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DODGY DOCUMENTARIES
Cutting from Private Eye (No 976)
(This is included because our animal "friend" Graham Hall has been involved in a lot of dodgy documentaries, look who he is and has been involved with!!!. By the way did you see the RSPCA's undercover series!!)
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Next Thursday the Independent Television Commission (ITC) has to pass judgement on two more dodgy documentaries in Channel 4's Undercover Britain series.
ITC Chairman, Sir Robin Biggam will draw on all his skills as a non-executive director of ethical arms dealers British Aeorspace in deciding how much to fine C4 for the phoney arms deals broadcast in its 1966 film "Guns on the Street".
The so-called "investigation" of Manchester criminals led to a seven year prison for one Gary Bispham, even though some programme makers were aware that he wasn't quite the major gun-dealer they had made him out to be, and C4 executives were alerted to this before the trial. Bispham is now appealing his sentence - surely a suitable case for C4's "Clear my name" and for certain C4 executives a "clear my desk". The last time C4 were up before the ITC, it was fined £150,000 for far less significant offences against the programme code.
One factor in determining the fine may be the undeclared convictions for armed robbery and burglery of on-screen reporter Errol Parkinson. Though the programme makers knew that he used to break into houses before breaking into television, this was kept from viewers.
The ITC might also bear in mind that this isn't the only instance of Undercover Britain reporters committing offences they were allegedly exposing. Last Christmas C4 put out a timely film naming and shaming Britain's drunk drivers - shortly after its fearless director Ben Hamilton had been caught on CCTV snorting coccaine in his car just as he was about to confront one offender. Though Inspector Knacker arrested and cautioned Hamilton, C4 kept his encounter with showbiz sherbet from its viewers.
A third genius from the Undercover Britain is Graham Hall, who has previous convictions for burglery. These were first exposed by the EYE back in 1991, when Hall was working for the News of the Screws (!!). After leaving the paper Hall was taken up by C4 commissioning editor David Lloyd. He has since made six films for the channel, including a recent Undercover Britain on fences in Worcester - imaginatively titled -Stolen Goods - which has caught ITC's eye.
C4 executives knew of Hall's burglery conviction, they kept quiet about it when they transmitted his secretly recorded conversation with antique dealer Tim Hinks. The Broadcasting Standards Commission has already ruled that C4 was unfair to Hinks, as while acting as a fence he was in fact an informant for West Mercia CID, who at the time were investigating, er, Hall.
The ITC will want answers from C4 and Hall about why his previous association with Hinks over a counterfeit money operation was also kept secret from the viewers. In 1994, while under CID instructions, Hinks gave Hall £8,000 to buy fake £20 notes, but the money was never recovered.
There are other skeletons in the Hall cupboard. In 1992 a court ordered him to repay £10,000 belonging to an animal charity, which he claimed was stolen from his car. International Animal Rescue had lent him the cash as "flash" money for an undercover investigation of the cruel transport of veal calves. To date Ha;; has repaid less than £100. Can it be that Channel 4 isn't paying its intrepid investigator properly. No doubt they will want to rectify this following Hall's triumph last weekend. He won the Bafta for best news and current affairs programme"
Cutting ends/
Music:Israelites
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