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''World in Action'' was a British investigative current affairs programme made by
Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...
for
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
from 7 January 1963 until 7 December 1998. Its campaigning
journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
frequently had a major impact on events of the day. Its production teams often took audacious risks, and the programme gained a solid reputation for its often unorthodox approach. The series was sold around the world and won numerous awards. In its heyday ''World in Action'' drew audiences of up to 23 million in Britain alone, equivalent to almost half the population.
Cabinet minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, ...
s fell to its probings. Numerous innocent victims of the British
criminal justice Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes. The criminal justice system is a series of government agencies and institutions. Goals include the Rehabilitation (penology), rehabilitation of o ...
system, including the
Birmingham Six The Birmingham Six were six Irishmen who were each sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 following their false convictions for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. Their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory and quashed by the C ...
, were released from jail. Honouring the programme in its 50th anniversary awards the
Political Studies Association The Political Studies Association (PSA) is a learned society in the United Kingdom which exists to develop and promote the study of politics. It is the leading association in its field in the United Kingdom, with an international membership includi ...
said, "''World in Action'' thrived on unveiling corruption and highlighting underhand dealings. ''World in Action'' came to be seen as hard-hitting investigative journalism at its best." A melodramatic post-trial encounter in 1967 between
Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
and senior British establishment figures, in which the rock star and his retinue were wafted by helicopter onto the lawn of a
stately home An English country house is a large house or mansion in the English countryside. Such houses were often owned by individuals who also owned a town house. This allowed them to spend time in the country and in the city—hence, for these peopl ...
, was engineered by then ''World in Action'' researcher and future BBC Director General
John Birt John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944) is a British television executive and businessman. He is a former Director-General (1992–2000) of the BBC. After a successful career in commercial television, initially at Granada Television an ...
. Decades later Birt himself described it as "one of the iconic moments of the Sixties." Soon after she became
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
leader,
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. S ...
was said to have told the BBC Director General, Sir
Ian Trethowan Sir James Ian Raley Trethowan (20 October 1922 – 12 December 1990) was a British journalist, radio and television broadcaster and administrator who eventually became Director-General of the BBC, Director-General of the BBC from 1 October 1977 ...
, that she considered ''World in Action'' to consist of "just a lot of Trots. ''
Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...
'', however, are bastards." Its removal after 35 years was seen by some as part of a general dumbing-down of British television and of ITV in particular. One commercial TV regulatory official privately characterised the ''
Tonight Tonight may refer to: Television * ''Tonight'' (1957 TV programme), a 1957–1965 British current events television programme hosted by Cliff Michelmore that was broadcast on BBC * ''Tonight'' (1975 TV programme), a 1975–1979 British current ...
'' programme which replaced it as merely "fluffy". Others saw ''World in Action's'' eventual disappearance as the inevitable consequence of rising commercial pressures. Announcing a £250,000 fund for an investigative journalism training scheme,
Channel Four Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a fourth television service i ...
said in November 2011 that there had been a decline in the pool of investigative journalism since "the demise of training grounds such as ''World in Action''".


Origins

''World in Action'' was the pre-eminent current affairs programme produced by Britain's
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
Network in its first 50 years. Along with '' This Week'', ''
Weekend World ''Weekend World'' is a British television political series, made by London Weekend Television (LWT) and broadcast from 1972 to 1988. Created by John Birt, not long after he had joined LWT, the series was broadcast on the ITV network at midday ...
'', ''TV Eye'', '' First Tuesday'', ''The Big Story'' and ''
The Cook Report ''The Cook Report'' was a British ITV current affairs television programme presented by Roger Cook which was broadcast from 22 July 1987 to 24 August 1999. The series featured the journalist investigating corruption, criminals, government soc ...
'' – and the news-gathering of ITN – ''World in Action'' gave ITV a reputation for quality broadcast journalism to rival the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
's output. For the first 35 years of its existence, ITV had a near-monopoly of television advertising revenue. Roy Thomson, who ran
Scottish Television Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV network franchisee for Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation since 31 August 1957 and is the ...
, famously described ITV as a "licence to print money". In return for this income, the broadcasting regulator insisted that the ITV companies broadcast a proportion of their programmes as public service TV. Out of this was born the network's reputation for serious current affairs, eagerly grabbed by programme makers under Granada's founder Lord Sidney Bernstein. Some of the most prominent figures in 20th-century British broadcasting helped to create ''World in Action'', in particular,
Tim Hewat Timothy Edward Patterson Hewat (4 May 1928 – 19 May 2004) was an Australian television producer and journalist. He has been described as the "maverick genius of Granada TV, Granada television's current affairs in its formative years" and "one of ...
, "the maverick genius of Granada's current affairs in its formative years", and
David Plowright David Ernest Plowright (11 December 1930 – 24 August 2006) was a British television executive and producer. Life Plowright was educated at Scunthorpe Grammar School. He began his career in journalism as a reporter on the ''Scunthorpe Sta ...
: but also
Jeremy Isaacs Sir Jeremy Israel Isaacs (born 28 September 1932) is a Scottish television producer and executive, opera manager, and a recipient of many British Academy Television Awards and International Emmy Awards. He won the British Film Institute Fellow ...
,
Michael Parkinson Sir Michael Parkinson (born 28 March 1935) is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his television talk show '' Parkinson'' from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other talk shows and programmes both in the U ...
,
John Birt John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944) is a British television executive and businessman. He is a former Director-General (1992–2000) of the BBC. After a successful career in commercial television, initially at Granada Television an ...
and
Gus Macdonald Gus is a masculine name, often a diminutive for Angus, August, Augustine, or Augustus, and other names (e.g. Aengus, Argus, Fergus, Ghassan, Gustav, Gustave, Gustafson, Gustavo, Gussie). It can also be used as the adaptation into English of t ...
and its most long-serving executive-producer, Ray Fitzwalter. The series developed the skills of generations of journalists and, in particular, film-makers.
Michael Apted Michael David Apted, (10 February 1941 – 7 January 2021) was a British television and film director and producer. Apted began working in television and directed the '' Up'' documentary series (1964–2019). He later directed '' Coal Miner's ...
worked on the original ''
Seven Up! The ''Up'' series of documentary films follows the lives of ten males and four females in England beginning in 1964, when they were seven years old. The first film was titled ''Seven Up!'', with later films adjusting the number in the title t ...
''.
Paul Greengrass Paul Greengrass (born 13 August 1955) is a British film director, film producer, screenwriter and former journalist. He specialises in dramatisations of historic events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras. His early film ' ...
, who spent 10 years on ''World in Action'', told the BBC: "My first dream was to work on ''World In Action'', to be honest. It was that wonderful eclectic mixture of filmmaking and reportage. That was my training ground. It showed me the world and made me see many things." He later told ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'': "If there's a thread running through my career it's ''World in Action'' – the phrase as well as the programme." Although its rivals produced many memorable programmes, it was ''World in Action'' "slamming into the subject of each edition without wordy prefaces from a reassuring host-figure" which consistently gained a reputation for the kind of original journalism and film making which made headlines and won major awards. In its time, the series was honoured by all of the major broadcasting awards, including many BAFTA, the
Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...
and
Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
Awards. ''World in Action's'' style was the opposite to its urbane BBC rivals, especially to the London BBC. By repute, especially in its early days, ''World in Action'' would never employ anybody who was on first-name terms with any politician.
Gus Macdonald Gus is a masculine name, often a diminutive for Angus, August, Augustine, or Augustus, and other names (e.g. Aengus, Argus, Fergus, Ghassan, Gustav, Gustave, Gustafson, Gustavo, Gussie). It can also be used as the adaptation into English of t ...
, an executive producer of the programme, said it had been "born brash". Steve Boulton, one of its last editors, wrote in ''
The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
'' that the programme's ethos was to "comfort the afflicted – and afflict the comfortable." Paul Greengrass told ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' in June 2008 that the chairman of Granada TV once told him: "Don't forget, your job's to make trouble." The series outlasted all of its contemporaries in ITV current affairs, killed off as the commercial pressures on the network grew with the arrival of multi-channel TV in the UK. Eventually ''World In Action'', too, was removed from the schedules by its own creator,
Granada TV ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...
. On 7 December 1998, World in Action ceased operations for good after 35 years on air. It was replaced in the schedules by ''
Tonight Tonight may refer to: Television * ''Tonight'' (1957 TV programme), a 1957–1965 British current events television programme hosted by Cliff Michelmore that was broadcast on BBC * ''Tonight'' (1975 TV programme), a 1975–1979 British current ...
''.


