The News-Benders (1968) - BBC Fiction or Russianvids Reality?

Video Transcript:

We'll tell you we're here at three. South of St. Vast. Here's your name. One of the big boys wants to see. He always pulls the same trick. Send us here at three and see if you're three from three. He's still out in to see you, J.G. He's so quick to catch. He's so down. Let's go, Lord. Thank you. See you, Lord. We'll smoke these things. King, we'll smoke these things. You're welcome. We'll smoke these things. King of King, sir. Yes. Where is it, Brian? We got you to come here, Mr. Larkin. Well, I couldn't see what the CWNS would want with me. Still count. No, anything about it. Oh, I had one or two things I was working with the BBC. What did you hear? CWNS set up midway between the government and the TV companies. Anytime the newsreel boys put out stuff with security classification, wars, weapons, political leaks, they get their films for this office. What do we know about you? Larkin. Robert, San Paul. Yes, it's a family, man. Good family. Good education. But you tend to back on all that, didn't you? Fight a little bit of everything. 1955, you wrote some plays for the BBC. And worked for them as a story editor. 1961, you got a three-year contract as a director, which you didn't renew. Well, the BBC won't pay money. Well, you're in the money now, aren't you? 1968. There's your flat in Holland Park, a cottage in Hampshire, two children. And a dog had a cat who commute with us the country weekend. Well, maybe you knew that already. Six years ago, there were those shows you did on alcoholism, blood sports, some clearance. People called you bright. In other words, they used hard hitting. But back to it. Now you do only four shows a year. The critics called them brilliant. They're high in the ratings. Well, there's soufflé. Little soft in the centre. Don't think I'm complaining. Oh, you could complain if you want to. Just call it a friendly profession, I'm just... I'd like to know what happened to alcoholism and blood sports. Call it reaching edge of 35. Call it school fees to fix the dresses. Call it joining establishment. Call it being a socialist for 15 years and a country will never be socialist. Go ahead. There's your wife, Rachel. You married the girl next door. You two children were better than Daniel and I, so to family. Three years ago, you got yourself a girlfriend. It was serious. Where the hell did you get that, Fonda? Just tell me where it stops. That's the 18 months. Your wife never knew about it. Even when you nearly decided to leave her. Who are you? The initials J.G. That's all I know. Never met you before in all my life. July the 25th, 1966. You finally decided to break it off with this woman. You said you loved her. You said you loved your children. It was two against one. You had to add it up like that. Sorry. You're cigar. It's burning my desk. Sheila told you all this. We have ways of finding things out. But why? If it's blackmail, the thing won't hold water. It's all of the past. Well, the big pain, of course, for Rachel and the children. But you wouldn't get anything else out of it? No. Just a blackmail. We've just been interested in you for a long time. Interested? You went back to your wife. Because you said it was two against one. I call that very responsible. We're interested in very responsible people. But we have a little index for them. We call it their power quotient. A ratio of responsibility has against aggression. It was very low. 0.2. Very low. Just what we need. Sit down. Please. I'm sorry. The language must seem rather strange at first. But we take it very seriously. Just to show you how seriously I'm going to tell you how we checked up on you. We call these things surgical transmitters. One was fitted inside you. When you went into the chairing cross hospital three years ago. Appendix, wasn't it? It's just a miter. You're trying to tell me that you listen to every word I say. A machine that untouched by human hand. There's little gadget in these things that ties up with the pulse rate. Put a belief on to anything that you're excited about saying. British. Power quotient, surgical transmitters, high speed tape. It's Doctor Who. I'm for the real world, Jack. Good afternoon. I just have to give you an example. On July 26, 1966, you were talking to this girl, Sheila, about love. You said to her, I quote. The kind of love I have for you, Sheila. Well, it's bed love and it's more. It's staying in bed till 6 p.m. I'm saying I can't go to the office today. It's eating breakfast at twilight, laughing at leaves on the pavement. I don't believe there's any such thing as these surgical transmitters. You got Sheila to tell you all this. Then you wrote it down the way I might have sent it. You're a good guesser. Can you hear your heart beating? It's eating breakfast at twilight, laughing at leaves on the pavement. Getting a cab