samuel, David, outlawed from Saul, flees to the hill country. And collects an army of 600. The Hebrews in Samuel hired themselves as mercenaries to Philistine Kings in the lowlands. Are they the same, as in his chronology they can be?
- Tablet says ruler of hill country is chieftain Labiyu [my spelling]. The letter complains Labiyu is slandered; he just recaptured his home town, as an ant strikes the hand that hits it. Similar bible story: Saul recovers his home town from the Philistines (I think Jebba or Gibbir). Saul's home town had a sacred high place with standing stones (apparently typically 25 cm high) erected by the Philistines. We see Rohl walking on hillside, looking at a tomb, "what appear to be rock cut altars", rock curt walls, and sockets for stones. This is on the side of a hill facing due east. "This could be Saul's high place!" he says, claiming this was the first time he'd thought of that.
- But the two names are different! Hebrew saul [pron. shau-all] means asked for, by the people. This was not "the name he was born with or anointed with", but "attributed by a later redactor or editor." "I think his name was 'Lebayu' - the lion!"
- Can the Amana letters shed light on the final [sic] bloody battle on Mount Gilboa, the "most dramatic event of Saul's reign" in which he "perished"?
- An Amana letter states Lebayu died near Mount Gilboa.
- Army was decimated by Philistine forces, King Saul killed, disaster for the Israelites. "I've always wondered why that happened, given Saul's superb position. Here he is on top of the mountain with his forces. And yet they won.."
One line [I think in an Amana letter] gives clue: citizens of a place called ?Geena (modern Genine) said to have betrayed Lebayu - allowed the Philistine archers to come up from behind, betrayed by his own people.
In Biblical support quotes David's lament, cursing the 'treacherous fields' where Saul died. Tell it not in Gath .. Askelon.. mountains of Gilboa..
- [Note: throughout all this, the extent of the 'Israelites' or 'the people' and whether they were 'Jews' and what the relation is to the 'Hebrews' and how big the towns were, isn't ever stated]
- After Saul's death, David becomes king of the Israelites and lays siege to Jerusalem. In Amana letters, the king of Jerusalem, ?Taheeba, in panic wants Akhenaten to send troops. Apparently he doesn't; anyway, "the Haburim army captured Jerusalem - which became the political and religious capital of the King of Israel."
- [Interlude with Prof Kenneth Kitchen, of Liverpool, defender of old chronology, an oldish chap, making a pathetic case; he has three maps of the Levant, showing political changes, e.g. earliest with Ramesses and the Hittites, then Canaan and Judea with David and Solomon, then a bit later with no empires; and a lot more names of mini-states. He claims the maps are 'international' when Rohl asks from whose viewpoint they're drawn up. Rohl does a VO saying the same place was St Petersburg in Russia, then Leningrad in the Soviet Union, then back again. People give different names to the same place.]
- Excavations at Jericho [how did they know..?] Did Joshua 'take' it? John Garstang in the 1930s thought he'd found the walls. Dame Kathleen Kenyon in the 50s overturned his ideas. We see a huge trench - forty feet wide? - right down to 10,000 years ago, the stone age. "There were middle bronze age walls she found" (it seems the older ones were found first..?)
One candidate wasn't successful; however if we look at the middle bronze age (not late) we find fortifications - an artificial slope plastered white. That city destroyed at the end of the bronze age; by fire, says the Bible. There seemed to be suggestion of an earthquake; [note: joke: evidence there was an earthquake, it was suggested, hence walls falling. Whereupon (Rohl didn't say this) the heroic Israelites came in, killed the survivors, and burnt the place.]
Rohl agrees; 1400 BC or so.
- Another town destroyed by Joshua was Hazor, in northern Israel; the king was smitten with the sword and it was burnt. Hazor was 'head of those kingdoms', I think Canaanite.
Canaanite Hazor, a town 'ten times the size of Jerusalem', also has two candidates; a large late bronze age palace with huge fire-cracked stones destroyed by fire; and a middle bronze age one, with remains of huge basalt columns and very wide walls and huge boulders - perhaps, Rohl hopes, an archive will be discovered. Three letters have been found so far, one which seems to mention a king, Ibni or Yaveen, killed by Joshua.
- [Interlude in Internet cafe on a king of ancient Babylon's coronation, details of Venus rising kept by Babylonians, and eclipses of something unspecified, apparently confirming the date of the Pharaoh who looked after Moses.]
- States going back a bit over a century that Hammurabi must have been a contemporary of Neferhotep; and birth of Moses must have been c 1535 BC in Egypt.
- And Joseph about 130 years before, as vizier [sic] to 12th dynasty Amenenhap III.
- Joseph and Egypt: (1) Famine? Rohl finds US academic woman who says there's evidence for flooding; too much water, with waterlogging at planting time,is as damaging as drought! Her evidence wasn't given; I think the claim was the Nile overflowed with three times as much water as usual, or something. She said geological studies had shown the river bad was very hard and wouldn't have eroded significantly, as though that helped. The philosophy was that kings are responsible; Rohl and she agreed the pharaohs' statues of the time are unique in their realistic glumness.
Anyway, a canal was dug, still called the canal of Joseph - to run off excess water (I'm not sure where to). Also grain supplies were put under control of Pharaoh's men. Storage facilities of some sort apparently were built. And a labyrinthine building in about 5 centuries BC, seen by Herodotus, of King Moaris (that was another name). This was Joseph's new administrative centre, a series of 12 courts surrounded by chambers - "nobody could find their way out etc" legend. Amenenhat so pleased he built his pyramid next to it.
- Back to Tel el ?Daba. As a reward to Joseph, his people were allowed to settle in the fertile delta, in the 'lost city of ?Vavaris'. These were 'people of Semitic origin'. Towards the end of the 13th dynasty there were mass burials. Rohl talks of a "deadly plague" though without evidence. They left - the Exodus? And did people [unspecified; Israelites? Egyptians?] take revenge on the statue of Joseph outside the tomb, from which his mummified body was taken?
- See\TV\THE-X-FILES
Mon 11 September, 95: Ad for 'Blue Peter' BBC1: '.. flagship children's series.. the team have not been idle.. traditional summer expedition (which this year was to South Africa) .. reports.. over the next four weeks.
.. South African history, wildlife and culture.. as well as reporting on the huge changes the country has seen: [sic; cp my AWL tape] ".. before those changes I wouldn't ever have been allowed to walk on this beautiful beach.. simply because of the colour of my skin."'
[Four childish looking 'presenters'; two male (one light, one dark haired); white female; black Afro girl.
Sun 8 Oct 1995 BBC2 'Timewatch' very confused (and ignorant) piece on the Vikings; see \history.
Mon 9th Oct 95 BBC1 10.10-10.40 pm: Billy Connolly in the Orkneys and other stark, windy places. The people have a hard life and don't open up easily but when they do they're wonderful people etc. Jokes about being blown to Norway or Denmark; joke about dog having to pee upwards, rain in Denmark smelling of dog piss. His accent and language both thicken up. It occurs to me he doesn't question anything about Scotland (bagpipe music etc).
What about clearances etc? Border raids? Mercenaries? [To be fair I recall him once describe South Africans as bastards, with reference to children maimed by mines in ?Madagascar]
Monochrome picture shows 'Kamikaze pilot Hachiro Hosokawa was willing to lay down his life to defend [joke: sic] his country.' [Copy in my files]
Wed 15 Nov 95: 9.30 BBC1: 'People's Century' [sic] Radio Times blurb: '.. civilian losses which, for the first time in the history of warfare, outnumbered the military. [Sic; what about say Ireland, India, medieval Germany, medieval central Asia?]
From London, Tokyo and Hamburg, survivors recall the experience of watching homes burn and families die. Russian peasants remember entire villages razed by Germans; Korean slave-labourers detail the brutality of Japanese camps.'
[NB: 1996 is supposed to continue with 'an account of the Cold War and programmes running right up to the present day.']
In this one, we see black and white film in China. Female VO: '.. Japanese slogan.. Burn all, steal all, kill all. [Japanese name] killed over one hundred Chinese. He is still haunted by the experience.." [That's all I saw of the programme].
Turin, apparently at U.C.L., a friend of Catt, is a balding chap fluent in French and also in depressingly U.S.-style English. Shown in a train saying in mock wonder, "the nose is instantly ready.. a new molecule that may never have existed on earth.. it's the antibody system.. inject a molecule.. takes a week.." Very spun-out programme with silly visuals, much reference to Paris parfumiers, Je ne regrette rien, sinister American administrator in New York talking about sniffing unexploded ordnance or the trail of submarines, providing the state aspect, a lab man with a brain shown on TV responding to chemicals; we weren't shown how this was done - the impression was it was human, though I doubt this. Etc.
Much made of his supposed daring in promoting a new theory.
A molecular theory was credited to John O'Moore or Amoor or something; he believed in shapes of molecules, with receptors and other dubious stuff.
All Turin seems to have done is have access to 'a new sort of spectroscope', a vibrational spectroscope, which seems to give a screen image of vibrational frequencies of bonds; e.g. H-S had a figure of 2,500. Units not given; only silly spiral spring with boinging balls model. He got the idea that smells vary with frequency & a series of detectors will give all smell sensations. Though everyone apparently lacks some of these receptors, i.e. not everyone can smell all of some (standard?) range of chemicals.
But if this is true, what about mirror image molecules? Standard one is spearmint vs dill/caraway, we're told. Turin says he was leafing through the 'review of Scientific Instruments' and found a 'new form of spectroscopy with electrons' which perhaps implies some analogy. Computer graphics shows a possible mechanism, apparently powered by the [Hillman-rejected] cell potential difference, with electrons in some way moving through the molecule stuck in its site. Turin says the mirror-image doesn't trigger of a OH bond (or something) - no indication of how he knows; possibly inferred backwards, as this frequency is similar to acetone - though the later test in Paris used pentanone.
We see tests made with spills of white filter paper; I think they probably put say 8 drops of the left-molecule on the first; then 7 plus one of pentanone; through to 8 of pentanone. And yes it smells like caraway at about midway. Turin was shown absurdly doubting whether his own perception of a caraway smell was correct.
So that was all - far away from what they wanted, 1 a way to predict smells of molecules (at present it's empirical), and 2 a way to make a machine to do the nose's trick with other chemicals.
Mon 27 Nov 95, BBC2, Lucinda Lambton promotional piece on concrete; see notes in \art
December 95; an unfortunate headmaster stabbed while intervening in I think a brawl outside his school gates.
Widow interviewed on TV; she seemed to see the world in the way reported by R D Laing of a timorous couple: I jotted down this: ".. he was afraid of nothing.. fearless.. protecting children/ like St George/ realistic/ he knew there were dangers in the world.."
Tues 5 December, 95: News programme says [1] riots in France, apparently protest against proposed cuts or further cuts in social security money; [2] Israel 'peace process' and end of official mourning period for Rabin: ".. some parts of Israel will be only 8 miles wide.. the PLO taking over more territory.. withdrawal.. stone-throwing youths.. the boundaries may reduce to less than the six-day war.. ordinary Israelis seem not to have noticed.. fears about Muslim extremists.." etc. [cp Edward Said, in New Statesman]; [3] Several more school authorities (these seem to be rather local) have banned beef for schoolchildren; earlier in the week, or last week, a professor said he wouldn't eat beefburgers as he couldn't be sure they were free of BSE; John Major appeared on TV saying he's eaten them for thirty years with "no ?visible damage as far as I know."; [4] there was snow especially in the south east corner of England.
Wed 6 Dec 95: Channel 4, 'Dispatches', 9-9.45 pm, on dioxins, titled 'A Perfect Poison'.
[Essentially standard anti-chlorine industry message; no information on mechanism by which dioxin (dioxins?) poison, the only suggestion being they disrupt sex hormones and in some other way presumably cause cancer; nor on why they're produced - are they inevitable with chlorine? For example, with the underground storage of ICI waste, which figured largely here, the process from which it resulted isn't stated; do they need to make it? Nor much in the way of supporting figures; e.g. if PVC banned, this must presumably have a lot of effect; is this feasible? Easy? Nothing on properties, such as what molecules in the body actually do; e.g. suggestion it's soluble in milk (perhaps fat soluble?) Is there any sort of antidote? Suggestion of lack of expertise exemplified for me by their graphic of whirling dioxin molecule, symmetrical thing with two benzene rings joined benzene-fashion by two oxygen atoms - but with the four chlorine atoms omitted! Nothing on possible natural breakdown mechanisms or treatments - though no doubt something made by incineration must be a long lasting thing. But what happens to the chlorine in PVC? It can't all be made into dioxin..]
[Note: Darwinian process? HMIP man (see below, passim) has extraordinarily verbose, evasive etc manner which I imagine he wasn't born with - rather such people get appointed. Cp e.g. my notes on salmonella scare; also on BSE programme by Despatches, recently.]
- "ICI Runcorn, Britain's biggest chemical company" [sic] ".. in almost thirty years millions of tons of toxic waste into two lagoons.. ICI dump at Northwich, just ten miles away.."
- Five 'goody' interviewees introduced passim (without qualifications etc being given):
Dr Vyvyan Howard, University of Liverpool Hospital. Makes a guess at persistence of dioxin. Perfect poison phrase. Was asked to analyse foetal tissue for dioxins
Dr Alistair Hay, University of Leeds, on dioxin in air, then grass, animals e.g. cows, food chain (milk and meat). Asked about a river in Bolsover and to comment on disposal method by dilution.
Prof Paul Connett, St Lawrence University, who seemed to be something lie a chemical engineering/ chemistry expert, e.g. talking about the chlorine industry.
Ex-NRA employee; inspector or something
Phil Richardson, consultant geologist
- Two 'baddy' interviewees:
Dr Douglas Bryce, Director for Pollution Policy, HMIP, white haired Scot with angular face and accent, in blue suit with unmoving manner. What his ?doctorate was for not stated.
Another NRA employee.
- ".. Dairy products give us one third of our dioxin.."
- "MAFF dioxin hotspots. Secret government list [no title given] of at least 23 sites.." graphics map of UK with superimposed skull and crossbones, on which sites light up; possibly misleading, as the dots cover a huge area & the actual sites aren't named. Total list of sites in the programme (not therefore the complete list) was:
Havant, Sheffield, Basingstoke, Winchester, Nottingham, Stroke-on-Trent, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Huddersfield, Bolsover's river ?Dolea, Runcorn, Northwich, Clitheroe.
- [Farm, or ex-farm, shown with not very bright couple. Was 56 acre dairy farm. One day the officials came. ".. never urd anythin" [about dioxins] ".. blood test.. two and a half more than what it should be." [sic; many of these people didn't seem able to distinguish a maximum safe level from a level 'it should be.'] And that was that. [Nothing told us about compensation etc, if any]
- VO: ".. dioxins only existed in any quantity for about a century.. the chlorine industry.. salt.. split into sodium and chlorine.. sodium is used in soap and glass.. chlorine is a very toxic gas.. solvents, PVC.."
- Shots of waste plastic; someone says 'PVC is one of the nastiest of all.' Shots show plastic lemons, dolls, bubble packaging. '.. throwaway society.. disposable razors..'
- ".. medical waste incinerator.. solid waste incinerator.. give off dioxins.."
- [Woman presenter (must be Brenda Rowe) holds up two round aspirin-sized pills:] ".. if these were made of dioxin.. maximum tolerable lifetime dose for the whole of the UK population.. according to the latest American and European ?figures.." [The point here, which later emerges, is that the US figure, and presumably European, is about 1/2000 of the UK's.]
- Over this are shown three or four journal article headlines; most prominent in Lancet, Sat 19th Oct 1991. Apparently on cancer.
- "Most worryingly" [sic] are reproductive problems; over pictures of couples dancing or something we're told sperm counts have reduced 50% since 1940s.
- Additionally the ability to 'fight disease', and 'neurological problems', are potential difficulties, we're told. ".. growing concern.." .. "EPA [=Environmental Protection Agency] report" in U.S.
- Connett says: ".. most potent disruptors of human chemistry" yet discovered. US tolerable intake .006 ng/kg/day; UK figure 10 ng/kg/day. (The meaning of these figures is not outlined). He adds: ".. average person.. dose close to where we'd expect [unspecified] effects to be seen in animals.."
- "HMIP prefer to rely on older, British, data."
- Bryce, HMIP chap
- VO: ".. list of hotspots.. many of them have incinerators.. government policy was/?is to encourage them.. there are now hundreds.. burn anything from [sic] chemical waste to sewage sludge.. most include dioxin from PVC plastic.." which HMIP says is biggest single source. [sic; out of how many??] "Many [incinerators] have been allowed to discharge excessive amounts for years. .. this one at Huddersfield.. measured at 187 times the legal limit.."
- VO: "European legislation.. forced to set lower limits.. Most [incinerators] will have to close by the end of next year [1996]. But this could be too late.. How much is already ..etc.. unborn babies.. Dr Vyvyan Howard [shown with microscope].. foetal tissue.." Howard says the most dangerous time is when developing; levels about twice as high in his samples as the maximum (and of course far above the US/European figure); ".. disrupt hormone levels.. particularly the sex hormones, like testosterone.. permanent deformity.." [again, what this means isn't given].
VO: "ironically, breast feeding is one of the best ways of getting rid of dioxins.. up to one tenth lifetime dose in the first year.. Germany ?recommendation not to breast feed beyond three months.. in Britain, 'no intention of changing our advice to nursing mothers'.."
- Howard: ".. take the chlorine out of bleaching paper.. out of the chemical industry.. not build incinerators.." [sic; if there's no chlorine industry, why shouldn't incinerators be OK?]
- VO: ".. one third of our dioxin from eating fish.. more than half caught in the Mersey are eaten.." [shots show fisherman, zinc bucket with eels etc]
- RUNCORN and opposite quiet and elegant Frodsham. ".. few.. know.. two hundred yards away.. ICI discharges toxic waste into open unlined lagoons."
-[Map shows River Weaver passing a jutting out bit of land before entering the wider Mersey. Chemical works spread along the bank with the jut in the middle; the jutting bit, separated by narrow cut-through Weston Canal from the works, is a lagoon or two lagoons [some talk of them as one; the official name seems to be Weston Marsh Lagoon.] "1.2 million tons of waste into the lagoons every year.."
- Ex-NRA chap: ".. crude solution.. hole designed to leak into the ground and the canal.. river.. disperse waste by diluting it down. .. It started thirty years ago. They may have been unaware of toxicity.. But for the last decade it's been clear.."
- ICI letter to activist woman; '.. no source of dioxins into local environment.'
- VO: "18 months later.. ICI wrote to HMIP in Warrington.. admitted producing and dumping dioxins in huge quantities" [latter phrase sic, though presumably it wasn't used by ICI]. VO: "ICI fought to keep this information secret. [No information what the 'fight' was.] Now they've been forced to disclose.. We reveal for the first time.. two sites in Cheshire.. into waterways.. in soil near a housing estate.."
- HMIP man, Bryce. HMIP has had this document for two years. Woman interviewer: "How come.. in unlined lagoons.. for thirty years?" "It is an operation whose very nature is subject to control by other regulatory legislation. HMIP does not have the responsibility in that area.."
