IN THE PRINT by Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky at King’s Head Theatre 26 March – 3 May 2026

“If I bent over any further I’d be in Gay News.” Kelvin Mackenzie in “In The Print.” ★★★

In The Print is about the 1986 industrial dispute that changed the face of the British newspaper industry, destroyed the power of the print unions, and hastened the headlong decline of the trade union movement. It’s a fine piece of dramatic writing, pitting two interesting protagonists – Brenda Dean, general secretary of the print trade union SOGAT, and newspaper mogul Rupert Murdoch – against each other. It’s well written and beautifully performed by a stellar cast.  It performs a service by showing us how the unions were destroyed.

But writers Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky feel they need a heroic myth: two protagonists going head to head. On our left, union leader Brenda Dean, loyal, true, upstanding; and on our right, wise old bird Rupert Murdoch, the voice of the future. That’s not how it was. And in order to clear the way for its protagonists, the writers feel a need to diminish everyone else.  I need to own up to a personal interest. I was president of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) just before the dispute, and worked with the print unions during it. Harry Conroy, then general secretary of the NUJ, was my friend right up to his untimely death in 2010 at only 69.

Harry gets a few minutes on stage in this production, presented as a slippery fellow who tries to weasel out of supporting our heroine Brenda Dean. Harry was exactly the opposite, a tough but blunt Glaswegian negotiator who put his heart and soul into the task of trying to get the journalists to support Dean’s members. He was a committed trade unionist and a loyal friend, and it irritated me that the miserable creature on stage should have been given his name.

The then general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, Norman Willis, did the little that he could to help SOGAT during the strike. He doesn’t appear,  but is a running joke: four times, a character comes on stage to sneer at him for writing poetry (which he did, in his limited spare time). Tony Dubbins, general secretary of the other print union, the NGA, is presented here as a peripheral and slightly ridiculous figure, Dubbins was actually as key a figure as Dean. When the two unions merged after the dispute, the members chose Dubbins and not Dean to lead them, partly because he was seen as more militant during the dispute.

On the other side of the dispute, the real Rupert Murdoch is cruel, vindictive, immensely rich and powerful, and he ruined lives cheerfully. He is not a bit like the Falstaffian rogue shown here. Newspapers had to change in 1986, as everyone associated with them, including the print unions, recognised. Murdoch ensured that it was achieved with the maximum damage to people’s lives and the maximum destruction to trade unions.

Still, it tells a new generation about the Wapping dispute. It gives it the profile it ought to have. For that we should be grateful. And there are some tremendous performances. The two leads - Alan Cox’s Murdoch and Claudia Jolly’s Dean - were magnificent, and I enjoyed meeting Cox’s distinguished actor father Brian Cox after the show. Alasdair Harvey made a wonderful Andrew Neil, and Georgia Landers a thoroughly believable lawyer, providing Dean with advice she does not wish to hear. And Jonathan Jaynes had the shop steward just right: tough and noisy and vulnerable. 

It’s well worth seeing, but I would have like a little more respect for the history.

The Spontaneity Shop and James Quaife Productions Present

IN THE PRINT

By Robert Khan and Tom Salinsky

At King’s Head Theatre

26 March – 3 May 2026

BOX OFFICE https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/in-the-print-8y4s

Cast

Rupert Murdoch | Alan Cox

Andrew Neil | Alasdair Harvey

Brenda Dean | Claudia Jolly

Joan Harrison | Georgia Landers

Bill Sargeant | Jonathan Jaynes 

Kelvin Mackenzie | Russell Bentley

Creatives

Writers | Robert Khan & Tom Salinsky

Director | Josh Roche

Set & Costume Designer | Peiyao Wang

Lighting Designer | Josh Gadsby

Sound Designer & Composer | Sarah Spencer

Casting Director | Harry Gilbert

Dialect Coach | Simon Money

Production Manager | Adam Jefferys

General Management | James Quaife for Luminous Entertainment Group

Marketing | Cup of Ambition

PR | David Burns

Graphic Design | Laura Whitehouse, Mighty Fine Design

Photography | Charlie Flint