Richard Norton-Taylor

Scenes from the Saville Inquiry

Bloody Sunday

Mark Hollingsworth

The Inside Story of Political Vetting

Blacklist

Richard Norton-Taylor reveals the secrets of his forty-year career as a journalist covering the world of spies and their masters in Whitehall. Early in his career, Norton-Taylor successfully campaigned against official secrecy, gaining a reputation inside the Whitehall establishment and the outside world alike for his relentless determination to expose wrongdoing and incompetence. His special targets have always been the security and intelligence agencies and the Ministry of Defence, institutions that often hide behind the cloak of national security to protect themselves from embarrassment and being held to account. Encouraged by his trusted contacts in intelligence agencies and Whitehall departments, Norton-Taylor was among the first of the few journalists consistently to attack the planned invasion of Iraq in 2003 and subsequently covered for the Guardian the devastating evidence of every witness to the Chilcot inquiry. He also enjoyed unique access to a wide array of defence sources, giving him a rare insight into the disputes among top military commanders as they struggled to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with under-resourced and ill-equipped troops. Described by a former senior Intelligence official as a 'long-term thorn in the side of the intelligence establishment', and winner of numerous awards for his journalism, Norton-Taylor is one of the most respected defence and security journalists of his generation. Provocative, and rich in anecdotes, The State of Secrecy is an illuminating, critical and, at times, provocative account of the author's experiences investigating the secret world.

Spies and the Media in Britain

The State of Secrecy

Agriculture, Planning, and Land Use in the British Countryside

Whose Land is it Anyway?

Value Engineering: Scenes from the Grenfell Inquiry is a verbatim reconstruction of the Grenfell Tower Public Inquiry. Using only the words spoken at the Inquiry, the play deals predominantly with Part 2 which ran between January 2020 - July 2021 in which evidence was heard from those responsible for the disastrous refurbishment of Grenfell Tower before the tragic fire. Edited by Richard Norton-Taylor and directed by Nicholas Kent, the team behind previous testimonial plays The Colour of Justice: The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry and Bloody Sunday: Scenes from the Saville Inquiry, this edited verbatim account of the Grenfell Inquiry is aimed at giving the public an overview and access to some of the most important evidence. The play shows how companies involved in the refurbishment of the Tower conspired to cover up what they knew about the dangerous and life-threatening materials used to refurbish the Tower. It also reveals the incompetence and neglect of local authorities. Staged in Notting Hill Tabernacle in October 2021, this features the full text of the play alongside additional information on the context of Grenfell and the ongoing inquiry.

Value Engineering: Scenes from the Grenfell Inquiry

in 2007 year two leading barristers: Philippe Sands QC (for the prosecution) and Julian Knowles (for the defence) tested the evidence of the grounds for an indictment of the British Prime Minister for the crime of aggression against Iraq. They examined a number of distinguished witnesses, including MPs, diplomats, international lawyers, civil servants, UN officials, policy advisors, intelligence experts and journalists. The arguments and testimony gathered, edited into a play by Richard Norton-Taylor, examine the criminal implications of the British Government's decision to use force against Iraq, and allow the audience to decide whether an indictment in this case is proven. Called to Account opened at the Tricycle Theatre, London in April 2007.

The indictment of Anthony Charles Lynton Blair for the crime of aggression against Iraq - a Hearing

Called to Account

"It usually begins as a play put on at a theatre in North London, and then transfers to I think the BBC, maybe in this case to ITV, I do not know. But the participants and witnesses are played by actors; and there is nothing one can do to stop this. Indeed, it shows, perhaps, the appetite, legitimate appetite of the public, for information beyond the press, beyond the bare written words of what happened." (The Hutton Inquiry, 1/8/03, from Geoffrey Robertson QC's application for the proceedings to be televised) Although primarily focusing on Dr Kelly's death, the Hutton Inquiry has revealed much of the inner workings of Downing Street, the MoD and the BBC. Witnesses have been challenged and questioned on the compilation of the dossier on weapons of mass destruction, the releasing of Dr Kelly's name into the public domain, and the Government's case for war in Iraq. Justifying War - Scenes from the Hutton Inquiry opened at the Tricycle Theatre, London on 30th October 2003.

Scenes from the Hutton Inquiry

Justifying War

Gillian Slovo

Victoria Brittain

Nicolas Kent

From 1994-2012 Kilburn’s Tricycle Theatre produced an extraordinary body of work that sought to engage, inform,and critique British and International Politics using verbatim testimony to respond to contemporary issues. Collected here for the first time are the complete ‘Tribunal Plays’. 2014 marks the 20th anniversary of the Tricycle’ sfirst Tribunal Play – Half the Picture. This collection celebrates a remarkable and enduring body of work. Contains the plays Half the Picture, Nuremberg, Srebrenica, The Colour of Justice, Justifying War, Guantanamo, Bloody Sunday, Called to Account, Tactical Questioning and The Riots. Also included is a brand-new round table discussion with Nicolas Kent, Richard Norton-Taylor, Gillian Slovo and the playwright David Edgar, charting the history and development of each show and the contribution the Tribunal Plays have made to political theatre in the last two decades, and a foreword by Guardian journalist and chief theatre critic Michael Billington.

Collected Tribunal Plays 1994-2012

The Tricycle

The Ponting Affair

In 1993, black teenager Stephen Lawrence was stabbed to death in a racist attack by a gang of white youths. The police investigation failed to provide sufficient evidence to convict. Based on the harrowing transcripts of the public inquiry, this is a dramatic reconstruction of the first hearings which reflected the national outcry at the police's mishandling of the case. First seen at the Tricycle Theatre, London, this remarkable production received instant acclaim and subsequently transferred to the West End.

Richard Norton-Taylor

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