Nineteen Eighty-Four Dips into the Near Future" by John A. Hobson; "Brave New World" (1932) by Aldous Huxley; "We" (1921) by Yevgeny Zamyatin which he reviewed in 1946; and "The Managerial Revolution" (1940) by James Burnham predicting perpetual war among three totalitarian superstates. Orwell told Jacintha Buddicom that he would write a novel stylistically like "A Modern Utopia" (1905) by H. G. Wells. Extrapolating from World War II, the novel's pastiche parallels the politics and rhetoric at war's end—the changed alliances at the "Cold War's" (1945–91) beginning; the Ministry of Truth derives from the BBC's overseas service, controlled by the Ministry of
O'Brien (Nineteen Eighty-Four) revealed in 2003 that O'Brien was the codename of NKVD agent Hugh O'Donnell, who received reports on the author from his subordinate David Crook when Crook spied on Orwell during the Spanish Civil War. In the 1984 film version of the story, O'Brien was portrayed by Richard Burton in his last role prior to his death. In the 1956 film, O'Brien was renamed O'Connor, possibly to avoid confusion with Edmond O'Brien, who portrayed Winston. O'Connor was played by Michael Redgrave. In the 1954 BBC Television adaptation of "Nineteen Eighty-Four", the character was played by André Morell. Canadian actor Lorne Greene