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It seems almost inconceivable now that anyone in the BBC should have even taken Mary Whitehouse and her Viewers and Listeners Association seriously. A pressure group of censorious busybodies and cranks who I imagine must've been well known by then as being a bloody nuisance to the corporation.
And yet somehow she managed to be taken seriously enough by the BBC to make them take a far more censorious attitude to Doctor Who from 1977 onward. Even though for the three years Hinchcliffe was in charge of the series, it had been taken to ever greater ratings strengths, somehow the BBC decided they had to be seen to act so drastically to appease Whitehouse's complaints, that they actually removed Hinchcliffe from the series. No talk, no remonstrations or second chances, he was just gone from the show with arbitrary swiftness.
I've heard various different accounts of why Mary Whitehouse was so good at achieving what she set out to do here, concerning Doctor Who. Some reports suggest she even had powerful contacts in the BBC she could use to exert influence.I know it was a more conservative time, and the BBC was probably a more conservative corporation back then. But it was also a decade where a lot of the BBC's TV shows were pushing the envelope, including children's shows like The Changes and Children of the Stones, so it seems strange that Doctor Who was singled out over them.
I have a little bit of a theory that there were maybe other coinciding concerns that made the BBC decide to make drastic changes to the show. Namely that they were having trouble selling the Tom Baker stories in Europe because it was often considered too scary for children by foreign networks. So maybe they wanted to make the show tamer to make it more exportable, and Whitehouse's complaints gave them the extra licence or leverage to make said changes.
But the question remains. How did such a hapless opponent bring down such a giant? Ad why were the BBC prepared to be so reckless with their flagship show's production team make-up, right when it was at its most secure and successful, ratings-wise? Why were they prepared to throw away that golden egg for her sake?
And yet somehow she managed to be taken seriously enough by the BBC to make them take a far more censorious attitude to Doctor Who from 1977 onward. Even though for the three years Hinchcliffe was in charge of the series, it had been taken to ever greater ratings strengths, somehow the BBC decided they had to be seen to act so drastically to appease Whitehouse's complaints, that they actually removed Hinchcliffe from the series. No talk, no remonstrations or second chances, he was just gone from the show with arbitrary swiftness.
I've heard various different accounts of why Mary Whitehouse was so good at achieving what she set out to do here, concerning Doctor Who. Some reports suggest she even had powerful contacts in the BBC she could use to exert influence.I know it was a more conservative time, and the BBC was probably a more conservative corporation back then. But it was also a decade where a lot of the BBC's TV shows were pushing the envelope, including children's shows like The Changes and Children of the Stones, so it seems strange that Doctor Who was singled out over them.
I have a little bit of a theory that there were maybe other coinciding concerns that made the BBC decide to make drastic changes to the show. Namely that they were having trouble selling the Tom Baker stories in Europe because it was often considered too scary for children by foreign networks. So maybe they wanted to make the show tamer to make it more exportable, and Whitehouse's complaints gave them the extra licence or leverage to make said changes.
But the question remains. How did such a hapless opponent bring down such a giant? Ad why were the BBC prepared to be so reckless with their flagship show's production team make-up, right when it was at its most secure and successful, ratings-wise? Why were they prepared to throw away that golden egg for her sake?
