Panorama 1953-

Panorama was launched in 1953 by BBC television's 'Talks' department as a lightweight topical magazine. By the mid-1950s it had developed into a highly respected current affairs series, led by presenter Richard Dimbleby. It became the 'flagship' for BBC television journalism, a 'window on the world' engaging with the major issues of the day. Despite changes of policy and many vicissitudes, it has became the longest running television current affairs series. During the 1980s presenters included the acerbic interviewer Robin Day, and Richard Dimbleby's eldest son, David. For the 'No Such' project we have listed programmes which dealt with issues around health and 'Thatcherism'.

Broadcast details: BBC1, 1953
Production company: BBC Television
Notes: for more information see: Richard Lindley Panorama: 50 Years of Pride and Paranoia Politicos 2002

The Heart Changers

In 1973, British surgeons stopped doing heart transplants on Government advice. But this year there have been more of the controversial and expensive operations than ever before. Can we afford them? Michael Cockerell reports on why heart transplants are back in fashion and examines their true cost. For the first time, Dr Christiaan Barnard, the pioneer of heart transplants, talks about his new revolutionary operation to transplant a second heart alongside the patients original one. He believes that British surgeons are using the wrong methods.

Broadcast details: BBC1, 17 March 1980 (50 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Anne Moir
Credits: Michael Cockerell
Notes: Panaroma Health

A Dying Industry?

Six giant multi-national companies dominate the world cigarette industry, making over £1-billion a year profit. Faced with declining market and increasing Government restrictions in the West, the industry is now penetrating new markets. In the third world where tobacco is grown, the industry agrues that its presence brings great economic benefits to poor countries who would suffer if the World Health Organisation's campaign to restrict its activities were successful.

In a special investigation covering Britain, America and Brazil, reporter Peter Taylor examines the industry's claims and reveals some of the inside secrets of its latest and perhaps final battle for survival.

Broadcast details: BBC1, 14 April 1980 (50 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Jonathan Holmes
Editor: Roger Bolton
Presenter: Peter Taylor
Notes: Panorama Health

The Other Ruling Class

With the Conservative Party Conference starting in Blackpool tomorrow, Panorama reports on the floating voters, the people who put Mrs Thatcher into power at the last election. What sort of people are they? What do they think of their choice now, midway through the Tory Government? And who would they vote for next?

Broadcast details: BBC1, 12 October 1981 (50 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: David Graham
Editor: George Carey
Credits: David Dimbleby
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

Thatcher interview on Falklands

In a critical period of the Conservative Government, Panorama tonight has a major interview with the Prime Minister, The Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher, MP. Robert Kee and Richard Lindley question Mrs Thatcher about the Government's record in office including her handling of the Falklands crisis.

Broadcast details: BBC1, 26 April 1982 (50 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Editor: George Carey
Presenter: Richard Lindley;Robert Kee
Credits: Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

The Opren Scandal

Last week's Panorama showed how evidence of the serious side-effects of the new anti-arthritis drug, Opren, was suppressed or ignored even after people using it had begun to die. This week's investigation reveals how much money is at stake in the arthritis business and how hard-sales policies have dangerous side-effects of their own.

Tom Mangold reports on the close relationships between drug companies and their most important customers - the doctors; on the inadequacies in the regulations that should protect patients from the conflict of interests that can arise.

Broadcast details: BBC1, 17 January 1983 (50 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Jane Drabble
Editor: George Carey
Credits: Tom Mangold
Notes: Panorama - Health

Which Way Will She Turn?

I would no more think of dismantling the NHS than I would think of dismantling our defences (Margaret Thatcher, 31 May).

By next year we will see the start of a fall in the level of unemployment (Nigel Lawson, 30 May).

Lower rates of income tax remain a high priority (Tory Party Manifesto).

As the Tory party gathers for its annual conference in Blackpool, Panorama analyses the hard choices facing Mrs Thatcher and her cabinet: which election pledges take priority? And with the promised economic recovery showing signs of faltering, Fred Emery interviews the new overlord of Trade and Industry, Cecil Parkinson

Broadcast details: BBC1, 10 October 1983 (50 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Director: James Hogan;Nick Hayes;Ian Taylor
Editor: George Carey
Presenter: Fred Emery;Margaret Jay
Cast: Cecil Parkinson
Notes: panorama Thatcher

The Television Revolution

In a few weeks half a million homes in Britain will be able to receive four brand-new TV channels by cable. And in a year 11 towns will get up to 50 more channels. Even more television will soon be beamed to us directly by satellites, British and foreign. After decades of regulated broadcasting, television could soon be as freely and as widely used as print. Mrs Thatcher wants to create ‘the wired society’. But what will all the new channels carry? Will there be more real choice? And what will the effect be on existing TV?

