BBC2 plans post-war doc on U.S.
Program to poll world views on nation's power
"What The World Really Thinks" will poll 1,000 people in at least 10 countries to assess opinion on U.S. power in the 21st century.
"The program is still taking shape," said BBC2 controller Jane Root, announcing the venture at the net's spring/summer launch Wednesday. "But after the war we'll be asking people what they think of America as an economic, cultural and military power."
Current affairs maven Peter Horrocks added, "It's not an anti-American program as such. Attitudes towards the U.S. are quite mixed across the globe.
"We hope to involve a lot of major figures like Simon Schama (the Brit historian) in the debate."
Hosted from London by veteran BBC broadcaster Peter Snow, with satellite feeds to the Middle East and across the Atlantic, the live show intends to offer "a truly global perspective on American values, politics, leadership and popular culture."
Other highlights of BBC2's new sked, valued at £97 million ($146 million), include four-part miniseries "Cambridge Spies," the story of Blighty's notorious double agents, Burgess, Maclean, Philby and Blunt, and a docu, "Imagine Imagine," which examines John Lennon's most famous song and features unseen film from Yoko Ono's private archive.
Root also revealed that she has commissioned what she claims will be a "definitive" record of Britains involvement in the Iraq war, also to be screened once the fighting stops.
"We've been given unprecedented access by the Ministry of Defense, both in Whitehall and in the war zone itself," Root said. "Seventeen people involved in making this film are out there in Kuwait and Baghdad. This has been planned for years, long before people had any idea about what the next big conflict would be."
