Rupert Murdoch: Battle with Britain
BBC2, BBC, Sunday 9pm - 10pm“A gambler” is how the world’s most powerful media mogul is repeatedly described in Steve Hewlett’s film charting the Dirty Digger’s impact on Britain over the past 40 years. How the “Oxford graduate with a touch of Billingsgate” bought and transformed four British newspapers, smashed the print unions at Wapping, launched Sky TV and was humiliated by phone-hacking are all covered with illuminating comments, most notably from former Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil.
He describes Murdoch and Margaret Thatcher as “soulmates” and sums up his ex-boss as at his most dangerous “when he sees a lazy, self-satisfied established interest like the print unions or the BBC/ITV duopoly”.
Steve Hewlett investigates whether the media mogul can be seen as an agent of change who has been a vital part of the transformation of Britain over the last 45 years. He explores the theory that his part in this cultural, political and industrial revolution also brought Murdoch into conflict with the Establishment and may ultimately have cost him his life's ambition - to see the business he has built carried on by one of his children.
PresenterS teve HewlettCrew
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