press release
THE REAL FRIENDS OF TERROR
a programme on FIVE by Ted Honderich in the
Don't Get Me Started
series two of the award-winning producer/director Eamon T. O'Connor
Tuesday 19 Sept 2006, 19.15-20.00

The idea of this acclaimed series of 40-minute documentary programmes is that each one gives a well-known figure a platform to put the controversial side of a major argument or conflict. So the programmes are by people who do get started riding their hobby horse, and carry on. Some of them must be right.

The programme Tuesday 19 September at 7.15 pm, 'The Real Friends of Terror', is presented by the internationally known philosopher of morals and politics as well as the Philosophy of Mind, Ted Honderich.

The programme follows on from his new book Humanity, Terrorism, Terrorist War: Palestine, 9/11, Iraq, 7/7... (Continuum, 2006), and also from the previous book After the Terror (Edinburgh University Press, 2002) that was banned and then republished in Germany. He is also the author of On Political Means and Social Ends (EUP, 2003) and Terrorism for Humanity: Inquiries in Political Philosophy (Pluto, 2003).

Appearing in the programme are:

Rt. Hon.Tony Benn, M.P. and cabinet minister in Labour governments
Lord Ian Gilmour, M.P. and cabinet minister in Conservative governments
Mr Reg Kees, father of Tom Keys, British soldier killed in Iraq
Baroness Helena Kennedy, barrister and human rights advocate
Dr. Ghada Karmi, academic and consultant to the Palestinian Authority
Dr. Brian Klug, Senior Research Fellow & philosophy tutor, St. Benet's Hall, Oxford Dr. Riz Mokal, Reader in Law at University College London
Prof. Steven Rose, Head of the Department of Biology, Open University
Baroness Jenny Tonge, past member of the Liberal Democrat shadow cabinet

Scheduled for a week later, 26 September, is a kind of alternative or antidote to 'The Real Friends of Terror' -- the first time for a 'Don't Get Me Started' programme. It will be given by David Aaronovitch, journalist and columnist for The Times and The Jewish Chronicle, known for such articles as 'Labour's Unthinking Opposition' and 'A Heavily Armed Militia Attacks Your Territory. What Are You Meant to Do?' This programme is also produced and directed by Eamon O'Connor. The fact of it is commented on by the author and journalist Richard Ingrams among others.

Ted Honderich is Grote Professor Emeritus of the Philosophy of Mind and Logic at University College London and Visiting Professor at the University of Bath. He has been a visiting professor at Yale University and the Graduate Centre of the City University of New York. He is the Chairman of The Royal Institute of Philosophy.

His Philosophy of Mind is considered at length by 11 other leading philosophers and himself in Radical Externalism: Honderich's Theory of Consciousness Discussed, edited by Anthony Freeman (Imprint Academic, 2006). Among other recent books are his On Consciousness and On Determinism and Freedom (EUP), Conservatism: Burke, Nozick, Bush, Blair? and Punishment: The Supposed Justifications Revisited (Pluto). He is the editor of the leading reference work The Oxford Companion to Philosophy and the author of The Mind, Neuroscience and Life-Hopes and How Free Are You? (all OUP). His autobiography and picture of the philosophy profession is Philosopher: A Kind of Life (Routledge, 2001).

Two other programmes in this second season of 'Don't Get Me Started'  are by Ann Widdicombe, M.P., on the subject of women and the modern obsession with appearance, and Selina Scott, former television presenter, on the awfulness of television today.

Programmes in the first season included 'Bubblewrap Britain' by Michael Gove, MP, on health and safety legislation as against freedom and responsibility, Rosie Boycott, newspaper editor, on false or distant grief, as with the death of Diana and murdered children, and Michael Buerk, television newscaster, on the feminization of Britain. The latter programme was broadcast again on 22 August 2006 as a result of legal difficulties that arose with another programme by Michael Buerk, about animal experimentation and animal rights activists.


Executive Producer
Stuart Prebble

A Liberty Bell Production

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Kay Breeze 0207 550 5659
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Tristan Hopkins 0207 550 5583