Investigative legacy

From the beginning, and especially from the late 1960s, ''World in Action'' broke new ground in investigative techniques. Landmark investigations included the
Poulson Poulson may refer to: * Poulson (surname) * Poulson, Virginia * Poulson (processor), the codename of Intel's Itanium 9500 processor series See also * Polson (disambiguation) * Poulsen, a surname {{disambiguation ...
Affair, corruption in the
West Midlands Serious Crime Squad The West Midlands Serious Crime Squad was a police unit in the English West Midlands which operated from 1974 to 1989. It was disbanded after an investigation into allegations of incompetence and abuse of power on the part of some of the squad ...
, the exposure of the shadowy and violent far-right group
Combat 18 Combat 18 (C18 or 318) is a neo-Nazi terrorist organisation that was founded in 1992. It originated in the United Kingdom, with ties to movements in Canada and the United States. Since then it has spread to other countries, including Germany. ...
, investigations into
L. Ron Hubbard Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986) was an American author, primarily of science fiction and fantasy stories, who is best known for having founded the Church of Scientology. In 1950, Hubbard authored '' Dianeti ...
and
Scientology Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It has been variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religious movement. The most recent published census data indi ...
and, most notably, a long campaign which resulted in the release from prison of the
Birmingham Six The Birmingham Six were six Irishmen who were each sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 following their false convictions for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. Their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory and quashed by the C ...
, six
Irishmen The Irish ( ga, Muintir na hÉireann or ''Na hÉireannaigh'') are an ethnic group and nation native to the island of Ireland, who share a common history and culture. There have been humans in Ireland for about 33,000 years, and it has bee ...
falsely accused of planting
Provisional Irish Republican Army The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate Irish reun ...
(IRA) bombs in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
pubs. ''World in Action's'' appetite for controversy created tension with the
Independent Broadcasting Authority The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) was the regulatory body in the United Kingdom for commercial television (ITV and Channel 4 and limited satellite television regulation – cable television was the responsibility of the Cable Authorit ...
(IBA), the official regulator during most of the series's run, which had the power to intervene before broadcast. Sir
Denis Forman Sir John Denis Forman (13 October 1917 – 24 February 2013) was a Scottish executive in the British television industry long associated with the ITV contractor Granada, and with various charitable and governmental bodies in the arts. Career Fo ...
, one of Granada's founders, wrote that there was "
trench warfare Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which troops are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. Trench warfare became a ...
" between the programme and the industry regulator, the
Independent Television Authority The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" (ITV (TV network), ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ITA exi ...
(ITA), in the years between 1966 and 1969 as ''World in Action'' sought to establish its journalistic freedoms. The most celebrated dispute was in 1973, over the banning of ''The Friends and Influence of John L Poulson'', the definitive film about the
Poulson Poulson may refer to: * Poulson (surname) * Poulson, Virginia * Poulson (processor), the codename of Intel's Itanium 9500 processor series See also * Polson (disambiguation) * Poulsen, a surname {{disambiguation ...
Affair, itself one of the defining scandals of British political life in the 1960s. Poulson was an architect, who was jailed a year later for corrupting politicians and civil servants to advance his construction business. The regulator, which was then the IBA, banned the film without seeing it and without giving official reasons other than "broadcasting policy". As a protest, Granada broadcast a blank screen – which, bizarrely, recorded the third-highest TV audience of that week. After a public furore which saw newspapers from the ''
Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'' to the ''
Socialist Worker ''Socialist Worker'' is the name of several far-left newspapers currently or formerly associated with the International Socialist Tendency (IST). It is a weekly newspaper published by the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) in the United Kingdom since ...
'' unite in condemnation of "censorship", the IBA held a second vote, having by then seen the film. By a single vote, the ban was lifted and the programme, by then retitled ''The Rise and Fall of John Poulson'', was transmitted on 30 April 1973, three months after it was first scheduled. In January 1980 the programme examined the business practices of the then chairman of
Manchester United football club Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd), or simply United, is a professional football club based in Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, England. The club competes in the Premier League, ...
,
Louis Edwards Louis Charles Edwards (15 June 1914 – 25 February 1980) was an English businessman from Salford, Lancashire, who was most notable for being chairman of Manchester United from June 1965 until his death in February 1980. Early life and busin ...
. Edwards ran a wholesale butchery business that supplied schools in
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...
; ''WIA'' exposed practices of bribery of council officials and the supply of meat that was unfit for human consumption to such institutions; Edwards' businesses were subsequently prosecuted and lost their contracts. Louis Edwards himself died of a heart attack a month after the show was broadcast. ''World in Action'' tackled the British
intelligence service An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of informatio ...
s, as well as the Royal Navy, over their recruitment practices: senior navy personnel famously door-stepped the director of ''World in Actions film in question. The programme broadcast revelations by
whistleblowers A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, often an employee, who reveals information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe or fraudulent. Whi ...
from both
GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Unit ...
, the government's electronic eavesdropping and surveillance headquarters, and from the Joint Intelligence Committee. Its most audacious investigation of the intelligence community was, perhaps, an extended edition in July 1984 titled "The Spy Who Never Was", the confessions of a former
MI5 The Security Service, also known as MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), G ...
