Special night to honour service to Cliftonville not just about me: Jim Boyce
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Belfast Telegraph
14 hours ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Special night to honour service to Cliftonville not just about me: Jim Boyce
Boyce will be honoured at a 'This Is Your Life' celebration dinner at Belfast's Stormont Hotel on Sunday, March 22 which will feature a four-course meal, cabaret entertainment and appearances from special guests.
Metro
6 days ago
- Metro
BBC legend claims government banned 'shocking ' TV show for 20 years
A BBC legend has revealed he made a documentary that was so disturbing it was banned for 20 years. Michael Aspel is best known for hosting the cosy biographical TV series This is Your Life and Ask Aspel. That didn't stop the BBC, though, from asking the now 92-year-old star to host a far more harrowing TV show about the dangers of nuclear war. The show, The War Game, was a pseudo-documentary film commissioned in 1965 to mark the 20th anniversary of the nuclear bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. During the 47-minute-long special, viewers saw a hypothetical nuclear war between Nato and the USSR that left millions dead or injured and vast swathes of the UK an irradiated wasteland. So harrowing was the footage that the BBC withdrew the show before it was televised, and it would not air in the UK until 1985, and the 40th anniversary of the bombings. In a new BBC documentary titled Michael Aspel Remembers…The War Game, Michael has opened up about serving as the show's narrator and why it wasn't broadcast. With that desire for realism in mind, the writer and director Peter Watkins decided that Michael, who was then a newsreader for the BBC, would make a perfect narrator. According to Michael, the film was designed to feel and look like an official government warning. Michael also alleges in the documentary that the government, who were shown early versions of the show, may have had a role in the documentary being taken off the air. He claims Peter always believed it was 'government interference' that led to his documentary being banned. The documentary makes clear that the government's official line was that the BBC had the final say in the show's broadcast, but that 'Whitehall would be relieved if the BBC chose not to show it'. The BBC maintains they decided to pull the documentary, with the then director general Hugh Carleton Greene saying the decision was not a political one. Instead, he claims the footage was so 'shocking' that he could never forgive himself if someone saw it and then 'threw themselves under a bus' because of it. However, archive footage of the late Tony Benn is shown where he admits that the home secretary Frank Soskice 'ordered' Benn to ban the programme as he feared it would 'lead to panic.' More Trending 'I was only his master's voice and had nothing to do with it… so I had to send a directive to Carleton Greene saying 'You must not broadcast it'… I greatly regret that I capitulated,' the MP explained. Huw Wheldon, the Head of Documentaries (1963-1965), meanwhile, claimed in 1983 that Harold Wilson's Government feared the documentary might be seen as an advertisement for nuclear disarmament with a pacifist CND agenda. Despite being banned from TV for twenty years, Huw made sure the documentary was shown at several film festivals, which ultimately led to it winning the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 1967. View More » Michael Aspel Remembers… The War Game will air on BBC 4 on July 30 at 10pm. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Lisa Faulkner makes first public statement since John Torode's MasterChef firing MORE: David Attenborough's new BBC series reveals spectacularly tender moment with baby gorilla MORE: MasterChef 'begins casting process' after Gregg Wallace and John Torode are axed
Daily Mirror
7 days ago
- Daily Mirror
'My TV show was so outrageous it was banned by the BBC and Government' says Michael Aspel
Mild mannered presenter Michael Aspel is now 92 but caused uproar in his younger presenting days Veteran broadcaster Michael Aspel has revealed how one of his TV shows was banned by the BBC and the Government. The mild-mannered presenter - who found fame hosting Ask Aspel and This Is Your Life - was invited to front a documentary about the horrors of nuclear war but it was deemed too graphic and realistic. The 92-year-old star now admits: 'I had no idea about the uproar that was to follow.' Aspel was invited to be part of a mini-film called The War Game in 1965 to mark the 20 th anniversary of the American nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Director Peter Watkins wanted to show Brits the realities of what could happen if the same happened here. The show used actors to play the victims of an atomic attack and it gave gory detailed descriptions of what would happen to their bodies before death. Aspel was asked to narrate the project which would air on the BBC and he happily agreed. He recalls in a new BBC 4 documentary: 'Now I had done a few of those before but little did I know the furore this particular film would cause. 'It was made to reflect what had happened in Hiroshima and Peter wanted to see what life might have been like in this country if we had been the victims of an atom bomb. 'Although newsreaders used to do odd jobs away from the BBC with medical films and stuff like that, I was particularly interested why the director and writer of this film would want me to be the narrator. 'And I could only suppose, because being a newsreader and perhaps being familiar to listeners as well as to viewers in that role, it would suit his film very well. 'The idea was to give the film authenticity. The director wanted to present a very ordinary community of people in this country with all the foibles of the time such as casual racism. 'The film was made to be as realistic as possible so the viewer would believe what they wee watching it as though it was a Government warning.' However, the programme was pulled from broadcast. The BBC claims it was their decision. It had given some members of Harold Wilson's Government a copy of the violent and graphic documentary in advance as it feared it might be seen as an advertisement for nuclear disarmament with a pacifist CND agenda. Even the ex-BBC head of documentaries – the late Huw Weldon - branded it 'a political hot potato'. The BBC maintains it was told it had to make the decision over whether to broadcast the show itself. And the director general at the time - Hugh Carleton Greene - shelved the show saying it was 'so shocking and upsetting' that he could never forgive himself if someone 'threw themselves under a bus' because of it. However Aspel reveals another side to the story. He claims Peter Watkins felt 'betrayed' by this decision and always believed it was really The Government who banned his documentary. The TV host – who also presented Aspel and Company and Give Us A Clue and Crackerjack - adds: 'He was always sure it was Government interference that stopped the film.' And archive footage is shown from a 1998 interview with the late Labour MP and former postmaster general Tony Benn. He admits: 'Frank Soskice, who was the home secretary, ordered me to ban the programme... because it was argued this would lead to panic. 'I was only his master's voice and had nothing to do with it (the decision) so I had to send a directive to Carleton Greene saying 'You must not broadcast it'. I greatly regret it. I never believe in censorship.' It took another 20 years for the film to see the light of day. The War Game was finally broadcast on the BBC to mark the 40 th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ironically it even won an Oscar for best documentary feature. Aspel now says: 'It is now 80 years since the bombings in Japan and 60 years since I sat in that little recording studio with no idea of the uproar that was to follow.' * Michael Aspel Remembers.. The War Game will air on BBC 4 on Wednesday July 30 at 10pm followed by a screening of the 1965 film.
