Synopses & Reviews
The very idea of 'public service' came under fierce attack in the Thatcherite 1980s. This book takes the two key services, broadcasting and the NHS, and traces the heated debates and political pressures which radically transformed them both. It points to the parallels between them, and describes issues of health, sickness and the provision of medical care as they were reflected in the radio and television output. Across a wide range of programming, from popular drama to investigative journalism, the book captures the mood of the decade as it traces the politics of the NHS, from the Winter of Discontent to the Aids crisis; and the politics of broadcasting, from the coming of Channel Four to the increasing government attacks on the BBC. Concluding in 1990 with two pivotal Acts of Parliament, Broadcasting and the NHS in the Thatcherite 1980s traces the roots of the present crisis in the public services.
Review
To come
Review
'In a period in which the neo-liberal assault by all the three major political parties in the UK on the post-1945 welfare settlement has intensified, this book provides valuable insights into the relationship between politics, health and broadcasting in the 1980s when this process was set in motion. It is a serious and thoughtful engagement with the complex relationships that exist between broadcasting and society and deserves a wide readership.' - Professor Tom O'Malley, Aberystwyth University, UK
Synopsis
Patricia Holland offers a fascinating study of the ways in which changes to public services, and shifts in the concept of 'the public' under Margaret Thatcher's three Conservative governments, were mediated by radio and television in the 1980s.
About the Author
Patricia Holland is a writer, lecturer and researcher specialising in television, photography and popular imagery. She has many publications in these fields, including The Television Handbook (2000) and The Angry Buzz: 'This Week' and Current Affairs Television (2006). She is currently a lecturer at Bournemouth University, UK, and has previously worked as an independent filmmaker, a community bookseller, a television editor and a freelance journalist.
Table of Contents
Prologue: Echoes of the 1980s
Introduction: Thatcherism, the Public and Writing Broadcasting History
PART I: PROGRAMMES AND CHRONOLOGY 1927 - 1970
1. Myths of Origin: Public Service or the Road to Serfdom?
PART II: PROGRAMMES AND CHRONOLOGY 1970 - 1980
2. Freedom and the Public: Campaigner, Participant, Consumer
3. Broadcasting into the 1980s
PART III: PROGRAMMES AND CHRONOLOGY 1979 - 1983
4. Restructuring Social Class
5. From Needs to Wants: Restructuring Audiences, Restructuring Patients
6. Your Life in Whose Hands? Restructuring Professionals
PART IV: PROGRAMMES AND CHRONOLOGY 1983 - 1987
7. The Third Age and the Fresh Winds of Market Forces: Restructuring Broadcasting
8 Griffiths, Peacock and Restructuring Public Service
9. Aids and 'the public' at Risk
PART V: PROGRAMMES AND CHRONOLOGY 1986 - 1990
10. Who's the Casualty? Popular Programmes
11. The NHS and Third Term Politics
12. 'Quality' and the Broadcasting White Paper
Postscript: Public Service or Kitemark?