Well done BBC for tackling issue
Saturday 09 February 2013
Printable
EmailI was very much impressed by the latest episode of BBC drama Waterloo Road, in which a former pupil who had joined the army since leaving and had served in Afghanistan returned to the school and due to having PTSD ended up taking staff and pupils hostage with a handgun.
I was surprised that the BBC had allowed such a politically charged script to go ahead, especially when union rep character Grantly Budgen insisted that the wars on terror were nothing more than "working-class youth being used as cannon fodder for corrupt politicians" and eventually disarmed the young soldier by reminiscing about the young boys he had taught who ended up getting killed or maimed in the Falklands and the Gulf wars.
Well done BBC for such a topical and thought provoking episode.
Drama and politics can go hand in hand and now with the possiblity of British troops being deployed to Mali, Syria or Iran it is needed more than ever.
Phil Brand
London SW17
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