to a silly movie to Paris. It's moving when your time is staying still. And I've done it all before when I could do it with no ties. Not just irresponsible. So the really is one of those things inside me. What do you want? We want people with love power questions. We want them to work for us. Nothing more sinister than that. All this just offered me a job, special sort of job. The newspapers talk about the corridors of power, the power elite. Let's just say we'd like you to join the club. As a vacancy in our newsreel department. We'd like you to help plan the news for 1973. Come again? Plan the news for 1973. What are you doing? I just want to make sure the sunlight's real. I always tell people... News is the most highly developed form of picture. The most difficult. Come on. I just want to show you something. There's no obligation to buy. Really? News requires imagination. News requires responsibility. We think you're well qualified. Please. Please do not operate beyond this point. 1973. We've only roughed out the news for 1973. Nothing's been given the go ahead yet, but this is the kind of thing we haven't mind. Come. Today, April 14, 1973. First historic pictures by Radstar, the combined US Russian landing on the Moon. Shown here are Major Webb and Mikhailovich taking their first steps into the unknown, firing their retro rockets to land their spacecraft on the dust-covered surface. A comforting note for us day at home, both the Pentagon and the Kremlin, have announced that the Moon has no strategic value. A comforting note for us day at home. I can't show you any film on this next model. We haven't photographed it yet. But this is the way it was sound. June 22, 1973. The State Department releases film of the ultimate weapon, code named Icarus. This satellite is equipped with a solid reactor. In layman's terms, it can freeze air solid, stopping all missiles, killing all forms of life. Icarus orbits at the same speed as the Earth, can hang in position over every major city that threatens the peace-loving nations. Rather proud of this one. Come on. Please sit down. September 1, 1973. The New Philippines in global war. War by example. At 432, our time, China took out the remote Indian border village of Bhandol, unprotected by the Icarus network. After the first two-five megabytes of war, the nine-way hotline finally switched it off. This is going to happen in 1973. You're going to make this happen. You're going to make this happen. You're going to make this happen. We're going to make models much cheaper than we photograph the models. Fake newsrooms. For the past 10 years, people have been looking at our fake newsrooms and listening to our fake commentaries. And they accept it for the truth. And you can do it. Stop 100 people in the street. How many of them have actually seen a missile or a satellite? They just told they exist and they believe it. You're getting a nearly-wood. Now the moon rocket and the satellite, that you can get away with. That's too remote for people to grasp. It's too far away. But this. Village on the inner Chinese board. Somebody could check out. There are no survivors in 1973. No rescue work. Radiation scare. Yes. You can do it. This could be the news for 1973. We only plan in detail one year ahead. Oh, you only plan one year ahead. Hey, tell me. What is the news item that bothered you the most in the past year, 1967? Well, it has to be the new American Intercontinental ballistic missile, the Boy Wonder, doesn't it? Just the one I asked him to set up for. The new ICBM, codename Boy Wonder. With a much talked about Mercury Warhead. I haven't any special effects up here, but perhaps with the proper sound. Last one. And Robert Narkin. Television director, I IQ 35 years old, is scared. Scared by nothing. It doesn't work. It's a scientific impossibility. The same goes for the much talked about Mercury Warhead. Perspects. Well, if this rocket doesn't work, then the others today have a fireworks party at Cape Kennedy almost every other day. Well, you didn't really believe there were all these things whizzing about up there, did you? Sputniks or rockets? Astronauts crossing their legs for eight days. How long has this been going on? Since Hiroshima. And the age bomb, you mean that doesn't work on them? Right. Very, very, very. What was your first reaction? Relief. Oh, yes. Yes, it has to be. Relief. Only 12 people are allowed beyond this point. Most of them work in the photographic department, taking the phony newsreel pictures of our models and processing film and stuff. Sit down, please. Ah, pretty pictures from our stills department. The boy wonder. Do you really think that missiles and satellites are my line of country? No, not at all. I've only shown you the hard news. There are other things. Much softer things. We thought might interest you. Well, 1973. We thought it might be time for an anti-teenage