- VO: ".. HMIP confusion.. waste generated.. "responsible for all".. VO: "the instant the waste is in the lagoons it is the responsibility of the Cheshire Waste Regulatory Authority. The instant it appears on the surface of the water it is the responsibility of the National Rivers Authority, NRA." [No expert, though, is asked to decode the legislation]
- "Weston Canal.. report not handed to the NRA.."
- [Ex-NRA employee talks of ditch built round the edge, with small pump which you can see, which pumps some stuff back to the middle.] "But the vast majority is going down into the aquifer. .. where the grass hasn't recovered. It takes a lot of ?contamination to kill grass like that.."
- VO: "HMIP and C W R A have decided to make ICI decommission the lagoon.. dry out.."
- [Another man, I think ex-NRA chap again:] ".. fine sand and silt.. if it's allowed to dewater without some sort of cap.. blow about.. will need to be managed for generations to come.."
- HMIP chap: "Our responsibilities are to do with particular defined industrial processes, with the emissions from those processes. They are defined in LAW. .. Under the law we have responsibilities which are closely defined.. in terms of the processes per se." [At some point, the woman says this is a nonsense]
- "ICI declined to be interviewed. But they did supply a statement.."
- "MAFF 18 months ago.. concern on ICI. .. Asked HMIP to get ICI to test cows' milk. [I think around the site] ICI noted this.. and did nothing."
- Film of their chap taking bits of soil in plastic small pots. Graphics give parts per trillion. Average is 3.3/ Previous worst 54.0/ ICI's own readings near Runcorn [claimed to be] 53.0 [which ICI claimed were "normal"/ Our samples were 115.2. [ppt 1-TEQ is says in bottom right].
"Results at half that level elsewhere had led to farms being closed." [i.e. suggestion of care taken not to look into soil]
- HMIP: "HMIP has no reason to believe that the emissions are coming from the process such as would result in the contamination you are describing. It is an industrial area and dioxins have been being produced for many years for all sorts of processes. Bonfires for example are a source of dioxin." [Woman angrily interjects they're talking about lots of dioxin; they're not talking about a bonfire] "HMIP has no involvement with that lagoon. That lagoon is not HMIP's responsibility. But the bottom line of the position is that er these dioxins in that location are not seen to be threatening the food chain."
- [Howard, I think:] ".. in Germany, certainly wouldn't allow food production to go on.. consider removing topsoil.. there should be a full government inquiry.."
- HMIP: "I am very confident that we have protected the public so far as our responsibilities go that we have protected them in a proper manner."
- [Rather unclear portion now about the river near Bolsover; river sediment had high levels of dioxin in 1991, but it wasn't stated where the stuff came from. It became clear from another evasive spokesman, for the NRA, that their policy is just to leave them to dilute and spread downstream, and perhaps into the sea.]
- [Operatic music of plangent, sad sort over shots of incinerator chimneys, bulldozer in plastic rubbish]
- VO: "The three regulatory agencies cease to exist in April 1996. .. replaced by a new Quango, the Environment Agency. .. by statute.. must consider industry's costs before insisting they clean up.." [Joan Ruddock MP in parliament says the bill is seriously flawed, cost benefit analysis, commercial interests put ahead of the interests of the environment. Shots include glimpse of John Gummer caught with a silly smug expression.
- [Another issue: Castle cement in Clitheroe, [Margaret has seen this before; it's also described as being near Preston] licensed to burn toxic waste - Cemfuel. [We shot of storage tanks marked 'no naked lights' and 'flash point below 21 C' [though what the stuff is isn't stated]. We see an amateur video showing smoke plume spreading to field level. It 'regularly engulfs land..' Man called Joss Collinson says he gets sore throat, itchy eyes when this happens.. Man in hard hat and specs says ".. evidence is our operations are not damaging anyone's health." Collinson said the milk on the Collinson's farm is quite high in dioxins for a rural area. But strangely 'they' decided not to classify Clitheroe as 'rural'. Collinson: "They said .. milk was going wholesale.. the dioxin didn't matter as it would be diluted at a large dairy.. it's come to a pretty pass when they have to dilute somebody's milk down.."
- VO: "The new agency will only be able to insist on dioxin monitoring twice a year.. the company will do its own testing with the EA only spot testing.." Man says: ".. they'll be doing it under ideal conditions.. when it's known they're being inspected.."
- [We see copy of Environment Act 1995]
- HMIP: "The system is one of them having responsibilities and the inspectorate being charged with enforcing that they deliver their responsibilities just as they do now."
- VO ".. additional responsibility.. of policing contaminated land sites and making the polluter pay to clean up. .. have to take costs and commercial activities into consideration..
- [Final part of their programme, evidently kept till last:] VO: ".. Northwich.. Birches Lane site.. most worrying of all.. for 27 years.. thousands of tons.. 500 times more dioxin than at Weston Marshes Lagoon, by ICI's own admission." Phil Richardson, consultant geologist: ".. these are the Holford brinefields.. underground caverns 300-350 metres high.. like St Paul's cathedral [sic; has he confused feet..?]
- [VO something like: ".. incident.. showed how much ICI wanted to keep us away.." ICI employee in blue boiler suit puts hand over camera, says he's not the press officer and can't speak to them. Red car draws up; chap in black pullover of police/ military type talks about private property. But there's a right of way sign, it's pointed out. Third car with man who says he's from ICI; more classy type. "This is ICI property" "But I thought this was a public footpath. Surely we can walk here" "Oh er it probably is a right of way as well" "Yes.." "Well.." and the woman continues talking with the geologist.]
- Geologist: "330,000 tons.. dangerous for ever.. 500 grams of dioxin a year.."
- VO and graphics: "ICI rely on the sealing qualities of salt underground." ICI letter read by plummy male: '.. these licensed cavities.. no environmental impact from this disposal route.." Unclear graphic marked 'not to scale' follows, with strata and one bubble-like space shown. Layers of clay, apparently. Faults shown; "these could appear through subsidence.. subsidence causes brackish surface pools called 'flashes' throughout the area.." Geologist: "Material can migrate laterally.. over fairly long periods of time [undefined].. issues into the Irish sea.. if that happens we're really in trouble.." [It seems odd that the whole question of sea dumping isn't raised; nor is the question of contamination in Vietnam defoliants].
- "ICI .. being told to monitor groundwater levels.." [we see industrial piping, loops of which are above ground and with large handwheel things.]
- HMIP: ".. blah blah.. appropriate action.. blah blah.."
- Connett: ".. .. if inspection is weak, .. enforcement weak.." [in effect, it's a dangerous waste of time]
- Howard: ".. the long term solution is to stop the chlorine industry.."
- Connett: ".. people must say.. if you're clever enough to make all these clever things, you must be clever enough to dismantle them safely.."
[Programme credited to Ray Fitzwalter Associates & Brenda Rowe Productions, Word TV. Produced and reported by Brenda Rowe. Research: Ginny Emery. Camera: Victoria Parnall.]
- Mafeking: he instead of attacking the Boers occupied Mafeking and in effect invited a siege
- lots of acts put on for the Boers: fake mine, with one piece of dynamite demonstration/ posts erected between which men would elaborately straddle to give the appearance of barbed wire - this seems to have been before binoculars! There was some information on deaths; mostly, no doubt, blacks, many of starvation.
- After the 'relief' he was the most famous man in the British Empire; wild enthusiasm etc
- During the siege he liked to act; played e.g. the Mikado, I think
- All this must have given him the idea for the scout uniform - not, one imagines, at all adapted to English life: shorts [the programme said 'previously unknown in England'], broad-brimmed hat, neckerchief.
- Presumably more or less homosexual; apparently at his mother's suggestion decided he must take a wife, and married a far younger woman, who was a horse riding outdoors type - boyish, in fact.
- Scouting For Boys [we see covers, and translations] outsold all other books except the Bible, Koran and a few others, we're told.
- Earliest edition had a promise to obey God, King, Employer or something similar; early scouts all led by public school types. Suggestion that socialism and ideas of deterioration of the race and the sight of smoking and betting groups of boys led him to this sort of thing.
- [Characteristically, the wordings of the different editions weren't compared and contrasted here. The bit I remember about the most exciting form of hunting being hunting man, for example, wasn't I think mentioned.
- But World War 1 changed his mind - we're told. All those dead boys made him say "Someone should be hanged for this."
- After the war, accordingly, the militaristic side of scouting was reduced or removed; the whole thing of hiking etc and 'woodcraft' [boys collecting twigs, small logs, ferns, and making not very convincing huts; and campfires) looks very like the German thing.
- Liked Mein Kampf - sound stuff on education, boys, propaganda,.
- 'Jamboree' and various inter-war meetings; he was elected, so to speak, chief scout and seems to have enjoyed every minute. Olave became head of the Brownies or girl guides or whatever they were called.
- In his big house he slept on a comfy bed on the veranda, away from his wife.
- their son (I think the eldest of three) when adult summoned to visit his mother Olave known to wet himself. She regarded him as a failure & no doubt bullied him. B-P supposedly had a winning way all his life with children.
Fri 8 December, 95: [Note: hard to prove:] David Attenborough reading script not by himself (I didn't note author) on Scottish wild cats.
Included some film (or video) of these animals, e.g. female with some kittens; young male learning to hunt, e.g. walking by dry stone wall and finding hole through, and paddling and poking a paw apparently at a fish. And trying to hunt rabbits, though (unlike pine marten) too big to get down hole. No information on how these were taken.
- 1 Claimed that they can live for two or three weeks without food (are they seriously suggesting that the film makers had observed these animals continuously for weeks on end and noted every single thing they ate???)
- 2 Claimed that of a litter, 'only the strongest survive.' Did they test each kitten for 'strength' then check the survival..??
- 3 Claimed that they leave at six months or so and look for their own territory (and try not to overlap with that of domestic cats - not just wild ones). We're told the males travel further than the females. But again are they seriously suggesting a sample of kittens was carefully labelled, then tracked to their destinations???
- [Usual pseudo-Darwinian stuff, as cp Dawkins on the BBC, though I forget specific example]
- [Incidentally interesting to note they were intensively hunted, as 'vermin', with bounty 'on their heads', in Victorian/Edwardian times in the Scottish highlands. (Modern chap says the partridges etc they caught probably would make no difference - there's a always a surplus of young ones at the start, anyway.) Probably the First World War saved them by ensuring these simple gamekeepers were taken away and killed.]
Tue 15 August, 95: Visit to Orania, guarded white township of 500 Afrikaners who want their own state, by Nelson Mandela, to see Betsy Verwoerd, widow of the murdered ex-Prime Minister years before.
What looked like a U.S. thing, 'The Real X Files', an 'Equinox special' on 'a paranormal arms race with the USSR'. Various more or less mad US people, including a woman who said she bent a spoon, including the bowl (once). Someone called General Stubblebine [sic] 'responsible for 30,000 men and women' who was sacked after getting ever more interested in forkbending etc.
Interesting vocabulary thing: use of mediums was called 'channelling', 'incarnate ?beings' something presumably like ghosts, and 'remote viewing' for supposed ability to see what's at a place given map co-ordinates. No evidence of course (except long after the event vague supposed memories).
Man called Major Ed Dames who we're told at the tend lives in Beverl[?e]y Hills and has an agent said when the project was closed, I think in about 1984 after 12 years or so, when CIA head was looking out about the time of Oliver North 'scam' for further embarrassments, enough documents were shredded to 'burn out the motors' of two shredding machines.
Dames also said during the 'war' against Gaddafi he'd been used to say where Gaddafi was, so bombs could be dropped.
CIA, US army, Army intelligence, DIA = Defense Intelligence Agency, NSA etc involved.
[Marc thought the fact much money had gone into it for years showed there must be something in it].
Mon 28 August, 95: [Bank Holiday; Channel 4 'Science Fiction' long weekend in fact with rather weak films.]
9-10 pm Channel 4: 'Secret History' about Roswell, New Mexico, and 4 July 1947 event. [Incidentally quite near Alamagordo & White Sands; and the only nuclear bomber squadron in the world]. Several interview with hick Americans who were eleven or twelve at the time. Marc has a photocopy, which he got from some sort of convention, of the front page of that Roswell newspaper [5 cents then], which seems to have invented the 'flying saucer' idea: a "flying disk".
Retracted and a press conference said it was a weather balloon (I think Martin Gardner referred to this] - kite-like balsa wood and foil-backed papery stuff put on show. 1978 retired intelligence officer claimed it was a cover-up. Etc. Also film produced by a music video maker shown; b/w and fixed focus and wabbly hand-held and soundless and poor quality - probably a prop, said special effects man, commenting on polyurethane like 'internal organs' and absence of intestines. Absurd lettering resembling 'VIDEO' but with symmetry. No-one commented on the operating theatre stuff, costumes like beekeepers, etc.
"Very ordinary Americans" comment by a resident. Certainly they were inarticulate etc. One said metal felt like nothing and ran like water; another that it had strange writing in pinky purple. None of them seem to have taken a bit home with them.
In my opinion, noting there was a missile test range near, I'd guess some unfortunate apes or chimps, perhaps oran-utangs, chosen for similarity to people, were shaved so they could be fitted with monitoring stuff and fired in some sort of plane or rocket; this must have headed for Roswell and been luckily aborted or something before hitting the town. Hence - I'd guess - the cover up. Nothing of course was said about legal liability of the army or 'Army Air Force' for damage etc, or other cover-ups.
[Note: Plagiarism: seems a copy, but accenting only the Bible stuff and Egypt, of the 1991 book 'Centuries of Darkness'. None of the five co-authors of this book, or Colin Renfrew who wrote the introduction, gets any mention whatever in thus TV series, which also seems to be part of the promotion of a book by Rohl, 'A Test of Time', subtitled 'Pharaohs and Kings', at £17.99 a bit cheaper than the other, and with a '4' on the cover! Rohl seems to have sidekicks, e.g. Prof Bob Bianchi of USA. Conversely, Rohl isn't in the index or bibliography of 'Centuries..' which of course was earlier.]
SUNDAY 3RD:
Sack of Thebes a known point. Belief that Moses and Ramesses II were coeval. Champollion's possible misreading of a single celebratory Egyptian wall showing large numbers of defeated towns.
Bible talks of Shishak King of Egypt; now-traditionally identified with Shoshenk I.
Accepted chronology more or less based on the same reasoning for 100 years.
But Rohl believes 21st and 22nd ruled simultaneously.
Note: myth: as expressed by Russell, that the Greeks were outstandingly successful in science and in war? Egyptian empire seemed large and successful; Pharaohs decorated the external walls of temples with war trimphs, including single fgures with on chest cartiocuhe of name of the town they'd lost. [Note: cp Greeks and colour:] These were 'originally in techniciolour' says Rohl.
Incidentally Ramesses II ruled 67 years - cp Victoria
Joke: on dating, compare fun made of Ussher; the Egyptologists seem to have used more or less the same procedure.
[1] 1952 Serapeum [joke:] found by a Frenchman covered with sand; apis bulls for about 200 years missing. Sacred Apis bulls were mummified and 'given funerals fit for a king'. We see a robbed out tomb (for a bull) of hefty basalt - cortner broken off.
[2] Inaccessible temple outside the Valley of the Kings used to hide bodies of some Pharaohs; found 1870s by locals [I think as in the Egyptian film 'the Night of the..' though this wasn't in the programme. Seti I's sarcophagus was put in last, i.e. nearest top; far deeper was a minor official, whose bindings however had dates or at any rate date evidence on. Involve 21st and 22nd dynasties.
[3] Excavation at Tanis has supposedly earlier tomb built in such a way it must have been later than the other; 21st and 22nd dynasty confusion.
SUNDAY 10TH:
More on a sculptor (information on whose family tree taken from graffiti he carved out millennia ago); by allowing 20 years per generation, which "all scholars agree on", it's possible to estimate which Pharaoh his 14th-before ancestor worked for.
Solomonic myths (as in 'Centuries..'); we see Megiddo (as Jerusalem Temple is well and truly buried - we're told) and its iron age gate. But if we dig down to the late bronze age we find evidence of tiers of stone & timber just like in the bible. And there's a bit of carved ivory showing a king, with Egyptian motifs (e.g. winged sun); Solomon with his Egyptian bride? Much has been 'excavated away', but under the tell could be the rest of his palace..
He expresses disappointment that in the 'Holy Land' very little information is found; walls in Egypt are covered from top to bottom with hieroglyphics..
Also in Jerusalem, up on a hill (now with I think Franciscan building) Egyptian evidence has been found; the only bit of hieroglyphs, on a bit of stone about first-sized; the remains of a seated figure; bits of Egyptian capital and base; and a tomb, measurements all in the royal cubit, possibly the residence of Solomon's Egyptian princess bride.
Some other hack says you wouldn't expect to find anything like that here! [But if there was an Egyptian bride, why not? Projecting present day back?]
This Egyptian stiff in Jerusalem was the only thing I didn't find in 'Centuries..' and that may be only because the index didn't give that combination.
He also has wondered 'for donkeys years' about Shishak; as 'Centuries..' agrees, Ramesses was abbreviated as the two hieroglyphics S and S; why put a 'K' on the end? He says writers in Hebrew converted names in appropriate ways - e.g. Jezebel came out as something to do with dung; Shishak means 'assaulter of cities' and this would be just right!
SUNDAY 17TH:
[In more detail. Confusing presentation, e.g. with a puzzling thing on dates of eclipses as verifying the date of a coronation. There are three dating systems - Egyptian, Biblical, and excavational archaeological, which have to be juggled together. See e.g. Tubb & Chapman 1990 for conventional view, which incidentally rules out Joshua, Moses, and Joseph (going back in time, Rohl says) who can't be fitted in with the conventional archaeology.]
- ['Teaser' introduction:] Head of statue which once stood before an Egyptian tomb. Face 'attacked', decorative eyes taken out (and apparently the whole face and chin replaced by cement, though Rohl doesn't mention this). But it has faded bands of blue and red. Bit of shoulder has end of a 'throw stick', evidnece of status. Is this Joseph, who brought the children of Israel into the Land of the Pharaohs?
- Tel el ?Daba in the 'fertile Nile delta.' Austrian archaeologist, Manfred Bietak, has spent 25 years [Note: on this length of time, cp Geoghan!] excavating this city, 'inhabited in ancient times by foreigners'. [We're never ever told what evidence there is for these people being 'Asiatic' or 'Semitic']
- "My new dating" puts Ramesses II from 1200 ish to 925 BC, the time of the plunder of Jerusalem.
- His scheme is to produce new evidence that Saul and David were real people, and then project back to look for first Joshua who conquered the 'promised land', Moses who led the Israelites out of Egypt, and lastly Joseph who rose to prominence in Pharaoh's court.
