Paul Watson, the film-maker at the centre of the latest TV deception row over his ITV documentary about the death of a man with Alzheimer's, told my colleague Owen Gibson earlier this week that the current spotlight on broadcasting's alleged misdeeds was "McCarthyism gone ballistic". Is this all just hysteria whipped up by the press?
Here's a longer extract from Owen's news story, quoting Watson:
"RDF [producer of A Year With the Queen] and [Big Brother producer] Endemol between them have fucked up serious film-making for a long time," he said. He said they had contributed to a "febrile atmosphere" that amounted to "McCarthyism gone ballistic".
"Everyone is terrified that everything is going to be judged as if it's been faked," he said. "We haven't, I haven't and I don't. In the film it will be very clear that you are not seeing a death."
Today on the MediaGuardian website John Mair, a friend and former BBC colleague of Watson's, launches a staunch defence of the award winning documentary maker:
Like most great film-makers I have met, Paul is selfish. You have to be. The film is all and the rest to the world blinkered out in the pursuit of that.
Others never match up to his own high standards, many fall by the wayside and, again like many great film-makers, Paul is no team player. But you know when you see a Paul Watson film. He is the auteur par excellence.
...Paul has never been good at TV high politics. He has not been in this storm.
However, one thing is certain. At 10.30pm next Wednesday night, having watched Malcolm and Barbara: Love's Farewell, we will be much closer to an understanding of the tragedy called Alzheimer's.
Thanks to Paul Watson. Long may he continue to make films like this. British TV needs more Paul Watsons. He should not be an unwitting victim of the moral panic currently gripping the industry.
