back to article This week's BBC MELTDOWN: Savile puppet haunts kids' TV

The BBC has apologised for airing an episode of kiddies show The Tweenies featuring a puppet "impersonating Jimmy Savile". Outraged parents choked on their cornflakes on Sunday morning as the offending programme, filmed back in 2001, exposed wide-eyed nippers to "Max" - a character "in a blonde wig, wearing Savile's trademark …

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  1. Code Monkey
    Flame

    Is "group of people get offended" still news?

    If only there were any money in getting offended Britain would be fucking minted.

    1. Chris 2

      boo fucking hoo

      Whining crap unsurprisingly pushed by those who are out to get the BBC anyway.

      What a load of bollocks.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: boo fucking hoo

        Give them a settlement figure of one penny. Written as a cheque on a fetid horse carcass in marker pen.

        Express delivery for Mr Knobend!, excuse me Sir, what did you say your name was again, sure I got the right address ..... just sign here!

        1. Frederic Bloggs
          Happy

          Re: boo fucking hoo

          Sorry, we are fresh out of fetid horse. They are currently being processed and used for other purposes.

          Got some nice fresh roadkill you could use instead - how about a slightly battered dead badger?

          1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge
            Happy

            Re: boo fucking hoo

            Got some nice fresh roadkill you could use instead - how about a slightly battered dead badger?

            Yummy! Badger tempura sounds delicious. Dip it in a nice sweet chilli sauce. I also recommend hedgehog pancakes...

            1. Red Bren
              Linux

              Re: boo fucking hoo

              Tempura? Why waste a good badger corpse when you can install linux on it?

              http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badger.shtml

    2. dogged
      Meh

      It might make sense if the Tweenies weren't infinitely more creepy than a Jimmy Savile impression all by themselves.

    3. Annihilator
      Meh

      Is "group of people get offended" still news?

      You forgot " at slightest upset".

      But you think it's bad here, you should try the States - entire "special interest groups" designed to generate the outrage on a scale the Daily Mail can only dream of. If you think OFCOM are bad (and they're largely toothless), you should see the awesome might of the FCC.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

        > you should see the awesome might of the FCC

        A Jimmy Savile nipslip outrage? Oh my!

    4. Wize

      I get offended by people getting offended by this...

      Its not as if it was with malicious intent.

      The program was from 2001 (IIRC) and was passed at the time as suitable for children. Is someone going to have to sit down and review every minute of every repeat to make sure that no one has been offended by a change in what is acceptable from a few years ago?

      And the target audience won't even know who Jimmy Savile was, never mind be offended.

      1. NogginTheNog
        Thumb Down

        Re: I get offended by people getting offended by this...

        I think you're missing the reality here: very few people WERE offended, except in DailyMail-land. A few parents probably cringed, one or two picked up the phone (or keyboard). None of the kids batted an eyelid.

        1. NomNomNom

          Re: I get offended by people getting offended by this...

          my two children couldn't stop throwing up after watching this episode at the weekend. Took them to hospital three times but the doctors kept turning us away saying it was a sickness bug!

          going to write a strongly worded letter to the BBC about this

          1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

            Re: I get offended by people getting offended by this...

            going to write a strongly worded letter to the BBC about this

            NomNomNom,

            Let me help you with that letter:

            Dear BBC,

            I don't hold with all this sex on television. I keep falling off!

            Yours,

            Colonel Titfield-Thunderbolt O.B.E. D.S.O & bar and looney

      2. Ian 55

        Re: I get offended by people getting offended by this...

        Quite. You can imagine the outrage there'd be if it turned out that someone was being paid £30k a year to watch about to be repeated kids TV just in case something has changed since it was made.

        If they are, I'd quite like the job...

      3. Tom 35

        Re: I get offended by people getting offended by this...

        If you buy the DVD set of the old original Sesame Street it's labelled "Not suitable for children" .

        1. Don Jefe

          Re: I get offended by people getting offended by this...

          Why is Sesame Street labeled like that?

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: I get offended by people getting offended by this...

        Target audience wouldn't have been a target, allegedly. Wrong age. Same goes for the other demographic, stoned students.

    5. stu 4
      Joke

      BBC handling

      While I agree, I do feel the BBC's handling of this has been all 'fingers and thumbs'

      thank you and goodnight.

