The BBC and the Censorship of The War Game (1965)

Abstract

This article explores the controversy surrounding the censorship of the drama-documentary The War Game in 1965, drawing extensively upon primary source material held by the BBC Written Archives Centre and the National Archives. Conceived, written and directed by the young documentary film-maker Peter Watkins, The War Game depicted the aftermath of an imagined nuclear strike on southern England. The BBC commissioned the film only with certain reservations and from the outset made no guarantee that the film would be broadcast on television. After much deliberation, and consultation with senior government officials including Cabinet Secretary Sir Burke Trend, the BBC declined to broadcast The War Game on the grounds that it was ‘too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting’. Responsibility for the decision lay with the BBC’s Chairman of Governors Lord Normanbrook, supported by the Director-General Sir Hugh Greene. The film was, however, given a limited theatrical release in cinemas. The article concludes that the decision not to broadcast The War Game, far from being a conspiracy to keep the ‘truth’ of nuclear warfare from the British public, as Watkins maintained, was instead the result of a range of institutional and cultural factors that caused the BBC to act as it did.