Here’s an interesting little curio. It’s a press release, that made it into many publications, including local newspapers all over the country, announcing the upcoming BBC schedule line up …
… for 1987
If you know your Red Dwarf lore, you’ll be aware that the first series was delayed due to an electrician’s strike, and that the first episode was remounted several months later … but it’s interesting to see an announcement for the show a full fourteen months before it arrived on screen.
There’s not much I can find to show you for Crisis!, but the MPs in question were Gerald Kaufman, Francis Pym, and Roy Jenkins. It aired on 4th January 1987 at 7.50pm. Here’s how it was listed in the Radio Times.
A plane has been hijacked.
The facts are imaginary – the problem only too real.
What should the government do? Should it negotiate with the terrorists or should it send in the SAS? Will diplomatic pressure work? Is a secret deal possible? How can the government buy time?
In tonight’s programme, a special crisis committee of distinguished politicians, with diplomatic, military and legal experts, grapples with these hypothetical problems. The response of the terrorists will emerge through dramatised news reports from Pamela Armstrong and Jeremy Paxman at the scene of the hijack. Which of the six different endings prepared by the production team occurs depends on how the committee reacts. Taking the decisions: The Rt Hon Francis Pym , mp The Rt Hon Roy Jenkins , MP and The Rt Hon, Gerald Kaufman , mp
They receive expert advice from Sir Anthony Parsons Lord Rawlinson, QC and Lt Gen Sir David Young
Chairing the committee is Professor Paul Wilkinson , a world expert on terrorism. Narrated by David Jessel Researcher SANDRA JONES
Executive producer GEORGE CAREY Producer LAURENCE REES
