If I can explain a bit more about the show in question it might jog a few memories.
Canadian Bernard Braden was massive in Britain during the 50's and 60's, and he remained a popular broadcaster right up until his death, about ten or so years ago. His weekly TV show commanded the kind of audiences the BBC could only dream about today. Anyway, going back to story, the BBC was going to cover the 1969 Peace on Earth international assembly at Wembley Stadium, and do a whole programme about the Jehovah?s Witnesses. The '69 convention was massive, in what was then the largest stadium in the UK. They also had use of what was then known as the Empire pool, and later became the Wembley Arena. There has never been a convention in Britain as large since.
Peter Knowles was a well known footballer (soccer), who gave his promising career up to be a pioneer. This was about the same time, and so the Witnesses were really very much in the public eye. As far as the Bethel were concerned, the programme would be a good witness, and when they were approached about the show, the branch committee agreed that they would give the BBC full co-operation. Oh dear!
One of the things the BBC did initially was send a young lady researcher to shadow a pioneer couple in Ealing Congregation, West London. This happened over a number of weeks and the pioneer couple struck up a friendship with her, I think they may have thought that she might come into the troof. When the programme was eventually aired though, she wasted no time giving the Witnesses a good roasting, so this friendship was obviously feigned.
One of the Bernard Braden show's reporters was a young lady called Esther Rantzen, she has since become a major TV star in her own right in the UK. She went to the meeting in Ealing, where the majority of the convention committee were attending while the convention was being organized. At this time David Sibrey (one of the chief honchos at UK Bethel) thought that this programme was going to be a sympathetic portrayal, and so all the cameras were set up in the hall to record the meeting. The congregation overseer, Henry Spicer (this was before the Elder arrangement) explained to the congregation at the beginning that the whole meeting was going to be recorded. After this meeting though came a turning point.
I understand that some days later, David Sibrey found out that from some source that the BBC was interviewing some disfellowshipped ones about the Witnesses policy on shunning. He smelled a rat, and so refused to allow the BBC to broadcast the material they had filmed in the hall, and withdrew his cooperation ? the drawbridge went up.
A week or two later, the brothers and sisters attending the meeting at the same hall were slowly filing into the hall ready for the meeting. They looked over at the green which was outside, across the road. Not particularly well camouflaged amongst the bushes and trees were the BBC's cameramen, filming all the people going into the hall. Many in the congregation thought it was amusing that they made such a feeble attempt at hiding. Can you imagine all those people hiding behind the bushes like something from Monty Python? I think most of the brothers at that time would have liked to have blown them up! Because they were not in the premises of the Kingdom Hall, and therefore were not trespassing, nobody could really stop them.
When the programme was eventually aired, the footage of the brothers and sisters going to the meeting was shown, immediately followed by what looked like the inside of a kingdom hall. It wasn't, it was a pretend hall, created in the BBC studios in Shepherds Bush. Because the permission to show the footage was withdrawn, the BBC had to make do in the best way they could.
One or two of the people that were at this fake meeting were noticed as being apostates that were obviously helping the BBC to create an authentic mock-up of a Jehovah's Witness meeting. Also, when they filmed at Wembley, they showed the picketers outside. The picketers, so I understand, confused the audience, who allegedly were led to believe that these were Witnesses being generally nutty, banging tambourines, waving placards and stuff!
The BBC slaughtered the Witnesses with this show, much like they did with the recent Panorama. I understand a lot of people out on the ministry gave calling Witnesses short shrift because of what they saw on the TV.
Now, I only have a one-sided account of this programme, it would be fascinating to see it again with fresh non-dub-indoctrinated eyes.
