Investigates, Discovers, Questions With MICHAEL DEAN , JEREMY JAMES
JEANNE LACHARD , JACK PIZZEY
NICK ROSS , HAROLD WILLIAMSON This week: On Her Majesty's Secretive Service
007 turned secrecy into a money-spinner, but for many ordinary people it's a costly reality. The Official Secrets Act was rushed through Parliament in 1911 as a reaction to the scare about German spies dropping out of the skies. Now, say the critics, it's too often used against the man in the street.
On film, Man Alive reports on a wide range of examples of how secrecy can work-from the residents of one town who discovered too late that a road was coming through their houses, to the case of Freddie Laker who found that secrecy nearly stopped Skytrain from getting off the ground.
In the studio are people who say that there are times when silence is the bureaucrat's favourite weapon, and there are others who argue that a little knowledge can be a very dangerous thing.
Government periodically reviews the working of the Official Secrets Act - but with little effect. What's happened to all those promises about ' open government'?
Producer MICHAEL HOGAN Editor MICHAEL LATHAM