  2. Alan Bourke

    I put my foot through my cornflakes

    and sent the BBC the bill.

    Seriously - do people think that there will or should be some huge effort dedicated to excising any and all reference to Saville from the BBC archives or something?

    1. My Alter Ego
      Joke

      Re: I put my foot through my cornflakes

      Absolutely, it's much safer to pretend that he never existed - a bit like the book "A complete history of German politics - 1946 to present"*

      * I told my [German] Mum this one, and she did laugh - who says that they don't have a sense of humour.

      1. Test Man
        Stop

        Re: I put my foot through my cornflakes

        "...the book "A complete history of German politics - 1946 to present""

        Reminds me of a Family Guy sketch where the German guide was referring to events either side of WW2 but refused to acknowledge anything between 1939-1945.

        As for pretending somebody doesn't exist, WWE currently do this for Chris Benoit - they go far as to refuse to show him in matches. If it was a significant match that would otherwise look odd if it was missing (due to the theme of the collection that they compile), I think they may show him but don't acknowledge him.

        1. Captain TickTock
          Headmaster

          Re: I put my foot through my cornflakes

          "but refused to acknowledge anything between 1939-1945"

          surely if you'd wanted to suppress all questionable events, you'd have to ignore from around 1933?

          1. Graham Marsden
            Big Brother

            Citzen Saville...

            ... has been Unpersoned!

            IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH!

          2. mickey mouse the fith

            Now then, now then......

            "but refused to acknowledge anything between 1939-1945"

            Bit like those banned cartoons from the 40`s that disney and warner keep trying to forget ever existed. Donald duck as hitler and Bugs bunny in blackface. Their portrail of japanese people is pretty funny as well.

            As for this, who gives a shit really, the target audience wont get the reference, to them its just a funny man presenting songs and the program was made before ol cigar fiddler was caught with his pants down.

            These stupid, daily mailesque parents are really getting worked up over a non-event and should stop being offended and shocked by every random slipup on the telly.

            Ironically, their complaining has probably made sure that this particular episode of the program will be the most watched ever. Well done...

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: I put my foot through my cornflakes (re: Beniot)

          Great, someone digs him up again. We, here in Atlanta, are tired of hearing about him and what he did at home.

          Unless you've got audio/video, please stop.

      2. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Pint

        Re: I put my foot through my cornflakes

        Whatever happens, don't mention the war

        "Will you stop talking about the war?"

        "Me?! You started it!"

        "We did not start it!"

        "Yes you did, you invaded Poland!"

      3. Ian 55

        Re: I put my foot through my cornflakes

        The displays on the history of Ireland, featuring 'our independence story', in the national museum in Dublin stop with the British leaving.

        Civil war? What civil war?

      4. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Annihilator
      Go

      Re: I put my foot through my cornflakes

      "Seriously - do people think that there will or should be some huge effort dedicated to excising any and all reference to Saville from the BBC archives or something?"

      I imagine the Beeb are treading very gingerly before broadcasting any of their usual BBC2/4 filler of TOTP from various years... Steve Wright is going to find himself very busy topping and tailing performances that are suddenly in need of an intro.

    3. JimC

      Re: some huge effort to excising

      Yep, I'm quite sure there are people - or at least media-droids - who think exactly that.

    4. Rampant Spaniel

      It sees like everytime something significantly bad happens a mistake is made on a channel and an innapropriate rerun is shown. Thats life, it's not intentional. It's a mistake, people need to get a grip!

      I bet not a single one of those complaining were abused by Saville. If 'Concerned of Snotting Cockbury' was really that affected they need professional help, preferably from a tug of war team to assist in removing their head from their arse.

  3. ukgnome
    Joke

    What was more shocking was

    explaining to my 4 YO who or what a Jimmy Savile was / is

    You try explaining predatory pedophile to a young 'un

    1. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

      Re: What was more shocking was

      > You try explaining predatory pedophile to a young 'un

      And then wait until he tells the nursery school teacher what Daddy was talking about at breakfast...

    2. taxman
      Big Brother

      Re: What was more shocking was

      You missed the word *alleged* (unless you take the 'innocent until proven guity' police point of view)

      1. Frederic Bloggs
        Headmaster

        Re: What was more shocking was

        He's dead. You can say what you like.

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: You can say what you like.

