What on earth was she watching?

[andy hughes]

Following the death of 'clean-up' campaigner Mary Whitehouse, the famous newsreel footage of her addressing an audience was played, in which she advises them of sitting down with her family to watch a programme at 6.30 in the evening, and it was, quote, "The dirtiest programme I have seen for a very long time." Given the decade in which the quote was made, and the time of night, what on earth was Mrs W. watching that offended her so much, and why didn't we hear more about the programmes she was so intent on stopping the rest of us from seeing?

[jellyfish]

I think it was the first airing of The Goodies, which went out in November 1970. It was a cheery trio of Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie. The shows were fairly lightweight and mostly relied on visual humour, such as Kitten Kong, where a giant kitten terrorised London. The BBC seemed to treat The Goodies as virtually a children's programme, but Mary Whitehouse certainly didn't see them as children. She described them as being "too sexually orientated", taking particular issue with Tim Brooke-taylor as Harry Worth.
She said: 'Tim Brooke-Taylor was seen undressing, then dressing to mock John Travolta in an exceedingly tight pair of underpants with a distinctive carrot motif on the front'. She later said 'it was the dirtiest programme I have seen for a long time'. The Goodies pleaded for a more adult slot but were refused and in 1980 they went to ITV and later disbanded.
Mary Whitehouse, who died last month, spent more than 30 years campaigning for viewers. In 1963, she was watching an edition of Meeting Point in which a psychologist, a bishop's wife, a headmistress and a clergyman were discussing pre-marital sex. Although none of the participants said so, Mrs Whitehouse concluded they were all in favour of sex before marriage. She was deeply perturbed by this, wrote to the BBC and in 1964 founded the Clean-Up TV Campaign.

[coemgen]

I remember seeing a documentary on Mary Whitehouse a few years ago, which really annoyed me and prooved beyond doubt what a hypocrite this woman was. Before the age of 16 she'd had 2 abortions and later in life had a torrid afair with a married man.How dare this woman present herself as guardian of our morals when she so obviously is no better than any of the rest of us human beings.She was obviously so obsessed with sex that she saw it everywhere she looked, like Freud.

[Ted]

Coemgen - are you sure of your facts? 'I remember seeing a documentary a few years ago' seems hardly factual proof of your allegations. Nothing was mentioned of your claims in her obituaries. Give us the facts! Mary Whitehouse was quite capable of making a fool of herself without other people's help...

[coemgen]

Yes I am sure.If I wasn't I wouldn't have written it. I don't appreciate your condescending tone.

[Ted]

Come again, coemgen? I repeat: Give us the facts!

[andy hughes]

Thanks for your continued input people, but let's not turn this Q&A into a personal slanging match shall we? I am delighted that people have taken the trouble to answer my question, but pot shots at other responses is rather against the spirit of The Answerbank, so I hope we can lay the matter to rest right here.

[eram]

FROM THE ANSWERBANK EDITOR:
The AnswerBank is about sharing information, and relies on user contributions. However, the validity and value of the contributions relies on veracity. We have researched all of the world's major newspapers and found nothing to support the allegations made in this discussion. What we have ascertained from several sources is that: At the age of 20, before she was married herself, Mary had an unconsummated affair with a married colleague..... It is generally believed that in her life she had only one sexual partner - her husband....
There is no evidence to suggest any abortion, although it is known that she gave birth twins, who both died shortly after their birth. The couple also had three sons.
We have found no published evidence in any mainstream publication that these 'documentary allegations' have any substance in fact.