UK TV and Radio News

Channels Five's new series, Body Donors features two cancer victims who have agreed to donate their bodies to medical science after they die. They consented to be filmed both before and after their deaths.

One is former diver Mike Bowyer. Footage shows him being taken to the University of Liverpool in a body bag. His corpse is washed and shaved as he is prepared for medics and students. He is then pumped with embalming fluid to preserve his body for up to three years.

Vivienne Pattison, director of Mediawatch, said: It may cause some distress.

A show spokesman added: There is an appropriate warning at the beginning.

A TV presenter has faced a ludicrous PC overreaction to a jokey reference to a film about 9/11.

The ITV gaming show Jackpot 24/7 was being presented by Emma Lee who opened with the line:

Thank you so much for coming in for an emergency landing with us tonight. Brace yourselves, it's going to be good. We hope you enjoyed the movie there on ITV. It's time for you to sit tight.

She was referencing the film United 93 which had been playing previously on the channel. The film depicts the 33 passengers and crew who overpowered terrorists who hijacked their plane during the September 11 attacks, sacrificing themselves but saving potential victims on the ground.

The Sun reported that she was told to 'back reference' a film about a plane which was playing before the show aired, however she was not told much about the film or its theme.

A few viewers took to social media to voice their 'outrage' at the reference via Twitter:

@ITV - Straight after #United93 aired on Sep 12th. How disgustingly insensitive can you get @Jackpot247 ?!

ITV -- the twit woman on #jackpot247 just made a terrible joke regarding the film #united93 -- was NOT funny! Those people lost their lives!

Jackpot 24/7 said they will be holding an investigation into the incident, and have apologised for the comments.

ITV has apologised after a poll on Loose Women about rape 'offended' political correct viewers. The show foolishly dared to ask whether rape was ever a woman's fault.

The poll followed on from comments The Pretenders' singer Chrissie Hynde had made in the Sunday Times.

The Loose Women poll drew criticism on Twitter, with one viewer Rebecca Gill calling it off the scale of acceptability .

Rape Crisis for England and Wales tweeted that it was

Not an appropriate opinion poll; legally and morally the answer is a resounding 'no'

Katie Russell the national spokesperson for Rape Crisis England & Wales added:

A programme like Loose Women could choose to use its high profile to raise awareness and understanding of rape, its impacts and prevalence, and to support and encourage survivors to seek services like those Rape Crisis offers; instead, they've reinforced myths and stereotypes with this ill-considered, insensitive and insulting poll.

In a statement issued to The Guardian an ITV spokesperson said:

We always want to know what our viewers think about topical issues, however, we accept that the wording of the online poll was misjudged and we apologise for any offence caused.

TV censor Ofcom said it had received 53 complaints about the poll. i

Update: Ofcom inevitably not interested

17th September 2015. See  article from imediaethics.org

Ofcom has announced that it will not be investigating 73 complaints relating to the PC gaff by the Loose Women programme makers. An OfCom spokesperson told iMediaEthics:

We carefully considered a number of complaints that it was offensive for this programme to ask the audience 'are women ever to blame' in cases of rape.

We noted the panel did not say that rape victims were in any way responsible for the behaviour of their attackers; and the audience strongly concurred with the sentiment 'no means no' expressed by many on the panel.

We found the panel discussion and references to an online poll were in line with audience expectations for this live panel programme, which often covers difficult topics. Therefore, we are not taking the matter forward for investigation.

Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief is a 2015 USA documentary by Alex Gibney.
Starring Lawrence Wright, Mike Rinder and Marty Rathbun.

A devastating two hour documentary based on Lawrence Wright's book of the same name. Scientology is laid bare by a film that skilfully knits together archive footage, testimonials from former high ranking officials and public, and dramatic reconstructions.

Sky Atlantic is to show a documentary on Scientology, despite legal pressure from the 'church'.

Alex Gibney's Going Clear traces the origins of the organisation and profiles former members, including Oscar-winning screenwriter Paul Haggis. It has alleged abusive practices at Scientology's US headquarters, which members have denounced as one-sided, bigoted propaganda .

The film premiered to wide acclaim in the US in March and was watched by 5.5 million viewers on HBO. It also garnered seven Emmy nominations.

The Church of Scientology has previously threatened to use the UK's libel laws to challenge any false or defamatory content if it is broadcast in the UK.

Although an initial screening, in April, was postponed, Sky has now confirmed it will be shown, without edits on 21 September. A spokesman for Sky told The Guardian:

Both Sky, and the producers of the film, have sought legal advice at every stage of the process and are confident the film complies with legal requirements in the territories in which we are screening the film.

A new BBC production of Lady Chatterley's Lover is set to air in September. The Telegraph notes that this will be a rather chaste production:

...The BBC's latest adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover may shock readers for another reason: its lack of female flesh.

The modern version of D H Lawrence's classic novel has been reconstructed into something very much for the ladies, with Poldark-style topless scenes to keep the women of Britain swooning.

While Richard Madden, who plays the famously gruff groundsman Mellors, is seen hammering without a shirt, Lady Chatterley herself, played by Holliday Grainger, is kept firmly under wraps for even the most delicate of scenes.

