Peter J. Conradi

Another enemy within: Thatcher (and Wilson) vs the BBC

A review of Pinkoes and Traitors by Jean Seaton suggests that we take Auntie too much for granted

issue 07 March 2015
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  • Pinkoes and Traitors: The BBC and the Nation,1974–87

    Jean Seaton

    Profile Books, pp. 384

In a ‘Dear Bill’ letter in Private Eye, an imaginary Denis Thatcher wrote off the BBC as a nest of ‘pinkoes and traitors’. That drollery points to the corporation’s paradoxical place in British life: an essential part of the establishment (‘Auntie’) yet sometimes its most daring critic, willing to put impartiality above patriotism.

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