An essay on George Orwell written and directed by Melvyn Bragg
This is a film about the author of "1984" and "Animal Farm", two of the most famous and influential books of the mid-20th century. It traces the life of Orwell in the year 1936 when he finished an important novel, went to the depressed North of England, married, set off for the Spanish Civil War, and completed a book "The Road to Wigan Pier" which, it will be argued, set his course as a political writer.
With those who knew him in the North in 1936: Mrs Mary Deiner, Tom Degnan, Ellis Firth and the late G.D. Kennan
Those who knew him in London in that year: Cyril Connolly, Humphrey Dakin, Mrs Mabel Fierz, Geoffrey Gorer, the late Sir Richard Rees
And comments from: W.H. Auden, Noam Chomsky, Michael Foot, MP, Ian Hamilton, Norman Mailer, Fred Warburg, Angus Wilson, Alan Collins, Fred Johnson, Jim Murray and children from Kirk Balk School, near Barnsley

(Orwell: "nearer a saint than most" p 9)