The show's writer, the Bafta-nominated Jed Mercurio, said he had deliberately chosen not to include the language and sex scenes so shocking at the time of the book's publication, claiming he preferred to focus on the emotion of the piece.

The new 90-minute BBC version, to be broadcast in September, features just two mild swear words in its entirety. And while it contains a handful of the intimate scenes so essential to the plot, none expose their young actors' bodies and only one is likely to raise an eyebrow over supper.

Meanwhile the Daily Mail seems to have adopted a somewhat different take:

The steamy DH Lawrence novel has been made into a 90-minute drama, and will show gamekeeper Oliver Mellors romping with a naked Lady Chatterley.

Producer Serena Cullen said the X-rated scenes in the one-off adaptation are so graphic that they are almost not suitable for broadcast. Steamy: Sex scenes in a new BBC adaptation of Lady Chatterley's Lover are so explicit it is verging on pornography, its producer has admitted +4

Cullen revealed that had the scenes, featuring Game of Thrones star James Norton and actress Holiday Grainger, been any more raunchy they would have had to air on porn channels.

I wonder which newspaper will prove to the most truthful and honest.

The BBC has suspended a radio DJ who said breastfeeding in public was unnatural and must be stopped .

Radio Solent DJ Alex Dyke said during a phone-in on his Wednesday morning show that only librarian-type, moustachioed women breastfed in public and men who were not repelled by breastfeeding were wimps . He also said yummie mummies wouldn't feed their children in public because they know it is not a good look and formula milk is just as good . He went on to say:

My point was fat chavvy mums with their boobs out on buses isn't a good look. A classy discreet mum is absolutely fine. It was ok in the stone age when we knew no better, when people didn't have their own teeth, but now I just think a public area is not the place for it and fellas don't like it.

A BBC spokesperson said:

Following unacceptable comments made on air yesterday, Alex Dyke has been suspended pending an investigation, so he will not be on air tomorrow.

The BBC has also removed the show from iPlayer. It is not yet  clear whether Dyke has been sacked or suspended, but given the ranking of offence on the PC list of serious crimes, then surely he will be sacked.

During his Thursday morning show, Dyke issued an apology:

Yesterday on the show I spoke about breastfeeding. The comments I made during the broadcast were unacceptable and I would like to apologise for any offence caused.

But apologies are never enough these days, and the PC lynch mob always bays for extreme sanctions. A petition calling for Dyke to be taken off air received about 6,000 signatures, whilst the Telegraph reported that Dyke's show had received hundreds of comments on social media and on parenting forums.

TV and radio censor Ofcom said it had received 14 complaints and had requested a recording of the show to assess whether to investigate. The BBC declined to say how many complaints it had received, citing a policy to withhold numbers when it suspects lobbying or media coverage has encouraged people to complain.

Update: The official BBC response

15th August 2015.  See  article from  bbc.co.uk

Alex Dyke, BBC Radio Solent, 12 August 2015 BBC Logo

Complaint

We received complaints from listeners who were unhappy with comments Alex Dyke made during a phone-in on breastfeeding on his programme.

Response

It has been made clear to Alex Dyke that comments he made during a phone-in on breastfeeding on his BBC Radio Solent show this Wednesday 12 th August were unacceptable. He has since made the below on-air apology on Thursday 13 th August, and has not been on air today: Yesterday on the show I spoke about breastfeeding. The comments I made during the programme were unacceptable and I would like to apologise for any offence caused.

About 30 EastEnders viewers have whinged after a character used the word 'bastard' before the watershed. The character Carol Jackson called her brother Max Branning a bastard at 7.58pm during the latest episode of the BBC1 soap.

A spokesman for Ofcom said it had received 29 complaints and will look into it.

And of course there were the inevitable trivial tweets. Eg Cameron Jolley tweeted:

Can someone tell me why Carol called Max a bastard on EastEnders tonight? It's meant to be a family soap.

A spokeswoman for EastEnders said:

We are always mindful of the time slot in which we go out. As our regular viewers will know, Carol has been pushed to her limits by her brother and her unusual outburst reflected her frustration.

Ofcom chief executive Sharon White was called to address the parliamentary culture, media and sport select committee. During the course of the session White told the MPs that she is paid £275,000 a year.

She seemed keen on expanding Ofcom's remit to take on the censorship portion of the BBC Trust's current role. She did however baulk at the suggestion to take on wider governance of the BBC.

White said Ofcom already regulated various aspects of the BBC's output, including issues around decency and harm and offence, and said if the government wanted it to extend its responsibilities to bias and impartiality we will do the best possible job .

But she also warned there would be resourcing implications for the censor, which deals with around 25,000 complaints a year, a tenth of the 250,000 complaints that are received by the BBC on an annual basis.

White was quick to belittle a further option that another body entirely should pick up the BBC censorship role. White warned that concern should be taken that a new OfBeeb-style body did not clash or cause confusion with the role of Ofcom. But she laughed off suggestions of a looming turf war .