- Akhenaten "was a dreamer who lost control of the great northern empire including the holy land." He abandoned the state gods and worshipped [something] Ra, the sun disc. His capital was at Amana. In the 1890s a peasant woman found a hoard of clay tablets; these were diplomatic letters to the Pharaoh. These tablets are in the British Museum, Louvre, Cairo, etc. They deal with the revolt in the hill country of Palestine. We see Rohl with case; in it are small pillow-shaped light brown rectangles, I suppose about 5 by 6 inches, with tiny cuneiform writing. Standard chronology dates these 3 1/2 centuries before; but now he redates Akhnaten and them to about 1000 BC, the same era as Saul and David, 'the first kings of Israel', as in the Book of Samuel. Dealing with the 'successful Hebrew revolt against the Philistines'.
- One group of these clay 'letters' talks of the Hebiru [my spelling] selling services as mercenaries to Philistines of the coastal plain. Disparate, stateless men, who live in the hill country.
In Samuel, David, outlawed from Saul, flees to the hill country. And collects an army of 600. The Hebrews in Samuel hired themselves as mercenaries to Philistine Kings in the lowlands. Are they the same, as in his chronology they can be?
- Tablet says ruler of hill country is chieftain Labiyu [my spelling]. The letter complains Labiyu is slandered; he just recaptured his home town, as an ant strikes the hand that hits it. Similar bible story: Saul recovers his home town from the Philistines (I think Jebba or Gibbir). Saul's home town had a sacred high place with standing stones (apparently typically 25 cm high) erected by the Philistines. We see Rohl walking on hillside, looking at a tomb, "what appear to be rock cut altars", rock curt walls, and sockets for stones. This is on the side of a hill facing due east. "This could be Saul's high place!" he says, claiming this was the first time he'd thought of that.
- But the two names are different! Hebrew saul [pron. shau-all] means asked for, by the people. This was not "the name he was born with or anointed with", but "attributed by a later redactor or editor." "I think his name was 'Lebayu' - the lion!"
- Can the Amana letters shed light on the final [sic] bloody battle on Mount Gilboa, the "most dramatic event of Saul's reign" in which he "perished"?
- An Amana letter states Lebayu died near Mount Gilboa.
- Army was decimated by Philistine forces, King Saul killed, disaster for the Israelites. "I've always wondered why that happened, given Saul's superb position. Here he is on top of the mountain with his forces. And yet they won.."
One line [I think in an Amana letter] gives clue: citizens of a place called ?Geena (modern Genine) said to have betrayed Lebayu - allowed the Philistine archers to come up from behind, betrayed by his own people.
In Biblical support quotes David's lament, cursing the 'treacherous fields' where Saul died. Tell it not in Gath .. Askelon.. mountains of Gilboa..
- [Note: throughout all this, the extent of the 'Israelites' or 'the people' and whether they were 'Jews' and what the relation is to the 'Hebrews' and how big the towns were, isn't ever stated]
- After Saul's death, David becomes king of the Israelites and lays siege to Jerusalem. In Amana letters, the king of Jerusalem, ?Taheeba, in panic wants Akhenaten to send troops. Apparently he doesn't; anyway, "the Haburim army captured Jerusalem - which became the political and religious capital of the King of Israel."
- [Interlude with Prof Kenneth Kitchen, of Liverpool, defender of old chronology, an oldish chap, making a pathetic case; he has three maps of the Levant, showing political changes, e.g. earliest with Ramesses and the Hittites, then Canaan and Judea with David and Solomon, then a bit later with no empires; and a lot more names of mini-states. He claims the maps are 'international' when Rohl asks from whose viewpoint they're drawn up. Rohl does a VO saying the same place was St Petersburg in Russia, then Leningrad in the Soviet Union, then back again. People give different names to the same place.]
- Excavations at Jericho [how did they know..?] Did Joshua 'take' it? John Garstang in the 1930s thought he'd found the walls. Dame Kathleen Kenyon in the 50s overturned his ideas. We see a huge trench - forty feet wide? - right down to 10,000 years ago, the stone age. "There were middle bronze age walls she found" (it seems the older ones were found first..?)
One candidate wasn't successful; however if we look at the middle bronze age (not late) we find fortifications - an artificial slope plastered white. That city destroyed at the end of the bronze age; by fire, says the Bible. There seemed to be suggestion of an earthquake; [note: joke: evidence there was an earthquake, it was suggested, hence walls falling. Whereupon (Rohl didn't say this) the heroic Israelites came in, killed the survivors, and burnt the place.]
Rohl agrees; 1400 BC or so.
- Another town destroyed by Joshua was Hazor, in northern Israel; the king was smitten with the sword and it was burnt. Hazor was 'head of those kingdoms', I think Canaanite.
Canaanite Hazor, a town 'ten times the size of Jerusalem', also has two candidates; a large late bronze age palace with huge fire-cracked stones destroyed by fire; and a middle bronze age one, with remains of huge basalt columns and very wide walls and huge boulders - perhaps, Rohl hopes, an archive will be discovered. Three letters have been found so far, one which seems to mention a king, Ibni or Yaveen, killed by Joshua.
- [Interlude in Internet cafe on a king of ancient Babylon's coronation, details of Venus rising kept by Babylonians, and eclipses of something unspecified, apparently confirming the date of the Pharaoh who looked after Moses.]
- States going back a bit over a century that Hammurabi must have been a contemporary of Neferhotep; and birth of Moses must have been c 1535 BC in Egypt.
- And Joseph about 130 years before, as vizier [sic] to 12th dynasty Amenenhap III.
- Joseph and Egypt: (1) Famine? Rohl finds US academic woman who says there's evidence for flooding; too much water, with waterlogging at planting time,is as damaging as drought! Her evidence wasn't given; I think the claim was the Nile overflowed with three times as much water as usual, or something. She said geological studies had shown the river bad was very hard and wouldn't have eroded significantly, as though that helped. The philosophy was that kings are responsible; Rohl and she agreed the pharaohs' statues of the time are unique in their realistic glumness.
Anyway, a canal was dug, still called the canal of Joseph - to run off excess water (I'm not sure where to). Also grain supplies were put under control of Pharaoh's men. Storage facilities of some sort apparently were built. And a labyrinthine building in about 5 centuries BC, seen by Herodotus, of King Moaris (that was another name). This was Joseph's new administrative centre, a series of 12 courts surrounded by chambers - "nobody could find their way out etc" legend. Amenenhat so pleased he built his pyramid next to it.
- Back to Tel el ?Daba. As a reward to Joseph, his people were allowed to settle in the fertile delta, in the 'lost city of ?Vavaris'. These were 'people of Semitic origin'. Towards the end of the 13th dynasty there were mass burials. Rohl talks of a "deadly plague" though without evidence. They left - the Exodus? And did people [unspecified; Israelites? Egyptians?] take revenge on the statue of Joseph outside the tomb, from which his mummified body was taken?
- See\TV\THE-X-FILES
Mon 11 September, 95: Ad for 'Blue Peter' BBC1: '.. flagship children's series.. the team have not been idle.. traditional summer expedition (which this year was to South Africa) .. reports.. over the next four weeks.
.. South African history, wildlife and culture.. as well as reporting on the huge changes the country has seen: [sic; cp my AWL tape] ".. before those changes I wouldn't ever have been allowed to walk on this beautiful beach.. simply because of the colour of my skin."'
[Four childish looking 'presenters'; two male (one light, one dark haired); white female; black Afro girl.
Sun 8 Oct 1995 BBC2 'Timewatch' very confused (and ignorant) piece on the Vikings; see \history.
Mon 9th Oct 95 BBC1 10.10-10.40 pm: Billy Connolly in the Orkneys and other stark, windy places. The people have a hard life and don't open up easily but when they do they're wonderful people etc. Jokes about being blown to Norway or Denmark; joke about dog having to pee upwards, rain in Denmark smelling of dog piss. His accent and language both thicken up. It occurs to me he doesn't question anything about Scotland (bagpipe music etc).
What about clearances etc? Border raids? Mercenaries? [To be fair I recall him once describe South Africans as bastards, with reference to children maimed by mines in ?Madagascar]
Monochrome picture shows 'Kamikaze pilot Hachiro Hosokawa was willing to lay down his life to defend [joke: sic] his country.' [Copy in my files]
Wed 15 Nov 95: 9.30 BBC1: 'People's Century' [sic] Radio Times blurb: '.. civilian losses which, for the first time in the history of warfare, outnumbered the military. [Sic; what about say Ireland, India, medieval Germany, medieval central Asia?]
From London, Tokyo and Hamburg, survivors recall the experience of watching homes burn and families die. Russian peasants remember entire villages razed by Germans; Korean slave-labourers detail the brutality of Japanese camps.'
[NB: 1996 is supposed to continue with 'an account of the Cold War and programmes running right up to the present day.']
In this one, we see black and white film in China. Female VO: '.. Japanese slogan.. Burn all, steal all, kill all. [Japanese name] killed over one hundred Chinese. He is still haunted by the experience.." [That's all I saw of the programme].
Turin, apparently at U.C.L., a friend of Catt, is a balding chap fluent in French and also in depressingly U.S.-style English. Shown in a train saying in mock wonder, "the nose is instantly ready.. a new molecule that may never have existed on earth.. it's the antibody system.. inject a molecule.. takes a week.." Very spun-out programme with silly visuals, much reference to Paris parfumiers, Je ne regrette rien, sinister American administrator in New York talking about sniffing unexploded ordnance or the trail of submarines, providing the state aspect, a lab man with a brain shown on TV responding to chemicals; we weren't shown how this was done - the impression was it was human, though I doubt this. Etc.
Much made of his supposed daring in promoting a new theory.
A molecular theory was credited to John O'Moore or Amoor or something; he believed in shapes of molecules, with receptors and other dubious stuff.
All Turin seems to have done is have access to 'a new sort of spectroscope', a vibrational spectroscope, which seems to give a screen image of vibrational frequencies of bonds; e.g. H-S had a figure of 2,500. Units not given; only silly spiral spring with boinging balls model. He got the idea that smells vary with frequency & a series of detectors will give all smell sensations. Though everyone apparently lacks some of these receptors, i.e. not everyone can smell all of some (standard?) range of chemicals.
But if this is true, what about mirror image molecules? Standard one is spearmint vs dill/caraway, we're told. Turin says he was leafing through the 'review of Scientific Instruments' and found a 'new form of spectroscopy with electrons' which perhaps implies some analogy. Computer graphics shows a possible mechanism, apparently powered by the [Hillman-rejected] cell potential difference, with electrons in some way moving through the molecule stuck in its site. Turin says the mirror-image doesn't trigger of a OH bond (or something) - no indication of how he knows; possibly inferred backwards, as this frequency is similar to acetone - though the later test in Paris used pentanone.
We see tests made with spills of white filter paper; I think they probably put say 8 drops of the left-molecule on the first; then 7 plus one of pentanone; through to 8 of pentanone. And yes it smells like caraway at about midway. Turin was shown absurdly doubting whether his own perception of a caraway smell was correct.
So that was all - far away from what they wanted, 1 a way to predict smells of molecules (at present it's empirical), and 2 a way to make a machine to do the nose's trick with other chemicals.
Mon 27 Nov 95, BBC2, Lucinda Lambton promotional piece on concrete; see notes in \art
December 95; an unfortunate headmaster stabbed while intervening in I think a brawl outside his school gates.
Widow interviewed on TV; she seemed to see the world in the way reported by R D Laing of a timorous couple: I jotted down this: ".. he was afraid of nothing.. fearless.. protecting children/ like St George/ realistic/ he knew there were dangers in the world.."
Tues 5 December, 95: News programme says [1] riots in France, apparently protest against proposed cuts or further cuts in social security money; [2] Israel 'peace process' and end of official mourning period for Rabin: ".. some parts of Israel will be only 8 miles wide.. the PLO taking over more territory.. withdrawal.. stone-throwing youths.. the boundaries may reduce to less than the six-day war.. ordinary Israelis seem not to have noticed.. fears about Muslim extremists.." etc. [cp Edward Said, in New Statesman]; [3] Several more school authorities (these seem to be rather local) have banned beef for schoolchildren; earlier in the week, or last week, a professor said he wouldn't eat beefburgers as he couldn't be sure they were free of BSE; John Major appeared on TV saying he's eaten them for thirty years with "no ?visible damage as far as I know."; [4] there was snow especially in the south east corner of England.
Wed 6 Dec 95: Channel 4, 'Dispatches', 9-9.45 pm, on dioxins, titled 'A Perfect Poison'.
[Essentially standard anti-chlorine industry message; no information on mechanism by which dioxin (dioxins?) poison, the only suggestion being they disrupt sex hormones and in some other way presumably cause cancer; nor on why they're produced - are they inevitable with chlorine? For example, with the underground storage of ICI waste, which figured largely here, the process from which it resulted isn't stated; do they need to make it? Nor much in the way of supporting figures; e.g. if PVC banned, this must presumably have a lot of effect; is this feasible? Easy? Nothing on properties, such as what molecules in the body actually do; e.g. suggestion it's soluble in milk (perhaps fat soluble?) Is there any sort of antidote? Suggestion of lack of expertise exemplified for me by their graphic of whirling dioxin molecule, symmetrical thing with two benzene rings joined benzene-fashion by two oxygen atoms - but with the four chlorine atoms omitted! Nothing on possible natural breakdown mechanisms or treatments - though no doubt something made by incineration must be a long lasting thing. But what happens to the chlorine in PVC? It can't all be made into dioxin..]
[Note: Darwinian process? HMIP man (see below, passim) has extraordinarily verbose, evasive etc manner which I imagine he wasn't born with - rather such people get appointed. Cp e.g. my notes on salmonella scare; also on BSE programme by Despatches, recently.]
- "ICI Runcorn, Britain's biggest chemical company" [sic] ".. in almost thirty years millions of tons of toxic waste into two lagoons.. ICI dump at Northwich, just ten miles away.."
- Five 'goody' interviewees introduced passim (without qualifications etc being given):
Dr Vyvyan Howard, University of Liverpool Hospital. Makes a guess at persistence of dioxin. Perfect poison phrase. Was asked to analyse foetal tissue for dioxins
Dr Alistair Hay, University of Leeds, on dioxin in air, then grass, animals e.g. cows, food chain (milk and meat). Asked about a river in Bolsover and to comment on disposal method by dilution.
Prof Paul Connett, St Lawrence University, who seemed to be something lie a chemical engineering/ chemistry expert, e.g. talking about the chlorine industry.
Ex-NRA employee; inspector or something
Phil Richardson, consultant geologist
- Two 'baddy' interviewees:
Dr Douglas Bryce, Director for Pollution Policy, HMIP, white haired Scot with angular face and accent, in blue suit with unmoving manner. What his ?doctorate was for not stated.
Another NRA employee.
- ".. Dairy products give us one third of our dioxin.."
- "MAFF dioxin hotspots. Secret government list [no title given] of at least 23 sites.." graphics map of UK with superimposed skull and crossbones, on which sites light up; possibly misleading, as the dots cover a huge area & the actual sites aren't named. Total list of sites in the programme (not therefore the complete list) was:
Havant, Sheffield, Basingstoke, Winchester, Nottingham, Stroke-on-Trent, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Huddersfield, Bolsover's river ?Dolea, Runcorn, Northwich, Clitheroe.
- [Farm, or ex-farm, shown with not very bright couple. Was 56 acre dairy farm. One day the officials came. ".. never urd anythin" [about dioxins] ".. blood test.. two and a half more than what it should be." [sic; many of these people didn't seem able to distinguish a maximum safe level from a level 'it should be.'] And that was that. [Nothing told us about compensation etc, if any]
- VO: ".. dioxins only existed in any quantity for about a century.. the chlorine industry.. salt.. split into sodium and chlorine.. sodium is used in soap and glass.. chlorine is a very toxic gas.. solvents, PVC.."
- Shots of waste plastic; someone says 'PVC is one of the nastiest of all.' Shots show plastic lemons, dolls, bubble packaging. '.. throwaway society.. disposable razors..'
- ".. medical waste incinerator.. solid waste incinerator.. give off dioxins.."
- [Woman presenter (must be Brenda Rowe) holds up two round aspirin-sized pills:] ".. if these were made of dioxin.. maximum tolerable lifetime dose for the whole of the UK population.. according to the latest American and European ?figures.." [The point here, which later emerges, is that the US figure, and presumably European, is about 1/2000 of the UK's.]
- Over this are shown three or four journal article headlines; most prominent in Lancet, Sat 19th Oct 1991. Apparently on cancer.
- "Most worryingly" [sic] are reproductive problems; over pictures of couples dancing or something we're told sperm counts have reduced 50% since 1940s.
- Additionally the ability to 'fight disease', and 'neurological problems', are potential difficulties, we're told. ".. growing concern.." .. "EPA [=Environmental Protection Agency] report" in U.S.
- Connett says: ".. most potent disruptors of human chemistry" yet discovered. US tolerable intake .006 ng/kg/day; UK figure 10 ng/kg/day. (The meaning of these figures is not outlined). He adds: ".. average person.. dose close to where we'd expect [unspecified] effects to be seen in animals.."
- "HMIP prefer to rely on older, British, data."
- Bryce, HMIP chap
- VO: ".. list of hotspots.. many of them have incinerators.. government policy was/?is to encourage them.. there are now hundreds.. burn anything from [sic] chemical waste to sewage sludge.. most include dioxin from PVC plastic.." which HMIP says is biggest single source. [sic; out of how many??] "Many [incinerators] have been allowed to discharge excessive amounts for years. .. this one at Huddersfield.. measured at 187 times the legal limit.."
- VO: "European legislation.. forced to set lower limits.. Most [incinerators] will have to close by the end of next year [1996]. But this could be too late.. How much is already ..etc.. unborn babies.. Dr Vyvyan Howard [shown with microscope].. foetal tissue.." Howard says the most dangerous time is when developing; levels about twice as high in his samples as the maximum (and of course far above the US/European figure); ".. disrupt hormone levels.. particularly the sex hormones, like testosterone.. permanent deformity.." [again, what this means isn't given].
VO: "ironically, breast feeding is one of the best ways of getting rid of dioxins.. up to one tenth lifetime dose in the first year.. Germany ?recommendation not to breast feed beyond three months.. in Britain, 'no intention of changing our advice to nursing mothers'.."
- Howard: ".. take the chlorine out of bleaching paper.. out of the chemical industry.. not build incinerators.." [sic; if there's no chlorine industry, why shouldn't incinerators be OK?]
- VO: ".. one third of our dioxin from eating fish.. more than half caught in the Mersey are eaten.." [shots show fisherman, zinc bucket with eels etc]
- RUNCORN and opposite quiet and elegant Frodsham. ".. few.. know.. two hundred yards away.. ICI discharges toxic waste into open unlined lagoons."
-[Map shows River Weaver passing a jutting out bit of land before entering the wider Mersey. Chemical works spread along the bank with the jut in the middle; the jutting bit, separated by narrow cut-through Weston Canal from the works, is a lagoon or two lagoons [some talk of them as one; the official name seems to be Weston Marsh Lagoon.] "1.2 million tons of waste into the lagoons every year.."
- Ex-NRA chap: ".. crude solution.. hole designed to leak into the ground and the canal.. river.. disperse waste by diluting it down. .. It started thirty years ago. They may have been unaware of toxicity.. But for the last decade it's been clear.."
- ICI letter to activist woman; '.. no source of dioxins into local environment.'
