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AFTER DARK

S1E1 SECRETS

Transmission Date: 1 May 1987 Subject: Official Secrets Act Host: Tony Wilson

Guests: Clive Ponting, Margaret Moore, Colin Wallace, T. E. Utley, Isaac Evans, Peter Hain, Anne-Marie Sandler

Topics: Spies, Spy, Intelligence, Belgrano, Psychoanalysis, Kincora, BOSS, Secrets, Thatcher

The first ever After Dark programme (1 May 1987) was described in The Listener:
After Dark made a historic breakthrough by rediscovering the structure of adult conversation: the ingredients are intelligence, candour and courage, and the absence of impeding structures such as television time barriers. Seven people talked live, from midnight to the early hours of the morning, on a subject dear to our hearts – and at the moment costly to our nerves – secrets. Clive Ponting, ex MOD; Anne-Marie Sandler, French psychiatrist; Peter Hain, former anti-apartheid campaigner; Colin Wallace, former army "information officer" engaged in psychological warfare in Northern Ireland in the Seventies; Mrs Margaret Moore, widow of one of the computer scientists who have died recently in mysterious circumstances; Isaac Evans, a farmer who campaigns against bureaucratic secrecy, and T. E. Utley, Times political columnist, who still believes Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act "has a point" – all these discussed frankly their experiences and their perception of the consequences of excessive secrecy.

Nancy Banks-Smith wrote in The Guardian:
A bit of fun, a bit of excitement, and, quite the best idea for a television programme since men sat around the camp fire talking while, in the darkness, watching eyes glowed red It will be many a

midnight before Channel 4 comes up with the subject so on the ball as Secrets and such an enthralling group of guests. Who, you may reasonably ask, is Isaac Evans? He described himself as "a peasant up from the country" In old age he has, with great simplicity, taken up the cause of

small people ruined by secret files Peter Hain and Clive Ponting (were) referred to affectionately

by the chairman, Tony Wilson, as "You two gaolbirds" t was suggested that only half a dozen MI5

men were watching After Dark. "On double time," said (Colin) Wallace and gave them a wave.

S1E2 PRIVATE LIVES

Transmission Date: 8 May 1987

Subject: Freedom of the press, press invasion of privacy

Host: Helena Kennedy

Guests: Tony Blackburn, Jeremy Black, Peter Tatchell, Sheila Kitzinger, Paul Halloran, Victoria Gillick, Johnny Edgecombe

Topics: Journalism, Press, Tabloid, Scandal, Sex, Bermondsey by-election, Private Eye, Catholic, Profumo Affair

The second programme of the first series – transmitted on 8 May 1987 – centred on press ethics and featured, among others, Tony Blackburn, Peter Tatchell, Victoria Gillick, the man who started the Profumo scandal and a Private Eye journalist. A week later After Dark broadcast the following correction in relation to the British Member of Parliament Simon Hughes: "Mr Hughes has asked us to say that he is not a homosexual, has never been a homosexual and has no intention of becoming a homosexual in the future."

S1E3 FOOTBALL CRAZY

Transmission Date: 15 May 1987

Subject: Football

Host: Professor Anthony Clare

Guests: Terry Neill, A. J. Ayer, Chris Lightbown, Stuart Cosgrove, John Fashanu, Ian Hutchinson, Jennifer Hargreaves

Topics: Sport, Football, Philosophy, Hooligans, Violence, Class

"The guest who consumed the most alcohol was philosopher A. J. Ayer. 'He had been through the best part of a bottle of Scotch, but he was still brilliant.'"

S1E4 DO THE BRITISH LOVE THEIR CHILDREN?

Transmission Date: 22 May 1987 Subject: Schools and child abuse Host: Chantal Cuer

Guests: John Rae, Linda Bellos, Germaine Greer, Gordon Whiteley, Russell Hoban, Diane Caw, Sarah Coomaraswamy

Topics: Education, Schools, Child abuse, Lesbian, Childlessness, Children’s books, Race

Headmaster of Westminster School John Rae, feminist Linda Bellos, children's author Russell Hoban and the childless Germaine Greer, author of 'The Female Eunuch'.

S1E5 THE MAFIA

Transmission Date: 29 May 1987

Subject: The Mafia

Host: John Underwood

Guests: Alex Manson, Doug Le Vien, Claire Sterling, David Mellor, David Yallop, Gaia Servadio, Bob Dick, Frank Pulley

Topics: FBI, gangster, Mafia, killer, murder, Thatcher, Freemasons, Andreotti

Later in May 1987 the Financial Times described a discussion about the Mafia:

“After Dark may well be cheap but is one of the most interesting innovations for years. Two factors give the programme a special character: its length, which allows time for both personal reminiscence and discussion of theory or principle without that "I must stop you there" malarkey; and the camera arrangements with the participants set in a pool of light within a darkened studio, producing a peculiarly powerful sense of intimacy for late night The combination of Home Office minister David Mellor, former Cosa Nostra "bagman" Bob Dick, former Scotland Yard intelligence officer Frank Pulley (who made particularly astute political and social comments), New York undercover policeman Douglas le Vien and several journalists who write about organised crime, proved highly productive. After Dark bears out what has long been said: that ordinary discussion programmes have the time only to establish the participants' credentials before going off the air. This programme establishes credentials, moves on to discussion of the principles, and sometimes even manages some interesting conclusions. The points made in the final 15 minutes last Friday, about the differences between Britain and the US in attitudes towards wealth, and the way in which this might explain the puzzling (albeit pleasing) failure, so far, of organised crime in Britain, were the most interesting of the entire discussion. Do not switch on for a "taste" telling yourself that you will go to bed at 1.00. You will still be there at 3.00.”

During the programme it was claimed that Pope John Paul I was "eliminated...because he discovered that mafia profits from heroin had been laundered using the Vatican Bank". "Spectacular corruption allegations from author David Yallop" were described by The Observer as follows:

Perched in the gallery above, a Channel 4 lawyer nervously watches in case the stew bubbles over. His worst moment came at 1.30 yesterday morning when David Yallop... cut short some coy evasions about who heads PII, the Italian variety of freemasonry, by naming him. The lawyer was quietly told that Mr Yallop had just named a senior minister in the Italian Government. Mr Yallop had not gone so far in his book. He also suggested that a member of the British Cabinet was on the board of the same company as some members of PII. Since After Dark, unlike most radio phone-ins, boasts no tape delay, the alleged defamation could not be prevented.

Chris Horrie and Peter Chippendale detail what followed: "the story had caused horror among the country's journalists, who waited breathlessly for a shower of writs to descend on the programme makers  But although hacks who missed the show swapped videos and endlessly replayed extracts for snippets of information, nothing happened to the programme makers." Some years later David Mellor and writer Gaia Servadio described how their friendship started on the programme.

S1E6 HONEST, DECENT AND TRUE?

Transmission Date: 5 June 1987

Subject: Honesty in political campaigning, elections

Host: Professor Anthony Clare

Guests: John Ehrlichman, Anthony Smith, Mary Midgley, Ann Burdus, Philip Bobbitt, Hugh Montefiore

Topics: US election 1988, Gary Hart, Monkey Business, Donna Rice, Philosophy, Watergate, Bishop

Ethics in public life, in relation to the forthcoming 1987 General Election. With Watergate figure John Ehrlichman, philosopher Mary Midgley, Bishop Hugh Montefiore and Anthony Smith who subsequently became President of Magdalen College, Oxford.

S1E7 IS BRITAIN WORKING?

Transmission Date: 12 June 1987

Subject: UK election 1987

Host: Tony Wilson

Guests: David Selbourne, Teresa Gorman, Hilary Hook, Ezaz Ahmed Hayat, Adrian Lloyd, Billy Bragg, 'Helen'

Topics: Africa, Thatcher, Newly elected MP, Pop politics, hippy convoy, unemployment, homelessness

On 12 June 1987, the night after the British General Election, "the first day of the third term of Thatcherism – a show called Is Britain Working? brought together victorious Tory MP Teresa Gorman; 'Red Wedge' pop singer Billy Bragg; Helen from the Stonehenge Convoy; old colonialist Colonel Hilary Hook... and Adrian, one of the jobless. It was a perfect example of the chemistry you can get. There were unlikely alliances (Bragg and Hook) and Mrs Gorman stormed off the set, claiming she had been misled about the nature of the programme. She told the leftist pop singer Billy Bragg: 'You and your kind are finished. We are the future now.' Bragg said "I sing in smokey rooms every night and I can keep talking for far longer than you can Teresa". Bragg explained later: "She was so smug. And because she was Essex I took it personally. Then she accused me of being a fine example of Thatcherism."

S1E8 KILLING WITH CARE?

Transmission Date: 26 June 1987

Subject: Euthanasia

Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Charlotte Hough, Ilora Finlay, Pieter Admiraal, Lord Soper, George Cant, Maggie Davis, Vicky Clement-Jones, John Finnis

Topics: Death, dying, hospice, AIDS, medical ethics, assisted dying, disability, cancer, Methodism, murder, philosophy

The programme the following week was described by ITN as "A discussion on euthanasia, with the controversial Dutch doctor Piet Admiraal who has performed euthanasia; British Socialist and methodist preacher Lord Soper; the founder of the Cancer support charity 'Cancerbackup', Dr Vicky Clement-Jones (in an appearance from her death bed – she died shortly after the end of this programme), quadraplegic Maggie Davis, Catholic philosopher John Finnis, a gay man and the founder of a hospice."

S1E9 PEACE IN OUR TIME

Transmission Date: 3 July 1987

Subject: Nuclear Weapons

Host: John Underwood

Guests: Edward Teller, Beatrix Campbell, Deidre Duffy, Rudolf Peierls, Enoch Powell, Sergey Kapitsa

Topics: A-bomb, H-bomb, Los Alamos, Soviet, science, atomic, Strangelove, Hungary, peace campaign, unilateralism, CND 

The programme on 3 July 1987 "saw the father of the H-bomb Edward Teller concede that he lobbied for the worst of all weapons because of what the Russians had done to his country".

S1E10 KLAUS BARBIE

Transmission Date: 10 July 1987 Subject: The Trial of Klaus Barbie Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Eli Rosenbaum, Neal Ascherson, Gena Turgel, Philippe Daudy, Paul Oestreicher, Jacques Vergès

Topics: Butcher of Lyons, World Jewish Congress, Auschwitz, Shoah, Holocaust, French resistance, CND, defence lawyer, advocacy

After Dark, "ending its ten-week trial run, has been a remarkable success" wrote The Independent in July 1987. "The series has brought to television the rare acts of listening, thinking and thorough and subtle discussion  In the small hours of Saturday morning, Maitre Jacques Vergès, defence counsel to the Butcher of Lyons, leaned back on a sofa with a half-glass of something pale and put his case. A journalist and a canon and a Resistance fighter and a concentration camp survivor listened and put theirs." Vergès said "the reason people were still prosecuted for massacring Jews was because the Jews were white; if they had not been, the crimes would have been swept under the carpet long ago."

The Guardian described what happened: [After Dark] had Maitre Vergès on a panel that discussed whether it was ever desirable, or even possible, to forgive [Klaus] Barbie 43 years after his crimes Vergès attempted to indict French crimes in Africa, imperial crimes everywhere It was canon Paul Oestreicher who isolated from the trial the real distinction between Barbie and the Nazi regime [and] the imperial brutality Vergès wanted to expose: the unique evil was that the Nazis built a system and a policy for the extermination of whole peoples.

The Sunday Times: Vergès is clearly a man who knows how not to lose an argument even when he cannot win it, but there was a moment when his mind-boggling calm was almost shattered. It came when a young American lawyer [ Eli Rosenbaum ] announced that he had flown in for the programme specifically to confront Vergès with evidence of his anti-Semitic, right-wing connections and general moral corruption. It was a moment of high drama, but it was the outraged American who cracked first. "You're losing your temper," the old maitre instructed him. "That is no way for a good lawyer to make his case." Game and set, if not match, to Vergès.

Jewish Telegraphic Agency: [Rosenbaum] angered Verges by asking why there was an anti-Zionist, anti-Israel element in so many of the cases he has defended in the last 30 years. He also questioned the Siam-born lawyer about his alleged connections with a wealthy Swiss neo-Nazi. Verges avoided direct answers but made remarks about Rosenbaum's Jewish affiliation. Another panelist, Auschwitz survivor Gena Turgel, said his remarks smacked of anti-Semitism.

S2E1 BEYOND THE LAW

Transmission Date: 19 February 1988

Subject: Freemasonry

Host: John Underwood

Guests: Colin Woods, Eileen Gray, Martin Short, Brian Woollard, David Napley, Ian Hunt, T. Dan Smith

Topics: Local, Council, Corruption

At the start of the second series The Independent reported ("Masons pull out of TV debate with policeman") that "Chief Inspector Brian Woollard, the Metropolitan Police officer at the centre of the Freemasonry controversy, will go on national television tonight to state his case." Woollard "completed 33 years in the force, earned seven commendations, and was responsible for tracking down the Angry Brigade."

