New Labour and the End of British Social Realism

Has the Fire Burned Out? New Labour and The End of British Social Realism A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2014 School of Arts, Brunel University Clive James Nwonka Contents Acknowlegements 5 Introduction 7 Chapter One: Beyond The Screen; New Labour, The UK Film Council and the Emergence of BBC Films and FilmFour 13 British Film under the Conservatives The Re-Emergence of Ken Loach 15 The Origins of New Labour and the Third Way 22 The Politics of Culture: New Labour and the Creation of the UK Film Council 31 Culture vs. Commercialism: BBC Films and FilmFour 37 The New Labour Ideology Within British Cinema 47 Changes in Ken Loach’s approach to Social Realism 52 New Interpretations of Social Realism 56 Case Study: This Is England 58 Case Study: Fish Tank 60 Class Representation in British Cinema 64 Summary 68 Chapter Two: Not in the Frame: The Emergence of Black British Political Filmmaking and its Broken Relationship with Social Realism 81 Post War Immigration into the United Kingdom The Beginning of Race Representation in British Cinema 82 Case Study: Pressure 86 Thatcherism and Political Responses to Racial Tension in Britain 1970 - 87 The Greater London Council and the Emergence of Channel Four 92 New Labour and the Language of Diversity 101 The UK Film Council and Diversity Within British Film 106 Case Study: Bullet Boy 110 The Class/Race Nexus in British Film 115 Problematic Approaches to Diversity 119 Summary 126 Conclusion 135 References 143 Filmography 150 Abbreviations/Acronyms 154 Acknowledgements When attempting to arrange interviews, it was my intention to approach the most well-respected and informed individuals that I could find within the British Film industry. It is testimony to the superb enthusiasm and dedication of each of them that they agreed to take time out of their busy schedules to be interviewed by me, a relatively unaccomplished doctoral student. It was an absolute pleasure to not only meet but also critically question some of the most renowned individuals in British Film, academia and politics. And it is hoped that I am able to repay some of the effort and time they gave me and to British Film in some way. Perhaps the production of this thesis, dealing critically and sociologically with some of the very issues that they identified as problematic, can go some way towards this endeavour. I would like to thank Max Kinnings and Professor Michael Wayne at Brunel University School of Arts for their supervision and patience with what proved to be an arduous period of study negotiated with full-time employment. Ken Loach for taking the time out of his editing Angels Share to discuss my thesis and Anna Catril at Sixteen Film for her long efforts in arranging the Ken Loach interview. Danny Boyle for his impromptu, unorthodox interview, David Somerset at the British Film Institute for his time, contacts and facilities, Mark Diguid at BFI, Ray Johnson at Staffordshire University, Dr David James at The University of Manchester for two years of email- based interviews, Dr Julian Henriques at Goldsmiths, David Fulton, Dr Nick Anstead at London School of Economics for his insight on the New Labour project, Phil Wickham at University of Exeter, Mamoun Hassan, my external examiner Dr Freddie Gaffney at Ravensbourne, Caroline Orme, Parminder Vir for her informal mentorship, Kate Leys for her insight into the changes at Film Four, Dr Justin Smith at Portsmouth University, John Cruddas MP, Dr Emma Sandon at Birkbeck University, Dr Claudia Sternberg at Leeds University, Gill Henderson for her proof reading, Dr Ieuan Franklin at Portsmouth University for more proof reading, Alan McDonald at Nottingham University, Professor Mark Neocleous, Julian Friedmann, Graham Rigby at Amber Film Collective, Dr Rob Berkley at the Runnymende Trust, Colin Prescodd at the Institute for Race Relations, Dr Sarita Malik, Red Pepper Magazine, Dr Steve Presence, Daniel Clements, Amanda Archibald, Dr Rosemary Scott, Laura Mayne, Professor Lizzie Jackson, and the Lipman Miliband Trust for Socialist Education for their financial support. Introduction This thesis is a retrospective analysis of British social realism. It combines conventional academic research with professional screenwriting practice in the genre. By definition, at its advent Social Realism employed documentary realist devices to explore the inequalities of society with the objective of stimulating socio-political debate about this imbalance and thus social reform. However, contemporary forms of social realism have emerged much more depoliticised, drawing on similar subject matter but using decontextualised narrative strategies. The commitment to truth now seems to consist of an aesthetic, as opposed to a sociological imperative. Historically, class has been a distinctive feature in much of European and World cinema, as it has provided an incisive device for contemporary understandings of inequality and social divisions. However, class depiction has been more important (and problematic) in British cinema than in other western societies for several reasons. Britain was the longest–established proletarian society where economic verticality had come to fruition earliest and relatively unchallenged in relation to other social divisions such as ethnicity and faith (Abercombie, 2000:147). Further, particular attention has been paid to the working classes of Britain in filmic representation because the social divisions that the characters represent “constitute actual or potential sources of conflict, which can be articulated for the benefit of dramatic storytelling” (Hallam, 2007: 185). However, class has never been the only source of inequality. Race has always been the dimension along which inequalities can be identified. How these dimensions relate to one another is an important question and one that is investigated in this thesis. However it remains a complex exercise; while class and race have remained consistent features in British film, class and race inequality has not – what are the factors involved in producing this situation? This thesis will examine the current films being produced within the British social realism orbit, and consider if current narrative and sociological approaches to social realism can still produce a politicised viewer. It considers what recent socio-political influences have influenced genre, and if current realist films produce an empathy with characters that simply reconciles spectators to social issues rather than encouraging them to intellectually engage and challenge them. However, in order to commence this investigation there must initially be an attempt to define what is social realism and the ways in which the British cinematic offshoot relate to this formulation. Social realism is a discursive term employed to describe films that attempt to present the effects of political, sociological and environmental factors on the development of character through depictions that emphasize a nuanced relationship between character and public institutions. Traditionally, this approach is characterised by the ideology of the practitioner, in which the filmic text offers a denouncement of the situations presented in the text, and /or a reformist or revolutionary political ideology that is insinuated into the narrative by the actions of the protagonist or the systemic effects on him/her that suggest that the adverse social circumstances could be altered by the introduction of more benevolent social policies. Social realism tends to be associated with observational camerawork that emphasises situations and an episodic narrative structure, creating ‘gritty’ character studies of urban life. In the UK, social realism is commonly associated with ‘kitchen sink’ drama that investigates controversial issues such as domestic violence, alcoholism and drug abuse. But not all social issue dramas are necessarily social realist in form. Social dramas often focus on individual characters and invariably have a narrative structure characteristic of mainstream films; social realism is associated with ensemble casts and multistranded narratives with narrational motivation dispersed across a range of diverse characters, events and situations. There is also a difference in the treatment of theme. In social issue films, the individual’s problems present a problem for society, as opposed to being perceived as a problem created by society as in social realism (Hallam, 2000:190). Emile Zola famously formulated a theory of fictional representation defined as naturalism. According to Zola, the practitioner’s objective should be to conduct an anthropological study of men and women in a similar form to that of naturalists studying animals, reporting, observing, while eschewing judgment on any subjective perspective. The aim was to be as objective as scientists, the facts would speak for themselves but only if they were accurately and fully presented (Hallam, 2000:5). However, Georg Lukacs problematised this observational approach in Writer and Critic, where he declared that this lacks the authenticity of perspective as the social experience is “described from the standpoint of a distant observer, when it should be narrated from the standpoint of the participant” (Lukacs, 1970: 111). As we will learn from the work of Ken Loach, he extended the boundaries of this theory by establishing a character/institutional relationship that would contextualise the reality, and marrying this with a definite perspective on the issues presented, with an intellectual impetus

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