          No you can't . For example, I have enormous difficulty saying "perspicaciously" .

          1. Richard 120
            Joke

            Re: You can say what you like.

            Yes, but I don't think you'll have much problem saying "what you like"

        2. MrZoolook
          Mushroom

          Re: What was more shocking was

          Try saying that to a jew about the holocaust...

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What was more shocking was

      It was horrible, horrible I tell you!! Someone SMOKING a cigar before 9pm!!!

      Won't someone PLEASE think of the kiddies!!

    4. Cucumber C Face
      FAIL

      Re: What was more shocking was

      Even in 2001 when this Tweenies episode was made, its audience would not have known who Savile was - at least in this context. He stopped being a regular TOTP presenter in the mid-1980's.

    5. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What was more shocking was

      You try explaining predatory pedophile to a young 'un

      Well wee laddie/lassie:

      "Pedophile" is a combination of ped... a Latin prefix indicating a connection with feet (it's derived from pes, the Latin word for foot) and ...phile a suffix of Greek origin which indicates a fondness or attraction to something (derived from philos which is Greek for "loving). So, literally translated it would mean "foot-loving".

      "Predatory" is derived from Latin too, it comes from praedator which meant "plunderer" and is used to indicate the behaviour of sneaking about trying to catch something.

      So, a "predatory pedophile" would be someone or something with a great love for feet and which spends its time hunting. A centipede perhaps. Millipedes would seem to have an even greater love of feet but as I'm sure you know, they're detritivores and herbivores so couldn't be called predatory.

      There have been lots of these Greek/Latin bastard words appearing lately. They seldom serve any useful function, other than to alert the reader to the fact that the author is too ill-educated to differentiate between the classical languages and not adequately literate to express themselves in real words... and for that alone they are invaluable.

      (how did I do?)

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pretty stupid of the BBC to do it but can't imagine the intended audience for The Tweenies would even understand. More likely some 'outraged' PC parents who perhaps want to try and sue the beeb?

    1. Dr_N
      Trollface

      Unlikely to be "PC parents" and more likely to be knuckle-dragging, tabloid raise-a-mob pediatrician harassers.

      1. Ted Treen
        Devil

        To Dr_N

        Correct, but they've probably been stirred up (as much as they're capable of being stirred) by one of Murdoch's comics...

  5. mhoneywell

    yawn

    Is this The Register?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: yawn

      Must be a quiet news week - or no 'Apple' news (yet)?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: yawn

      Is this The Register?

      you must be new here....

    3. Miffo

      Re: yawn

      >Is this The Register?

      Yes - can't you see the technology angle?

      It was on TV.

      TV is technology.

      Therefore it's relevant. I think that's how it works.

    4. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: yawn

      Is this The Register?

      Yes, how can I help you? Is your parrot feeling unwell?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What a lot of fuss

    It's a shame how the BBC panic and back down in all these cases. They even withdrew all episodes of Top Of The Pops featuring DLT due to a 30 year old allegation that is yet unproven.

    Yet Challenge TV are still happily showing Big Break. I don't see The Sun on their case. But if the BBC decided to show some footage of racist unfunny "Jimbo" they'd be on their case as quicker than a Davidson marriage lasts.

    Erasing Savile from the past won't stop him noncing those kids. It's done, he's dead, he got away with it.

    1. Anonymous Coward 101
      Headmaster

      Re: What a lot of fuss

      The process by which Savile was deemed to be 'Britain's worst sex offender' was not reasonable. He suffered firstly a trial by media, then Operation Yewtree simply collected all the accusations against him and assumed they were all true. The vast majority of the accusations were only made after the initial publicity against him.

      This is certainly not to say he was innocent of everything, and indeed he could even have been guilty of everything. It's just that the process by which we have decided he was 'Britain's worst sex offender' left much to be desired.

      There, got it off my chest.

      1. Bod

        Re: What a lot of fuss

        "He suffered firstly a trial by media, then Operation Yewtree simply collected all the accusations against him and assumed they were all true. The vast majority of the accusations were only made after the initial publicity against him."

        Seems odd that no one in the media or even police seem to remotely consider there is an ulterior motive in at least some of the cases, such as the money they'll get from the Daily Mail et al.

        How many of the accusations are of the like you'd see in Carry On films? Should they be banned and the memory of Sid James be erased too?