officer, Peter Wright. ''
Spycatcher ''Spycatcher: The Candid Autobiography of a Senior Intelligence Officer'' (1987) is a memoir written by Peter Wright, former MI5 officer and Assistant Director, and co-author Paul Greengrass. He drew on his own experiences and research into ...
'', Wright's subsequent account of the period when he and colleagues had, as he put it, "bugged and burgled our way across London", revealed what had in effect been a planned coup against the then Labour government of
Harold Wilson James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, (11 March 1916 – 24 May 1995) was a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from October 1964 to June 1970, and again from March 1974 to April 1976. He ...
. Wright appeared to have been in charge of the technical side of things. 'The Wilson Plot', as it became known, was corroborated to varying degrees both before and after the film's transmission in various other books by journalists and in volumes of memoirs by others involved in the conspiracy. Wright's book was the most explosive of them all. Wright, embittered by a still unresolved pension dispute, fled to Australia where the book was written and finally published – to the fury of Mrs Thatcher – with the assistance of the original programme's chief researcher,
Paul Greengrass Paul Greengrass (born 13 August 1955) is a British film director, film producer, screenwriter and former journalist. He specialises in dramatisations of historic events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras. His early film ' ...
. Publication in Britain was initially banned outright by the government of Margaret Thatcher. The series was rarely away from the courts and the threat of legal action. The Scientologists tried – and failed – to stop ''World in Actions broadcasts about them through the courts and in 1980, members of the programme's staff and senior executives at Granada TV announced that they would be prepared to go to prison rather than submit to a
House of Lords The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the Bicameralism, upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by Life peer, appointment, Hereditary peer, heredity or Lords Spiritual, official function. Like the ...
ruling that the programme reveal the identity of an informant who had supplied ''WIA'' with 250 pages of secret documents from the then state-owned steel company
British Steel Corporation British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...
which was at the time locked in an
industrial dispute Strike action, also called labor strike, labour strike, or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to Labor (economics), work. A strike usually takes place in response to grievance (labour), employee grievance ...
with its workforce. In 1995,
Susan O'Keeffe Susan O'Keeffe (born 18 September 1960) is an Irish journalist and former Labour Party politician. Personal life She was educated at Mount Anville Secondary School, Dublin, and at University College Cork. She lives in Collooney, County Sligo w ...
, a ''World in Action'' journalist, was threatened with prison in Ireland for refusing to reveal her sources. She had investigated scandals within the Irish meat industry in two films in 1991, setting in motion a three-year
Tribunal of Inquiry A tribunal of inquiry is an official review of events or actions ordered by a government body. In many common law countries, such as the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, Australia and Canada, such a public inquiry differs from a royal ...
in Dublin, which found that much of her criticism of the industry was substantiated. The tribunal, though, demanded that she name her informants, and when she refused to do so, she was charged by the Irish
Director of Public Prosecutions The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is the office or official charged with the prosecution of criminal offences in several criminal jurisdictions around the world. The title is used mainly in jurisdictions that are or have been members o ...
. The case became a
cause célèbre A cause célèbre (,''Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged'', 12th Edition, 2014. S.v. "cause célèbre". Retrieved November 30, 2018 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/cause+c%c3%a9l%c3%a8bre ,''Random House Kernerman Webs ...
in the
Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern side of the island. A ...
, and in January 1995 she faced trial for
contempt of court Contempt of court, often referred to simply as "contempt", is the crime of being disobedient to or disrespectful toward a court of law and its officers in the form of behavior that opposes or defies the authority, justice, and dignity of the cour ...
but was cleared of the charge. O'Keeffe was honoured in the 1994 Freedom of Information Awards for her stand. In its last few years, the programme was involved in two high-profile
libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...
cases. It won the first (along with the ''Guardian'') against the former
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
cabinet minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, ...
Jonathan Aitken Jonathan William Patrick Aitken (born 30 August 1942) is a British author, Church of England priest, former prisoner and former Conservative Party politician. Beginning his career in journalism, he was elected to Parliament in 1974 (serving unt ...
, and lost the second, against the
high street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...
chain
Marks & Spencer Marks and Spencer Group plc (commonly abbreviated to M&S and colloquially known as Marks's or Marks & Sparks) is a major British multinational retailer with headquarters in Paddington, London that specialises in selling clothing, beauty, home ...
. On 10 April 1995, Aitken, himself a former journalist for
Yorkshire Television ITV Yorkshire, previously known as Yorkshire Television and commonly referred to as just YTV, is the British television service provided by ITV Broadcasting Limited for the Yorkshire franchise area on the ITV (TV network), ITV network. Until 19 ...
, called a televised press conference three hours before the transmission of a ''World in Action'' film, ''Jonathan of Arabia'', demanding that allegations about his dealings with leading
Saudis Saudis ( ar, سعوديون, Suʿūdiyyūn) are people identified with the country of Saudi Arabia. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. The Saudis are composed mainly of Arabs and primarily speak a regional dialect ...
be withdrawn. In a phrase that would come to haunt him, Aitken promised to wield "the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play ... to cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism." Aitken was subsequently sentenced to 18 months in prison for perjuring himself in the resulting libel case. ''World in Action'' followed the collapse of Aitken's libel case with a special edition whose title reflected the MP's claim to wield the "sword of truth". It was called ''The Dagger of Deceit''.