- VO: "18 months later.. ICI wrote to HMIP in Warrington.. admitted producing and dumping dioxins in huge quantities" [latter phrase sic, though presumably it wasn't used by ICI]. VO: "ICI fought to keep this information secret. [No information what the 'fight' was.] Now they've been forced to disclose.. We reveal for the first time.. two sites in Cheshire.. into waterways.. in soil near a housing estate.."
- HMIP man, Bryce. HMIP has had this document for two years. Woman interviewer: "How come.. in unlined lagoons.. for thirty years?" "It is an operation whose very nature is subject to control by other regulatory legislation. HMIP does not have the responsibility in that area.."
- VO: ".. HMIP confusion.. waste generated.. "responsible for all".. VO: "the instant the waste is in the lagoons it is the responsibility of the Cheshire Waste Regulatory Authority. The instant it appears on the surface of the water it is the responsibility of the National Rivers Authority, NRA." [No expert, though, is asked to decode the legislation]
- "Weston Canal.. report not handed to the NRA.."
- [Ex-NRA employee talks of ditch built round the edge, with small pump which you can see, which pumps some stuff back to the middle.] "But the vast majority is going down into the aquifer. .. where the grass hasn't recovered. It takes a lot of ?contamination to kill grass like that.."
- VO: "HMIP and C W R A have decided to make ICI decommission the lagoon.. dry out.."
- [Another man, I think ex-NRA chap again:] ".. fine sand and silt.. if it's allowed to dewater without some sort of cap.. blow about.. will need to be managed for generations to come.."
- HMIP chap: "Our responsibilities are to do with particular defined industrial processes, with the emissions from those processes. They are defined in LAW. .. Under the law we have responsibilities which are closely defined.. in terms of the processes per se." [At some point, the woman says this is a nonsense]
- "ICI declined to be interviewed. But they did supply a statement.."
- "MAFF 18 months ago.. concern on ICI. .. Asked HMIP to get ICI to test cows' milk. [I think around the site] ICI noted this.. and did nothing."
- Film of their chap taking bits of soil in plastic small pots. Graphics give parts per trillion. Average is 3.3/ Previous worst 54.0/ ICI's own readings near Runcorn [claimed to be] 53.0 [which ICI claimed were "normal"/ Our samples were 115.2. [ppt 1-TEQ is says in bottom right].
"Results at half that level elsewhere had led to farms being closed." [i.e. suggestion of care taken not to look into soil]
- HMIP: "HMIP has no reason to believe that the emissions are coming from the process such as would result in the contamination you are describing. It is an industrial area and dioxins have been being produced for many years for all sorts of processes. Bonfires for example are a source of dioxin." [Woman angrily interjects they're talking about lots of dioxin; they're not talking about a bonfire] "HMIP has no involvement with that lagoon. That lagoon is not HMIP's responsibility. But the bottom line of the position is that er these dioxins in that location are not seen to be threatening the food chain."
- [Howard, I think:] ".. in Germany, certainly wouldn't allow food production to go on.. consider removing topsoil.. there should be a full government inquiry.."
- HMIP: "I am very confident that we have protected the public so far as our responsibilities go that we have protected them in a proper manner."
- [Rather unclear portion now about the river near Bolsover; river sediment had high levels of dioxin in 1991, but it wasn't stated where the stuff came from. It became clear from another evasive spokesman, for the NRA, that their policy is just to leave them to dilute and spread downstream, and perhaps into the sea.]
- [Operatic music of plangent, sad sort over shots of incinerator chimneys, bulldozer in plastic rubbish]
- VO: "The three regulatory agencies cease to exist in April 1996. .. replaced by a new Quango, the Environment Agency. .. by statute.. must consider industry's costs before insisting they clean up.." [Joan Ruddock MP in parliament says the bill is seriously flawed, cost benefit analysis, commercial interests put ahead of the interests of the environment. Shots include glimpse of John Gummer caught with a silly smug expression.
- [Another issue: Castle cement in Clitheroe, [Margaret has seen this before; it's also described as being near Preston] licensed to burn toxic waste - Cemfuel. [We shot of storage tanks marked 'no naked lights' and 'flash point below 21 C' [though what the stuff is isn't stated]. We see an amateur video showing smoke plume spreading to field level. It 'regularly engulfs land..' Man called Joss Collinson says he gets sore throat, itchy eyes when this happens.. Man in hard hat and specs says ".. evidence is our operations are not damaging anyone's health." Collinson said the milk on the Collinson's farm is quite high in dioxins for a rural area. But strangely 'they' decided not to classify Clitheroe as 'rural'. Collinson: "They said .. milk was going wholesale.. the dioxin didn't matter as it would be diluted at a large dairy.. it's come to a pretty pass when they have to dilute somebody's milk down.."
- VO: "The new agency will only be able to insist on dioxin monitoring twice a year.. the company will do its own testing with the EA only spot testing.." Man says: ".. they'll be doing it under ideal conditions.. when it's known they're being inspected.."
- [We see copy of Environment Act 1995]
- HMIP: "The system is one of them having responsibilities and the inspectorate being charged with enforcing that they deliver their responsibilities just as they do now."
- VO ".. additional responsibility.. of policing contaminated land sites and making the polluter pay to clean up. .. have to take costs and commercial activities into consideration..
- [Final part of their programme, evidently kept till last:] VO: ".. Northwich.. Birches Lane site.. most worrying of all.. for 27 years.. thousands of tons.. 500 times more dioxin than at Weston Marshes Lagoon, by ICI's own admission." Phil Richardson, consultant geologist: ".. these are the Holford brinefields.. underground caverns 300-350 metres high.. like St Paul's cathedral [sic; has he confused feet..?]
- [VO something like: ".. incident.. showed how much ICI wanted to keep us away.." ICI employee in blue boiler suit puts hand over camera, says he's not the press officer and can't speak to them. Red car draws up; chap in black pullover of police/ military type talks about private property. But there's a right of way sign, it's pointed out. Third car with man who says he's from ICI; more classy type. "This is ICI property" "But I thought this was a public footpath. Surely we can walk here" "Oh er it probably is a right of way as well" "Yes.." "Well.." and the woman continues talking with the geologist.]
- Geologist: "330,000 tons.. dangerous for ever.. 500 grams of dioxin a year.."
- VO and graphics: "ICI rely on the sealing qualities of salt underground." ICI letter read by plummy male: '.. these licensed cavities.. no environmental impact from this disposal route.." Unclear graphic marked 'not to scale' follows, with strata and one bubble-like space shown. Layers of clay, apparently. Faults shown; "these could appear through subsidence.. subsidence causes brackish surface pools called 'flashes' throughout the area.." Geologist: "Material can migrate laterally.. over fairly long periods of time [undefined].. issues into the Irish sea.. if that happens we're really in trouble.." [It seems odd that the whole question of sea dumping isn't raised; nor is the question of contamination in Vietnam defoliants].
- "ICI .. being told to monitor groundwater levels.." [we see industrial piping, loops of which are above ground and with large handwheel things.]
- HMIP: ".. blah blah.. appropriate action.. blah blah.."
- Connett: ".. .. if inspection is weak, .. enforcement weak.." [in effect, it's a dangerous waste of time]
- Howard: ".. the long term solution is to stop the chlorine industry.."
- Connett: ".. people must say.. if you're clever enough to make all these clever things, you must be clever enough to dismantle them safely.."
[Programme credited to Ray Fitzwalter Associates & Brenda Rowe Productions, Word TV. Produced and reported by Brenda Rowe. Research: Ginny Emery. Camera: Victoria Parnall.]
- Mafeking: he instead of attacking the Boers occupied Mafeking and in effect invited a siege
- lots of acts put on for the Boers: fake mine, with one piece of dynamite demonstration/ posts erected between which men would elaborately straddle to give the appearance of barbed wire - this seems to have been before binoculars! There was some information on deaths; mostly, no doubt, blacks, many of starvation.
- After the 'relief' he was the most famous man in the British Empire; wild enthusiasm etc
- During the siege he liked to act; played e.g. the Mikado, I think
- All this must have given him the idea for the scout uniform - not, one imagines, at all adapted to English life: shorts [the programme said 'previously unknown in England'], broad-brimmed hat, neckerchief.
- Presumably more or less homosexual; apparently at his mother's suggestion decided he must take a wife, and married a far younger woman, who was a horse riding outdoors type - boyish, in fact.
- Scouting For Boys [we see covers, and translations] outsold all other books except the Bible, Koran and a few others, we're told.
- Earliest edition had a promise to obey God, King, Employer or something similar; early scouts all led by public school types. Suggestion that socialism and ideas of deterioration of the race and the sight of smoking and betting groups of boys led him to this sort of thing.
- [Characteristically, the wordings of the different editions weren't compared and contrasted here. The bit I remember about the most exciting form of hunting being hunting man, for example, wasn't I think mentioned.
- But World War 1 changed his mind - we're told. All those dead boys made him say "Someone should be hanged for this."
- After the war, accordingly, the militaristic side of scouting was reduced or removed; the whole thing of hiking etc and 'woodcraft' [boys collecting twigs, small logs, ferns, and making not very convincing huts; and campfires) looks very like the German thing.
- Liked Mein Kampf - sound stuff on education, boys, propaganda,.
- 'Jamboree' and various inter-war meetings; he was elected, so to speak, chief scout and seems to have enjoyed every minute. Olave became head of the Brownies or girl guides or whatever they were called.
- In his big house he slept on a comfy bed on the veranda, away from his wife.
- their son (I think the eldest of three) when adult summoned to visit his mother Olave known to wet himself. She regarded him as a failure & no doubt bullied him. B-P supposedly had a winning way all his life with children.
Fri 8 December, 95: [Note: hard to prove:] David Attenborough reading script not by himself (I didn't note author) on Scottish wild cats.
Included some film (or video) of these animals, e.g. female with some kittens; young male learning to hunt, e.g. walking by dry stone wall and finding hole through, and paddling and poking a paw apparently at a fish. And trying to hunt rabbits, though (unlike pine marten) too big to get down hole. No information on how these were taken.
- 1 Claimed that they can live for two or three weeks without food (are they seriously suggesting that the film makers had observed these animals continuously for weeks on end and noted every single thing they ate???)
- 2 Claimed that of a litter, 'only the strongest survive.' Did they test each kitten for 'strength' then check the survival..??
- 3 Claimed that they leave at six months or so and look for their own territory (and try not to overlap with that of domestic cats - not just wild ones). We're told the males travel further than the females. But again are they seriously suggesting a sample of kittens was carefully labelled, then tracked to their destinations???
- [Usual pseudo-Darwinian stuff, as cp Dawkins on the BBC, though I forget specific example]
- [Incidentally interesting to note they were intensively hunted, as 'vermin', with bounty 'on their heads', in Victorian/Edwardian times in the Scottish highlands. (Modern chap says the partridges etc they caught probably would make no difference - there's a always a surplus of young ones at the start, anyway.) Probably the First World War saved them by ensuring these simple gamekeepers were taken away and killed.]
1996
Tue 2 Jan 96: BBC2 8-8.30 p.m. 'Pound for Pound' first of six programmes.
Simple investment advice for specimen people involving Tessas, Tax Exempt Savings Schemes; of course with no assessment of net effect; i.e. is it worth it, can anyone tell?
Joke: included a piece near the end on astrological advice! The stars may have more effect than you think. And they look like this (pictures of woman with briefcase) and VO says they have a diploma from the faculty of astrology (or something like that) and use very complicated computer programmes. And they stress they will not predict specific stocks or mortgages etc. And people should supplement their advice.
Another amusing thing was Egon Ronay, looking like an absurd smallish shuffler in casual clothes with rather villainous accent, and motorway service station stuff; he understandably puts a watery plate of 'Lancashire Hot Pot' with soggy carrot sections and very mushy peas in a bin. But he's pleasantly surprised in another place; what amused me here was his eating a sausage, apparently in an otherwise deserted walk-by hot-plate establishment, and savouring it, and saying mm, often they're soft and squashy (or something) at these places, but this is very good. It might have BSE or be laden with shit, but if it tastes real good, that's OK.
Cf idea that males are at most risk of violence.
I think the difference may be between private events and public ones.
Blurb says founded 1500 BC, <I haven't checked whether this date conforms to Peter James et al> '.. taking 2000 years and the work of 80,000 people to complete. Yet much of what went on behind its walls was hidden..' [The point of the work is to contrast with the idea of huge gangs of slaves; their view is that mud bricks and sand make platforms up which obelisks etc can be manhandled, and down which they can be dropped, their descent controlled by sand. Only a few people would be needed for this; I think it said a few dozen. I think this probably goes to the other extreme!
Karnak; three huge connected 'temples'/ lots of stuff (music track includes Monkish chanting etc, very stupidly) and inability to get away from Christian ideas, 'gods' and so on,
(e.g. chap talks about Egyptians in the desert, and says Origen's castration is why he isn't in 'the canon'/ another on dark, candlelit interior, 'very holy'/ slightly different version, 'very upright and honourable' French, and Victorians, who dug up the image from the sand) 'priests' and 'worship';)
Idea of 'chaos', apparently a bog/ inner 'sanctum' with image of Amun (none of these survive from Karnak) with masturbation ceremony; supposedly related to each day copulation of sun with mother the moon/ annual boat ride by pharaoh to sister smaller temple at Luxor; the ceremony very secret.
All these things were never written down & hence there's no real knowledge of what they did/ continual stress on 'religiousness' of Egyptians, e.g. from Herodotus/ it's stated that the priests were ordinary - e.g. scribes etc - and only performed their rites one month in three (but it also stated, contrasting with their image of a cathedral, that most people would never enter the 'temple'!)
Something also about a woman, the wife of god, translated also apparently as 'the hand of god', suggesting a masturbation link, and her clapping and accompaniment by Egyptian 'harps'. Earlier we'd been told of someone (Osiris?? - I forget) 'making love to his fist'.
Karnak apparently expanded as Pharaohs did (and no doubt v v); gold, lapis lazuli, by 1100 BC 'centre of trading network unparalleled in Egypt's history'. 80,000 working there (supposedly). Property meant to be Amun's. Battles depicted with disarrangement of people who when defeated are shown in neat order (and also their penises and hands apparently concentrated on).
Joke: '.. the mathematics .. relating to the proof would be accessible to a very small minority. But the success of the programme lies in portraying so vividly and brilliantly the human passion, the drama and the range of emotions involved in pursuing single-mindedly the solution of probably the most celebrated and difficult problem in the history of mathematics.'
[In fact, it was a sad collection of smug and not very articulate men, plus computer graphics of no obvious relevance; absurdly, the first version of the proof, or 'proof', was stated to have a mistake, showing presumably that the man involved knew what he wanted and tried to adjust his methods to fit.]
Professor Nigel Walker (?60, specs, polyester shirt, tie, suit) has a pompous and dull manner; much stress on the difficulties for the scientist of trying to get into the mind of a defendant - like trying to recover someone's dream of a day ago; in addition, they may have been coached as to what to say. Moreover, unlike the forum of science, where it's 'unthinkable that a paper should be prevented from being read', the evidence is selected by the defence and the prosecution; if the evidence doesn't suit them, the jury never hears it. There are philosophical problems over 'responsibility' too; e.g. should it just apply to the case in issue? And all this of course is quite apart from the fact that the brain is 'possibly the most complex thing in the universe' and, although he didn't say this, there's little scientific value in psychology.
Looking at him it was easy to see how conventional views in any society are likely to be assumed and passed on by such people; imagine the great difficulty of standing out in favour of a dissident or low class person, and cp the 'drapetomania' example quoted in Sutherland as just one example the other way.
Milken or Milliken, a near-crook U.S. type who made a few billion or so from foreign exchange dealings, apparently finances a lot of this sort of research - he was found to have, I think, cancer of the [glands near penis.. what's it called?] My notes say 'capcure', some related topic. Anecdotes include of course a survival story with no attempt to present a general overview.
Tue 23 January, 96: BBC1 Panorama programme on the Maxwells not allowed to be shown for legal reasons [no other info]
Fri 26 January, 96: Tomorrow's World, BBC2, featured article on British couple who'd had a baby. The man had NO PERM we were repeatedly told (with country type soft music etc, VO with vague remarks on infertility etc.) Apparently his testicles did have 'spermatids', i.e. not yet 'mature' sperms, and with a micropipette style of thing one of these was injected into an egg. Ah.
Fri 26 Jan 96: Same Tomorrow's World replayed Challenger space shuttle explosion (or 'disaster') apparently 10 years ago. I was amused that an American VO of the event said: "Obviously a major malfunction" as the thing turned to columns of flame.
Sat 27 Jan 96: Casualty: see notes [long running BBC1 soap about a casualty department]
Sat 27 Jan 1996: BBC2, 9.30-10, 'Peter York's 80s.' Smarmy, or good-looking bloke in a suit, shown against absurd variety of backdrops, including modern buildings, atria in modern buildings, going up and down glass lifts in modern buildings, the Thames; and in pool hall interviewing semi-articulate man, talking to Peter de Savery (now running a golf catering service place; we see him with glass of drink etc at outdoor place), and Sophie Mirman of Sock Shop, who says when she was invited by the bank for lunch, and they suggested an administrator be put in, it was like being shot in the stomach; Margaret Thatcher shown talking on the spirituality of wealth or something like that; Gordon Gecko character in 'Wall Street' supposedly as an unpleasant figure (scene about greed, including 'greed for knowledge'); Dynasty actress, Joan Collins, on how rich is rich? and she knows a woman who wears a plastic watch - why wear a Rolex when you'll be mugged [sic]? Plus gold-bound Sunday Times supplements. And the 'Loadsamoney' actor (playing a plasterer, I think!) with his wad, as though this proved anything (following a story about men in a city pub pulling out their 'wads' and the one with the least paying for the round. Some of them had £500!
And house prices went up, so lots of people rubbed shoulders with money 'for the first time'. Sacks of mail shown; suggestion seemed to be people wanted shares, rather than more plausible idea that they wanted the short-term gain.
Have to picture insanely blue-chinned man spouting (somewhat like underpants ad type) about Sid and the Hollywood village Britain ads for British Gas, ads for becoming self-employed which I vaguely recall [actor in a car: "We're doing it at last. I'm going on my own" "That's wonderful, darling!" etc., and saying to an advertiser that he'd been engaged in social engineering, hadn't he?
Programme seemed to suggest that 'black Monday', and then people stopping spending, very firmly, were the things which stopped/ caused the subsequent 'depression'. BUT, in general, absolutely nothing on how the few, now redundant city men made their supposedly large fortunes, or how the house market worked in upward direction, or financial effects on tax etc of privatisation, or results of foreign exchange markets.
Quite a few quotations on the lines of "We'll never see times like that again."
Mon 29 January, 96: Cutting Edge, Channel 4 9-10 pm: and following three Mondays:
Whistleblowers: '.. exposed malpractices in their workplaces - and as a consequence faced losing
FIRST deals with Joy Cawthorne who worked for a time at a Lyme Regis sports place being run dangerously. In fact four kids later died in a canoe. I recall this story from some earlier broadcast. The deaths were in March 1993.
