A furious debate followed in which newspapers united in calling for an end to such "censorship". Granada Television, the makers of World in Action, broadcast a blank screen as a protest against the banning. There was some irony in this: the editor of World in Action was Raymond Fitzwalter, who earlier, as deputy news editor of the Telegraph & Argus in Bradford, had led an investigation into Poulson's activities, which the newspaper published. Eventually, after the film was shown to the ITA, it was transmitted on 30 April 1973, three months late, and under a different title, The Rise and Fall of John Poulson. The 1996 BBC television drama serial Our Friends in the North, written by Peter Flannery, contains a character, John Edwards (played by Geoffrey Hutchings), who is closely based on Poulson. One of the reasons the production took so long to reach the screen—Flannery had originally written it for the stage in 1982—was the fear of the BBC that Poulson and others fictionalised in the drama might take legal action. In the event, the deaths of Poulson and T. Dan Smith in 1993 finally allowed the production to commence. References Sources Nothing to declare: The Political Corruptions of John Poulson by Michael Gillard (John Calder, London 1980) The Price by John Poulson (Michael Joseph, London 1981) Web of Corruption: The Full Story of John Poulson and T. Dan Smith by Raymond Fitzwalter and David Taylor (Granada, London; 1981) "John Poulson: Obituary", The Times, 4 February 1993, p. 19 1910 births 1993 deaths 20th-century English architects People educated at Woodhouse Grove School English fraudsters Freemasons of the United Grand Lodge of England National Liberal Party (UK, 1931) politicians People from Pontefract Criminals from Yorkshire Architects from Yorkshire Corruption in England 20th-century English businesspeople