Broadcast details: BBC1, 20 February 1984 (50 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: John Penycate
Editor: Peter Ibbotson
Presenter: Christopher Dunkley
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

The Habitat the Government Won't Break

Over 1,000 people die each week in Britain from the effects of smoking. The seriousness of the hazard is widely accepted - every packet carries a Government health warning. But it's not just the consumers who find the habit difficult to break; the Government too, depends heavily on the tobacco industry, which yields over £4 billion a year in revenue, provides thousands of jobs and has become a major sponsor of sports and the arts.

Broadcast details: BBC1, 26 March 1984 (50 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: David Wickham
Editor: Peter Ibbotson
Presenter: Peter Taylor
Notes: Panorama - Health

Thatcher interview

Live from Downing Street, Sir Robin Day interviews Mrs Thatcher as she approaches her sixth year in office

Broadcast details: BBC1, 9 April 1984 (50 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Peter Ibbotson
Credits: Sir Robin Day; Fred Emery
Cast: Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister
Notes: Panaorama Thatcher

The Battle Against Heroin

Parents are crying for help as heroin spreads across the country from Dundee to Bognor Regis. Unable to find treatment, many resort to desperate measures. One father holds his two teenage daughters prisoner for two months; another buys heroin for his son to stop him turning to crime. Panorama has questioned every Health Authority in the country: an alarming picture emerges of an escalating problem, and services unable to cope. With increasing amounts of heroin smuggled in from Pakistan, customs and police officers face a near impossible task. Customs seize only a fraction of the total supply: as soon as the drug squads catch the dealers, others spring up to take their place. In the face of such odds, can the battle be won?

Broadcast details: BBC1, 25 June 1984 (55 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Jane Drabble
Editor: Peter Ibbotson
Presenter: Peter Taylor
Notes: Panorama Health

Jobs - what's the Answer?

As unemployment keeps on rising the demands are growing again for the Government to spend more money on creating jobs. Some Tory MPs have joined voices urging that jobs could be found in repairing Britain's crumbling roads, sewers, and public buildings.

But Mrs Thatcher and her ministers are adamant that the only way to get 'real jobs' is their strategy to cut taxes in next month's Budget.

Fred Emery reports on the fierce debate dividing economists, businessmen, trade unionists and politicians.

Broadcast details: BBC1, 4 February 1985 (50 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: James Hogan
Editor: Peter Ibbotson
Presenter: Fred Emery
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

Maggie's Market Forces

What should the Tories do to get out of the slump they are in with the voters? Is it merely a matter, as Mrs Thatcher maintains, of getting the policies across better, of sharper marketing of basically the same policies or is pressure building up within the party for a change in policy?

On the eve of the Tories’ Conference in Blackpool, Fred Emery interviews both the Prime Minister, The Rt. Hon Margaret Thatcher MP, and The Rt. Hon Norman Tebbit MP, the new Tory Chairman. He also reports on the Tory mood around the country

Broadcast details: BBC1, 7 October 1985 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Michael Dutfield
Editor: David Dickinson
Presenter: Fred Emery
Cast: Margaret Thatcher Prime Mininster; Rt Honourable Norman Tebbitt MP
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

AIDS - the Race for a Cure

AIDS in the biggest public health threat for a generation. To date there have been a few hundred victims in Britain, but experts predict there will soon be many thousands. AIDS will affect men, women and children and, unless a cure is found, all those who get it will rapidly die.

Doctors and scientists are desperately searching for a drug or a vaccine to knock out the virus. Will prevention - safer sex - prove better than a cure? Can alternative medicine bring hope to AIDS victims.

Tonight, Margaret Jay talks to AIDS victims and those trying to help them.

Panorama reports from France, the US and Britain on the latest developments

Broadcast details: BBC1, 2 December 1985 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: John Penycate
Presenter: Margaret Jay
Notes: Panorama Health

Blackburn Pt 1

First in a 2-part investigation into the current state of the NHS. In Blackburn Health Authority patient care must operate under cost-efficiency methods.

