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| Letters: Nicholas Parsons as the host of World in Action's "Spongers" | |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| “Of course I’ll do it.” With those words Nicholas Parsons agreed to host a television programme uncomfortably outside his usual genres. It was 1989 and Margaret Thatcher’s government had characterised those on state benefits as “spongers”. | “Of course I’ll do it.” With those words Nicholas Parsons agreed to host a television programme uncomfortably outside his usual genres. It was 1989 and Margaret Thatcher’s government had characterised those on state benefits as “spongers”. |
| ITV’s current affairs programme World in Action decided to make a programme with that name showing how the wealthy profited substantially more from state handouts and benefits than the poor. It was to be in the risky format of a take-off of a television game show, in which a wealthy family was pitted against a family barely making do. I was the producer and, without hesitation, Nicholas agreed to take part. Largely due to his input, the show was a success and much discussed. Later that year we decided to repeat the exercise, this time with a programme called Beat the Taxman, showing how the wealthy may escape their fair burden of taxation. Nicholas again immediately agreed to front the show. | ITV’s current affairs programme World in Action decided to make a programme with that name showing how the wealthy profited substantially more from state handouts and benefits than the poor. It was to be in the risky format of a take-off of a television game show, in which a wealthy family was pitted against a family barely making do. I was the producer and, without hesitation, Nicholas agreed to take part. Largely due to his input, the show was a success and much discussed. Later that year we decided to repeat the exercise, this time with a programme called Beat the Taxman, showing how the wealthy may escape their fair burden of taxation. Nicholas again immediately agreed to front the show. |
| He was not only a great professional, but a man of great warmth whose social conscience allowed him to step outside his safety zone when he felt it important to do so. Don Jordan | He was not only a great professional, but a man of great warmth whose social conscience allowed him to step outside his safety zone when he felt it important to do so. Don Jordan |
| World in Action’s Spongers was a mock panel show with Nicholas Parsons as the quiz-master, and an assistant, Pandora, who opened magic boxes to reveal how much or how little two couples and their children, the working-class Ackroyds and the middle-class Osbornes, gained in benefits from the welfare state across their lifetimes. The producer, Don Jordan, conceived of the idea as an ingenious way of getting across the otherwise dry statistical evidence that I and others had produced as to who gained most from the welfare state: not the working classes, as most people assumed then (and probably do now), but the middle classes. Nicholas kept bringing me in as “the Professor” to tell us who was getting what, and to explain why. By the end of their longer lives, the Osbornes were shown to have gained much more than the Ackroyds. | World in Action’s Spongers was a mock panel show with Nicholas Parsons as the quiz-master, and an assistant, Pandora, who opened magic boxes to reveal how much or how little two couples and their children, the working-class Ackroyds and the middle-class Osbornes, gained in benefits from the welfare state across their lifetimes. The producer, Don Jordan, conceived of the idea as an ingenious way of getting across the otherwise dry statistical evidence that I and others had produced as to who gained most from the welfare state: not the working classes, as most people assumed then (and probably do now), but the middle classes. Nicholas kept bringing me in as “the Professor” to tell us who was getting what, and to explain why. By the end of their longer lives, the Osbornes were shown to have gained much more than the Ackroyds. |
| Nicholas got very engaged with putting on the show and, displaying an unsuspected (at least by me) understanding of social science, came up with suggestions that sharpened it in a number of ways. The programme got favourable reviews, including one by Nancy Banks-Smith in the Guardian, and has been used by several universities for teaching students of social policy, generating a great deal of amusement and much challenging discussion. A colleague recently told me that, meeting past students now, they often recall Nicholas and the programme, if nothing else. Julian Le Grand | |