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From Socialist Worker, No. 101, 14 December 1968, p. 2.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
DEAR MR.PLATER,
I think you’ve misinterpreted my piece on Softly, Softly (December 7). I know some very nice policemen,and when I produce some, I’m sure they will be very nice to my children.
But they will remain policemen; cogs in the machine of state repression. I’m not arguing against the accuracy of Softly, Softly (although I maintain it occasionally doesn’t deal with things it might deal with), but what I do see in cops on the box is what being a policeman means, irrespective of whether you’re a nice bloke or not.
I’m getting at the idea that nice blokes have to play whist at the conservative club, because they’re coppers, and all they can do about it is wear a red tie.
The fact that Softly, Softly exposes this sickening dialectic is a compliment to writers like yourself; and there is nobody who admires more than I do the way that you and John Hopkins have used the serial format to create great television drama outside the Softly, Softly/Z Cars syndrome.
So I think we’re on the same side, really.
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Yours Fraternally, |
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Last updated on 30 October 2020