Muckraker - Rebecca Television

MUCKRAKER

MUCKRAKER is the section of the REBECCA website that examines what's going on behind the scenes in our democracy.

The first investigation - A Dickie Affair - concerns the attempt by a group of property developers to persuade the Welsh Assembly government and local authorities to allow them to build a new junction on the M4.

They claimed they needed it because they were going to bring a massive Hollywood-style studio to the South Wales valleys.

They persuaded Lord Attenborough to front the bid…

Articles

A Dickie Affair: IT WAS hailed as an epic production.

A team directed by Lord Attenborough would create a film studio to rank with the giants of Hollywood.

It was claimed it would cost a third of a billion pounds and employ 1,700 people.

The project would be built on a former open-cast coal mine at the edge of the South Wales valleys. The company called itself Dragon International Studios but locally the scheme was known as Valleywood.

That was over eight years ago.

On the ground there are just four “silent stages” – basically giant warehouses – and three of the companies behind the scheme have gone bust.

REBECCA examines a plot with a flawed script.