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HomeNews and eventsEventsOpen lecturesSemester 1 - 26-27The Man with the Plan

The Man with the Plan

Film

Event date
Tuesday 20 October 2026, 7pm to 9pm
Location
In-person only
Room BS/005, the Bowland Auditorium, Berrick Saul Building, Campus West, University of York (Map)
Audience
Open to alumni, staff, students, the public
Admission
Free admission, booking required

Book tickets

Event details

Sands Films presents

THE MAN WITH THE PLAN

A young person discovers the Beveridge Report: she questions…What happened? What is next?

Starring Simon Callow as William Beveridge,with Sophie Jenkin, Mark Thomas, Alan Cox, Neil Gore, Neil D'Souza,Andrew Tiernan, Hal Cruttenden, Michael Mearsand the voice of Miriam Margolyes.

Also, with the appearance of Sir Michael Marmot, Kate Pickett, Danny Dorling and other academics, campaigners and activists.

A young student, Flea, played by Sophie Jenkin, discovers the 1942 Beveridge report – and its comprehensive vision for a better society. We follow Flea’s fantastical journey as it takes her amongst Beveridge’s Five Giants – Want, Disease, Squalor, Idleness, and Ignorance and the whirl of politicians, ineffective policies and missed opportunities across the decades since 1942.

Based on texts and speeches by Beveridge and politicians, the film is a moving account of Beveridge’s vision, the desperate need for it today and a passionate call for action.

Sands Films Studios

Written and Directed by Christine Edzard

Produced by Olivier Stockman

Cinematography by Joachim Bergamin

Original Music by Michael Sanvoisin

"an urgent film for our desperate times… a full-blown exposition on why if we had done what Beveridge advocated we might be in a better place today…an important aid in our fight against poverty's predominance." - John Bird, The Big Issue

Post screening Q & A hosted by Olivier Stockman (Producer at Sands Films)

Speakers include: Professor Kate Pickett OBE, Professor Richard Wilkinson, Heather Blakely (Unite the Union Regional Secretary) and Professor Chris Renwick.

About the speakers

Professor Kate Pickett is a British epidemiologist and political activist who is Professor of Epidemiology in the Department of Heath Sciences at the University of York, where she leads the Public Health and Society research group, and is Director of the Born in Bradford Centre for Social Change (University of York). She is an academic co-director of Health Equity North.
Kate trained in biological anthropology at University of Cambridge, nutritional sciences at Cornell University and epidemiology at UC-Berkeley.
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and of the UK Faculty of Public Health and the Academy of Social Sciences. She is co-author, with Richard Wilkinson, of the award-winning and best-selling ‘The Spirit Level’ (2009) and ‘Inner Level’ (2018).
She is co-founder and patron of The Equality Trust.
In 2023, Kate received an OBE for services to societal equality.

 
Professor Richard Wilkinson is a social epidemiologist and Emeritus Professor of Social Epidemiology at the University of Nottingham Medical School.
Richard trained in economic history and epidemiology, holding positions at the University of Nottingham, University College London (UCL), and the University of York.
He studies how income inequality affects population health, social class differences, and social determinants of well-being.
He co-wrote ‘The Spirit Level’ (2009) with Kate Pickett and co-founded the Equality Trust with her to campaign for reduced income inequality in the UK.
 
Professor Chris Renwick is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at the University of York, where he has taught since 2010.
His main area of expertise is the relationship between biology, social science and politics, especially how the interaction of the three has shaped the way we think about, study, and govern society since the early nineteenth century.
His book ‘Bread For All: The Origins of the Welfare State’ (2018) tells the story of one of the greatest transformations in British intellectual, social and political life: the creation of the welfare state.
 
Heather Blakey is Unite the Union’s regional women’s and equalities officer for the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside.
She is passionate about building worker and community power and is a trustee of the Commonweal Collection, an independent specialist library based at the University of Bradford, concerned with issues relating to non-violent social change.

Venue details

Wheelchair accessible

Hearing loop