Clement Attlee - The play

30/09/2022

Those local radio interviews were excruciating!

Give them a listen 📲 https://tinyurl.com/4hnzvf74

24/09/2022

Here's the BBC Radio Merseyside intervew with Clement Attlee - The play writer Francis Beckett, talking to the station's political correspondent Claire Hamilton:

News, great music, fun, and the local issues that matter to you.

23/09/2022

Is Starmer bold enough on Europe? My piece in the New European, out today. The same paper will be carrying my reports from Labour's conference in Liverpool. https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/francis-beckett-keir-starmer-plan-to-fix-brexit/?fbclid=IwAR1ICqbert1NoFltFRkwwc842jGtBj5i_DjSrqts4GpKD9issSR9CgByB00

Labour’s leader is perceived to be sitting on his hands over Europe. But private discussions with European leaders tell a different story

22/09/2022

I will be talking about my Clement Attlee play on BBC Radio Merseyside at 2.30 tomorrow Friday afternoon with their political reporter Claire Hamilton. Francis

20/09/2022

Here is the podcast Francis Beckett did for the Liverpool arts organisation Opening Nights about Clement Attlee - The Play. https://www.openingnights.co.uk/podcast/archive/season1/clement-attlee?fbclid=IwAR3E2EIlp0GLOW5-UoYc6EoXTkR8-oqJdft9f9jZbjlgmuaYu5KWZIopO7w

In this episode your host Lauren speaks with Francis Beckett about his up coming show, ‘Clement Attlee’ which will be at The Epstein Theatre on 26th - 27th September. They delve into what was the inspiration behind the show and what audience can expect. This was a very insightful interview behin...

20/09/2022

Purposely haven’t listened to the radio, turned a tv on or done too much scrolling on socials this last week.

20/09/2022

19/09/2022

Heartbreakingly, this is what is now happening to Clem Attlee's and Nye Bevan's National Health Service: https://www.medscape.co.uk/viewarticle/great-nhs-heist-step-closer-gp-and-documentary-maker-warns-2022a10022yd?fbclid=IwAR0puFvZE48xUnwCiVbVYXa7SyZXDp2s-Zg5OxF5xI1j0ygKHzI_oBp_G20

Film maker and Campaigner Dr Bob Gill tells a Doctors' Association UK event why he believes the public service ethos of the NHS is under serious threat.

16/09/2022

May 1945 - the setting of Francis Beckett's play Clement Attlee at Labour Conference 2022.

Britain celebrates victory over Hi**er and cheer Winston Churchill. But things have changed. The poor don't want to go back to the way things were. They remember the thirties. It was a time of poverty, unemployment, starvation, in the midst of ostentatious wealth.

They don't want that again. The men and women who fought the war want a better world. They want the rich to pay a bit more, so the poor can suffer a bit less. They want a national health service. Pay when they're unemployed, so their families don't starve. Education for everyone, so that no one grows up unable to read or write.

They want the Party to deliver it.

But Labour is led by a nonentity - "a modest little man with plenty to be modest about." He says almost nothing. He sits in his grey suit and puffs his pipe. One wit remarked: "An empty taxi drew up and Clement Attlee got out." No charisma, no revolutionary passion. Even if, by some miracle, he wins an election against the great Winston Churchill, this grey little man can't make a revolution.

There's no hope. There's nothing in him. Is there?

Tickets are available here - https://www.acc360.co.uk/epstein-theatre-1647437958-clement-attlee.html

11/09/2022

Clem Attlee was a strong suporter of the monarchy, and very fond of the late queen's father King George V1. Here they are together in 1945. What this clip doesn't tell you - but my play does - is that Clem said "I've won the election" and the King replied: "I know, I heard it on the sx o'clock news."

Full title reads: "THE KING RECEIVES MR. ATTLEE". Buckingham Palace, London.Various shots of the King George VI and new Prime Minister Clement Attlee posing ...

05/09/2022

An interview inspired by my Attlee play - the journalist Emma Burnell talks to the historian Stephen Fielding abou Clement Attlee's place in history. https://audioboom.com/posts/7153647-a-modest-little-man?fbclid=IwAR0uqKL3oOdnLHYRuMih9H3kUYqE3NIwbdL9mjAJM3AkhnOvEiRRlloReHI

The Zeitgeist Tapes on tour! This month, Emma has dragged Steve all the way down to 'That London' to a play above a pub in Clapham. But a play about Clement Attlee so very much on brand. Listen...