Television techniques

Although the series's lasting reputation is for its investigative work, it also led the way in introducing other techniques to mainstream TV. In 1971, years before the rise of "reality" programmes on TV schedules, ''World in Action'' challenged the
Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...
village of Longnor to quit smoking, a forerunner of many of the popular-challenge documentaries which enjoyed success in the 21st Century reality television boom. In 1984, ''World in Action'' caused a sensation by challenging a rising young
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
Member of Parliament,
Matthew Parris Matthew Francis Parris (born 7 August 1949) is a British political writer and broadcaster, formerly a Conservative Member of Parliament. He was born in South Africa to British parents. Early life and family Parris is the eldest of six childre ...
, to live for a week on a £26 unemployment benefit payment to test the reality of his own critical views on unemployed people – Parris subsequently abandoned parliament for a career as a broadcaster and writer. The same year, ''World in Action'' revealed the tricks behind political oratory by coaching a complete beginner, Ann Brennan, to deliver a speech which won a standing ovation at the annual conference of the
Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...
, using techniques developed by Professor Max Atkinson. The eminent political commentator
Sir Robin Day Sir Robin Day (24 October 1923 – 6 August 2000) was an English political journalist and television and radio broadcaster. Day's obituary in ''The Guardian'' by Dick Taverne stated that he was "the most outstanding television journalist of ...
, covering the conference for BBC television, described Mrs Brennan's performance as "The most refreshing speech we've heard so far." ''World in Action'' helped to pioneer the technique of using covert cameras, not just in investigative work but also in social documentary, including, from the earliest days, the treatment of gypsies, the old in care ("Ward F13") and poverty in England. The arrival of high-quality miniature cameras allowed ambitious projects such as
Donal MacIntyre Donal MacIntyre (born 25 January 1966) is an Irish investigative journalist, specialising in investigations, undercover operations and television exposés. He has also worked as a presenter of both television news and documentaries on various U ...
's award-winning programmes in October 1996 on the
illegal drug trade The illegal drug trade or drug trafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibit trade, except under license, of many types of drugs through ...
, and the future
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
MP
Adam Holloway Adam James Harold Holloway (born 29 July 1965) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gravesham since 2005. He served as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from September to October 2022, and as A ...
's disturbing reports on the reality of life among the homeless in 1991. In 1998 ''World in Action'' took advantage of the new technology to equip an entire house with secret cameras hidden in anything from coke tins to fish tanks to catch out shoddy builders. The success of the two-part series called ''House of Horrors'', produced by Kate Middleton, led not only to the ITV series ''House of Horrors'' and to the BBC's ''Rogue Traders'' but to a whole new genre of programming, around the world, based around hidden camera footage of dodgy tradesmen. ''World in Action'' also gave rise to a number of other spin-off series, most famously the ''Seven Up!'' documentaries that have followed the lives of a group of British people who turned seven years old in 1963. The most recent, ''63 UP'', was shown in 2019.
Michael Apted Michael David Apted, (10 February 1941 – 7 January 2021) was a British television and film director and producer. Apted began working in television and directed the '' Up'' documentary series (1964–2019). He later directed '' Coal Miner's ...
directed most episodes; parallel series have also started in South Africa, the US and Russia. More recent current affairs series on other channels, such as the Donal MacIntyre, MacIntyre series on
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and Five (channel), Five, and Channel 4's ''Dispatches (TV series), Dispatches'', commissioned by Dorothy Byrne, a former ''WIA'' producer, may be seen as having inherited certain aspects of ''World in Actions hard-hitting journalistic style.


