By combining my story with the recent evidence from the Chilcot Inquiry, people may fully appreciate what an unprincipled and internationally violent Government we have. Once we understand that, we can look to mend it.
If I can sneak that hard political point into the Showbiz pages of the Mail on Sunday, I must be doing something right.
Indeed.
And I liked this bit:
“What I could not get my head round was the fact that New Labour Ministers who supported the use of intelligence from torture, and supported the bombing of urban areas, professed moral outrage that I liked nightclubs.”
The same “moral outrage” goes on in the USA over the same issues, while they ignore waterboarding or justify it. And they don’t see the idiocy of their stances.
I must check out how I’ll get to listen to the play.
Fantastic stuff 🙂 The Mail of all places !
Hope blossoms.
I love that picture – so beautiful – so appealing – so utterly British.
Using that right wing hate-filled rag the Mail for some publicity. You could almost be a New Labour politician, Craig.
Anyone in the UK should be able to listen to Murder in Samarkand on the BBC’s iplayer service for two weeks (or is it one) after the transmission.
Those outside the UK are blocked, but do not worry if you use a web proxy service based in the UK it should work.
An example is the proxy service in the link to my signature.
Just enter the address of the BBC Iplayer in there http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/radio/bbc_radio_four and you should be able to watch/listen to BBC programming.
Try it out now to see if it works.
Darn!! I missed out the proxy address.
It is http://defilter.co.uk/
Thanks a million, Derek.
I’ll give it a go.
Pleased for you Craig. Swings and roundabouts and hopefully more skeletons will fall swiftly out of the cupboards for any corrupt guilty politicians out there.
That bit where Winterbottom wanted to emphasise the comedy aspect of things doesn’t sound like a very good idea at all, in terms of getting across the political message.
It reminds me very much of that Rowan Atkinson character in the ads for a credit card. Much too slapsticky to work. And of course, Steve Coogan could play such a character too.
The story’s much too important for such a treatment.
Lucky escape!
Interesting no comments on the article on the Mail website. Is it working. Has anyone tried to post one?
Not this time Craig. I have tried before on their Inquest for Dr Kelly articles but they have never got on.
I tried it. They’re moderating comments on “this article”, so let’s see what happens. I’ll let you know.
Here’s their message:
Thank you!
Thank you for adding a comment to MailOnline.
Comments on this article are being checked in advance. We aim to publish as many as possible. MailOnline receives thousands of comments every day, so please be patient. If your comments do not appear, this may be due to the volume we receive or due to the content of your comment.
I had signed up to their comments membership to resposte a foul opinion piece by one of their culture hacks … the article i wished to comment on was locked after about 3 comments from the public … and I’m still waiting for my membership confirmation to come through 🙂
Maybe a bung to Conservative HQ would speed it up.
Basically, I think it boils down to the fact that the Mail do not want public comment on their site really.
Craig,
I just checked the BBC website: David Tennant is not credited, not on the Radio 4 schedule, nor on the article about the play that is linked from there – major publicity oversight, I’d say…
Good piece. Great pic, too! Can’t wait!
My comment on the Mail article has not gone up. Words to the effect that I looked forward to hearing this dramatisation and that Craig had shone a strong light into the murky recesses of our illusory ‘democracy’. Sent at 16.30 today.
There is a listing on the BBC Saturday Play page –
Murder in Samarkand Murder in Samarkand
Listen:Next on:
Saturday, 14:30 on BBC Radio 4
Synopsis
David Hare’s witty portrait of an unlikely hero, based on the memoir by Craig Murray.
Craig is proud to be sent as Ambassador to Uzbekestan, eager to work hard and also eager for fun. The combination takes him on a dangerous course both professionally and personally, and the stakes couldn’t be higher.
