DAY THE MUSIC DIED: A Life Behind the Lens

The day of his mother's death when he was five years old was the day the music died for Tony Garnett. His story begins in working-class war-torn Birmingham where he movingly describes the trauma of his mother's death following a back street abortion. 19 days later, stricken with grief, his father committed suicide, and Tony was sent to live with other family members, no longer to hear the soundtrack of his early life, his mother's piano playing. As an angry young man, Tony realised that his passion lay behind the camera and he rebuilt a life in films, pursuing the truth about the world in order to avoid the truth about himself. He eventually moved to London and was part of the counterculture scene in the 1960s. He shares the inside story of his most ground-breaking productions, including Cathy Come Home, Kes and This Life. He gives accounts of angry clashes with the BBC and film executives as he battled to make films that were thought too controversial, films about police corruption and psychiatrists' cruelty, films advocating abortion law reform and the abolition of the death penalty, films about the homeless and the waste of young people in poor schools. He takes us behind the scenes of a selection of his more famous productions and offers secrets and anecdotes, some moving, some amusing and this is a fine and moving memoir of a fine storyteller. 306pp, 16 pages of archive and some colour photos including Garnett with Pauline Letts on the cover of Radio Times for 'The Birth of a Private Man'. He probably was simply the best TV drama creator and producer ever and we all remember his films to this day. Paperback.