Yes, by all accounts given by those who knew him well and/or worked with him, Carleton Green's colourful profanity was well known and legendary within the Corporation. He drank, smoked, swore and indulged in what would nowadays be deemed legally actionable sexist remarks to the ladies who worked for him.
He was also one of the greatest creative, administrative and organisational talents that the BBC ever had. His innovations in the field of television, his talent recruitment drives on behalf of the Corporation, and his unerring personal instinct for scouting and then hiring fresh, gifted new people resulted in a great new influx of talent into the Corporation. An entire generation of the finest programme commissioners, producers, directors, writers, technical wizards, and BBC administrative staff learned their trade under Carleton Green's nurturing eye. If there was ever a golden age of BBC television and radio then Carleton Green's era was it.
This BBC4 drama showed both Carleton Green and Mrs Whitehouse in quite an even handed way, with their warts-and-all flaws as well as their strengths. That is something that Carleton Green would probably have liked and been amused by, unlike his opponent who could never see the funny side of being sent up by the media.
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st-39
16 years ago
who could NEVER see the funny side?
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duke-verity
16 years ago
I stand by what I said. Mrs Whitehouse (strong and formidable in her convictions as she undoubtedly was) was not noted for her sense of humour when it came to the way in which herself and her values were represented by the media.
She remained until the end of her life totally unable to understand why she had become a figure of ridicule (at least to anybody outside of her immediate Viewers and Listeners Association army of like minded pro-active Christian pressure groupers) to the wider public.
This was, may I remind you, a lady who was oblivious to and/or completely unable to fathom why the media and the public laughed when she tried to get Chuck Berry's 'My Ding-A-Ling' banned from B.B.C television and radio!
As for her campaign against the corrupting and (cough!) immoral influence of the kid's show 'Pinky and Perky', this was the point at which even many of those who had hitherto moderately supported her came to realise that the old girl had totally lost the plot.
She also totally po-facedly and with utmost seriousness went on national television to declare that homosexuality was a mental illness that could be cured by psychiatric treatment and visits to your local vicar.
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st-39
16 years ago
I don’t agree but respect that Duke-Verity has presented their own views very well.
What is highlighted with Dr.Who and Pinky and Perky here is where you draw the line and society has struggled with that issue since time began! A further issue that pressure groups have to address, is that when you publicly criticise something (and often rightly so) then it only highlights the issue and draws attention it.
Mary Whitehouse was courageous, highly principled, unbending, incorruptible and squeaky clean. Society has never been comfortable with such attributes!
As a post script - as a young child in the early 60s, I found Dr.Who terrifying and frequently had nightmares ad wet the bed (only) on a Saturday night! Although I believe that Mary Whitehouse was right, I don't relate to her criticism of Pinky and Perky!
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Corner_House_guest
15 years ago
Hugh Carleton Greene refused to meet the NVLA or Mrs Whitehouse whilst DG, comparing her narrow minded views to those of supporters of Nazism in pre war Germany, where he had been a journalist.
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ContinentalOp
9 years ago
As a post script - as a young child in the early 60s, I found Dr.Who terrifying and frequently had nightmares ad wet the bed (only) on a Saturday night! Although I believe that Mary Whitehouse was right, I don't relate to her criticism of Pinky and Perky!
- st-39
Do you agree with her war-dog views and her anti-pacifism? She was a hypocrite. Her view of TV is pathetic. If she doesn't like something (such as educating the world about Belsen death camp in her case) she could turn of the TV. Rather than campaigning for censorship maybe creeps like you and Mary Whitehouse should have done something good like feeding the more and denouncing the likes of Margaret Thatcher and her successors who made life less fair and more hard on those who are at the lower end of the spectrum. People like Whitehouse, and you it seems, use Christianity as a shield to support any evil under the sun, intolerance, homophobia, capitalism, wars etc.
As a post script - as a young child in the early 60s, I found Dr.Who terrifying and frequently had nightmares ad wet the bed (only) on a Saturday night!
Then you shouldn't have watched it! It is not the shows fault that you were too stupid to understand that the show is fictional. And terror is subjective. Why should it be banned, depriving a great deal of people of their favourite show, because fundie cretins don't like the show?
Formerly KingAngantyr
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puirt-a-beul
15 years ago
She also totally po-facedly and with utmost seriousness went on national television to declare that homosexuality was a mental illness that could be cured by psychiatric treatment and visits to your local vicar.
There are still people making that claim, and just as po-facedly.
I laughed out loud at the scene where she went for a walk through the woods, and stumbled across the two young lads having it off -- she even knew them by their first names -- made a comment about it being a fine day for a bit of nature study, and rambled on breezily. Where they really saying she wouldn't have known real smut if she came across it, or that there were things that even she just didn't want to know about?
You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.
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