Paul Dacre’s all for freedom of expression – except when he’s a character in your play | Tim Walker

Gina Miller and Theresa May are happy to be in Bloody Difficult Women, but the Mail man wanted his lawyers to vet the script

The Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday have been banging on a lot lately about freedom of expression. An editorial declared it to be a “dark day” when the newspaper group lost its legal battle with Meghan Markle. She’d sued them for publishing extracts from a private letter she’d sent to her estranged father.

I’ve got to know the Mail’s legal department quite well over the past few months – though its client’s commitment to freedom of expression hasn’t been quite so clear in my case. The Mail’s lawyers appear to be fixated with my play Bloody Difficult Women and have been bombarding the Riverside Studios theatre in west London and my producers with emails and letters. Paul Dacre, the Mail’s editor in chief, appears in it as a character, and the lawyers said Dacre would very much like to see a copy of the script to check it for factual accuracy. These repeated requests have all been declined.

Tim Walker is a journalist and author. His latest book, Star Turns, is an anthology of interviews. Bloody Difficult Women begins its run at the Riverside Studios in west London on 24 February

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/33PmezN