Mary Whitehouse Tonight Bbc2 9 O'clock

[andy-hughes]

Will the two-part documentary explain how and why only Mrs Whitehouse and her cohorts were actually immune to the tide of filth and depravity entering the nation's minds and souls through the TV and cinema offerings they consumed?

I've always been intrigued by that - along with which days and channels she actually watched TV, I could never find any of the level of material she ranted about!!

[maggiebee]

Good job she didn't have to sit through Naked Attraction. Poor woman would have had a heart attack!

[douglas9401]

It was a throwaway line, eSecombe easy go.

[andy-hughes]

Douglas, you are a wag!!

[pixie374]

I've only heard of her as a parody. Not the dog trainer then?

[ichkeria]

Those glasses seemed designed to hone in on the most innocuous of salaciousness

[GenuineclAss]

I thought that the 'Tim as John Travolta' was very funny and still do. It's the faces of the people on the street, as he struts by that make it funny. "OMG"! A man removing his shirt and then re-dressing in different clothes - appalling! Just as well she didn't know that Tim was gay. I was at junior school when The Goodies was televised and don't remember any sexual references at all. If there were any, they obviously either went over my head, or I didn't understand and ignored them. All my friends watched The Goodies and loved it. If it was as bad as Mrs Whitehouse suggested, I would have thought that our parents would have censored our viewing.

[fraser]

wasnt julian clary part of the mary whitehouse experience a comedy group in the eighties

[andy-hughes]

Pix - You're thinking of Barbara Woodhouse, bossy dog trainer.

[Cloverjo]

Fraser, JulianClary wasn’t part of the MWE. That was David Baddiel, Rob Newman, Steve Punt

[fender62]

pink floyd described whitehouse perfectly

[Ken4155]

Pink Floyd summed Mary Whitehouse up quire well in a verse from 'Pigs (Three Different Ones) taken from their 'Animals' album.

Hey you, Whitehouse
Ha ha, charade you are
You house proud town mouse
Ha ha, charade you are
You're trying to keep our feelings off the street
You're nearly a real treat
All tight lips and cold feet
And do you feel abused
You gotta stem the evil tide
And keep it all on the inside
Mary your'e nearly a treat
Mary you're nearly a treat
But you're really a cry.

[Ken4155]

Great minds and all that :-)

[Hopkirk]

Julian Clarey was the Joan Collins Fan Club, I think

[andy-hughes]

I have watched the first of the two parts.

I found it balanced on the whole, but completely unable to answer my fundamental question - how did Mrs Whitehouse and her comrades avoid the corruption of the 'tide of filth' that they felt they had to save the rest of us from?

She does come across as utterly self-righteous, and po-faced, and unwilling to accept that every adult in a free society has a right to be entertained and informed in the way they choose, and it is not for her, or anyone else, to appoint themselves as censors of what is actually acceptable, and what it not.