The 'Big Brother Eye'. Image: Rebecca Harley/PA Archive/Press Association Images
Thirty years ago, the world of independent TV production in the UK was widely seen as a cottage industry, made up of hundreds of freelance producers, eager to make programmes and be their own bosses but not so keen on the business side. There was a belief that independent production was ‘not so much a business, more a way of life.’
Programme-makers in the 1970s who felt shackled by the duopoly of the BBC and ITV embraced the idea that ‘a thousand flowers should bloom’. They were galvanised by the prospect of the new Channel 4 and the Thatcher Government’s support for independent producers as a new force in broadcasting.