    2. Irongut

      Re: What a lot of fuss

      Except I saw a program about Country&Western on BBC4 at the weekend which had several clips where DLT introduced the act.

    3. Cucumber C Face
      Headmaster

      Doing the maths

      Say there is a 1 in 100 chance that a serious sexual assault on a child will be brought to justice - a depressingly low proportion but probaly not far from the mark IF you take within family offences into account.

      The probability that 200 independent serious sexual offences will be committed with none being brought to justice is 99/100 to the power of 200 or about 0.13

      So how lucky was Jimmy Savile feeling - or are a fair proportion of the allegations poppycock?

  7. nigel 15
    Childcatcher

    this story is too stupid...

    ...for words.

  8. TRT Silver badge
    Facepalm

    F*** me!

    I've just seen an episode of Pipkins where Pig knocks over Hartley Hare's tower of building bricks with a paper aeroplane, which is a clear parody of the 9/11 attacks on New York, which I then had to explain to my four year old.

    Get a grip, people!

    1. Lee Dowling Silver badge

      Re: F*** me!

      Or, was two children playing with toys as normal.

      And why did you "have" to explain this to your four-year-old? One of them knocked over the other's toys... what's to explain exactly other than one of them is a little git interrupting the other's quiet playtime?

      Get a grip, indeed.

      1. ed2020
        FAIL

        Re: F*** me!

        @Lee Dowling... I think your irony detectors are malfunctioning.

        1. JayBizzle
          Facepalm

          Re: F*** me!

          "@Lee Dowling... I think your irony detectors are malfunctioning."

          I'd say they had done a Fukishima

    2. magrathea

      Re: F*** me!

      This sort of behaviour has be nipped in the bud in children. Lego boxes should carry a warning to parents about the dangers of certain types play encouraging terrorist attacks

  9. nevstah
    WTF?

    get a grip

    a fictional character dressed up as someone now deceased...

    do we really care? apart from the folks who think complaining and 'feeling offended' top-trumps other people on their estate?

    the kids this program is aimed at have never even heard of JS let alone can comprehend the issues

  10. Esskay
    WTF?

    I wonder...

    Exactly how many of today's children were offended, or felt violated by this? Presumably none, since the vast majority have no idea who the fuck Jimmy Saville is.

    Some people must sit by the telephone, with the Telegraph's number on speed dial (just behind the button for the Daily Mail) waiting with baited breath for an opportunity to be outraged. I feel sorry for "concerned father", who must spend his days rocking back and forth in a dark room worrying about the filth that exists outside his sanitised walls, trying to determine the best way of erasing any memory his children may have of Jimmy Saville from the last 18 months (because before then it Wasn't His Fault (tm) that he exposed his children to Jimmy Saville).

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I wonder...

      Actually, the Telegraph today presented the story in two small paragraphs on an even-numbered page, 6 or 8, IIRC... obviously the first few pages were all about terrorists. They did have a front page feature trailer about how Boris Johnson feels it is the start of another ice age, though.

      Just a few months to go before we get photos of teenage girls in vest tops jumping for joy at their exam results! Until then, will have to make do with critiques of dresses worn at the Oscar ceremony.

  11. Zog The Undeniable
    Mushroom

    I've also seen Wile E. Coyote setting up a roadside IED to try and "take out" Road Runner. Do these 1950s cartoon makers and modern-day DVD pimps have no sense of decency towards our brave boys in Helmand province?

    1. Lockwood

      You're right. I'm going to start a petition and get fame for a cmapaign against this.

  12. Mondo the Magnificent
    Devil

    Ahem...

    The Tweenies featuring a puppet "impersonating Jimmy Savile".

    So this cigar smoking puppet was luring starry eyed teen girls to parties, then to hotel rooms?

    It must have pulled some strings to get all that right...

  13. Captain TickTock
    Childcatcher

    As if..

    ..the Tweenies aren't creepy enough...

    1. Omgwtfbbqtime
      Alert

      Re: As if..

      Just don't mention the Harold Shipman episode of the Roley Mo Show.....

    2. TRT Silver badge

      Re: As if..

      And that Cliff Richards Jnr song in Thunderbirds Are Go (the first Thunderbirds movie)?

      "Baby, I got friends, so baby listen to me. A shooting star will shoot you, and Mars will go to war. The man in the moon will jump on you, if you don't love me no more."

