Troy Kennedy Martin

So, um, first of all, let's get into, um, the episode.

So Jackpot, writer Tony Marsh, director Tom Clegg.

First transmitted in the UK first, uh, beg your pardon, 9th of January, 1975 at 9:00.

Quickly running you through the cast: Ed Devereaux, Richard Davis, um, [lip smacks] Morgan Shepherd, Bernard Gallagher, Carolyn Jones, Murray Brown, Sally Faulkner, Natalie Kent, um, Bart Allison.

A, a-

Yeah.

So that, that was, uh, an interesting pick by, uh, Tony Marsh-

[laughs] Yeah

Well, this, this, uh, story began as, uh, taking place in London for a BBC production.

Uh, and the original idea was actually from credited screenwriter Troy Kennedy Martin's brother, Ian, who, uh, then Troy Kennedy Martin kind of, I don't know if he bought it off him or whatever, and then it was, um, repurposed as a film because it was gonna be too expensive for a BBC production that takes place in London.

Uh, which is interesting.

Troy Kennedy Martin, uh, would go on to write one of the all-time great BBC dramas, uh, Edge of Darkness, in the 1980s, which was also remade by the same director, Martin Campbell, in 2010 with, uh, Mel Gibson starring.

But he, his brother also wrote a, um, a police drama, one of those one-offs that they would do for the BBC, and it was popular enough that they wanted it to be a series.

And Ian Kennedy Martin was like, "It's got to be a drama, nothing explosive, no dames every week." But the BBC had s- said like, "Oh, fuck no, people want action." So his brother [laughs] ended up being a showrunner and main writer of the series.

It's a pity because aside from its superb cast, Gabriel Byrne, Greta Scacchi, Denholm Elliott, David Calder, Bill Paterson, Frederick Treves, Fulton Mackay, and Robbie Coltrane, not to mention cinematography by Roger Deakins, it's a cracking conspiracy thriller about the British state's coverup of a nuclear accident.

Perhaps the film is eclipsed by Troy Kennedy Martin's brilliant television series, Edge of Darkness, which aired just two months before Defence of the Realm went on general release.

But it holds up fantastically well as a worm's eye view of the state suppression of the press by any means necessary.

The worm in question being shoe leather tabloid journalist Nick Mullen, played brilliantly by Gabriel Byrne, who breaks a big story about a former left-wing MP with alleged links to the KGB, only to suspect that he's been played and that there's more to the matter than meets the eye.

... yeah, with what's her name in it, as you m- as you mentioned earlier

Not Dennis Potter.

Sorry, Troy Kennedy Martin.

Troy Kennedy Mart- Martin.