World in Action

World in Action
1970s version of the programme's opening title
Created by	Tim Hewat
Country of origin	United Kingdom
No. of series	35
Production
Producer(s)	Granada Television
Running time	30 minutes
Release
Original network	ITV
Picture format	4:3
Original release	7 January 1963 – 7 December 1998

World in Action was a British investigative current affairs programme made by Granada Television from 1963 until 1998. Its campaigning journalism frequently had a major impact on events of the day. Its production teams often took audacious risks and gained a solid reputation for its often unorthodox approach.

Cabinet ministers fell victim to its probings. Numerous innocent victims of the British criminal justice system, including the Birmingham Six, were released from jail. Honouring the programme in its 50th anniversary awards, the Political Studies Association, said: "World in Action thrived on unveiling corruption and highlighting underhand dealings. World in Action came to be seen as hard-hitting investigative journalism at its best."

A melodramatic post-trial encounter in 1967 between Mick Jagger and senior British establishment figures, in which rock star and retinue were wafted by helicopter onto the lawn of a stately home, was engineered by then World in Action researcher and future BBC Director General, John Birt. Decades later Birt described it as "one of the iconic moments of the Sixties."World in Action was sold around the world. It won numerous awards. The long-running intermittent Seven Up! series of TV films, which in due course spanned decades, was first broadcast from 1964 as part of World in Action. In its heyday World in Action drew audiences of up to 23 million in Britain alone, equivalent to almost half the population.

Margaret Thatcher was said to have told the BBC Director General, Sir Iain Trethowan, soon after she became Conservative Party leader that she considered World in Action to consist of "just a lot of Trotskyists." Its removal after 35 years was seen by some as part of a general dumbing-down of British television, and of ITV in particular. One commercial TV regulatory official characterised in private the Tonight programme which replaced it as merely "fluffy." Others saw World in Action's eventual disappearance as the inevitable consequence of rising commercial pressures. Announcing a £250,000 fund for an investigative journalism training scheme, Channel Four said in November 2011 that there had been a decline in the pool of investigative journalism since "the demise of training grounds such as World in Action".