''World in Action'' and popular culture

One of the programme's hallmarks was its willingness to embrace popular culture, at a time when its competitors preferred a more highbrow approach. One of the very earliest editions reported on overspending at the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), Ministry of Defence in the style of a contemporary gameshow, ''Beat The Clock''. The programme was so controversial it was banned from being shown on
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
by the then regulatory body, the
Independent Television Authority The Independent Television Authority (ITA) was an agency created by the Television Act 1954 to supervise the creation of "Independent Television" (ITV (TV network), ITV), the first commercial television network in the United Kingdom. The ITA exi ...
(ITA); instead, 10 minutes of it were shown on the BBC as an act of journalistic solidarity. The gameshow device re-emerged in 1989, when an academic study of the uptake of tax-funded social welfare provision, benefits by the middle-class was transformed into a mock quiz show named ''Spongers'', fronted by a well-known star of game formats, Nicholas Parsons. Popular music played a significant role in ''WIA's'' history. An early edition, in 1966, carried a fly-on-the-wall account of daily life aboard one of the then pirate radio ships, Radio Caroline, at a time when the British government was determined to preserve the radio monopoly of the BBC by driving the "pirates" off the air. In 1964 WIA covered the launch of the second pirate radio ship, Radio Atlanta, by putting a film crew on board the radio ship as she sailed into position. After the offshore radio ships were outlawed, only Radio Caroline's two ships continued, so WIA visited one of the ships in September 1967. The British Government were furious and banned the World in Action camera crew from sailing back into the UK at Felixstowe just a few miles away, forcing them to sail to Holland and then fly back to the UK. The long-running intermittent ''Seven Up!'' series of TV films, which in due course spanned decades, was first broadcast from 1964 as part of ''World in Action''. By its intimate technique of filming the everyday lives of children and interviewing them, a different picture of life in Britain was formed. In 1967, a young researcher named
John Birt John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944) is a British television executive and businessman. He is a former Director-General (1992–2000) of the BBC. After a successful career in commercial television, initially at Granada Television an ...
established his early reputation by persuading the rock star
Mick Jagger Sir Michael Philip Jagger (born 26 July 1943) is an English singer and songwriter who has achieved international fame as the lead vocalist and one of the founder members of the rock band the Rolling Stones. His ongoing songwriting partnershi ...
to appear on ''World in Action'' to debate youth culture and his recent drug conviction, with Establishment figures, including William Rees-Mogg of ''The Times'', who had written a famous editorial defending the singer. Jagger so enjoyed the experience that he invited the Granada team to film The Rolling Stones at the band's free 1969 concert in Hyde Park, London. The resulting film, ''The Stones in the Park'', was one of the iconic concert films of the 1960s. John Birt moved on to edit ''World in Action'', and eventually became the Director General of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. The rise of Thatcherism and the misery of mass unemployment saw ''WIA'' examining the phenomenon through the eyes of another emerging band, UB40, in ''A Statistic, A Reminder'' (1981), a line taken from one of the band's songs. Six years later, a special edition of the programme was devoted to the Irish rock band U2 and their charismatic front man Bono. Like The Rolling Stones before them, U2 allowed ''World in Action'' to film one of their classic concerts in 1987 in Ireland. This footage, shot by the future Hollywood director
Paul Greengrass Paul Greengrass (born 13 August 1955) is a British film director, film producer, screenwriter and former journalist. He specialises in dramatisations of historic events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras. His early film ' ...
, was shown only once on ITV because of copyright restrictions although it has circulated among fans as a bootleg recording, bootleg. In 1983, Stevie Wonder, at the height of his popularity, gave the programme a musical exclusive when he agreed to let a ''World in Action'' crew record him performing an unreleased song, written to help the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic politician Jesse Jackson's electioneering, for ''The Race Against Reagan''. Another popular singer, Sting (musician), Sting, appeared in a more critical ''World in Action'' episode, which questioned the effectiveness of his Rainforest Foundation Fund, Rainforest Foundation. In August 1980 the series devoted an edition to the story behind chart rigging – an ongoing practice where record companies were bribing the British chart compilers to put certain artists' singles higher in the charts than they actually were. Singles mentioned on the programme included several UK number one hits of the previous 12 months. Perhaps the most bruising encounter between ''WIA'' and popular entertainment was the 1995 film "Black and Blue" which featured a covert recording of a performance by the comedian Bernard Manning as the star of a charity function organised by the Manchester branch of the Police Federation of England and Wales, Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers. Manning's racist and homophobic performance, loudly applauded by those present, caused outrage when ''WIA'' broadcast excerpts, sparking an intense debate about the willingness of British police officers to embrace a Diversity (politics), diverse culture. The former ''WIA'' editor Steve Boulton revealed during a 2013 ITV documentary about ''World in Action'' that the covert recording had been made by a fellow speaker at the function, the former Liverpool Militant (Trotskyist group), Militant politician Derek Hatton, himself a previous target of a ''World in Action'' investigation. Hatton used a miniature cassette recorder concealed in Boulton's own Filofax.


Leading contributors


Journalists

''World in Action'' employed many leading journalists, among them John Pilger;
Michael Parkinson Sir Michael Parkinson (born 28 March 1935) is an English broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his television talk show '' Parkinson'' from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other talk shows and programmes both in the U ...
; Gordon Burns (television), Gordon Burns; Rob Rohrer; Nick Davies, Ed Vulliamy and David Leigh (journalist), David Leigh of the ''Guardian''; Alasdair Palmer of the ''Sunday Telegraph''; John Ware, BBC ''Panorama (TV series), Panoramas leading investigative reporter; Tony Wilson, whose second career as a music impresario was immortalised in the feature film ''24 Hour Party People''; Michael Gillard, creator of the ''Slicker'' business pages in the satirical magazine ''Private Eye'';
Donal MacIntyre Donal MacIntyre (born 25 January 1966) is an Irish investigative journalist, specialising in investigations, undercover operations and television exposés. He has also worked as a presenter of both television news and documentaries on various U ...
; the writer Mark Hollingsworth; Quentin McDermott, since 1999 a leading investigative reporter for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; Tony Watson, editor of the ''Yorkshire Post'' for 13 years and editor-in-chief of the Press Association from December 2006; and Andrew Jennings, author of ''Lords of the Rings'' and ''The Dirty Game'', who has campaigned vigorously for more than a decade against corruption in international sport. Two former ''World in Action'' journalists uncovered one of the biggest broadcasting scandals of the 1990s. Laurie Flynn, a central figure in the British Steel papers case, and Michael Sean Gillard revealed that large parts of a 1996 Carlton Television documentary, ''The Connection'', about drug trafficking from Colombia, had been fabricated. Flynn and Gillard's exposé in the ''Guardian'' in May 1998 led to an inquiry and a record £2 million fine for Carlton from the then regulator, the Independent Television Commission (ITC), as well as provoking a passionate debate about truthfulness in broadcast journalism.