Roast breadfruit: round thing like 8" or 10" melon on fire; cut in quarters, steaming hot solid looking whitish stuff with slightly different central area; 'like roast potato'. A creole dish is tree frog, called 'mountain chicken' skinned so it's like a sort of pink X and cooked with celery leaves and garlic, along with an appetiser of e.g. mango rum and angostura and fresh lime picked from the tree overhead, & with cassava, which is prepared in an African way. Bananas packed in leaves are exported green to Europe by boat. They also have cocoa bean (we see them being pounded in a hollow upright tree thing with rather pointed pole, along with a few other things which i forget.
2nd part, 'after the break', have there been attempts to discredit him? We see a former Iraq Desk officer [in Kuwait I think; same room as Iran desk officer, he said] Mark Higson
Adam Tomkins, lecturer in law, Kings College London [young chap in denim] wondering on the effect on the constitution/ Jeremy Corbin on cloak of secrecy, selling arms to regime supposedly opposed to, arms then used against British troops.
Occasional shots in all this of Saddam Hussein dressed in green surrounded by other Iraqis in green.
Report due out on Feb 15th - over 1500pp I think - 5 vols; the opposition have a few hours to study it before statement in Parliament; however, full debate due 11 days later.
Thu 8 February, 96: BBC2 'My Brilliant Career' series finishes with Derek Hatton; see my notes in his book edited by Roger Blyth.
Faded film shows him with David Sheppard (both seemed very purple-clothed); VO says they became known as fish and chips, because they were always together and always in the newspapers.
Thu 8 Feb 1996: BBC1 9 pm news: Media merger announced (permitted under loosened laws): Daily Express, once in Beaverbrook's heyday selling 4 million copies a day [it says], now 1 1/4, run by Lord Stevens (infantile looking blond) of United [Something} and Media, also with Sunday Express, Daily Star, Yorkshire Post, Exchange and Mart & others, MERGES WITH Lord Hollick (infantile looking brunet, apparently a Labour peer) of M.A.I., with Anglia tv, Channel 5, Tyne/Tees and others. They make halting speeches on how they agree with each other.
- Stuff on wealth of Japan, most successful far east economy, experts gasp etc, like to flaunt their wealth.. with shots of neon lights (and nothing on living conditions)
- Interview with ?Asahi brewery; chap says they expect to sell with Budweiser etc and monetary union won't make much difference he thinks, except that Japanese exports will find it easier! He adds he admires the attempt to go for currency union.
- [Pictures of Vietnam; VO says the region has its own character or something] Some Japanese chap says south east Asia in forty years will be bigger than the USA AND Europe. Questioner asks what of currency union? Apparently that's irrelevant.
- [Picture of Japanese man on a bike in a factory, which has plants; large but highly dextrous robots insert pieces into cars in awkward places. VO talks of automation and strong management.]
- The question is unsettled, of course. Ends with actor type in a mac saying nothing much and signing off with his name.
Fri 9 February, 96: Channel 4: Jo Brand (ex-psychiatric nurse; stand-up comedienne plus film clips of e.g. 'Drudge Squad' with jokes about two female cops interspersed with ironing etc, and another type of short thing with e.g. her 'mother' coming to the door and finding her with a young black man, and making conversation, or her in bed having hired a male prostitute and asking him to fart and wear a t-shirt with tomato sauce on, to remind her of her ex-boyfriend. Quite a bit on periods and on not getting a shag &c. One of her jokes was she was being told about periods at school, and got the wrong idea; she thought they meant it only happens once. I can handle that! Not that it goes on and is then followed by the menopause.. [I suspect this joke may have been modified from Dave Allen, a piece on 'going to school' meaning going just once.]
This is on a bit before the time of the now-new Girlie Show, which has a blonde female Geordie and half-caste ?London girl, plus half-English/American supermodel who apparently couldn't get a work permit, as the half is her mother, which doesn't count, and so submits items from USA. This episode was devoted to periods; their huge model legs (for entrances) had a dangling string. Interviewees included the man responsible for advertising campaign for tampons (why cycling? white trousers? exhausting exercise? blue liquid?] and there was an appearance by the woman singer who recorded the 'Bodyform' song.
Radio Times blurb: 'On the weekend before Sir Richard Scott's report is finally published, this programme, with its mix of news and satire, explores what Scott may have discovered about the secret workings of government. With sketches, newsreel reports, interviews and reconstructions.' [The interviews were rather few, though there was one with an ex-Iraq desk man who'd resigned (or been chucked out.)
Directors Dominic Brigstocke and Oliver Horsbrugh; Producers Elaine Morris and Dennis Woolf.'
[Note: is this why archaeology is popular? Considerable lack of serious substance:] Amused me because of the starkly different assumptions about Roman Britain.
Two women, one a permanent member of the team, and the bow-tied archivist:
".. Romans.. high status buildings.. British families.. learning new ways of doing things.. going up-market.."
".. a brooch.. covered with tin or silver.. made it look more expensive.. travelling tinkers.. we know they collected old ones and sold new ones.."
".. Boadicea [he uses the Roman spelling] .. revolt.. after Boadicea was whipped and her daughters raped
Sun 11/ Mon 12 February, 96: ITV 'Disappearing World' as it was advertised on TV, or 'Extraordinary People' in Radio Times: 11.45-12.50:
See Notes\Africa on The Azande tribe, 'one of the biggest in Africa'.
I was interested also in a short item on Vietnam, and the 'communist government', showing a steamroller crushing a pile of videos representing the decadent west, and a SONY sign above a shop being levered off. Suggestion was this was just opposition to western decadence. No evidence as to dislike of presentation of Vietnam war etc, as I imagine must be an aspect.
There was an extremely long item on something else - car ads, perhaps, or sanitary towels; I forget.
Horizon reports on our [sic] attempts to understand the ionosphere and the many projects, some of them sinister, that have sought to harness it to our advantage. Its existence was only confirmed when Marconi discovered that radio waves bounced off an invisible wall; [sic; I imagine in fact it was pure luck. Cp Tesla, who was shown in the programme, who built a whopping tower on the US east coast with other peoples' money and who hadn't found it] since then, scientists have dreamed of using it to change the weather or protect us [sic. Joke: Actually it was all about USA!] from attack. The US military even sent nuclear bombs there, creating a new radiation belt; that experiment was only stopped by the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. [This was the 'rainbow bomb' which caused aurora effects immediately below, in the Pacific, I think; Bernard Lovell was shown saying it didn't work properly, contradicting someone else - possibly van Allen, who's still alive - who said it did have more or less the predicted effects. Incidentally I think it said one bomb went off, but two others didn't - we see rocket on launch pad, with nuclear bomb of I think a megaton or so, also getting blown up!]
A new project hopes to use it as a giant antenna for radio waves - but there are other less benign schemes.'
- In fact a mixture of technical history, computer graphics, interview with smug American technologists (largely about their patents), and concerns voiced by various people. Tesla, Marconi, van Allen and more recent people, two with Greek surnames, figures rather largely; so did E.L.F. waves - apparently there had been a project to build a huge broadcast aerial in a substantial chunk of a state - I think Wisconsin?? - but protesters prevented this. Now there's a Pentagon thing in Alaska, consisting just of lots of + shaped aerials which looked some way from the ground. Unfortunately the explanation was confused; the idea is to beam waves at a circular area of the ionosphere, more or less at the point at which the earth's magnetic field dives into the north magnetic pole, where therefore solar particles get nearer; in effect there's a ring, and this can be made to oscillate, a bit, in time with the broadcasting device (despite it's only having one millionth the power of - a thunderstorm? Or just one bolt of lightning?) At any rate, we were assured that ELF waves were generated, and an underground mine, 60 metres down I think, was detected by the Greek chappie, to his great but inarticulate pleasure - though how, wasn't made clear. Possibly the jet stream might be divertible, and alter weather, we were told. A couple who didn't want this to be used - citing 1950s and 1960s nuclear experiments which took place despite known dangers - had looked up the patent specification, apparently on Internet, and it had been as widely drafted as possible, so as to include all conceivable applications. Perhaps more to the point, ELF waves penetrate water and are supposed to able to signal to nuclear submarines, which otherwise, tragically, are out of contact. Ground penetrating radar, we're told, has a range only of a couple of metres.
-Queen mother and wreath at OSS ceremony; they operated agents in France. But their role underplayed, apparently because sensitive foreigners mayn't like it - one imagines the French and myth of de Gaulle. Joke: cp e.g. Snow on scientists in 2nd World War: 'the full extent of their role may never be known', or something similar.
-Emma Thompson nominated for Oscars, a cartoonist nominated for Oscars [presumably taken from L.A. newspapers]
- Item on Hillingdon film complex planned. American voice says it will be a major employer in the boro. Someone else says it will drive coach and horses through green belt regulations. Typically, there is I think no indication what planning stage this is at; impossible to guess from this 'news' item.
Wed 14 Feb 1996: BBC2 7-8 p.m.: Radio Times blurb: 'Reputations Pope Pius the XIIth - the Pope, the Jews, and the Nazis Pope Pius XII is the most controversial Pope of recent times. His reputation depends principally on the answer to one question - why did he remain all but silent throughout the Holocaust?
Shown last year [i.e. 1995] as part of the Remember season that marked the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, this film tracks down the key people who knew the man in question. Eye-witnesses, who told the Vatican at the time about the mass murder of Jews, give evidence about the response they received from the Pope and tell of their bitter frustration. Others, who owe their lives to the Pope, speak out in his praise.
Producer Jonathan Lewis; Editor Laurence Rees.'
Chomsky has been an outspoken critic of US politicians and their role in the affairs of other countries, a stance that has seen him ostracised by much of the American mainstream.
Producer Simon Finch..'
- I managed not to notice this (admittedly barely noticeable - not marked 'choice', name Chomsky appearing only once, no photo etc.) until after the transmission date.
Sun 25 Feb 1996: 9-9.40 pm BBC2: 'Why Men Die Younger', from Belfast, 'launching a week of programmes exploring men's health.'
From Belfast - a huge cubical hospital building; interesting shot of surgeon with clogged aorta or other bit of heart artery, taping it to show it's hard (but not showing a healthy one).
Completely standard stuff, served up with graphic images of advertising type - e.g. toy dumper trucks going up corrugated tube and occasionally dripping bits of fatty loads. One marked LDL, other HDL. Someone's number of heartbeats in a lifetime idea (with shots e.g. of man with stethoscope solemnly beside elephant.) Male mortality greater at all ages, we're told. Some mention made of 'risk taking' with shots of dangerous sports. Usual stuff on fat etc; nothing on cis fatty acids. Testes and eunuchs; a cylinder gramophone shown, apparently playing a recorded eunuch; eunuchs, we're told, live longer and there's evidence from American mental hospitals where castrated men lived longer than uncastrated by thirteen years - not much other information was given! Also, the oldest person in the world is a woman!
Mon 26 February, 96: BBC2 Horizon has 'Assault on the Male', update on male sperm count scare, first broadcast in 1993.
[Cf. \Hillman files for question of nonylphenol; on phthalates, New Scientist files and other notes e.g. sci-tech on terephthalate bottles; perhaps also phenolphthalein. Biphenyl A in can linings and also in applications to seal teeth mentioned too.]
Impossible to tell which bits were new, or which chemicals weren't mentioned before - or of course had been censored out; e.g. nothing at all on dioxins that I could see, though many insecticides like DDT were mentioned - though I think organophosphorus compounds weren't specifically mentioned.
The VO claimed that oestrogen mimics can't be identified from their molecular shapes! This seems to mean there's no theory - it's just observed that chemical X, say, damages testes in experimental animals.
Radio Times blurb said: 'Statistics on declining male [sic] sperm counts have worrying implications for the future of human
[Joke: in fact much of the evidence was concerned with crocodile [or alligator?] eggs in Florida, and fish in US great lakes & in sewage outflow in Britain.]
The evidence seemed empirical, umpteen chemicals being tested, but of course there was no overview. It said the results in Britain were kept secret for two years [this is of fish suspended in sewage outflow water not breeding properly]; uncertain whether the two year figure had been updated or not - after all, it's about three years since the first TV programme.
- Einstein: the Annalen were not read, except by one man, apparently - responsible for the 'new Copernicus' quotation.
- Einstein didn't do any of the maths originally. [cp Keynes' General Theory] so his book is surely a fraud.
- For some reason his actual paper is hardly ever quoted, yet alone reproduced, though surely this would be possible? (Though my paperback by Jeremy Bernstein says the relevant issue is often found to be missing).
- Rather irritating b/w film of Einstein landing at New York from ship. As he stands on the gangway - or something - he's asked: "What do you think of prohibition?" big beam as he answers in German. Translator says "I never drink so it doesn't affect me" or something very similar. Irritating evasion of the question, I thought.
- 1922 Nobel Prize (accepted by Einstein)
- 1927 was 5th Solvay Conference; inc Heisenberg, Bohr, Einstein & another thirty men, I'd guess
- Minkowski [who had tried to teach Einstein maths] put relativity into mathematical framework. "Even I couldn't understand it" said Einstein. Einstein also got help from Grossman, who'd been a student with him; the example shown (a slide of a page of Einstein's notebook) showed partial differentials.
- All this makes his book on relativity (I have a copy) look a fraud; since it has almost nothing but maths, and not the concepts.
- 1905 Zur Elektrodynamik bewegter Körper Einstein [in Annalen der Physik]
- 1915 The Theory of Electrons, Lorentz [prob earlier]
- 1883 Science of Mechanics Mach
- 1917 The Electron Robert A Millikan
- 'massive body' is what Snow says; height not mentioned - I'd remembered Snow as implying Einstein was tall, but, annoyingly, no height indication is given.
- 'Most unbudgeable' is Snow's, apparently carefully sought for, descriptive 'word' on Einstein.
- Bias against the idea they could have been literate -> assumption just pix. [perhaps 'glyph' illustrates?]
- Russian in about 1950 ridiculed
- 10 year old boy called ? ?Stewart learnt bits of Mayan from Indians and haunted the ruins; started to work out details
- In fact the little pix are phonetic writing with e.g. three syllables in a square glyph
- Suggestion that ?Palanqué had war centre with sacrifice area; name of a king or chief from some fairly nearby place; 'highly likely he was beheaded' says a chap, apparently though with no evidence - the inscription seemed to just give name
- The carvers of these things liked to introduce variety; decipherers took a long time to identify different-looking glyphs as representing the same word.
About early March 1996: BBC 9 o'clock News: .. American warships in the region.. Taiwanese president.. may ?declare independence.. [at some point US pilot talking in a wooden way of "?exercise with rockeye and conventional ordnance" VO continues: "Chinese sabre rattling.."
March 96, probably: irony of Ballykissangel with soppy priests and sentimental Irish etc at time of Jerry Adams going to mass etc.
March 96, probably: BBC on biographies had Germaine Greer on brainwashing; she thinks they said things like "no no your mother had brown hair tut tut" as supposed disorienting technique, challenmging their memories!
5 March 96: day after Hamas bombing; BBC news entirely from Israeli viewpoint - cutting off Gaza strip, 1 million people, these oranges will rot, refugee camps..
14 March 96: Channel 4 Africa Express: '.. Ethiopia's preparations for the centenary celebrations of the Battle of Adwa (the greatest defeat of a European army by Africans) ..'
Thurs 14 March 96: Channel 4 9-9.30 Undercover Britain: Radio Times blurb: 'Guns on the Street The first of six new programmes.. In the most perilous story yet filmed, video diarists AJ and Nick go undercover to find out how guns have become an everyday part of street gang life in Britain's major cities. Posing as potential buyers, the duo discover major loopholes in Britain's gun laws and also find that prying into the business can be a dangerous activity. ..'
Tue 19 March, 96: Channel 4: Janet Street-Porter on Channel 4, on Internet; attempt to debunk it: various people talk silly things on cyber porn ["alarming and intrusive" or something; low grade female academics], nerds, inanity, US kids chatting, virtual reality, virtual sex with pseudonyms; 'increasingly' people are voting for explosion of real life activities, like going to art galleries and mountain biking (and presumably watching TV, though nobody made this obvious comparison). She says a fountain pen is a status symbol, reading her absurd script. Others (usually men) criticise e.g. speed, and think even if the technology is improved it'll remain slow as it'll get more jammed. Ian Hislop says on first thought lack of libel is a bad thing; then on second thoughts it isn't, as there's no way to know the truth etc - absurdly he seems to think a function of the law is to ensure truth.
The aspect of downloading information, and exchanging serious views, is utterly censored out.
Sat 23rd March 1996: Radio Times: BBC2 7.20-8.05 'Correspondent The series of personalised reports from BBC journalists round the world.. part of the BBC's Dealing with Drugs series.
Julie Flint visits the merging nation of Somaliland, where addiction to the powerful stimulant drug contained in Qat leaves is undermining the economy and destroying the family unit. ...'
Sat 23rd March 1996: Radio Times: 8.05 p.m. Bookmark [Note: joke about media based on media; cp e.g. 'No Orchids..' and the author of a book on Dunkirk and woman writer on WW1:] Skinhead Farewell Cult classic Skinhead told the violent story of a gang of hooligans led by anti-hero Joe Hawkins. On its publication in 1970, few predicted success for it on the bestseller lists. But it went on to sell more than a million copies in just two years and was considered sufficiently controversial to be banned from school playgrounds. Behind the enigma of its writer Jim Moffat, alias Richard Allen,
The Irish-Canadian was part of a publishing explosion of New English Library works in the seventies
Extracts from Allen's enduringly popular books [sic] are read by Ross Kemp (Grant Mitchell in EastEnders).
Producer Ian MacMillan; Series editor Roland Keating.'
27 March 96 on TV re possible slaughter; Prof John Pattison head of Government BSE ?inquiry.
[Amusing BBC news says "Britain ?requests the E.U. will ?pay 80% of the costs"]
Boat Race Saturday before Easter, Sat 6 April 1996. [The inferior crews do a race first; I forget what it's called and everybody ignores it, pretty much]
Beefeater Gin ads on Cambridge light blue-green, plus red US style caps, red banners with white print on banners on bridges etc/ many of Oxford from Harvard. Joke: Camcorder College
This year Cambridge won by about two lengths
Amusing to see winning team praise the other; would have been more fun if they'd said they were crap.
I was surprised how heavy they were - 14 stone etc
6.35-8.35 pm BBC2: 6.35-7.25 Rebellion
It was 250 years ago on Tuesday that the Jacobite Rebellion was crushed when the English army, led by the Duke of Cumberland, defeated with the troops siding with the Young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart., in the Battle of Culloden, near Inverness.
This drama-documentary, .. was written by John Prebble, author of an account of the battle. It tells the story of the Jacobites, with historians shedding new light on the motives of Bonnie Prince Charlie, whose invasion of England in 1745 and opposition to King George II had lit the fuse that initiated the rebellion.
The battle left behind it a legacy that included the Highland Clearances during the 19th century, as well as contemporary resonances with the suppression and decimation of Gaelic culture and language..