      Now if ever there was a song glorifying violence and domestic abuse towards women, then this is it! A bl**dy good job that when I went to see it as a kid, all I was paying attention to was Thunderbird 2 taking off.

  14. Electric sheep
    WTF?

    Innocent until proving guilty?

    Has our Jimmy been tried and found guilty then?

    They guy is dead and the government is probably spending a children's hospital per year to do exactly what about him?

    It was an indirect reference to the guy, so bloody what, who cares? Obviously do gooders with nothing better to do.

    1. DrXym

      Re: Innocent until proving guilty?

      Dead people can't be tried and convicted. However the police believe there to be so much evidence and so many complainants that they are calling them victims.

      1. Zog The Undeniable
        Childcatcher

        Re: Innocent until proving guilty?

        Oh for the good old days when you could convict them, dig them up and hang them (Google Oliver Cromwell).

        1. Kubla Cant

          Re: Innocent until proving guilty?

          Or indeed dig them up, then try them, convict them, etc etc. (Google Pope Formosus.)

        2. Martyn 1

          Re: Innocent until proving guilty?

          Considering he was buried for a year before all this broke I think you'd have to hang him in a net.

  15. g e
    Alert

    MEDIIIC!

    I had to go to hospital and have intensive psychological therapy due to my reliance on the media to tell me how to think and react to the world around me as I am utterly incapable of forming an independent thought for myself.

    The very kind private doctor took one look at me and warned me I would need a prolonged course of very expensive treatment though he did refer me to his brother who happens to run a no-win-no-fee company who will be able to sue the BBC on my behalf for the cost of it.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    those choking parents

    and all others, who bothered to complain, should have been (...)

  17. The FunkeyGibbon
    Joke

    Was pretty funny that the song sung

    was "One Finger, One Thumb" :-D

    There is nothing that the British like more than an outrage over nothing though!

  18. Captain TickTock
    Trollface

    Choking on cornflakes...

    at least it was nothing nutritious.... ;-)

  19. jai

    setting a worrying precedent?

    yes, it is perhaps poor taste, in light of the recent findings, but it's an episode made over 10 years ago. it's a tv show, aimed a small kids who, even 10 years ago, wouldn't have known who Jimmy Savile was, so at the time it could have only have been intended for the benefit of the parents watching the show.

    what's next? do we need a Records of Department to eradicate any mention of Jimmy Savile from any tv show ever? should we have a Black List maintained to ensure Gary Glitter is never ever mentioned? or shall we be content which just giving such items an Emotional Content rating and leave it at that?

    1. TRT Silver badge
      Windows

      Re: setting a worrying precedent?

      To be honest, I've never ever seen a swimming pool in an episode of Coronation Street since 1983...

      1. chriswakey
        Thumb Up

        To be honest, I've never ever seen a swimming pool in an episode of Coronation Street since 1983...

        Would it be in bad taste for me to give that post a 'thumbs up'?

      2. Horridbloke
        Childcatcher

        Re: setting a worrying precedent?

        I didn't get the reference, so I googled "swimming pool coronation street" and now I am offended.

        1. MJI Silver badge

          Re: setting a worrying precedent?

          I searched it and got your post!

    2. Refugee from Windows
      Thumb Down

      Re: setting a worrying precedent?

      Sounds a bit like Winston's job in that George Orwell novel. Maybe the "Ministry of Truth" isn't a work of fiction after all.

  20. Irongut

    The song he introduced just makes everything worse

    So what was the song?

    1. Stuart Elliott
      Facepalm

      Re: The song he introduced just makes everything worse

      One finger, one thumb, keep moving. :)

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89IdetbRyu0

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The song he introduced just makes everything worse

        >do we need a Records of Department to eradicate any mention of Jimmy Savile from any tv show ever? should we have a Black List maintained to ensure Gary Glitter is never ever mentioned?

        Well, they stopped doing TOTP some time back... though they've started showing re-runs again.

  21. Steve Barnett
    FAIL

    Grow up

    It's an 11 year old reference to a dead weirdo that no modern 4 year old would understand; but it gives the Telegraph and the like another opportunity to be outraged by the Beeb. Beeb management should grow some nuts,tell them to get knotted and the Telegraph should go back to being a newspaper.