The Listener magazine described the programme: “After Dark turned its attention, with some daring, to the issue of Masonic influence in the police force. Daring because a truly unfettered programme – live, under virtually no constraints of length – it chose to deal with matters both potentially libellous and believed by some to be bound by sub judice limitations. The central figure was a police officer who alleges he was suspended because his investigations into fraud came up against corrupt Masonic loyalties There were two ex-Masons, a clergyman who abandoned the brotherhood on religious grounds and a solicitor, Sir David Napley, who had briefly flirted with it in the old days Former Deputy Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Colin Woods spoke unofficially for the police. A journalist, Martin Short, gave a run-down of the history of the Masonic movement and T. Dan Smith told how in jail he got the Masonic knuckle squeeze from both wardens and prisoners many an insight into the kind of society we inhabit, its anxieties and preoccupations.”

S2E2 MARRIAGE: WHAT DO WOMEN WANT?

Transmission Date: 26 February 1988

Subject: Marriage

Host: Stuart Hood

Guests: James Dearden, Carol McMillan, Julie Grant, Mary Whitehouse, Joan Wyndham, Naim Attallah, Shere Hite

Topics: Gin, Mars Bar

Mark Lawson wrote in The Independent: “…where else would James Dearden, screenwriter of Fatal Attraction, be required to sit while sexpert Shere Hite gave the ending of the film away and demolished his characterisation? In a discussion of what women really wanted, Dearden and Ms Hite were joined by Mary Whitehouse, Naim Attallah and proponents of career motherhood, lesbianism and open marriage the advantage of the length is the opportunity to see positions crumbling and being constructed. We began with a rough consensus and Mary Whitehouse designated the runt of the discussion. People sighed and shifted their eyes when she spoke. A couple of hours on, we had the unlikely alliance of Dearden and Whitehouse against Hite.

The Evening Standard described this as "totally compelling viewing": “It is not simply what is said that is important. Equally fascinating are small gestures and expressions, beautifully caught at significant moments by some astute camerawork; the group's physical and verbal interaction with each other; and above all, the ways in which we are able to see how and why an individual might have arrived at his/her set of ideas and beliefs.”

S2E3 NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Transmission Date: 4 March 1988

Subject: Homelessness

Host: Helena Kennedy

Guests: Susanne Reedes, Martin Daunton, Kathy Hearne, William "Spider" Wilson, John Heddle, Sheila McKechnie, Bill More

Topics: Living in a car, LGBT, Suicide

The Sunday Times said the programme on 4 March 1988 "certainly remains lodged in many minds. Spider... was 'discovered' by a programme researcher ferreting out characters at London's cardboard city. Spider duly came into the Channel 4 studios, cobweb tattooed on his forehead, to talk about drug addiction, being gay and living rough. (Host) Helena Kennedy recalls that homeless Spider, sitting on the plump sofas in the mock studio living room with fellow guests, did not take kindly to being lectured about fecklessness by John Heddle, a Tory MP". She described the confrontation:

"Spider" Wilson's argument with John Heddle, who at that time was chairman of the Tory backbench housing committee, was a perfect example of what could happen. Heddle's tactic was to lecture the feckless Spider, and tell him to pull up his socks. The argument actually felt quite menacing. Ironically, Heddle later committed suicide, while Spider went into rehab, sobered up and now has both a home and a job.

S2E4 YOU ARE WHAT YOU WEAR

Transmission Date: 11 March 1988 Subject: The Fashion Industry Host: Gaia Servadio

Guests: Brenda Polan, Bishop of Lewes, Bruce Oldfield, Nicholas Coleridge, Terry Melville, Katharine Hamnett, Raghib Ashan

Topics: Sweat Shop, Exploitation, High Fashion

Fashion, with designer Katherine Hamnett attacked by third world trade unionist Raghib Ashan. Also with journalists Brenda Polan and Nicholas Coleridge and the Bishop of Lewes who made his own clothes. Programme's most famous moment is when designer Bruce Oldfield arrives well after the discussion began, having decided to finish his meal in a fashionable restaurant in the West End before joining the other guests.

S2E5 LICENSED TO KILL?

Transmission Date: 18 March 1988 Subject: Violence and Northern Ireland Host: Paul Sieghart

Guests: Pauline Perry, Onora O'Neill, Michael Wiseman, Anthony Farrar-Hockley, Bridie Maguire, Arnold Dousse, Bernadette Devlin McAliskey

Topics: Provisional IRA, Troubles, Milltown Cemetery Attack, Killings, Massacre, Gibraltar, Death on the Rock, Michael Stone, SAS, Daniel McCann, Seán Savage and Mairéad Farrell

The Financial Times wrote of the programme on 18 March 1988: Bernadette McAliskey (formerly Devlin) was allowed to talk throughout as though the British Army were waging war against 'her' people. Those who remember the Army going in to protect 'her' people in 1968 will find this odd. In the week that a gunman fired on people at a funeral in Northern Ireland, Bernadette Devlin / McAliskey (human rights campaigner and Irish nationalist) meets former NATO Northern Ireland General Sir Anthony Farrer-Hockley. Farrer-Hockley suggested to Ms Devlin/McAliskey that she owed her life to the skill of paratroop surgeons who cared for her after loyalist paramilitaries tried to kill her.

S2E6 IRAN/IRAQ: A HOLY WAR?

Transmission Date: 25 March 1988

Subject: Iran, Iraq, War

Host: John Underwood

Guests: Noel Pickering, Haleh Afshar, Norman Kirkham, Shusha Guppy, Ezzat Altamimi, Hoshyar Zebari, Hamid Houshangi, Dilip Hiro

Topics: Chemical Weapons, Poison Gas

Two women from the old Persia, politics lecturer Haleh Afshar and author Shusha Guppy, meet senior figures from both sides of the war and writer and journalist Dilip Hiro.

S2E7 HORSE RACING: SPORT OF KINGS?

Transmission Date: 9 April 1988 Subject: The Grand National Host: Tony Wilson

Guests: Barney Curley, John McCririck, Duncan Keith, Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, General Sir Cecil "Monkey" Blacker, Alan Gibbons, Brian Radford, "Michael"

Topics: Animal Rights, Betting, Bookies

The Racing Post described the programme broadcast on the evening after the 1988 Grand National: [Jockey Frankie] Dettori recalls: "Many years ago, when I was 17 or 18, there was a programme on Channel 4 at about midnight called After Dark, a discussion show for people who couldn't sleep! I came in from a night out and there was McCririck and a couple of others sitting there on the TV talking a load of rubbish. But there was this guy, sitting there quietly, who would chip in every now and again and say something which was quite outstanding. That was Barney Curley and I was drawn to him like a magnet. Among the other guests was the Duchess of Argyll, appearing "so she said, to put the point of view of the horse", who later walked out of the programme "because she was so very sleepy".

S2E8 WHAT IS PRISON FOR?

Transmission Date: 16 April 1988

Subject: Penal Reform

Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: John Renton, John Masterson, Ken Murray, Terry Dicks, Tony Hoare, Yolande McShane

Topics: Barlinnie

With a woman who went to prison for persuading her mother to kill herself, Yolanda McShane; Scottish prison warder Ken Murray, noted for his skill at establishing rapport with hardened criminals; and Conservative MP Terry Dicks.

S2E9 RACE AND THE CLASSROOM: EDUCATION FOR ALL?

Transmission Date: 23 April 1988

Subject: Race, Education

Host: Helena Kennedy

Guests: Blake Bedford, Olna Manyan, Ray Honeyford, John Sentamu, Ann Dummett, Dipak Basu, Lurline Champagnie

Topics: Salisbury Review, Racism, Schools, Education, Jamaica

Prejudice in the education system, with controversial academic Ray Honeyford, Britain's first black bishop Rev Dr John Sentamu, philosopher Ann Dummett.

S2E10 BEWITCHED, BOTHERED OR BEWILDERED?

Transmission Date: 30 April 1988

Subject: Witchcraft

Host: Tony Wilson

Guests: Moira Woods, Olivia Durdin-Robertson, Jack Shackleford, Jack Dover Wellman, Audrey Harper, Margot Adler, Trevor Turner

Topics: Satanism, Pagan, Occult, Satanist, Christian Evangelical, Convert

On 30 April 1988 Tony Wilson hosted "a special Walpurgis Night edition...which featured representatives of several pagan, occult and Satanist groups. The general tone of the questioning was inquiring and non-judgmental, and the only hostility was expressed by the "token" Christian spokeswoman, ex-witch Audrey Harper. Before the mid-1980s, it would have appeared ludicrous to discuss British Satanists as a serious phenomenon, still less a social problem".

S2E11 DERRY ‘68 LOOK BACK IN ANGER?

Transmission Date: 7 May 1988

Subject: Anniversary of 1968 – twenty years after the civil rights marches in Northern Ireland

Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Roy Bradford, Paul Brennan, Henry Kelly, DeLores Tucker, Noirin Connolly, Eamonn McCann, Glenn Barr

Topics: 1968, Northern Ireland, Activism

Socialist Worker wrote "A recent discussion on the Irish civil rights struggle in 1968 provided one of the best nights' viewing in ages. Eamonn McCann dominated the whole discussion, destroying anyone who dared to cross him." The television reviewer of the New Statesman wrote that "The After Dark discussion, "Derry 68: Look Back in Anger?", was simply the most enlightening programme on Northern Ireland I have ever seen."

S2E12 ISRAEL: FORTY YEARS ON

Transmission Date: 14 May 1988

Subject: The Middle East

Host: John Underwood

Guests: Yohanan Lahav, Anton Shammas, Marie Colvin, Gerald Kaufman, Moshe Amirav, Faisal Aweidah, Nadia Hijab

Topics: Palestine, 40th Anniversary State of Israel, Foreign Secretary, Yasser Arafat

On 14 May 1988, The Daily Telegraph wrote: Tonight's edition of After Dark... will mark the 40th anniversary of Israel. The programme is likely to cause controversy, as the Shadow Foreign Secretary Gerald Kaufman and a number of Israelis will appear alongside Faisal Aweidah, the hardline PLO representative in London. For Kaufman, the appearance will not be without a political risk, mainly of a backlash from British Jews who are unlikely to be happy about him appearing alongside Aweidah, a supporter of Yasser Arafat. However for the Israelis involved in the programme there are even greater dangers. They will brave the wrath of the government of their country - where it is illegal for citizens to share a platform with the PLO. One participant...has already backed out after being told she would face arrest when returning home after the broadcast.

S2E13 WHAT IS SEX FOR?

Transmission Date: 21 May 1988

Subject: Sex, Gender

Host: Professor Anthony Clare

Guests: Andrea Dworkin, Anthony Burgess, Jim Haynes, Julia Ronder, Jack Dominian, Roz Kaveney

Topics: Trans, LGBT, Sixties, 1960s, Literature, Gender

A week later "during a discussion about sex, the programme introduced the physically unappealing Anthony Burgess to the equally charming (and equally sex obsessed) Andrea Dworkin, in the observant presence of a third writer, transgender rights activist Roz Kaveney".

S2E14 WINSTON CHURCHILL

Transmission Date: 28 May 1988

Subject: Winston Churchill

Host: Trevor Hyett

Guests: David Irving, Lord Hailsham, Anthony Montague Browne, David Reynolds, Jack Jones, Jean Howard

Topics: Revisionist, Revisionism, Coventry, Dresden, TUC, Quintin Hogg, Hitler, Bombing

The Socialist Worker described the 28 May 1988 edition of "my favourite chat show": "Winston Churchill: Hero or Madman?" Unfortunately the character arguing this was none other than the "historian" David Irving Here sat a man who was pro-Hitler, who was insulting the legendary Churchill. Facing him was a guy who had been Churchill's private secretary for ten or so years. And there was Lord Hailsham, who as Quintin Hogg had been a Tory MP at the time. But it was not Irving they reserved their contempt and anger for. Occasionally they got a bit annoyed by him, but it was the left representative they despised dear old respectable Jack Jones, former leader of the transport workers' union.

As the Radio Times wrote later: "The most explosive argument was between Lord Hailsham and veteran trade unionist Jack Jones. There was 50 years of hate between them."

S2E15 OPEN TO EXPOSURE

Transmission Date: 4 June 1988

Subject: Press Ethics

Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Peter Hillmore, Lester Middlehurst, Harvey Proctor, Annette Witheridge, Laurie Manifold, Christine Keeler, Nina Myskow

Topics: Spanking, Shirt Shop, Fleet Street, Gossip, Scandal, Bum too big, Russell Harty, Billericay

Milton Shulman in The Listener magazine wrote about the edition broadcast on 4 June 1988: I never plan to watch After Dark and usually am surprised to see that it is on when I return from some social occasion on Saturday night and switch on the box at one o'clock My own favourite evening was involved with the subject of ethics and journalism. At first Harvey Proctor was the main focus of our concern as he claimed he was hounded out of public life, not because of his sexual predilections but because of his right-wing political views. But his complaints, as well as Christine Keeler's grievance... about her treatment during the Profumo affair, soon faded into insignificance compared to the weird admissions of the journalists about what they got up to to get a story. Nina Myskow admitted she had jumped into bed with a hunk of masculine beefcake after she had seen him in a male beauty contest she had been judging. Annette Witheridge of the News of the World told how she had sent a rent boy, wired for sound, around to the home of the late Russell Harty.

