iPlayer Gem: Smutty BBC

In the second of my iPlayer Gem features I’m going to bring you a documentary from BBC FOUR and specifically the BBC FOUR Curse of Comedy season.

The show is called ‘Aunties War on Smut’ and is a “tongue-in-cheek journey through 20 years of censorship from the BBC after it issued a book of guidelines that would define its role and values for postwar Britain in 1948.”

You can read the current BBC Editorial Guidelines on the BBC Guidelines website or slightly off topic - the BBC News Style Guide from the BBC Training & Development website.

The show is narrated by the brilliant Griff Rhys Jones and follows the very standard documentary style - it has talking heads, reconstructions and a lot of humour.

It’s all about the ‘Green Book’ the famous BBC Guidelines that shaped the form of comedy for decades and had at its heart the line “if in doubt take it out” and follows Reiths belief that the role of the BBC is to set standards and not follow them.





Now I understand and fully appreciate and still agree with the original goal of the BBC to inform, educate and entertain and to uphold a certain standard - but the standard in my opinion should only refer to quality of production - it shouldn’t apply to actual content.

The BBC should be creating challenging content (and I believe it does) not pandering to the wants and needs of prudes, religious nuts and bores.

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