ITC Condemns Graphic Sexual Language

The ITC has upheld complaints against ITV1’s The Frank Skinner Show for containing “graphic sexual language” but has defended the show’s “edgy and provocative nature.”

The ITC received a total of 40 complaints from viewers offended by an episode of the Frank Skinner Show that was shown last November. 27 viewers objected to an interview with Boy George that featured a discussion on the benefits of buggery and masturbation. A further 17 objected to Frank Skinner’s suggestion that the Taliban often stood women side by side to be executed, thereby killing “two birds with one stone”.

LWT argued that viewers were well aware of the type of content found on show and claimed that the late transmission time and the warning announcement that was broadcast before the programme should have prevented widespread offence.

However, the ITC concluded that the “unrelenting nature” of the Boy George interview went beyond the limits of taste and decency and ruled that a stronger warning alerting viewers to the forthright sexual content of the interview should have been broadcast.

The ITC refused to uphold complaints regarding Franks Skinner’s comments about the Taliban and defended the “absurdist” style of the two birds with one stone pun as part of the show’s “edgy and provocative nature.” The authority acknowledged that the majority of viewers were not offended by the comments and concluded that they were acceptable on the grounds of justifiable satire against a brutal oppressive regime.

Last month the ITC defended comedy’s right to satirise political and public figures when it rejected complaints from viewers about The Frank Skinner Show and ITV1’s 2DTV that lampooned the current political situation in Afghanistan (see ITC Acknowledges Comedy’s Right To Satirise).

ITC: 020 7306 7743 www.itc.co.uk

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