And the Evening Standard described "riveting television": Harvey Proctor – the Spanking MP of tabloid legend, now resigned from his Billericay constituency and running a shirt shop in Richmond – in debate round a studio table with a cross-section of his tormentors Proctor turned on (reporter Annette Witheridge). He drew from his pocket a story she'd written, headlined "Spank Row MP Urged to Take AIDS Test", linking him allegedly to "a former male lover believed to have the killer disease AIDS". Had she checked this out? Had she attempted to contact the 'former male lover'? No Annette Witheridge's admission that she'd left this story to others to check out, hadn't discovered for four months that it was false, and hadn't apologised because nobody had asked her to, marked a turning point in the debate.

Proctor himself reported in his 2016 memoir that: It was the antithesis of today's sound bite culture It took the format of an after-dinner conversation among friends, around a table with drinks, only we were no friends. The programme (was) one of the most watched and most video requested: apparently one such request came from Buckingham Palace and as a result of the programme I managed to get further investors (for a shirt shop).

S2E16 SOUTH AFRICA

Transmission Date: 11 June 1988

Subject: South Africa

Host: Trevor Hyett

Guests: Harry Belafonte, Denis Worrall, Essop Pahad, Breyten Breytenbach, Nick Mitchell, Victoria Brittain, Ismail Ayob

Topics: Apartheid, Nelson Mandela, ANC

"After the Nelson Mandela concert last summer, (After Dark) ran a discussion programme including Harry Belafonte, Breyten Breytenbach, Denis Worrall and Ismail Ayob (Mandela's lawyer)." The Guardian described this as "the most civilised and stimulating of current TV programmes" and later Victoria Brittain described the "extraordinary experience of debating with Worrall": Every letter I received from viewers focussed on how the programme had changed their perception of him Harry Belafonte said how much he looked forward to meeting him because of his image in the US as "an enlightened voice" After Dark was probably the first television programme accurately to reflect the real balance of forces on the South African political scene. The significance of the programme was how it shifted the debate from the white political agenda followed so assiduously by South Africa-based correspondents, and gave due weight to the real opponents of the regime. A year later it became public that there was "a revealing off-camera incident between Harry Belafonte and South Africa's ex-ambassador Denis Worrall. For the first three hours of the programme Worrall played Mr Nice Guy but in the closing 30 minutes the diplomatic layers peeled off. The noble Belafonte shook his head regretfully as Worrall's tone changed and he said he would pray for Worrall. Trying to regain lost ground after the programme, Worrall went up to Belafonte and, according to the production team, said: Well, Mr Belafonte, you're really quite intelligent, aren't you?"

S2E17 HOW DO YOU SURVIVE A MURDER?

Transmission Date: 18 June 1988

Subject: Victim Support

Host: Professor Anthony Clare

Guests: Lord Longford, Georgina Lawton, June Patient, Patricia Highsmith, Peter Whent, David Howden, James Nelson, Sarah Boyle

Topics: Ripley, Moors Murders, Ruth Ellis, Hanging

Following the programme broadcast on 18 June 1988 The Guardian wrote: After Dark, a three hour discussion on subjects which will not always bear the light of day, was about... murder. There was Patricia Highsmith, the thriller writer, inquisitive as a monkey, Georgina Lawton, Ruth Ellis's daughter... Lord Longford... the Rev James Nelson... (and) David Howden, the father of a girl who was murdered in her bedroom two years ago... "I don't know if you can imagine the scene of my daughter's bedroom. Friends and neighbours had to go and clean that bedroom up. The stains and fingerprints. They had to take the carpet up, sandpaper the floor and get rid of the marks, buy a new carpet and put it down". "What kind of marks?" asked Patricia Highsmith, who will be slaughtered herself some day.

The Today newspaper wrote: There have been some very peculiar people on After Dark There was the skinhead who left mid-show to look for fresh supplies of lager. And two weeks ago journalist Peter Hillmore sweated so much I thought I would have to throw him a rubber ring. But for sheer oddness, none has outmatched crime writer-cum-New York bag lady lookalike Patricia Highsmith asking a series of taggeringly daft and insensitive questions to poor David Howden, whose daughter was strangled by a maniac as she slept.

Andrew Wilson, in his biography of Highsmith, expanded: Sitting next to Howden, Highsmith questioned the bereaved father in a near-clinical fashion. What kind of man was the murderer? Had he been watching the daughter? Was robbery part of the motive? Had she been raped?

S2E18 PORNOGRAPHY

Transmission Date: 25 June 1988

Subject: Pornography

Host: Helena Kennedy

Guests: Hanna Segal, Paula Meadows, Bill Margold, Susanne Kappeler, James Bogle, David Hebditch, "Dave"

Topics: Sex, Adult, Cinema, Video, Business

The Evening Standard reviewed the 25 June 1988 discussion: In the business, they call him Poppa Bear (or is it Bare?)... Bill Margold, a large American with the vocabulary of a peanut, and one of the guests appearing on this week's After Dark. The subject was pornography and a well balanced mixture of perversion, puritanism and prurience combined to entertain and enlighten insomniacs.

The Guardian added: Margold's breezy definition of hard core – "up, in, out, off" – belies his ambition to give the public genuine artistic storylines I was waiting for someone, preferably a woman, to hang one on big, burly Poppa Bear, who is about the most arrogant, bullying, bulldozer loudmouth this sleep-cheating series has so far brought us."

S2E19 ANIMAL RIGHTS

Transmission Date: 2 July 1988

Subject: Animal Rights

Host: Beverly Anderson

Guests: Katie Boyle, Rex Hudson, Ralph Cook, Miriam Rothschild, Mark Gold, Judy MacArthur, Frank Evans

Topics: Dogs, Bulls, Butterflies, Peter Singer

Celebrity Katie Boyle brings her poodles to a discussion with Britain's only bullfighter and botanist Miriam Rothschild.

S2E20 AFTER CLEVELAND

Transmission Date: 9 July 1988

Subject: Child Abuse

Host: Trevor Hyett

Guests: Beatrix Campbell, Shirley Edwards, Ray Wyre, A father from Cleveland, Ralph Underwager, Simon Court, "John", Raine Roberts

Topics: Social Work, Satanism, False Accusations, Miscarriage of Justice, Paeodiphilia, Sex Offender

The rights of families accused of satanic ritual child abuse. With campaigning journalist Bea Campbell; Ray Wyre, a psychologist specialising in sex therapy; a father from Cleveland; and well-known American expert Ralph Underwager who has spoken in support of persons accused of child abuse.

S2E21 BRITISH INTELLIGENCE

Transmission Date: 16 July 1988

Subject: Spies and Spying

Host: John Underwood

Guests: Gary Murray, Alastair Mackie, Merlyn Rees, Robin Ramsay, Jock Kane, Robert Harbinson, H. Montgomery Hyde

Topics: Kincora, MI5, MI6, Mountbatten, Anthony Blunt, GCHQ, Private Eye, Private Investigator, Ken Livingstone, Kenneth de Courcy

In a discussion titled "British Intelligence", broadcast on 16 July 1988, the guests included Merlyn Rees, H. Montgomery Hyde and a man called Robert Harbinson, described by Francis Wheen in The Independent newspaper as follows: Robin Bryans, a... travel writer and sometime music teacher who also goes under the names Robert Harbinson and Christopher Graham. (His opponent) is Kenneth de Courcy... who likes to be known as the Duc de Grantmesnil Though both are Irish by birth, both have intelligence connections (Bryans was a friend of Blunt), both are ex- jailbirds and both are – how shall we say? – quite eccentric (Bryans) denounced de Courcy on the Channel 4 programme After Dark. His allegations are too confused (and too libellous) to be summarised here, but names such as Mountbatten, Shackleton, Churchill, Blunt seem to pop up often.

Bryans himself wrote: Before the cameras, we delighted to talk about Adeline de la Feld's family upsetting Mussolini with their writings. I was then asked by Robin Ramsay of the Lobster magazine about my own early writing which he knew about from his co-editor Stephen Dorril who had interviewed me for his book Honeytrap, the sad story of my friend Stephen Ward hounded by the Establishment to suicide in 1963. But the Channel Four masterminds wanted to know about my war activities and the following day Montgomery Hyde, a barrister, phoned me to warn me that a High Court writ was on its way.

S2E22 IT’S A MAD, MAD WORLD?

Transmission Date: 23 July 1988 Subject: Race and Psychiatry Host: Beverly Anderson

Guests: Errol Francis, Anne Newnham, Glynn Harrison, Sashi Sashidharan, Derek Francis, Pamela Taylor, Thomas Szasz

Topics: Shock Treatment, Drugs, Pills, Medication, Talking Therapy, Locked Ward, Diagnosis, Racist

The anti-psychiatrist and author Thomas Szasz in a discussion about racism in psychiatry.

S2E23 SAVE THE WHALE, SAVE THE WORLD?

Transmission Date: 30 July 1988 Subject: Whales and the Environment Host: Roisin McAuley

Guests: Kieran Mulvaney, Heathcote Williams, Petra Kelly, James Lovelock, Tony Ball, C. W. Nicol, Shigeko Misaki

Topics: Animal Rights, Fishing, Green Movement, Japan, Poetry, Greenpeace, Auto Industry, Motor Manufacturing

On 30 July 1988 "After Dark" turned its attention to the whale. One guest, Shigeko Misaki of the Institute of Cetacean Research, subsequently wrote: It might have been the British sense of fair play that required the Japanese views for balance, they asked Mr. C. W. Nicol, the author of "Harpoon," to appear on the show to speak for the Japanese position. Responding to Mr. Nicol's call, I flew to London to appear on the show with him. Several distinguished persons appeared on the program, including Dr. Jim Lovelock, who coined the name Gaia for global environmental crisis; Heathcote Williams, poet and author of "The Whale Nation" enormously popular with young generation of the U.K.; Petra Kelly, then a German parliamentarian of the Green Party; Kieran Mulvaney, then a 17-year-old energetic anti-whaling activist (who later became the spokesman for Greenpeace); and Tony Ball who represented the British motor industry. During the course of the program, I happened to remark on the traditional use of whale baleen plates that is an important part of the respect paid to all parts of the whales caught, using them without waste. I explained that the whale baleen has been used inside the extremely delicate mechanism for the movements of puppets' heads in the traditional Japanese theatrical art called 'bunraku.'

To this, poet Williams responded: "Using a whale product for a puppet show which Japanese call 'culture.' It's unforgivable. Japanese should use plastic." "Bunraku," one of the three most treasured traditional theatrical arts of Japan...apparently meant nothing to one whose life is dedicated to arts of the West.

S2E24 NICARAGUA

Transmission Date: 6 August 1988

Subject: Nicaragua

Host: John Underwood

Guests: John Silber, Alfred Sherman, Roberto Ferrey, Susan Morgan, Bianca Jagger, Amalia Chomarro, Allan Francovich, John Bevan

Topics: Contras, Reagan, Sandinista, The House Are Full of Smoke

John Underwood wrote of the programme broadcast on 6 August 1988: "I recall hosting an edition of... After Dark in which (Bianca Jagger) intellectually crushed Dr John Silber, a senior adviser to Ronald Reagan, and Roberto Ferrey, an apologist for the Contras. Furthermore, she left Sir Alfred Sherman lost for words, a feat rarely achieved before or since."

S2E25 MONEY

Transmission Date: 13 August 1988

Subject: Money

Host: Henry Kelly

Guests: Michael Lee, Owen Oyston, Michael Bassett, Nicholas van Hoogstraten, Marie Jahoda, Hannah Ward, Frances Jankowski

Topics: Ethics, Crime, Gangster, Crook, Justice, Millionaire, Wealth

Rare live appearances by businessmen Nicholas Van Hoogstraten (subsequently convicted in a murder trial) and Owen Oyston (subsequently convicted for sex offences). Also a 'prosperity preacher' and pioneering sociologist Marie Jahoda.

S2E26 BORN TO SERVE?

Transmission Date: 20 August 1988

Subject: Servants

Host: Trevor Hyett

Guests: Peter Clarke, John Cawston, John Rentoul, Eva Figes, Doris Williams, Jessica Mitford, Pamela Hilton, Cora

Topics: Communism, Aristocracy, Hons and Rebels

The rights and wrongs of having servants, with a rare appearance by communist aristocrat Jessica Mitford and Hampstead writer Eva Figes. With Derek Nimmo's butler and political figure Peter Clarke.

S2E27 SENTENCING

Transmission Date: 27 August 1988

Subject: Trial and Law

Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Isobel Brydie, David Napley, Sarah Helm, Michael Argyle, Peter Herbert, John Coker, Vivian Berger

Topics: Judiciary, Law, Freemasonry, 1960s, Hanging, Counterculture, Alternative Press, 1971, Rupert Bear, Schoolboy, Schoolkids, Jeremy Thorpe

With one of the Oz obscenity trial defendants, Vivian Berger, meeting the judge in that case for the first time in 20 years, Michael Argyle. Also black lawyer Peter Herbert and star solicitor Sir David Napley.

