Mary Whitehouse
Encyclopedia
Mary Whitehouse, CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (born Constance Mary Hutcheson, 13 June 1910 – 23 November 2001) was a British campaigner against the permissive society
Permissive society
The permissive society is a society where social norms are becoming increasingly liberal. This usually accompanies a change in what is considered deviant. While typically preserving the rule "do not harm others", a permissive society would have few other moral codes...

 particularly as the media portrayed and reflected it. The motivation for her activities derived from her traditional Christian
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 beliefs, her personal strong political conservatism
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 and her work as a teacher of sex education.

She became a public figure via the 'Clean-Up TV' pressure group, established in 1964, in which she was the most prominent figure. Whitehouse particularly found a lack of accountability in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

, an organisation pursuing radical changes in its broadcasting policies at this time. At the beginning of the 1970s she broadened her activities, and was a leading figure in the Nationwide Festival of Light
Nationwide Festival of Light
The Nationwide Festival of Light was a grassroots movement formed by British Christians concerned about the development of the permissive society in the UK at the end of the 1960s....

, a Christian campaign which gained mass support; she initiated private prosecutions against Gay News
Gay News
Gay News was a pioneering fortnightly newspaper in the United Kingdom founded in June 1972 in a collaboration between former members of the Gay Liberation Front and members of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality...

and the director of the theatre play The Romans in Britain
The Romans in Britain
The Romans in Britain is a stage play by Howard Brenton that comments upon imperialism and the abuse of power.A cast of thirty actors play sixty roles.- Stage history :...

.

She was the founder in 1965 and first president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association
Mediawatch-uk
Mediawatch-uk, formerly known as the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, is a pressure group in the United Kingdom, which campaigns against the publication and broadcast of media content that it views as harmful and offensive, such as violence, profanity, sex, homosexuality and...

.

Early life

Born in Nuneaton
Nuneaton
Nuneaton is the largest town in the Borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth and in the English county of Warwickshire.Nuneaton is most famous for its associations with the 19th century author George Eliot, who was born on a farm on the Arbury Estate just outside Nuneaton in 1819 and lived in the town for...

, Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...

, England, Whitehouse won a scholarship to Chester City Grammar School
Queens Park High School
Queen's Park High School or QPHS is a secondary school in Queens Park, Chester, in the United Kingdom. It is a Visual Arts College. The school symbol is the heraldic lion, and the school uniform consists of a blue jumper with a small white lion on the left hand side, and black or blue...

. On leaving, she did two years of unpaid apprentice teaching at St John's School, Chester, and attended the Cheshire County Teacher Training College in Crewe
Crewe
Crewe is a railway town within the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the urban area had a population of 67,683...

, specialising in secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

 art
Art
Art is the product or process of deliberately arranging items in a way that influences and affects one or more of the senses, emotions, and intellect....

 teaching
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

. Hutcheson was involved with the Student Christian Movement before qualifying in 1932. She became an art teacher at Lichfield
Lichfield
Lichfield is a cathedral city, civil parish and district in Staffordshire, England. One of eight civil parishes with city status in England, Lichfield is situated roughly north of Birmingham...

 Road School, Wednesfield
Wednesfield
Wednesfield lies at , and is located to the northeast of Wolverhampton city centre on the northern fringe of the West Midlands conurbation...

, Staffordshire
Staffordshire
Staffordshire is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. Part of the National Forest lies within its borders...

, where she stayed for eight years.

She joined the Oxford Group
Oxford Group
The Oxford Group was a Christian movement that had a following in Europe, China, Africa, Australia, Scandinavia and America in the 1920s and 30s. It was initiated by an American Lutheran pastor, Frank Buchman, who was of Swiss descent...

, later known as Moral Re-Armament
Moral Re-Armament
Moral Re-Armament was an international Christian moral and spiritual movement that, in 1938, developed from the American minister Frank Buchman's Oxford Group. Buchman, a Lutheran, headed MRA for 23 years, from 1938 until his death in 1961...

 (MRA), in the 1930s. At MRA meetings, she met Ernest Raymond Whitehouse; they married in 1940 and remained married until Ernest's death, in Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...

, aged 87, in 2000. The couple had five sons, two of whom (twins) died in infancy.

After raising her children and returning to teaching in 1953, she taught art at Madeley
Madeley, Shropshire
Madeley is a town and civil parish in Shropshire, England, now part of the new town of Telford. The parish had a population of 17,935 at the 2001 census.Madeley is recorded in the Domesday Book, having been founded before the 8th century...

