Film censorship Film censorship is carried out by various countries to differing degrees, sometimes as a result of powerful or relentless lobbying by organizations or individuals. Films that are banned in a particular country change over time. Rating systems A ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

began with early cinema exhibition becoming subject to the

Disorderly Houses Act 1751 The Disorderly Houses Act 1751 (25 Geo 2 c 36) was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain. It made provision in relation to disorderly houses. Most of it had been repealed by the mid-twentieth century, but one section, section 8, survived unt ...

. The

Cinematograph Act 1909 The Cinematograph Act 1909 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (9 Edw. VII c. 30). It was the first primary legislation in the UK which specifically regulated the film industry. It unintentionally provided the legal basis for film ...

was primarily concerned with introducing annual licensing of premises where films were shown, particularly because of the fire risk of

nitrate film Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...

. After the Act began to be used by local authorities to control what was shown, the film industry responded by establishing a

British Board of Film Censors The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organization, non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national clas ...

(BBFC) in 1912, funded by an Incorporated Association of Kinematograph Manufacturers levy. British Board of Film Censors

The Cinematograph Exhibitors Association sought to have the BBFC film certification recognised over local decision-making. The case of ''Mills v London City Council'' in 1925 (1 KB 213) established that a Council could make its licensing conditional on the exhibitor complying with the BBFC certification. Local Councils did continue to refuse showing of particular films which had been certificated by the BBFC: examples are the bans on '' The Devils'' and '' Life of Brian'' in Glasgow. Currently, Section 4 of the Video Recordings Act 1984 requires that videos for sale in the UK should be certified by an authority. The BBFC (by this time renamed as British Board of Film Classification) became that designated authority in 1985. The film censorship that exists in the UK today is in the form of an Age-Rating system, which is an advisory tool used by local councils when deciding to grant viewing permission to film productions.

List of banned films

Mull of Kintyre test

According to an

urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...

, the Mull of Kintyre test or Mull of Kintyre rule was an unofficial guideline used by the

British Board of Film Classification The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC, previously the British Board of Film Censors) is a non-governmental organisation founded by the British film industry in 1912 and responsible for the national classification and censorship of ...

(BBFC) to decide whether an image of a

penis A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males d ...

could be shown. According to the myth, the BBFC would not permit the general release of a film or video if it depicted a penis erect to the point that the angle it made from the vertical was higher than that of the peninsula of

Kintyre Kintyre ( gd, Cinn Tìre, ) is a peninsula in western Scotland, in the southwest of Argyll and Bute. The peninsula stretches about , from the Mull of Kintyre in the south to East and West Loch Tarbert in the north. The region immediately nor ...

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020) ...

on maps of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. The BBFC has denied that any such "test" existed, and maintain it is merely a humorous rumour. The Mull of Kintyre test was said to have first been used for the release of the controversial erotic historical drama film ''

Caligula Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), better known by his nickname Caligula (), was the third Roman emperor, ruling from 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the popular Roman general Germani ...

'' in 1979.

Specific cases

*In Autumn 1972,

Lord Longford Francis Aungier Pakenham, 7th Earl of Longford, 1st Baron Pakenham, Baron Pakenham of Cowley, (5 December 1905 – 3 August 2001), known to his family as Frank Longford and styled Lord Pakenham from 1945 to 1961, was a British politician and ...

and

Raymond Blackburn Albert Raymond Blackburn (11 March 1915 – 3 November 1991) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Member of Parliament for the Birmingham King's Norton and Birmingham Northfield constituencies. Early life Blackburn was born on ...

decided to pursue a matter of pornography classification for the film ''

Language of Love ''Language of Love'' () is a 1969 Swedish sex educational film directed by Torgny Wickman. It was an international success. It gained publicity when 30,000 people gathered on Trafalgar Square in London to protest against a nearby movie thea ...

'' into the

Court of Appeal A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much ...

Lord Denning Alfred Thompson "Tom" Denning, Baron Denning (23 January 1899 – 5 March 1999) was an English lawyer and judge. He was called to the bar of England and Wales in 1923 and became a King's Counsel in 1938. Denning became a judge in 1944 whe ...

, MR, and lost the writ of mandamus against the Police Commissioner, who had refused to intrude upon the BBFC remit. *In 1999, the British television network ITV broadcast a censored version of the British war film '' The Dam Busters'' (1955), with all instances of the name of a dog called "

Nigger In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...

" removed. ITV blamed regional broadcaster

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT) (now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00 pm from 1968 un ...

, which in turn alleged that a junior staff member had been responsible for the unauthorised cuts. When ITV again showed a censored version in June 2001, it was criticised by ''

Index on Censorship Index on Censorship is an organization campaigning for freedom of expression, which produces a quarterly magazine of the same name from London. It is directed by the non-profit-making Writers and Scholars International, Ltd (WSI) in association w ...

'' as "unnecessary and ridiculous" and because the edits introduced continuity errors. The code word "nigger" transmitted in

Morse Code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one ...

upon the successful completion of the central mission was not censored. *The film '' Black Friday'' (2004) was released in the United Kingdom with 17 seconds of the

cockfighting A cockfight is a blood sport, held in a ring called a cockpit. The history of raising fowl for fighting goes back 6,000 years. The first documented use of the ''word'' gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or ente ...

scenes deleted. Laws in the UK do not allow any film footage of actual

animal cruelty Cruelty to animals, also called animal abuse, animal neglect or animal cruelty, is the infliction by omission (neglect) or by commission by humans of suffering or harm upon non-human animals. More narrowly, it can be the causing of harm or su ...

that has been deliberately orchestrated by film-makers.

References

{{Portal bar, United Kingdom, Erotica and pornography * Censorship United Kingdom

List of banned films

Mull of Kintyre test

Specific cases

See also

References