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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 (TV network), 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 on weekdays only, as ABC Weekend TV, ...
for ITV 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 of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...
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', ' p ...
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 of offenders, preventing other ...
system, including the Birmingham Six, were released from jail. Honouring the programme in its 50th anniversary awards the Political Studies Association 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 musician. He is known as the lead singer and one of the founder members of The Rolling Stones. Jagger has co-written most of the band's songs with lead guitarist Keith Richards; Jagge ...
and senior British establishment figures, in which the rock star and his retinue were flown by helicopter onto the lawn of a
stately home 300px, Oxfordshire.html" ;"title="Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire">Blenheim Palace - Oxfordshire 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 To ...
, was engineered by then ''World in Action'' researcher and future BBC Director-General John Birt. Decades later, Birt himself described it as "one of the iconic moments of the Sixties." Soon after she became Conservative Party leader,
Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013), was a British stateswoman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of th ...
was said to have told the BBC Director-General, Sir Ian Trethowan, that she considered ''World in Action'' to consist of "just a lot of Trots. ''
Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...
'', 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 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
said in November 2011 that a decline in the pool of investigative journalism had occurred 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 Network in its first 50 years. Along with '' This Week'', '' Weekend World'', ''TV Eye'', '' First Tuesday'', ''The Big Story'', and ''
The Cook Report ''The Cook Report'' was a British current affairs television programme, produced by ITV Central, Central Independent Television for ITV (TV network), ITV. It was presented by Roger Cook (journalist), Roger Cook which was broadcast from 22 July ...
'' – and the news-gathering of
ITN Independent Television News (ITN) is a UK-based media production and broadcast journalism company. ITN is based in London, with bureaux and offices in Beijing, Brussels, Jerusalem, Johannesburg, New York City, New York, Paris, Sydney and Washin ...
– ''World in Action'' gave ITV a reputation for quality broadcast journalism to rival the
BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
'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, 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, "the maverick genius of Granada's current affairs in its formative years", and David Plowright, but also Jeremy Isaacs,
Michael Parkinson Sir Michael Parkinson (28 March 1935 – 16 August 2023) was an English television presenter, broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his television talk show '' Parkinson'' from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other ta ...
, John Birt, and Gus Macdonald and its most long-serving executive producer, Ray Fitzwalter. The series developed the skills of generations of journalists, and in particular, filmmakers.
Michael Apted Michael David Apted (10 February 1941 – 7 January 2021) was an English television and film director and producer. Apted began working in television and directed the ''Up (film series), Up'' documentary series from 1970 to 2019). He later di ...
worked on the original '' Seven Up!''. Paul Greengrass, 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 Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'': "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, ''World in Actions "slamming into the subject of each edition without wordy prefaces from a reassuring host-figure" consistently gained a reputation for the kind of original journalism and filmmaking that made headlines and won major awards. In its time, the series was honoured by all of the major broadcasting awards, including many
BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
, 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 television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...
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, 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'' 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 multichannel TV in the UK. Eventually, ''World In Action'', too, was removed from the schedules by its own creator, Granada TV. 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 affair, corruption in the West Midlands Serious Crime Squad, the exposure of the shadowy and violent far-right group Combat 18, investigations into L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology, and most notably, a long campaign that resulted in the release from prison of the Birmingham Six, six Irishmen falsely accused of planting
Provisional Irish Republican Army The Provisional Irish Republican Army (Provisional IRA), officially known as the Irish Republican Army (IRA; ) and informally known as the Provos, was an Irish republican paramilitary force that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland ...
bombs in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...
pubs. ''World in Action's'' appetite for controversy created tension with the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA), the official regulator during most of the series's run, which had the power to intervene before broadcast. Sir Denis Forman, one of Granada's founders, wrote that "
trench warfare Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising Trench#Military engineering, military trenches, in which combatants are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from a ...
" existed between the programme and the industry regulator, the Independent Television Authority, 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 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 furor, which saw newspapers from the '' Sunday Times'' to the '' Socialist Worker'' 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, Louis Edwards. Edwards ran a wholesale butchery business that supplied schools in
Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...
; ''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 services, 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 Whistleblowing (also whistle-blowing or whistle blowing) is the activity of a person, often an employee, revealing information about activity within a private or public organization that is deemed illegal, immoral, illicit, unsafe, unethical or ...