On the topic of extremist religious broadcasting, White said that Ofcom has not been hampered by lack of legislation in cracking down on extremist broadcasts following David Cameron said it should be given beefed-up powers to tackle the issue. This was identified as one of the key pillars of Cameron's five-year counter extremism strategy unveiled on Monday, in which he said Ofcom would be given new powers to take action against foreign channels that broadcast hate preachers.

White told MPs on the House of Commons culture, media and sport select committee:

We haven't found that we have been unable to act because the legislation hasn't given us the powers.

Where do you place cause and effect, between television and content being a powerful influencer, and that reflecting growing views in society?  It's a very difficult judgment to make ... One suspects that it will vary by community, even by family.

She said Ofcom had a very good monitoring department that looked at potentially extremist content but added:

Depending on the detail of the prime minister's statement and how that gets reflected in legislation ... we would need to look at the team and whether it would need some extra resourcing.

Ofcom shares the government's concerns about harmful, extremist content, and we have taken action against a number of channels. We are continuing to work closely with the government to ensure audiences remain protected.

But she said the regulator's remit with regard to the internet was rather limited, to the broadcasting of stuff that looks like it's been on the television, in the terrible jargon, TV-like content . Ofcom's remit does not cover content on the open internet.

A few EastEnders viweres were 'shocked' when the BBC soap aired a gay sex scene in a funeral parlour on Friday.

TV censor Ofcom received 48 complaints after Ben Mitchell (Harry Reid) was seen getting frisky with Paul Coker (Jonny Labey) in front of an open coffin containing a dead woman's body.

Twitter was inevitably 'awash' with 'shocked' comments from a few viewers criticizing the storyline, branding it disgraceful and distasteful .

The scene, which saw both teens strip off their shirts when their romp was interrupted by Paul's grandparents leading to Ben hiding under the coffin.

A BBC spokesperson responded:

The millions of regular EastEnders fans who tune in each week know and expect dramatic storylines. We are always mindful of out time slot in which we are shown and the scenes in question were implied and not explicit.

Update: BBC responds

22nd July 2015. See  article from  bbc.co.uk

The BBC has published a response to the whinges about EastEnders:

EastEnders, BBC One, 16 & 17 July 2015

Complaint

We received complaints from viewers who felt the scenes between Ben and Paul in the Chapel of Rest were inappropriate.

Response

We do appreciate that for some members of the audience the scenes in the Chapel of Rest might have a particular resonance, but it wasn't our intention to cause any distress or upset to our viewers with Ben and Paul's storyline.

When the Cokers were introduced as funeral directors, it was inevitable that their work would feature in storylines, and that in keeping with the tone of the show, these would range from serious to light-hearted. We try very hard to be true to our characters and keep their comments and actions as authentic as possible, sometimes this will include actions others find disagreeable.

We approach our portrayal of homosexual relationships in exactly the same way as we do heterosexual relationships; ensuring depictions of affection or sexuality between couples are suitable for pre-watershed viewing. In this case we were careful to ensure the scene was implied rather than explicit, but we appreciate all of the feedback we've received.

Update: Ofcom inevitably not interested

6th September 2015. See  article from dailymail.co.uk

Ofcom said it assessed the complaints but concluded they didn't raise issues warranting further investigation . Its decision continued:

We found the scenes were justified in the context of a long-running plotline and sexual contact between the characters was implied rather than overt. Our rules don't discriminate between scenes involving opposite-sex and same-sex couples.

Transporter: The Series is a Canada / France / USA / Germany action crime TV series by Louis Leterrier and Corey Yuen.
Starring Chris Vance, François Berléand and Charly Hübner.

Frank Martin is an ex special ops, who now spends his life as a transporter on the other side of the law. With three rules, he always completes his contracts. One way, or the other.

Channel 5 has recently started airing the Canadian action drama show Transporter The TV Series on Saturday nights at 9pm. (Episode 2 went out on 18th July.) The series is a spin-off of the Jason Statham film trilogy of the same name.

What's interesting, is that they're airing the uncut, original versions of the episodes, complete with four-letter-swearing, nudity and strong action violence, that were almost always cut in the USA when the show aired there last year on the TNT network, and which the BBFC would rate at 15 certificate levels. Five are warning viewers: This show contains offensive language (as apposed to the more usual contains strong language).

From Channel 5's Facebook page, it seems people aren't happy about the language.

It seems that the series was made in two versions. The original uncut version has been most widely aired but TNT opted for the watered down version. Wiki suggests that there may be other regional edits too.

 

A few EastEnders viweres were 'shocked' when the BBC soap aired a gay sex scene in a funeral parlour on Friday.

TV censor Ofcom received 48 complaints after Ben Mitchell (Harry Reid) was seen getting frisky with Paul Coker (Jonny Labey) in front of an open coffin containing a dead woman's body.

Twitter was inevitably 'awash' with 'shocked' comments from a few viewers criticizing the storyline, branding it disgraceful and distasteful .

The scene, which saw both teens strip off their shirts when their romp was interrupted by Paul's grandparents leading to Ben hiding under the coffin.

A BBC spokesperson responded:

The millions of regular EastEnders fans who tune in each week know and expect dramatic storylines. We are always mindful of out time slot in which we are shown and the scenes in question were implied and not explicit.