Government Policy and the British Film Industry 1979-90

Abstract

This article provides an overview and assessment of British government policy towards film during the years of Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government 1979-90. Its central argument is that this policy failed to achieve its objectives, and that it did so because it sought to impose `free market' solutions on an industry in which, by virtue of US domination, no free market existed. The results have been a decline in British film production and a domination of the British market by US product. Despite the British government's wish that the industry should `stand on its own feet', what stability British film production enjoyed during the 1980s was the consequence of a continuing dependence on the state, either directly or, in the case of television, indirectly. There has been some belated recognition by the government of the limitations of its policy, but insufficient changes to it to ensure the long-term viability of British film-making.