KP/AK/5/2/2 - Letter, Warwick Kenney-Taylor to the Director General of the BBC, 15/3/1951

KP/AK/5/2/2

Item

Letter, Warwick Kenney-Taylor to the Director General of the BBC, 15/3/1951

15/3/1951

1 Letters (typescript)

Kenney-Taylor, Warwick
BBCrecipient

Copy.

This is a letter of protest on behalf of Annie Kenney prompted by her representation in a BBC programme called 'The Women’s Rebellion' and referred to in this letter as 'The Women's Revolution'. “Feel strongly that largely by omission the author [and] producer of the programme have done a great injustice to my Mother”, he writes. The main points of complaint Warwick raises are, first, that the programme gives the impression that Annie played only a small role in the suffragette struggle, due to her only being present during the commencing scenes. Second, that a broad North County dialect was used to represent Annie’s speech. “In the interest of historical accuracy and again in fairness to Mother I feel the popular appeal of this journalistic twist might have been sacrificed to the more balanced truth.” And thirdly, that Annie was not consulted during the production process. He ends the letter with a negative assessment of the entire programme: “I felt it missed the pioneering entity of the whole Movement whose very roots sprang from a will to win through the common cause. I feel that the author used the stunt values of various isolated incidents to the detriment of what should have been a fine story of determination and hard work, by thousands and thousands of women in the country.”

A digital copy may be viewed at Suffragette Stories: https://suffragettestories.omeka.net/items/show/63