Antony Jay
Sir Antony Rupert Jay (born 20 April 1930) is a British broadcaster and script writer best known for co-writing the 1980s political comedy Yes Minister. Less well known is Jay's role as a right-wing activist.
Education and career
Jay was educated at St Paul’s School, a prestigious private school in London where he was awarded a scholarship. He then attended Magdalene College, Cambridge where he was awarded a first in Classics and Comparative Philology. [1] In 1955, after his two years national service, Jay join the BBC. He edited its current affairs programme Tonight from 1962 to '63 and was head of talks features from 1963 to 1964 when he left the BBC to work as a freelance writer and producer. [2]
In 1972 Jay wrote a pamphlet called The Householder’s Guide to Community Defence against Bureaucratic Aggression which advised citizens who to protest against government planning decisions. [3]
Jay was a member Annan Comittee on Future of Broadcasting (1974-77) which led the the creation of Channel 4 - an innovation which served the interests of independent producers like Jay.
Video Arts
In 1972 Jay co-founded the corporate training video production company Video Arts with the comedian John Cleese. Jay chaired the company from 1972 to 1989. [4] Jay was also a partner in a sister company called Video Arts Television which was set up in 1978 and produced a number of films promoting neoliberal ideology. Most notable of these was the ten part documentary Free to Choose promoting the views of Milton Friedman, but it also produced a three part film called Heyek - His Life and Thoughts, broadcast in 1985.
In his autobiography Friedman recalls the first meetings with Video Arts Television to discuss the future production of Free to Choose:
Bob [Chitester] had been planning a trip to London to talk to the BBC about its interest in acquiring the program when it was completed and to talk with possible producers... By far the most important interview was with Antony Jay, recommended by Ralph Harris [Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs] as “a Friedman fan” (initially from reading my [1973] Playboy interview). Jay was a partner in Video Arts, a television production company formed by ex-BBC employees who had wanted to escape bureaucracy… [Later] Bob and I took off on September 20 for London, where we had extensive discussions with Antony Jay and two of his partners who were to be the most closely involved in the production of Free to Choose, Michael Peacock, managing director and Robert Reid, chairman. In addition, Peacock arranged for us to interview Michael Latham as a potential producer. Unlike the producers we had interviewed in the United States, both the Video Arts trio and Michael Latham were sympathetic to our philosophy and enthusiastic about producing a documentary to present it. [5]
Free to Choose eventually became a ten part television documentary. The BBC bought the rights to six of the programmes, [6] five of which were broadcast with studio discussions with Milton Friedman hosted by the neoliberal economist and journalist Peter Jay. [7] Friedman commented that it was: 'Interesting that Britain, the fatherland of the welfare state and the home of a major avowedly socialist party, should be where we would find producers sympathetic to free markets.' [8]
Critic of the BBC
In recent years Jay has emerged as a right-wing critic of the BBC, which he alleges has a left-wing bias.
Notes
- ↑ ‘http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whoswho/U21874, JAY, Sir Antony (Rupert)]’, Who's Who 2009, A & C Black, 2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2008 [Accessed 20 Nov 2009]
- ↑ Debrett's Online, Sir Antony Jay, CVO [Accesssed 20 November 2009]
- ↑ The Times, 7 September 1972; p.9; Issue 58573; col F
- ↑ Debrett's Online, Sir Antony Jay, CVO [Accesssed 20 November 2009]
- ↑ Rose D. Friedman, Two Lucky People: Memoirs (University of Chicago Press, 1999) p.475-6
- ↑ Rose D. Friedman, Two Lucky People: Memoirs (University of Chicago Press, 1999) p.499
- ↑ According to the BBC Motion Gallery the title of each segment and the date of its broadcast were as follows: Free to Choose:1:Power of Markets (16 February 1980); Free to Choose:2: The Tyranny of Control (23 February 1980); Free to Choose:3:Anatomy of Crisis (1 March 1980); Free to Choose:4: Created Equal (8 March 1980); Free to Choose:5: Who Protects the Consumer? (15 March 1980); Free to Choose:6: How to Cure Inflation (22 March 1980). All but Power of Markets were broadcast with a were broadcast with discussions hosted by Jay.
- ↑ Rose D. Friedman, Two Lucky People: Memoirs (University of Chicago Press, 1999) p.475