Broadcast date: 22 September 1986
Production company: BBC1
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Presenter: Margaret Jay

The Kinnock Alternative

As the political parties gear up for the forthcoming General Election, what alternative vision does Labour offer for Britain after eight years of Thatcher rule? How would a Labour government create jobs and cut the dole queues? How would they pay for planned improvements in hospitals and schools? What effect would tax changes have on the pound in your pocket? And what will Labour do if no party wins an overall majority in the next Parliament.

In Panorama, the Leader of the Opposition, The Rt. Hon Neil Kinnock, MP, is interviewed live by Sir Robin Day

Broadcast details: BBC1, 16 February 1987 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Peter Bell
Editor: David Dickinson
Presenter: Sir Robin Day
Cast: Neil Kinnock Leader of the Labour Party
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

Thatcher interview

As the Election Campaign draws to a close, Sir Robin Day talks to the Prime Minister, The Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher, about her bid for a third term at No. 10 and about the pledge made in the Conservative manifesto.

What is her vision of Thatcher's Britain? (Source: Radio Times)

Broadcast details: BBC1, 8 June 1987 (50 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Editor: David Dickinson
Presenter: Sir Robin Day
Cast: Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

AIDS - The Fight for Control

The worldwide war against AIDS has moved to a new battleground. While scientists strive to find a cure, legislators try to balance public health with individual liberty.

Panorama reports from three cities on the AIDS frontline. Sao Paulo in Brazil, Munich in Germany and Minneapolis in America; and examines contrasting ways of dealing with AIDS sufferers.

Should the victims be kept apart to protect the healthy or should the state take more care of those who catch this new plague?

Broadcast details: BBC1, 29 June 1987 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Mike Hogan
Editor: David Dickinson
Presenter: Tom Mangold
Notes: Panorama Health

Inner Citites: 'We Want Them Too'

So said Mrs Thatcher in the early hours of 12 June, just after her triumphant return to power. Tomorrow, on the first day of its conference in Blackpool, the Conservative Party debates a resolution that welcomes the government's commitment and success in the inner cities. But how successful has the government been and what exactly is it trying to achieve? Robin Denselow reports from the north west where two adjoining Labour inner-city authorities have responded to government policies in very different ways. Salford, home to the original Coronation Street, is now trying to attract entrepreneurs to its mini-Docklands and has been selling off council estates. Rate-capped Manchester fears for the future of its services, and sees government initiatives as a threat to local democracy. So far, the government's inner-city policy has involved projects from three different Ministries. But what lessons has Mrs Thatcher's government learnt from the success or failure of these policies so far?

Broadcast details: BBC1, 5 October 1987 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Elizabeth Clough
Editor: David Dickinson
Presenter: Robin Denselow
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

A Clan Revolution?

Education is the next priority in Margaret Thatcher's cultural revolution. State education is poised for its most radical change since the war. There will be more emphasis on 'the three Rs', seven year olds may be tested, and parents and governors can run their schools. Critics say it will bring back the Mr Gradgrind's classroom chants - and sharpen divisions between rich and poor. Mrs Thatcher says standards will rise and class barriers be broken down. John Ware has talked to the architects of the policy that the Prime Minister hopes to lead to 'a class revolution'

Broadcast details: BBC1, 2 November 1987 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Director: Paul Woolwich
Editor: Tim Gardam
Presenter: John Ware
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

Debt: How Deep Are You In?

Tracey Mead was threatened with prison, quite illegally, if she didn’t pay a credit-card debt of a few hundred pounds. Feeling there was nowhere to turn, she planned an overdose. Tracy’s case shows how dangerous consumer credit can be. But is this hazard to our health as individuals now becoming a threat to the wellbeing of the nation? As the Christmas spending spree reaches its frenzied peak, Richard Lindley reports on a borrowing boom that’s left the average British household burdened with a mountain of debt as high as 80 per cent of its income

Broadcast details: BBC1, 7 December 1987 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Sarah Manwaring-White
Editor: Tim Gardam
Presenter: Richard Lindley
Notes: Panorama Health

Thatcher's 3,000 Days

Mrs Thatcher has now been in office for 3,167 days. Only four premiers have now served longer terms – Robert Walpole, William Pitt the Younger and Lords Liverpool and Salisbury.

Robert Harris, Political Editor of the Observer, looks at how the Prime Minister has stamped her personality on the government of Britain, and talks to more than a dozen men who have worked closely with her.

Lord Hailsham on her place in history: ‘You’ve got to put her in the same category as Bloody Mary, Elizabeth I, Queen Anne and Queen Victoria.’

