The Falklands Play

First off, I am particularly interested in this subject as I was serving in the US Air Force in England during these events. As a student of WWII history it was a nearly surreal experience to find myself listening to the war news every evening on the BBC in my local country pub, much as my predecessors would've done during WWII. I well remember the reports of the losses, particularly those of HMS Sheffield, Coventry, Atlantic Conveyor and Sir Galahad. I remember the many conversations with locals old enough to still have memories of that earlier war.

Patricia Hodge was wonderful as "Maggie" and being a big fan of British TV and films many other faces were quite familiar. I was quite struck by how Rt Hon Francis Pym and members of the labor party has so quickly forgotten the lessons and cost of appeasement! At one point I would've loved to hear Mrs. Thatcher respond to those questioning the rightness of fighting over "some small rocks and a handful of people" with "If 1,800 British subjects are not worth fighting for, please tell me, exactly, what is the minimum number that IS? 5,000? 10,000? 100,000? 1,000,000?"

Besides having been there to listen to the daily coverage, I've watch a number of documentaries and read a number of books on the battle including the memoirs of the Battle Group Commander Adm. Sandy Woodward. Everything in this movie tracks closely with everything else that I know about the time, the situation and the battles. The one thing I would take exception with, frankly comes as no surprise to me. The all too familiar anti-American jealousy/prejudice that is very common in British programming. One need only contrast the carefully chosen flattering selection of Patricia Hodge to play Margaret Thatcher with the perhaps equally carefully chosen unflattering selection of Bob Sherman to play President Reagan. Not only did he bear no resemblance beyond an American accent, he played Reagan as a bumbling fool who couldn't even remember the name of the islands rather than the strong leader who helped bring down the Berlin wall and with it the Soviet Union. The most pathetic moment was portraying Reagan as having trouble deciding which tie to wear while discussing the issues. That was simply petty and mean.

Lost in all of this is the reality that the British government had allowed this crisis to develop through apathy, neglect and an unwillingness to sacrifice. The Argentine government was emboldened to act due to the steady decline of the power of the Royal Navy and in fact, had they the patience to simply wait a year or two more, the RN's only two carriers would've been decommissioned and Britain would've been forced to accept the take over of the islands. As it is, the losses of British shipping, especially that of the Sheffield and Coventry were reportedly contributed to a decision to cut costs on construction by reducing the length of the ships eliminating the space required for the anti-missile system they were originally designed to carry. This would seem to be a major deficiency for a ship supposedly designed for radar picket duty to detect and defend incoming missile attack! Oddly enough, another documentary I recently watched about the Eurofighter project disclosed similarly dangerous cost cutting which only proves that even those lessons written in blood are too soon forgotten!

The Falklands Play has got to be one of the most controversial plays never produced of the 1980s.

Originally written by Ian Curteis shortly after the war ended but the BBC declined to produce it, officially because it wasn't good enough, but widely believed to be because it was too pro-Conservative just before a General Election in the UK. Watching it now it's even harder to believe that it wasn't good enough to make years ago.

Telling the story of the British politics immediately before and during the conflict Patricia Hodge is brilliant in her role as Mrs. Thatcher. So scarily like her that during the recreated news clips it's hard to remember which one is the actress. Although some of the other lead characters look and sound nothing like their alter-egos, they still manage to recreate the right atmosphere.

Deliberately supposed to show the conflict from `our side' I'm not sure if the emotional side of Margaret Thatcher isn't over played slightly.

In this day and age of cynicism it's refreshing for a film (tele-play?) to tell it how it was. At the end of the day a militaristic dictatorship invaded a peaceful little Island, watched over by a democratic nation. Sorry but those are the facts. This is how it's told. You then throw in a strong, charismatic leader and you've also got a damn good story. Patricia Hodge (I would never have cast her) was marvellous. Anyone wishing to see a balanced view of the conflict should watch this and An Ungentlemanly Act and this presentation.

This play was commissioned by the BBC and it was written based on the actual dialogues that occurred in the Cabinet, the Admiralty and in the House of Commons; the opinions, comments and speeches are all there on record if you want to see them. The BBC backed out of the project, because they wanted (like most British TV networks at the time) to put the knife into Mrs Thatcher's government and this play doesn't do that. Those who were expecting "Sink The Belgrano" got something else instead, and hey, it was something closer to the truth than a political rant.

I'm sorry to disappoint any die hard anti-Thatcher or socialist critics reading this, but this play depicts what happened in those meetings. Mrs Thatcher didn't rub her hands with glee at the prospect of war after all, neither did the Conservative government ritually dine on a feast of babies before holding meetings and not all political drama has to have a strong left wing edge. And if you still think this play is a whitewash, then can I direct you to the primary source material this play was written from. Patricia Hodge is great in the role of Mrs Thatcher, and her put down of Tony Benn (again, it's a real quote, that dialogue did happen) at the end is brilliantly realised.

I think there were serious omissions from the historical truth.

As noted by a reviewer above, Thatcher's political position was very weak at the time. She was seen by the country and many of her "wet" cabinet ministers as being a right wing liability who would sink the Tories at the next election because she had worsened, not improved, Britain's economy. Unemployment had sky-rocketed.

The decision to withdraw HMS Endeavour from the South Atlantic (the supply ship for the Falklands) was made by her right wing Defence Minister John Nott on grounds of cost- cutting. Both the Foreign Office under Carrington and I believe the Chiefs of Staff and the Intelligence Services opposed it on the grounds that the Argentinians would interpret the withdrawal as a sign that the UK was not serious about maintaining its Falklands colony and this would greatly encourage them to invade. Thatcher overruled them and backed Nott. She therefore had direct responsibility for this mistaken decision and should, on the Argentinian invasion, have resigned.

This was known at the time of the Saturday House of Commons debate by many people, especially on the Conservative back benches. There was great unease on them, and talk of replacing her. What saved her probably was Michael Foot's highly patriotic support of her in his speech and the fact that the debate only lasted 4 hours rather than the more usual 8. (Clever work probably by the Whips). If it had been 8, it is very likely that this unease about Thatcher would have surfaced from both wets and right wingers who suspected she was an incompetent woman who had blundered into a war.

Then, had she been replaced - probably by a wet ("wets" by and large were of an older generation than the supporters of Thatcher and had fought in the 2nd War and would have been thought "reliable" to fight another war) - the war would have gone ahead, Britain would again probably have won, and a "wet" rather than Thatcher would have been in charge of Britain and subsequent history would have been radically different. But it is through ironies like this that history operates. As it was, it was those who had been originally been right on "Endeavour" who were forced to resign like Carrington, and Thatcher, the British politician (along with Nott) most responsible for allowing the war to break out, the person who went on to be lionised as a great Churchillian war leader.

The Saturday Commons debate was the great turning point. Curteis presents the debate falsely as a straight patriotic piece of Churchillian stiff upper-lip tub thumping. (This is understandable, the Left had been and was caricaturing Thatcher mercilessly in their propaganda and Curteis's play is his right-wing propaganda blast back). But it would have been far more interesting - and dramatic - to go for neither villains or heroes, but what history really consists of - human beings. And by showing complexities and ironies, rather than pieties and propaganda.