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Abstract

This article provides a detailed account of a largely neglected episode of Government intervention in BBC editorial policy – over coverage of the H Bomb in 1954/5. In the light of this it then examines two other better known episodes of government intervention in BBC coverage – during the Suez crisis of 1956 and over The War Game. It argues that such episodes of deliberate government intervention tend to have been underplayed by scholars because fears of the accusation of ‘conspiracy theory’. It concludes by suggesting some general features of these interventions and BBC response.

Keywords: BBC, H Bomb, censorship, media history, The War Game, Suez