Whitehouse got a lot right about the BBC

THE LATE Mary Whitehouse, the Christian campaigner against obscenity, was viewed as an antiquated joke figure in the 1960s and 70s. She complained about the swearing on Till Death Us Do Part, so the writer, my old friend Johnny Speight, had Alf Garnett support her.

- with GARRY BUSHELL

Pornographer David Sullivan launched a soft-porn mag called Whitehouse; the BBC sent her up as Mrs Felicity Smallgood in comedy-drama Swizzlewick. And even Deep Purple taunted her with their song Mary Long...

But BBC4's Banned! The Mary Whitehouse Story reminded us that Mary was spot-on about paedophiles, porn and the BBC's smug aloofness.

The then Director-General Hugh Greene actually said, "We are going to use this organisation to change the way the rest of the country thinks. We want them to see stuff they don't like. We don't really care if they complain." Nothing has changed...

Mary was like Canute trying to stop the tide. But as author Ben Thompson said, her "smoke alarm was set very high, but that doesn’t mean there wasn't a real fire".

Whitehouse was, as feminist Beatrix Campbell pointed out, prescient in other fields, particularly where children and women's freedoms were concerned. Naturally she received death threats, verbal abuse and assaults.

University students once lowered an effigy of her on a rope as she addressed a debate.

BBC2's Politics Live Conference 2025 was depressing. Robotic Reeves, whinging Starmer...where are today's equivalents of Benn and Bevan, Churchill and Powell? Where's the oratory?

Starmer accusing Farage of lacking patriotism was like hearing Michelle Mone accuse Sarah Mullally of flawed judgment.