Yesterday's Men (documentary)

''Yesterday's Men'' is a British documentary shown in the '' 24 Hours'' series (BBC 1) Sources vary as to whether the programme was shown on 16 or 17 June. on 17 June 1971. The programme is remembered for provoking a major clash between the Labour Party and the BBC. According to Anthony Smith, the editor of ''24 Hours'' at the time, the film led to "the biggest and most furious row that a television programme in the English language has ever provoked."

Documentary

The History of the BBC section of corporation's website asserts on its page on the ''Yesterday's Men'' controversy: "Straight-dealing is one of the principles of BBC programme making, but it has not always been followed." The programme makers reversed the slogan the Labour Party had used in the 1970 general election against the Conservatives (who won) to apply to the members of the former Labour government now in opposition. As far as they knew the programme's title was "Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition", rather than the real title of the programme was not disclosed to participants. Nor were they informed that it would feature a satirical song with this title commissioned from The Scaffold pop group. Wilson and his colleagues "were effectively tricked into taking part in a programme that would ridicule them" according to the BBC's own account. Normal procedure would have been to refer the matter of the song upwards in the management hierarchy, but this was not done.

The objective of the programme, the idea of David Dimbleby, was to analyse the first year in opposition of the Labour Party after their six years in government under Harold Wilson. The historian Jon Lawrence has commented though that "the programme was widely viewed as a deliberate attempt to undermine the folksy, down-to-earth image of Wilson and his fellow Labour ex-ministers by presenting them as driven above all by money and personal ambition." The tone was found to be objectionable by Labour, particularly as a companion film on Edward Heath and his Conservative government broadcast the following evening ''Mr Heath's Quiet Revolution'' was thought to be much more positive.

During Wilson's interview in his room at the House of Commons, reporter David Dimbleby asked him to reveal the precise fee he had been paid by ''The Sunday Times'' for the serialisation rights of his memoirs of the government's period in office. This, plus the accusation that he might have profited from his access to secret government papers, led to a heated exchange between them. According to press secretary Joe Haines, questions about Wilson's book were excluded from the agreement with the production team, although this detail was disputed at the time. This portion of the interview was not transmitted, but despite threats from Wilson, the transcript was soon leaked. "Inadvertently it seemed, we’d stumbled upon this legal tax avoidance scheme," Dimbleby said in 2013. According to him, as a first-time author Wilson had been paid a small fee by his publisher, with the result that his royalties would be tax-free.

In addition to Wilson, the documentary features interviews with former cabinet ministers such as James Callaghan, Roy Jenkins and Denis Healey and Barbara Castle. Future prime minister (and Wilson's eventual successor) Callaghan is thought to be already too old for the job at almost 60. Jenkins tries to evade the question of whether—owing to his positive view of entry into the European Economic Community (later the European Union)—he might ultimately lead a party faction in a split over the issue.

The political difficulties of being in opposition are discussed, including the problems implicit in opposing the Industrial Relations Bill when the Labour government had made its own attempt, with the "In Place of Strife" white paper, to change the legal framework under which industrial disputes should proceed. Callaghan, who had opposed "In Place of Strife", refuses to say whether it was appropriate for Castle to shadow her previous portfolio. Peter Jenkins, a journalist on ''The Guardian'', is interviewed about the political situation and comments about the leading figures.

Repercussions and responses

Haines complained about the documentary to Charles Curran, the BBC's director general, immediately after filming of the Wilson interview had concluded. Lord Goodman, Wilson's solicitor, explored the legal possibilities of gaining an injunction to prevent its broadcast which were not pursued. Shortly before transmission, Wilson asked the governors to intervene, and contrary to usual practice, the governor's chairman Lord Hill, and some of his colleagues, saw the programme before it went out. As Nick Robinson argues: "Instead of defending the management and inquiring afterwards into whether they'd carried out their jobs properly, the governors had taken over editorial control at the prompting of a political leader."

In response to the decision over not transmitting the question about Wilson's memoirs, Dimbleby and director-producer Angela Pope had their names removed from the credits. Journalist Robert Kee thought at the time that the programme was "a vulgarly brilliant equivalent of the newspaper cartoon" and that it was "the duty of a healthy Fourth Estate to reflect some isrespect" According to Tony Benn in his diary, those responsible for the programme "knifed Harold as hard as they could."

In an internal contemporary memo, John Crawley, assistant to Charles Curran, thought "the title and the commissioned song ... avethe programme the flavour of malice that ruined it." Later in 1971, the governors issued a partial apology for the film, and a BBC Programmes Complaints Commission was established in October. Subsequently, Dimbleby detected a "rather hideous softening" in the way politicians were questioned, and BBC–Labour relations took time to return to normal. The Annan Committee Report in 1977 commented that the controversy had led to "caution, lack of direction, touchiness and unsteadiness" at the BBC.Robinson, ''Live From Downing Street'', p. 206

John Simpson, reflecting in 2010, wrote that while the programme was "clever and funny", it was also "distinctly shallow, poking its finger into the eye of authority merely for the sake of it." The Corporation agreed not to show the film again during Wilson's lifetime, and it was not screened until a ''Harold Wilson Night'' on the BBC Parliament channel in 2013 commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of Wilson becoming Labour leader.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yesterday's Men
1971 controversies
1971 in British television
BBC controversies
BBC television documentaries
British television documentaries
BBC television documentaries about politics