Peter Fiddick: Self - Media Editor, The Guardian 1984-1989

Quotes 

• [fearing that the BBC was going to suppress production of The Falklands Play, Ian Curteis released a statement to the press] 

  Peter Fiddick : When it went public, it went public in more detail than, in my experience, any similar row ever has.

  [shots of headlines such as "BBC accused of Falklands play censorship" and "utterly Biased, morally Bankrupt, politically Corrupt" with the BBC in large type] 

  Peter Goodchild : The press were just going for the BBC in a way that certainly hasn't happened in... there have been occasional scandals... but they were really *going* for the BBC.

  Eddie Mair - Narrator : [voiceover]  The papers seized on what was portrayed as a left-wing conspiracy, and a media feeding-frenzy followed. For the Thatcher government, the row seemed to confirm their claims about bias at the BBC.

  Conservative MP : [in the House of Commons, voice]  They're trying to enforce changes in the script. Just because it came out as being pro-Britain, pro-government and pro the Prime Minister. These actions are quite disgraceful.

  Margaret Thatcher : [in the House of Commons, voice]  Mr Speaker, I'm grateful for what my honourable friend says. I'm sure that the people concerned will take very careful note of his comments in this house.

  Ian Curteis : It touched a nerve in the national psyche and it released people's anger against the BBC.

  Chris Dunkley : It was a wonderful example of what quite a lot of middle class conservative - small c - people think about the BBC. It bore out all their worst suspicions. "You write a play about the Falklands. Obviously it supports Margaret Thatcher and thinks that what she did was a good thing and that she behaved well. And what happens? It gets banned. Typical pinko BBC." I think that's why typically somewhat right-wing newspapers took it up with the enthusiasm that they did.

  Eddie Mair - Narrator : [voiceover]  And those papers had no problem getting Curteis's version of events.

  Chris Dunkley : Curteis himself wrote a very detailed account of his side, which was used a lot by all of us, I think. That was what you carried around with you if you were covering the subject.

  Eddie Mair - Narrator : [voiceover]  But on the other side of the argument, information was scarce.

  Peter Fiddick : The BBC's position very much was one of simply saying "No, we didn't do that." They certainly couldn't prove what they thought or what their political fears might have been.

  Chris Dunkley : The BBC, although it has an huge press office, lots of people in it, is an extremely difficult organisation to get anything out of - if they don't want you to get it out. There was a *deep* suspicion that the BBC had a good reason why it didn't want to give a straight answer.

  Eddie Mair - Narrator : [voiceover]  In fact the BBC couldn't *give* a straight answer as it had more than one.

  Chris Dunkley : Not till much later in the day did the BBC start leaking the idea that "really the reason for this is that the play just isn't any good". It seemed to be deeply "unfortunate", to say the least, that just didn't happen at the beginning. If they were telling the truth, you'd expect it to come out straight away.

  Michael Grade : I think that I made it very clear at the time to the board of governors, the press, to anyone who was interested, that the sole ground for not going ahead with the commission was the fact that I didn't think the script was good enough. The problem-with-quality issue didn't come across as clearly as it should have done was because Alasdair chose to use the Election as an excuse, rather than say to Ian "Sorry, it doesn't cut the mustard, old boy. We're not spending a million of the licence-payer's money on this. Very disappointing but there you go. That's life." He kind of fudged it, really. And once you start to fudge, we got ourselves into a hopeless public relations muddle.

• [Alasdair Milne, the Director General of the BBC, had told Ian Curteis and the press that the reason the BBC was shelving production of The Falklands Play was because it was too sensitive and could be accused of biassing the result of the upcoming General Election] 

  Alasdair Milne : I was going to strong-arm them after the election and have it made. I'd decide to do that.

  Eddie Mair - Narrator : [voiceover]  But before the election, in an ironic twist to the story, the main supporter of the pro-Thatcher play was sacked by the Thatcher-appointed governors.

  Peter Fiddick : The firing of Alasdair Milne was an absolute shock to everybody inside and outside the BBC. It had clearly been plotted by a number of the governors.

  Eddie Mair - Narrator : [voiceover]  The sacking of Milne signalled the end of the play. Without his support, there was unanimous agreement among BBC management that the play should now be scrapped for good. The fact the Curteis had gone to the press had been the final nail in the coffin.

• Ian Curteis : Everyone is right from their own point of view. And if it was a private company, Michael Grade and Bill Cotton would be entirely justified. But it *isn't* a private company. They blocked the play. They didn't tell me why. They did not commission another play to put a similar viewpoint - the case for the defence.

  Michael Grade : There was no politics at the BBC. The BBC was not trying to change Ian Curteis's view of the world. It was not trying to change the script. We just wanted something we felt was worth a million quid of the licence-payer's money.

  Sir Bernard Ingham : I do not need persuading now, and I did not need persuading then, that there were elements within the BBC that didn't want to broadcast anything that portrayed Margaret Thatcher in a good light.

  Peter Goodchild : I never heard anybody actually saying "This is just a load of right-wing rubbish" or whatever. That wasn't the way it was discussed. There was no conspiracy.

  Eddie Mair - Narrator : [voiceover]  Yet fifteen years on, the BBC still stands accused. Production of the play may be complete but it seems the row behind it will never be resolved.

  Peter Fiddick : It was, from my point of view, impossible then and is impossible now to know what or who to believe.

  Chris Dunkley : It will be extremely interesting to see whether most of us now think it's a good or a bad piece of work.

  Alasdair Milne : I still believe, from the moment I first saw it, that it was worth making. I look forward to seeing it very much.

  Michael Grade : I don't like to see any work buried. I shall watch it with interest.

  Sir Bernard Ingham : I welcome it. Let's see what he wrote. Judge for ourselves.