The Conversation (0)
Andy Gregory
Mar 11, 2021
Downing Street has been lambasted as “shameless” over its decision to release a glossy documentary celebrating the UK’s coronavirus vaccine effort – likened to “propaganda” by prominent journalists.
Just weeks ahead of local elections, with the Tories experiencing a so-called “vaccine bounce” in the polls, the government released a short trailer for the apparently slickly-produced taxpayer-funded film on Tuesday.
The trailer features Netflix-style interview clips with the likes of health secretary Matt Hancock, England’s deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van Tam, and the nation’s top medic Chris Whitty, as they discuss the urgent vaccine “mission”, backed by the dramatic and epic violins of Grant Newman’s “The Escape Plan Activated”.
It was posted on Downing Street’s official Twitter channel with the tagline: “‘Extraordinary. Unexpected. Fantastic.’ A Beacon of Hope: The UK Vaccine Story. Coming soon.”
The full 30-minute film is expected to be released later this week and is reportedly described as a “thank you” to all those who helped with the vaccine effort.
But with the country still very much in the grips of the pandemic – which has claimed more lives in the UK than any nation in Europe – the “triumphalist” and “self-congratulatory” trailer sparked a fierce backlash from doctors, commentators and opposition politicians.
Just what kind of tin-eared, Soviet-style, self-promoting, shameless, insensitive, triumphalist, self-aggrandising… https://t.co/YCcSQCuAsT— Rachel Clarke (@Rachel Clarke) 1615390507
I don’t know what you call this other than propaganda. https://t.co/Rt7d5UmWfo— Mikey Smith (@Mikey Smith) 1615388422
now *that's* how you do propaganda https://t.co/3HWmzGojBb— Luke Bailey (@Luke Bailey) 1615388306
People are still catching this and dying and this shower are making a self-congratulatory film about how brilliantl… https://t.co/OYxXyoatBK— Nick Miller (@Nick Miller) 1615391809
Another extraordinary part of the story: 125,000 people have died. https://t.co/dBxOY3ICbk— Adam Bienkov (@Adam Bienkov) 1615389465
Genuinely, what is this? Are they trailing a documentary they’ve made about themselves? What is going on? Have we a… https://t.co/c98iCa3vit— Tom Peck (@Tom Peck) 1615388571
Spoiler alert: The plot twist is that they cut nurses pay whilst spending £37,000,000,000 on a test and trace syste… https://t.co/51f6WnTh7t— Angela Rayner (@Angela Rayner) 1615393065
Not sure I would be self-publishing a hagiographic pat on the back documentary right now given 130,000 people have… https://t.co/HPOhZO2a5f— Alain Tolhurst (@Alain Tolhurst) 1615388593
And some found it telling what the government had chosen not to focus its cameras on:
I'm looking forward to the Track and Trace one https://t.co/msgk7ld42D— Matt Chorley (@Matt Chorley) 1615389399
Imagine the prequel won't be as great. https://t.co/ranATCChr1— Ashley Cowburn (@Ashley Cowburn) 1615388514
Meanwhile, others cracked jokes.
When will the "I spent 37 billion on track and trace and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" documentary be released? https://t.co/SV52VxbOkT— Michael Houston (@Michael Houston) 1615392072
And anti-Brexit group Best for Britain even countered with a video of their own:
Not quite the full story! So we've made our own... "A Beacon of Nope" ★ - Extraordinary. Unexpected. Totally irre… https://t.co/Ld0ONMkhzw— Best for Britain (@Best for Britain) 1615402313
More: How will the pandemic and the government’s actions impact our livelihoods in 2021?