quangobaudShadow World - the People vs MacDonalds
In 1986, members of environmental group, London Greenpeace, published a leaflet called 'What's Wrong with McDonald's?' It claimed McDonald's was exploiting workers, destroying rainforests, torturing animals, and promoting food that could make people sick, even cause cancer...
McDonald's said the claims in the leaflet were untrue, harmed its reputation and demanded an apology.
Helen Steel, a gardener, and a former postman named Dave Morris, refused.
Mark Steel takes us into the murky world of McDonald's Corporation vs Steel & Morris - aka 'McLibel' - the longest-running trial in English history which turned the spotlight on the way big business operates. The case would help bring issues like rainforest destruction and advertising to children into the mainstream. It would also - spoiler alert - be the moment our current Prime Minister first comes to prominence. And if that isn't enough, this story would ultimately have connections with a dark and shameful secret at the heart of the British state - something which Mark discovers he himself had been a victim of.
Presenter: Mark Steel
Producer: Conor Garrett
Executive Producer: Georgia Catt
Commissioning Editor: Dan Clarke
Archive Research: Emma Betteridge
Production Co-ordinator: Dan Marchini
Music Score: Phil Kieran
Archive excerpts from director Franny Armstrong's 'McLibel,' reproduced with the kind permission of Spanner Films
Shadow World: Gripping stories from the Shadows - BBC investigations from across the UK. BBC Studios for BBC Radio 4
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episodes are downloadable via podcast tab
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