Film censorship in the United Kingdom

Film censorship in the United Kingdom

List of banned films

Specific cases

• In Autumn 1972, Lord Longford and Raymond Blackburn decided to pursue a matter of pornography classification for the film Language of Love^[1] into the Court of Appeal of Lord Denning, MR, and lost the writ of mandamus against the Police Commissioner, who had refused to intrude upon the BBFC remit.^[2][3][4]

• In 1999, British television network ITV broadcast a censored version of the British war film The Dam Busters (1955), with all instances of the name of a dog called "Nigger" removed. ITV blamed regional broadcaster London Weekend Television, which in turn alleged that a junior staff member had been responsible for the unauthorised cuts. When ITV again showed a censored version in June 2001, it was criticised by Index on Censorship as "unnecessary and ridiculous" and because the edits introduced continuity errors. The code word "nigger" transmitted in Morse Code upon the successful completion of the central mission was not censored.

• The 2004 film Black Friday was released in the United Kingdom with 17 seconds of the cockfighting scenes deleted. Laws in the UK do not allow any film footage of actual animal cruelty that has been deliberately orchestrated by film-makers within the UK.^[5]

See also

• British Board of Film Classification (BBFC / Classification)
• List of banned films
• Cinema of the United Kingdom
• Censorship in the United Kingdom
• Video nasty
• James Ferman, former director of the BBFC

References

1. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "K" (part 2)
2. "Raymond Blackburn". The Herald. 5 November 1991. Retrieved 1 September 2012.
3. (1975) 21 McGill L.J. 269: "Private Prosecutions in Canada: The Law and a Proposal for Change" (Burns)
4. Reported as [1973] 1 Q.B. 241 (C.A.)
5. Alternate versions for Black Friday from IMDb