Tom Hopkinson, editor of Picture Post

04/12/22 • 27 min

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What does it take to be a great news editor? Tom Hopkinson was sacked by the proprietor of Picture Post for trying to run a true story during the 1950 Korean War. Later he also sent a photographer - Ian Berry - to cover the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa for Drum .... in time he fell out with the proprietor of that magazine as well. "To affect the world you've got to get into a position to affect it," he said, "and that means you've got to be very patient and fight your way in."

Nominating Tom Hopkinson is Donald Macintyre, former correspondent in the Middle East and one of the very first students on the Cardiff journalism course Tom Hopkinson set up. Also in studio is his daughter, Professor Amanda Hopkinson.

The presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer is Miles Warde

The presenter is Matthew Parris and the producer is Miles Warde

Previous Episode

Brian Cox on Lindsay Anderson

Actor Brian Cox chooses his one-time mentor and fellow Scot, Lindsay Anderson. "His effect is still on me to this day, and I can't throw him off. He taught me how to think. He triggered something off in me that nobody else had previously done."

A critic, an outsider, a provocateur, Anderson founded the Free Cinema movement in the 1950s with fellow documentary makers Tony Richardson, Karel Reisz and Lorenza Mazzetti. His films include This Sporting Life and If... which won the Palm d’or in 1969 and helped launch the career of Malcolm MacDowell. Lindsay Anderson’s international reputation surpassed his fame in Britain, where his uncompromisingly anti-establishment stance failed to win him mainstream admirers, but he made several more provocative films and is remembered fondly by his friends and collaborators as an extremely funny, loyal and principled man.

Brian Cox, star of Rushmore, The Bourne Identity and Succession, is joined by Karl Magee from the Lindsay Anderson Archive at the University of Stirling. Presented by Matthew Parris and produced for BBC Audio in Bristol by Ellie Richold.

Future programmes in this series include journalist Donald McIntyre on the editor of Picture Post, Tom Hopkinson; Janet Ellis on the founder of the Puffin Club, Kaye Webb; and Terry Christian on Mr Manchester, Tony Wilson, along with author Paul Morley who wrote From Manchester With Love.

Next Episode

Janet Ellis on Puffin editor Kaye Webb

Writer, broadcaster and Blue Peter presenter Janet Ellis champions the life of Kaye Webb, who burst on to the children's publishing scene in 1961 and changed the industry forever.

With no publishing experience whatsoever, Kaye persuaded renowned authors like Roald Dahl and Nina Bawden to publish their hardback bestsellers as pocket-sized paperbacks that children could buy themselves. Hundreds of thousands flocked to join her Puffin Club with its riotous exhibitions, trips and competitions. Janet shares her memories of growing up abroad with her "portable kingdom" of Puffin books, and explains why Puffin and Blue Peter have a lot in common.

Janet is joined in the studio by Kaye's biographer, the writer Valerie Grove. They talk about Kaye's three marriages, especially the last, to cartoonist Ronald Searle, then one of the most famous men in the country. We also hear personal memories of Kaye from Clare Morpurgo, daughter of Penguin founder, Sir Allen Lane.

With thanks to Puffin Club expert Sherief Hassan, Philippa Dickinson and Emma Thompson. Photo courtesy of Seven Stories - The National Centre for Children's Books in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Presented by Matthew Parris. Produced by Sarah Goodman for BBC Audio Bristol.