    Oh and I should probably get back to finishing the report due this afternoon :0)

  22. DrXym

    In fairness

    Who would even think to check some 11 year old kids TV series to see if something in hindsight could cause someone offence? I doubt the kids noticed it and aside from some faux outrage from some newspapers and amusement on Twitter I doubt anyone seriously cared.

  23. MJI Silver badge
    Facepalm

    Definately facepalm moment

    I remember this from the first time, just a parody of a TOTP show.

    The Tweenies were a very good preschool programme.

    What is worrying is that I can remember Max, Milo, Fizz, Jake, Bella, and of course Doodles. My boys called their sister Bossy Bella after her.

  24. MJI Silver badge

    aghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

    Now got the theme stuck on my head.

    1. Pristine Audio
      Coat

      Re: aghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

      You know you've spent far too much time watching The Tweenies when you start to find Judy an attractive proposition. Thankfully I was able to leave this lot behind a long time ago...

      1. MJI Silver badge

        Re: aghhhhhhhhhhhhhh

        And it is worrying I know what you mean!

        As to complaints, I think the average child doesn't care and the average parent is having a laugh

  25. Lockwood
    Childcatcher

    "Think of the children! Won't someone think of the children?!"

    "Now then, now then, now then..."

    "Stop thinking about children!!!"

  26. ZedThePirate
    Trollface

    Is it really that hard to chew cornflakes?

    It was so disgusting that he forgot to chew? I don't understand, is this a new scale to measure disgusted-ness?

  27. JaitcH
    Stop

    ... described by police as a "prolific, predatory sex offender"

    The police are supposed to be investigators who offer their results of inquiries (if they can be believed) to a member of the judiciary, or an official inquiry/commission, and THEY make a finding and issue a decision.

    With Saville it seems that all the normal procedures have been swept aside and the Plod have become investigators, judge and jury.

    Whether the claims against Saville have been proven, or not, since the police have adopted a position against Saville, who has absolutely no one acting for him, their actions are to be questioned.

    And why has it taken so long, by so many people, to find their voices? Surely one or two, or their parents, would have acted. It should also be born in mind that way back when Saville allegedly committed these assaults, "putting out" for favours was common.

    Doesn't make it right but it surely changes the circumstances.

    Chances are that the intended viewers, children, wouldn't even know who the character was supposed to represent, only these faux angry parents who love bitching about anything.

    1. Red Bren
      Unhappy

      Re: ... described by police as a "prolific, predatory sex offender"

      "With Saville it seems that all the normal procedures have been swept aside and the Plod have become investigators, judge and jury."

      No, this is how the police have always operated when faced with a public baying for blood, rather than justice. Leak any damning material to the press, along with some hearsay and conjecture, while sitting on any evidence that might cast doubt on the accused's guilt. When the case comes to trial, the average potential juror has already had their mind made up for them. Plod gets a conviction and a promotion, the public get a new hate figure and all it costs is some poor sod his life. By the time the miscarriage of justice is corrected, the perpatrators have resigned/retired/passed away and can't be held to account.

  28. Dave 126 Silver badge

    I've just read the Wikipedia article to refresh my memory of one a sublime piece of satire on this topic. In fact, the outraged reaction was even funnier than the broadcast itself. Well worth reading for the IT angle:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_Eye#Paedophilia_special_.282001.29

    Highlights:

    -Labour MP Syd Rapson related that paedophiles were using "an area of internet the size of Ireland".

    -Richard Blackwood stated that internet paedophiles could make computer keyboards emit noxious fumes to subdue children, subsequently sniffing a keyboard and claiming that he could smell the fumes, which made him feel "suggestible". Blackwood also warned watching parents that exposure to the fumes would make their children "smell like hammers".

    The reaction:

    -MP Beverley Hughes described the show as "unspeakably sick" but later admitted she had not seen it, and David Blunkett said he was "dismayed" by it. It later emerged that he also had not seen the episode, because he is blind.

    -The Daily Star decried Morris and the show, placing the story next to a separate article about the 15-year-old singer Charlotte Church's breasts under the headline "She's a big girl now" and using the words "looking chest swell". The Daily Mail pictured Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who were 13 and 11, in their bikinis next to a headline describing Brass Eye as "Unspeakably Sick".

    You couldn't make it up.

