The New Yorker ha prodotto un breve documentario intitolato “The Ban” che racconta come nel 1988 Margaret Thatcher fece imporre la censura “vocale” ai rappresentanti politici del Sinn Feinn: potevano essere intervistati ma le loro voci non potevano essere trasmesse dai broadcast nazionali.

Broadcasters soon discovered a loophole in this ban: they began hiring actors to produce voice-overs for interviews with Sinn Féin leaders and others affected by the restriction.

Il risultato di questa censura mascherata da “codice di autoregolamentazione dei canali radiotelevisivi” fu comicamente controproducente.

I wondered what cause she believed these voice-overs served, other than providing glee for the nation. For example, did she listen to Stephen Rea playing Adams? Of all the actors, Rea stood apart. […] Now he was one of the actors who voiced Adams. Sometimes, he even sounded better than Adams—less self-satisfied and sanctimonious. As Adams himself points out in “The Ban”, Rea’s performance “was a great improvement on my monotone.”