movement, a long-awaited return to maturity. Sure, yeah. Perhaps even a religious revival. Well, I see you want me to arrange the grand opening of RISEL Cathedral. First of October, 1973. Mark the date down in my ten-year diary. We are very serious about you. There are things about you we like very much. Qualities you have to offer. Qualities that we perhaps don't possess at the moment. That's great. Our file on you. You have to return to July 25th, 1966. The day you broke it off of this girl, Sheila. You really did reveal a lot of yourself that day. But of course, if you really mind her... How pure so. You said to her, it won't work, Sheila. And she said something. And then you said... You remember I went away with Rachel and the kids to the seaside? It was midweek and this huge stretch of sand was empty. Just a circle of footprints ran through sandcastles and tracks out to sea. The whole damn day of my family marked out in front of me. The sun was going down. Rachel kept calling the kids to get dressed. She picked up buckets and spades, called me bloody things like that. I was up at the car. I looked at those footprints and I knew those people were slipping away. There were things I could tell them. We'd rather like that than to buy footprints. You see, in this job, some of us have got rather a long way away from the idea of footprints in the sand. Those footprints were made by my children. Now you want me to scare the hell out of them with every bomb from A to H inclusive? Well, why? I mean, when did it all start? 1945. You may remember the Americans let off their two atomic bombs. Well, they didn't want other people doing the same thing. I mean, you do see that, don't you? Well, you scared the people off. The Americans put it up and the atomic bomb was halfway along the line to something much bigger. The hydrogen bomb. It didn't work. They spent five years in negative research. What about the Russians? I suppose they have quite a pile of these things. We were surprised when they started that test. Then we got a few feelers from their secret service. Nowadays, we work very closely together. All these stories about spies going off to Russia. Mr. Philby. Remember? Just good copy for the Sunday papers. Good copy. Well, the Chinese. I mean, they've just announced their bomb. No, we played along with it. We recorded the phony explosion. We're hoping the Chinese will come along. Complete the pattern, you know? In Vietnam, hundreds of people are being killed every week. Well, you can't do that with your models. No. And you can't kill people of bad habits and two generations. They like to carry rifles. They like to put lives on maps. And we let them, because we control the situation. There's no danger of world war. Just a simple choice for everybody. Capitalism or communism. Strawberry or vanilla. It all adds up to the same thing now. We've got rid of the big bangers. But how can you be sure that Johnson could see in our working on other things? Poison gases, bacteria. A set of men of your intelligence. You don't want to destroy the world. Neither do I. What makes you think the presidents are different? Well, that makes a pretty good stance at it in the past. It wasn't the right sort of control then. Nowadays we know better. Politicians are easy to control. The grosser mentality, boys, who like to be photographed, getting in and out of Daimler's and Whitehall, may come right at the bottom of our organization. Few rungs out the ladder of the people in the top secret factories. Just those in a position to know they're making weapons that don't really work. Let us come at time when somebody wants to use one of those weapons. I mean, somebody is standing there with a finger on the button. Well, that's the beauty of it. Nobody presses the button. We control all the crises. We build them up and we shut them down. We. Again. Yeah, I'm coming to that. Near the top of the hierarchy, there are the economists, top civil servants, top brass in the military. Those men who are supposed to view the nuclear tests and so on. And above them, CWNS. Right at the top. Classified world news service. Just who the hell are you? So this isn't it? Just a field. Just a very few of the top people in communications in every major country in the world. Oh, you mean you? You run all these magazines? No, of course not. We just get them to take some of our coffee every week. Television is much more important to us, all happens so quickly. You see, you can put out what pictures you like on television. Doesn't anybody try to stop you? No, nobody wants to. 99.386% of the population wouldn't believe this conversation. And the rest are working for us. And they're the top minds, the really responsible people. They know they're guaranteeing the lives of their grandchildren the only foolproof way. Scaring the hell out of their grandchildren. Well, I won't buy it. You must admit