A lyrical tribute to the 'founder of the NHS' that will interest some here. Those expecting a detailed biography will be disappointed.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b0077ct3/food-for-ravens#:~:text=Dra....
It seemed odd that I hadn't known about it earlier and being inquisitive I found some background on its troubled BBC history (copied without a pointless bit of political personnal snipping)
>'The last (so far) screenplay commissioned for television from Trevor Griffiths, and a project somewhat soured by acrimony. Food For Ravens, at once both a biopic of the final days in the life of Nye Bevan and a haunting elegy for the great man himself, was submitted to the BBC Drama Department by Griffiths in the summer of 1996 with a view to marking the centenary of Bevan's birth the following year. You would think that a playwright of Griffiths' stature and with an admirable past track record within the BBC would have hand his hand bitten off by the then Head of Drama, David Thompson, but instead Griffiths was made to wait three long months for his verdict; thanks, but no thanks. Thompson's reason for passing was his belief that "You’d need a degree in political science to know what was going on", but that is frankly bollocks and an insight into how the formative process of dumbing down was beginning to occur within the BBC. In reality, I suspect the BBC weren't sure what to make of a drama that was a paean to one of this nation's finest socialists......Ultimately, help came to Griffiths in the shape of BBC Wales, an arm of the corporation who were more than happy to commemorate the anniversary of one of their most famous and cherished son's birth. What followed appears to be a bit of mischief on the part of Brian Cox, the Scottish socialist actor who plays Bevan here. Cox could not understand why the film was not being broadcast nationally and took to asking that question to any member of the press willing to listen. With growing traction, several voices joined in the campaign and, nowhere to hide, the BBC relented in their mealy mouthed, happy now? way; they broadcast Food for Ravens in the graveyard slot of 11:15pm on a Sunday night on BBC2. In a letter explaining the BBC's stance to the Independent, Mark Thompson the controller of BBC2, said "In the understandable passion he expresses about Food for Ravens, Brian Cox overlooks one important fact. BBC Wales decided to commission this production solely for the benefit of viewers in Wales, after it had been offered to the Network and rejected at script stage twelve months ago. There was no betrayal of promise or principle in this – everyone involved in the project knew they were making it just for the audience in Wales. But the BBC's argument here simply isn't good enough. Food for Ravens deserved the widest of audiences possible and indeed would have received it without question in the 1980s or 1970s. It's a poetic tribute to Bevan, gravely ill and close to death, confronted by a vision of a young boy that is in fact him as a youth (the hazy flashbacks to Bevan's Welsh childhood possess a Potteresque rurality of red faced bitter bully teachers and urgent knee tremblers). It's a production, helmed by Griffiths himself, that defies the usual formula of biopic to present something far more interest and touching. At a time when politics can be seen as a bloodless occupation for craven opportunists whose sole desire appears to be the limelight rather than the betterment of others, Food for Ravens reminds us how it is, a role that requires a specific human quality delivered by an individual with all his heart and passion.The fact that Food for Ravens went on win awards from the RTS and Bafta proves that the BBC were wrong on this one."
