Ray Gosling wrote the lyrical piece, Sum Total in 1962 when he
was just 22-years-old. It captures the nation in that moment in time - a society fixed in
class, religion and chimney stacks of the manufacturing industry. Society seemed set, fixed,
yet himself and the other boys on the bottom rung felt a revolutionary fervour - they were
going to rock and roll the world in favour of new life.
Aside from his writing, Ray has more than 100 television documentaries and over 1,000 radio
programmes to his name, and is known to millions. His documentary career began with series
with titles such as Who Owns Britain?, The Heavy Side of Town and Battle for the Slums. He
travelled widely, to New Zealand, Turkey, Bangladesh, France, United States, and 'everywhere
but everywhere in Pakistan'.
But England was and still is his first love, and some of his best work is the wonderful
portraits he made of 'the English'. From the builder with a helicopter, to a young Julie
Burchill, to interviews with Enoch Powell, back to the gardener in Kingsbridge, and the
bailiffs in Marylebone.
He returned to television recently with his touchingly honest documentary for the BBC about
his own financial plight, Bankrupt.
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