Last Friday night, I was down in Torquay drinking with trade union colleagues going to the next day’s Regional Council of the TUC, and I was surprised that many people were opposed to seeing the Iron Lady on principle. I had already agreed to see it to take part in a chat about the film […]
Posts under ‘Film’
Golden rule of banking – don’t kill off your customers
Dec 9th, 2011 by Will Howley.First Golden rule of banking is: ‘don’t kill off your customers‘. But as the BBC 2 TV documentary Inside Job broadcast on Wednesday night confirmed, top bankers don’t care and live in a arrogant-elitist cocoon of their own making away from the reality the rest of the 99% who have no choice but to endure […]
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Tintin in the land of the Nazis
Oct 29th, 2011 by Andy Newman.A couple of days ago there was the most extraordinarily lazy piece of reporting I have ever seen on the BBC TV news. In response to the new Hollywood film of the Adventures of Tintin, the Beeb decided to feature Hergé’s “Tintin in the Land of the Soviets”, his first book. The BBC’s angle was […]
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International Brigade 75th Anniversary
Oct 21st, 2011 by Jon Lansman.This Saturday, 22 October, is the 75th anniversary of the Spanish Republic issuing the decree to recognise the International Brigades which were forming to join the defence of Spain’s Land and Freedom. In a short period of time some 32,000 volunteers from more than 50 countries joined the Brigades. Made by Sanum Ghafoor, Philosophy Football’s […]
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Unions in the movies: Ken Loach’s Big Flame
Sep 24th, 2011 by Andy Newman.There are not many TV dramas that inspire the name of a group of revolutionary socialists, but the 1969 BBC Wednesday Play does have that distinction. In these days of YouTube, DVDs and Catch Up TV, it is hard to recall how different the social context of broadcasting was back in 1969. There were just three […]
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A Very British Coup
Sep 10th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.A Very British Coup, re-released on DVD next week, is a gripping story of what might have happened had a left-wing government been elected in Britain sometime in the 1980s. Based on the novel by Chris Mullin, until the last election MP for Sunderland South, it was adapted for TV by Alan Plater and starred Ray […]
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Mandelson – Wanker (the sequel)
Sep 10th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Hannah Rothschild’s first screenplay was entitled Wanker, which was the story of a student sperm donor whose progeny tried to find their father — the rights were bought by Ridley Scott. As a director, her latest documentary is Mandelson: The Real PM? If you missed it when it was broadcast last November on the BBC, you […]
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The Struggle for Labour, as seen in Taiwan
Jun 19th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Hat tip: Mehdi Hasan
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Ed the Human
Apr 7th, 2011 by Jon Lansman.Labour’s election broadcast puts Ed at its heart. Does it work? Unfortunately, Leaders and how people see them matter to the way people vote. Ed is not well known, and his popularity trails Labour’s. And yet, for the Left, Ed’s humanity, his values, his integrity and decency, are what makes him the first Labour Leader […]