Presenters

Unusually for a current affairs programme, ''WIA's'' standard format was as a voice-over documentary without a regular reporter although a handful of ''WIA'' journalists did appear in front of camera, including Chris Kelly (TV presenter), Chris Kelly, Gordon Burns (television), Gordon Burns, John Pilger, Gus Macdonald, Nick Davies,
Adam Holloway Adam James Harold Holloway (born 29 July 1965) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gravesham since 2005. He served as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from September to October 2022, and as A ...
, Stuart Prebble (who later became the programme's editor), Mike Walsh, David Taylor,
Donal MacIntyre Donal MacIntyre (born 25 January 1966) is an Irish investigative journalist, specialising in investigations, undercover operations and television exposés. He has also worked as a presenter of both television news and documentaries on various U ...
and Granada Reports journalist and Factory Records supremo Tony Wilson who became the show's first in-vision anchor in the early 80s. Guest presenters were used on rare occasions, among them Jonathan Dimbleby, Sandy Gall, Martyn Gregory, Sue Lawley and Lynn Faulds Wood. Perhaps its most celebrated guest presenter was the distinguished American anchorman Walter Cronkite, who came out of retirement to cover the 1983 United Kingdom general election, 1983 UK general election for the series. A small group of narrators delivered the vast majority of ''WIA's'' voice-overs. The two original narrators were Derek Cooper (journalist), Derek Cooper, later to become well known as a broadcaster and writer about food, and Wilfrid Thomas. The science presenter James Burke (science historian), James Burke did a number of commentaries on early editions of the programme. Other major contributors included
David Plowright David Ernest Plowright (11 December 1930 – 24 August 2006) was a British television executive and producer. Life Plowright was educated at Scunthorpe Grammar School. He began his career in journalism as a reporter on the ''Scunthorpe Sta ...
, Chris Kelly (TV presenter), Chris Kelly, Jim Pope, Philip Tibenham and Andrew Brittain. Among the guest narrators who contributed occasional commentaries were the popular actors Robert Lindsay (actor), Robert Lindsay and Jean Boht.


Producer-directors

The series was known for its gritty visual style, almost always shot on location, and a number of its producer-directors went on to work on major film projects. Those working on the series in its early years included
Michael Apted Michael David Apted, (10 February 1941 – 7 January 2021) was a British television and film director and producer. Apted began working in television and directed the '' Up'' documentary series (1964–2019). He later directed '' Coal Miner's ...
, later to direct ''Coal Miner's Daughter (film), Coal Miner's Daughter'', ''Gorillas in the Mist'' and the James Bond film ''The World Is Not Enough'', as well as the ''Up Series'' documentaries (the earliest programmes were part of the ''WIA'' series), and Mike Hodges, who went on to direct ''Get Carter'' and ''Flash Gordon (film), Flash Gordon''. Director John Goldschmidt made several films for the series in the early 1970s. Later,
Paul Greengrass Paul Greengrass (born 13 August 1955) is a British film director, film producer, screenwriter and former journalist. He specialises in dramatisations of historic events and is known for his signature use of hand-held cameras. His early film ' ...
, director of the feature films ''United 93 (film), United 93'', ''The Bourne Supremacy'' and ''The Bourne Ultimatum (film), The Bourne Ultimatum'' and of the drama-documentaries ''Bloody Sunday (TV drama), Bloody Sunday'' and ''The Murder of Stephen Lawrence'', cut his directing teeth on ''World in Action''. Leslie Woodhead, director of ''The Stones in the Park'', the award-winning ''A Cry From The Grave'', many ''Disappearing World (TV series), Disappearing World'' films and also regarded by many as a founder of the docudrama, drama-documentary movement, worked on ''World in Action'' for many years as a producer-director and executive. Long-time ''World in Action'' alumni who went on to direct and produce Granada's international award-winning ''Disappearing World'' films include Brian Moser, its instigator and original producer, and Charlie Nairn. Among the more recent generation of film-makers to emerge from ''World in Action'' were Alex Holmes, who became editor of the BBC2 documentary strand ''Modern Times'' and went on to write and direct the Bafta-winning dramatised documentary series ''Dunkirk'' for the BBC and ''House of Saddam'' for the BBC and HBO; and Katy Jones, a former ''WIA'' producer who became a key collaborator with the screenwriter Jimmy McGovern as a producer on the drama-documentaries ''Hillsborough disaster, Hillsborough'' (1996) and ''Sunday (2002 film), Sunday'' (2002).


Broadcasters

''WIA'' was a starting point for several key programme-makers who went on to major roles in British broadcasting.
John Birt John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944) is a British television executive and businessman. He is a former Director-General (1992–2000) of the BBC. After a successful career in commercial television, initially at Granada Television an ...
became Director General of the BBC, having been programme controller of the ITV station London Weekend Television, where he created the current affairs flagship, ''
Weekend World ''Weekend World'' is a British television political series, made by London Weekend Television (LWT) and broadcast from 1972 to 1988. Created by John Birt, not long after he had joined LWT, the series was broadcast on the ITV network at midday ...
''. Several ''WIA'' staffers were promoted to significant roles in Granada Television, among them
David Plowright David Ernest Plowright (11 December 1930 – 24 August 2006) was a British television executive and producer. Life Plowright was educated at Scunthorpe Grammar School. He began his career in journalism as a reporter on the ''Scunthorpe Sta ...
, who became its chairman and later went on to become deputy chairman of Channel 4. Steve Morrison became chief executive at Granada.
Gus Macdonald Gus is a masculine name, often a diminutive for Angus, August, Augustine, or Augustus, and other names (e.g. Aengus, Argus, Fergus, Ghassan, Gustav, Gustave, Gustafson, Gustavo, Gussie). It can also be used as the adaptation into English of t ...
held the same role at another ITV franchise,
Scottish Television Scottish Television (now, legally, known as STV Central Limited) is the ITV network franchisee for Central Scotland. The channel — the largest of the three ITV franchises in Scotland — has been in operation since 31 August 1957 and is the ...
. Stuart Prebble, a former editor, became chief executive of ITV, and Steve Anderson became head of news and current affairs for that channel. Both have since moved on to the independent production industry. Ian McBride, who led the team which made the
Birmingham Six The Birmingham Six were six Irishmen who were each sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 following their false convictions for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. Their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory and quashed by the C ...
programmes, became managing editor of Granada TV, and was director of compliance for ITV until 2008. Dianne Nelmes, who worked as a researcher and executive producer of ''WIA'', was the founding editor of Granada TV's hugely successful ''This Morning with Richard and Judy'' and went on to head daytime and factual programmes at ITV. Dorothy Byrne, a former ''WIA'' producer, went on to become head of news and current affairs at Channel 4. Julian Bellamy, who worked as a young researcher on one of ''WIA's'' last big foreign investigations – about weapon, arms deals between Britain and Indonesia – later headed Channel 4's entertainment channel E4 (channel), E4 and was programme controller of the BBC digital channel BBC Three before re-joining Channel 4 as its head of programming from 2007 to 2011. In 2012, Bellamy was appointed creative director of Discovery International.