from both
GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters (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 United Kingdom. Primar ...
, 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 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...
officer, Peter Wright. '' Spycatcher'', Wright's subsequent account of the period when his colleagues and he 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 – 23 May 1995) was a British statesman and Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, from 1964 to 1970 and again from 197 ...
. 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 Margaret Thatcher – with the assistance of the original programme's chief researcher, Paul Greengrass. 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 is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...
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 British Steel Corporation which was at the time locked in an industrial dispute with its workforce. In 1995, Susan O'Keeffe, 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 The meat industry are the people and companies engaged in modern industrialized livestock agriculture for the production, packing, preservation and marketing of meat (in contrast to dairy products, wool, etc.). In economics, the meat industry is ...
in two films in 1991, setting in motion a three-year Tribunal of Inquiry 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 case became a
cause célèbre A ( , ; pl. ''causes célèbres'', pronounced like the singular) is an issue or incident arousing widespread controversy, outside campaigning, and heated public debate. The term is sometimes used positively for celebrated legal cases for th ...
in the
Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...
, 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 co ...
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 a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...
cases. It won the first (along with ''The Guardian'') against the former
Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...
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', ' p ...
Jonathan Aitken, and lost the second, against the high street chain Marks & Spencer. 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 (; local dialects: , suʿūdiyyīn) or Saudi Arabians are the citizen population of the Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, who speak the Arabic language, a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language, and share a common Ancesto ...
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 Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...
village of Longnor to quit smoking, a forerunner of many of the popular-challenge documentaries that enjoyed success in the 21st-century reality-television boom. In 1984, ''World in Action'' caused a sensation by challenging a rising young Conservative Member of Parliament, Matthew Parris, 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, using techniques developed by Professor Max Atkinson. Eminent political commentator Sir Robin Day, covering the conference for BBC television, described Mrs Brennan's performance as " e 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's award-winning programmes in October 1996 on the
illegal drug trade The illegal drug trade, drug trafficking, or narcotrafficking is a global black market dedicated to the cultivation, manufacture, distribution and sale of drug prohibition, prohibited drugs. Most jurisdictions prohibitionism, prohibit trade, exce ...
, and the future Conservative MP Adam Holloway's disturbing reports on the reality of life among the
homeless Homelessness, also known as houselessness or being unhoused or unsheltered, is the condition of lacking stable, safe, and functional housing. It includes living on the streets, moving between temporary accommodation with family or friends, liv ...
in 1991. In 1998, ''World in Action'' took advantage of the new technology to equip an entire house with secret cameras hidden in places 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 also 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 an English television and film director and producer. Apted began working in television and directed the ''Up (film series), Up'' documentary series from 1970 to 2019). He later di ...
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 MacIntyre series on BBC and Five, and
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
's '' Dispatches'', commissioned by Dorothy Byrne, a former ''World in Action'' 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 earliest editions reported on overspending at the 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 by the then-regulatory body, the Independent Television Authority; 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 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 Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Allan Crawford, initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopol ...
, 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, the show 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 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 established his early reputation by persuading the rock star Mick Jagger 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 ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'', 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 The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...
at the band's free 1969 concert in
Hyde Park, London Hyde Park is a , historic Listed building#Heritage protection, Grade I-listed urban park in Westminster, Greater London. A Royal Parks of London, Royal Park, it is the largest of the parks and green spaces that form a chain from Kensington P ...
. 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. The rise of
Thatcherism Thatcherism is a form of British conservative ideology named after Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher that relates to not just her political platform and particular policies but also her personal character a ...
and the misery of mass unemployment had ''WIA'' examining the phenomenon through the eyes of another emerging band,
UB40 UB40 are an English reggae band, formed in December 1978 in Birmingham, England. The band has had more than 50 singles in the UK Singles Chart and has also achieved considerable international success. They have been nominated for the Grammy ...
, 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 Paul David Hewson (born 10 May 1960), known by the nickname Bono ( ), is an Irish singer-songwriter and activist. He is a founding member, the lead vocalist, and primary lyricist of the rock band U2. Bono is known for his impassioned voca ...
