Seven minutes of commentary followed by Margaret Thatcher interviewed on Blue Peter (for non Brits: a staple of British children’s TV) in 1983 on the subject of Cambodia, in which she draws the distinction between good and bad Khmer Rouge for the kiddies. At that time, Britain was supporting the KR/Khmer monarchist guerrilla alliance against the government set up by the Vietnamese after their invasion in 1978. Via Eyes of the Pineapple. Jaw dropping now, but this kind of thing wasn't so unusual for the Beeb's children's output when I was growing up. It seemed to be quite common for kids telly to have politicians on to do the avuncular and promote the line of the day to the sprogs.
I am not clicking on that. I have spent perhaps half my life avoiding that voice and I am not clicking on that.
Posted by: ejh | August 05, 2011 at 10:21 PM
Mon semblable! Mon frère!
Posted by: Phil | August 05, 2011 at 10:34 PM
Ah, come on guys! It's a historical artifact! It's Friday night!
Posted by: jamie | August 05, 2011 at 10:49 PM
You stay hidden and see how it should be done:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK-BcJMuN5s
Posted by: skidmarx | August 05, 2011 at 11:03 PM
I'm too young to remember Thatcher, so this is instructive. You can't even see the strings!
Posted by: Leonard Hatred | August 06, 2011 at 12:38 AM
OK, I'll take one for B&T comrades; just don't post any Ronald Reagan vids, please. Here's the nut:
Thatcher: "Pol Pot could not go back...but some of the Khmer Rouge of course are very different I think there are probably two parts to the Khmer Rouge there are those who supported Pol Pot and then there is a much much more reasonable grouping within that title 'Khmer Rouge'..."
Caron Keating: "Do you think so?"
Thatcher :"Well that is what i'm assured by people that know..."
A bit later: "the key people to the Pol Pot matter are the Chinese, the Chinese and the Soviet Union both wish to see peace brought to Kampuchea..."
Then she stood up, grew a metal exoskeleton with handlebars coming out of ears and started stomping around the studio exclaiming "Delete! You will be upgraded, there is no alternative!" in a robotic voice.
The program is actually from December of 1988. Also, "artefact" Jamie, gotta preserve those local peculiarities we yanks find so quaint :-)
Posted by: Barry Freed | August 06, 2011 at 12:41 AM
OK, I accept it's a bit off in the context of killing fields, but Caron Keating was totally hot, was she not? And maybe my age here, but showing there was something in the 80s styling.
Now, was she Gloria Hunniford's daughter or Sophie Ellis Bextor's mother?
Posted by: Strategist | August 06, 2011 at 01:35 AM
The former. Janet Ellis was the latter.
Posted by: john b | August 08, 2011 at 03:38 AM