TV production companies

A number of ''WIA'' veterans went on to set up and run their own independent television production companies. John Smithson and David Darlow (film producer), David Darlow, who set up the production company Darlow Smithson, responsible for the feature films ''Touching the Void (film), Touching the Void'' and ''Deep Water'' and many factual TV programmes including ''Survival in the Sky, Black Box'' and ''The Falling Man'', worked together on ''WIA''. Claudia Milne founded twentytwenty TV, which made a successful current affairs strand for ITV, ''The Big Story'', as well as popular factual series such as ''Bad Boys' Army on ITV and ''That'll Teach 'Em'' on Channel 4. Brian Lapping set up the much-garlanded Brook Lapping company, which made ''The Death of Yugoslavia'' and many other landmark contemporary history programmes. Stuart Prebble, a former editor of ''World in Action'', runs Liberty Bell, best known for the popular ''Grumpy Old Men (TV show), Grumpy Old Men'' series on the BBC. Another former editor, Steve Boulton, started an eponymous company, which made ''Young, Nazi & Proud'', a Bafta-winning profile of the young British National Party activist Mark Collett. Simon Albury went on to lead the Campaign for Quality Television and was a founder director of the ITV company ITV Meridian, Meridian Broadcasting. One of the biggest British independent production companies is All 3 Media, which controls several other leading companies, including Lime Pictures, formerly Mersey Television, makers of ''Hollyoaks''. It is run by Steve Morrison, a former ''WIA'' producer.


Political connections

Although in its early days ''World in Action'' was reputed never to employ anyone who was on first-name terms with any politician, a number of subsequent British Member of Parliament, parliamentarians have ''World in Action'' on their curriculum vitae, curricula vitae. The most recent is the Conservative MP
Adam Holloway Adam James Harold Holloway (born 29 July 1965) is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for Gravesham since 2005. He served as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from September to October 2022, and as A ...
, elected to the British House of Commons, House of Commons in 2005. The former British
cabinet minister A minister is a politician who heads a ministry, making and implementing decisions on policies in conjunction with the other ministers. In some jurisdictions the head of government is also a minister and is designated the ‘prime minister’, ...
Jack Straw worked on ''World in Action'' as a researcher, as did Margaret Beckett who served as Tony Blair's last Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Foreign Secretary. Chris Mullin (politician), Chris Mullin, Labour MP for Sunderland South (UK Parliament constituency), Sunderland South from 1987 to 2010, played a major role in the programme's campaign on behalf of the
Birmingham Six The Birmingham Six were six Irishmen who were each sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 following their false convictions for the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings. Their convictions were declared unsafe and unsatisfactory and quashed by the C ...
.
Gus Macdonald Gus is a masculine name, often a diminutive for Angus, August, Augustine, or Augustus, and other names (e.g. Aengus, Argus, Fergus, Ghassan, Gustav, Gustave, Gustafson, Gustavo, Gussie). It can also be used as the adaptation into English of t ...
, now Baron Macdonald of Tradeston, and from 1998 to 2003 a government minister, was formerly an executive on the programme.
John Birt John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944) is a British television executive and businessman. He is a former Director-General (1992–2000) of the BBC. After a successful career in commercial television, initially at Granada Television an ...
(by then ennobled as Baron Birt), was personal adviser to the British Prime Minister Tony Blair between 2001 and 2005.


Editors

Editors of the programme (sometimes with the title of executive producer) were, successively,
Tim Hewat Timothy Edward Patterson Hewat (4 May 1928 – 19 May 2004) was an Australian television producer and journalist. He has been described as the "maverick genius of Granada TV, Granada television's current affairs in its formative years" and "one of ...
, Derek Granger, Alex Valentine,
David Plowright David Ernest Plowright (11 December 1930 – 24 August 2006) was a British television executive and producer. Life Plowright was educated at Scunthorpe Grammar School. He began his career in journalism as a reporter on the ''Scunthorpe Sta ...
, Jeremy Wallington, Leslie Woodhead,
John Birt John Birt, Baron Birt (born 10 December 1944) is a British television executive and businessman. He is a former Director-General (1992–2000) of the BBC. After a successful career in commercial television, initially at Granada Television an ...
, Gus Macdonald, David Boulton, Brian Lapping, Ray Fitzwalter, Allan Segal, David Cresswell, Stuart Prebble, Nick Hayes, Dianne Nelmes, Charles Tremayne, Steve Boulton and Jeff Anderson. Anderson also became editor of ''World in Action's'' replacement ''
Tonight Tonight may refer to: Television * ''Tonight'' (1957 TV programme), a 1957–1965 British current events television programme hosted by Cliff Michelmore that was broadcast on BBC * ''Tonight'' (1975 TV programme), a 1975–1979 British current ...
'', before becoming head of current affairs at ITV in 2006. Mike Lewis, a former ''WIA'' producer, was appointed editor of ''Tonight'' in October 2006.


Academic connections

Professor Brian Winston, Pro-Vice Chancellor (External Relations) at the University of Lincoln, who has also held leading posts at the Universities of University of Westminster, Westminster, Cardiff University, Cardiff, Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania State and New York University, New York, was a researcher and producer in the early series of ''World in Action''. Ray Fitzwalter, ''WIA's'' longest-serving editor and the man behind the ground-breaking
Poulson Poulson may refer to: * Poulson (surname) * Poulson, Virginia * Poulson (processor), the codename of Intel's Itanium 9500 processor series See also * Polson (disambiguation) * Poulsen, a surname {{disambiguation ...
investigations, became a visiting fellow at the University of Salford School of Media, Music and Performance. The late Gavin MacFadyen, who worked on early series of ''World in Action'' as a producer-director, best known for his under-cover human rights films, became a visiting professor at City University London, City University in 2005. He was also director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism. David Leigh (journalist), David Leigh, who made ''Jonathan of Arabia'', the film which provoked
Jonathan Aitken Jonathan William Patrick Aitken (born 30 August 1942) is a British author, Church of England priest, former prisoner and former Conservative Party politician. Beginning his career in journalism, he was elected to Parliament in 1974 (serving unt ...
's self-destructive libel action, was made Britain's first professor of reporting at City University, London, in September 2006.


