Grierson Award
Pleasingly, we just won the Grierson Award for the Best Science Documentary.
Here is a link.
Hooray!
Pleasingly, we just won the Grierson Award for the Best Science Documentary.
Here is a link.
Hooray!
My documentary about animal rights and experimentation that was broadcast on the BBC in November has been placed online, not sure by whom.
I'm told by my sources close to the animal liberation movement that the film is also being recut and portions of it are being passed around with their own particular slant. In the event that I can't police that, I figure that having the full thing downloadable at least allows people to see it in its full context.
I really hope more people get to see it. Although the images are a little dodgy, I think the content is as vibrant as provoking as ever.
I'm not sure what the copyright status of it is, I imagine many of the rights are part of the blanket BBC deal. But until the BBC gets its act together to put all this kind of stuff up immediately after its broadcast it seems like its fair game for it to be online.
The links are as follows.
On Google Video. Here.
And in the Internet Archive. Here
I guess its not on Youtube because it doesn't break into 10 minute chunks.
Links to the very fine reviews are here.
Previews:
"[an] outstanding documentary... a fine piece of TV." The Observer.
"Riveting and revealing" The Sunday Times.
"Excellent documentary... Thoughtful television." The Guardian
"An intelligent and thought-provoking film." The Daily Telegraph
"[a] riveting documentary" Radio Times
In the News:
What Felix the Monkey Taught Me About Animal Research, Mail on Sunday Review
Father of Animal Activism Backs Monkey Testing, Sunday Times
Animal Guru Gives Tests His Blessing, The Observer
Reviews:
An outstanding documentary... One of the many triumphs of Adam Wishart's film was that it showed Broughton to be a skilled, passionate, articulate and charismatic leader..... the documentary remained clear-eyed and carefully unsentimental - about the rights of animals, about the rights of people, about the difficulty of engaging in rational debate with fanatical anti-vivisectionists and of drawing rational boundaries around the privileging of human comfort over animal. Lucy Mangan, in The Guardian.
Wishart brilliantly caught the essence of his “characters”: Broughton’s unyielding activism, Professor Aziz’s innate eccentricity, and the spooky steeliness of Laurie Pycroft, a teenager incensed by the antis, who having started a pro-testing website, went on to lead a march, the first of its kind in more than 100 years, through the streets of Oxford in favour of the new lab. In a wonderful moment, Wishart captured Pycroft being primed by one of his spotty teenage cohorts turned spin doctor. There was lots of sharp detail. Tim Teeman, The Times.
Monkeys, Rats and Me was a neat piece of work. The Telegraph
The Web:
"That Scottish lass I found particularly repugnant. Although I think actual violence would harm our cause, I wouldn't lose any sleep if a "lone nut" was stupid enough to... well, do nasty stuff in her environ. I am someone who genuinely loves rats - rats are god's creatures, sacred animals, the most humble of all beings - and consider people who cause them harm to be the worst sort of scum."
and
"I personally hope that aziz and pro-test 3*$*%^%( get harmed, violently by an ARA. And die a slow painful death. If I had a gun, and the location of their whereabouts and transport, I'd do it right fucking now."
LINK
My film has now got a slot. Here it is.
Monkeys, Rats and Me: Animal Testing
BBC2, 9pm, 27 November, 80 minutes
This year, the building of the Oxford animal lab has triggered the most important conflict between scientists and the animal rights movement for a century.
I am Adam Wishart, a writer and documentary maker. I wrote ONE IN THREE : a son's journey into the history and science of cancer. It was nominated for the Royal Society Book Prize.
Read the Book's Introduction
I started it because my dad fell ill with cancer, and I wanted a book which answered some of my basic questions: how did he get it, would he be healed and why was there no cure?
"An amazing book" says Professor Karol Sikora. "Riveting" says David Lodge
Before that I wrote LEAVING REALITY BEHIND.

"An important story and as absorbing as a well crafted thriller." The Financial Times Other reviews.
And before that I made documentaries for the BBC. One of which won an RTS Award.
To contact me please email me at adam (at) adamwishart.info