Dr Who was used to disseminate anti-Thatcher propaganda

The Times reports that:

"Sylvester McCoy, who played the Time Lord during the 1980s, has revealed that he and a cabal of left-wingers used the BBC’s flagship sci-fi series to promote anti-Conservative propaganda.

Andrew Cartmel, who was employed as script editor after telling the show’s producer that he aimed to “overthrow the government”, assembled a number of “angry young writers” to produce plots that would foment anti-Thatcher dissent.

...

“The idea of bringing politics into Dr Who was deliberate, but we had to do it very quietly and certainly didn’t shout about it,” said McCoy, who played Dr Who from 1987-9. “We were young, politically motivated people and it seemed the right thing to do.

“At the time Dr Who used satire to put political messages out there in the way they used to do in places like Czechoslovakia.

“Our feeling was that Margaret Thatcher was far more terrifying than any monster the Doctor had encountered.”

Cartmel recalled John Nathan-Turner, who produced the show throughout the 1980s, asking him during his job interview what he hoped to achieve in the post.

“My exact words were, ‘I’d like to overthrow the Government’,’ said Cartmel. “I was a young firebrand and I wanted to answer honestly. I was very angry about the social injustice in Britain under Thatcher and I’m delighted that came into the show.”

Under Cartmel’s direction, Thatcher was caricatured as Helen A, the wide-eyed tyrannical ruler of a human colony on the planet Terra Alpha.

The extra-terrestrial Iron Lady, played by Sheila Hancock, outlaws unhappiness and remarks, “I like your initiative, your enterprise” as her secret police round up dissident killjoys.

The Doctor persuades “the drones”, who toil in the factories and mines, to down tools and rise up in revolt.

Helen A remains oblivious as close colleagues turn against her and, prophetically, is shown shedding a tear as she realises finally that power is slipping from her grasp. "

The BBC using entertainment programmes as a way of spreading anti-Conservative propaganda; who would have thought it!