Obscenity on British TV

[Chris Waigl]

Jonathon Green wrote:

> When it comes to such subsections of the vocabulary, the BBC is an
> essentially gutless institution. Among the many popular fears from which
> its runs in terror is so-called 'obscenity' As one who is constantly
> called upon to deliver my supposedly relevant dicta whenever a
> pol./sportsman/celeb./whatever uses such language in public, I am
> invariably requested long before my opinions are cavassed, 'Now, you
> won't actually _say_ any of these words on air, will you?' (I believe
> this is in aid of some notional child whose tender ears might be
> shocked.Unlikely, but then the BBC lives in its own world.). The
> response to my asking, 'In that case why ask me to comment?' is
> invariably met with a nervous giggle. And of course Tynan didn't say
> f***; as I recall he asked whether any intelligent person could really
> any longer take exception to the word being used, and duly used it.
> There followed a furore.

During the first program of the BBC Radio 4 Word4Word mini-series, the
presenter, Dermot Murnaghan ran into a bit of a problem when he had to
introduce Mark Ravenhill, the author of the play "Shopping and Fucking".
No, he didn't pronounce "fucking" on the air, and I think he could have
avoided talking about "retail therapy and horizontal refreshment".

> Nothing, btw, has changed. My latest summons
> was to comment on Prince Harry's use of the word 'arse'.

I was surprised this one even raised any eyebrows at all. But then I was
more surprised about Oliver Burkeman's logic in the Guardian:

----
In fact, what Harry said sounded more like "ass", which complicates
things. As an American synonym for arse, it's barely taboo ("Get every
doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to
New Orleans," that city's mayor, Ray Nagin, told CNN recently).
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1571366,00.html>
----

It's not as if this particular interview was typical of US radio.

Chris Waigl