editor, solemnly crossing out all the "My Gods' in a Dorothy Parker script and substituting "My Heavens". Later 1 took my courage in my hands and complained to my immediate superior, Derek Granger. But he would have none of it and condemned me for being a moaning minnie. What I was doing was not censorship, he claimed, but merely the application of good taste.
I soon learned two things about censorship in TV drama. One: that it goes on all the time. And teo: It i not a question of censorship is the pirase obe ears most often in censorship struggles. | don't apologise for the slightly gossipy nature of this f such petty encounter:
The unwritten rules and the various ways around the rules become a kind of idiotic game. There s something quite absard about a group of men sitting. around a table and seriously discussing the nature of the verb "to fuck But censorship is a great oeal more than the crossing out of taboo words. The first problem is to try to define it and to know when it is lappening. All writers will confirm that the latter 15 often quite difficult. As one put it to me, it can be a biod of "whittling away aver a period of monthi" In drama there is a crisis — there has been a huge cut back in theactual numberof plays produced. There producers and directors. Department heads who used to beleft aloneto salve their own content problems are Everybody wantsto get in on the act. And there has been a severe attack of censorship, most apparently from the BBC. I requested an interview with Aubrey Singer to discuss censorship from his side. 1 received the lyou wish to talk about censorship, you are asking to see the wrone person.
Censor programmes: 1 am the managing editor of a channel (BBC-2) and I make editoria occurs when the pubishers interfere with what the creators are trying to say: when the suggestions (rulings) from above impede or tamper with the meaning. But censorship does take many varied and insidious forms. his motivation insisting that the "production was not UD LO COL SUMACAS hears as a cuphemism for censorship. If it is an excuse it must he nailed as such.
The Balcony by Cener: This is the most recent crample we bave. It was an Open University roduction in a series with other plays including Ubi on Sunday, but the BBC insisted on changing chis to war eligity more incine case tie because it Balcony was thought oe disgusting even for dawn viewing although the Open University have since been unheipfully informed that it could go out after 9pm. They don't have any slots after 9pm Tarry Dan by Peter MacDougal: This ghost story and the author says that he has been given ten diferent datea for transmission but cact time he looks in the Radio Times it's not there. 1t banning Is something of a mystery, but something to do with the minerield I bave nor ventured into in this article marked Not suitable for Another form of 'outright" hanning is the rejection of completed scripts. This is rather more difficult to evidence because of the sheer volume of exhibits script rejected. Of course perhaps it was just not good enough. But there ane cases of rejected scripts on ditticult subieras and a sosnicion or censorship arises. One example comes from Barrie Keefe who submitted a play called A Rave Complicarion (three characters. one sell. The play was basically an interrogation play in which attempted to break a black on a murder charge using racial hatred as a weapon to swiftly break the man and gain a quice comession 1o sno chimo ne nao no!
ATV replied classically: We found the subject matter rather distasteful.
There are always good professional reasons for turning scripce down. Every day editorial judgeBrave copsgalore -butrottrede unioniers Granada as too expensive") would be a good answer. But that was in 1974 and the director, Ro Battersby, has somewbat mysteriously not directed a pias fother than ome J0-mnulos) since 4. Appointment Control of content with the leas fuss means gettin he right people into the right jobs. The law of libe makes it impossible to giveexamples. We all know men and women who have the qualifications for the haghest ranks of the BBC hierarchy but we also all know that hey will never be offered those jobs. But the BBC as opportunity and does go through periods in its histor; (usually short lived) when anstäing appears to be nossible. some IV companes are run uke cis family concerns and as far as dramatic possiblity is concerned are just blackholes. 5. Political censorship 1f politics isabout the way we live sogether then there is a sense in which everything including all censorship is political. But when peopletalk about political drama they usually (and i think quite wrongly) mean left wing dramn. that the BBC checks some of lts appoistments with view it has boen established heyond doub Sola Enred anden Traia ba a me te l Special Branch and disturbin cocon al thetimie — there was another case recentl: when only the prompt action of the producer saved th and apparently only with the BBC, ITV dees not bave the same connecrions with the Yard This kind of political discrimination must be starspec out immediately. It should of course - like race and gender — belllegal.
here is in Drama Departienes a relactance r ecognise political facto E am told the situation | ditterent in Talks and Fentures where a politicall iterate minority audience is assumed. This misonty t ever assumed in drama. It would be much besitt for the left if it started calling spades spades anc asserted its right to a share of air time. There is a tendency to pretendi to ascept the prevaling view shit drama and politics have very lirtle to do with sach otber and then lo imagine one is smuggine letr wing opinionsontothehearthrug.
