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Could You Run the Country?
Dial-a-Cab Chairman Brian Rice has run DaC very
successfully since 1996, but was he taking on a bit
much in trying to assist Her Majesty’s Government in
a dramatic hostage situation that – if he were to
fail – could have the result of destroying London
thanks to a hidden nuclear device! The BBC2 programme, Crisis Command, ran for several episodes with Brian’s adventure on 14 March being the last. The idea of each program was to put three different captains of industry into the Crisis Command centre. Locked away, they act as Government Ministers having to make tough decisions over how to sort out a fictional crises from an outbreak of pneumonic plague in a Liverpool hospital to an Al-Qaida attack on London to Brian’s hostage situation involving holding London to ransom with the threat of detonating a "dirty" bomb! During the show, the three contestants are given situations as a team with a list of options and they attempt to come up with the correct response. Experts decide whether the answers are correct, while the wrong one can - and usually does - cost lives. The experts who have the final say on whether London becomes a pile of rubble or not are military advisor Sir Tim Garden, communications adviser Amanda Platell and emergency services advisor Charles Shoebridge. Gavin Hewitt is the host who serves the role of introducing information to the Ministers as it comes in. He also reveals current strategy options, while at the same time attempting to get a decision from the Ministers. The program is taken seriously and Gavin Hewitt keeps a straight face throughout |
BRIAN RICE IN TV "HOSTAGE" SITUATION! |
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whilst rushing the Ministers into
making their decision. Time can cost lives… Meanwhile, information comes through in the form of a specially made BBC news report or a pre-recorded videophone message. Informative computer graphics representing maps and statistics appear throughout. After each decision, Gavin Hewitt tells the viewers whether the Ministers picked the correct option or not and what happened as a result of that decision. A running score of correct and incorrect decisions is also kept. After the final decision, Ministers are shown what happens six weeks later - by way of a news report - so they can judge how well they handled the situation. Brian told Call Sign Magazine: " It was a great experience – especially using the ‘Stars’ dressing room and having the use of the lovely make-up girls! As for the program, I tried to get into it as much as possible and to give truthful answers. The other two tended to be rather politically correct. When you are dealing with terrorists |
who are threatening to kill hundreds of thousands of Londoners by detonating a "dirty" bomb, you don’t use Marquis of Queensbury rules. I wasn’t ashamed to admit that I would have used torture on the captives if I thought it would save London! "I also thought it was nice that someone from the licensed Taxi trade was selected to go up against a litigation lawyer and a business consultant! Given a second crack, I suppose I might have done it better, but my answers would have been the same." 150 hotel guests were being held hostage by Pakistani extremists who wanted India to pull out of Kashmir. They gave the three Government Ministers 60 minutes to come to a decision or they would begin to shoot hostages and failing that, detonate a nuclear device at Canary Wharf. At the end of the program, all 3 were asked if they now felt that they could run the country. Just one answered yes… Brian Rice! And he probably could! Alan Fisher |
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