 Modern School in Shropshire
Shropshire
Shropshire is a county in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes, the county is a NUTS 3 region and is one of four counties or unitary districts that comprise the "Shropshire and Staffordshire" NUTS 2 region. It borders Wales to the west...

 from 1960, in due course taking up responsibility for sex education. Shocked at the response of her pupils to moral issues, she became concerned about what she and many others perceived as declining moral standards in the British media, especially in the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

.

Impetus

Mary Whitehouse began her activism in 1963 with a letter to the BBC requesting to see Hugh Greene
Hugh Greene
Sir Hugh Carleton Greene KCMG, OBE was a British journalist and television executive. He was the Director-General of the BBC from 1960―1969, and is generally credited with modernising an organisation that had fallen behind in the wake of the launch of ITV in 1955.-Early life and work:Hugh was born...

, the BBC's Director General. Greene was out of the country at the time; she accepted an invitation to meet Harman Grisewood
Harman Grisewood
Harman Joseph Gerard Grisewood was an English radio actor, radio and television executive, novelist and non-fiction writer. He acted as literary executor to the poet David Jones, a lifelong friend....

, his deputy, a Roman Catholic who she felt listened to her with understanding, but over the next few months continued to be dissatisfied with what she saw on television. With Norah Buckland, the wife of a vicar, she launched the 'Clean Up TV Campaign' in January 1964 with a manifesto appealing to the "women of Britain". The campaign's first public meeting on 4 May 1964 was held in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

's Town Hall
Birmingham Town Hall
Birmingham Town Hall is a Grade I listed concert and meeting venue in Victoria Square, Birmingham, England. It was created as a home for the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival established in 1784, the purpose of which was to raise funds for the General Hospital, after St Philip's Church became...

. Richard Whitehouse, one of her sons, recalled in 2008: "Coaches arrived from all over the country. Two thousand people poured in and suddenly there was my mother on a podium inspiring them to rapturous applause. Her hands were shaking. But she didn't stop". The academic Richard Hoggart
Richard Hoggart
Herbert Richard Hoggart is a British academic and public figure, whose career has covered the fields of sociology, English literature and cultural studies, with a special concern for British popular culture.-Career:...

, though he regularly clashed with Whitehouse, shared some of her opinions and the platform with her at this first public meeting.

Sir Hugh Greene was, for Whitehouse, "more than anybody else [...] responsible for the moral collapse in this country". The CUTV manifesto claimed that the BBC under Greene spread "the propaganda of disbelief, doubt and dirt ... promiscuity, infidelity and drinking". In place of this, the authors argued, the Corporation's activities should "encourage and sustain faith in God and bring Him back to the hearts of our family and national life." The 'Clean Up TV' petition, using the manifesto, gained a total of 500,000 signatures. Whitehouse complained in 1993 that during Hugh Greene's period at the BBC, "hardly a week went by without a sniping reference to me". Whitehouse's critics did respond quickly. The playwright David Turner
David Turner (dramatist)
David Turner was a British playwright.From a working class background, he studied French at Birmingham University and subsequently worked as a school teacher in that city...

 had heckled her at the Birmingham Town Hall, his work was criticised during the meeting, and within a few months Swizzlewick
Swizzlewick
Swizzlewick was a twice weekly 1964 BBC comedy drama series about the day-to-day events of a local council in a fictional Midlands town. The writers included David Turner who created the series....

, a twice-weekly series he had created, featured a parody of her.

In a speech given in 1965 Greene argued that the critics of his liberalisation of broadcasting policy, not naming Mrs Whitehouse directly, would "attack whatever does not underwrite a set of prior assumptions", and saw the potential for "a dangerous form of censorship...which works by causing artists and writers not to take risks." He defended the right of the Corporation "to be ahead of public opinion." Sir Hugh Greene himself ignored Whitehouse, blocked her from participation in BBC broadcasts and purchased a painting of Whitehouse with five breasts by James Lawrence Isherwood
James Lawrence Isherwood
James Lawrence Isherwood was an English artist, born in Wigan, Lancashire, on the 7 April 1917, died on the 9 June 1989 of cancer.Isherwood was a prolific impressionist/expressionist painter....

.

The National Viewers' and Listeners' Association
Mediawatch-uk
Mediawatch-uk, formerly known as the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, is a pressure group in the United Kingdom, which campaigns against the publication and broadcast of media content that it views as harmful and offensive, such as violence, profanity, sex, homosexuality and...

 (now known as mediawatch-uk) was formally launched to succeed the CUTV campaign in November 1965, replacing what they themselves perceived as CUTV's negativity, with an active campaign for legislative change. The NVALA eventually gained about 150,000 members.

