DENNIS BROE observes how cutbacks, mergers and AI create content detached from both reality and history itself
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Dr Who and the scourge of capitalism
JOHN GREEN surveys the remarkable career of screenwriter Malcolm Hulke and the essential part played by his membership of the Communist Party
MASTERMIND; (L) Jon Pertwee as Dr Who in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, 1974; (R) Malcolm Hulke on holiday in Pula, Yugoslavia
[Courtesy of the BBC; Courtesy of Jean Tate]
SAHAR MARANLOU explores a novella, newly translated and republished in English that tells the history of Iran through women’s bodies
DAVID NICHOLSON applauds the revival of a joyous production that deals with choirs, competitions and communism
New releases from Peruvian Ranil y Su Conjunto Tropical, Leve Leve: Sao Tome & Principe, and South African BCUC
MARY DAVIS welcomes a remarkable documentary about the general strike — politically spot on, and featuring accounts from the strikers themselves — that is available for screenings
MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review The Stranger, Undertone, and Outcome
Things are not always what they seem: The Writing and Politics of Malcolm Hulke
Michael Herbert, Self-published, £21.99
MALCOLM HULKE was an active communist and a highly successful scriptwriter for theatre, television and cinema from the late 1950s into the mid 1970s whose work includes The Avengers, Danger Man and Dr Who.
As he noted in 1975: “During all The Avengers time when the most popular baddies were Soviet spies, my baddies were capitalists. No-one noticed. For seven years running I wrote subversive Doctor Who serials.”
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