One area of overt censorship is the Nortbern Ireland conflict. It is a fact abat the average Sunday Times reader 15 tar belter incormcd aboal Erciad Enan Ene mos avid TV viewer who absurdly will have a far better idea of what Los Angeles lookslikethan Belfast British Isles and the freest television service in the world has swept it under the carper. The record of am referringto Talks and Features. There weren't aay 6. Scheduling and financial control Many writers feel literally constrained by the ike lumps" and it has been sald most forcibly by Robert Muller that rhis isa forinof censorship. fagree HETE MISIS lines on the subiect inal LEevOl Griffiths" play The Party 'Joe (checking watch): Do you wanttotalk ahour the "Sloman (reclining, eyes closed): Jesus Christ, Joe, I sometimes wonder if there exista a background you coulde't adapto. It's a play, Joe. Somehow orocber aben it's written, it will be squeezed and tugged and shunced and fattened and primpted ontil it finalls surpe and slithers into the ninety minute... bole. your masters have graciously reserved for it. (Pause)
Finanoeis one of the many professional reasons chat will be given for not doing hardthings. Jobn MoGrath's MacTaggart Lecture presented a superbly argued Naturaliam and opened up au important debate. The anti-naturalist position as far as censorship goes is that there is a rectived idea of what constitutes a television play. Writers whotransgressthat model bave a much harde time getting on than writers whoconform. It is claimed that the dominant characteristic of the preferred modelisnaturalism: chat ahthough Crossroads may be the oppositeeod of the pole from thebest of Leach and Garnert, it is still the sace pole.
But the actock on naturalism goes even further and it is at this point that temperatures start to rise. It has heen pur to me thel nacaralism is not the dominan mode by accident. It Nourishes as a virile political cool for mediaring reality: for softening and toning it down. Naturalismis, ina word, reactionars As one wriler pur it: "It is the child of cineteent pentury racionalism that belleved the universe was composed of matter. Il relies on well-counded investigating in scenes of observable reality what the HERCES everything they do and world is actually like. But encept on a level of fuzzy snapsbots it fails to communicate anything except a romantic emocional fudge To quate MoGrath: "To taketao examples, recento transmited: Dais of Hope and Bil Brand, I would estimatethat if Dassof Hopehad said, clearly, what it makers wanted to say, it would never have boen made - certainly never shown. Why then was it made and shown? Simply hecause the naturalistic form allowed it to imply, but never to say what they meanc-ut meaning couk become blurred, mediated. It could indeed, be excused, passed off as something else . Bill Brand suffered the same ambivalence: was Bill Brand in a fictional world, the values the author admired; was he just another tsme from the gallery of modern nan an interesting, maybe significant, speciben of eft-wing failure? Or was be a confusion of both? Th naturalism of the form did not allow the author t distinguish between Brand's politics and his personal life, or to make his actitude to cither at all clear. There was a political debate going oo, and a personal saga the author was ohiously trying to say somerbing about both - bur what!' 1 don't know if this argument is correct but if it were true it would be a most damning case of censorship by imposition of form. It is curious tbat with one esception allibe banned plays mentioned earlier could When television drama began it raced abead of the industry asustanted miden workt n maye constandy science te-examine and question the forms it is using - the way it does things. 1 ara not convinced of the case aguinst naturalism but 1 am sure a place must be found in belevision for new forms of writing.
The cheatre is full of styles and celevision should Sur tea ratin whiter si leis Arden the de ol our twa greatest writers: John Arden Bond, Television drama should be as ries and varie - and may have boto rint -think No - -and may be wrong. But if am right thar is perbaps the ultimate in censorship.
heen a literary agent.
From King Kong
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2. Application of common sense principles of good taste
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