Through the letters she frequently sent to Harold Wilson
Harold Wilson
James Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx, KG, OBE, FRS, FSS, PC was a British Labour Member of Parliament, Leader of the Labour Party. He was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1960s and 1970s, winning four general elections, including a minority government after the...

, then Prime Minister, Whitehouse caused particular difficulties for civil servants at 10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street
10 Downing Street, colloquially known in the United Kingdom as "Number 10", is the headquarters of Her Majesty's Government and the official residence and office of the First Lord of the Treasury, who is now always the Prime Minister....

. These letters expressed her belief that, through the Royal Charter, ultimate responsibility for BBC output lay with the Government, rather than with the BBC's governors whom she felt to be failing in their duties. For some time Downing Street intentionally "lost" her letters to avoid having to respond to them. Geoffrey Robertson
Geoffrey Robertson
Geoffrey Ronald Robertson QC is an Australian-born human rights lawyer, academic, author and broadcaster. He holds dual Australian and British citizenship....

, QC, suggests that when Greene left the BBC, in 1969, contrary to the view that it was because of disagreements over the appointment of the Conservative Lord Hill
Charles Hill, Baron Hill of Luton
Charles Hill, Baron Hill of Luton PC was a British administrator, doctor and television executive.Charles Hill was born in Islington, London and was educated at St Olave's Grammar School in Southwark, London. He won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge where he gained a first class degree...

 as BBC chairman in 1967, whereby she could be given some credit for his departure, it was more to do with a political struggle between the BBC and Wilson. Hill was prepared to meet Whitehouse at Broadcasting House.

Offensive programming

Whitehouse criticised the work of Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...

 from Son of Man
Son of Man (play)
Son of Man is a television play by British playwright Dennis Potter which was directed by Gareth Davies. It premiered in The Wednesday Play slot on 19 April 1969 starring Irish actor Colin Blakely and was an alternative depiction of the last days of Jesus, leading to Potter being accused of...

(1969) onwards, she thought the BBC was at the centre "of a conspiracy to remove the myth of god from the minds of men", and A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange
A Clockwork Orange is a 1962 dystopian novella by Anthony Burgess. The novel contains an experiment in language: the characters often use an argot called "Nadsat", derived from Russian....

(1971). In the case of the violence in A Clockwork Orange, she rejected any attempt to show a 'copycat' correlation in academic studies, but urged its acceptance as a fact arrived at by common sense.

The satirical comedy Till Death Us Do Part attacked many of the things Whitehouse cherished. She objected to its profane language: "I doubt if many people would use 121 bloodies in half-an-hour", and "Bad language coarsens the whole quality of our life. It normalises harsh, often indecent language, which despoils our communication." Whitehouse and the NVALA won a libel action with a full apology and substantial damages against the series' writer Johnny Speight
Johnny Speight
Johnny Speight , was a British television scriptwriter of many classic British sitcoms.He emerged in the mid 1950s. He wrote for the radio comics; Frankie Howerd, Vic Oliver, Arthur Askey, and Cyril Fletcher. For television he wrote for the Arthur Haynes Show, Morecambe & Wise, and Peter Sellers...

 after he implied in an interview that the organisation's members and its head were fascists. Shortly after the court case was concluded she was mocked in an episode of the series itself entitled "Alf's Dilemma" (27 February 1967) where Alf Garnett
Alf Garnett
Alf Garnett is a fictional character in the British sitcoms Till Death Us Do Part, Till Death... and In Sickness and in Health, and chat show The Thoughts of Chairman Alf. He was created by Johnny Speight and played by Warren Mitchell....

 is seen reading her book Cleaning Up TV and agreeing with every word. She was also critical of comedians such as Benny Hill
Benny Hill
Benny Hill was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.-Early life:...

 and his use of dancers, she described Dave Allen
Dave Allen (comedian)
David Tynan O'Mahoney , better known as Dave Allen, was an Irish comedian, very popular in Great Britain, Australia, and Canada in the 1960s and 1970s. He also became known in the United States through repeats of his shows on public television. His career had a major resurgence during the late...

 as "offensive, indecent and embarrassing" after a comic account of a conversation following sexual intercourse. Comedy writers during this era other than Speight did see her as possessing humorous potential in return. The Goodies
The Goodies
The Goodies are a trio of British comedians who created, wrote, and starred in a surreal British television comedy series called The Goodies during the 1970s and early 1980s combining sketches and situation comedy.-Honours:All three Goodies now have OBEs...

 comedy team created an episode of their series entitled "Gender Education
Gender Education (Goodies episode)
Gender Education is an episode of the British comedy television series The Goodies— a BAFTA-nominated series for Best Light Entertainment Programme.This episode is also known as "Sex and Violence"....

" (1971) with the principal objective of irritating her.

