The 1970s Project

• Conference 2008
• Registration
• Seminar Series
  • Malcolm Le Grice
  • Dr Andrew Spicer
  • James Chapman
  • Dominic Symonds
  • BBFC
  • David Curtis
• Call for Papers
• Reports

John Dyer and David Hyman, from the education department at the British Board of Film Classification, gave a paper on censorship . After sketching out the history of the BBFC in earlier periods, they concentrated on the 1970s, discussion changes in personnel and key shifts in policy.

They discussed various films which were watersheds for the Board, and which caused a degree of controversy in the period, since the Board was often a great deal more liberal than the public. The importance of Mary Whitehouse and the range of her support was discussed. Two members of the project, Prof Harper and Sian Barber have been making regular trips to the BBFC and they discussed some of their findings from the 1970s.