Editing World in Action (section)

==Television techniques==
Although the series's lasting reputation is for its investigative work, it also led the way in introducing other techniques to mainstream TV. In 1971, years before the rise of "reality" programmes on TV schedules, ''World in Action'' challenged the [[Staffordshire]] village of [[Longnor, Staffordshire|Longnor]] to quit smoking,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/19736|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081022193704/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/19736|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 October 2008|title=World in Action: The Village That Quit|work=BFI Film & TV Database|publisher=[[British Film Institute]]|access-date=29 March 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/19808|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081024045508/http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/title/19808|url-status=dead|archive-date=24 October 2008|title=World in Action: The Village That Quit, Well Not Exactly|work=BFI Film & TV Database|publisher=[[British Film Institute]]|access-date=29 March 2013}}</ref> a forerunner of many of the popular-challenge documentaries that enjoyed success in the 21st-century reality-television boom.

In 1984, ''World in Action'' caused a sensation by challenging a rising young Conservative Member of Parliament, [[Matthew Parris]], to live for a week on a £26 unemployment benefit payment to test the reality of his own critical views on unemployed people<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/1-28-2004-49935.asp |title=Gareth Mclean: Poverty as Entertainment on Tv |access-date=28 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070503104555/http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/1-28-2004-49935.asp |archive-date=3 May 2007 |url-status=usurped }}</ref> – Parris subsequently abandoned Parliament for a career as a broadcaster and writer. The same year, ''World in Action'' revealed the tricks behind political [[Public speaking|oratory]] by coaching a complete beginner, Ann Brennan, to deliver a speech, which won a standing ovation at the annual conference of the [[Social Democratic Party (UK)|Social Democratic Party]], using techniques developed by Professor [[Max Atkinson]]. Eminent political commentator Sir [[Robin Day]], covering the conference for BBC television, described Mrs Brennan's performance as "[t]he most refreshing speech we've heard so far."

''World in Action'' helped to pioneer the technique of using [[secret photography|covert cameras]], not just in investigative work, but also in social documentary, including, from the earliest days, the treatment of gypsies, the old in care ("Ward F13"), and poverty in England. The arrival of high-quality miniature cameras allowed ambitious projects such as [[Donal MacIntyre]]'s award-winning programmes in October 1996 on the [[illegal drug trade]], and the future Conservative MP [[Adam Holloway]]'s disturbing reports on the reality of life among the [[homeless]] in 1991. In 1998, ''World in Action'' took advantage of the new technology to equip an entire house with secret cameras hidden in places from coke tins to fish tanks to catch out shoddy builders. The success of the two-part series called ''House of Horrors'', produced by Kate Middleton, led not only to the ITV series ''House of Horrors'' and to the BBC's ''Rogue Traders'', but also to a whole new genre of programming, around the world, based around hidden-camera footage of dodgy tradesmen.

''World in Action'' also gave rise to a number of other spin-off series, most famously the ''[[Seven Up!]]'' documentaries that have followed the lives of a group of British people who turned seven years old in 1963. The most recent, ''63 UP'', was shown in 2019. [[Michael Apted]] directed most episodes; parallel series have also started in South Africa, the US, and Russia.

More recent current-affairs series on other channels, such as the [[Donal MacIntyre|MacIntyre]] series on BBC and [[Five (channel)|Five]], and [[Channel 4]]'s ''[[Dispatches (TV series)|Dispatches]]'', commissioned by Dorothy Byrne, a former ''World in Action'' producer, may be seen as having inherited certain aspects of ''World in Action'''s hard-hitting journalistic style.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}