New Film ‘The Man With the Plan’ Reveals a More Radical William Beveridge, Starring Simon Callow
A new film starring veteran actor Simon Callow as economist and social reformer William Beveridge is touring venues across the United Kingdom, presenting the architect of Britain’s postwar welfare state as a far more radical figure than he is commonly remembered to be, at a moment when questions of poverty and social provision remain central to national political debate.
Titled “The Man With the Plan,” the film is written and directed by Christine Edzard and follows a young present-day character named Flea, played by newcomer Sophie Jenkin, as she stumbles upon Beveridge’s landmark 1942 report and is drawn into a surreal journey confronting Britain’s ongoing struggles with poverty, inequality, and ineffective policy. Along the way, Flea encounters personifications of what Beveridge termed the “five giants,” Want, Disease, Squalor, Idleness, and Ignorance, alongside a cast of fantastical figures including a devil character played by Alan Cox, satirical dancing magpies, and media commentators depicted as sheep repeating hollow slogans.
Central to the film is Callow’s portrayal of Beveridge, whose words throughout the production are delivered verbatim from his original writings and speeches. The film highlights how Beveridge’s vision extended well beyond narrow social insurance reform, touching on issues such as housing, sanitation, and nutrition as essential components of tackling ill health, and linking any effective system of social insurance to the broader maintenance of full employment. The production underscores that Beveridge, a Liberal peer, held considerably more radical views than is often assumed today, and notably more so than Winston Churchill anticipated when he first commissioned Beveridge to examine the future of Britain’s fragmented social insurance and health systems during the Second World War.
Despite its administratively dry official title, “Social Insurance and Allied Services,” Beveridge’s original 1942 report caused a sensation upon publication, drawing a queue nearly a mile long outside the government’s stationery office in central London on the day of its release, with more than 650,000 copies eventually sold to the public. The report went on to lay the intellectual groundwork for the modern welfare state established in Britain in 1948, including the creation of the National Health Service under Aneurin Bevan.
Following the film’s earlier release, “The Man With the Plan” is now touring nationwide from September 20, with screenings planned primarily at smaller, community-oriented venues including libraries, universities, and independent cinemas rather than major commercial theatres. The production features contributions from contemporary academics and campaigners, including Professor Sir Michael Marmot of University College London, along with Kate Pickett and Danny Dorling, who appear in the film to discuss how the inequalities Beveridge sought to address continue to shape British society today. Campaigning comedian Mark Thomas also features among the film’s participants.
As the film continues its tour of independent venues across the country, its makers hope it will prompt renewed public reflection on the scale of Beveridge’s original ambitions and how much of that vision remains unrealised more than eight decades after the publication of his landmark report.
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