Mary Whitehouse

Mary Whitehouse (June 13, 1910 – November 23, 2001) was a British campaigner for traditional morals and decency, particularly in television and radio. She was founder and first president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association.

Private prosecutions

In addition to her campaigns regarding television Mrs Whitehouse brought a number of notable legal actions, including a private prosecution for blasphemous libel against Gay News in 1977. It was the first time the offence had been used since 1922 when the Old Bailey sentenced John W Gott to nine months' hard labour for blasphemy. The private prosecution concerned the poem The Love That Dares to Speak its Name by James Kirkup, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. It resulted in the editor of Gay News, Denis Lemon, being given a nine-month suspended jail sentence, and being told by the judge he had come close to serving it.

Related Topics:
Blasphemous libel - Gay News - Old Bailey - John W Gott - James Kirkup - Royal Society of Literature - Denis Lemon

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She also pursued a private prosecution against Michael Bogdanov, the director of a National Theatre production of Howard Brenton's The Romans In Britain, under a sexual offences act for the offence of "procuring an act of gross indecency" — an offence aimed at homosexual prostitutes and their pimps. The play had a scene involving (simulated) anal sex between two characters. Whitehouse withdrew from the prosecution and the proceedings were terminated by a nolle prosequi procedure. The case was the subject of a radio play The Third Soldier Holds His Thighs on BBC Radio Four by Mark Lawson in 2005.

Related Topics:
Michael Bogdanov - National Theatre - Howard Brenton - The Romans In Britain - Nolle prosequi - BBC Radio Four - Mark Lawson - 2005

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Her complaints about Stanley Kubrick's film version of A Clockwork Orange may have contributed to the director's personal decision to forbid the film to be shown in Britain. From 1972 she campaigned for public decency and her efforts played a part in the passage of Protection of Children Act 1978, the Indecent Displays Act (1981) concerning sex shops and in 1984 she shared the great outrage in the UK at "video nasties", that led to the Video Recordings Act of that year. Her campaigns helped bring an end to Channel 4's "red triangle" series of films; claimed by Channel 4 to be intended to warn viewers of material liable to cause offence, the broadcasting of these films had also received criticism from non-supporters of Whitehouse. She also had a role in the 1990 extension of the Broadcasting Act and the establishment of the Broadcasting Standards Council.

Related Topics:
Stanley Kubrick - A Clockwork Orange - Protection of Children Act 1978 - Indecent Displays Act - Video nasties - Video Recordings Act - Red triangle - Broadcasting Act - Broadcasting Standards Council

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