Interesting episode of Endeavour on ITV tonight. It was set against real events in Oxford. I had the privilege of ‘casting away the former children’s laureate Michael Rosen and he told me this story….
In 1969, he became a graduate trainee at the BBC working on Playschool and schools programmes. .
“After thirty months training, unless you screwed up, you had a permanent job. But in my case, they suggested I go freelance, effectively sacking me. It turned out that I had been blacklisted.”
He had fallen foul of the vetting procedures. While a student, Michael had been arrested twice: for demonstrating against the Vietnam War and for protesting outside a hairdresser in Oxford who refused to cut black people’s hair.
Michael was unaware of the corporation’s unsavoury vetting practice until it was exposed in 1985.
You can read his full story here . Michael Rosen
His life story is in Oxford Castaways 2
