Brigadier

Brigadier

Brigadier is a senior military rank, the meaning of which is somewhat different in different military services. The brigadier rank is generally superior to the rank of colonel, and subordinate to major general....

 Ronnie Stonham was the Special Assistant to the Director of Personnel at the BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 until 1985 who was caught up in the scandal over MI5

MI5

The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...

 monitoring of potential staff. He occupied Room 105 at Broadcasting House

Broadcasting House

Broadcasting House is the headquarters and registered office of the BBC in Portland Place and Langham Place, London.The building includes the BBC Radio Theatre from where music and speech programmes are recorded in front of a studio audience...

 in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, UK from 1982, following his departure from the Army

British Army

The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...

, until October 1988.

The Director of Personnel during Stonham's tenure at the BBC was Christopher Martin. Stonham's role was to liaise with MI5 regarding whether candidates for roles at the broadcasting corporation had suspicious political connections, particularly with communism.

Sir Hugh Greene

Hugh Greene

Sir Hugh Carleton Greene KCMG, OBE was a British journalist and television executive. He was the Director-General of the BBC from 1960―1969, and is generally credited with modernising an organisation that had fallen behind in the wake of the launch of ITV in 1955.-Early life and work:Hugh was born...

, a former Director-General of the BBC, said about Security Service vetting of BBC job applicants:

I was vetted in 1940. MI5 thought I was a Communist but it turned out to be a mistake.

Michael Grade

Michael Grade

Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth CBE is a British broadcast executive and businessman. He was BBC chairman from 2004 to 2006 and executive chairman of ITV plc from 2007 to 2009.-Early life:...

, at the time Controller of BBC One

BBC One

BBC One is the flagship television channel of the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It was launched on 2 November 1936 as the BBC Television Service, and was the world's first regular television service with a high level of image resolution...

 and later Chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC

Board of Governors of the BBC

The Board of Governors of the BBC was the governing body of the British Broadcasting Corporation. It consisted of twelve people who together regulated the BBC and represented the interests of the public. It existed from 1927 until it was replaced by the BBC Trust on 1 January 2007.The governors...

, also commented on the existence of Room 105, where Brigadier Stonham was based:

I don't know about room 105, but it does sound like a good title for a drama series.

Film rights

Talks over making the story of the operations of Room 105 into a film are scheduled, although exact details have yet to be released.

The episode involving Stonham, MI5, the BBC and several employees was written up in the Observer

Observer

Observer may refer to person who is observing. More specialised meanings follow.-Computer science and information theory:*In information theory, any system which receives information from an object....

 and in a book by Mark Hollingsworth and Richard Norton-Taylor. The relevant chapter in the book is here:
http://bilderberg.org/mi5bbc.htm
and is cited in the Wikipedia entry for Michael Rosen

Michael Rosen

Michael Wayne Rosen is a broadcaster, children's novelist and poet and the author of 140 books. He was appointed as the fifth Children's Laureate in June 2007, succeeding Jacqueline Wilson, and held this honour until 2009....

.

Further reading

• BBC Freedom of Information statement regarding Room 105 and the vetting of BBC staff by MI5 - http://www.bbc.co.uk/foi/docs/freedom_of_information/selected_requests_and_responses/2006/SR2006000189_MI5_Monitoring_of_Staff.pdf
• "The Blacklist in Room 105" - http://www.cambridgeclarion.org/press_cuttings/mi5.bbc.page9_obs_18aug1985.html