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2011. -
Hardcash has broadcast eight investigative films so far this year, with a ninth to follow in December. This is a record output for the company, with our Panorama Special on the eviction at Dale Farm in October achieving an audience of 3.6 million.
Subjects this year have included The Paedophile Hunters (BBC2), Train Journeys from Hell (C4) and Secret NHS Diaries (C4), in which families caring for the dying were given cameras and were able to record the failure of care they experienced in the final weeks and months.
The international drama and dance group DV8 have chosen to use elements from the Hardcash film Undercover Mosque in their latest production, ‘Can We Talk About This?’, which explores issues of religious tolerance and oppression within civil society. The production reaches London next March.
In April, David was called to give evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on the future of the BBC.
older news…
2010 saw two more highly successful undercover investigations - Undercover Post Office and Undercover Social Worker, both in the Dispatches run on Channel 4. Undercover Social Worker is one of the most ambitious projects undertaken by Hardcash: it took almost eighteen months to make, and involved both state of the art equipment and a subject of extreme sensitivity, fraught with potential dangers. Broadcast in June, the film was given a terrific review in the Observer: Euan Ferguson praised 'this fine programme' for exposing a hopelessy inadequate system, and urged the new Deputy Prime Minister: 'Please, Cleggo, change this, and thank Dispatches at the dispatch box.'
The year began with an update of our film on Alzheimer's, presented by Fiona Phillips. The Mirror ran a two page spread on Fiona's story, centred on her struggle to keep her dad, who suffers from the disease, living independently in her flat. Broadcast Magazine announced that our film Inside Israel's UK Lobby had been the most acclaimed Channel 4 film of 2009, with more than four hundred messages of support and praise sent to the Channel. Read more: Broadcast Magazine: C4 Dispatches doc wins most praise in 2009, 13 January, 2010.
Hardcash was shortlisted for Best Documentary in the the Mental Health in Media Awards in November. In the same month, our Dispatches investigation, Inside Britain's Israel Lobby, by journalist Peter Oborne, attracted wide attention in the broadsheet press and triggered a lively debate both in print and on the net.
For the second successive year, Hardcash has been nominated for the Royal Television Society Journalism Awards. Last year it was Undercover Mosque for the Home Current Affairs category - this year it was Iraq's Lost Generation for the International Current Affairs category.
Also, David Henshaw has been honoured with a Fellowship by the Royal Television Society, to be presented on March 31st.
And, despite the grim economic forecasts, 2009 looks like being Hardcash's busiest year for some time.
In recent news, we are pleased to announce that Hardcash Productions and the "Undercover Mosque" programme have been totally vindicated by the Ofcom ruling after a formal complaint was put forward by the West Midlands Police in August 2007.
On May 15th 2008, Hardcash Productions and C4 received an official apology and compensation from West Midlands Police and the Crown Prosecution. The money has been donated to the Rory Peck Trust - a charity that helps families of freelance correspondents killed on assignment.
The apology was made at the High Court following broadcaster Channel 4's decision to launch libel proceedings against police and the CPS.
Further reading:
guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/may/18/islam.religion
Article by Nick Cohen, At last, an apology from foolish policemen, The Observer Sunday May 18 2008