Mary Whitehouse Experience Radio

Superb radio series (1989-90), followed by tepid TV adaptation (1990-92)The rushes for the second show in the first radio series (recorded on12/04/89 for transmission two days later) reveal that, at this early stage in the series'development, producer Bill Dare was genuinely afraid of litigation from Mrs Whitehouse herself - somuch so that David Baddiel recorded an alternate version of the opening theme music, announcing'The William Rees-Mogg Experience'. Steve Punt dismissed the fears onstage, saying 'I can'tbelieve she's got a case.' Dare was doubtful: 'I'm more frightened of Mary Whitehouse than I am of Steve Punt,' he confessed.The first-series episode featuring the 'Doctor Who Monsters Dispute'sketch (Show 3, 21/04/89) has apparently vanished from the BBC archives. The producer of Radio 4'sPick Of The Week borrowed the tape to include the sketch on that week's programme,but never returned it. HUGH DENNIS.touch wood.The reasons for its cut may be artistic (i.e., it pre-empted subsequent jokes in a similar vein),or perhaps legitimate (i.e., it didn't get a laugh - the audience were quite anunpredictable crowd that evening).

It is also possible, with the show being recorded in the days ofanalogue technology, that the equipment failed, meaning Dennis' line was obliterated. It is justabout possible to discern an edit between the two lines.Anyone who has been to a radio recording will know that a restless audience will always cheer when a successful attempt at a problematic sequence is finally achieved.

This may go some way to explaining the cheering after the 'shark' sound effect in the sketch about 'theworld becoming nice' (Series 3, Show 7, 17/02/90), or the squeaking mice in one of the Christmaspantomimes (Series 4, Show 7, 01/12/90), when Rob Newman announces 'It'll take too long toexplain, listeners.' We can assume that the analogue tape equipment had failed once again.In show 9 of the fourth radio series, Baddiel reads the end credits andinforms us that 'The show was brought to you by the son of the bloke who wrote Kevin Keegan'stop ten hit'. The audience-laugh (which occurs before Baddiel has completed the line) suggests that this was a back reference to something cut from the episode. Since the team were running a feature in which listenerswere asked to brag about their encounters with celebrities, it is probable that this was a claim-to-fame declared by someone in the audience.In 'The Phenomenal World Of The Unexplained' sketch in the fourthepisode of the first TV series (24/01/91), David Baddiel plays an estate agent on a spaceship,showing some aliens around Earth. His end-line 'Oh by the way, the heating's broken' curiously gets no laughwhatsoever. One may conclude that it was the last of many takes, especially since the line linked into a special effect of Hugh Dennis being 'beamed up' as John Cole which may have proved problematic.The radio series was notably more liberal inits use of profanities and 'offensive' material than thetelevision version. A) In the fourth show of the first TV series, Baddiel did a routine about the shampoo Wash & Gobeing 'a constructivist name for a product.named after what you do with it, and what you doimmediately afterwards'.

He then gave two further examples - 'Eat & Go, forAll-Bran', and 'Down & Throw, for Kestrel lager'. There was then an edit to someout-of-place laughter and a cutaway - these both disguised his final example, which was 'Board& Sink, for P&O Ferries'.

This line, which appeared in the radio version (27/10/90),was cut either for 'taste' reasons, or because of an over-zealous fear of litigation.b) Another sketch in the first TV series (Show 5, 31/01/91) featured a parent and child attending agypsy caravan site and mistaking it for a funfair. The child yells 'Dad!

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I want to go on thepile of burnt mattresses!' , but the father's response (presumably 'Hold on, we haven'tplayed count-the-sores-on-the-child's-lips yet!' , which was used on the radio version,31/11/90) was cut, and Rob Newman's mouth does open slightly to deliver such a line.c) 'The Swearing Experience' was cut heavily for TV (07/02/91), and - if it followed the radioversion (07/12/90) - may have contained references to felching, a parody of a dictionary'sembarrassed definition of the word 'bottom', further allusions to the word 'cunt', and musings onthe sex life of Mary Whitehouse herself ('Some words are so far beyond Mary Whitehouse's ken, oreven beyond her first husband.' ).The end credits in both series were superimposed over footage of the entireshow being rewound at high-speed (an idea stolen from A Kick Up The Eighties).

However, a closeexamination of certain episodes reveals some hidden material. For example, the fourth episode ofthe second series (23/03/92) shows the caption 'The Glorious History Of The BBC Experience' and various scenes which were not present in the transmitted show. Presumably, these 'rewind' sections were produced before any eleventh-hour cuts were made, and capture the show in a looser (or alternate) edit.In the first show of Series 2 (02/03/92), Baddiel's line 'No one is goingto be fooled just by the mask' (in'The Real Horror Show Maskies On Experience') isfollowed by a Crimewatch parody.

