If Reithian principles represent the ideal of truth-telling and impartiality in public service broadcasting today, Jack Thorne’s play looks back at the man who established them at a delicate moment in the history of the BBC, and dramatises his inner tussle with truth.
We find John Reith at the helm of the British Broadcasting Company – not yet a corporation but on its way to becoming so. That outcome is threatened in 1926, during the general strike, which extends the reach of Reith’s wireless service in the absence of newspapers (the presses went on strike too). It brings him into conflict with Stanley Baldwin’s government which seeks to co-opt the service as a state broadcaster.
