Andrew Davies, who is writing a drama about the birth of the national health service, has urged Jeremy Corbyn to allow dissent in his shadow cabinet in the way the great postwar Labour government did.
Davies expressed some disappointment over the behaviour of the Labour leadership during the latest reshufle: “It all sounds a bit Soviet, kicking out anybody who doesn’t agree with him.”
A supporter of Corbyn’s espousal of “old fashioned Labour values” before the Labour leadership election, he said he had become a “bit less of a fan” since, and compared Corbyn’s team with the Clement Attlee administration that brought about the welfare state.
“In the best Labour government ever (1945-51) they all disagreed with each other and got all these brilliant things done ... They transformed the country at a time when it was stony broke,” he said.
Now 79 and responsible for current adaptation of War and Peace for the BBC, Davies is working on a drama for BBC Wales about Aneurin Bevan, the Labour health minister at the birth of the NHS. Given the importance of his relationship with Winston Churchill and his wife Jennie Lee, Davies said the working title might change to Nye, Jennie, Winston and a Nation’s Health.
Davies, who was born in Wales and taught in inner London schools in the early 60s, said that he finds Corbyn “fascinating”.
“When they were making speeches about who was going to be leader he was the only one who made any sense. Everyone else didn’t really say anything.”
A Nation’s Health is in the early stages of development and is unlikely to be aired this year.
Among other projects worked on by Davies he said he still hoped that an adaptation of Anthony Trollope’s The Pallisers could be resuscitated after being axed by the BBC in 2009. “I haven’t given up hope of doing the Pallisers,” he said. “I can dust them off, they are still pretty good scripts. Its not just about politics but about women falling in love and deciding which man. That’s my thing really.”
Davies denied that War and Peace was a “sexed-up saga”, arguing that he simply expanded the hints of incest Tolstoy was unable to include. “It’s just a game.”
He also revealed himself to be a huge fan of Aidan Turner, the actor who shot to stardom last year as the lead in the BBC’s Poldark. “He is a bloody compelling actor,” said Davies. “I’d love to have him on something I do.”