However, the burst of music usedfor the sketch appears to come in a beat too quickly, and isaccompanied by an unnatural-sounding audience laugh. This could meanthat material was present either before the parody, or afterBaddiel's feedline which made editing problematic.Viewers may note that 'The Party Animal Experience' (Series 2,Show 4) does not concern itself with consistent subject matter - the theme of parties is abandonedhalfway through, and the sketch about a father pre-empting his student son's offers of help seemsstrangely out of place.

This is because the sketch was originally recorded for Show 3, but thepunchline (in which Hugh Dennis had to hold up a washing-up brush and say 'Now, who's going tohelp me shove this up my arse?' ) had to be taken three times due to the camera crew'sineptness.

After a fourth take failed to produce an audience laugh, the item was postponed, and waslater canned during the Show 4 recording. This is evidence of edits bringing about a lack of structure, asopposed to assisting with it.The fourth show of the first series has some backwards messages buried underthe end theme music (continuing a 'devil worship' theme developed in one of the show's sketches).When reversed, the messages are as follows: Baddiel declares 'Satan is a good bloke!'

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,whilst Rob Newman appears to mutter 'Yeah, Satan helped push my car once' in a Robert De Nirovoice. NOTE: Thanks to Ian Rushforth for the correct transcription of the backward message. Our original source, a tape of an off-monitor recording, twisted upside down, produced a slightly garbled version.There is a section in 'The It Was Really Nothing Experience' (Series2, Show 1), where a man (Punt) informs another man (Dennis) that his ex-girlfriend is in adistressed state.

Dennis responds by saying 'that's terrible', before giving a 'sorted'gesture and a wink to the audience. Here we leave the sketch, but we can see that Dennis is aboutto say another line to Punt. It is probable that the line was 'Fancy a pint?,' since Dennisalso uses this as a punchline to the 'Drunk Inspector Morse' sketch, and this could have been an aborted runningjoke.' The Lonely Experience' (Series 2, Show 4) has a punchline thatdoesn't make sense.

Returning to his flat, Rob Newman picks up the telephone expecting to hear hisex-girlfriend's voice, only to hear a man (Baddiel) enquire 'How long will it take to get aparcel by motorbike to Halifax in West Yorkshire?' The huge audience laugh suggests that theset-up material for this punchline had been cut. The set-up, if it followed material printed inThe Mary Whitehouse Experience Encyclopaedia (Boxtree, 1991), involved a mysterious caller who insisted on bothering Newman with such a request.The Mary Whitehouse Experience was the first programme to be targeted by theBroadcasting Standard Council (BSC), set up by Lord Rees-Mogg in 1991.

It was hauled up before thisbody following the opening episode of its first TV series (3/01/91), where Baddiel referred to HenryKelly as a 'wanker', something which he also did, withoutopposition, on the radio version (17/02/90). The complaint was notupheld, however - the BSC's official conclusion being that theinsult in question was 'fair comment'. Meanwhile, threeedits were made to repeats of the second TV series, broadcast inAugust/September 1992. All cuts were made on the hearsay of threeseparate (and solitary) callers to the BBC.

(a) Material concerning fellatio, pornography and masturbating in front of one's mother was removedfrom a sequence about sex ('The Angel Disguised As Lust Experience', 16/3/92) in Show 3.Complaint filed by: Mrs Bock of Leicester. Upheld.(b) The 'Suspect Device Experience' was cut completely from Show 1 following a scene wherean RUC officer spoke sarcastically to an IRA terrorist when he claimed responsibility for a bombing('Oh, we'd never have guessed - we were racking our brains, thinking 'Professor Plum?' ).A brief sketch featuring Baddiel chained up in a Beirut prison and getting a phone call from hisgirlfriend ('I'm not beingdistant, I'm just in the middle of something.'

He whined,continuing a running joke set up earlier in the episode) was also cut, presumably because - withthe IRA sketch absent - it was not possible to accommodate it structurally.Complaint filed by: Mr Robinson of Clwyd. Not upheld.c) 'There But For The Grace Of Chlorpromazine' (Show 5, 30/03/92) featured a short routinewhere Baddiel pondered on why the director of Truly Madly Deeply had importeddisabled actors from Swindon ('You know, London's a bit strapped for nutters, isn't it?' ) Apious Richard Jobson, working for the BBC access programme Biteback (editionbroadcast 10/05/92) interviewed Baddiel, who apologised and offered a justification for thematerial. Jobson then forced a group of mentally handicapped people to watch the sketch, beforesticking a camera in front of them and telling them how upset they should be. Naturally, Baddielbecame the villain of the piece, and - once again - the sequence was cut from the repeat broadcast.Complaint filed by: Mr Pugsley of Leicestershire. Upheld.NOTE: Steve Punt was the only member of the team who bothered to voice his anger at thesecuts, arguing (on Oracle teletext, September 1992) that fans were being short-changed by the viewsof people for whom the show was never intended.RELATED ARTICLES.