Director Paul Murton/ Executive producer Donalda MacKinon
7.25-8.35 Culloden
Tonight's second programme marking the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Culloden is a 31-year-old drama-documentary hailed as a masterpiece when it was previously shown on BBCtv. [in 1964]
Directed and produced by Peter Watkins, it re-creates one of the bloodiest engagements ever fought on British soil, stripping away many of the romantic myths surrounding Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobite army. Descendants of those who fought in the battle are featured in the reconstruction, which also looks at how the conflict has shaped modern Britain.' b/w subtitled.
[Radio Times]
Another blurb says 'shoestring budget.. newsreel camera and a largely amateur cast..' also '.. later made The War Game, a frightening and still controversial account of nuclear attack' without mentioning it wasn't shown by the BBC until years later.
[Cp Hillman talking on 17 April, who'd considered using a light version of the same thing, and who said a Spanish doctor said recently on TV that he'd cured drug addiction by a similar method with general anaesthesia.]
However Sargant rejected this treatment; my notes say in the 1930s. Asked about Bailey's methods, Sargant wouldn't support them.
-'no doubt' Bailey faked medical certificate
-"I'm gonna send your mind on a holiday for about a fortnight.. just come to enough to go to the toilet.."
-large dose e.g. of barbiturates
-ECT 110 volts 3 seconds. Administered when 'asleep' (some patients recalled seeing lights etc)
-Harry Richard Bailey the main doctor (he ended up a suicide). ".. forever busy.. brocade jacket.. electronic gizmos, learning Chinese.."
-Practised in 'Chelmsford' Hospital in Sidney. For 15 years did his 'deep sleep' technique.
-".. very few nurses willing to talk.."
-Three other doctors worked with him; their names were given, but I didn't bother to note them properly - ?Heron, ?Gardner, ?Gill. Still practising! - presumably in Australia.
-About 24 of the ex-patients committed suicide later. Some died. 1127 people; hundreds with permanent personality change.
Example was kid caught with LSD; offered 10 years jail OR psychiatric treatment. He became addicted to barbiturates; died.
-'Whistle blown' by Dr Bodger
-In 1978, 'youngest ever' man, I think governor or something, attempted to interest the Minister for Health of Australia. This minister wasn't interventionist'; at any rate nothing happened then.
-There seems to be a question on drug interactions; at any rate there were press alarms with big headlines, and an official report on deaths. Barbiturates and alcohol example.
-The hospital was examined; a nurse states there were skeletal patients,patients in distress etc who they ignored.
The nurse also had a tape of a lecture by Bailey, describing the patients as something like the lowest of the low, vermin.
-An interviewee didn't like what she saw and had to pay to get her ?child out - special trip to a bank, I think..
The rather odd title because William G Stewart who 'presents' a quiz game with fifteen contestants argues that the British Museum should return the marbles. The main objection seems to be as Radio Times blurb says '.. could it set an alarming precedent that would empty the world's museums of their greatest treasures?' At any rate, nobody would appear from the British Museum! One reason given was that a Joke: previous ?director had publicly said regrettable things; we see colour film of faded type of a Dr Wilson [I didn't get first name; I think 1980s] saying angrily ".. ripping the Elgin Marbles from the walls of the British Museum would be a much greater disaster than blowing up the Parthenon. ... cultural fascism! .. breaking up a great intellectual institution."
Stewart's defence of Greece was on rather shaky ground; his fifteen 'contestants' were busts of gods and goddesses, who of course seem reassuringly familiar, or 'cultural', despite what Herbert Spencer nastily said, and he went on about their exploring the great things of life and inventing the system mankind has found best, democracy! He also assumes implicitly the Greeks now are the ones they were.
He also used arguments from recent history: "at one time only Britain and Greece were fighting the Nazis"/ "How would we feel if Nelson's column was in Berlin?" He omitted the Greek civil war, of course.
Poor old Greeks included now-dead Melina Mercouri and the present Prime Minister on the marbles; he gives assurances that all they want are the Elgin ones, not all the other stuff. This seems a bit steep, to me; still.
It was also made clear they've planned a special new museum below the Parthenon for them, which would be better than the gallery in which they are at present.
The Greeks call them marmara parthen[something] - the parthenon marbles, not the Elgin marbles
We also saw inter alia:
-British Museum itself has published a uniform-edition blue-covered paperback on the marbles, with inevitable horse's head; the human statues having mostly, or all, lost their heads. (I have a British museum pin badge with a horse head]
Incidentally the marbles don't seem that wonderful; the horses have square cheeks and look cut from rectangles; their legs are rather parallel and repetitious. And the garments are over stylised.
-Some of the things aren't on display in the museum, which seems odd
-Firman = official permission of the Ottoman Empire, written in turkish; the one about the parthenon in turkish is lost; only the Italian translation made at the same time survives. This takes considerable part of the story as of course there's dispute about what Elgin was allowed.
-Elgin (made a Lord at 5, I think; given diplomatic position later; original intention was to draw and mould some of the works). Elgin said he spent £35,000; he employed 300 or 400 people/day; the shiploads were taken to Scotland. By March 1802 there'd been three shiploads. [But there was some sort of parliamentary investigation after which they were put in the British museum]. Some of the work involved 20 foot marble saws [pronounced "marble saws" by the announcer]
-Byron: "the last poor plunder from a bleeding land"
-1821 Greek war of independence. Stories I think dating from here about the Turks blowing it up, presumably by mistake; also beginning to take down the columns to get lead out, whereupon the Greeks supplied them with lead, despite it being used against them.
9-9.45 Dispatches (Channel 4) Wed 17 Ap 1996 on Sudan being behind terrorism - rather feeble stuff on trying to blow up the UN
Channel 4 Thursday 18 April 96: 8-8.30 Africa Express includes Toyin Fani-Kayode in her native Nigeria.. questions Shell Oil executives in Lagos on who has really benefited from the oil revenue. And travelling theatres to advertise in Zimbabwe/ Angola annual carnival in capital Luanda, brought by Port colonists 'same historic roots as.. Rio' Series editor Peter Gill
20 April 1996: BBC, joke: prog on Elizabeth: "young woman who rose to become Queen"
Director Paul Tickell. Series producer Gillian Greenwood.'
-Another blurb says 'very little of that work survives.' A vague pictorial thing on p 7 has Turner, Reynolds, Stubbs, Alma-Tadema and Henry Moore, and only a simple fragment of wood carving in Devon which is labelled 'its strength and simplicity is unmatched.'
[Actual amount destroyed - and when - isn't stated; note: myth: is it a myth that there was a rich heritage?]
Radio Times blurb says: 'In spring 1995 the Ebola virus., one of the world's deadliest and most contagious diseases, broke out in Kikwit, Zaire. The city was quarantined, and African and Western medical teams converged there in a bid to contain the crisis. Encounters documents the outbreak as it peaks and then wanes, and follows doctors, scientists and carers as they put their own lives at risk: Red Cross workers collect and bury corpses, dedicated local doctors tend the sick, medical students search villages for victims, and scientists trap and dissect rats, insects and giant bats in an attempt to discover the source of the epidemic.
Director Ric Esther Bienstock; Producers Ric Esther Bienstock, Elliott Halpern and Simcha Jacobovici. ..'
Not made clear how they knew in advance this was filmable.. there were shots of CDC personnel, so possibly it's through them.
Seemed dated 1995.
VO with stuff on disease attacking every organ of the body, killing within 24 hours, deadliest known to man etc; no evidence - and statement 'not much is known ..' What evidence there was showed a chap wondering whether someone conformed to all the symptoms in the book [cf Hillman on the definitions of disease], and a few shots of blacks on beds in wards, mostly looking like rather ill normal people.
Shots showed men in red boiler suit things plus face masks; they had 'Oxfam' on their backs. Keeping a black person away from a deep pit in which a body in a sheet had just been placed. What he was saying or pleading for is naturally not stated.
Shots supposedly of people trying to escape Kikwit - though they looked like ordinary Africans wondering what was going on. Black man with a rifle with VO of 'quarantine'.
Another shot of plane landing and supposed 'Kikwit handshake', touching elbows 'to minimise contact.'
VO said there was an outbreak "20 years ago", synchronising I presume with another mass killing in Zaire.
Smuggling: long section on bonanza for people, usually youngish men, with vans in U.K. ports, who go back and forth across the channel collecting each time a bit of duty-free. Shots of them racing to the van, then back to get on the same hovercraft. There's some sort of club which allows very cheap travel, particularly in winter, where apparently the ferries make money selling stuff rather than transporting passengers. They can supplement their legal limit by bribing blokes at bars to e.g. get more tickets allowing them to buy, or bribing check-out chap to give them a 400 box of fags rather than 200. Amusing stuff showing them changing clothes to throw off security - or perhaps allow them an excuse. £15 spent on legal allowance has £30 shop value. (The economics weren't made clear). "£500 million estimated in lost revenue" we're told; smuggled tobacco endemic in almost all towns and cities; "every time the duty goes up, I imagine they celebrate in smuggled champagne and cigars!". We see an old codger type who does rolling tobacco, buying it at East Enders huge warehouse run by a chap called West, and opening the boxes, putting the separate pouches into plastic bags, which are less noticeable. There seem to be few, or no, customs men. The full details of all this not really given, of course; it may be harder work than appears. Cook faced one man - collecting sick pay, or disability money or something! - who says keeping his back to the camera "why don't you get someone doing something nasty."
Another thing is Khat, or Qat, the subject also of a recent TV programme this year; this is legal in the UK - they pay VAT etc. Chewed I think in Sudan. Couriers with suitcases full go to U.S. and return - we see an address in Earl's Court infiltrated by couple responding to Evening Standard advert. Apparently largely organised by fat looking ?Sudanese man who breezily assures everyone it's completely legal. Some people e.g. in Ireland jailed, I think he said.
Next issue promises to investigate airports - small airports seem to have almost no checks - and weapons smuggling.
Mon 6 May 96 [Bank Holiday]: BBC2 has snooker 7.20pm to 10pm, advertised; it overruns by 1/4 of an hour or so. ?Stephen ?Hendry won for the 6th time. Followed by the X-Files; later, 11.25, there's another X-Files on BBC2!
Thurs 9 May 96: Now, or very close to this date, Westminster Council gerrymandering comes to some sort of conclusion, with auditor demanding (I think) £15 million. Lady Porter has moved (it appears) to Israel.
Fri 10 May, 96: Channel 4 about 10: Rory Bremner show's John Bird & John Fortune on 2000 'celebrations'; site owned by British Gas which needs decontamination (& also extension of Jubilee line for public transport). To be given, or leased, or sold (I'm not sure which) to an organisation called English something - comfortable sounding name. If the exhibition isn't successful, this organisation loses - but it's taxpayer funded. Fortunately Lord Walker is chairman of both British Gas and English something.
Title: 'Purdey's Proof'
-Mark Purdey - casually dressed, half-shaven, slender organic farmer with attractive manner is credited as the reporter.
-Small, 60 acre, farm in the Brendon Hills, Somerset. Wife and seven kids. 50 pedigree Jersey cows. No man-made chemical pesticides or fertiliser. (He does, however, use tractor[s]).
-MAFF and ten year battle over organophosphorus pesticides (known as 'OP's).
"I believe I've discovered the real reason.. instead of listening the government is embarking on.. mass slaughter.. Mass slaughter will cost millions of pounds in compensation.. may be .. totally pointless.. fail to reassure the public. .."
"I have done a huge amount of research, both through the literature and on the ground.."
[We see heifer of about 18 months with ear trembling and swivelling, sideways gait, eyes flicking] ".. ministry vet decides.." [if an animal has BSE; unfortunately:] ".. the only way they can be sure is to examine the brain after the animal is put down.." VO says this cow was in fact uninfected.- ".. in fact, hundreds of cows are still going down with it every month.."
BSE recognised in 1986.. MAFF's theory.. disease agent in the sheep disease, scrapie..
In 1988 MAFF banned the offending cattle feed and predicted an early end to the epidemic.. it never came.
Sir Richard Body MP, farmer, former chairman of the commons agriculture committee: ".. hundreds of thousands slaughtered.. still continues! We were told, years ago now.. If MAFF is correct in the cause of BSE.. I think they've been shown to be wrong.."
Purdey: "27,500 cows born after the feed ban have BSE.. Ministry said there was possible cross-contamination.." MAFF chap, John Wilesmith, shown talking about 'low dose phenomenon'. possible contamination with feed for pigs and chickens.
Purdey: "One of the obvious flaws in the MAFF case.. The same meat and bonemeal product was exported all over the world; Europe, the Middle East, the eastern bloc, South America.. in all these countries .. remarkably few cases of BSE.."
Purdey: "For years the government stuck to its explanation.." [Purdey shown in his house; radio on wall subtitled September 1994 Radio 4 has the chief vet, Keith Meldrum, conceding that BSE might not be from scrapie.]
Purdey: "No organic farmer has had a case BSE in home-reared cattle. And.. back in the 1980s.. for years I used to feed this stuff to my herd completely unwittingly." [Squats down with bucket of pelleted meat & bonemeal food]
Patrick Holden of The Soil Association: ".. degrade the debate.. Euro politics.. party politics.. almost certainly multifactorial.. unfortunately we live in a reductionist age.. real causes are generation of intensive management practices.. the whole of the national herd vulnerable to attack by disease.."
Purdey: 1980s.. MAFF diktat.. decided to eradicate warble fly.. farmers in affected areas.. only government sanctioned.. organophosphorus.. poured on the spine.. seeped under the skin.. converted the whole of the natural environment of the cow into a poisonous medium.. instructions.. proceed.. twice a year.. naturally I refused to comply.. had to take the Ministry to the High Court to block their powers of entry..treat my cows.. managed to beat off the ministry .. partly technical grounds, partly because my farm was just outside the affected area.." [No other information on this!]
Purdey: "Sparked off my interest.. dig a bit deeper.. warble fly really only involves imperfections in leather.." [NB: No attempt anywhere to assess the damage done by these flies]
Purdey: ".. were developed in Nazi Germany as nerve gas agents.. Halabja incident.. Iraq.. high doses. But evidence that at low doses some farmers have become ill.
Dr Sarah Myhill (GP working in Herefordshire) ".. OPs.. extremely toxic.. fat soluble.. through skin.. swallow.. by inhalation.. their use should be stopped.. more neurological disease in farmers.. occurring in younger age groups.."
Farmer, Will Ruell, says he hopes he doesn't deteryate; a lot of people are in wheelchairs
John Evans, who collapsed after dipping, diagnosed as Parkinson's disease (despite being young -well, youngish)
Roger Cooke of the Veterinary Medicine Manufacturers talks of ".. all the evidence.. if you.. wear the recommended protective clothing.." and preventive culling
Purdey looked at a map of BSE, and a map of OP warble fly treatment - which incidentally covered most of non-industrial England and Wales - and the maps certainly look as though they match - though Purdey doesn't seem to know about exposed-to-risk.
Purdey now tries to discuss TYPES of OP, which 'attack the nervous systems of flies'; why not cattle, too?
'Prion protein' in the brain of cattle - these bond with organophosphates [I think he means some sort of phosphate bond].. are 'corrupted into abnormal forms'. 'One abnormal one is able to convert other normal ones.. chain reaction..'
A number of treatments; contents vary, strength varies. "Neither of the low dose treatments have been sold in UK since 1987 - but they are the only sort used in USA and many European countries, where of course hardly any cases of BSE.."
The high dose forms all have active ingredient Phosmet. Purdey: ".. Phosmet.. an active unit is thalimide, a basic unit of thalidomide.. well documented.. can damage embryos by corrupting protein.." [We see him putting a disk into his Amstrad WP, and also leafing through a text-book (or perhaps bound set of papers).
Purdey: "I was almost afraid to show my face.. trouble-maker.. the mood changed.. write articles, give lectures.."
Purdey: "Swiss cows have a significant incidence of BSE. Dr Richard North.. food advisor.. spoke out against the official line.. ten years ago it was eggs."
Dr North, subtitled 'Food Safety Advisor': ".. on food rendering.. meat and bonemeal in no case was exported to Switzerland.."
Purdey: ".. so.. OPs in Switzerland? Phosmet is used in only three countries, Switzerland, Ireland, and the U.K. In the U.K. it's used four times higher concentration.. and Northern Ireland has a much higher incidence.." [Again, he seemed to tend to take absolute figures for 'BSE cases' rather than percentages: 1986-1995 120 cases in Eire; 1986-1995 Northern Ireland, 1,560 cases, and with a 'smaller herd']
Purdey: "The government-backed Medical research Council.. MRC agreed to do a test. Prion proteins .. OP containing phosmet." [In fact, confusingly, it was revealed later the MRC used a different type of OP; moreover they used synthetic prions..]
Purdey: "Prions.. only known a few years. If it could be shown that OPs bind to them.. etc" "New research on OPs.. may not only cause disease.. weaken the ?body by disrupting the body's defence against disease.."
Dr Sarah Myhill (GP, again) says in effect OPs are very dangerous, and damage every part of the body, and the brain is 'particularly susceptible'
[Many shots of Purdey visiting East Anglia by train. Joke: rather absurd slide guitar music as though in southern USA. Boston, Lincs. A carpenter, Andy Reynolds, 100 yards from a crop of brussels, had spray wafted onto him. '.. taste like onions..' Purdey adds 'like nerve gas?' and Reynolds laughs and agrees - though on what evidence isn't clear. At any rate he has "some of the symptoms associated with low dose OPs."
Dr David Ray, of MRC, chap with odd squinty eyes and bow tie. Subtitled as toxicologist with the MRC. He says the brain can 'exert influence over the rest of the body' and in effect says it could be psychosomatic.
Prof Peter Behan, of Southern General Hospital, Glasgow, yet another expert or 'expert'. ".. a definite link.. chronic fatigue syndrome.. chronic exposure to OP poisoning.. basic research.. shows classical organic pathology.. we now know.."
Sir Richard Body, MP, again: ".. my constituency.. large-scale vegetable production.. one of the worst areas for breast cancer, for example.. why..?"
Purdey: "pesticide manufacturers.. satisfied.."
VO apparently Tony Pike, British Agrochemical Association, who says there's no such thing as a safe chemical, only a safe diose; it's the dose that gives the danger. And that the whole registration system is designed to ensure everyone is OK.
Purdey VO: ".. for some years organochlorines.. implicated in health scares.. that's why OPs.. in sand, percolates [we see him squat down by I think chicory] .. but in peat fields.. 20 fold increase in pesticide residues"
Purdey: "MAFF last year found carrots with residues 25 times higher than expected.." "..residues in grain.. stored grain.. bread, cattle feed.."
".. residue tests don't show interactions with other chemicals.. e.g. they may depress the immune system and allow etc.."
"It's no longer a suspicion.. effect on the immune system backed up by Peter Behan's study.."
Prof Behan again: ".. lots of sophisticated and elegant tests.. farmers.. wide array of immunological abnormalities.."
Roger Cooke again: Purdey says ".. shown to affect the immune system." Cooke: ".. .. well, I don't think that has been substantiated.. checked this before we came here.. the experts I spoke to.."
