The Day the Music Died

'An extraordinary book by an extraordinary man' Ken Loach

Tony Garnett's story begins in working-class, war-torn Birmingham where he movingly describes the trauma of his mother's death following a back-street abortion. Nineteen days later, stricken with grief, Tony's father committed suicide and Tony was sent to live with other family members. He eventually moved to London and was part of the counterculture scene in the 1960s.

Tony takes us behind the scenes of a selection of his more famous productions, offering secrets and anecdotes, some moving, some amusing. He gives accounts of angry clashes with the BBC and movie executives as he battles to make films that are thought too controversial. Year after year he fought the BBC and movie bosses to bring to the public films about police corruption and psychiatrists' cruelty; films advocating abortion law reform and the abolition of the death penalty; films about the homeless and the waste of young people in poor schools.