Ed
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Dad's Army radio series - "The Recruit"BBC 7 has broadcast the Dad's Army radio series repeatedly, except for one episode, 'The Recruit', in which the Vicar and the Verger join the platoon.
I asked the BBC whether that episode had been wiped. Although they were able to assure me that it still exists in the Sound Archives, I was astonished to then receive the following message from BBC 7 -
"Dear Ed,
Many thanks for your message.
Unfortunately, this particular episode of Dad's Army contains some material - a reference to rape and child-beating - which is not appropriate for the time-slot in which we broadcast the series (immediately after children's programming in the morning), so it has been omitted from these repeat runs.
Best wishes,
BBC7"
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Cam
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Radio EpisodesI'm pretty sure I have all the radios episodes in mp3 format..including "The Recruit"...and a few of the "It's Sticks Out A Mile",,plus Chritsmas episodes..I think.
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Oz
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Yes, times have changed. It just shows what was acceptable then and what isn't now.
Things that did make me raise an eyebrow such as in Sgt Save My Boy where the platoon are joking about a stalker/rapist in the area and one of them laughs the matter off saying the rapist wouldn't be 'interested' in Mrs Pike and she sort of insinuates she'd like the attention. 
Also in the story (title escapes me) where they go door to door checking ladies knickers to see if they are made of German parachute silk, a husband thinks that his wife has been unfaithful because of the platoon's inquiry and beats his wife behind the closed front door. You hear a woman's screams and there is howls of audience laughter.
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Swallow Bank
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| Oz wrote: | Yes, times have changed. It just shows what was acceptable then and what isn't now.
Also in the story (title escapes me) where they go door to door checking ladies knickers to see if they are made of German parachute silk, a husband thinks that his wife has been unfaithful because of the platoon's inquiry and beats his wife behind the closed front door. You hear a woman's screams and there is howls of audience laughter. |
The episode you're thinking of is Man Hunt (or The Great White Hunter as it was re-named for radio)
Always a thorny subject this and almost everyone has their own view on it. The world changes and sometimes not for the better. The world we live in today doesn't laugh at wife-beating, and I think most would agree that something as serious as domestic violence should not be used as a source of humour in a show that deliberately appeals to both young and old.
There is however, a balance to be struck and I strongly believe that the PC brigade should not be pandered to in every case without a bit of logic being applied. I do think the BBc have got it right this time though.
There are some programmes depicting graphic scenes of the worst our society is capable of. These programmes however are shown after the watershed and have a warning broadcast beforehand. Neither are they intended to be family entertainment.
I can't think of the implied child-beating in the radio version of The Recruit but if it's there then I would agree that it shouldn't really be broadcast - or cetainly with that scene included.
For us fans who are fanatic completists then there are ways of obtaining the full episode - the DAAS library or BBC CD. That way we have chosen to listen to the play in full rather than just happen to tune in and hear it.
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Oz
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Is the child-beating bit where the Verger smacks Hodges nephew round the head for being cheeky? Funnily enough although when I saw this clip I thought 'that would never be allowed nowadays' (the Verger really does give him a hard slap), I also thought that was a representation of what happened in the 1940s when kids were cheeky, so it was probably not so gratuitous?
Re. the 'PC Brigade': I agree that all cases are differerent and should be judged as such. The trouble is, phrases such as the 'PC Brigade' are often used by reactionaries as a blanket term to describe anything new/modern/progressive or for the better. Though in this case I'm sure even the most reactionary old bigot would find it difficult to defend 'comedy rape or child abuse'!
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