War coverage met her ire. During his brief period as editor of Panorama
Panorama (TV series)
Panorama is a BBC Television current affairs documentary programme, which was first broadcast in 1953, and is the longest-running public affairs television programme in the world. Panorama has been presented by many well known BBC presenters, including Richard Dimbleby, Robin Day, David Dimbleby...

(1965-66), Jeremy Isaacs
Jeremy Isaacs
Sir Jeremy Isaacs is a British television producer and executive, winner of many BAFTA awards and international Emmy Awards. He was also General Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden .-Early life:...

 received a letter from Whitehouse complaining about his decision to repeat Richard Dimbleby
Richard Dimbleby
Richard Dimbleby CBE was an English journalist and broadcaster widely acknowledged as one of the greatest figures in British broadcasting history.-Early life:...

's coverage of the liberation of the Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen concentration camp
Bergen-Belsen was a Nazi concentration camp in Lower Saxony in northwestern Germany, southwest of the town of Bergen near Celle...

. She complained about this "filth" being allowed on air as "it was bound to shock and offend". In a 1994 interview, Whitehouse continued to maintain that it was "an awful intrusion" and "very off-putting".

The Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...

, "the first 'television war'", gained extensive coverage during the early part of her public career. She felt such war coverage proved the medium was "an ally of pacifism". In a 1970 speech to the Royal College of Nursing
Royal College of Nursing
The Royal College of Nursing is a union membership organisation with over 395,000 members in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1916, receiving its Royal Charter in 1928, Queen Elizabeth II is the patron...

 she argued: "However good the cause ... the horrific effects on men and terrain of modern warfare as seen on the televion screen could well sap the will of a nation to safeguard its own freedom, let alone resist the forces of evil abroad." Trying to reconcile this "pacifism" with her objection to fictional violence, she saw such news coverage as "desensitisation" in which the media use the "techniques of violence" to raise "impact" in order "to satisfy an apparently insatiable demand for realism."

She claimed that Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...

had nightmarish qualities, saying it "contains some of the sickest, most horrible material" and describing it as "teatime brutality for tots". Between 1975 and 1977, while Tom Baker
Tom Baker
Thomas Stewart "Tom" Baker is a British actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981.-Early life:...

 played the Doctor and Philip Hinchcliffe
Philip Hinchcliffe
Philip Hinchcliffe is a British television producer, who brought shows including Private Schulz and The Charmer to the screen, probably best known for the overseeing of British television series Doctor Who from 1974-1977...

 was the series producer, she made complaints about several serials. A dramatic incident in "The Seeds of Doom
The Seeds of Doom
The Seeds of Doom is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in six weekly parts from 31 January to 6 March 1976...

" led to her arguing that the programme was preoccupied by "strangulation - by hand, by claw, by obscene vegetable matter - is the latest gimmick, sufficiently close up so they get the point. And just for a little variety show the children how to make a Molotov Cocktail." Following "The Deadly Assassin
The Deadly Assassin
The Deadly Assassin is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four weekly parts from 30 October to 20 November 1976...

" in 1976, she wrote her strongest letter of complaint yet to the BBC about the content of the serial and received an apology from Director-General Charles Curran
Charles Curran (broadcaster)
Sir Charles John Curran , was a British television executive.Charles Curran was born in Dublin. He served in the Indian army from 1942-45, but left to work in the BBC Talks department. He resigned following a dispute to edit the "Canadian Fishing News", but he returned in 1951 to join BBC Monitoring...

. The freeze-frame ending to the third episode, in which Tom Baker
Tom Baker
Thomas Stewart "Tom" Baker is a British actor. He is best known for playing the fourth incarnation of the Doctor in the science fiction television series Doctor Who, a role he played from 1974 to 1981.-Early life:...

 appeared to be drowning, was subsequently edited. The BBC ordered the series' next producer, Graham Williams
Graham Williams
Graham Williams was a British television producer and script editor, whose best known work was on the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who....

, to lighten the tone and reduce the violence and horror following Whitehouse's complaints. Senior television executives commented that at this time her views were not disregarded lightly.

Her supporters have asserted that the Whitehouse campaigns helped end Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

's "red triangle" series of films in 1986; claimed by Channel 4 to be intended to warn viewers of material liable to cause offence, the broadcasting of these films with the triangle had also received criticism from non-supporters of Whitehouse. She also said to have had a role in the 1990 extension of the Broadcasting Act
Broadcasting Act 1990
The Broadcasting Act 1990 is a law of the British parliament, often regarded by both its supporters and its critics as a quintessential example of Thatcherism. The aim of the Act was to reform the entire structure of British broadcasting; British television, in particular, had earlier been...

 and the establishment of the Broadcasting Standards Council, which later became the Broadcasting Standards Commission (in 2004, this was subsumed into the Office of Communications
Ofcom
Ofcom is the government-approved regulatory authority for the broadcasting and telecommunications industries in the United Kingdom. Ofcom was initially established by the Office of Communications Act 2002. It received its full authority from the Communications Act 2003...

