Violence On BBC Provokes Complaints

Two of the BBC’s popular dramas have been put under the spotlight in the latest report from the Broadcasting Standards Commission (BSC). Eastenders provoked 12 complaints when viewers were disturbed about the portrayal of violence in the the killing of Saskia and the subsequent disposal of her body.

In its defence, the BBC argued that Eastenders has a reputation for realistic drama, “reflecting the aspects of contemporary life in an inner city community, and therefore the scenes would not have been unexpected by the majority of the soap’s viewers. The storyline promoting the complaints had been heavily trailed in advance, and it was clear that there was going to be a dramatic, possibly fatal outcome”.

However, the BSC felt that the explicitness of the violence and the macabre nature of the scenes involved had gone beyond acceptable boundaries for the pre-watershed transmission, and the complaints were upheld.

Violence was also a feature which provoked complaints in an episode of BBC1’s Holby City. Ten complaints against the programme were upheld by the BSC as the watchdog felt that an attack on a nurse in the pre-watershed programme was too graphic and unexpected.

Channel 4 received six complaints that the scheduling of the classic film The Omen on Christmas Day was in poor taste. Channel 4 apologised for the showing of the film, which chronicles the birth and life of the ‘anti-Christ’, but the BSC upheld the complaints.

Broadcasting Standards Commission: 0171 233 0544