BBCND All the same, as I am sure the BBC
knows (for if not, why did Lord Normanbrook invite senior civil servants, rather than doctors and psychiatrists, to see the film before he banned it?) but won't admit, there is a genuine reason why it shouldn't be shown in its present form. For although the visual material is scrupulously realistic, the sound commentary dubbed on to it is straight propaganda for unilateral nuclear disarmament as a first step to unilateral pacifism. There is no argument; simply a series of tendenti- ous statements and carefully selected quotations (usually from unnamed sources) designed to show that the public is ignorant, the authorities trigger- happy, the churches complacent, the press en- gaged in a conspiracy of silence, and the only people in favour of peace Mr. Peter Watkins and his CND chums.
It is not the function of the BBC to engage in propaganda. Still less is it its function to promote a cause as mistaken as this. Least of all is it desirable to treat a theme as important and complex as this is in a tendentious and wholly emotional way. Instead of parading their con- sciences in public the BBC chiefs should sit down and commission a new, non-propagandist commentary for what should be a strictly docu- mentary film. And then show it.
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