Beveridge revisited: Simon Callow film celebrates the radical co-founder of Britain’s welfare state

The Guardian Culture Tuesday 01 September 2026, 07:00 UTC By Richard Norton-Taylor 1 min read

Key Points

Christine Edzard’s The Man With the Plan tours the country with a timely message about tackling want, disease, squalor, idleness and ignoranceA new film that addresses issues fundamental to the new prime minister’s declared mission will star Simon Callow as a historical British political figure. The hero of The Man With the Plan is William Beveridge, who helped to lay the foundations of the postwar welfare state. It shows that the Liberal peer was much more radical than is usually assumed –...

Christine Edzard’s The Man With the Plan tours the country with a timely message about tackling want, disease, squalor, idleness and ignorance

A new film that addresses issues fundamental to the new prime minister’s declared mission will star Simon Callow as a historical British political figure.

The hero of The Man With the Plan is William Beveridge, who helped to lay the foundations of the postwar welfare state. It shows that the Liberal peer was much more radical than is usually assumed – and certainly far more so than Churchill anticipated when he asked Beveridge to draw up a report into the future of Britain’s fragmented social insurance and national health system after the second world war.

Beveridge (PERSON) Simon Callow (PERSON) Britain (LOCATION) Christine Edzard’s (PERSON) British (ORG) William Beveridge (PERSON) Liberal (ORG) Churchill (PERSON)

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Beveridge revisited: Simon Callow film celebrates the radical co-founder of Britain’s welfare state

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