Bax/Safayev …… Jonathan Coy
Dill/French Ambassador …… Richard Cordery
Foreign Secretary/Uzbek Judge …… Simon Chandler
Prosecutor/Fazilov …… Ian Gelder
Roy/Avazov …… John Hollingworth
US Ambassador/Karimov …… Paul Jesson
Dr Ableman/Uzbek Uncle …… Bruce Myers
Angela …… Flora Montgomery
Dilobar …… Nadira Murray
Emily …… Clara Neather
Nadira …… Jemima Rooper
Serena/Kristina …… Lucy Robinson
Ivo Sanderson/Quest …… Malcolm Sinclair
Procurator …… Sirojiddin Tolibov
Fiona …… Lia Williams
Piano by Michael Webborn
Produced by Ann Scott
Directed by Clive Brill
A Greenpoint production for BBC Radio 4.
Broadcast
Sat 20 Feb 201014:30BBC Radio 4
Mary,
yep, that’s the BBC page; no character called “Craig Murray”, no mention of David Tennant. Consequently, a search of the BBC website on “tennant” does not produce a listing for the play.
Regarding the Daily Mail article; I don’t see any comments there at all yet. Probably all their moderators are off for the weekend, so maybe we’ll see some action tomorrow…
No David Tennant? That be room 105 I guess!
I left an inoffensive Mail-ish sort of comment and it hasn’t appeared. I think Clark may be right; moderators off for the day.
Ref the Saturday Play ‘Murder in Samarkand’ due to be broadcast on Radio 4 on 20.2.2010
@ Clark I see what you mean. I have sent this to BBC Complaints operated by Capita I believe in Glasgow.
Also I do not think any of us will see our comments on the Daily Mail article. This is based on my previous experiences. It is noteworthy that the silly sleb stories all have comments into double figures.
::::
There is a long list of questions requiring answers inc name and phone no, e-mail obviously, postcode, whether you have complained before,what type of complaint……
:::::
Could you please correct an omission on the website page for this production.
There is no mention of Craig Murray himself in the cast list nor of David Tennant who is playing his part.
Could you also explain the reason why this omission has occurred.
::::
Could David Tennant himself publicise this a little more before broadcast. I’m sure it would help alot.
I have left a posting on the BBC4 Drama site asking why they don’t want to publise the actor playing the main character in their play.
Yes, my occasional experiences of attempting to post comments on/ communicate with The Daily Mail has been interesting. I know their general history.
They wrote one piece – a good piece – about some Roma girls who drowned on a beach in Italy while sunbathers kept sunbathing beside the bodies. The journalist had penned a very powerful piece about discrimination against the Roma in continental Europe, particularly Italy. Unfortunately, some of the Mail’s readers started posting rather disgraceful comments about Roma people; it was quite shocking; though others, a minority of those posting, expressed more humane views.
Once, earlier, when Imran Khan (Pakistani cricketer-cum-politician) married Jemimima Goldsmith, a reporter named Edward Verity(!) and the ubiquitous Andrew Neil both penned terrible pieces, drawing on all the possible stereotypes imaginable. I wrote to the editor, pointing out in detail the Goebbels-like ‘propaganda’ elements – this was before I had web access) – contained within the articles and received a fulsome and constructive response from the editor and telling me that they’d been passed-on to the parties concerned.
Years later, had a less positive interaction with The Mail, to do with Islamic Bookshops, when they attempted to use me as a propaganda tool because of an article I’d penned in The Times and seemed miffed when I refused to be used in this manner.
Whatever, I’m really glad that they’re foregrounding Craig’s incredibly important whistleblowing sacrifice and subsequent excellent and essential work.
Craig, you know better than to drag Stuart to boozy parties, he always ends up pinching someon’s bum !
Frazer – and not just any bum, but the bum belonging to “Thinking Man’s Crumpet”, Dana Scully. I am thoroughly impressed, and not just a mite envious either!
@All, the mail has printed some surprising things recently – and been host to a slew of sympathetic anti-war comment. The world is indeed a strange place.
“What I could not get my head round was the fact that New Labour Ministers who supported the use of intelligence from torture, and supported the bombing of urban areas, professed moral outrage that I liked nightclubs”.
Behaviour characteristic of Puritan zealots always and everywhere.
What you need, Craig, is a sonic screwdriver. I know a shop that sells them.