The British Board of Film Classification – Who watches the watchers?
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10/09/24 • 46 min
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Sex! Violence! Censorship! These days the British Board of Film Classification rarely makes headlines but it was on the cultural frontlines throughout the 20 th century, from Herbert Asquith and the dawn of British cinema to Mary Whitehouse and “video nasties”. Through the turbulent life of one institution, Ian takes Dorian through a century of moral panics, censorship and furious debates about cinema’s influence on the life of the nation. This (literally) cinematic tale ranges from The Birth of a Nation and Nosferatu to Cannibal Holocaust and The Life of Brian, and has an unusually uplifting ending. Won’t somebody think of the children?!
Origin Story will be live at the Tabernacle in London on the 7th of November for a special post-US election show. Tickets here.
Get exclusive extras like supporter-only Q&A editions when you back Origin Story on Patreon.
Reading List
The Miracle Of The Movies by Leslie Wood, Burke Publishing 1915
Obscenity and Film Censorship: An Abridgement of the Williams Report edited by Bernard Williams
The British Board of Film Censors: film censorship in Britain, 1896-1950 by James Robertson, Dover, N.H. 1985
Censoring the moving image by Phillip French Seagull Books, 2007
See no evil: Banned films and video controversy by David Kerekes, Headpress 2000
Ban The Sadist Videos: 2005 Documentary
Mark Kermode interview with Robin Duval: Guardian 2004
Written and presented by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey. Produced by Simon Williams. Music by Jade Bailey. Art by Jim Parrett. Logo by Mischa Welsh. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production
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Sex! Violence! Censorship! These days the British Board of Film Classification rarely makes headlines but it was on the cultural frontlines throughout the 20 th century, from Herbert Asquith and the dawn of British cinema to Mary Whitehouse and “video nasties”. Through the turbulent life of one institution, Ian takes Dorian through a century of moral panics, censorship and furious debates about cinema’s influence on the life of the nation. This (literally) cinematic tale ranges from The Birth of a Nation and Nosferatu to Cannibal Holocaust and The Life of Brian, and has an unusually uplifting ending. Won’t somebody think of the children?!
Origin Story will be live at the Tabernacle in London on the 7th of November for a special post-US election show. Tickets here.
Get exclusive extras like supporter-only Q&A editions when you back Origin Story on Patreon.
Reading List
The Miracle Of The Movies by Leslie Wood, Burke Publishing 1915
Obscenity and Film Censorship: An Abridgement of the Williams Report edited by Bernard Williams
The British Board of Film Censors: film censorship in Britain, 1896-1950 by James Robertson, Dover, N.H. 1985
Censoring the moving image by Phillip French Seagull Books, 2007
See no evil: Banned films and video controversy by David Kerekes, Headpress 2000
Ban The Sadist Videos: 2005 Documentary
Mark Kermode interview with Robin Duval: Guardian 2004
Written and presented by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey. Produced by Simon Williams. Music by Jade Bailey. Art by Jim Parrett. Logo by Mischa Welsh. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Previous Episode
Emmanuel Macron – The centrist cannot hold
Emmanuel Macron is one of the most fascinating and infuriating figures in 21st century politics. Seven years ago, the philosopher-statesman shredded France’s status quo by seizing the presidency at the helm of a brand new centrist party. But his achievements, at home and abroad, have not lived up to his grand visions and his summer election gamble has left him weaker than ever. Ian tells Dorian a dramatic story of idealism, ambition and hubris, explaining what Macron’s strengths and flaws reveal about the changing face of centrism, the battle with the far right and what makes French politics so very French. Sacre bleu!
Origin Story will be live at the Tabernacle in London on the 7th of November for a special post-US election show. Tickets here.
Get exclusive extras like supporter-only Q&A editions when you back Origin Story on Patreon.
Reading List
Revolution by Emmanuel Macron, Scribe 2017
Emmanuel Macron: Revolution Francais by Sophie Pedder, Bloomsbury 2018
Written and presented by Ian Dunt and Dorian Lynskey. Produced by Simon Williams. Music by Jade Bailey. Art by Jim Parrett. Logo by Mischa Welsh. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Origin Story is a Podmasters production
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Next Episode
Russell Brand – Confidence man
What the hell happened to Russell Brand? Ten years ago, the comedian and actor was the loudest voice on the British left as his florid calls for spiritual and political revolution won him the support of politicians and journalists. Now he is a full-time conspiracy theorist and disgraced exile from mainstream culture, conducting prayer meetings with Jordan Peterson and flirting with Donald Trump. The fall of a celebrity is not usually Origin Story material but Brand’s transformation epitomises the political chaos of the last decade: how populism and paranoia scramble conventional notions of right and left to create a volatile third category.
In the first episode of season six, Dorian and Ian reassess Brand’s extraordinary rise to fame in the 2000s in light of recent allegations of sexual misconduct and explore how British culture gave him a free pass. In 2013 Brand swapped sex and fame for a new compulsion, reinventing himself as a flamboyant agitator to great acclaim. In the void between Occupy and Corbynism, his verbose mishmash of self-help and socialism briefly made him a lion of the left. During the pandemic Brand embraced a darker shade of politics, promoting conspiracy theories about Covid-19, Ukraine and much more besides. After the allegations broke last year he went full crank, aligning himself with Robert F Kennedy Jr, Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones in the paranoid space.
What does Brand’s journey to the fringes tell us about the shifting political landscape? Did he really switch sides or were the red flags flying all along? What can the left learn from its haste to turn a motormouth comedian into a radical icon? Is Brand’s latest incarnation sincere or opportunistic, and does it really matter? And which of his tomes makes for the most painful reading today: Revolution or My Booky Wook?
This is a bizarre story of celebrity and conspiracy, addiction and attention, which says a great deal about where we are now.
Get the Origin Story books on Fascism, Centrism and Conspiracy Theory – out 17th Oct
Origin Story will be live at the Tabernacle in London on the 7th of November for a special post-US election show. Tickets here.
Get exclusive extras like supporter-only Q&A editions when you back Origin Story on Patreon.
Reading List
Books
Russell Brand - My Booky Wook (2007)
Russell Brand - Revolution (2014)
Anna Merlan - Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power (2019)
Naomi Klein - Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World (2023)
Video and audio
Russell Brand at parliamentary select committee on drug addiction (2012)
Newsnight debate on drug addiction with Peter Hitchens (2012)
Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman (2013)
Newsnight interview with Evan Davis (2014)
Brand: A Second Coming, directed by Ondi Timoner (2015)
Russell Brand: In Plain Sight: Dispatches (2023)
Articles
Michael Kelly, ‘The Road to Paranoia’, New Yorker (1995)
Piers Morgan, ‘Russell Brand’, GQ (2006)
Miranda Sawyer, Brand on the run, The Guardian (2008)
Russell Brand on Margaret Thatcher: “I always felt sorry for her children”, The Guardian (2013)
Russell Brand on revolution: “We no longer have the luxury of tradition”, New Statesman (2013)
Brian Logan, ‘Messiah Complex – review’, Guardian (2013)
Ma...
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