Tag Archives: Television

It Shouldn't Happen to a Pig

Peril of pig in a poke

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By KENNETH HUGHES
Daily Mirror, 8 May 1979

AT last, democracy is coming to television. Tonight, you, the viewers, can pick up your phone or put pen to paper and have a chance to air your opinions.

The revolutionary experiment is the brainchild of the Manchester-based “Brass Tacks” team.

After tonight’s programme in the new “Brass Tacks” series called “It Shouldn’t Happen to a Pig” (BBC-2, 8.10 pm.) viewers will be invited to give their views, either by phoning any local BBC radio station or by writing to the producers.

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It Shouldn't Happen to a Pig

DANGER ON THE DINNER TABLE

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It Shouldn’t Happen to a Pig, BBC 2
Daily Star, 8 May 1979

IS THE meat you had for lunch poisoned? That is the question posed in the first programme of a new series of Brass Tacks. (BBC2. 8.10)

The programme’s ideas man, co-producer and presenter, Eric Robson, believes it is not as far fetched as it sounds.

He says: “Almost all the meat you buy from the butcher now has Salmonella on it, which causes food poisoning and could be fatal.”

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It Shouldn't Happen to a Pig

Furious farmers ready for drugs phone-in

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By Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian, 8 May 1979

Farmers and butchers are furious over the colour photography of a piglet, on the cover of the current Radio Times, with the caption “meat and poultry may seriously affect your health.

The photograph advertises the BBC-2 programme Brass Tacks, tonight devoted to the increasing use of drugs in agriculture, particularly on factory farms, and the increasing incidence of salmonella food poisoning in Britain.

The National Farmers’ Union, which considered taking out an injunction against the Radio Times and promised to send “hot missiles” to the BBC’s chairman and director-general, is now urging farmers to bombard local and regional radio stations during the phone in debate that will follow the programme.

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It Shouldn't Happen to a Pig

Angry reply by farmers to pig programme

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Leicester Mercury, 8 May 1979

LEICESTERSHIRE, Northamptonshire and Rutland farmers plan to take part in a nationwide phone-in which is being staged as a follow up to a BBC-2 television programme on Tuesday, It Shouldn’t Happen to a Pig.

They are angry about what they see as an attack on modern intensive farming methods forced on them by the public’s demand for cheap food.

They are particularly angry about the front cover of the current Radio Times with its picture of a pig and caption, Health Warning: Meat and Poultry may seriously affect your health.

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It Shouldn't Happen to a Pig

CHEAP FOOD, BUT AT WHAT COST?

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Liverpool Echo, 8 May 1979

FACTORY farming may mean cheap food but are we paying too high a price for this benefit in terms of health?

That’s the alarming question tackled by It Shouldn’t Happen to a Pig (BBC-2, 8.10) which launches a new series of Brass Tacks debates.

With poultry, pigs and beef being reared in increasingly crowded conditions that foster large-scale disease, the use of antibiotics is spreading.

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It Shouldn't Happen to a Pig

TV probe into farming drugs use

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Manchester Evening News, 7 May 1979

The extensive use of drugs on British farms could pose a serious threat to public health through a build up of salmonella infection, according to a TV programme this week.

This and other findings linked to the alleged “indiscriminate” use of drugs in livestock farming were powerfully spelled out in a BBC documentary – a programme shrouded in controversy even before its transmission.

The fist in BBC-2’s new series “Brass Tacks,” it set out to investigate the connections between a rapid build up over the last few years of salmonella virus in meat and the use of certain antibiotics.

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It Shouldn't Happen to a Pig

TV Preview: It Shouldn’t Happen to a Pig

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TV Preview
The Guardian, 5 May 1979

Brass Tacks (BBC-2, 8.10) returns with a full-blooded commitment to the multi-media technique it has pioneered: a report and debate thrashing through a topic of current controversy in the television programme, with BBC local radio stations lined up to start phone-in discussion the moment the television has ended.

Factory farming, and the public risk of food poisoning arising from its crowded conditions and use of drugs – with salmonella the main enemy – is the first subject.

The public response will be reported by presenter Eric Robson in a programme the next Monday.

It Shouldn't Happen to a Pig

Drugs-in-farming programme starts BBC-TV row

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Farmers Guardian, 4 May 1979

A major row flared this week between leaders of the livestock and meat industries and the BBC.

The cause is a Radio Times front cover colour picture of a pig drawing attention to a BBC2 television programme on the use of growth promoting drugs in farming.

The cover picture carries the headline “Should this little piggy go to market?” – and at the bottom, printed in a type similar to the Government warning on cigarette packets, are the words – “Health warning: Meat and poultry may seriously affect your health.”

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It Shouldn't Happen to a Pig

Angry farmers attack BBC programme

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by Christopher Parkes
Financial Times, 3 May 1979

Farmers and butchers are preparing to bombard the switchboards of BBC local and regional radio stations after next Tuesday’s Brass Tacks programme on BBC2 about modern practices in livestock farming and meat production. They fear they will be coming under attack and aim to set the record straight.

They are angry that their representative organisations were not consulted during the preparations of the programme and their tempers have been raised further by the front cover of the latest Radio Times.

It shows a piglet with the caption: “Health warning: Meat and poultry can seriously affect your health.”

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It Shouldn't Happen to a Pig

Sunday roast drug threat

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ENTERTAINMENT EXTRA
by Patrick O’Neill
Daily Mail, 1 May 1979

A BLACK market operation providing drugs for factory farms could be a danger to health.

This is just one of the claims to be made in a controversial TV documentary next week.

It traces links between the use of antibiotics in farm animals and the increase in food poisoning among humans.

The first is a new series of the BBC’s Brass Tacks programme investigates the increase in factory farming in Britain and links it with major public health dangers in the future.

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