G.B.H. is a seven-part British television drama written by Alan Bleasdale shown in the summer of 1991 on Channel 4. Described by Bleasdale as "one caring, liberal madman's odyssey through the appalling farce of life in Britain today", its protagonists are Michael Murray (played by Robert Lindsay), the hard-left Labour leader of a city council in the North of England, and Jim Nelson (played by Michael Palin), the headmaster of a special school. In normal parlance, the initials 'G.B.H.' refer to the criminal charge of grievous bodily harm (i.e. causing someone serious injury). However, Bleasdale claimed in an interview on the DVD that the title is supposed to stand for 'Great British Holiday'. The series was controversial partly because Murray appeared to be based on Derek Hatton, former Deputy Leader of Liverpool City Council. After the first episode was aired, Channel 4 declined to provide preview tapes of the remaining instalments to Merseyside Police, who were concerned the programme could affect Hatton's court case regarding corruption. Bleasdale downplayed the connection, leading Hatton to comment "the only person in the world who does not seem to think that Michael Murray is me, is Alan Bleasdale". Plot outline The story is set in an unspecified city in the North of England, though it was shot in and around Manchester, during a period in which local left-wing councils are vying for increased autonomy from the Thatcher government. Michael Murray, an aggressive, womanising Labour councillor, returns to his old primary school and burns copies of school records which describe an event that almost caused him to be committed to a juvenile offenders' institution. He intimidates the elderly headmaster, Mr Weller, and dispatches him to a rural, lower-status special needs school run by the popular headteacher Jim Nelson. Murray meets with three members of the Militant Tendencyfar-left politician Lou Barnes, academic Mervyn Sloane and 'fixer' Peter Grenville, who persuade him to call a general strike to protest against the government's policies. Due to the incompetence of Murray's supporters, Nelson's school is not picketed and remains open, making it a focus for journalists, including tabloid writer 'Bubbles' McGuire, eager to discredit the strike. Murray tries to coerce Nelson, a moderate Labour member, into joining the strike. When this fails, criminal thugs hired by Grenville besiege the school and terrorise the children. Over the next few months, Nelson's school is picketed and his family are harassed at