).

In 1990, Whitehouse claimed when invited on to In the Psychiatrist's Chair (BBC Radio) that Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter
Dennis Christopher George Potter was an English dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social. He was particularly fond of using themes and images from popular culture.-Biography:Dennis Potter was born...

 had been influenced by witnessing his mother being engaged in adulterous sexual activity. Potter's mother won substantial damages from the BBC and The Listener, Her own favourite programmes were Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series that ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's light entertainment department.-Overview:...

, Neighbours
Neighbours
Neighbours is an Australian television soap opera first broadcast on the Seven Network on 18 March 1985. It was created by TV executive Reg Watson, who proposed the idea of making a show that focused on realistic stories and portrayed adults and teenagers who talk openly and solve their problems...

, and coverage of snooker
Snooker
Snooker is a cue sport that is played on a green baize-covered table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. A regular table is . It is played using a cue and snooker balls: one white , 15 worth one point each, and six balls of different :...

.

Whitehouse's early campaign and her disagreements with the BBC under Sir Hugh Greene
Hugh Greene
Sir Hugh Carleton Greene KCMG, OBE was a British journalist and television executive. He was the Director-General of the BBC from 1960―1969, and is generally credited with modernising an organisation that had fallen behind in the wake of the launch of ITV in 1955.-Early life and work:Hugh was born...

 were the basis of a drama first broadcast in 2008 entitled Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story is a 2008 BBC Television docudrama written by Amanda Coe, telling the life story of the British morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse...

, written by Amanda Coe. Julie Walters
Julie Walters
Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...

 played the part of Mary Whitehouse, Alun Armstrong
Alun Armstrong (actor)
Alun Armstrong is a prolific British character actor. Armstrong grew up in County Durham in North East England. He first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of...

 played her husband Ernest, and Hugh Bonneville
Hugh Bonneville
Hugh Richard Bonneville Williams, known professionally as Hugh Bonneville , is an English stage, film, television and radio actor.-Education:...

 played Greene.

Permissiveness

Whitehouse had taken up other campaigns against the permissive society
Permissive society
The permissive society is a society where social norms are becoming increasingly liberal. This usually accompanies a change in what is considered deviant. While typically preserving the rule "do not harm others", a permissive society would have few other moral codes...

 by the early 1970s. She objected to the UK edition of The Little Red Schoolbook
The Little Red Schoolbook
The Little Red Schoolbook is a book written by two Danish schoolteachers, Søren Hansen and Jesper Jensen in 1969, which was controversial upon its publication. The book was translated into many languages in the early 1970s.- Synopsis :...

, "'a manual of children's rights'" on sex, drugs and attitudes to adults, which was successfully prosecuted for obscenity in July 1971. Originally published in Denmark where, according to Whitehouse, it had done "incalculable damage" and was "a revolutionary primer", in which "open rebellion against the 'system', be it school, parents or authority generally, was openly advocated, while children were constantly exhorted to collect evidence against teachers of alleged injustices or anything which was likely to enhance revolution." She was "greatly relieved - for the sake of the children" at the £50 fine and £115.50 costs imposed on Richard Handyside and Geoffrey Collins, its publishers, who also had works by Che Guevara
Che Guevara
Ernesto "Che" Guevara , commonly known as el Che or simply Che, was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, intellectual, guerrilla leader, diplomat and military theorist...

 and Fidel Castro
Fidel Castro
Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz is a Cuban revolutionary and politician, having held the position of Prime Minister of Cuba from 1959 to 1976, and then President from 1976 to 2008. He also served as the First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba from the party's foundation in 1961 until 2011...

 on his small list of publications. For Whitehouse it was a "fundamental right of a child to be a child" and "the duty of mature people to ensure that childhood is protected against the inroads of those who would exploit its immaturity for political, social or personal gain."

Along with the (Catholic
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

) Labour peer Lord Longford
Frank Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford
Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford KG, PC , known as the Lord Pakenham from 1945 to 1961, was a British politician, author, and social reformer...

, a campaigner against pornography, Malcolm Muggeridge
Malcolm Muggeridge
Thomas Malcolm Muggeridge was an English journalist, author, media personality, and satirist. During World War II, he was a soldier and a spy...

 and Cliff Richard
Cliff Richard
Sir Cliff Richard, OBE is a British pop singer, musician, performer, actor, and philanthropist who has sold over an estimated 250 million records worldwide....