. 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 future Hollywood director Paul Greengrass, was shown only once on ITV because of
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...
restrictions, although it has circulated among fans as a bootleg. In 1983,
Stevie Wonder Stevland Hardaway Morris (; Judkins; born May 13, 1950), known professionally as Stevie Wonder, is an American and Ghanaian singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer. He is regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th c ...
, 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 Democratic politician Jesse Jackson's electioneering, for ''The Race Against Reagan''. Another popular singer, Sting, appeared in a more critical ''World in Action'' episode, which questioned the effectiveness of his 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 comedian
Bernard Manning Bernard John Manning (13 August 1930 – 18 June 2007) was an English comedian and nightclub owner. He gained a high profile on British television during the 1970s, appearing on shows such as '' The Comedians'' and '' The Wheeltappers and Shun ...
as the star of a charity function organised by the Manchester branch of the 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 diverse culture. 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, former Liverpool 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 (28 March 1935 – 16 August 2023) was an English television presenter, broadcaster, journalist and author. He presented his television talk show '' Parkinson'' from 1971 to 1982 and from 1998 to 2007, as well as other ta ...
; Gordon Burns; Nick Davies, Ed Vulliamy and David Leigh of the ''Guardian''; Alasdair Palmer of the '' Sunday Telegraph''; John Ware, BBC ''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; the writer Mark Hollingsworth; Quentin McDermott, since 1999 a leading investigative reporter for the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...
; 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 Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
, 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, 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 Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique used in radio, television, filmmaking, theatre, and other media in which a descriptive or expository voice that is not part of the narrative (i.e., non- ...
documentary without a regular reporter, although a handful of ''WIA'' journalists did appear in front of camera, including Chris Kelly, Gordon Burns, John Pilger, Gus Macdonald, Nick Davies, Adam Holloway, Stuart Prebble (who later became the programme's editor), Mike Walsh, David Taylor, Donal MacIntyre, and Granada Reports journalist and
Factory Records Factory Records was a Manchester-based British independent record label founded in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus. The label featured several important acts on its roster, including Joy Division, New Order (band), New Order, A Certain Ra ...
supremo Tony Wilson, who became the show's first in-vision anchor in the early 1980s. Guest presenters were used on rare occasions, among them Jonathan Dimbleby, Sandy Gall, Martyn Gregory, Sue Lawley, and
Lynn Faulds Wood Lynn Faulds Wood (25 March 1948 – 24 April 2020) was a Scottish television presenter and journalist. She co-presented the British television programme '' Watchdog'' with her husband John Stapleton. Early life and career Faulds Wood was born ...
. Perhaps its most celebrated guest presenter was distinguished American anchorman
Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' from 1962 to 1981. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trust ...
, who came out of retirement to cover the 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, later to become well known as a broadcaster and writer about food, and Wilfrid Thomas. The science presenter. James Burke, did a number of commentaries on early editions of the programme. Other major contributors included David Plowright, Chris Kelly, Jim Pope, Philip Tibenham, and Andrew Brittain. Among the guest narrators who contributed occasional commentaries were popular actors 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 an English television and film director and producer. Apted began working in television and directed the ''Up (film series), Up'' documentary series from 1970 to 2019). He later di ...
, later to direct '' Coal Miner's Daughter'', '' Gorillas in the Mist'', and the
James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...
film ''
The World Is Not Enough ''The World Is Not Enough'' is a 1999 spy film, the nineteenth in the List of James Bond films, ''James Bond'' series produced by Eon Productions and the third to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional Secret Intelligence Service, MI6 agent Jam ...
'', 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''. Director John Goldschmidt made several films for the series in the early 1970s. Later, Paul Greengrass, director of the feature films '' United 93'', '' The Bourne Supremacy'', and '' The Bourne Ultimatum'' and of the drama-documentaries '' 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'' films and also regarded by many as a founder of the 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 filmmakers to emerge from ''World in Action'' were Alex Holmes, who became editor of the
BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's second flagship channel, and it covers a wide range of subject matter, incorporating genres such as comedy, drama and ...
documentary strand ''Modern Times'' and went on to write and direct the
BAFTA The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
-winning dramatised documentary series ''Dunkirk'' for the BBC and ''
House of Saddam ''House of Saddam'' is a 2008 British docudrama television miniseries that charted the rise and fall of Saddam Hussein. A co-production between BBC Television and HBO Films, the series was first broadcast on BBC Two (in the United Kingdom) in f ...
'' for the BBC and
HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...
; and Katy Jones, a former ''WIA'' producer who became a key collaborator with the screenwriter
Jimmy McGovern James Stanley McGovern (born September 1949) is an English screenwriter and producer. He is best known for creating the drama series '' Cracker'' (1993–1995), for which he received two Edgar Awards from the Mystery Writers of America. He als ...
as a producer on the drama-documentaries '' Hillsborough'' (1996) and ''
Sunday Sunday (Latin: ''dies solis'' meaning "day of the sun") is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. Sunday is a Christian sabbath, day of rest in most Western countries and a part of the Workweek and weekend, weekend. In some Middle Ea ...
'' (2002).


