There's No Such Thing as Society?
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BU symposium to revisit Margaret Thatchers legacy linked to broadcasting, the NHS and 'the public' |
Bournemouth University will host a ground-breaking symposium later this month which will focus on how the current crisis of public trust in the NHS and in public service broadcasting can be traced back to the Thatcher government of the 1980s.
“There’s no such thing as society? Broadcasting, the NHS and the public” is scheduled for Friday, 29 January at BU.
Researcher Pat Holland from BU’s Centre for Broadcasting Research has revisited archive TV and radio footage to explore the media’s reflection of Margaret Thatcher’s view that “there is no such thing as society”.
“It all began in the 1980s,” says Holland whose research is supported by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). “Margaret Thatcher did not believe in society and she did not believe in public services. Her far-reaching changes to broadcasting and the NHS continue to have a profound effect.
“Our research shows how the current crisis of public trust in the NHS and in public service broadcasting can be traced back to the 1980s,” Holland continues. “By looking at programmes from Panorama to Casualty, from Woman’s Hour to comedy and docu-soaps, we show how the programmes of the 1980s reflected the changing mood.”
The Symposium will consider the ways in which changes in policy were reflected by the broadcast media across the genres, and the ways in which a political project became part of the public discourse and popular culture.
These issues will be discussed by people who were affected by them at the time including Jonathan Powell, Controller of BBC1 from 1988, who commissioned Casualty when he was Head of Drama; Stephen Iliffe, currently Professor of Primary care for older people, and a GP in the 1980s; Ray Fitzwalter, Editor of World in Action in the 1980s, then head of current affairs at Granada TV; and Tony Stoller, Chief Executive of the Radio Authority in the 1990s.
The day-long Symposium will also hear from some of the people who made the relevant programmes of the day including Nick Gray, deviser and producer of ITV’s Jimmy’s; documentary maker Yvette Vanson; and Kevin Marsh Editor of the BBC College of Journalism and a news editor in the 1980s.
The Symposium will be preceded on Thursday, 28th January, with a Casualty evening featuring a screening of an episode of ITV’s This Week entitled Casualty which first aired in 1989. The programme follows a weekend in the accident and emergency department at Kings College Hospital in London. This will be followed by a screening of the first ever episode of the BBC’s long-running drama entitled Casualty which was launched in September of 1986.
If you would like more information or to reserve a place, please contact Patricia Holland via email at: p.holland76@googlemail.com
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- ‘There’s no such thing as society?’ programme