 Whitehouse was a leading figure in the Nationwide Festival of Light
Nationwide Festival of Light
The Nationwide Festival of Light was a grassroots movement formed by British Christians concerned about the development of the permissive society in the UK at the end of the 1960s....

, which protested against the commercial exploitation of sex and violence in Britain. The Festival's mass "rally against permissiveness" in Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...

 was attended by 50,000 people in September 1971. That same year she had an audience with Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI
Paul VI , born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding Pope John XXIII, who had convened the Second Vatican Council, he decided to continue it...

 regarding 'moral pollution'.

Following the release on appeal of the defendants in the Oz trial, "an unmitigated disaster for the children of our country", Whitehouse launched the Nationwide Petition for Public Decency in January 1972, which had gained 1.35 million signatures by the time it was presented to Edward Heath
Edward Heath
Sir Edward Richard George "Ted" Heath, KG, MBE, PC was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and as Leader of the Conservative Party ....

 in April 1973. She had around 300 speaking engagements during the period of her highest profile. In 1975 a pornographic magazine, Whitehouse was launched by publisher David Sullivan.

Gay News

Whitehouse used private prosecutions in a number of cases where an official action was not forthcoming. She was the plaintiff in a charge of blasphemous libel
Blasphemous libel
Blasphemous libel was originally an offence under the common law of England. It is an offence under the common law of Northern Ireland. It is a statutory offence in Canada and New Zealand...

 against Gay News
Gay News
Gay News was a pioneering fortnightly newspaper in the United Kingdom founded in June 1972 in a collaboration between former members of the Gay Liberation Front and members of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality...

in 1977 (Whitehouse v. Lemon
Whitehouse v. Lemon
Whitehouse v. Lemon is a 1976 court case involving the blasphemy law in the United Kingdom.- Facts :James Kirkup's poem The Love that Dares to Speak its Name was published in the 3 June 1976 issue of Gay News...

). It was the first such prosecution since 1922. "I simply had to protect Our Lord," said Mrs Whitehouse at the time, though both the Archbishop of Canterbury Donald Coggan
Donald Coggan
Frederick Donald Coggan, Baron Coggan, PC was the 101st Archbishop of Canterbury from 1974 to 1980, during which time he visited Rome and met the Pontiff, in company with Bishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, future Cardinal of England and Wales.-Background:Coggan was born in Highgate, London, England...

 and Cardinal Basil Hume declined Whitehouse's invitation for them to give evidence at the trial.

The private prosecution concerned a poem, "The Love that Dares to Speak its Name
The Love that Dares to Speak its Name
The Love that Dares to Speak its Name is a controversial poem by James Kirkup.It is written from the viewpoint of a Roman centurion who is graphically described having sex with Jesus after his crucifixion, and also claims that Jesus had had sex with numerous disciples, guards, and even Pontius...

" by James Kirkup
James Kirkup
James Falconer Kirkup, FRSL was a prolific English poet, translator and travel writer. He was brought up in South Shields, and educated at South Shields Secondary School and Durham University. He wrote over 30 books, including autobiographies, novels and plays...

, a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...

, about the sexual fantasies of a Roman Centurion about the body of Jesus Christ. Denis Lemon, Gay News editor and owner, had published the poem on the basis that the "message and intention of the poem was to celebrate the absolute universality of God's love." Gay News lost the case; the jury decided the case on a 10-2 majority. Lemon and his paper were fined, with Lemon receiving a nine-month suspended prison sentence. The Court of Appeal
Court of Appeal of England and Wales
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom above it...

 and the House of Lords
Judicial functions of the House of Lords
The House of Lords, in addition to having a legislative function, historically also had a judicial function. It functioned as a court of first instance for the trials of peers, for impeachment cases, and as a court of last resort within the United Kingdom. In the latter case the House's...

 dismissed appeals, although Lemon’s sentence was quashed.

Geoffrey Robertson
Geoffrey Robertson
Geoffrey Ronald Robertson QC is an Australian-born human rights lawyer, academic, author and broadcaster. He holds dual Australian and British citizenship....

, QC (the barrister for Gay News in the case) described Whitehouse as homophobic in The Times in 2008, saying: "Her fear of homosexuals was visceral". He describes the beliefs she reveals in her book, Whatever Happened to Sex? as "nonsense", such as her assertion that "homosexuality was caused by abnormal parental sex 'during pregnancy or just after'", saying that for her, "being gay was like having acne: 'Psychiatric literature proves that 60 per cent of homosexuals who go for treatment get completely cured'”. The Scotsman, in 2008, while asking whether society might have benefited from Whitehouse's campaign, also points to this case when it said "Whitehouse’s views on homosexuality were extraordinarily prejudiced".

