ABSTRACT
Duncan Campbell had been commissioned by the BBC in 1985 to research and present a series to be called ‘Secret Society’. In view of his known propensity for upsetting the Government by his exposés in the New Statesman, particularly of security and intelligence matters, the BBC may be said to have underestimated the problems he would in due course cause the Corporation; he certainly added excitement to the work of the D-Notice Secretary. When the BBC’s autumn 1986 publicity launch highlighted the series, Higgins started to remind DPBC Member Alan Protheroe (as also Assistant Director General responsible for BBC News) that advice might be needed (described in the then BBC DG Alastair Milne’s memoirs as ‘remonstration noises’).
