It turns out that Channel 4 is currently repeating Alan Bleasdale's drama GBH on its More4 channel. Best known for his earlier TV drama Boys From The Blackstuff, which by common consent is considered one of the most important and best loved dramas in the history of British television, Bleasdale was lauded and condemned in equal measure for GBH because so many people thought it was little more than a knockabout attack on the local politics of his hometown, Liverpool, and the then Militant Tendency's domination of its Labour council. Reproduced at the following link is a review of the drama that appeared in the Socialist Standard at the time of its original showing, which delves deeper and goes beyond the notion that Bleasdale was doing little more than writing ten hours of television drama so that he could stick the metaphorical boot into Derek Hatton.
The Off the Telly website carries an interesting article on GBH, as part of a series of articles on Bleasdale and his work.
Further Reading: From the January 1986 Socialist Standard - Leftist Wonderland: Militant in Liverpool
Hat-tip to the Millie member on the UK Left Network discussion list who brought the repeating of GBH to my attention with his denunciation of its ". . . reactionary and anti-working class plot."
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