Wow, I'm sure this is going to be a completely unbiased, sensitive look at the life of a woman who tried to influence British culture! Probably just as fair as having Michael Moore direct a film about Phyllis Schlafly here in the US!
sharecompletely unbiased, sensitive look...
a woman who tried to influence British culture
"My brain rebelled, and insisted on applying logic where it was not welcome."share
You must be referring to that invasive plague: Those storm trooping, tow the line, PC liberal elite's who are manning the towers 24/7.
shareI don't think knocking Mary Whitehouse's at times frankly screwy approach to censorship amounts *by definition* to knee-jerk PC right-on-ness. Even fairly right-of-centre commentators are prepared to accept that when she took a pop at Radio 1 for airing Chuck Berry's 'My ding-a-ling' during the daytime she was peeing on her own credibility.
Maybe we should possibly see it first? I suspect it'll be fairer than you think. The word is that Mary's antagonist in the piece, the BBC Director General who refused even to meet her, gets painted in a pretty bad light for being smug and offhand about her and her people's concerns.
Why do you condemn Mary Whitehouse for 'telling others what they should do in their own home'? I bet you wouldn't say the same of gay-rights campaigners or pro-democracy campaigners. Everyone has a right to stand up for what they believe in; that's exactly what Mary Whitehouse was doing. You can agree or disagree with her view, but you can't blame her for promoting it. And she wasn't lecturing people in their own homes: she was targeting the media.
shareYou have to remember that in Britain in the 1960s there was no free market, or anything like one, in television. There was a broadcasting duopoly of the BBC and ITV. The former was created by the State and funded by a special tax in the form of a State-imposed licence fee. The latter was funded by advertising revenues but was likewise a creation of the State (it could not have operated legally without a special Act of Parliament permitting it to broadcast teelvision programmes). ITV tended to be more socially conservative, as it did not want to upset its advertisers, so it was the more permissive BBC which bore the brunt of Mrs Whitehouse's fiercest attacks.
Those who accused Mrs Whitehouse of "censorship" were missing the point. There is a limit to the amount of material any one broadcasting organisation can put out, so it must be selective as to what it chooses to broadcast. This choice will inevitably be guided by subjective value judgements, including moral judgements. The BBC, for example, would refuse, and rightly so, to broadcast racist propaganda on the grounds that they regard racism as immoral. Mrs Whitehouse was therefore doing something which in principle is quite legitimate in a democracy- trying to start a political debate about the output of a publically owned and publically funded broadcasting Corporation.
In practice, however, she tended to undermine her case by taking offence where none was intended, by her strident and unfair criticisms of brilliant programmes like "TW3" and "Till Death Us Do Part" and by her apparent belief that television should avoid the subject of sex altogether. I felt, in fact, that the film was rather fairer to her than she deserved and that it was rather unfair to Sir Hugh Greene who, whatever his personal failings, deserves some of the credit for the excellent quality of much of the BBC's output in the sixties. By stopping in 1968 the film also avoided mentioning some of Mrs Whitehouse's more questionable later ventures, such as the case of Whitehouse v Lemon in which she revived Britain's moribund blasphemy laws in an attempt to have the editor of "Gay News" put in jail for publishing a poem.
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Now that the programme has been broadcast and you have had a chance to see it, I look forward to the retractions of your previously stated views. Mrs Whitehouse was protrayed in an extremely sympathic way. Much more so than Hugh Green!
Always makes me laugh when people judge a TV show before actually watching it (actually, that reminds me of someone...)
I thought it was a very fair portrayal of Mrs Whitehouse... Who knows if it was entirely true? But, no doubt I'm far from being the only one who remembers her as a bit nasty and anti-fun. So, maybe portraying her in a slightly overly positive light wouldn't be entirely unacceptable... She certainly got off much more lightly than Hugh Green... Was he really so vile..? Anyway, a slightly odd programme, I thought... Not exactly unmissable - it must have benefitted from the fact that there wasn't a great deal else on - and very slow to get going. But, fab acting and lovely period detail.
I just got done taming a wild honeymoon stallion for you guys.
A comment above criticises Mary Whitehouse for her being critical of what people did and watched in their own home. The difficulty with that is that much of what they did in their own home influences what they then do out of their own home.
Fred and Rosemary West,and Dennis Neilson did what thy liked in their own home. Of course, none of them were addicted to pornography, were they?
