BBC-TV's Bill Brand: a neutered message? 1. Direct By this 1 mean the overt removal of words, lines. scenes, and (sometimes) whole productions from the screen, Take, for instance, the following BBC plays. Me por cas rencarse po mos, our De transmitted, Article Five by Brian Phelan: a moral tract about the widespread use of torture as a respressive weapon ensored Scenes from King Kong by Hawan Schuman: A once radical journalist learns sical scenes of vinlence and Jove were cised Jrom the original print of King Kong (which is true). He builds a paranoid fantasy about why those scenes Mere c: eventuals involving the covernment aud fascism." The irony here is that the play is very much about censorship. The author maintains that he was never confronted direcrly by the BBC about the ban and all his information was innuende and hearsay.
Prowling Offensuve by Howard Barker: "A Tory Hoibe Secrelary 2-1a 8303 demeanour by a class-conscious pimp.' This was an enjoyable play that offended Christopher Morahan's cood laste. He rerected Dar coacncion or the writer's work and obviously we carnot expect to tesin much about That. But T did ask a dozen television writers whether they had ever not written a play because they felt the subject matter would porcul productor One writer replied: "Those are the plays I write" But aix said Yes and gave exampies. • They raoged The denth ASETEND MaeDougal's belief that there were several plays be could not write including a sympathetic portrait ora violent crasgow your There is a view chat self-censorship is the most reliable and repressive form of pensorship we bave. Ir is believed that the medis are emertly Tun br cultural managers on behalf of a stable non-elected proup esentiaily reflecting middle class ches are insitutionalised. In ober words che media reflect the society me have and can only be changed by changing that society. This in a commitred writer can leno to over-dererminist CTIC imposibility of doing naything useful encept joining the nearest and most symparbetic political organisation.
Certainly it one tries to generalise a description of the massive drama output sou can end up wich a view of society por dissimilar from The Tumer errespondeno columns. congratulation is due to television for shaking off the middle clase thuainical heritare it heran with and butling oato 1ne screen a working class concent that was totally new. But it is sill true that TV reeks of solid city father virtuc, It is full of brave cops, but when d you bast sce a brave trade untonist? Leeds Cinited (rejected by
is MASS ACTION Socialist Challenge COURIEY