The BBC is right to broadcast Hilary Mantel’s The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher

The fictional account of an IRA sniper targeting the Conservative Prime Minister threatens no one and shows the Corporation is in good shape.

By Douglas Beattie

(Photo By The BBC made the decision to broadcast Hilary Mantel's short story. Photo: Getty)

“Froth and bile” neatly sums up Tory criticism over the BBC’s decision to broadcast Hilary Mantel’s short story The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher.

The author herself came up with the above quote as a response to the anger of Norman Tebbit and others over her work being serialised in Radio 4’s Book at Bedtime.