  29. h3

    People should stick with their opinions. (And worry about people alive not dead)

  30. mark1978
    Mushroom

    Outraged

    I'm completely outraged at their decision to show this! As I am every time the Tweenies is on cos it's total crap.

  31. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Is this related to Panorama?

    Caught something of it yesterday on BBC News. Seemed to be an investigation into the owners of The Telegraph which led to some fairly strongarm responses.

    Time was when The Telegraph was serious if right-leaning paper: obviously against foreigners but appreciative of them especially if they could play cricket with excellent sports coverage. It now seems to have a bigger agenda than any of Murdoch's rags.

    Who else is on the BBC's blacklist? Presumably any of the sherbet dippers and dope fiends: Frank Bough, Craig Charles, etc. (I'm afraid I'm not that familiar with the subject); adulterers (Brucey, well the list is probably endless…); petty criminals (Stephen Fry); wife-beaters (Geoffrey Boycott); blokes who have had sex with possibly underage women (all the bands since The Stones and most of the DJs of the 60s and 70s). We'll soon be back to the 1950s with the Light Programme featuring the charts from Chile and Percy Edwards bird impressions (I shit you not this was what was on offer in 1953, i.e. pre-satellite).

    We need a catchy new slogan like: "do yourself a favour, stab a Tory today". Just waiting for that nice Mr Worstall to explain to us how this is not hysteria and all in our best interests.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is this related to Panorama?

      '..We'll soon be back to the 1950s with the Light Programme featuring the charts from Chile and Percy Edwards '

      Heh, what makes you think the '50's were so different and so innocent?.

      Having had the (dubious) pleasure of knowing(non-biblical) a couple of people involved in TV/Radio from the 'Light Program' era, just be thankful that the 'class' of people that Auntie employed back them were a lot more discreet about their, umm, pecadillos. (Think: Happy Valley Set - but all over the South East).

      Let's just say, as an example, the person behind the voice of a rather well known children's TV character from the 50's on has had a rather 'colourful' life, and was continuing to do so when I lost touch with these characters and their stories approximately a decade ago. (The East End adventures with the 'Princess Margaret Set', the drunk Comet pilot - it was the only way he'd fly the damn things, the nights spent drinking George Melly under the table, the orgies.. ye gods, when they got drunk, the stories they'd tell..their 'Light Program' image was an interesting 'nice' veneer).

      A certain 'class' of 'media' people have always been amoral hedonists, Auntie was/is full of them, and, as the saying goes, like attracts like, but the beeb didn't have exclusivity apropos these characters.

      To protect anyone's happy childhood memories , I also won't mention what I've been told people were getting up to using the Bungle costume at a party in London one weekend whilst Rainbow was still being filmed 'back in the day'.. (Ah feck it, screw your childhood, think: gfur..)

      1. LinkOfHyrule
        Paris Hilton

        Re: Bungle costume at a party in London one weekend

        That was ITV not BBC!

        You should post what happened on one of those "furry fursuit sex websites" that I have heard of that a friend told me about.

  32. Daedalus
    Headmaster

    This is just the beginning

    Several other Beebheads are in the sights of the Saville cops. Are they going to be expunged from history as well? And what happened to Hughie Green and Jess Yates when their peccadilloes (not to mention other bits) were exposed?

  33. James 36
    Paris Hilton

    Optional

    isn't it something to do with the licence fee that means if only one person is offended the BBC has to say sorry ?

    Parid cos she hasn't apologised for everything she has ever done

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I hate hypocrites

    The kiddies watching the tweenies would not have a clue what all the fuss daddy was making was about.

    Too many "think of the children" around.

    Shame they don't take that stance when it comes to protecting them from drunken and violent daddies.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I hate hypocrites

      but to be fair, they don't do domestic violence parodies on the tweenies.

  35. The last doughnut
    Childcatcher

    Just a reminder

    The people complaining weren't offended - they were people who thought that other people might be offended, and that something must be done to redress the potential offense. Sort of a defense, if you will. Pass me the strong drugs, please.

  36. Scarborough Dave

    Link Warning!

    You might be offended!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWPrVbtYHb0

  37. Cannorn

    Outraged public

    Working as a telecoms Engineer for a major international media corp and working a lot with their switchboard - Yes, I can confirm there are large (2 walls floor to ceiling white board large) numbers of nuts with nothing better to do that go looking for something to be outraged about then calling the papers.

