Anglia Television Refutes Claims That 'Highway' Showed Luton To Be A Dreary Town And Flooded With Immigrants

Responses to criticism of the depiction of Luton in a religious broadcasting programme, 'Highway'.

This news story contains views around Luton town centre, parks and residential streets including scenes filmed from a moving car. These were filmed in mid-March when many trees were not yet in leaf so the town does not appear at its best. The news story is a response to complaints about the representation of the town in an episode of the religious broadcasting series ‘Highway’ produced by Anglia Television and presented by Sir Harry Secombe.. It is claimed that Anglia TV portrayed Luton in a bad light showing none of its beauty, and that the town was depicted as “ghetto-like and a semi-slum”. The front-page newspaper headline of the Luton News reads ‘Sir Harry’s TV show causes storm of protest’. North Luton Conservative MP John Carlisle says the programme made him feel ashamed of his constituency, and that older people who have lived in Luton all their lives are upset that the programme showed the town “as if any itinerant traveller throughout the world could come here and settle”. He felt the programme chose to show a minority of newcomers who he considers are not typical of the town. Anglia Television issued a statement refuting the criticism that the town was portrayed as “dreary” and ”flooded with immigrants”. The programme had presented many famous personalities of Luton and two local industries, Vauxhall’s and the hat trade. “It told the story of the successful co-operation between various ethnic religious groups which the town could justifiably be proud of.” The report ends with a statement from John Gardner, Chairman of the Community Relations Council, who found the programme extremely positive, and thought that some critics might have missed the purpose of the show which was to concentrate on various religions in the town. The reporter was Rebecca Atherstone for this video made to be shown in a news story on Anglia Television early evening news / magazine programme About Anglia.

Keywords

Religion; Religious broadcasting; Immigration; Race relations; Community relations; Members of Parliament

Additional Description

‘Highway’ was a UK television series 1983 - 1993 transmitted on Sunday evenings as part of ITV’s religious broadcasting. Guests sang religious songs, gave readings or talked about their lives and spiritual feelings. Presented by Sir Harry Secombe, the show moved between various locations across Britain, produced by their respective regional ITV franchise holders (including Anglia Television for the East of England region). The programme series was administered by Tyne Tees Television. EAFA does not hold the 1984 Luton ‘Highway’ programme.