S2E28 ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE

Transmission Date: 3 September 1988

Subject: Homeopathic Medicine

Host: Tony Wilson

Guests: Debra Freechild, Ronald Davey, James Randi, Jacques Benveniste, Erica Jones, Walter Stewart, David Reilly, Jonathan Miller

Topics: Science, Double Blind, Nature Magazine, Fringe

In the New Statesman the writer Sean French described "the best moment of my week" occurring at the end of the 3 September 1988 edition: After Dark had been debating the problems of alternative medicine. After a few hours of acrimonious debate, each of the participants was asked to say a few words on what they hoped for the future of medicine. The last comment of all was made by Dr Jonathan Miller. Since he had been the evening's most vociferous opponent of fringe medicine I expected him to deliver a final diatribe. Instead of this, he said he wanted to speak of something which was more important than any kind of medicine delivered on a one-to-one basis:

The main welfare which was ever conferred on the human community was actually by social administration. They were the improvement of drainage, the rationalisation of diet and a humane society, administered by a just and equitable government which actually sees human welfare as being something which has to be honoured according to principles of distributive justice.

Therefore, he concluded, he thought the most pressing need was 'the ousting of this appalling government'

The scientist who claimed that heavily diluted water contained memories of molecules, and that therefore homeopathy was real, Jacques Beneveniste, is confronted by investigators, conjuror and sceptic James Randi and Walter Stewart, who visited his laboratory and found flaws in his research. Also with Jonathan Miller who closes the programme with an attack on the 'appalling' UK government.

S2E29 BLACKLIST?

Transmission Date: 10 September 1988

Subject: The Economic League

Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Harold Musgrove, Hilary Wainwright, Hugo Cornwall, Richard Norton-Taylor, George Brumwell, John Macreadie, Michael Noar

Topics: IRA, Censorship, Worker’s Rights, Trade Unions, Communism, Workplace Infiltration

In place of a planned live discussion with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, this alternative programme discussed the rights and wrongs of the right-wing Economic League, an industrial surveillance and vetting organisation.

S3E1 OUT OF BOUNDS

Transmission Date: 13 May 1989

Subject: Official secrets

Host: John Underwood

Guests: Eddie Chapman, Tony Benn, Lord Dacre, James Rusbridger, Miles Copeland, Anthony Cavendish, Adela Gooch

Topics: Bill of Rights, Intelligence agencies, SIS, MI6, MI5, auto-asphyxiation, Security Service Act 1989, legislation, statutory basis of the UK Security Service, Wilson, Heath, Allende, Official Secrets Act

The first programme of the third series was titled Out of Bounds: "1988 was the year of the tri-centenary of the Bill of Rights, yet in May 1989, in the shadowy studio of Channel 4's After Dark programme, a group of former British and US intelligence agents discussed the merits and evils of new legislation on official secrets. When this legislation completes its processes through Parliament such a gathering is likely to become illegal."

The Financial Times wrote: Channel 4's After Dark triumphantly broke all the rules from the beginning The first of the new series on Saturday proved that the formula is still working extremely well. The subject was official secrecy, and during the course of the night remarks included: "I was in Egypt at the time, plotting the assassination of Nasser" and "Wilson and Heath were destroyed in part by the action of intelligence agents" and (spoken with incredulity) "You mean we shouldn't have got rid of Allende?" The hostility between just two of the participants, which often brings most life to the programme, occurred this time between Tony Benn and ex-CIA man Miles Copeland, and it was the fundamental difference in political outlook between these two which informed the entire discussion. Anyone who regarded Benn as a dangerous "loony leftie" but watched right through until 2.00 may have been astonished at his thoroughly conservative British attitudes.

Tony Benn wrote in his diary, later published as The End of an Era: Saturday 13 May – In the evening I went to take part in this live television programme After Dark with John Underwood in the chair. It was an open-ended discussion which started at about midnight and went on till the early hours. The other participants were the historian Lord Dacre, Eddie Chapman, who had been a double agent during the war, Anthony Cavendish, who is a former MI6 and MI5 officer, Miles Copeland (an ex-CIA man), James Rusbridger, who has worked with MI5 at one stage, and Adela Gooch, a defence journalist from the Daily Telegraph. Every one of them made admissions or came out with most helpful information. I was terribly pleased with it.

The Listener magazine described the programme: The new Official Secrets Act has just received the Queen's assent. This may be the last time for some years that any disclosures can be made on such matters After Dark exists for mysterious reasons, probably something to do with a necessary safety-valve in a climate of increasing pressure on the media Its strength is that it has rescued that endangered species, genuinely spontaneous conversation, and presented it absolutely without frills. It does not have to rely on a presenter or on the glamour of its guests, as other talk shows do. Its force is its unique lack of inhibition in dealing with very controversial issues without exhibitionism...an invaluable programme.

Richard Norton-Taylor reported on guests who did not appear because of concerns about contempt of court: "Michael Randle and Pat Pottle, who admitted helping the spy, George Blake, escape from prison in 1966... have been dropped from the... programme... Mr Randle and Mr Pottle were arrested and released on police bail last week after admitting in a book that they had helped Blake escape." Michael Randle eventually appeared on After Dark, fourteen years later, on 22 March 2003.

S3E2 FOOTBALL - THE FINAL WHISTLE?

Transmission Date: 20 May 1989 Subject: Hillsborough stadium disaster Host: Jancis Robinson

Guests: Peter Garrett, Rhodes Boyson, Garth Crooks, James Delaney, Cass Pennant, Margaret Simey, John Williams, Eileen Delaney

Topics: Bereavement, sudden death, family tragedy, policing, Liverpool, The Sun

On 20 May 1989, shortly after the Hillsborough disaster, After Dark invited bereaved parents to participate, which became a testament to their grief: ... they didn't give the poor people who were killed any dignity...I bent down to kiss and talk to [my son] and as we stood up there was a policeman who came from behind me... trying to usher me and my husband out.... I had to scream at the police officer to allow us privacy... the total attitude was, you've identified number 33 so go!

S3E3 DRUGS - IS BRITAIN CRACKING UP?

Transmission Date: 27 May 1989 Subject: Crack cocaine in the UK Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Blue, Robert Lefever, Nell Campbell, Terry Goddard, "Louise", Margaret White, Allan Parry

Topics: Addiction, drugs, violence, crime, race, jazz, Little Nell, Phoenix Arizona

The Times wrote: The sexiest show of the week by far is After Dark Saturday night's talking point was the demon drug crack, a subject which would normally leave this viewer in a state of lacquered composure. Again, however, one's hackles soon rose and one was up there, punching the air, taking sides. Unfortunately the debate was hijacked by a black musician called 'Blue', who shouted everyone down with non-sequiturs. Eventually he got up and left.

S3E4 BACK IN THE USSR?

Transmission Date: 3 June 1989 Subject: The end of the Soviet Union Host: Professor Anthony Clare

Guests: Mikki Doyle, Vladimir Bukovsky, Denis Healey, Martin Walker, Tatyana Tolstaya, Vitali Vitaliev

Topics: Russia, Human Rights, Psychiatric ward, Tolstoy, Ukraine

The programme the following week was described by ITN as being "about the changes in Soviet Russia. Former communist (and later British Chancellor) Denis Healey; novelist Tatania Tolstoya and other Russians including journalist Vitali Vitaliev and dissident Vladimir Bukovsky." The Communist journal "Unity" later wrote "The last time I saw Bukovsky was on a Channel 4 programme After Dark in which he slaughtered the drinks trolley and got up the nose of the former Labour leader [sic] Denis Healey who seemed to work out pretty early that this bloke was not the best of people."

S3E5 BRITAIN - OUT ON A LIMB?

Transmission Date: 10 June 1989 Subject: The European Union Host: Beverly Anderson

Guests: Peter Ustinov, Kenneth Minogue, Shirley Williams, Richard Perle, Alastair Morton, Josef Joffe, Edward Heath

Topics: EU, British sovereignty, SDP, Special relationship, Eurotunnel, Channel tunnel, “Die Zeit”, UK election 1989

On 10 June 1989 "in the course of a bad-tempered late-night television discussion programme during the European election campaign in June, [former Prime Minister Edward Heath] contemptuously rejected the possibility, posed by the former American Defence Secretary Richard Perle, that the political map of Europe was about to be transformed: 'Does anyone seriously believe that these satellite countries are going to become free democracies and does anyone really believe that Moscow is going to see the disintegration of the Soviet empire?'"

This was the first time a former Prime Minister had appeared on After Dark. Edward Heath was a guest again, on 2 March 1991, discussing the Persian Gulf with Lord Weidenfeld and Adnan Khashoggi.

S3E6 ROCK BOTTOM?

Transmission Date: 17 June 1989

Subject: Music industry

Host: Matthew Parris

Guests: Eartha Kitt, Pauline Black, Simon Napier-Bell, Pat Kane, Imruh Bakari, Jonathan Ashby

Topics: Jazz, rock, pop, Gold Disc, C’est si bon, record producer, Hue and Cry, Caesar

The pop music business with the legendary jazz singer Eartha Kitt in a rare extended appearance, together with pop journalist Pat Kane and others.

S3E7 PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Transmission Date: 24 June 1989

Subject: LGBT

Host: Beverly Anderson

Guests: Ole Espersen, Russell Watkyn, Jo Purvis, Ismond Rosen, Jennie Wilson, Martin Sherman, Ken Skeates

Topics: Conversion therapy, Bent, holocaust, Shoah, gay rights

Gay rights - includes a psychiatrist who believes homosexuality to be an illness.

S3E8 WHAT’S UP DOC?

Transmission Date: 1 July 1989

Subject: NHS

Host: Tony Wilson

Guests: Ivor Daniels, Alex Comfort, James Hammond, Ian McColl, Joanna Trowell, David Widgery, Jane Rosbotham

Topics: Health rationing, National Health Service, medicine, medics, doctors

The medical profession, including a rare appearance by radical GP David Widgery and the author of 'The Joy of Sex', Alex Comfort.

S3E9 WHO DARES WINS?

Transmission Date: 8 July 1989

Subject: Gambling

Host: Matthew Parris

Guests: Frederick Martens, Tony Colston-Hayter, Victor Lownes, 'Dougie', Mary-Ann Hushlak, Bishop of Willesden, David Berglas, Al Alvarez

Topics: Gaming, casinos, Acid house, hacking, banks, fraud, Sunrise, Weekend World

Gambling discussed by a professional blackjack player, the former boss of the Playboy Club in London Victor Lownes, the poet and poker player Al Alvarez, the conjuror and former President of the Magic Circle David Berglas - as well as the Bishop of Willesden.

S3E10 SCHOOL’S OUT

Transmission Date: 15 July 1989

Subject: Education (discussed by teenagers) Host: Professor Anthony Clare

Guests: Robert Munks, Adae Whitcombe, Sonia Leiper, Darren Brind, Nadeem Inayat, Paula McNamara, Kieran Clifton

Topics: Happiest days of our lives

An unusual After Dark, in that all participants are teenagers, discussing the education system. The guests include Nadeem Inayat (from Bradford), Robert Munks (6th former), Kieran Clifton (old Etonian), Adae Whitcombe (university hopeful), Paula McNamara (revolutionary communist), Darren Brind (city jobber) and Sonia Leiper (drop-out).

S3E11 THE COST OF DIVORCE

Transmission Date: 22 July 1989

Subject: Divorce

Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Denis Cooper, Marvin Mitchelson, George MacBeth, Sue Stapely, Gill Cooper, Elizabeth Browne, George Brown

Topics: Poetry, marriage, civil partnership

US celebrity lawyer Marvin Mitchelson (who successfully argued in 1976 that unmarried partners could receive 'palimony') discusses divorce with poet George MacBeth.

S3E12 WHAT IS THERE TO BELIEVE IN?

Transmission Date: 29 July 1989

Subject: Religion

Host: Tony Wilson

Guests: Lynette Burrows, Steven Rose, David Holloway, Frank Cioffi, The Bishop of Durham, Dorothy Rowe, Michael Bentine

Topics: Belief, Easter, science, neuroscience, sceptic, skeptic, philosophy, Church of England, psychology, depression, Peru, Victoria Gillick

Religious faith, with David Jenkins, Bishop of Durham, as well as a rare serious appearance by former Goon Michael Bentine.

S3E13 GERMANY - 50 YEARS ON

Transmission Date: 2 September 1989

Subject: The anniversary of the start of the Second World War

Host: Professor Anthony Clare

Guests: Amity Shlaes, Reinhard Spitzy, Albert Friedlander, Christof Wackernagel [de], Donald Cameron Watt, Franz Schoenhuber, Jozef Garlinski

Topics: WW2, WWII, Shoah, Germans, radical press, Baader-Meinhof, Hitler, revisionist, revisionism, concentration camp survivor; German Republican party

In his book A Thread of Gold the Rabbi Albert Friedlander describes his participation in the After Dark discussion held on the 50th anniversary of the start of the Second World War: I had a strange and almost traumatic encounter with some Germans of the type I had basically avoided.... I was asked to join Christof Wackernagel [de], a former Baader-Meinhof actor and poet... a Herr Spitzi from Austria who was a "revisionist" historian and questioned whether a Holocaust had in fact happened; a camp survivor; a Wall Street Journal writer; a psychiatrist; and Franz Schoenhuber, head of the new Republican party in Germany At least three times during the long night I excused myself and marched out of the TV studio, into the street, to breathe fresh air.

S3E14 SUPERPOWERS - ALL IN THE MIND

Transmission Date: 9 September 1989

Subject: Psychics

Host: Tony Wilson

Guests: Martin Israel, Ivy Northage, James Randi, Athena Pattengill, Stephen O'Brien, Susan Blackmore

Topics: Fraud, phoney mediums, trance, skeptic, sceptic, sceptical, paranormal

The supernatural, featuring spirit medium Stephen O'Brien, a rare appearance by the doctor and Anglican mystic Martin Israel, and sceptics James Randi and Susan Blackmore.