Lord Havers on her ruthlessness: ‘If she thinks a minister is no longer up to it, then he’s out.’

Sir John Nott on her handling of the cabinet: ‘She thinks that all men are feeble, and that gentlemen are even more feeble.’

Broadcast details: BBC1, 4 January 1988 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Elizabeth Clough
Editor: Tim Gardam
Presenter: Robert Harris
Cast: Schmidt, Helmut; Halisham, Lord; Havers, Lord; Nott, Sir John; Tebbit, Norman; Biffen, John; Powell, Enoch; Joseph, Lord; Jenkins, Lord; Hattersley, Roy
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

A Third Term in Action

The Prime Minister, the Right Hon Margaret Thatcher, MP, in a live interview with David Dimbleby. At the beginning of this year, Mrs Thatcher became the longest-serving British Prime Minister this century. Now in its third term in office, her Government shows no sign of flagging. It is embarking upon a set of radical proposals for education, for local government, for welfare provision and for privatising water and electricity industries. Her critics, not all of them from the Opposition benches, accuse her of pursuing her vision of a new Britain at the expense of the social fabric of society. Mrs Thatcher answers her critics and talks to Panorama about her plans for Britain’s future.

Broadcast details: BBC1, 25 January 1988 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Sue Robertson
Editor: Tim Gardam
Presenter: David Dimbleby
Cast: Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

NHS - A Terminal Case?

Forty years after its birth, the National Health Service is in the grip of a continued crisis. Can it be resourced by more money and better management, or is its disease so serious that the only remedy is dismemberment and a vastly boosted private sector? At St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London and in the health district of Gloucestershire reporter David Lomax talks to managers, health economists, doctors and patients, and at Westminster asks what Government and Opposition would prescribe as NHS medicine.

Broadcast details: BBC1, 1 February 1988 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: TV current affairs
Director: Jenny Clayton
Editor: Tim Gardam
Presenter: David Lomax
Cast: Professor Michael Besser;
Notes: Panorama Health

Can We Afford the Doctor?

The death of hole-in-the-heart baby, Matthew Collier, has provoked the most fundamental review of the National Health Service for 40 years. The decisions are ready to be taken and an expansion of private medicine with tax breaks for private patients is on the agenda.

Jane Corbin examines how those changes may affect everyone in Britain. The NHS is 40 years old this week. Will there continue to be free medicine for all?

Broadcast details: BBC1, 4 July 1988 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Shaun Woodward
Editor: Tim Gardam
Presenter: Jane Corbin
Notes: Panorama Health

Children in Need

This year looks set to be a record year for charity appeals, not only for the Third World but for poor children in Britain. Last April, the Government set out to help needy families by changing the Social Security rules targeting resources on the worst off, while giving parents more responsibility for their own affairs.

But critics say the reforms have backfired social workers to appeal to charities and telethons to meet basic needs once provided by the Welfare State.

Against the background of fierce parliamentary debate over the payment of child benefit, Steve Bradshaw analyses the controversy over how best to help Britain’s children in need

Broadcast details: BBC1, 23 January 1989 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Helen Jenkins
Presenter: Steve Bradshaw
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

The Killer Inside

There’s growing concern that Britain’s prisons are a breeding ground for AIDS. Senior prison workers warn that smuggled drugs are widespread and many prisoners continue to share syringes and needles. Other prisoners admit to working as prostitutes while inside, often in order to obtain drugs. Robin Denselow reports from Edinburgh, London and Stafford on the extent of drug abuse and high-risk sexual activity in Britain’s prison’s, and the controversy over the treatment of those known to have the AIDS virus. The Home Office is preparing a video for prisoners, but critics urge more drastic action if prisons are not to be a bridgehead in the spread of AIDS into the heterosexual community

Broadcast details: BBC1, 30 January 1989 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Eamonn Matthews
Presenter: Robin Denselow
Notes: Panorama Health

NHS plc? What's in It for Patients?

The Government has embarked on the most radical reforms to the National Health Service in its history.

Hospitals will be run on business lines, competing for patients. Mrs Thatcher says it will give the patients more choice. Labour warns it's paving the way for the privatisation of the NHS. The battle to win the argument among doctors, nurses and patients is now raging.

Fred Emery reports from the Health Secretary's own Nottinghamshire health district and from Peckham, in inner-city London.

