In 1963, an unknown schoolteacher with a strong Christian faith began campaigning for higher moral standards from the broadcasting services.
Her ‘Clean up TV’ campaigns gathered huge support from like-minded viewers and listeners who were appalled by the unedifying content that was often channelled into living rooms during the earlier part of the evening when families were having tea. 500,000 signed her petition to the Queen, a record number at the time, all of whom believed in a Christian way of life, wanting to protect their children from the ‘disbelief, doubt and dirt that is poured into our homes by TV’.
Watershed
It is hard to pinpoint her victories, but she certainly brought the issue of the need for censorship to the government’s attention and laid the blame for the immoral output at their door. The actress Julie Walters, who played Whitehouse in BBC2’s recent dramatisation of her ‘Clean up TV’ campaign made a point of finding out more about her: ‘We have a watershed because of her and it was she who started to lobby about child pornography. At the time people were going: “No, there is no such thing, is there?” All that sort of thing was swept under the carpet and kept in the dark.’