S3E15 WHAT DO WE DO WITH SEX OFFENDERS?

Transmission Date: 16 September 1989

Subject: Paedophilia

Host: Helena Kennedy

Guests: Gerald Silverman, John Coker, Ray Wyre, 'Peter', Maurice White, Nell McCafferty, Michael Bettsworth

Topics: Chemical castration, LGBT, Women’s Liberation, feminism, crime, prison

Early TV discussion about paedophiles with a perpetrator, a victim and representatives of various treatments, including a psychiatrist who recommends castration.

S3E16 FREUD - 50 YEARS ON

Transmission Date: 23 September 1989

Subject: Freud

Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Donald Reeves, Jeffrey Masson, Hans Lobner, Stuart Sutherland, Isabel Menzies Lyth, Ralph Steadman, Anna Raeburn

Topics: Fraud, Assault on Truth, mental illness, depression, satire, Freud Museum, Melanie Klein

On the anniversary of Freud's death, author and star Freud sceptic Jeffrey Masson meets a psychoanalyst, cartoonist Ralph Steadman, agony aunt Anna Raeburn and a psychologist Stuart Sutherland who wrote about his own breakdown. Explosive.

S3E17 BODY BEAUTIFUL - WHAT DO WE WANT?

Transmission Date: 30 September 1989

Subject: Body image

Host: Sheena McDonald

Guests: Mandy Mudd, Nabil Shaban, Dee Wells, Arthur Marwick, Molly Parkin, Zoe Warwick, Suzanne Younger

Topics: Sex, fat lib, Fat Woman's Group, Miss United Kingdom, steroids, Beauty in History, History of Human Beauty, disability, disabled

Later in September 1989, the Evening Standard said "After Dark 'provided us with the best talk, entertainment and drama of the weekend, when a group sat down to discuss the Body Beautiful. On one seat sat Mandy Mudd, representing the London Fat Woman's Group Strategically seated next to her on the sofa was the exquisite Suzanne Younger, Miss United Kingdom The most impressive guests were Molly Parkin, who asked all the right questions; ex-body builder Zoe Warwick, whose perceptiveness and incisive comments kept opening up new areas of discussion; and Professor Arthur Marwick, who had to bear the brunt of everyone's criticism and abuse Ms Mudd and disabled actor Nabil Shaban shouted him down."

A columnist in The Times, Barbara Amiel, wrote "A very fat lady and a deformed man (told) a beauty queen that her looks were 'boring'. Any suggestion that she was beautiful, they explained, was simply a reflex of a conditioned and oppressed culture. My outrage at this nonsense was tempered by the inability of the beauty queen to do much more than squeak."

S3E18 DEATH PENALTY

Transmission Date: 7 October 1989

Subject: Death Penalty

Host: Professor Anthony Clare

Guests: Sean O'Dochartaigh, Syd Dernley, Dorothea Morefield, Evelyn Ann Theobald, Peter Thornton, Michael Argyle, Guy Rais

Topics: Hanging, capital punishment, terrorism, crime, criminal

A week later, on 7 October 1989, "a hangman (Syd Dernley) declared, in the presence of a judge yearning for the return of the death penalty (Michael Argyle), that if authorised he would happily kill another guest, a former IRA man (Sean O'Dochartaigh)".

S3E19 ETHIOPIA

Transmission Date: 14 October 1989 Subject: Eritrean war of independence Host: John Underwood

Guests: Mark Bowden, Mary Dines, Richard Balfe, Berhane Ghebrehiwot, Rebecca Asrate, Peter Bauer, Charles Stewart, Abadi Zemo

Topics: Jimmy Carter, peace talks, UN, United Nations, TPLF

Shortly before the dramatic outbreak of violence in Eritrea, a group looks at the situation in the region. Includes a rare appearance by a ferocious opponent of all government aid, Lord Bauer.

S3E20 THE ROYAL FAMILY - DALLAS OR PALACE?

Transmission Date: 21 October 1989

Subject: Monarchy

Host: Tony Wilson

Guests: Edgar Wilson, Andrew Morton, Archduke Karl von Habsburg, Peregrine Worsthorne, Gwyn Fitch, Peter Russell, Rhoda Koenig

Topics: Monarchy, monarchist, royalty, republicanism

On 21 October Tony Wilson hosted a discussion about royalty with, among others, Andrew Morton, Peregrine Worsthorne and Archduke Karl von Habsburg. The Irish Independent wrote that Worsthorne "likened meeting the Queen Mother to meeting Einstein". A unique English-language appearance by the man who would be the Austrian Emperor.

S3E21 MEN AND WOMEN: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Transmission Date: 28 October 1989 Subject: Sex and gender difference Host: Matthew Parris

Guests: Mary Stott, Maria Scherer, Malcolm Bennett, Hans Eysenck, Helen Haste, David Stayt, Xaviera Hollander

Topics: IQ, Guardian women’s page, feminism, feminist, sex, prostitute, prostitution, call girl, madam, genetics, Brute

On 28 October 1989, during a discussion on differences between men and women with among others Mary Stott and Hans Eysenck, one guest, Malcolm Bennett, "successfully propositioned the Happy Hooker author Xaviera Hollander, and the pair walked off the live set to continue their discourse privately."

S3E22 WHAT MAKES OUR MPs RUN?

Transmission Date: 4 November 1989

Subject: Politician’s lives

Host: Trevor Hyett

Guests: David Lewis, Ken Livingstone, Andrew Roth, 'Barbara', Edwina Currie, Julia Langdon, Julia Stonehouse

Topics: Parliament, GLC, newts, Parliamentary Profiles, salmonella, eggs

A week later, on "the night of 4th November 1989 the politician Edwina Currie appeared, truly live and unconstrained, on After Dark, while at exactly the same time the BBC transmitted her appearance on another programme (Saturday Matters) recorded earlier but as usual announced as "live". After Dark had fun with Currie's apparent bilocation and the clash of realities". The Newcastle Journal reported that "An angry lady called her 'a conceited witch' and hoped she would never set eyes on her again". The daughter of the disgraced MP John Stonehouse meets Ken Livingstone and Edwina Currie, as well as a rare public appearance by Andrew Roth whose well-researched guide to the House of Commons made him many enemies among its members.

S3E23 WAR AND PEACE

Transmission Date: 11 November 1989

Subject: Pacifism

Host: Professor Anthony Clare

Guests: Father Owen Hardwicke, Scilla Elworthy, Anthony Farrar-Hockley, Jean Ward, Major the Rev'd David Cooper, Wade Tidbury, Arthur Moyse

Topics: Pacifist, Oxford Research Group, NATO, general, IRA, mercenary

Peace campaigning, with CND, the vicar of Eton (who is also a soldier), and various soldiers and killers.

S3E24 SPACE: HOW FAR SHOULD WE GO?

Transmission Date: 18 November 1989

Subject: Space

Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Heinz Wolff, Stephen Donnelly, Buzz Aldrin, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Whitley Strieber, Ian Watson, Tom Wilkie

Topics: alien abduction, NASA, space programme, man on the moon, Apollo 11, Great Egg Race, Neil Armstrong, pulsar

Author Whitley Streiber, who says he was abducted by aliens, meets astronaut Buzz Aldrin who only got as far as the moon.

S3E25 SHALL WE LIVE IN SOUTH AFRICA?

Transmission Date: 25 November 1989

Subject: Living in South Africa

Host: Professor Anthony Clare

Guests: Lady Bernard, Zoe Wicomb, Abdullah Ibrahim, Donald Woods, Matthew Oliphant, Shula Marks, John Nash, Mike Ramsay

Topics: Rand, anti-apartheid, Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela

The apartheid South African government made it very cheap for people to emigrate to their country. A man from the UK who intends to do this is introduced to some people from South Africa who tell him what he can expect. With newspaper editor Donald Woods, socialite Lady Bernard, and Abdullah Ibrahim, once known as 'Dollar Brand', who closes the programme with an extended jazz impro on piano.

S3E26 TERRORISM

Transmission Date: 1 December 1989

Subject: Terrorism

Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Ariel Merari, Yehudi Menuhin, Fred Holroyd, Richard Clutterbuck, Michael Opperskalski, Jillian Becker, Gordon Liddy

Topics: MOSSAD, Northern Ireland, IRA, Lockerbie, hostage, terrorist

Rare appearances by Watergate conspirator Gordon Liddy, controversial intelligence specialist Fred Holroyd and Israeli academic Aerial Merari who specialises in the study of terrorism. Also with Lord Menuhin, discussing how he was himself a victim of terrorism.

S4E1 ARMS AND THE GULF

Transmission Date: 12 January 1991

Subject: The first Gulf War

Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Tam Dalyell, Bruce Hemmings, Robert Jarman, James Lunt, Joey Martyn–Martin, Adel Darwish, Rana Kabbani

Topics: Middle East, Arms Deal, Arms Dealing, Holy Babylon, Arab Legion, "A Letter To Christendom", Syria, Ministry of Defence

In the run-up to the 1991 Gulf War After Dark discusses who will profit from the arms trade. With whistle-blowing CIA operations officer Bruce Hemmings and arms dealer Joey Martyn-Martin (who makes disobliging comments about Mark Thatcher, son of the then Prime Minister).

S4E2 SURVIVAL - AT WHAT COST?

Transmission Date: 19 January 1991

Subject: Survival

Host: Professor Anthony Clare

Guests: Sheila Cassidy, Richard Morefield, Brummie Stokes, Hugo Gryn, Karma Nabulsi, Monica McKibbin

Topics: Tehran, Muslim, Hostage, Islamist, Concentration Camp, PLO, Everest

As the 1991 Gulf War begins, a group of survivors discuss their feelings - with a powerful appearance by Auschwitz survivor Rabbi Hugo Gryn (now deceased) and Sheila Cassidy, tortured by Chileans while General Pinochet was in power. Gryn's daughter wrote: "At first Hugo and another guest, Karma Nabulsi, a representative of the PLO, seemed hostile to one another, but before long they were giggling like old friends".

S4E3 DO MEN HAVE TO BE VIOLENT?

Transmission Date: 26 January 1991

Subject: Violence

Host: Helena Kennedy

Guests: Antoinette Giancana, Neil Lyndon, Keith Simpson, Arthur Hyatt Williams, Oliver Reed, Kate Millett, Elliott Leyton

Topics: Alcohol, Drunk, Drink, Drinking, Addiction, Mafia, Men’s Movement, Serial Killing, Murder, Homicide, FBI, Feminism, Militarism, Gender stereotypes

After the announcement that women in the British Army would serve on the front line for the first time, this is the After Dark everyone remembers. The programme was taken off the air because Channel 4 was fooled by a hoax phone call and from which Oliver Reed was later asked to leave. With lesbian feminist Kate Millett and anthropologist and expert on serial killers Elliott Leyton. Reed was there because he had that week won a court case against a newspaper which had falsely alleged he beat his wife. Reed drank alcohol during the broadcast; he referred to another member of the panel, who had a moustache, as "tache" and used offensive language. After one hour Reed returned from the toilet and, getting more to drink, rolled on top of the noted feminist author Kate Millett, who then complained (though she later asked for a tape of the show to entertain her friends). A member of the production team later wrote that Reed "got famously sloshed but perhaps not quite as much as viewers may have thought (or as other guests had been – the drinking record was held by philosopher A. J. Ayer)".

S4E4 COUNTING THE COST OF A FREE PRESS

Transmission Date: 2 February 1991

Subject: Press, Journalism

Host: Helena Kennedy

Guests: Duncan Campbell, Lord Lambton, Gordon Winter, Jane Moore, Clare Short, Anthony Howard

Topics: Norma Levy, Scandal, Fleet Street, News of the World, Prostitution

Rare appearances by politician Lord Lambton, the former agent of BOSS, the South African security services, Gordon Winter, and Duncan Campbell, a journalist specialising in security. Also features an early appearance of now celebrated newspaper figure Jane Moore. Journalist Anthony Howard wonders why, if Clare Short MP is so worried about press intrusion into her private affairs, she volunteered to discuss them on the radio programme 'In the Psychiatrists Chair'.

S4E5 ABORTION

Transmission Date: 9 February 1991

Subject: Abortion

Host: Anthony Holden

Guests: Helen Brook, Michael Chapman, John Finnis, Wendy Savage, Alison Davis, Angela Farley, Mary Kenny

Topics: CONTRACEPTION, MEDICAL ETHICS, CATHOLICISM, BROOK ADVISORY CENTRES, PHILOSOPHY, WOMEN’S RIGHTS, FEMINISM, IRISH WOMEN’S LIBERATION MOVEMENT

Lady Helen Brook, founder of the family planning clinics which bear her name, in a rare appearance, together with the feminist doctor Wendy Savage, Catholic academic John Finnis and Catholic writer Mary Kenny who had an abortion when young.

S4E6 SEXAHOLICS

Transmission Date: 16 February 1991

Subject: Sex addiction

Host: Kay Avila

Guests: Dirg Aab-Richards, Colin Brewer, Charlotte Davis Kasl, Corky McGuinness, Michael Seed, 'Jackie', 'Mike'

Topics: 12-Step Program, Recovery, Prostitute, Psychiatrist, LGBT, Catholic Priest, Music History, Feminism

Sex addiction discussed by a monk and others.

