1990

   UK tv serial (1977-8). BBC TV. Prod Prudence Fitzgerald. Regular cast included Edward Woodward, Barbara Kellerman, Robert Lang, Tony Doyle, Lisa Harrow. Most episodes written Wilfred Greatorex (1921-), who devised theseries, or Edmund Ward. 16 55min episodes. Colour.

   Reflecting the fears of the middle classes in the 1970s, this serial, set in a socialist UK of 1990, warns of what could happen if the welfare state continued in itspresent direction. The country is run by the PCD, an all-powerful bureaucracy that incorporates the trade-union movement within its machinery; the only people free of its control are a select elite possessing Privilege Cards. The story concerns the efforts of a lone journalist (Woodward) to outwit the system in such ways as helping people to escape to the USA, still a bastion of freedom. 1990's political statement, which Orwell made much more powerfully in NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUR (1949), plays second fiddle to the thriller elements. The novelization byMaureen Gregson (with Greatorex also credited) is 1990 * (1977).

   JB