From the Sun, Saturday 18th April 1975:
Black Mark for Golden GoodiesPage 11 of the Sun, Tuesday 19th March 1984:
By MARGARET FORWOODTHE GOODIES, those Golden Boys of television comedy, have been ordered to make last-minute changes in their next show.
The programme, due to go out on Monday, pokes fun at racialism in South Africa. BBC top brass have ordered the Goodies to remake two scenes.
Have The Goodies been censored?
"No," said a BBC spokesman, "nothing has been taken out of the programme."
But the two scenes had to be re-written and re-filmed at the last-minute.
Why the sudden panic?
"Well, programmes are sometimes made that way," said the spokesman carefully, "we have nothing to say about that."
It all seems a bit mysterious. Especially since The Goodies say they were given a simple explanation.
Goody Tim Brooke-Taylor told me: "We were told that the scenes weren't funny enough. So we did them again and put in a few more jokes."
The story is about a South African Tourist Board official - played by Philip Madoc, one of television's favourite villains -who persuades The Goodies to make a film for the board.
Leave
The idea is to encourage more white people to go to South Africa. Instead the film makes all the coloured people leave.
This means the whites have no one to work for them. So The Goodies invent Apartheight to take the place of Apartheid, which segregates tall people from short.
In their new world, tall people are the bosses. Short ones are the servants.
And, of course, Goody Bill Oddie is short.
Brooke-Taylor, 34, explained: "The problem is that when you are dealing with a serious subject like this, you first have to set up the situation of racialism and segregation.
"And the scene-setting wasn't funny enough."
The Goodies have a reputation for producing lightweight family fun.
Brooke-Taylor said: "We are not a crusading programme, but we deal with real subjects."
In 1973 they had problems with a show where Bill played a pop star and became corrupted by the glitter of the pop world.
That was taken out of the series - and given a late slot.
Months later, it was shown at an earlier time.
With a few cuts.
Somebody up there seems to be keeping a watchful eye on those Goodies.
TV STARS RAGE AT DIRTY JOANPage 6 of the Sunday Express, Monday 17th June 1991:
By PETER BONDTOP comics blasted Channel Four yesterday for not censoring Saturday night's shock TV-special starring Joan Rivers. They claimed the American funny girl was too "blue and outrageous" for family viewing.
Bob Monkhouse, Bernie Winters and Jon Pertwee all said they were astonished the one-hour show, recorded before a showbiz audience, went out at 9.30 virtually uncut.
And Tommy Cooper said: "It should at all. It was very naughty."
Channel Four said: "We've no regrets. We had very few complaints."
Anger at BBC comic's cancer send-upPage 23 of the Daily Mail, Friday 30th August 1991:
by Michael TowersOUTRAGED TV viewers flooded the BBC switchboard last night after a stand-up comedian mocked victims of throat cancer.
Millions of viewers saw American comedian Denis Leary open the bill on BBC1's Paramount City - pretending he was using a voice box.
He joked it would be "great" if everybody in a family had to use voice boxes so they all sounded the same.
One viewer who complained to the BBC was Brian Slater, 44, of Matlock, Derbyshire. He recently lost a sister through the disease.
He told the Sunday Express: "It was diabolical. He was trying to poke fun at people who are very ill.
"He pulled a microphone beneath his chin and started making noises.
"He sounded like the actor Jack Hawkins who had to use a voice box after he had an operation. The BBC should be sent packing."
Viewer Helen Davis of Muswell Hill, North London said: "It was very upsetting. He said he would love to have a tracheotomy so he could smoke two cigarettes at once."
A BBC spokesman admitted there had been complaints and said: "Naturally we regret if any of our viewers were offended by this comedian;s style of humour."
Barry's rude awakening for TV bossesPage 20 of the Daily Mirror, Thursday 20th February 1992:A BARRY HUMPHRIES television special which cost £200,000 may be banned because it contains too many jokes of a graphic sexual nature.
The show features Humphries's bile-spewing alter ego Sir Les Patterson, the so-called Australian cultural attache, and was to have been transmitted on ITV later in the autumn season. It was recorded at the London Weekend Television studios in front of an audience, and some who saw it have told me that it is the most offensive material they have ever had to sit through.
Executives at LWT's light entertainment department are now trying to salvage footage from the programme, A Late Lunch With Sir Les Patterson, that might be deemed suitable to broadcast.
