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Bill Brand (ITV, 1976) was an epic attempt to lay bare the nature of
political power in the UK, and more specifically to analyse if, and how, the
socialist struggle could be furthered by the parliamentary Labour movement. Its
origins can be seen in Trevor Griffiths' early Play for Today, 'All Good Men' (BBC, tx. 31/01/1974), where the tension between the social democratic and revolutionary positions were embodied in an argument between father and son.
In Bill Brand, the scope is much broader, and focuses on newly elected
left-wing MP Brand (Jack Shepherd), a former Trotskyist, and his attempts to
negotiate a path between the demands of his family, the local party, the whips
and his conscience, while still trying to make a difference politically. During
the course of the series he is vilified by the press for his controversial
views, and through his acquaintance with the eventual leadership candidate David
Last (Alan Badel), he is witness to the power struggles that occur at the highest level of
government.
Griffiths had the idea for the series on the day of the February 1974 General
Election, while watching a number of Conservative supporters reacting to their
party losing an election they were expected to win. The series features a Labour
government with a bare working majority, and this closely mirrored the political
situation at the time. The major figures in the fictional cabinet are not exact
representations of those politicians in the then Labour government, but there
are some close parallels, and in fact some of the events in the series are
eerily prophetic of future political developments. The PM (Arthur Lowe) has to
retire because of ill-health, and after the series was written (although before
transmission) the same thing happened to Harold Wilson. More importantly,
Griffiths examines the political rifts within the Labour party, and, with
uncanny foresight, dramatises the ideological conflicts that would eventually
lead to the formation of the SDP.
Bill Brand is a breathtaking series. Transmitted during the boiling summer of
1976, at peak-time between World in Action and News at Ten, it engaged with
contemporary politics in a dramatic way, but remained consistently intelligent,
and far from talking down to its viewers, assumed that they were a vital part of
the political processes described, and as committed to understanding how things
might therefore improve. There has been nothing like it since, and that's more the pity.
John Williams
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1. Timetable of events (2:47)
