Book description
The launch of Mary Whitehouse's 'Clean Up TV' campaign (at
Birmingham Town Hall in 1964) made this devoutly Christian Shropshire
school-teacher a media star overnight. Over the next 37 years, her
name became a byword for censoriousness. All the hundreds of letters
this redoubtable campaigner sent, and most of the many thousands she
subsequently received, were preserved in the archives of her National
Viewers and Listeners Association. Sifting through this unique
compendium of outrage and affront, Ben Thompson uncovers a startling
new perspective on Mary Whitehouse's stand against a tsunami of
swearing and sexual license. Far from the last of a dying breed, might
she actually have been the harbinger - if not quite the agent - of a
change in the tide of cultural history?
Ben Thompson is one of Britain's most respected cultural
critics. He currently contributes to the Financial Times, Mojo, and
the Sunday Telegraph. As well as two widely acclaimed collections of
rock journalism (Seven Years of Plenty and Ways of Hearing) and a
landmark history of British comedy (Sunshine on Putty), he has also
co-written memoirs with Vic Reeves (Me Moir), Phil Daniels (Class
Actor), Mike Skinner (Turn The Page), Dizzee Rascal (The Dirtee
Truth), and others who prefer to present their number one bestsellers
as all their own work.