Behan replies in effect if they haven't got out to see the cases they're not in a position to comment - all this worded so blandly it's hard to take it very seriously.
Purdey outside MRC building; NOTE: dated August 16th 1995! So this film is getting on for a year old...! So much for the 'new' evidence..
He says the MRC are conducting the test for him, backed (in some unspecified way) by Channel 4. We see Dr David Ray again, holding a 'report', saying the prions show a typical amount of binding, or something; poor Purdey says he interprets it a bit differently, it seems to show a rise..
Now we're told they weren't testing with phosmet(!) and also they were using synthetic prion proteins - not stuff from life - which Purdey says has fewer amino acids and is therefore less likely to bind anyway. [It's hard to see why they bothered..]
Gordon Hunter, 'former deputy head of the scrapie unit', says this seems interesting and worthwhile research or something similar.
Bryce-Smith is shown, turning up in his car. He wears a shirt and tie and says ".. very interesting.. good contribution to the debate.. there are no experts in this field.." & praises Purdey's report as remarkable for someone ".. with no formal training in biochemistry or microbiology."
Dr Stephen Whatley of the Institute of Psychiatry's department of neuroscience now comes along. ".. experiment.. later this year." [sic] to look at the effect of phosmet on prion protein, 'part of the external membrane of cells'.
Dr North yet again outside Strand law courts; "important reasons why the government shouldn't" acknowledge this - one, they licensed the product; 2 they made it effectively compulsory; "wide open to damages and political embarrassment"
VO says "last weeks' announcement [undated] .. cases dropped by 67%." But, says Purdey, warble fly treatment also dropped.
Dept of Health view most likely reason for new form of CJD is exposure to BSE before the 1979 feed ban.
Bryce-Smith: ".. completely new type of public health problem - not viruses, bacilli [pron. back-silli], fungus.. not understood.. an entity given a name 'prion'.." He speculates on the size of the threat; could be up to the black death??
Purdey: ".. slaughter.. every one brought in treated at ports with .. phosmet.. cull will achieve absolutely nothing.."
[END. First credit is Reporter Mark Purdey. Then Research Annie Venables. Producers: Mark Dyson, [and in tiny letters:] Andy Forrester. Director David Gilbert. Creative Assistance Production. (c) 1996.
Channel 4 adds there's a booklet on possible products with hidden beef: 0897-188 122 for one month.]
Mon 17 June, 96: 7.30 - 8 pm 'Watchdog Healthcheck' on BBC1 had [in addition to 3,000 unclaimed embryos - some at least apparently belonging to 'royal families of Arabia and Nigeria' - and plastic surgery in USA on teenagers - nose jobs shown in some detail] -
an item on headaches: vaguely controlled experiment in which two groups of people, one some thing media-related, the other office workers, who both reported high rates of headaches, were given placebos and 'proper' 'pain killers' to take & a headache diary to record the results. About half found the placebos as good as the 'pain killers' - or at least the vaguely worded report said so. I was amazed how regularly people pop these things; I get the impression women take far more than men. Amusingly, some 'pain killers' of which 'Ibuprofen' was named [but aspirin excluded], have headaches included in their rather long list of side-effects! Apparently EC rules mean they'll have to be labelled as having this possible side-effect at some time in the near future. BNF March 1992 has Ibuprofen & its side effects on p 349 - though not in the headaches section, which refers to the section on p 349! Joke: cp also syphilis, with mercury treatment causing damage, and AIDS, with AZT...
Also an item on mobile phones & the radio waves they generate, which may have to travel 30 km (as opposed to handheld phones - just across the room). One of the people shown was an ex-demonstrator, but his identity was hidden and I forget his symptoms.. It occurs to me this may be a similar thing to the early use of X-Ray equipment, when damage started to show up...
Unfortunately, not very intelligent stuff. He ASSUMES free market ideology was what it looked as though it was; [Note: cp 'free trade' ideology] e.g. efficiency, tax cuts. Although he finds odd examples - Bradford council estates were put out to tender, and this operation cost £1 million and had no takers - these are not compared with general waste levels. All his examples - school meals in Stockport, allegedly with lower quality 'beargers', gravy, custard; the 'prison service' with Group 4 run jail and apparently multiple escapes; various local, people interviewed to this effect. The police turned down 'performance related pay' regarding it as nonsense - or at least one chief constable said this; the NHS which worked wonderfully for twenty years, we're told. Had an example of over-efficiency, with a neurology unit cutting down hospital stays below six days and operating on people while the ambulance waited. As regards a new secure mental hospital building, the NHS used to get money from central government at keen rates (says Hutton - I suspect that's not right) and moreover had no shareholders; so the cost was less. Hutton cannot generalise and abstract - these remain isolated examples. He said once, to my pain, ".. so no-one benefits." Welsh professor said it was scandalous the way Wales was run (and another chap said the Tories parachuted their people into Wales, Scotland, Northern England, despite different local ethoses) - but we never quite found what was so bad. Probably Quangos, which Hutton said falsely are big news; with Rory Bremner he went through a list of people running some school Quango, without saying what it was for or what it did. The other taboos - public schools, monarchy, inherited wealth, titles, church - naturally get no mention.
He has a pet phrase, 'stakeholding', which he applies in woolly phrases to five sectors - work (people should be in, um, different types of unions), the financial sector, national health, and two others.
BBC2 Wed 19 June 96: Secrets of Lost Empires
The Incas.. vast empire stretching the length of the world's longest mountain range, the Andes, 500 years ago. .. magnificent temples and fortresses out of blocks of stone..
Note: someone said this was the biggest pre-industrial empire there'd been, i.e. presumably, though he didn't say so, bigger than Rome and China.
without mortar.. magnificent citadel of Machu Picchu in Peru.. team of architects and historians (and remarkably silly US woman 'anthropologist' saying she feels bedder about the bridge, see people are walking on it an its not even finished.. I'm gonna be sick. No I'm not..)
Then suggestion of a scriber; held with plumb line through small hole so surface, or at least edge, is precisely matched to opposite block.
Looked convincing (except that large blocks would have to be suspended.. I'd have thought a template..
[2] moving big stones? Cobbled type of surface seems to work well. [they haven't thought of using the tugging rug method, perhaps with llama fat lubrication, so the force is all applied to the base of the stone.
[3] roadways as direct as possible. Had runners in relays; speed of messages about the same as modern postal service (at least, modern between two towns which I forget the names of.)
[4] Building a bridge over 20 metre chasm; household women make rope, two ply thin string made from quite short lengths of scythed grass which are knotted and finger-twirled. Each family (I think) makes 50 meters. These absurd apparently fragile things are put in bundles, which are twisted evenly. These cables are plaited in threes with some attention to the tension. Then they have to be taken to the bottom and thrown across, I think. Base is four ropes; handrail isn't load bearing 'and .. warned that putting weight on it may flip it.' More two ply is used to make the sides and knot the bases; then a matting style thing is unrolled on the floor. It takes three days. I missed the bit explaining how it's connected to the land. The llamas incidentally wouldn't cross.
[5] Chap with a quipu, a 'read only device', says their absence of reading and writing [sic; is this right?] wasn't as much of a problem as you might think; the quipu shows number of people who came, amount done, amount paid; fourth lot didn't show up.
28 June 1996: Cubby Broccoli of James Bond films died (on UK TV news midday)
Sun 21 July, 96: Channel 4 8-9 pm. has 'The beast of Bardia' with 'renowned explorer Colonel John Blashford-Snell, along with palaeontologist Dr Adrian Lister' [Radio Times] investigating supposed monster or enormous beast sighted in 'forests of northern Nepal'
Fri 2 August, 96 (or thereabouts): [Joke] BBC1 9 pm TV News:
A German man set free by Italian court in Rome for war crime during WW2 (described as "the worst in Italy of the war") on grounds he was forced to follow orders (he'd been in Argentina for decades). VO says something like 'the system is now on trial.'
Bit later in the same 'news': 4 women set free by jury. They'd committed £1.5 m of damage to a Hawk aircraft. [No comment on supply to Indonesia; cf John Pilger in New Statesman] VO says: former Master of the Rolls Donalson [?spelling] calls for research into jury behaviour (apparently at present illegal in UK) and VO slowly makes it clear this was regarded as another 'perverse' verdict. [The other was a libel case against Imran Khan (or perhaps by him) of which no details were given]. VO continued "There is no suggestion [?yet?] that juries should be abolished [doesn't mention that they're sometimes not permitted - eg MacDonalds case]. No comment on the 'obeying orders' idea.
TV Times blurb says: '3 of 3. Dr Alice Stewart is nearly 90 and was the first person to discover that an ordinary X-ray can cause cancer; Dame Mary Cartwright is 95 and was one of Britain's top mathematicians; Dr Helen Muir is 75 and transformed the Kennedy Institute, London, into a world-famous centre for arthritis and rheumatology research. All three women explain the compromises they made.'
Absurdly, there work in each case is described by one male; in each case without explaining what they actually did, except for some detail of Alice Stewart.
She interviewed mothers of kids who died of leukaemia. Systematic list of questions of mothers.
Sir Richard Doll ?Rogers Prof of Medicine 1969-1979 talks of "slapdash" and also said something like he pays no attention to her.
"Starved of funding - denied professorship" despite 'reader' of social medicine. NO safe dose; based on a bomb studies. Puts into question all nuclear ?protection. Co-authored 200+ papers, with a statistician
Soviet Union's supersonic passenger jet TU144 [after Tupolev] crashed at the 1973 Paris Air Show. 'This programme reveals the truth behind the crash' says TV Times.
NB: I'd expected the story to be about the rumour that fake, or rejected, plans were left for spies, in which the air intake was too low, causing the plane to be dangerous or have excessively elevated wheels. But this claim wasn't made.
The 'truth' was that the French had a Mirage jet in the air, to film its performance, and in particular the canards fitted to the nose, and which the Russian crew hadn't been told about, contrary to normal practice; as it flew up (incidentally, we're told, given by the French only half the time originally promised) it saw a Mirage (presumably hidden in clouds) and levelled abruptly; his 'bunt' as pilots call it was too great for such a big plane, and some of the engines stalled. The plane plunged, probably to windmill start the engines, but the height wasn't great; the pilot hastily pulled out of the dive, and the forces were too great for the machine, which came to bits. "Broke up at 1500 feet. Clearly over-stressed." Much film of the plane exploding, and stories, e.g. boy playing who was decapitated, many houses demolished.
Much on sex, of course:
-Rebecca West when still younger than 20 reviewed 'Marriage' in the Freewoman (or it may have been 'New Freewoman'). Michael Foot calls her 'the greatest master of invective of the century.' Wells got in touch.. they had a long involvement, but she felt (according to her illegitimate child) left out or sidelined. His letters to her called him a panther, her /i think a pussy, with much play on nakedness etc.
-Amber Rivers (a student of Wells) became 'Ann Veronica'; their daughter is still living in New Zealand; born 1912. I think the parents farmed her out, not wanting to stand the scandal, but later in life he wrote suggesting a rapprochement - incidentally in very tidy handwriting.
-Moura Budberg in his autobiography; when young apparently very lively although not particularly intellectual. Mutually known to Gorki. Part of a tedious-seeming interview by Robert McKee in late 1960s I think shown - what was Wells like? What were these men like? She had a heavy accent.
BBC 'Bookmark' mentioned
-Cooperative writing of his history and biology works suppressed
-No mention of Boer War, China incident in New Machiavelli.
-Nothing on his anti-monarchy, anti-religion.
-Nothing on his geology.
-His big books on biology not mentioned
-WW1 only slight mention in passing in 2nd part. His opinion of the military not given.
-The broken leg incident not mentioned; instead, his reading in the library at Up Park stressed, and its supposed upstairs civilisation & its aristocratic ladies put forward as influences - highly misleading & of course omitting his comments on the history of an owner marrying I think a servant.
-Eugenics stuff apparently comes from Anticipations; at least, a big close up of the page, not showing the context, suggested this. Michael Foot says scandalously misrepresented
-Charlie Chaplin visited him; so did politicians (we see b/w film of Fabians and Beaverbrook and others, and sound film of him addressing people at Foyles bookshop in his voice apparently damaged in childhood).
-Suggestion made of his going round world [The Research Magnificent, 1915] but in fact only Russia was mentioned: 'Lenin a genius. Stalin isn't'. America not mentioned.
-Easton (they called it that; not Easton Glebe) a rectory
-Nothing on his later novels [Rampole Island, the obscure large ones]
-Nothing on 'The Open Conspiracy'
-Even his Autobiography wasn't mentioned, though presumably it made some stir.
-He 'foresaw atomic weapons' idea
-Also much play on the Eloi and Morlocks, and suggestion that subterranean passages at Up Park combined with idea of decadent aristocrats suggested the idea - as in fact Wells stated in his Autobiography.
-Japan bombing mentioned; however, Mind at the End of its Tether wasn't; I'd expected it would be.
-War of the Worlds: 'sound as it were cut off' suggests he coined this now thoroughly absorbed cliché.
-Philosophy buzzword is 'qualia' - I saw this on Internet at about the same time.
-[Quite funny scenes of a pratlike man introduced as a 'once successful businessman' who'd been invited by a blonde to answer some questions and been 'sucked into' a cult and after a few days 'paid the entire contents of my current account'. He felt his personality had been sucked out. Perhaps he was right; he certainly seemed to have none.]
-'Multiple personalities' (or 'alters' as they are called - VO): amusing scenes of dim squat middle aged US woman with big specs and little brain, one of whose personalities was supposed to be 'Jazebel' I think; she looked at her wardrobe and picked out a bright red pyjama like thing, as said she didn't really know what it was or how it had got there. She had a diagram of a brain on a flip chart, with coloured arrows leading to it from bubbles with e.g. 'DO ARTWORK' or 'WATCH TV' or 'HELP WITH PUZZLES' in them. She says at night she gets all these messages and she can't do all these things in one span and she gets tired and goes uh. Absurdly, she also said she couldn't tell when a new personality might 'shift' in. But of course if she really had a dozen personalities, how could any of them know about the others? There was a batty woman spouting psychobabble, e.g. about personalities in liddle baxes, she was trying to make them smaller, subtitled as a (joke:) B.S. I think.
-John Lilley, who once called himself a neurophysiologist, decayed American, slow of speech, in multicolored shirt and specs, author of 'Programing and Metaprograming the Human Biocomputer' [no date given] who was 'a government scientist in the 60s' and seemed to claim to have invented the flotation tank, and that, if you're cut off from stimuli, you don't go to sleep, but your brain does things. Apparently inconsistently he also tried LSD. He said: "I don't own my brian. My brain owns me." He continued about metaprograms, meaning perhaps something like an operating system, perhaps trying to explain what feelings of 'self' might be.
-Young woman supposedly with 'narcolepsy', i.e. couldn't tell her waking state from sleeping. She said: ".. lucid dreams.. I have to make a really big effort to as it were label them.. I think, what was in the dream.." but she also said, absurdly, "they're [i.e., dreams and wakened experiences] just the same.."
Radio Times blurb: 'To mark his inauguration as Oxford University's first Professor for the Public Understanding of Science, Richard Dawkins takes issue with society's neglect of scientific matters. He advocates a policy of promoting enlightenment, which would increase the number of people able to participate in the decision-making process.
He meets three scientists whose discoveries have paved the way for answers to fundamental problems and questions, and talks to David Attenborough, who demonstrates how science can be enjoyable as well as educational.
Producer Simon Raikes; Executive producer John Gau.'
Dr Matthew Freeman, MRC: ".. fruit fly may lead to a cure.. human cancer.. when that receptor is over? that causes cancer."
-Ian Rowland debunker - won't tell how
Wed 4 Sept 96: 8-8.30 pm BBC2 Radio Times says: 'Farnborough Air Show. The first of two reports.. Farnborough has a new look, both in the air and on the ground. Eurofighter 2000 makes its first appearance, as does the latest generation [sic; cp E P Thompson] stealth bomber, the B2. On the ground the talk is of the next millennium. With Julian Tutt and Mark Hanna. Part two next week. ..'
Are the mummies fake, were the substances from plants that have since disappeared, or were there trade routes between Egypt and South America that predate accepted chronology?.
Producer Sarah Morris; Executive producer Hilary Lawson.'
-Radio Times p 8 also has: 'THIS WEEK. MUNICH'S MUMMY MYSTERY
We know that the ancient Egyptians loved a party. Wall paintings show them dancing and feasting, and partaking of the narcotic properties of the lotus flower. But new evidence suggests they may have had more modern habits. Tests on mummies in Munich's Egypt Museum have revealed traces of nicotine and cocaine. <& hashish - RW>
The orthodox view that this is impossible: tobacco and coca, the plants that yield those drugs, were confined to the Americas until thousands of years after the pharaohs. So when German toxicologist Svetla Balabanova
British Egyptologist Rosalie David
Even if Balabanova was wrong, there were several unsettling ramifications of her findings. First, the testing techniques may have been at fault: techniques that are standard police procedure for putting drug users behind bars. Second, the Munich mummies - one of the best collections in the world - may be modern fakes. Those two possibilities seemingly dismissed by her own research, David had only one course of action left - to examine tissue samples from other collections.
The story is a peculiar hybrid of Tin-Tin and The X Files. Scientists fall over themselves to dismiss the findings: one Cairo curator even suggests that the presence of tobacco in the mummies can be explained by the fact that someone in the lab was smoking a pipe.
And behind the arguments lies a much more subversive theory: that the ancient Egyptians could have had trade with the Americas thousands of years before Columbus. This seems to be a taboo subject for most of the historians interviewed in the programme ("Absurd!" exclaims on Oxford historian), but others believe that tiny fragments of evidence begin to build up a persuasive case for such links. If the nicotine and cocaine found in the Munich mummies really does come from the ancient world, then the history books may just have to be rewritten. RUPERT SMITH.'
-MY NOTES:
-Programme appeared to think cocaine and tobacco were confirmed in mummies; tobacco perhaps used in the mummification process in large amounts. BUT palaeobotanists, archaeologists etc dispute the trade idea..
-NB on fakes: Victorian Cairo supplied newly-made 'mummies' to travellers I think made from dead indigents or something similar/ there was a 16th century trade; the Persian word 'mummia' means bitumen. So e.g. fake heads etc.
Dispute or debate over the Neanderthals; vs the Cro-Magnon - remarkably, they don't seem to have unearthed any more. The Neanderthals seem to have existed since 230,000 years ago, but vanished about 30,000 years ago. Were they lumbering club wielding thugs?
1960s apparently had move towards them (chipping flints gives powerful and very sharp tool - sharper than a scalpel, said the enthusiast; you can shave with it. I think he had obsidian.
A couple of problematical things: for some reason Israel seems regarded as a natural place for convergence; was there an African moderns invasion and replacement? Chap says there's no evidence of battles. They may have been displaced as the red squirrels were displaced. Another chap talks of dating remains by small rodents' remains left in owl-pellets; movements of tiny rodents are (suposedly) datable by ice-ages, so they maintain some Neanderthals were there, I think in Israel, more recently than the Cro-Magnons. Also mitochondrial DNA shows something or other - chap said it has the mother's genes only, leaving ambiguous the question of the value of this sort of DNA; is it passed through the mothers' line? If so, there can't be much variation, can there..? At any rate, very little was found, though most in Africa.