The Romans in Britain

In 1982 she pursued another private prosecution, this time against Michael Bogdanov
Michael Bogdanov
Michael Bogdanov , is a British theatre director known for his work with new plays, modern reinterpretations of Shakespeare, musicals and work for Young People.-Early years:...

, the director of a National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...

 production of Howard Brenton
Howard Brenton
-Early years:Brenton was born in Portsmouth, Hampshire, son of Methodist minister Donald Henry Brenton and his wife Rose Lilian . He was educated at Chichester High School For Boys and read English Literature at St Catharine's College, Cambridge. In 1964 he was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal...

's The Romans in Britain
The Romans in Britain
The Romans in Britain is a stage play by Howard Brenton that comments upon imperialism and the abuse of power.A cast of thirty actors play sixty roles.- Stage history :...

, a play which "drew a direct parallel between the Roman invasion of Celtic Britain in 54BC and the contemporary British presence in Northern Ireland." The First Act contains "a brief scene" of (simulated) anal
Anal sex
Anal sex is the sex act in which the penis is inserted into the anus of a sexual partner. The term can also include other sexual acts involving the anus, including pegging, anilingus , fingering, and object insertion.Common misconception describes anal sex as practiced almost exclusively by gay men...

 rape
Rape
Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse, which is initiated by one or more persons against another person without that person's consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority or with a person who is incapable of valid consent. The...

, but the Police had visited the production three times and found no basis for legal action. In the private prosecution Whitehouse's counsel claimed Section 13 of the Sexual Offences Act 1956
Sexual Offences Act 1956
The Sexual Offences Act 1956 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that consolidated the English criminal law relating to sexual offences between 1957 and 2004. It was mostly repealed by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which replaced it, but sections 33 to 37 still survive. The 2003 Act...

, which described the offence of "procuring an act of gross indecency", was applicable. Because this was a general Act, there was no possibility of defence on the basis of artistic merit, unlike that permitted under the Obscene Publications Act
Obscene Publications Act 1959
The Obscene Publications Act 1959 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament that significantly reformed the law related to obscenity. Prior to the passage of the Act, the law on publishing obscene materials was governed by the common law case of R v Hicklin, which had no exceptions...

.

Since Whitehouse had not herself seen the play, the prosecution evidence rested on the testimony of her solicitor, Graham Ross-Cornes, who claimed he saw the actor's penis, but had seen the play from the back row of the stalls 90 feet from the stage. Lord Hutchinson
Jeremy Hutchinson, Baron Hutchinson of Lullington
Jeremy Nicolas Hutchinson, Baron Hutchinson of Lullington QC is a British lawyer.-Education:Hutchinson was educated at Stowe School and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with a Master of Arts in philosophy, politics and economics.-Career:He was Called to the Bar, Middle Temple in 1939...

, counsel for Bogdanov, was able to demonstrate the nature of the illusion performed on stage. This was achieved by suggesting that it may have been the actor's thumb protruding from his fist, rather than his erect penis. The defence had argued that the Act did not apply to the theatre; the judge then ruled that it did. The action was withdrawn after the Prosecution counsel told Whitehouse that he was unable to continue with the case; the litigation was ended by the Attorney General putting forward a plea of nolle prosequi
Nolle prosequi
Nolle prosequi is legal term of art and a Latin legal phrase meaning "to be unwilling to pursue", a phrase amounting to "please do not prosecute". It is a phrase used in many common law criminal prosecution contexts to describe a prosecutor's decision to voluntarily discontinue criminal charges...

. Both sides claimed a victory though, the plaintiff's side that the important legal point had been made with the ruling on the applicability of the Sexual Offences Act, while Bogdanov said it was because she knew that he would not be convicted. Mrs Whitehouse was ordered to pay £14,000 costs.

The case was the subject of a radio play, Mark Lawson
Mark Lawson
Mark Gerard Lawson is an English journalist, broadcaster and author.-Life and career:Born in Hendon, London, Lawson was raised in Yorkshire and is a Leeds United fan. He was educated at St Columba's College in St Albans and took a degree in English at University College London, where his lecturers...

's The Third Soldier Holds His Thighs, on BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...

 in 2005. Whitehouse's account of the trial is recorded in A Most Dangerous Woman (ISBN 0-85648-540-3); she wrote that she was of the opinion that the legal point had been established, and they had no wish to criminalise Bogdanov, the play's director.

