I was asked the other day what the high point of my professional life has been. These questions are always difficult to answer when you have had such an eventful life as mine. Certainly being a young journalist covering the labour relations upheavals of the late 70s was one of the most exciting times – especially as I became the focus of the incomes policy debate when I revealed the substantial fall in real incomes brought about by the first incomes policy phase. Then, as strike followed strike, my Shakesperian headline “Winter of Discontent” was so heavily used it became a stock phrase for all subsequent labour woes.
But a recent email from the actor Adam Kotz reminded me what in fact the genuine high point of my professional life has been. My friend is starring in a much acclaimed West End production of Ibsen’s Ghosts, but when we worked together it was to make FedEE’s accomplished drama “Without Prejudice”. Although originally envisaged as a training film the production developed into a fine drama in its own right. No expense was spared and our fine cast pulled off a masterly depiction of how racial prejudice occurs in the workplace. We set out to divide our audience and showings certainly did that – with one half of the audience counting all the legal infringements of discrimination law being made and the other half wondering what all the fuss was about. We also tried to convey what the experience of an employment court case was like for both parties – showing that in the end all parties were the losers.
So my venture into film production was probably as good as it gets – especially the wrap-up party during which a flaming Chinese lantern I released burnt down a neighbour’s tree – but that is another story.