S4E7 PRISONS NO WAY OUT

Transmission Date: 23 February 1991

Subject: The Prison System

Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Theodore Dalrymple, Paul Dolese, Sheila Heather-Hayes, Tony Lambrianou, Joe Whitty, Taki Theodoracopolous, Mary Eaton, Jim Wood

Topics: Coke, Drugs, The Spectator, Kray Twins, The Firm, Jack McVictie, Anthony Daniels

The need for prison reform. Rare live appearance by socialite writer Taki Theodoracopolous, who admits he deserved his prison sentence for cocaine possession. Another striking guest is Tony Lambrianou, who served 15 years for his part in the murder of Jack (the Hat) McVictie.

S4E8 THE GULF - COUNTING THE COST

Transmission Date: 2 March 1991 Subject: Trading with the Middle East Host: John Plender

Guests: Adnan Al-Bahar, Chris Cowley, Edward Heath, Robert McGeehan, Lord Weidenfeld, Mona Bauwens, Adnan Khashoggi

Topics: Saudi Arabia, Supergun, Gerald Bull, Project Babylon, Iraq, Gerald James, Matrix Churchill

The only live TV appearance by billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, together with a confrontation between Lord Weidenfeld and David Mellor's friend Mona Bauwens (daughter of a senior PLO figure). Also on the programme Chris Cowley, implicated in the Iraqi supergun affair and former Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath.

S4E9 AFTER ROCHDALE

Transmission Date: 9 March 1991 Subject: Satanic Ritual Child Abuse Host: Tony Wilson

Guests: Beatrix Campbell, Andy Croall, Her Honour Jean Graham Hall, Sherrill Mulhern, John Shirley, Deborah Cameron, Wendy Lindsay, Bill Thompson

Topics: LGBT, Satanism, Care proceedings, RSSPCC, NSPCC, the Northern Constabulary, social worker, Orkney Islands, MPD, disclosure therapy, ritual child abuse, NALGO, born-again Christian

Following the sex abuse allegations in Rochdale, a member of the Christians in Caring Professions Andy Croall (who was Deputy Director of Nottingham social services) claimed on this programme that abortion was the biggest form of child abuse, a claim which led to his dismissal. Also anthropologist Sherill Mulhern who debunks claims of ritual satanic child abuse in the presence of a self-professed victim.

S4E10 THE LUCK OF THE IRISH?

Transmission Date: 16 March 1991 Subject: The Republic of Ireland Host: Trevor Hyett

Guests: Father Patrick Buckley, Patrick Cosgrave, J. P. Donleavy, David Norris, Emily O'Reilly, Paul Hill, Ethel Smith, Francis Stuart

Topics: Blarney, Leprechaun, The Ginger Man, Guildford Four, Nazi, Black List Section, Ombudsman

St Patrick's Day, with a rare appearance by novelist J. P. Donleavy and the recently freed Paul Hill.

S4E11 WHAT SHOULD TEACHERS LEARN?

Transmission Date: 23 March 1991

Subject: Education

Host: Professor Anthony Clare

Guests: Peter Davies, Annis Garfield, Steve McCarthy, Zoe Readhead, Catherine Finnan, James Harries, Russell Profitt, Eleanor MacDonald

Topics: CHILD PRODIGY, LGBT, TRANS, A.S.NEILL, Southwark, SCHOOL

Alternatives within the education system. Best remembered for the extended appearance by the precocious child capitalist, the 12-year-old James Harries (who subsequently had gender reassignment surgery), who took on a panel of teachers, including Zoe Redhead, head of Summerhill, a school where children make their own rules.

The New Statesman described the programme broadcast on 23 March 1991: James Harries, aged 12, sat perched forward on the edge of his seat, dwarfed by the upholstery that threatened to devour both him and his blonde mop of frizzy curls. Annis (Garfield) was too busy pouring wine to notice anything more than where the next bottle was coming from. And when Peter (Davies) was not receiving a refill, he was lighting up another cigarette and attacking anything that smacked of tolerance. This bizarre trio transformed a potentially tedious After Dark into the most extraordinary three hours of television all week Anthony Clare in the chair had an enormously difficult job. "I've chaired many After Dark discussions," he said, "and we've had politicians, sexologists but I've never seen any group of people less willing to listen to each other's point of view." Thank heaven, in all this, for Russell Profitt (deputy director of education in Southwark) and Zoe Readhead (daughter of A.S. Neill, and head teacher at Summerhill).

S4E12 WHO BELIEVES IN MIRACLES

Transmission Date: 31 March 1991

Subject: Catholicism

Host: Tony Wilson

Guests: Ann Diamond, Prof Teddy Hall, Barbara Smoker, Matthew Fox, Tom Wright, Hyam Maccoby, Ian Wilson

Topics: Piltdown Man, National Secular Society, LGBT, Euthanasia, Dignity in dying, Humanism, Historical Jesus, Jesus: The Evidence

Easter programme, with radical Catholic priest Matthew Fox in a rare appearance, Turin shroud researcher Ian Wilson, the scientist Teddy Hall and atheist campaigner Barbara Smoker.

S4E13 SERIAL SUCCESS

Transmission Date: 6 April 1991

Subject: Serial Killers

Host: Matthew Parris

Guests: Jeremy Coid, Stefan Jaworzyn, Detective Ray Pierce, Michael Winner, Catherine Itzin, John Sutcliffe, Helen Zahavi

Topics: Parenting, Psychiatry, Death wish, Dirty weekend, Murder, Broadmoor hospital, Peter Sutcliffe, Sonia Sutcliffe

The only footage of the father of the Yorkshire Ripper, John Sutcliffe, who discusses his son with a psychiatrist, an FBI investigator and Michael Winner, friend of the police and maker of films about serial killers.

Today described the programme broadcast on 6 April 1991: The Yorkshire Ripper may have turned killer because he was forced to wear short trousers as a child, his father claimed yesterday. Young Peter Sutcliffe was humiliated by being the only boy in his school wearing them, John Sutcliffe said on television. "Looking back, it was terrible we made the poor devil wait all that time," Mr Sutcliffe said.... "We were very unjust to him". Mr Sutcliffe... admitted he had never visited his son since his transfer to top security Broadmoor hospital – on the orders of the Ripper's wife Sonia Sutcliffe He said Sonia was "extremely strange" but added: "There's nothing I would do to come between them if they feel that way."

S5E1 BLOODY BOSNIA

Transmission Date: 7 August 1993

Subject: The war in Bosnia

Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Fitzroy Maclean, Nikola Koljević, Gordana Knezević, Melanie McDonagh, Sean Gervasi, Amela, Branka Magas

Topics: Yugoslavia, Partisans, Balkans, James Bond, Serbia, Serbs, Muslims, Croatia, Concentration camps, President Kennedy, JFK

In 1993 The Independent magazine wrote of the first After Dark special, broadcast as part of the Channel 4 season Bloody Bosnia:

Among those taking part was Nikola Koljević, the vice-president of the so-called Serbian Republic of Bosnia. Among those opposing him, and arguing for a multi-ethnic, non-nationalist Bosnia...were a Croatian historian, a Serb newspaper editor and a Muslim refugee.

During the programme viewers saw "Koljević admit Serb concentration camps in Bosnia". Also present was Sir Fitzroy Maclean, in his last TV appearance, who was the British liaison to Josip Broz Tito's Partisans in World War II.

S5E2 BRAVE NEW WORLD

Transmission Date: 30 May 1994

Subject: IVF

Host: Sheena McDonald

Guests: Tom Shakespeare, Lewis Wolpert, Anthony Fisher, Adrienne Asch, Germaine Greer, Brian Richards, Robert Winston, Claire Austin

Topics: Achondroplasia, Catholicism, Surrogacy

Bioethics and genetic experimentation discussed by disability activist Tom Shakespeare who does not call himself a dwarf, Germaine Greer and Robert Winston in an early TV appearance. Claire Austin, one of the world's first surrogate mothers, was also present.

S5E3 IRELAND: SEX & CELIBACY, CHURCH & STATE

Transmission Date: 21 January 1995 Subject: Abuse and the Irish Catholic Church Host: Helena Kennedy

Guests: Garret FitzGerald, Gabriel Daly, Tom Stack, Eddie Humphries, Helena O'Donoghue, Emily O'Reilly, Mary Kenny, Richard Sipe, Sinéad O'Connor

Topics: Sexual Abuse, Childhood, Priests, Bishops, Taoiseach, Dominican, Abuse scandals, Ireland, Contraception, Divorce, Fine Gael, Feminist, Feminism

The sex abuse allegations in the Irish Catholic church, discussed by former Prime Minister Garret Fitzgerald. Shortly before the end of the programme Sinead O'Connor, having watched the programme and felt she should be on it, walks in on the discussion.

Host Helena Kennedy described the event: On that occasion, former taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald, was sharing the sofas with a Dominican monk and a representative of the Catholic church. "While we were on the air, Sinéad O'Connor called in," says Kennedy. "Then I got a message in my earpiece to say she had just turned up at the studio. Sinéad came on and argued that abuse in families was coded in by the church because it refused to accept the accounts of women and children." But O'Connor's intervention was not all that pleased her that night. For Kennedy, herself from Irish Catholic stock, the real merit of the programme was the way the abuse scandals led into a wider debate, and a bigger picture of the social changes taking place in Ireland at the time, which were challenging teaching on contraception and divorce, and the traditional deference to the church. "It was more than a discussion of child sex abuse," she says. "You could see a new Ireland coming into being."

S5E4 LETHAL JUSTICE

Transmission Date: 17 August 1995

Subject: Capital Punishment

Host: John Underwood

Guests: June Homer, James Grigson, Norman Parker, Norman Brennan, Hanna Segal, Don Cabana, Clive Stafford Smith

Topics: Electric chair, Lethal Injection, Murder, Victim, Criminal Justice, Mississippi, executioner, Gas chamber Psychoanalysis

The ethics of the death penalty, with a US prison governor and British death row lawyer Clive Stafford Smith in a rare extended appearance.

The Glasgow Herald wrote of the After Dark special broadcast on 17 August 1995: The debate on judicial murder looked to be going nowhere. Positions were settled, opinions fixed. A defence lawyer, a policeman, a psychologist, a convicted murderer and a victim's widow were arrayed before us, each saying exactly what was expected of them. Then a fat, smiling American spoke. This was Don Cabana, a professor of Criminal Justice from Mississippi but once a prison governor and once, indeed, an executioner. Quietly, and with some effort, he described exactly what happens when cyanide is released into the chamber, when the gas touches the skin, when the convulsions and the soiling begins, and how it all affects those whose job it is to carry out the orders of the state It was a simple, unvarnished account, and the most riveting piece of television this week.

S5E5 THE PRICE OF LIFE

Transmission Date: 28 May 1996

Subject: Cancer treatment

Host: Professor Ian Kennedy

Guests: Roger Gould, Julian Tudor Hart, Martin Israel, Richard Nicholson, Ron Zimmern, Paige Sipes Metzler, Marion Harris

Topics: Leukaemia, Treatment, Cancer, Healthcare, Remission, Medical Ethics

The case of Child B - a girl called Jaymee Bowen who had Leukaemia. Her condition became acute and she was refused treatment by specialists on the grounds that it would be unpleasant and almost certainly ineffective. Her father sought other opinions and found a private consultant prepared to treat her, but the Health Authority (Cambridge) refused to pay for the expensive treatment. The father challenged the decision in the High Court, and he won but the decision was overturned on appeal. Jaymee went into remission but died a few months later, just before this live debate. With a representative from the Cambridge Health Authority who stood up for the decision and Richard Nicholson, editor of Bulletin of Medical Ethics.

S5E6 AFTER DIANA

Transmission Date: 13 September 1997 Subject: The Death of Lady Diana Spencer Host: Helena Kennedy

Guests: Beatrix Campbell, Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, Victoria Mitford, Frank Prochaska, George Monbiot, Frank McQuerins, Claus von Bülow

Topics: Republicanism, Paparazzi, Sunny

Shortly after the death of Princess Diana, Beatrix Campbell speculated about Diana's life. Historian and royalist Frank Prochaska comments that there were not three people in her marriage but four, as Bea was obviously there as well. Unique appearance by the controversial Claus von Bulow, recently acquitted of poisoning his wife.

S5E7 ABORTION - WHOSE CHOICE?

Transmission Date: 1 November 1997

Subject: Abortion

Host: John Underwood

Guests: Gerard Casey, Bernard Nathanson, John Parsons, John Harris, Josephine Barnes, Fay Weldon, Sarah Walsh

Topics: Peter Singer

Features an extended appearance by a former leading abortionist in the US, Dr. Bernard Nathanson, now a campaigner against abortion. Also Dame Josephine Barnes and novelist Fay Weldon.

S6E1 IRAQ AND OIL

Transmission Date: 22 February 2003

Subject: The Second Gulf War

Host: Tony Wilson

Guests: Jonathan Aitken, Ray Leonard, Hannah Sell, Colleen Graffy, Miriam, Norah Sabri, Nabil Musawi, Robert Mabro

Topics: Prison, Big oil, Republicans Abroad, Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, Opec, Thatcher

Discussion of 2003 Iraq war – with disgraced politician Jonathan Aitken

S6E2 CHILD PROTECTION: HOW FAR SHOULD WE GO?