Broadcast details: BBC1, 13 March 1989 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Francesca Kirby-Green
Editor: Tim Gardam
Presenter: Fred Emery
Notes: Panorama - Health

Sent from Heaven - Sold on Earth

Mrs Thatcher says that water privatisation has not been handled well. As the Government redoubles its campaign to sell the idea to the public. Panorama asks what's in it for the consumer? And, as the European Community insists that British water standards must rise, how much will we be told about the way the water companies safeguard what we drink? From Devon, East Anglia and the Lake District, John Ware investigates the future shape of the Government's most controversial privatisation.

Broadcast details: BBC1, 20 March 1989 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Helen Jenkins
Editor: Tim Gardam
Presenter: John Ware
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

Ten Years' Hard Labour

Ten years ago the last Labour government, led by James Callaghan, was defeated by the Tories under Margaret Thatcher. What has been the impact of Thatcherism on the main opposition party? The Prime Minister once declared that her aim was to 'eliminate socialism'. Has she succeeded? Anthony Howard looks at the record of Labour under three leaders over the past decade. If the Labour Party still exists, does socialism still survive?

Broadcast details: BBC1, 8 May 1989 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Peter Horrocks
Editor: Tim Gardam
Presenter: Anthony Howard
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

Getting the Message Across

In the ten years since Mrs Thatcher came to power the bill for Government advertising has doubled to £150 million a year.

The water privatisation advertising campaign has cost more than that of Nescafé Gold Blend, Persil, Guinness and Coca Cola put together.

But in its enthusiasm for getting the message across has the Government strayed from legitimate government information to putting out political propaganda?

Vivian White reports on fears among senior civil servants that there has been a fundamental shift over the last ten years in the way that Government puts its policies into practice.

Broadcast details: BBC1, 4 September 1989 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Charles Furneaux
Editor: Tim Gardam
Presenter: Vivian White
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

What Future for Thatcherism?

The Prime Minister, the Rt Hon Margaret Thatcher, MP, in an interview with David Dimbleby.

With the shock waves of the recent political crisis still reverberating through the Government, is Mrs Thatcher's famous conviction and single-mindedness now more of a liability than an asset to the Tories? How does she intend to reunite her party and recover from her current unpopularity to win a fourth election victory?

And, as the Prime Minister prepared for the forthcoming EEC summit, what will her response be to the momentous events now reshaping eastern Europe? How far does Britain risk being isolated from influence on the most dramatic political changes since 1945?

Mrs Thatcher answers her critics and talks from Downing Street to Panorama

Broadcast details: BBC1, 27 November 1989 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Glenwyn Benson
Editor: Tim Gardam
Presenter: David Dimbleby
Cast: Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

Doctoring the Reforms

Eighteen months ago, the Government launched the most radical reform ever of the NHS. It wanted to turn a £20 billion state monolith into an internal market which would offer its 'customers', the patients, a better service, better choice, and better value for money. But now the crash programme of reform is running into trouble. Doctors, and even some civil servants, believe that the plans are being rushed through and may prove unworkable in practice.

John Ware asks whether, with an election looming, the Government is now losing its nerve and has decided to doctor its own reforms

Broadcast details: BBC1, 30 April 1990 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Francesca Kirby-Green
Editor: Mark Thompson
Presenter: John Ware
Notes: Panorama - Health

A Woman's Work

After a rather difficult political year, the Conservatives are now preparing to fight their fourth election campaign under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher. It looks as if it may be the toughest yet for her as well as for her party.

Mrs Thatcher's position as leader may no longer be in doubt, but as Vivian White reports, the party is sharply divided between those people who want 'Thatcherism mark IV' to be much the same product as it was before, and those who want her to change her image and soften her policies.

Margaret Thatcher has declared that 'a woman's work is never done'. Which road now offers her the best chance of hanging on to her job?

Broadcast details: BBC1, 25 June 1990 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Helen Jenkins
Editor: Mark Thompson
Presenter: Vivian White
Notes: Panorama Thatcher

Wanna Buy a Railway?

Under Mrs Thatcher, ministers said they meant to privatise British Rail, but left it in public ownership. Now John Major's government intends to show how radical it is, by de-nationalising the industry. The plan is to "franchise" British Rail's passenger services as soon as possible, until they are all in private hands. Will it work - and is it in the public interest? Vivien White investigates.

Broadcast details: BBC1, 7 December 1992 (40 minutes)
Production company: BBC
Medium: TV
Genre: current affairs
Director: Francesca Kirby-Green
Editor: Glenwyn Benson
Presenter: Vivian White
Notes: Panorama Thatcher