    They call it the nut wall here and it's a list of known nuisance nuts who get offended by the sun rising in the morning and feel it should be a page 1 headline denouncing that sort of thing.

  38. This Side Up
    Joke

    Don't wear your seat belt!

    That would be an obvious reference to Jimmy Savile's "Clunk-Click" campaign.

    And as for travelling by train ... well sadly we don't have Inter-City any more so it's OK.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      WTF?

      Re: Don't wear your seat belt!

      Now BBC 3 and 4 are going to have to stop showing the programmes about the Inter-City modernisation in the 1970s which includes lots of Savile and the advertising campaign.

      Whatever are all these digital channels going to show now that their stocks of old programmes and series are being contaminated by the unwanted?

  39. The Alpha Klutz

    that's an own goal

    LOL. surely they knew it might touch a few nerves.

    Maybe next time they can have a character called Mr Rapiscan or something.

  40. Doozer
    Flame

    But yet....

    I actually know a parent who complained about this to me later that evening... His seven year old was sat playing Grand Theft Auto at the time... Which is worse?

    1. LinkOfHyrule
      Joke

      sat playing Grand Theft Auto

      That's terrible! Grand Theft Auto is such an old and shit game - I think he should upgrade to one of the more recent ones with 3D graphics!

  41. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  42. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Newspeak/history

    Personally I'm amazed by all the people who seem to be saying that no-one had ever heard of paedophilia or whatever in the 70s... I mean, excuse me. I still remember the suprise we 15 year old boys at my school felt when we were informed that the teacher who we felt was, shall we say, excessively tactile, was getting married... And about three years later at college I remember a comedy sketch at a college concert which featured a choirmaster and a scout master sodomising their charges... Of course we knew this stuff went on.

    And in those days when one hitchiked everywhere we always stayed on the alert for drivers who might want more than a bit of company on the road...

  43. the J to the C
    Facepalm

    Time for the BBC to get some balls

    What idiot got offended, can you stick your hand up ?

  44. RetroTom
    WTF?

    Cultural value?

    I like my Retrogames.

    I don't care if some of them might offend some people, if they have Michael Jackson* prancing around rescuing llttle boys, the Twin Towers being blown to smithereens or anything else potentially 'offensive'. They're a part of our heritage and changing anything about them would be wrong.

    I'm not for one second going to say Tweenies has any value at all on the same level, but it's not as if it's some horrific footage of Jimmy Saville abusing anybody.

    If the BBC are out to cut, re-edit or erase from history each and every reference to the man isn't that more likely to do greater damage than is solves, culling entire episodes from libraries, trying to rewrite history? Isn't that what we need protections against, not some 'offensive' scene.

    * I am aware that he wasn't convinced of anything, but people had serious doubts at one point.

  45. david 12 Silver badge

    keep him off air

    Generally speaking, I think the outrage about paedophillia says more about the complainer than it does about the victim or the offender -- but that doesn't mean I want to see old images of an alleged offender poncing about on the box.

  46. RAMChYLD
    Boffin

    What's next?

    Claiming that Fizz looks too much like Muffy Crosswire from Arthur, except with the wrong color palette, once you have a few hits of illicit/pharmacutical drugs? (yes, it's true. I actually once thought Fizz looked a lot like Muffy after taking a little too many puffs of my asthma inhaler in quick succession).

    This world needs to get ahold of itself. Times change. Tweenies was created back when that Savile guy (which I've never heard of) still wasn't fingered as a nonce.

  47. Steve I
    Go

    Until I read the Daily Mail...

    ...I thought that the 'Saville Row' was where clothes were made.

  48. Steve I

    I once wwnt into WHSmiths...

    ...and bought a copy of the Daily Mail and a copy of Viz.

    I was a bit embarrassed to be seen with such a childish rag, so I hid it inside the copy of Viz.

  49. Demonix
    Big Brother

    Saville

    Perhaps the Saville estate would like to take the police to court for defamation. nothing has been proven and it seems as if the police have decided on a verdict without the benefit of a trial. Too tall terror photographer anyone.

    1. Tom 7

      Re: Saville

      After Hillsborough et all I'm inclined to believe that Saville may be being stitched up.

      Though the evidence seems to suggest he needed a bit of carving.

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