Transmission Date: 1 March 2003

Subject: Paedophilia

Host: Helena Kennedy

Guests: Esther Rantzen, Tom O'Carroll, Bill Thompson, June Taylor, Jeremy Coid, Peter Garsden, Christian Wolmar

Topics: Abuse, Victim, Rape, NSPCC, PIE, Paedophile Information Exchange, Sex with children, Age of consent, "boy love”, That’s Life, Psychiatry

A lifelong paedophile (Tom O’Carroll) defends himself against a panel including campaigner and TV star Esther Rantzen.

The Guardian described the show: Tom O'Carroll... argues that sex with children is not harmful The 56-year-old is Ireland's most notorious paedophile. He moved to Leamington Spa in 1972 where he established the Paedophile Information Exchange (which) called for the open discussion of paedophilia and the abolition of laws against consensual sexual acts between children and adults. And the "boy lover" – as he calls himself – has addressed international conferences across the globe and written a book justifying the behaviour of those who prey on children. Mr O'Carroll and five other members of the exchange were convicted for "conspiring to corrupt public morals" in the 1980s by publishing a magazine advocating sex with children. He joined the After Dark panel for a discussion on paedophilia and child protection. Also on the panel were high profile child protection campaigner Esther Rantzen, lawyer Helena Kennedy QC, a former abuse victim, a criminologist, a solicitor and two academics. The BBC defended the decision to give a platform to Mr O'Carroll, saying he was invited on as part of a legitimate discussion about a topical issue."

S6E3 TERRORISM: WHO WINS?

Transmission Date: 8 March 2003

Subject: Terrorism

Host: Professor Sir Ian Kennedy

Guests: Albie Sachs, Mohammad al-Massari, Jim Swire, Silke Maier-Witt, Michael Swetnam, David Shayler

Topics: Baader-Meinhof, Saudi Arabia, Al-Qaeda, Lockerbie, MI5, Trans, September 11TH, Iraq War

South African judge and activist Albie Sachs who lost an arm in a car bomb and controversial ex-MI5 officer David Shayler confront a member of the Baader Meinhof terror gang and a London-based physicist who speaks in favour of the terrorist actions behind 9/11. The one-time Baader-Meinhof terrorist Silke Maier-Witt confessed she could no longer remember why she had done what she did.

S6E4 STOP THE WAR?

Transmission Date: 22 March 2003

Subject: Political Protest

Host: Sheena McDonald

Guests: Michael Randle, Lord Hannay, Alice Nutter, Ruth Wedgwood, Ken O'Keefe, Tony Robinson, Robert Fox, Daniel Mason

Topics: PLO, Gulf War, Iraq War, Human shield, March, Marches

Discussion on the widespread protests against the 2003 Iraq war. Includes a rare appearance by the man who helped Russian spy George Blake escape from Britain.

S6E5 IRAQ – TRUTH AND LIES?

Transmission Date: 29 March 2003

Subject: Iraq War

Host: John Underwood

Guests: Saad Hattar, Corinne Souza, Gerald James, David Gore-Booth, Jenny Moore, Haitham Rashid Al-Withaib, Yosri Fouda

Topics: Matrix Churchill, Saddam Hussein

In the week of the military invasion of Iraq the daughter of an Iraqi spy confronts a senior British diplomat and the man at the heart of the Supergun scandal.

THE SECRET CABARET

Entertainment and magic series.

Each programme revolved around a theatre-based show presented by Simon Drake and Ricky Jay and

featuring illusions performed by Drake in various guises (which owed much to punk and heavy metal ).

The styling of the show was dark and mysterious with some elements that reflected goth subculture .

These sections were often embellished with realistic looking blood and gore reminiscent of the infamous

performances of Peruvian magician Richiardi Jr .

A substantial part of the running time of the show was given over to guest performers and various filmed

items, ranging from archive footage to close-up presentations or exposures of scams and swindles.

Simon Drake said: "On television in the UK then were Wayne Dobson and Paul Daniels, but they didn’t

appeal to me. I wanted to see something darker, more fast-paced and rock-and-roll, more sexy, more

weird."

Sleight-of-hand magician Ricky Jay made special appearances in each show and was credited as a

writer. Also credited as a writer was poet and playwright Heathcote Williams . Noted illusion designer Jim

Steinmeyer was credited as one of the producers.

Regular guests included magicians James Randi , Geno Munari , Max Maven and David Berglas and

reformed fraudster turned security expert Frank Abagnale . This was a decade before Abagnale became

world-famous through the 2002 bio-pic Catch Me If You Can produced by Steven Spielberg.

S1E1

Transmission Date: 9 January 1990

Guests: Contortionist Rocky Rendall, Ghost hunter Tony Ehlert and Knife jugglers Carletti & Belle

S1E2

Transmission Date: 16 January 1990

Guests: Mike Comerford, Mark Raffles and Fluke.

S1E3

Transmission Date: 23 January 1990

Guests: Les Hilton, strongwoman Jeanin Lionet, Tony Andruzzi , Stromboli and John Gaughan .

S1E4

Transmission Date: 30 January 1990

Guests: Bartschelly, Jenny Randles and John Gaughan

S1E5

Transmission Date: 6 February 1990

Guests: Trapeze artist Sue Brent, Charlie Marsden & Lloyd Williams, vaudevillian Jay Marshall ,

escapologist Alan Alan and vampire hunter Sean Manchester

S1E6

Transmission Date: 13 February 1990

Guests: Watt the Man, Normando Rojas, Tony Andruzzi and Rocky Rendall

S2E1

Transmission Date: 15 January 1992

Guests: Matthew Gryczan, Jeanie, Named Seuqcaj and Enrica

S2E2

Transmission Date: 22 January 1992

Guests: Tkach, Charles Black, Snake Lady and La Dorinalle

S2E3

Transmission Date: 29 January 1992

Guests: Stevie Starr , Len Di Maggio and Staubertis

S2E4

Transmission Date: 5 February 1992

Guests: Max Oscar, Bessie Standing, Matthew Gryczan and Named Seuqcaj & Belle

S2E5

Transmission Date: 12 February 1992

Guests: Elvis Mokko, Tony Zavosky, Anne Marie Bates and David Benn

S2E6

Transmission Date: 19 February 1992

Guests: The Mandragores, Percilla & Emmitt Bejano, Jonny King , and Matthew Gryczan

Topics: Magic • Magician • Illusions • Illusionist • Conjuring • Conjuror • Trick • Con • Sideshows • Fraud •

Confidence tricks • Stunts • Scams • Swindles • Sleight-of-hand • Heathcote Williams • Jim

Steinmeyer • James Randi • Geno Munari • Max Maven • David Berglas • Frank Abagnale • Catch Me

If You Can • Steven Spielberg • Contortionist Rocky Rendall • Ghost hunter Tony Ehlert • Knife

jugglers Carletti & Belle • Pickpocket Mark Raffles • Strongwoman Jeanin Lionet • Fire-eater

Stromboli • Juggler Bartschelly • UFO hunter Jenny Randles • Automata • Automaton • Trapeze •

Escapologist Alan Alan • Vampire hunter Sean Manchester • Juggler Tkach • Carnival performer

Named Seuqcaj • Snakelady • Freaks • Freakshow • Regurgitator Stevie Starr • Elvis Mokko • Knife

thrower Jonny King

IS THIS YOUR LIFE

Interview / Talk show featuring well-known personalities, hosted by Andrew Neil

S1E1

FATIMA WHITBREAD

Transmission Date: 28 January 1995

Host: Andrew Neil

Guest: Fatima Whitbread

Topics: Sport, Javelin, Olympics, Drug testing

S1E2

ALBERT REYNOLDS

Transmission Date: 4 February 1995

Host: Andrew Neil

Guest: Albert Reynolds

Topics: Ireland, Fianna Fáil, Taoiseach, Harry Whelan, Corruption, Down Street Declaration

S1E3

JIMMY SAVILE

Transmission Date: 11 February 1995

Host: Andrew Neil

Guest: Jimmy Savile

Topics: Top of the Pops, DJ, Disc Jockey, Paedophilia, Groupies, Boxing, Louis Theroux

S1E4

MAX CLIFFORD

Transmission Date: 18 February 1995

Host: Andrew Neil

Guest: Max Clifford

Topics: Sleaze, David Mellor, Freddie Starr, Hamster, News of the World, The Sun, Sex attacks,

Indecent assault, Yewtree, Publicist, Call girl, Pamella Bordes, Antonia de Sancha, Toe-sucking, David

Beckham

S1E5

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN

Transmission Date: 25 February 1995

Host: Andrew Neil

Guest: Olivia Newton-John

Topics: Grease, Xanadu, Music, Australia, John Travolta, Cliff Richard

S2E1

GERMAINE GREER

Transmission Date: 22 July 1995

Host: Andrew Neil

Guest: Germaine Greer

Topics: Feminism, Feminist, Women’s Liberation, The Female Eunuch, Trans

S2E2

JEREMY BEADLE

Transmission Date: 8 Month 1900

Host: Andrew Neil

Guest: Jeremy Beadle

Topics: Beadle’s About, Game show, Tricks, Stunts, Hoaxes, Cons

S2E3

PETER TATCHELL

Transmission Date: 5 August 1995

Host: Andrew Neil

Guest: Peter Tatchell

Topics: LGBT, Human rights, Green, Mugabe, Bermondsey by-election

S2E4

IAN BOTHAM

Transmission Date: 12 August 1995

Host: Andrew Neil

Guest: Ian Botham

Topics: Sport, Cricket, Test match, England team

S2E5

MORRIS CERULLO

Transmission Date: 19 August 1995

Host: Andrew Neil

Guest: Morris Cerullo

Topics: Tele-Evangelist, Tele-Evangelism, Pentecostal, Miraculous healing, Evangelical alliance, Fraud

OPINIONS

Opinions is a British talk programme broadcast on Channel 4 television in the 1980s and 1990s.

According to Time magazine, Opinions gave "a public figure 30-minutes of airtime each week to expound

on a controversial topic. A speaker could express his or her own views straight to camera for 30 minutes.

An earnest of Channel 4's faith and mission to bring edgy, alternative fare to the public and to excite reaction”.

S1E1

ALAN CLARK

Transmission Date: 21 February 1993

Host: Alan Clark

Topics: Britain, Lions led by donkeys, Thatcher, Arms trade, Defence, Europe

S1E2

BRIAN COX

Transmission Date: 28 February 1993

Host: Brian Cox

Topics: Education

S1E3

LINDA COLLEY

Transmission Date: 7 March 1993

Host: Linda Colley

Topics: British History

S1E4

SIR JAMES GOLDSMITH

Transmission Date: 14 March 1993

Host: James Goldsmith

Topics: Brexit, Europe, European Referendum

S1E5

DENNIS POTTER

Transmission Date: 21 March 1993

Host: Dennis Potter

Topics: Rupert Murdoch, Tabloid press , Scandal, Media, Journalism

S1E6

THE OPINIONS DEBATE

Transmission Date: 28 March 1993

Chair: Vincent Hanna

Guests: Zaki Badawi , Christopher Hitchens , Paul Kennedy , Michael Mansfield , Geoff Mulgan ,

Vincent Nichols , Jonathan Sacks , Nancy Seear and Crispin Tickell

Topics: Democracy, Britain, Westminster Central Hall

S1E7

GEORGE SOROS

Transmission Date: 1 August 1993

Host: George Soros

Topics: The Pound, Bosnia, Hungary, Appeasement

S1E8

DUSAN MAKAVEJEV

Transmission Date: 8 August 1993

Host: Dusan Makavejev

Topics: Bosnia, Serbia, Yugoslavia, Cat people, Croats, Muslims

S1E9

EDWARD DE BONO

Transmission Date: 1 May 1994

Host: Edward de Bono

Topics: Lateral thinking, Thinking Hats

S1E10

G.F. NEWMAN

Transmission Date: 3 May 1994

Host: G.F. Newman

Topics: Police, Power, Class, Law and Order, Elections

S1E11

NORMAN STONE

Transmission Date: 4 May 1994

Host: Norman Stone

Topics: Britain, Europe, Little England, EU, EC, European Union

S1E12

PAUL HILL

Transmission Date: 5 May 1994

Host: Paul Hill

Topics: Ireland, Miscarriage of Justice, IRA, Guildford Four

DON’T QUOTE ME

Comedy panel show / Current affairs

S1E1

Transmission Date: 4 June 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Simon Napier-Bell , Sandi Toksvig , Austin Mitchell MP, Valerie Singleton

S1E2

Transmission Date: 11 June 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: James Burke , Anne Nightingale , Donald Trelford , Jimmy Mulville

S1E3

Transmission Date: 18 June 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Jaci Stephen, Michael Winner , Bob Beckman , Tim Rice

S1E4

Transmission Date: 25 June 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Trevor Phillips , Ned Sherrin , Anna Raeburn , Roy Hattersley MP

S1E5

Transmission Date: 2 July 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Ian Hislop , Jack Tinker , Emma Freud , David Steel MP

S1E6

Transmission Date: 9 July 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Charles Kennedy MP, Jenny Lecoat, Andrew Rawnsley , Ned Sherrin

S1E7

Transmission Date: 16 July 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Simon Hoggart , Heather Couper , Jimmy Mulville , Emma Nicholson MP