Camerawork

Although a great many director/producers, journalists and editors passed through the programme, one camera operator, cameraman played an overwhelming role in shaping the appeal of the series. George Jesse Turner served on the programme from 1966 until its end. By his own count, he shot the principal footage for some 600 of its 1,400 editions, as well as filming all of Michael Apted's documentaries in the ''Seven Up!'' series. Turner was shot himself – in the backside – by an Israeli bullet while filming a clash between Fatah guerrillas and the Israeli Army in 1969. Shortly before he retired from Granada, Turner was honoured by Bafta in 1999 for his work as a documentary cameraman. Among the many cameramen who also contributed to ''WIA'' was Chris Menges, who went on to become a distinguished cinematographer – ''Kes (film), Kes'', ''The Killing Fields (film), The Killing Fields'' and ''The Mission (1986 film), The Mission'' are among his credits – and a film director in his own right, on features such as ''A World Apart (film), A World Apart''.


Title sequence

Early series were introduced by composer Laurie Johnson's track 'Private Eye', but the series is perhaps best remembered for the distinctive title sequence created by John Sheppard in the late 1960s, combining the image of Leonardo da Vinci, da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man'' with a musical score of a modern Classical Music structure (inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach, Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565, Toccata and Fugues), in a descending series of organ (music), organ and acoustic guitar chord (music), chords combined with a Jazz, Jazz Music rhythm. The score was given the working-title of ''Jam for World in Action'', and has been credited variously to Jonathon Weston or to Shawn Phillips. The English musician Mick Weaver also claims to have jointly authored the score with Phillips.Statement by Mick Weaver on Youtube, September 2016 via the 'Mick Weaver' channel: 'Any comment about the 'World in Action' theme being written by Shawn Phillips, is utter bullshit. I played the B3 Organ parts over a descending chord progression that Phillips came up with. It was a 50/50 collaboration between he and I, and I am utterly pissed off with this charlatan claiming or being credited with having 'created' the entire thing. What happened was that Shawn came to me and said that he had been asked to compose some theme music for a T.V. programme, and that he had come up with a chord progression, but needed help with putting some melody lines to it, and asking would I be interested in collaborating with him to complete it. So, I came up with some vaguely 'Bachish' melody lines and we spent an evening in Trident Studios in Wardour Street, London, recording several segments of varying lengths of my melody lines with Shawn's chord progression. We were told by the Granada people, some of whom attended the recording sessions, that the music would become the property of Granada, and that we would be paid Musician's Union scale session fees for the evening's work, which at the time was £9 per hour. Not only has my contribution to this music (not to imply that the stuff is a work of magnificent art) never been acknowledged, but I never even received the session fees. Not only that, I had to take the tube to Piccadilly Circus to get to the studio, and was never reimbursed, so, as well as never having been credited, financially or otherwise with my participation in the project, I am down the f-ing tube fare. I was young and easily conned in those days, but to be worked over by a fellow musician is especially galling ...' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95qLDc7zwYY The track was covered by Matt Berry in 2018 on his album ''Television Themes''.


Books and articles

*Jonathan Aitken (2003), ''Pride and Perjury'', London: Continuum International Publishing Group – Academi. *Ray Fitzwalter (2008), ''The Dream That Died: The Rise And Fall Of ITV'', London: Matador. *Ray Fitzwalter, David Taylor (1981), ''Web of Corruption: The Story of J. G. L. Poulson and T. Dan Smith'', London: Granada. *Denis Forman (1997), ''Persona Granada'', London: Andre Deutsch *Peter Goddard (2004), 'World in Action', in Glen Creeber (ed.), ''Fifty Key Television Programmes'', London: Arnold. *Peter Goddard (2006), '"Improper liberties": Regulating undercover journalism on ITV, 1967–1980', ''Journalism'', 7(1): 45–63. *Peter Goddard, John Corner and Kay Richardson (2001), 'The formation of World in Action: A case study in the history of current affairs journalism', ''Journalism'', 2(1): 73–90. *Peter Goddard, John Corner and Kay Richardson (2007), ''Public Issue Television: World in Action 1963–98'', Manchester: Manchester University Press. *Luke Harding, David Leigh and David Pallister (1997), ''The Liar: The Fall of Jonathan Aitken'', London: Penguin Books Ltd. *Jonathan Margolis (1996), ''Bernard Manning'', London: Orion Books *Chris Mullin (1990), ''Error of Judgement: Birmingham Bombings'', Dublin: Poolbeg Press. *George Jesse Turner, Jeff Anderson (2000), ''Trouble Shooter: Life Through The Lens of World in Action's Top Cameraman'', London: Granada Media.


See also

* ''Unreported World'', another current affairs program, broadcast on Channel 4.


Notes


Notes


External links


Ray Fitzwalter on ''World in Action'', Centre for Investigative Journalism, London, March 2011

British Film Institute database of ''World In Action'' programmes






* [http://www.networkdvd.net/product_info.php?products_id=551 Network DVD – ''World in Action Vol. 1'']
Nostalgia Central – The ''World in Action'' 1963 to 1998



World Socialist Website – 14 March 1998


* [http://www.rts.org.uk/Info_page_two_pic_2_det.asp?art_id=7152&sec_id=3292 'Scandal at the regulator' (''World in Action'' and the Poulson affair)] * {{IMDb title, id=0181269, title=World in Action 1960s British documentary television series 1970s British documentary television series 1980s British documentary television series 1990s British documentary television series 1963 British television series debuts 1998 British television series endings ITV documentaries Television series by ITV Studios British television news shows Current affairs shows Television shows produced by Granada Television English-language television shows