But perhaps, faced by wall-to-wall propaganda, it's to the spirit of late great screenplay writer (devisor of such epoch-making films as the 1970s gritty police drama The Sweeney and 1983's Reilly, Ace of Spies), Troy Kennedy-Martin that we should turn? "We had the Cold War, The Falklands, the nuclear state, the prospect of a miners' strike, Greenham Common," he says in the film "Magnox" about his award winning nuclear drama "Edge of Darkness."
"It was Thatcher's Britain. At the BBC there was no political dimension in their popular drama whatsoever and I was really depressed about it. As indeed were other writers that I knew. So I said to my closest colleagues, the only thing one can do is to write stuff that we know is not going to get made but at least we'll get it out of our system. That's how I started to write 'Edge of Darkness', I didn't really think it stood much of a chance of being produced."
1985's resulting explosive (literally) drama helped define the nuclear era whenever and wherever it has been transmitted. Yes, that's the spirit for today to nix this pernicious lie of the media barons' highly favored "War on Terror." And if such screenplays and manuscripts are turned down or otherwise dismissed in Britain and elsewhere, so be it.
Honest creative talent, and the slow burn, high earn, revenue it brings in will, like Edward Snowden, simply travel the world in search of fresh air and more fertile soil.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