On a better note - usual solid and reliable perfomances from Julie Walters and Alun Armstrong. Captured perfectly middle Enland in the 1960s.
Dennis Nilsen.
shareIf you note my OP, it was written four months before airing, when whiffs of the film first hit the internet.
Knowing the BBC and their bias, I did not expect them to treat a right-winger like MW in a fair manner. Hence my comment. My comment sat here for months unnoticed until the program aired.
Unfortunately for me, BBC America doesn't bother to show many decent programs...only drivel like Top Gear, What Not to Wear, and endless repeats of Gordon Ramsay. So I have not had a chance to see "FILTH".
I do like Walters and Armstrong, though. And for the record, I used to work with Phyllis Schlafly (the American MW) on her radio program. (Who cares, right?)
A tad arty more than drama. It was no “Longford” but it was well acted and it was quite fair..Yes she was old fashioned, self righteous and pious but because we don’t have that sort of person any more the BBC has had pretty much a clear field.
Bias, self appreciating and elitist it has become many of things she said it would.
For you oh so trendy Political Correct types as we are forced by threat of prison to fork out my hard earned money to fund the BBC, its damn right we should have a say in how it run. When its gets privatised it can do what it pleases until then I hope an army of Neo-Mary Whitehouse’s have watched this play and kick up such a fuss about the crap it passes off for entertainment it wipe’s the smug grins of their arrogant “we know best” faces.
I watched the show and found it very disappointing. I found it dull and smutty without wit. I personally despise the BBC and I found that it was no more than a smug self-celebration. The actors' performances were 'ok', but I didn't feel too much in the way of affection for their characters. The Hugh Green character was totally assassinated. Whitehouse herself was portrayed as a bit dim (simple BBC arrogant 'standard naive Northern idiot'). As for MW being a facist, the BBC are the biggest facist organisation the UK has ever seen, so what better way to deflect this than to label MW with the very tag that fits the BBC best? Overall (Mrs Overall in a better hat): 5/10.
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Actually, this movie was fair and balanced. If anything, I think this movie
was biased in favour of Mary Whitehouse!
Michael Moore direct a bio-pic of Phyllis Schlafly? Hmmm...
Finally the ABC has shown this in Australia!
The key point about Mary Whitehouse was made when someone sang to Hugh Greene, 'I've got you under my skin'. Clearly, she was good at that. She was harder to dismiss than the usual 'Disgusteds of Tunbridge Wells'. She was an extraordinary combination of blindness (the 'nature study' scene, and the wife-beating neighbour) and media savviness ('move that light higher').
And in spite of yourself you can't help wondering: wasn't she onto something? The girl snogging two boys in the van in the final scene may have been Challenging Bourgeois Morality - but she may also have ended up feeling used and degraded. And the 'We want sex!' scene was funny - but doesn't it also sound like the chant of gang rapists?
She came to Australia several times in the 70s and 80s, brought out by her local equivalent, the Rev. Fred Nile. In one TV appearance she debated the local equivalents of Hugh Greene, including the columnist and broadcaster Phillip Adams. But she had support from an unlikely source: none other than Spike Milligan, who had been as outraged as she was by 'The Romans in Britain'.
And I'll never forget her appearance on 'The Dame Edna Experience'. It was the *only* time I've ever seen Edna on the back foot. Clearly, she was expecting Edna to bait her, so she launched a pre-emptive attack - 'Oh, but no-one wants to hear about ME! We want to hear about YOU, Edna! YOU'RE far more fascinating!' Edna was left floundering.
Who doesn't want sex?
shareI saw this and it was balanced in some ways but mainly in Mart Whitehouse's favour.
My only gripe with this show was that Whitehouse caused so much sadness and grief. She pushed her hate and hurt many gay people.
I blame her for hate crimes.
Of course these were days when in a darker sadder world many followed the religion she endorsed but today with churches closing everywhere we are in a better world.
Still its fun to watch the silliness of White house and admire her gutsy but foolish courage.
History must do the right thing and remember her as a fool.
By the time of the opening of the occasionally risqué Channel 4 in the 80s it was a badge of honour to have Mrs Whitehouse complain and she became so ubiquitous as programme makers were delighted to invite her own and add viewers to their late night ‘filth.’
shareOf course these were days when in a darker sadder world many followed the religion she endorsed but today with churches closing everywhere we are in a better world.