the mary whitehouse question

[William Martin]

theres that talk she gave where she said something like
"last night we watched a program as a family and it was the dirtiest I had seen in a very long time"

from about the mid sixties, what program was she talking about?

[Jeff Vagg]

I remember hearing an answer to this query before, and think it was a very early TV role for Tom "Andy Pandy" Conti (in the news again this week over double entendres in said show!)

[Jeff vagg]

I've now found the answer on the Guardian's notes and queries site, from which I paste:
There is an often-shown clip of film from May 1964 of Mary Whitehouse launching her "Clean up TV" campaign. In it she says: "Last Thursday at 6.35pm I saw the dirtiest programme ..." What was it, and was it turned into a series?

THIS QUESTION was put to the lady herself on her retirement - and she confessed that she could not remember. Unfortunately, there was no barrister present to claim, as they would in a court of law, that there had been in fact no "dirty programme". In an episode of Till Death Us Do Part, Alf Garnett's friend, Bert, remarks that, after seeing Mrs Whitehouse complaining yet again about hardcore pornography on TV, he had sat up all night hoping to see some for himself, and was most disappointed when it did not appear. He went on to wonder how someone of her apparent intelligence could claim to be an expert on something which palpably did not exist.

Keith Ackerman, Tilbury, Essex.
THE PROGRAMME to which Mrs Whitehouse referred was Between The Lines, produced by BBC Scotland but transmitted nationally. It ran for six episodes. Mrs Whitehouse had viewed, I think, the first episode (transmitted on April 30 1964 on BBC1 at 6.35pm), which featured Tom Conti among others. The programme was billed as "A series of light-hearted enquiries into matters of no importance" and was written by Chris Hanley. Whether any episodes from this series still remain within the BBC archives, or what it was that so upset Mrs Whitehouse, I cannot say and wish I knew.

Olwen Terris, Chief Cataloguer, National Film and Television Archive, London
I WATCHED the programme and remember clearly the part that made me switch off. An otherwise good programme was ruined by constant repetition of a bonking scene. The first time I was mildly annoyed because it didn't seem part of the story. After the third time I decided not to bother again. It was boring, unnecessary and offensive. This time, Mrs W was right.

A Lubin, Swindon, Wilts.
Mrs Whitehouse actually says in this clip "Last Thursday at 6.35pm I saw the dirtiest programme THAT I HAVE SEEN IN A LONG TIME". Could it be that we got her wrong for all those years afterwards? It sounds like she was complaining that everything on tv had been far too "clean" for her taste up until that point!

Paul Grainger, London England

[William Martin]

ahh; at last I can rest in peace , thanks very much for clearing up a long standing question
perhaps there was something wrong with her tv, maybe it was picking up Dutch tv?