S1E8

Transmission Date: 23 July 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Barry Cryer , Emma Freud , Brian Hayes , Sue Arnold

S1E9

Transmission Date: 30 July 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Neil Mullarkey , Trevor Mcdonald , Polly Toynbee , Simon Williams

S1E10

Transmission Date: 6 August 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Andrew Neil , Linda Agran, Julian Critchley MP, Phil Cornwell

S1E11

Transmission Date: 13 August 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Charles Kennedy MP, Sandi Toksvig , Ann Leslie , Victor Spinetti

S1E12

Transmission Date: 20 August 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Miles Kington , Tony Slattery , Gill Pyrah , Barry Cryer

S1E13

Transmission Date: 27 August 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Jane Walmsley, Clive Anderson , Sheila Steafel , Paul Boateng MP

S1E14

Transmission Date: 3 September 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Charlie Gillett , Harry Enfield , Craig Charles , Tim Rice

S1E15

Transmission Date: 10 September 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Tony Banks MP, Trevor Mcdonald , Robert Elms , Victor Spinetti

S1E16

Transmission Date: 17 September 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Kit Hollerbach, Austin Mitchell MP, Simon Williams , Carol Thatcher

S1E17

Transmission Date: 24 September 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Jenny Agutter , Rory McGrath , Sally Jones , Roy Hattersley MP

S1E18

Transmission Date: 1 October 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Laurie Taylor , Clive Anderson , Trevor Phillips , George Gale

S1E19

Transmission Date: 8 October 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Brian Sewell , Harry Enfield , Austin Mitchell MP, John Walters

S1E20

Transmission Date: 15 October 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Julian Critchley MP, Tony Slattery , Bryan Forbes , Steve Wright

S1E21

Transmission Date: 22 October 1990

Host: Geoffrey Perkins

Guests: Roy Jenkins MP, Rory McGrath , Mark Lawson , John Biffen MP

DOCUMENTARIES

MOSSAD: THE SPY MACHINE

Transmission Date: May 1998

Writer/Narrator: Gordon Thomas

Guests: Meir Amit , Ehud Barak , Yakuba Cohen, Rafi Eitan , David Kimche , Ariel Merari , Reuven

Merhav , Shlomo Nakdimon, Benjamin Netanyahu , Zeev Raz, Uri Sagi , Gad Shimron , Aharon Yariv

Documentary special about the Mossad - the Israeli Secret Service - for the Channel Four season

celebrating 50 years of the founding of the State of Israel.

The Observer said:

Israel 50: The Spy Machine serves as a clear reminder that Israel is just another country deploying

the same old methods to maintain power. Elderly agents of Mossad reminisce, just like their

counterparts in MI6 or the CIA, about the good old days of the Cold War, when they had free rein to

infiltrate and assassinate state enemies...The killing of Abu Jihad , Arafat 's right-hand man, was the

last straw for the politicians, who realised when the Oslo negotiations began that Jihad would have

been a very valuable asset for Israeli interests...But Ehud Barak , ex-Mossad agent and now leader of

the Labour Party suggests that the best way to gather information is to listen to the BBC and read a

newspaper.

The Times described the film:

Channel 4's "Israel 50" strand has covered an impressive range of aspects of that nation's life and

history, but this must have been the most chilling...A string of former supreme heads of Israeli

Intelligence, heads and deputy heads of Mossad and former agents talked with disconcerting

frankness about their operations... Rafi Eitan , who snatched Eichmann , would have killed him

instantly if a problem had arisen...This was a sympathetic film, which began with a haunting visit to

a secret Mossad memorial in the form of an elaborate maze. Here the names of agents tortured,

killed or simply disappeared are carved in shaded stone walls. Their daring, efficiency and

inventiveness were celebrated. But the subtext was clear also. Mossad has been a loose cannon,

capable of manipulating politicians and imposing a ferociously hawkish agenda often against the

nation's interest.

...and also wrote:

The documentary team also interviewed Mossad's "most successful spy" who talked about his

undercover operations in Syria, Lebanon and other Arab countries during an espionage career

lasting 25 years. Named only as Yakooba, the spy...played a crucial role in averting a full-scale

Syrian tank attack (and) underwent plastic surgery to change his face.

The Belfast News Letter said this was the first time ever that Rafael "Rafi" Eitan , legendary first

director of operations, was captured on film and went on to claim:

"the Israelis themselves are desperately unhappy about the Channel 4 film. It accuses Prime

Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of personally authorising the murder of several of the country's

Muslim enemies. Channel 4 used Israfilm, which is headed by Zvi Spielmann, a military intelligence

veteran who used to head the Israeli censor's office, to open doors for its journalists. They were

 given unprecedented access to Eitan, former Mossad director general Meir Amit , Israel's

longest-serving spymaster General Yoel Ben Porat, and former director of military intelligence, Uri

Saguy ."

The newspaper quoted Channel 4 executive David Lloyd:

Over the last decade, mounting criticisms on many sides have led some people to believe that

Mossad is out of kilter with the times. I saw the piece as really about Mossad as a construction of

the Israeli state. We talk to key senior insiders, go through some of the major moments in the

agency's history and visit the memorial to those who died in Mossad's service. We look at how they

lifted Eichmann, and their undercover operations in a number of countries, especially their use of

Israeli Arabs in the hostile nations which surround them.

Topics: Spy Machine • Israel • Assassination • 50th Anniversary • Abu Jihad • Yasser Arafat • PLO • Ehud

Barak • Rafi Eitan • Eichmann • Syria • Lebanon • Arabia • Middle East • Benjamin Netanyahu • Meir

Amit • Yoei Ben Porat • Uri Sagi

ORIENT: CLUB FOR A FIVER

Transmission Date: October 1995

Guests: Barry Hearn, Terry Howard, John Sitton , Chris Turner, Tony Wood, Leyton Orient F.C.

Highly acclaimed documentary special following a year in the fortunes of Leyton Orient Football

Club.

Topics: Club for a Fiver • Sport • Football • Leyton Orient • The OS • Leytonstone • John Sitton • Half Time •

Manager • Coach • Tony Wood • Rwanda • Barry Hearn

EQUINOX SERIES

THE BIG SLEEP

Investigating hypnosis.

Transmission Date: 1994

Director: Graham Moore

Narrator: Michael Angelis

Guests: Ashley Conway, Helen Crawford, Dabney Ewin, John Gruzelier, Andrew Newton, Karl

Pribram , Jenny Randles , Nicholas Spanos , Graham Wagstaff

Topics: Hypnosis • Trance • Science • Hypnotism • Spell • Brain research • Social compliance

SUPERPOWERS?

The power of the psychic.

Transmission Date: 1990

Narrator: David Neal

Guests: Sue Blackmore , Lesley Castleton, Doris Collins , Christian Dion, Hans Eysenck , Stanton

Friedman , Michel Gauquelin, Uri Geller , Connie Glover, Gordon Glover, Charles Honorton, Ray

Hyman , Prof Robert Jahn , Philip J. Klass , Paul Kurtz , David Marks , Yvonne Munday, James Randi ,

Russell Targ , Marcello Truzzi , Graham Wyley

Topics: Paranormal • Psychics • Frauds • Delusions • Telepathy • Science

THEME PARK HEAVEN

The science of Theme Parks.

Transmission Date: 1992

Narrator: Richard O’Brien

Guests: David Codiga, Marc Davis , Thom Dickeson, Stan Kinsey, Timothy Leary , Larry Lester, David

Lewis, Sylvère Lotringer, Paul Ruben, Michael Ryder, Bob Stone, Ron Toomer, Eric Westin

Topics: Science • Theme park design • Rides • Rollercoasters

SECRETS OF THE PSYCHICS

A 90-minute film special looking at the history of psychic phenomena.

Transmission Date: 1992

Director: Alex Marengo

Guests: Banachek , Susan Blackmore , Ruth Brandon , Bob Couttie, Richard Dawkins , Christopher

French , Uri Geller , Bob Gordon, Mike Hutchinson, Ray Hyman , Norman Knight, Danny Korem ,

George Lawrence, David Marks , Mike Molloy , Andrew Neil , Jack Nutting, Marc Paul , James Randi , Ian

Rowland , John Shepherd, Russell Targ , John Taylor , Marcello Truzzi , Richard Wiseman

A Channel 4 documentary special in the UK, first shown in the Equinox strand in 1997, later

reformatted as a shorter The Learning Channel episode in 1998: "Viewers eager to know more

about the differences between science and claptrap should tune in".

The 90-minute film, made by Open Media , was first shown in the UK under the title Secrets of the

Psychics .

The Times said the documentary "...cast an enjoyably sceptical eye over 150 years of the

paranormal". David Aaronovitch described it in The Independent on Sunday as

a programme which showed two things very clearly. First that there are - and have always been -

some extremely clever and ruthless illusionists out there. And - second - that there is an exceptional

desire to believe that what these hoaxers tell us is actually true.

Simon Hoggart wrote in The Spectator that this was:

the first show ever to take on the notoriously litigious Uri Geller . They showed how all his parlour

tricks could be easily duplicated by jobbing magicians without any help from paranormal powers.

In 1998 the Broadcasting Standards Commission in the United Kingdom rejected a complaint made

by Uri Geller , saying that it "wasn't unfair to have magicians showing how they duplicate those

'psychic feats'."

Topics: Science • History of the paranormal • Fakes • Frauds • Con artists • Psychics • Uri Geller

SPECIALS

The Greatest F***ing Show on TV

Swearing on television presented by comedian Jerry Sadowitz.

Transmission Date: 1994

Presenter: Jerry Sadowitz

Topics: Bad language • Comedy • Sex Pistols

John Wells and the Three Wise Men

John Wells discusses the birth of Christ and its significance with three latter-day religious figures,

three wise men, not all of whom were women.

Transmission Date: 1988

Presenter: John Wells

Guests: Leila Badawi, Suresh Joshi , Lionel Blue

Topics: Christmas • Religion • Birth of Jesus • Stable • Rabbi • Jewish • Jews • Hindu • Muslim • Islam

The Mediator

Transmission Date: 1995

A documentary on the psychology of reconciliation in the wake of violent crime. Dr Trevor Turner, a

community psychiatrist from London, goes to West Yorkshire to try to soften the impact of a young

man's imminent release from prison.

Presenter: Dr Trevor Turner

Topics: Village life • Violence • Street fighting • Knifing • Psychiatry • Community • Reconciliation

Weird Thoughts

Discussion programme for BBC2's Weird Night.

Transmission Date: 1994

Host: Tony Wilson

Guests: Mary Beard , Lynn Picknett , David Punter , James Randi , Jenny Randles , Bob Rickard

Topics: Fortean Times • Psychic • UFO • Blackpool • Odditorium

The Great Pot Debate

A live public debate with viewer poll on the recreational drugs culture. Hosted by Sheena

McDonald.

Transmission Date: 1995

Host: Sheena McDonald

Guests: Alex Carlile, Colin Cripps, Eddie Ellison, Paul Flynn , Lester Grinspoon , Jane Goodsir, Bill

Griffiths, Peter Herbert , Andrew Johns, Ivan Lawrence, Benjamin Mancroft, Maxie Richards

Topics: Drugs • Marijuana • Legalisation

Natural Causes

Jonathan Kaplan retraces the footsteps of his close friend, Andrew Lees , who died from natural

causes whilst investigating the huge titanium mining operations in south-east Madagascar .

Transmission Date: 1996

Presenter: Jonathan Kaplan

Guests: Alexis (Villager), Tony Juniper , Geoffrey Lean, Loharano (Village President), Christine

Orengo , Jean Randriamanantsoa, Gordon H. Sage, William Waldegrave

Topics: Madagascar • Andrew Lees

Suez: A Personal View by Andrew Roberts

History documentary on the politics of the Suez Crisis for the BBC.

Transmission Date: 1996

Presenter: Andrew Roberts

Topics: 1956 • The Suez crisis • France • Britain • Israel • Sèvres Protocol

THE TALKING SHOW

Infotainment series on the art of communication presented by Sandi Toksvig.

S1E1 VOICE

Transmission Date: 1993

Host: Sandi Toksvig

Guests: Tony Blackburn , Alistair McGowan , Patsy Rodenburg , Paddy Scannell

S1E2 THE ART OF CONVERSATION

Transmission Date: 1993

Host: Sandi Toksvig

Guests: Max Atkinson , Phillipa Davies, Meryl Griffiths, Susan Hart

S1E3 LISTENING AND UNDERSTANDING

Transmission Date: 1993

Host: Sandi Toksvig

Guests: Tony Blackburn , Alistair McGowan , Patsy Rodenburg , Paddy Scannell

S1E4 THE ART OF PERSUASION

Transmission Date: 1993

Host: Sandi Toksvig

Guests: Tony Gardner , Tony Buzan , Phil Hammond

S1E5 PUBLIC SPEAKING

Transmission Date: 1993

Host: Sandi Toksvig

Guests: Max Atkinson , Graham Davies

S1E6 BODY LANGUAGE AND FINAL TOUCHES

Transmission Date: 1993

Host: Sandi Toksvig

Guests: Max Atkinson , Michelle Collins , Martin Lloyd-Elliot, Fred MacAulay

Topics: Diction • Articulation • Stage fright • Comedy • Negotiation