The Leopard and the Fox - Tariq Ali and the BBC

In 1985, while Pakistani dictator General Zia-ul-Haq was still in power, the BBC drama department commissioned dramatist Tariq Ali to write a three part drama on the circumstances behind Zia's coup in 1977. The resulting three part series, The Leopard and the Fox dramatised the conflict between elected prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Zia that resulted first in Bhutto's house arrest, and later his execution. It's a gripping piece of drama, to read. To read, because the piece, though commissioned by the BBC, presumably in full knowledge of the kind of piece Ali, a noted activist and author, was likely to produce, has never been televised. Shortly after the finished drama was submitted to the BBC, and while casting was going on (there was talk about casting Angelique Huston as Benazir Bhutto), proceedings were halted, and it was made known to Ali that the play had become controversial within the BBC hierarchy.

Twenty years later, and the drama has been published by Berg along with a fascinating introduction by Ali that details how this thoroughly British style of self-censorship occured. He was first approached by a senior BBC correspondent and told that one particular passage, that suggested the Americans knew in advance and supported Zia's hanging of Bhutto, would have to be removed in order for the drama to go ahead. Ali refused, suggesting that any senior military officer would confirm that Zia would have consulted the American embassy before taking such a momentous decision. Having failed to convince Ali to modify the play, lawyers were introduced to argue the case that, were the drama to be screened, the BBC would leave itself open to libel proceedings from the various generals involved in the Pakistani coup and killing of Bhutto.