To Orwell Today,
1984 RADIO OMISSIONS

Hi Jackie,

I'm glad that you found the link interesting; in fact, you have inspired me to look a little more closely at the omissions made in this production of 1984.

To start with, underpinning this exercise is the fact that the BBC is a state funded media company and that, over the past few years, its top management has been staffed with close friends and/or supporters of the Prime Minister. This, to me at least, in conjunction with numerous scandals found out about by investigative journalists, suggests that government has quite a bit of control; and control in a media outlet, especially by a socialist government, can really only mean one thing: ideological content control.

Using this as our, hopefully at least marginally accurate, prism through which to see the omissions to Orwell's text, here are a few of the more overt politically related ones, though i make no claims of being comprehensive - I'm sure you or other readers would be able to see many other interesting things, and if you do, it would be great to hear them!

*Omits "and at present the electric current was cut off during daylight hours." even though the rest of the sentence is read.

Possible relation to the fact that concerns have be expressed by many that the UK electricity supply is not adequate enough to cope with the demands a harsh winter would create. This is due to lack of government investment in future power sources - their halt to nuclear power development the most obvious sign of this.

I could make a joke about another of Orwell's novels and Windmills, but i shall resist.....

*Omits "In the far distance a helicopter skimmed down between the roofs, hovered for an instant like a bluebottle, and darted away again with a curving flight. It was the police patrol, snooping into people's windows. The patrols did not matter, however. Only the Thought Police mattered."

Could be seen to be avoiding associating state operated helicopters with spying and thought police, as most of the UK police forces have been equipped with VERY quietly operating helicopters.

These have been known to be used to check on what people are building (house extensions etc), information being passed to local councils to check for appropriate planning permission...

It is also known that the police use their helicopters to check that you are not having fires in your back yards......

*Omits "oblong" from the description of the telescreen; perhaps to distance the idea from our common televisions, for without this shape, it is merely a "metal plaque"...

*Omits wholly "There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live — did live, from habit that became instinct — in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."

"We are all aware of how CCTV can be interpreted in the context of this paragraph, not to mention the proposed National Identity Register with it's fingerprints and iris scans, planned fingerprinting for credit card/bank card use, RFID, ANPR on all motorways, ANPR equipped Helicopters (this is especially relevant).....and that is not desirable to a government that is obsessed with technology, especially that which monitors and tracks individuals."

*Omits "Actually he was not used to writing by hand." and "it was usual to dictate everything into the speak-write", perhaps removed in order to avoid reminding us how much we have come to rely on computers in everyday correspondence...

This is especially apt, since, in the description of the diary, Orwell creates a particularly sentimental, evocative, and therefore desirable, image of traditional pen and ink, something which may stick in the mind of the 9 - 5 office worker whose only dealings are with screens, telephones and keyboards.

A diary also means a record, a memory, of what you have seen and heard....a record which may remind of things which have become "unpopular" after the event.

This also relates to the omission of "The actual writing would be easy. All he had to do was to transfer to paper the interminable restless monologue that had been running inside his head, literally for years", which, to me at least, has always been quite an inspiration towards making me write about the kinds of things found on your website - a kind of critical thinking that certainly isn't encouraged in many schools on this side of the "pond"!

*Omits "shouting they didnt oughter of showed it not in front of kids they didnt it aint right not in front of kids it aint" although the surrounding words are spoken, strange, since this is only condemnation of showing violence and bloody gore to children, something that the BBC would never do.....

Also, Orwell puts the above sentence in the mouth of a prole, something which gives its utterance a more instinctual, natural tone, since a prole is not supposed to think very much about things.

This implies to me that Orwell considered this view of violent images, as voiced by the prole woman, to be the kind of reaction that is usually seen in people who are not already accustomed to their children being exposed to it - namely, the right and proper reaction.

As you say, there is a lot of content removed and altered in this production, consequently there being much to comment on - i have not carried on even to the half way point of the broadcast, but if you want me to carry on, or add to what i have said, please let me know :-)

Looking forward to your reply,
james (sheffield, uk)

Greetings James,

Thank you very much for describing those omissions so far and please continue because it is important that they be pointed out. I am finding it very interesting and no doubt other readers are as well.

All the best,
Jackie Jura

1984 RADIO OMISSIONS - 1 cont'd

Reader says the omissions from 1984 by BBC show Big Brother's fear of truth & knowledge in the minds of common man