John Heffernan plays Gareth Stedman Jones in Misbehaviour
I’ve had disagreements with the socialist historian and theorist Gareth Stedman Jones over the years, in particular his approach to Chartism in Languages of Class.
Time moves on and on the odd occasion when I’m in the same space as him- invariably socialist history related occasion- there is no longer a need to revisit the disputes of decades ago.
In that context however I was fascinated to see that Stedman Jones, as played by John Heffernan (details below) features briefly in the new film, Misbehaviour, which opens on Friday March 13th.
The film is NOT about male socialist historians, although it is certainly about some men behaving very badly indeed.
It’s about the disruption of the 1970 Miss World contest, compered by Bob Hope, by a group of feminists. One of them was Sally Alexander, also a well-known socialist historian and theorist, currently based at Goldsmiths.
Gareth Stedman Jones was Sally Alexander’s partner in 1970 but the cameo in the film which involves a discussion between them about the protest didn’t actually take place. Details are here:
Keria Knightley plays Sally Alexander which rightly is the leading role
It is an interesting reflection that the socialist history and activism that my generation were involved in, in the 1970s is now being retold as popular history itself. More interesting of course remains the struggle now
John Heffernan
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