Among the 400 participants was a cross-section of the names would figure in a who's who of the industry: Halland directors, ecutives, and programme controllers from a bunch of the ITV companies; BBC chiefs and heads of ments; programme makers of various kinds; together with lecturers in film and television, who were mainly of a left-wing persuasion -That the former should sit uncomfortably with those whose business is to analyse the output of the industry was apparent at the beginning of the week-long comerence The theme of the festival 'Television and the real world'. At the end of it a couple of the TV high-ups said from the platform that they had had just about enough of their Marxpresented by which ner, departwas on the single play, Time Out's television writers John Wyver and Carl Gardargued that the creative scope which had been given to dramatists such as Jim Allen, Dennis Potter and Trevor Griffiths was the only way in putting a stop to it.
That argument fell on deaf ears as far as the TV moguls were concerned. If the managers, the heads of departments, and programme editors were sometimes defensive and self-critical, the prevailing tone was one of comSurprisingly, little was said about the technological developments which al C likely to transform While there was about the fourth channel, which in the grip of the Independent Broadcasting Authority more of the same, the explosion of TV channels which is likely to come via satellites and cables was hardly touched on.
There was just one from a senior IBA official, that in 10 years' time there will be no regulation of television in Britain. Hallelujah to that.
But regulation shrined in law, statutory duties, and the ideological 'standards' of the TV companies and authorities to take a decided turn for the worse televisi programme discussion promises to • be Women prediction, Although - presently enwhich in their fortress.
WHY CHILDREN?; edited by Stephanie Dowick Sand Sibyl Grundberg. In this book 18 women speak out on making the decision to have - or not to have — children and express a wide range of feel;ings towards motherhood. Womens Press, £2.75. • PEOPLE WITHOUT A COUNTRY: THE KURDS AND KURDISTAN, edited by Gerard Chaliand. A , comprehensive book that covers the history of the ; Kurdish question over the past 60 years. Zed Press, , NEW LEFT REVIEW No. 121. This issue includes a major article by Edward Thompson on the nuclear , arms race as well as articles by Roy Medvedev on British 5 the Afghan crisis and Michael Rustin on perspec tives for the left. £1.50. Wales, and by showing HARDSHIP HOTEL, Counter Information Service This latest CIS report investigates the situation in the hotel and catering industry. 85p. 5 SPLITTING UP, by Catherine Itzin. In this book , single parents talk about marriage, divorce and the new lives they have created for themselves after splitting up. Virago, £3.95.
All available from The Other Bookshop, 328 Up Welsh nationalist left and the 5 per st., London N.I. (tel 01-226 0571). Add 15 pe cent if ordering by mail.
The Broadcasting Bill setting up the fourth channel includes provision for a Broadcasting Complaints Commission, to be run by three people ap pointed by the Home Secretary. The • new commission will have sweeping powers over all four channels.
It's not difficult to guess how the Home Secretary's appointees wouk have dealt with Death of a Princess, Edinburgh's Lord Provost tried to prevent being shown at the festival, or Granada's Steel Papers which exposed the shady manoeuvres of the steel bosses and the government at the time of the steel strike.
Geoffrey Robertson, who described these new legal moves, also raised some pertinent questions about present censorship on TV. Why had the BBC and IBA told Parliament that they wanted the D-notice system to continue? Why had Granada held back on screening its exposé of Brifaies the BBC Silban The Wa BBC ban War Game, a television film made in 1965 about the effects of a nuclear war?
The answers from those responsithese decisions were mealy session and a discussion about women in TV were the liveliest The latter was chaired by Anna Ford controllers find so few women to fill editorial positions.
Mary Holland's paper 'Out of the bedroom and onto the board?' had argued that more women in TV would have a positive effect on the kind of programmes that are made, but that was not taken up in the discussion.
vals executives indicated their willingness to consider positive discrimination in order to secure jobs for women, there was no sign of women organising within the unions to obtain such demands.
The attack on the left academics which came at the end of the fessivai carried the threat that in future rears the moguls would arrange an even would exclude vociferous critics and seal even these slight cracks Argument, however powerful, is clearly not enough to change what goes on our TV screens. In a week when the print union leaders agreed in principle to fight for the right to reply to attacks in the press, it should surely be to the organised labour movement that left-wing TV critics should turn to make changes in the running and control of television.
----- pull-quotes -----
Other THE BOOKSHOP