The replacement theory is explicitly credited to Stringer of the Natural History Museum. Another chap had the idea that Neanderthals had separate lives between the sexes - males consorted together, occasionally mating with the females. As with so many of these TV quasi-science things, it's impossible to tell whether he had any evidence.
Monochrome photo of LeMay subtitled: 'A finger on the button: how close did General LeMay come to launching a full-scale nuclear attack on the Soviets?'
And 'Today's choice' blurb in the Radio Times [under a photo of five cheerful actors, playing soldiers dressed as firemen]: 'How close did we come to a Third World War in the sixties? According to tonight's Timewatch, full-scale nuclear war was only averted by a hair's breadth, much to the disappointment of a handful of American generals who were amassing a huge nuclear arsenal and deliberately provoking the "enemy" with illegal spy flights over Soviet airspace - all seemingly without the President's knowledge.
General Curtis LeMay and General Thomas Power may well have been, on this evidence, to have been [sic] the inspiration for Stanley Kubrick's movie Doctor Strangelove: out-of-control militarists hell-bent on destruction. Their record spoke for itself: in 1945 they ordered the firebombing of Tokyo at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives. Through the nervous years of the Cold War, they turned their attention to the USSR, pitching the world to the brink of its greatest - and most probably final - conflict.'
[1] Nobel prize to two people, one a Catholic Bishop, on Timor, about which the news refers to the 'rebels'.
[2] South African judgement on a Malan, acquitting him apparently because of poor government prosecution (tho impossible to say)
Radio Times blurb: '.. long been the source of vigorous scientific debate. Results from recent research.. closer than ever before to finding an answer.
Emerging evidence suggests.. qualities of intelligence, traits of personality, propensities for smoking and drug abuse, .. political and religious beliefs may be influenced by genetics.
.. identical twins displayed eerily similar mannerisms and tastes even after a separation lasting 40 years. The conclusions [sic] suggest far-reaching implications for evaluating to what degree family, surroundings and education can be held responsible for behaviour.
Director Selina Macnair; Producer Amanda Theunissen'
In fact, this was rather laughable stuff. NB all the identical twins shown seem to be required to dress identically.
Only three pairs of twins shown in any detail.
[1] Two UK women in their 50s I think [age of separation not given, I think] presumably supposed to show 'eerie similarities'. VO says they 'both left school at 14.. worked in local government, and married young to men.. met at town hall dance. .. In spite of.. being brought up in families.. very different in character, class and tastes.' One says: ".. lived in a ground floor flat.. I can't remember what work e done.. birth cert[stumbles]ificate said .. packer" The other one, with identical accent, said "my dad had a good job at Vauxhall.. he was a metallurgist.. we lived in Luton.. semi-detached.." The first said they only had a holiday once a year. The other says they always had a holiday, in nice places like the Lake District or Cornwall. They say (punctuated by other stuff, e.g. about Minnesota, where Prof David Lykken takes part in a twin studies project, apparently something of an annual event) they chose the same book, they both write 'the cas sat on the mat' when asked to write a short sentence (same error), and their IQs were very similar - the first time, 106 and 107, the second time 116 and 117 (or some such). Prof Lykken says these scores were done by computer. (No indication whether they were both present). He also says 'they were both gigglers' and he couldn't get a solemn picture of them. They chose very similar clothes. Once, one phoned the other, and they were both doing chile, 'out of the same book'. No details on e.g. whether they were together doing their tests.
[2] Two US country music singers; the main point here seemed to be that wives are 'very different'; this turned out to mean one was short and dark, the other tall and blonde; otherwise they seemed depressingly similar southern white types.
[3] Two boys, 5 I think, from Sidcup, with 'a common speech disorder'. Unclear whether this was organic or generally in what sense it was 'common' in 1% of the population. It was hard to make out their conversation; their dad was shown briefly and one felt his vocal style was relevant, though he was faded out quickly. Dr Dorothy Bishop of a Cambridge place, a beaming effusive type who presumably likes sad kids, mouthed something like 'gwah' as the kids tried to say 'giraffe'; she thought perhaps competition for the mother had something to do with it, and the case suggests genetics etc etc. (No attempt of course to examine cases of twins with different voices..) VO said they were "bright and intelligent".
".. very little evidence for family environment in influencing behaviour"
".. time for genetic steersman to find the right kind of influences.." [i.e. later in life]
Mon 28th Oct 96: 8-8.30 pm ITV, 'World in Action'. Radio Times blurb: 'The first of a two-part investigation into drug trafficking in Britain's major cities. Reporter Donal McIntyre spent a year undercover infiltrating a drugs gang, initially gaining their trust by working as a club doorman. There he discovered a close connection between gangs and some firms which provide "security" for pubs, clubs and even restaurants. McIntyre secretly filmed many of the drugs deals and the result is a remarkable dossier on the working of a major drugs network. Part two will be shown next Monday.
Producers Andrew Bell and Alex Holmes. Editor Steve Boulton.'
-Actually filmed entirely in Nottingham (since 'the situation in ?big ?cities is well known', and based around a fat man who body builds at an exercise place and who has 'become very wealthy' supplying bouncers. McIntyre gained his confidence and the two trained together. Quite a bit of the filming dealt with steroids, and though the legal position wasn't spelt out it appeared some were illegal or were being made illegal. There was some talk, though no evidence, of men having injected themselves with 'test' becoming aggressive - e.g. one chap described how he felt like kicking his wife out of bed, though he said he would never hit her. There was also stuff, though not much, about E; apparently the bouncers supplied, or knew people who supplied, it, though they can hardly be said to be pushers, as they seemed to faced with people like McIntyre more or less requesting it. There was some talk about students in the pub, which was shown; I forget its name; typical tarted up place, trying to deal and being taken into a back room and told to hand over everything. "They don't know nothing. Some of them are cocky, but you put your hands in their pockets and look up their arse, they don't like that."
Also stuff on amphetamines; the quantities seemed small.
Then the reporter went in search of cocaine, or 'charlie' as we're told it's called; we see him on the stairs offering £50 and some intermediary saying he gets no money out of it but the stuff is good quality. He recommended the user not to take more than a gramme.
That was about it. The owner of a club, I think 'Lounge Lizard', appeared, expressing his shock. And there was a shot of the bouncer supplier being caught presumably in the morning getting into his hefty vehicle, and muttering "Not my bouncers" as he was repeatedly asked "Why do you supply bouncers who deal in drugs?" over and over.
Mon 28th Oct 96: Channel 4 9-10 p.m.: 'Cutting Edge.' Radio Times blurb: 'White Death. While tuberculosis has been responsible for 30 million deaths in the past decade, making it the world's foremost killer disease, doctors in Britain thought they had beaten it 40 years ago. But a new strain
Could this situation have been anticipated and thus prevented? Paul Mayho, whose tuberculosis is now under control after months of medication, believes it could, and is planning to sue for damages.
Director Patrick Forbes; Producer Will Aslett.'
They talk of 'MDR TB' i.e. multi-drug resistant TB.
There were subsidiary examples, e.g. people in an 'HIV ward', who had been infected, presumably, by another inmate with TB. The hospitals were shown and interviews with rather smarmy consultants or PR men shown. (There was no comment on the general idea of super-resistant organisms spread within hospitals).
####
-".. hydrogen bombs and such horrors.. but science.. [in effect, powerful means for unpleasant things; but also, powerful means for pleasant things].. if we want pleasant things we will get them.." [or something very similar]
-[Note: plagiarism; what about e.g. Wells? RD accredits somebody called Cassidy, ?American, with providing scale model of the solar system, with the sun the size of a football etc; and Proxima Centuri 4000 miles away.] Joke: Dawkins talks about 'the outer planets', evading the problem of pronunciation of 'Uranus'
-[RD quotes billion billion (or something) neurons in the brain; again quoting the 'experts']
-"In 2000 years' time.. every schoolboy will be able to amaze today's Aristotles.." [Note fatuous prediction]
-".. Professor of English literature.. popularity of arts.. trickle of people entering science.. Is it the case that science is simply too difficult? But everybody can understand the circulation of the heart.." [He goes on to say how he read out Donne on ventricles, and asked a roomful of schoolkids or students how the blood circulated; none of them knew. None knew there are 50 miles of something]
RD did not address the question of whether science teaching is boring and leaden and dogmatic
-RD accepts, or says he accepts, the aesthetic idea of science, quoting Einstein but giving no evidence.
-RD accepts that scientists are noble spirits; giving a story (with no names or other details) of a man whose 15 years' theory was demolished by a visiting American lecturer, with whom he shook hands and said he'd been wrong.
-".. Our competitors, America, Germany, and Japan." [RD introduced a practical note. He thinks social acceptability of denying knowledge of science, and v.v. of literature, may not exist in USA and the other countries.]
-[Makes a bit of fun of spoon bending - claiming Penn and Teller have an Internet site explaining how to bend spoons this appears to be untrue. Also says he dislikes the X Files; it's fiction, and each episode has a storyline with a rational or supernatural explanation. Each week the supernatural one wins. (He says; Simon told me they're just left in the air). This isn't acceptable, any more than the black always losing would be.] [He says nothing on religion in this talk]
-[I was amused that he referred to Richard Dimbleby in terms of trust]
-Also of newspaper writers: he includes Bernard Levin (saying something like "plumbing the depths of Mr Levin's ignorance is no mean feat", apparently on the grounds that Levin thought quarks are pointless or an irrelevance and that, unlike Dawkins, he at least knew he didn't know. On quarks, RD quoted a letter from a Cockroft saying that Levin eats a huge number of quarks a day. RD of course has to rely on others' views for this sort of thing. RD also quoted Fay Weldon on science not answering questions like life before birth and after death, and before the big bang (in the Daily Telegraph!) and Simon Jenkins (whom he regarded as more formidable, as he knew something of what he was talking about - that science wasn't useful, like business studies, but left him in awe) and I think someone else.
-[Near the end, oratorical stuff on Darwinism (Dawkins seems never to wonder whether Darwin invented it) and natural selection and the DNA in everyone's bodies; he wrongly states that DNA has within it a history of species (what about pre-DNAs life? And no doubt other erased past stages).]
-[RD doesn't distinguish science from technology - perhaps he'd rather not get involved; or perhaps he doesn't know whether there's a difference.]
-I coined 'the prostitute theory of science', the unspoken assumption that scientists carry out the client's wishes, however disgusting.
[Note: 'worst school' had kids throwing a few things etc; crap teaching, ignorance and superstitions of children and teachers: all this passes with no comment]
Mon 11 Nov 1996: Horizon, 8-8.50 pm: Radio Times blurb talks of 'fossils [sic; in fact apparently just one tiny 'worm', no doubt an electron microscope thing - "smaller than the smallest particle in a bacterium" said someone] in a 'small meteoric rock found in Antarctica.' This was reputed to have originated in mars because it supposedly held CO2 inside in a balance similar to the Martian atmosphere! NASA seemed to half-claim life on Mars, supported by evidence for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; in Summer 1996 they had some sort of press conference, and seemed at least overtly annoyed that their qualifications were ignored by the popular media.
There was a similar thing in I think the 1970s, the VO briefly hinted (possibly, or not, related to David Bowie's song 'Life on Mars?')
Overwhelming feeling that NASA constructed it as a fund getting scheme.
-I downloaded the 'transcript' from the BBC Internet site; it's about 90K in Word format (my notes say) but over 200K in WordPerfect. Q.v. !96HORIZ.ON for a laugh.
[Note: photographic fraud; also technology of information being in advance of most people]
Colour photo shows oldish man in shirt and tie with what might be a scanning electron microscope, a hand-held thing, and behind him a blow-up of the rosy foetus with it thumb in its mouth.
1950s b/w stills somewhat in French realistic mode shown (e.g. Salvation Army chap holding man with bottle). A 'Life' photographer says how wonderful he was, with little evidence. 1950s I think b/w film on ants, using close-up lenses in a rather ordinary way. VO says he collaborated with optical instrument people, ending with lenses only about 2 mm in diameter; impossible to tell how much truth in this.
In I think 1962 he approached Life (an American picture magazine) with a picture of his foetus, which made him famous. At some point an entire issue of Life was devoted to this and similar photos (and the VO said, for the first time ever the entire print run sold - I think 8 million).
It's revealed in passing that the foetus was ?two years old and preserved in formaldehyde; Nilsson's experience 'recreating' the ocean floor in aquaria and lighting with colour spotlights (not from nature) came in useful. Hence as a woman said the suggestion of the foetus as suspended in space, false as the mother not shown in any way.
He moved on to ectopic pregnancies (we se at least one shot of foetus surrounded by a sort of ragged outline).
Mid-1980s he collaborated with the National Geographic (an American picture magazine) including scanning electron microscope pictures; in passing the false colour aspect was mentioned, though not stressed. We were told e.g. a bunch of small round things, tinted bright light blue, were 'viruses'.
We also see an aorta, with a camera moving through it; in fact, a tiny lens at the end of a long tube, the extension apparently being fibre optics. An exterior view was less impressive; an aorta would be full of blood, so nothing could be seen; this one was from a corpse and the lighting seemed to go through its walls.
Another famous shot which must be fake is the movie of a heart, shown developing a puncture and pumping red liquid into clear liquid in rhythmic strokes.
Also shown was mosquito on skin shot, the one with very orange skin; complete lack of information (Was that real skin? HJow was it kept still, if it was? Was it difficvult to keep the mouth parts extended in a derad mosquito?
He's made a film called 'The Miracle of Life' which the VO said was the most-shown documentary ever. It included polarised light to 'bring the egg cell to life'. This of course was not in situ; neither were the sperm. Nilsson with rather fatuous self-complacency said that the egg started to turn; it wasn't clear whether this is normal, for eggs, or whether it was some sort of artefact.
Latest project to show insects 'from an insect's own perspective'. This means in full colour, near the ground (not through compound eye or seeing what they are believed to see, much less taking account of their other senses.)
Radio Times blurb: 'Dr Satan's Robot. [This title appears to be from a b/w film, but may not be]
A medical adviser to the Pope, Professor Robert White, is the only man known to have successfully performed a head transplant when he attached the head of one monkey onto the body of another. [Note: media lies: HH says it was not successful' the body and head rejected each other & in any case the brain wasn't hooked up] Science is advancing into uncharted territory; artificial wombs, male pregnancy, cloning, and human/animal hybrids should be possible within a few years. To many scientists these experiments represent a brave new world, but their opponents say that they are tampering with nature and the new research epitomises science gone mad.
Equinox hears from prominent figures [sic] from the realms of science, politics and the media to discover if scientific progress is being hampered by claims that experimentation defies nature.
Director Martin Durkin; Producer Cathy Rogers.'
Included Robert White (friend of Hillman's; shown with photos of two Popes, saying they encouraged his work; and in effect comes across as hick simpleton technician. Says drugs needed in two years may take ten; surgical techniques needed may take 50 years. Unfortunately the stupid people making the film asked no questions. NB HH says there's never been a successful head transplant; first there's the rejection problem; second the business of connecting with the spinal cord. A man who'd broken his neck diving said he'd like to be operated on; possibly in the Ukraine. It occurs to me if this happened he'd be permanently stuck with a neck inflamed and raw as it's rejected by its new body, and with no control over it; moreover his previously-still-working eyes, tongue, ears, and brain might be impaired by the use of the other body's blood, if they used this; and White would thus be shown up as another in a series of butchers).
Lewis Wolpert
Plomin on research into genetic bases of intelligence (but as the brain isn't understood, genetic code isn't, and intelligence isn't, this seems a waste of time to me; cp. schizophrenia)
Various film makers (Gilliam, and John Carpenter) with cautions;
Various obscure people make feeble pro points.
Dame Jill Knight shown as e.g. having put through legislation preventing 'research' [this term never made clear] on use of aborted embryos e.g. to supply eggs to women with Turner's syndrome (i.e. it says permanently post-menopausal). It was not stated why they couldn't use eggs from normal women.
Radio Times blurb:
'The Outsider. The series shedding light on the inner workings of the legal system ends with a glimpse into the world of Lord Mackay, one of this century's longest-serving Lord Chancellors. How has the country's top judge fared in his battle to reform the legal system? Has the impetus for change lost momentum?
The programme also meets the colourful characters who run the Lord Chancellor's office, including the private secretary able to gauge his boss's moods and a former heating engineer who is now the purse bearer.
Series producer Emily Smyth; Editor Mark Wakefield.'
.. assumed to be lost for ever, a casualty of earthquakes and landslides. But last year it was unearthed
[1] Prof Bolton [sp?] of Berkeley in 1930s, described as a 'charismatic' history professor, adamant that somewhere on the west coast of USA Francis Drake had landed and affixed a brass plaque claiming the land for Elizabeth. A plaque turned up, of 1930s purity rolled 1/8" SWG brass with amateurish lettering (using only straight lines) and apparently unconvincing English - though the only illustration given was that an expression like 'by the grace of God' was omitted from the stuff relating to Elizabeth. A few ex-students said in effect the zealous prof had said, it must be there, find it! He duly described it as authentic and apparently it's still in a case in the Bancroft Library at Berkeley.
[2] Specimen in the Natural History museum, of a modern fly apparently encase in amber; the discoverer of the fake, who was cataloguing stuff, said it's an advanced modern fly, known as the latrine fly (perhaps a subtle joke?). Under warming of his microscope lamp, it became clear the fly had been put into (presumably) modern resin, and inserted into a bit of amber cut in half and scooped out a bit. He said all fossilised insects preserved in amber are extinct.
[3] Archaeopteryx; Fred Hoyle apparently being the first on this, I think about 1985. Incidentally the presentation was cut short, making this not satisfactory. We're told someone has three objections: (1) feathers all have off-centre quill characteristic of modern birds' flight feathers; (2) No breast bone; (3) The bones are flat, not 3-d. The man shows how it can be done, by taking sodium silicate and mixing this with limestone dust (all the 7 or so found of course are from southern Germany) and pressing a feather into it. How the bones were done - bits of lizard? - wasn't made clear. We're told the man who discovered the last of these had taken it from a part of the quarry where no forger could ever have been, but this clue wasn't followed up.
[4] The Sherborne bone, probably a schoolboy hoax inspired by the science master; an old bone with a scratched horse's head on it, which on carbon dating appeared to be only 600 years old. A 'master' with appropriate voice for the time is still alive. Whether any of the boys are, I don't know.
Sat 28 December, 96: BBC2 whole evening on David Attenborough films, with four cameramen, all late middle aged males with little presentation skill, who presumably did most of the work. (One rather sad sequence had the otter chap doing his own VO half-heartedly). On the function of Attenborough in presenting science, see Attenborough file.
Dec 96/Jan 97: Royal Institution Lectures by Prof Simon Conway Morris - see notes in \science
©Rae West. All notes taken from 3.5" computer disks and later hard disks. Unedited to try to leave the flavour of TV up to about fifty years after the Second World War. I have not inserted comments on Jews, who of course are underrepresented.