''Swizzlewick'' was a twice weekly 1964 BBC comedy drama series about the day-to-day events of a corrupt local council in a fictional Midlands town.Steve Fieldin
''A State of Play: British Politics on Screen, Stage and Page, from Anthony Trollope to 'The Thick of It
London & New York; Bloomsbury, 2014, p.135-37 The writers included David Turner who created the series. This series is principally remembered as an early target of the 'Clean Up TV' campaigner Mary Whitehouse who thought it unsuitable for an early evening audience. An episode in August 1964 featured Mrs Smallgood, a character parodying her, who was depicted launching a "Freedom from Sex" campaign. A scene with a prostitute was cut from another episode of the series, after a television studio worker leaked an advance copy of the script to her. She was told "It's too late to re-shoot.", and answered "I don't want re-shooting, I want cuts." She delivered a letter of complaint in person to the

Postmaster General of the United Kingdom The Postmaster General of the United Kingdom was a Cabinet-level ministerial position in HM Government. Aside from maintaining the postal system, the Telegraph Act 1868 established the Postmaster General's right to exclusively maintain electr ...

, who appears to have passed the matter on to the BBC, and the scene Mrs Whitehouse found offensive was cut. Turner resigned from the series. A leader in ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' (f ...

'' criticised the series for suggesting councillors were less than honest. National critics dismissed the series. The reviewer in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' faulted it for "amateurish performances" and described it as "a new low in tastelessness." Television programmes from this era were often

wiped Lost television broadcasts are mostly those early television programs which cannot be accounted for in studio archives (or in personal archives) usually because of deliberate destruction or neglect. Common reasons for loss A significant prop ...

, discarded or not recorded at all if they went out live. Of 26 episodes, only one is believed to exist."Swizzlewick" entry
TV Brain database

References

External links

* 1964 British television series debuts 1964 British television series endings BBC television dramas Lost BBC episodes 1960s British drama television series Black-and-white British television shows English-language television shows {{UK-tv-prog-stub