Broadcasters

''WIA'' was a starting point for several key programme-makers who went on to major roles in British broadcasting. John Birt became director-general of the BBC, having been programme controller of the ITV station
London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT; now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00&nbs ...
, where he created the current-affairs flagship, '' Weekend World''. Several ''WIA'' staffers were promoted to significant roles in Granada Television, among them David Plowright, who became its chairman and later went on to become deputy chairman of
Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...
. Steve Morrison became chief executive at Granada. Gus Macdonald held the same role at another ITV franchise, Scottish Television. 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 that made the Birmingham Six 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
arms Arms or ARMS may refer to: *Arm or arms, the upper limbs of the body Arm, Arms, or ARMS may also refer to: People * Ida A. T. Arms (1856–1931), American missionary-educator, temperance leader Coat of arms or weapons *Armaments or weapons **Fi ...
deals between Britain and
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...
– later headed Channel 4's entertainment channel E4 and was programme controller of the BBC digital channel
BBC Three BBC Three is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was first launched on 9 February 2003 with programmes for a 16 to 34-year-old target aud ...
before rejoining 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, who set up the production company Darlow Smithson, responsible for the feature films '' Touching the Void'' and ''Deep Water'' and many factual TV programmes including '' 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'' series on the BBC. Another former editor, Steve Boulton, started an
eponymous An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...
company, which made ''Young, Nazi & Proud'', a
Bafta The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...
-winning profile of the young
British National Party The British National Party (BNP) is a Far-right politics, far-right, British fascism, fascist list of political parties in the United Kingdom, political party in the United Kingdom. It is headquartered in Wigton, Cumbria, and is led by Adam ...
activist Mark Collett. Simon Albury went on to lead the Campaign for Quality Television and was a founder director of the ITV company 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 ''Hollyoaks'' is a British soap opera which originally began airing on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was created by Phil Redmond, who had previously conceived the soap opera ''Brookside (TV series), Brookside''. From 2005 to 2023, episodes h ...
''. 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 parliamentarians have ''World in Action'' on their ''curricula vitae''. The most recent is the Conservative MP Adam Holloway, elected to the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...
in 2005. 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', ' p ...
Jack Straw worked on ''World in Action'' as a researcher, as did Margaret Beckett, who served as
Tony Blair Sir Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007. He was Leader ...
's last Foreign Secretary.
Chris Mullin Christopher Paul Mullin (born July 30, 1963) is an American former professional basketball player, executive and coach. He is a five time NBA All-Star and four time All-NBA Team member. He is also two-time Olympic Gold medalist and a two-time ...
, Labour MP for Sunderland South from 1987 to 2010, played a major role in the programme's campaign on behalf of the Birmingham Six. Gus Macdonald, now Baron Macdonald of Tradeston, and from 1998 to 2003 a government minister, was formerly an executive on the programme. John Birt (by then ennobled as Baron Birt), was personal adviser to 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, Derek Granger, Alex Valentine, David Plowright, Jeremy Wallington, Leslie Woodhead, John Birt, 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'', 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

Brian Winston, Pro-Vice Chancellor (External Relations) at the
University of Lincoln The University of Lincoln is a public university, public research university in Lincoln, England, Lincoln, England, with origins dating back to 1861. It gained university status in 1992 and its present name in 2001. The main campus is in the hea ...
, who has also held leading posts at the Universities of
Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
,
Cardiff Cardiff (; ) is the capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of Wales. Cardiff had a population of in and forms a Principal areas of Wales, principal area officially known as the City and County of Ca ...
, Pennsylvania State and 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 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 undercover human-rights films, became a visiting professor at City University in 2005. He was also director of the Centre for Investigative Journalism. David Leigh, who made ''Jonathan of Arabia'', the film which provoked Jonathan Aitken'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 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, and filmed 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'', '' The Killing Fields'', and '' The Mission'' are among his credits – and a film director for '' 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 da Vinci's '' Vitruvian Man'' with a musical score of a modern
classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...
structure (inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's Toccata and Fugues), in a descending series of organ and
acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...
chords combined with a
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
rhythm. The score was given the working title of "Jam for World in Action", and has been credited variously to Jonathon Weston or Shawn Phillips. English musician Mick Weaver also claims to have jointly authored the score with Phillips. 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


References


External links


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

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



* ttp://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


* ttp://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 1963 British television series debuts 1998 British television series endings 1960s British documentary television series 1970s British documentary television series 1980s British documentary television series 1990s British documentary television series ITV documentaries Television series by ITV Studios British television news shows Current affairs shows Television shows produced by Granada Television British English-language television shows BAFTA winners (television series)