BBC Radio 3
The Watchers
21 April 2002
Produced by Joby Talbot
A composed documentary by Joby Talbot about modern society's culture of surveillance.
Performed by Billiardmen
A Monty Funk production.
BBC nomination for Prix Italia 2002
"… Talbot's music not only made one feel uncomfortable, it also made one feel wistful, conscious of an era of jettisoned innocence."
Click below to read an review of the programme in The Independent
Press

Nicholas Lezard
The Independent, April 2002
…Talbot made a self-deprecating moue and said that he’d done something
'kind of spooky'. It was; and it was better than that. Behind, above
and between the voices of the various CCTV wonks, the eldritch shriek
of Ann Widdecombe, and speciously reasonable voice of Jack Straw,
Talbot’s music not only made one feel uncomfortable, it also made one
feel wistful, conscious of an era of jettisoned innocence. 'If you’ve
got nothing to hide', runs the mantra of the surveillance nuts, 'you’ve
got nothing to fear'; those very words, replayed here, sent chills down
the spine, or at least mine, for, yes thank you, I have plenty to hide.
Have the people behind the cameras not heard the old line that if you
sent a telegram saying 'flee, all is discovered' to all your friends,
they’d all be gone in the morning?"
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