Margaret Thatcher's government

By the 1980s, Mary Whitehouse had found a more powerful ally in the Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...

 government, particularly in Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...

 herself, whose government's support base partially consisted of Christians and social conservatives. It has been claimed though, that the market orientation of the Thatcher government actually prejudiced that government against Whitehouse in private.

Whitehouse's supporters on the other hand have claimed that her efforts played a part in the passage of the Protection of Children Act 1978
Protection of Children Act 1978
The Protection of Children Act 1978 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.The Protection of Children Bill was put before Parliament as a Private Member's Bill by Cyril Townsend in the 1977-1978 session of Parliament....

 and the Indecent Displays (Control) Act 1981
Indecent Displays (Control) Act 1981
The Indecent Displays Act is an Act of Parliament covering Scotland, England and Wales but not Northern Ireland. It is concerned with preventing the display of “indecent” material to the unsuspecting public. As with the Protection of Children Act, the Act does not define indecency, although it...

, which concerned sex shops. In 1984, she mounted a decisive campaign in the United Kingdom about "video nasties", which led to the Video Recordings Act
Video Recordings Act 1984
The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon by an authority designated by the Home Office...

 of that year.

Later years and assessments of her influence

Mary Whitehouse was appointed a CBE in 1980. In 1988, she suffered a spinal injury in a fall, which severely curbed her campaigning activities. Whitehouse retired as president of the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association in 1994; the Association was re-named Mediawatch-uk
Mediawatch-uk
Mediawatch-uk, formerly known as the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, is a pressure group in the United Kingdom, which campaigns against the publication and broadcast of media content that it views as harmful and offensive, such as violence, profanity, sex, homosexuality and...

 in 2001. She died, aged 91, in a nursing home in Colchester
Colchester
Colchester is an historic town and the largest settlement within the borough of Colchester in Essex, England.At the time of the census in 2001, it had a population of 104,390. However, the population is rapidly increasing, and has been named as one of Britain's fastest growing towns. As the...

, Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

 on 23 November 2001.

The journalist Mary Kenny
Mary Kenny
Mary Kenny is an Irish author, broadcaster, playwright and journalist. She was a founder member of the Irish Women's Liberation Movement, though she has modified her radical past, but not rejected feminist principles....

 believes "Mary Whitehouse was a significant figure. Some of her battles were justified, even prophetic. Today her attacks on ‘kiddie porn’ would be widely supported." Despite earlier clashes, Michael Grade
Michael Grade
Michael Ian Grade, Baron Grade of Yarmouth CBE is a British broadcast executive and businessman. He was BBC chairman from 2004 to 2006 and executive chairman of ITV plc from 2007 to 2009.-Early life:...

 said of her: "She was very witty, she was a great debater, she was very courageous and she had a very sincere view, but it was out of touch entirely with the real world." The comedian Bernard Manning
Bernard Manning
Bernard John Manning was an English comedian and nightclub owner. He was born and raised in Manchester in northwest England....

 also commented, "She'll be sadly missed, I imagine, but not by me." The academic Richard Hoggart
Richard Hoggart
Herbert Richard Hoggart is a British academic and public figure, whose career has covered the fields of sociology, English literature and cultural studies, with a special concern for British popular culture.-Career:...

 observed: "her main focus was on sex, followed by bad language and violence. Odd: if she had reversed the order, she might have been more effective."

Writing in the Dictionary of National Biography
Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...

, the philosopher Mary Warnock
Mary Warnock, Baroness Warnock
Helen Mary Warnock, Baroness Warnock, DBE, FBA is a British philosopher of morality, education and mind, and writer on existentialism.-Early life:...

 comments, "Even if her campaigning did not succeed in ‘cleaning up TV’, still less in making it more fit to watch in other ways, she was of serious intent, and was an influence for good at a crucial stage in the development both of the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 and of ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...

. She was not, as the BBC seemed officially to proclaim, a mere figure of fun."

The papers of the NVALA from the period 1970-1990 have been deposited at the Library of the University of Essex
University of Essex
The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965...

.

See also

  • Censorship
    Censorship
    thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

  • Culture Wars
  • Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
    Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story
    Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story is a 2008 BBC Television docudrama written by Amanda Coe, telling the life story of the British morality campaigner Mary Whitehouse...

  • John Beyer
  • Pornography
    Pornography
    Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...

  • Whitehouse v Lemon
  • The Pink Floyd
    Pink Floyd
    Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...

     song "Pigs (Three Different Ones)
    Pigs (Three Different Ones)
    "Pigs " is a song from Pink Floyd's 1977 album Animals. In the album's three parts, "Dogs", "Pigs", and "Sheep", pigs represent the people whom Roger Waters considers to be at the top of the social ladder, the ones with wealth and power; they also manipulate the rest of society and encourage them...

    "

External links

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