Angel Retreats Into The Night Following ITC Taste And Decency Rap

Channel 4 has moved US fantasy drama series Angel to a later time of 11.35pm in its schedule, following concerns that its content was too adult for the original 6pm slot.

The character of Angel first appeared in teen-oriented series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, shown on BBC2. The spin-off series bought by C4 follows Angel, a reformed vampire, in his mission to cleanse himself by saving people from evil in Los Angeles. This involves considerable violence and adult themes which have included torture, references to paedophiles, stalkers and poltergeists, although considerable editing was carried out by C4 before transmission.

The series attracted complaints from 86 viewers last month either concerned at the violence and adult content, or unhappy with the editing. Both schools of thought held that a later time slot would be more appropriate.

The ITC said that it was concerned with about the “dark tone of Angel’s world”, saying it “often involved adult situations that many children could find disturbing.” Three episodes, shown at the end of September and beginning of October, were judged to have been unsuitable for broadcast in the early evening slot, even with editing, and the 86 viewer complaints were upheld.

When concern from the ITC was first apparent, C4 made the move of discontinuing the scheduling of double episodes at the earlier time of 5.25pm, and dropped some stronger episodes from the series. The promise to move the series to its new, post-watershed slot was welcomed by the ITC at the time of the ruling.

Channel 4: 020 7396 4444 ITC: 020 7255 3000

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