But, I am told, they may be left with very little that they can screen at a reasonable hour.
One gag 'Sir Les' recounts in the show, concerning the disposal of bodily secretions, can never be shown because it is disgusting and way over the top.
'I think Barry just got too carried away and realised too late that he was exceeding the bounds of what is acceptable on television, no matter what hour it is to be shown. Now I think LWT may have to scrap it or, if they've got enough suitable footage, show it after 11 at night,' an associate of the comedian told me.
However, I gather that the 'Sir Les Patterson' incident has not affected Humphries's £2million contract with LWT. Humphries and his producers are planning a game show to be hosted by his housewife-superstar chum Dame Edna Everage.
A special celebrity version of the game show has already been recorded in America for NBC Television featuring stars including Cher and Larry Hagman.
FURY OVER TV HANGING 'FUN'Page 5 of the Wimbledon Guardian, Thursday 27th February 1992:
EXCLUSIVE
By TONY PURNELLTHE sister of hanged Derek Bentley called last night for a ban on a TV comedy show which makes him a figure of fun.
Distressed Iris Bentley, 59, who has campaigned ceaselessly to get a posthumous pardon for her tragic brother, said: "It's too sick for words."
Controversial comics David Baddiel and Rob Newman will feature Bentley and his accomplice Christopher Craig in a running gag during a news series of The Mary Whitehouse Experience starting on BBC2 next month.
Craig and Bentley were convicted of the gun murder of a policeman in Croydon 40 years ago.
Craig had his finger on the trigger but escaped the gallows because he was only 16.
Bentley, who was 19, hanged because, it was claimed, he shouted: "Let him have it, Chris."
Baddiel, 26, said: "They struck me as the funniest two people this century.
"We joke that Bentley deserved to hang for using an ambiguous phrase in a critical situation.
"We get laughs over uncool linguistic errors."
But Bentley's niece Maria, 29, said: "We'll do everything we can to get this stopped."
'Ban sick sketch about dead man'Page 15 of the Daily Star, Saturday 11th July 1992:
By NICOLA DOWNEYIris Bentley has called for a ban on a television comedy show which includes a joke sketch about her dead brother, Derek.
Shocked Iris, from Colliers Wood, who is campaigning to clear her brother's name, said the sketch is "sick".
It is expected to be shown in a new series of BBC2's The Mary Whitehouse Experience starting next month, but Iris wants it scrapped.
Her brother was hanged in 1953 for his part in the murder of a policeman on the roof top of a Croydon warehouse, even though 16-year-old accomplice Christopher Craig pulled the trigger.
Bentley is supposed to have said: "Let him have it" and the comedy gag jokes that he deserved his punishment for using such an uncool and ambiguous phrase.
But Iris and her campaigners are calling for it to be stopped and are planning to talk with the show's bosses.
"They think its very funny situation. From what hear of it, it's in very bad taste," said campaigner, Neil Churchill.
"We have been in touch with the BBC and the head of light entertainment and we want it pulled.
"We believe it's still in the writing stage. For a start it's not based on evidence and just makes fun of the situation. It could damage the chances of getting a posthumous pardon," he said.
The campaigners are still hoping to meet with Home Secretary Kenneth Baker to discuss Derek's case in the near future.
A spokesman for the BBC said: "It is a surreal sketch which illustrates the ambiguity of language."
"However, at present it is still not possible to say if it will be included in the scripts," she said.
WHITEHOUSE TEAM TOLD: CLEAN IT UP!Page 13 of the Daily Express, Saturday 26th December 1992:
Foul-mouthed duo censoredEXCLUSIVE by NIKKI MURFITT
THE cheeky duo behind the Mary Whitehouse Experience have been ordered: Clean up your act.
Telly bosses are so alarmed at Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis's brand of humour that they have forced them to cut swear words.
And they told them to curb their near-the-knuckle in their new show, Me, You and Him, to be screened later this month.
To ram home the message, worried bosses at Thames TV sent the lads a SEVEN-PAGE letter, telling them to:
? CUT out frequent use of the F-word and slang words insulting to women.
? CUT down on less offensive everyday swear words, such as bloody hell.
Thames TV bosses have defended the decision to gag the duo's effing and blinding.
A spokesman says: "We have an A and B list of swear words, which we use as a guideline for programmes, and writers must comply with it.
