“There was nothing to stop us employing the best actor we could find,” one news producer said in 1990 when asked about Rea, adding, “We’re not interested in who he’s married to. Anyway, I think he’s Protestant.” For his part, Rea explained the decision to serve as a surrogate for Adams not as an expression of any particular ideological affinity, but as a reaction against censorship. Whatever people thought of Adams, they should at least hear what the man had to say, Rea argued: “The problems will never be solved unless we are allowed to know what all the elements are.”
