ABSTRACT
Calls for fundamental reform of British television found some resonance inside the Labour Party at the start of the 1970s-the speeches by then Cabinet members Benn and Crossman in 1968, attacking the lack of accountability and creeping trivialization of television respectively, were still relatively fresh. However, the mood for reform was far more urgently expressed outside parliamentary bodies, particularly by those groups motivated by the radical possibilities of the struggles of 1968. While conservative groups like Mary Whitehouse’s National Viewers and Listeners Association (NVLA) urged reform to ‘clean up’ television, the main critics of the existing structures of broadcasting came from the left. More accountability in decision-making, more diverse representations of minority groups, a less antagonistic portrayal of trade unionists and socialists were all ‘New Left’ demands that emerged at the start of the decade. The fact that some of the most popular programmes at the time included Dad’s Army, Colditz and The Onedin Line-what Briggs calls ‘the appeal to history’1-simply fuelled the desire for more contemporary and relevant output.
