I just want to print newspapers…
I was just starting out in publishing when the events
depicted in this play were taking place and we too were looking at the
emergence of desktop publishing, online (oh yes), expert systems and methods of
production that would soon cut out traditional typesetters as well as plate
makers and various stages in the production process. Artwork had to have the
designer’s NGA membership number on and it was presented to printers with overlays
and instructions for printers to photograph and turn into printing plates.
Technology was changing fast and, as this play points out, that was an issue
for those with costs to cut and others with livelihoods to protect. Of course,
Fleet Street was also riddled with “Spanish Practices” and union-based
agreements that lowered productivity whilst protecting jobs. There’s blame on
both sides here as there always is.
Aware of all this is SOGAT General Secretary, Brenda Dean
(here played with wit and resolution by Claudia Jolly) but as she tells the
seemingly impenetrable Rupert Murdoch (Alan Cox, playing the Devil with
conviction and no heart) “there are ways…”. There might indeed have been other paths
to follow in changing the production process for the Australian media Moghul’s
four UK titles – The Sun, News of the World, The Times and
The Sunday Times – including a negotiated plan involving the various
unions and natural wastage but he preferred a more callous and immediate course
of action.
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| Alan Cox and Claudia Jolly (All photos Charlie Flint Photography) |
Under the guise of producing a new daily paper, The London Post, Murdoch set up a new printing works in Wapping in which he set up all the print capacity he would need to run his papers and, having done a deal with one of the unions, the EETPU (Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union) he had the technical staff trained up and ready to go with neither SOGAT or the NGA aware. The NUJ was also easily neutralised with the help of The Times Editor Andrew Neil and The Sun’s amoral bundle of unresolved masculine crisis, Kelvin McKenzie. I had a friend who worked for Neil at the time and he was apparently a “good boss” but – she was blonde, good-looking and maybe he had his favourites – and he certainly did his master’s bidding in persuading most of his journalists to betray their brethren.
Alasdair Harvey plays Neil as a tool of Murdoch’s and rather
lacking in the principles he has always demanded from others. Such is the life
of a critic – those who can do, Andrew, those who can’t just write about
it! If ‘Drew is simpering, Kelvin MacKenzie - Russell Bentley having a ball! - is the monster we all know now to
be unrepentant, a salesman role-playing as an editor, selecting and twisting
the stories he thinks his readers want. I knew someone at The Sun too
and in 1989, when Kelvin ran his lies about Liverpool fans stealing from the
dead at Hillsborough, his staff pleaded with him not to publish this
unevidenced story… he ignored them in favour of the lies.
At the time, as Michael Crick observes in the programme
notes, Dean was seen as being too close to Murdoch but the reality as presented
here seems to be that she was doing her best to save as many jobs as she could.
Written by Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky who also wrote the excellent, informed
and entertaining, Gang of Three – also fabulous at this venue, the play
is heavy on detail and yet the assured direction from Josh Roche makes light of
this and enables the characters to breath as this complex narrative unfolds.
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| Jonathan Jaynes and Claudia Jolly (All photos Charlie Flint Photography) |
This is all the more remarkable as the actors take on
multiple roles, Jonathan Jaynes plays Eric Hammond as well as Dean's SOGAT right-hand
man Bill Sargeant, whilst Georgia Landers plays the union’s legal brief as well
as a whistle-blower from Wapping. The whole space is used with the cast often
joining in from the shadows to highlight the voices of workers but all the
while Cox’s Murdoch is centre stage facing them all down in his desire to “just
print newspapers…”
In the end, we all know that Murdoch was allowed to carry on
printing his news… and the crisis averted he was able to secure a foothold in
the USA with Fox News where he sent over Mr Neil to work his peculiar magic.
But, in a similar way to all political lives ending in some kind of failure
what will be his legacy now, not only given the unfortunate impact his type of
entertainment has had on democracies and the strength of debate.
More to the point, the revolution started in the mid-80s has
accelerated through the dot.com boom and now onto social media news and AI… It
was a splendid surprise to see Brian Cox take his seat just before the show
started - no pressure Alan! - and you wonder who will succeed Murdoch now and has anyone the skillset
to deal with news agendas and breaking narratives that are almost
uncontrollable.
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| Georgia Landers and Russell Bentley (All photos Charlie Flint Photography) |
IThankYou Verdict: ***** This is such a well-wrought
play in terms of covering the complexity of the issues and the key
personalities in a way that entertains and informs and educates: Lord Reith is
smiling in his heavenly Broadcasting House: The Truth will out!
In the Print plays at the Kings Head until 3 May 2026
and I strongly urge you to book to see it! Not just Brian Cox, but Neil Kinnock
– mentioned in the play – and other notables were in attendance, including
Michael Crick who wrote about these events as they unfolded. It’s a production
of The Spontaneity Shop, James Quaife Productions and King’s Head Theatre
Productions and a World Premier – I hope it runs and runs: this is how power
and the media works, now as then. But the centre of that power is again in flux
and who knows if the Murdoch family empire can master the digital arena as
young technocrats with even more money, begin to over power him and his successors…
Full details on the King’s Head website. Another winner!
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