Strict
"The B list contains words like bloody, while the A list contains stronger language.
"Changes had to be made to the script because there were words which fell into category A and these are not acceptable in a show going out at 8.30 p.m."
Steve Punt says: "They've been pretty strict. We've been left with only a couple of bloodys and a b* in each episode.
"One sketch had to be completely re-shot."
A spokesman for the other Mary Whitehouse's TV clean-up campaign said the Thames TV censorship was "excellent."
BBC show will mock the deadPage 19 of the Daily Mirror, Sunday 23rd April 1995:THE BBC is braced for a flood of complaints about a New Year's Eve TV show mocking dead celebrities.
The Australian-based Doug Anthony Allstars perform an impersonation of blind, deaf and dumb genius Helen Keller, whose life story inspired an Oscar-winning film.
They also imitate singer Karen Carpenter, who died from the slimmers' disease anorexia nervosa and dance to songs including Do The Dead Elvis. Last year their live album was banned by British censors. "I was very surprised when BBC2 said they wanted to put them on," said producer Geoff Posner.
"They do the sort of act that will offend just about everyone. The impersonation of Karen Carpenter is just a long, thin microphone stand."
BBC2 controller Alan Yentob is said to have won a show for the comics after seeing them at the Edinburgh Festival.
"It wasn't an easy decision," said Mr Posner. "Everyone at the BBC is holding their breath."
DEE-VOLTING!Page 7 of the Daily Telegraph, Friday 23rd May 1997:
TV bosses pull plug on Jack's sick electric chair sketchEXCLUSIVE by YORK MEMBERY
AT THE flick of a switch, comic Jack Dee sends thousands of volts surging through a Death Row prisoner's body.
The sketch, from Jack and Jeremy's Police 4 to be aired next Friday, is typical of hard man Dee's grim humour.
But we will never see it. TV chiefs have deemed the routine too controversial to screen after British-born killer Nick Ingram's execution in the electric chair.
"The powers-that-be at Channel Four got cold feet," says an insider.
"They feel it would be in poor taste to air the clip so soon after the event."
The humorous series sends up shows such as Crimewatch and features Dee and fellow stand-up comedian Jeremy Hardy as special constables.
In the offending sketch, Dee invites viewers to call in if they want to see a prisoner on Death Row "chaired or spared".
Tiring of the debate, he hits the switch and says: "Let the bastard fry".
Ingram, 31, was the first Briton to be executed in America this century. He lost his life at Jackson State Jail in Georgia for the murder of military veteran JC Sawyer.
Ingram tortured and shot Sawyer after a bungled burglary 12 years ago.
Ingram's mother Ann, from Cambridge, suffered the ordeal of seeing her son's last-minute reprieve overturned.
He was executed by a 2,000-volt blast of electricity.
Jack Dee is on tour in Australia and was unavailable for comment.
Co-star Hardy said: "Both Jack and I disagree with capital punishment and the sketch was our way to highlight the issue.
"Ingram certainly seemed guilty, but his execution was horrifying.
"The scene was shot before the execution took place - but I agree that to show it in the light of his death would now be insensitive."
BBC pays libel damages over TV comedy
By Alison Boshoff
Media CorrespondentTHE BBC has paid undisclosed libel damages to the Outward Bound Trust after it portrayed a course instructor as a "deranged sexual pervert" in the Rowan Atkinson sitcom The Thin Blue Line.
The trust brought legal action against the BBC over the comedy and over a Radio 4 documentary that claimed the trust employed paedophiles in its adventure centres.
A BBC spokesman said both allegations had been the result of "grave error".
The trust, an educational charity, told the High Court yesterday that the allegations were without foundation and had caused massive damage to its reputation.
Godwin Butsuttil, for the trust, said its main object was to "help people live more fulfilled, worthwhile and productive lives by providing opportunities for personal development through challenging experiences in demanding environments".
Referring to an edition last year of the Radio 4 documentary File on 4 that dealt with paedophiles, Mr Busuttil said: "A statement which alleged that the trust had employed systematic paedophiles and child abusers was entirely without foundation and so caused great damage to its standing and credit."
The Thin Blue Line broadcast "falsely portrayed an Outward Bound course leader as a deranged sexual pervert. The BBC now accepts its grave error and recognises the considerable damage it has caused to the trust."