there has to be some kind of control in this world of art. Look at that. And remember, the one quarter of the world is starving. There are the full bellies and the empty bellies. Some of the empty bellies carry rifles. Well, we full bellies are getting a bit flabby. We're not very good with rifles anymore. So we've devised two ways to keep the empty bellies under control. One of them is this fictitious hydrogen bomb we've talked about and the other one is money. Enough money to fill some of the empty bellies and put a hopeful smile on the faces of the others. A great wall of money all around Britain. And it's no secret that the British economy is in trouble at the moment. So we have to put that right too to stay alive. We have to control the people in this country. Scaring our street. Berries its head in the sand. You scare a hedgehog. It rolls itself up into a ball. When a woman's frightened, she goes out and buys herself a hat. You mean you scare us so that we'll buy more, so that money moves quicker, production moves up? We don't say scare when we talk about human beings. We say threatened them emotionally. And there are all sorts of ways of not just the big ones like the hydrogen bomb. Overcrowd them a little with bad planning. Sell them too many motor cars. Anything to keep them a little bit removed from reality. Nowadays people don't work for money. They work for the idea of money. They don't even love for love. They love for the idea of love. They only hate for the idea of hate. It took us five years to find a non-addictive drug. One we could pay off against the hard drugs. LSD. You marketed that. Oh yes, of course. And for a very good reason. Some of these protest movements were getting a little bit too close to the mark. LSD gave them nice little hallucinations. They'd them talk like three arrows. Throw flowers at the policeman. Now we talk, Terms. You're not still going to ask me to work for you. I'm afraid I've had to put all this rather bluntly. You see that it wasn't really very much time. It must be rather a shocker. Well, I mean. Most people realize that the world is controlled from about six big cities. But it must be rather shocking to learn that the sixth of the world is controlled from this building. You mean you? Oh no. I only rate an office on the seventh floor. There are two other offices above this one. And a giant computer system. Link number four in world control. A computer? What's so remarkable about that is just a machine that can store a vast amount of information. A machine that knows too bloody much. Now you're being hysterical about it. Computer's very simple. You feed data into it. Anything from the Wall Street closing crisis to the North Atlantic weather. And you get decisions. That machine's taken you over. It's just a machine. Extra hands for the people who know how to control it. Well, this one above us. It's square in a box. I suppose you could call it square in a sort of a box. Do you know where I go away at weekends? To get away from people in boxes. Living boxes. To get the thoughts, the problems and the answers. Out of boxes. And I like to get away at weekends because they're not people anymore. Now you know all about me. My cottage in Hampshire. But did you know that there's a line of trees that goes right up past the house. And the noise they make is like the sea. Did you know that I find it difficult to sleep in the country. And I like to go and stand in the garden before dawn. And I feel good because I know that my wife and my children are asleep inside. And I like to go out and walk past the wet hedgerows until I can see pasture land and the smoke from the cottages in the city. There may be all very well for one of your grassroots programs, but I'm afraid time is running out. I ought to tell you, we pay a great deal of money. We can afford to. We save such a lot on things like the National Defense Budget, so on. We would start to offer to quarter of a million pounds a year. Rising to a million when you make the Ministry of Morality, which I know you will. Will you let me out of here? One little point. I should have told you about these surgical transmitters. There's enough of this stuff inside you at this moment to kill six people. There's a button we can press. I'm sorry about the dramatic. Our boys, Goliath, things, the oral contraceptive. Keeps them from talking too much. So there must be one of those transmitters inside you. Who presses the button? Extra hands. All this stuff about the computer being extra hands for the men in the heart of control it. That machine controls you. You start on Monday. Early controversial classics from Dennis Potter next weekend with the first of the Nigel Barton plays on Saturday at 1120. But next tonight, Tony Palmer's very personal film looking at the relationship between pop music, youth culture, money and violence. All my loving in a moment. You