Filth

Last night, the Beeb showed a TV drama about the clash in the 1960s between Mrs. Mary Whitehouse and Sir Hugh Carleton Greene, then director-general of the BBC. Entitled Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story, it was an entertaining look at the woman and her campaign. I refer you to the great Nancy Banks-Smith, and her review of the programme for more detail. I think I would agree with her that the Julie Walters‘ playing of Whitehouse was probably more lovable than the real person. My one experience of seeing Mrs. Whitehouse in the flesh, as it were, still leaves me – at a distance of thirty years – with feelings of anger and disgust.

 

Update: Anticant has a review of the programme. He had personal experience of just what a nasty piece of work Whitehouse could be. Worth reading to understand the less lovable side of her.