Swizzlewick

Synopsis

Swizzlewick was a twice weekly 1964 BBC comedy drama series about the day-to-day events of a local council in a fictional Midlands town. The writers included David Turner who created the series. This series is principally remembered as an early target of 'Clean Up TV' campaigner Mary Whitehouse. An episode in August 1964 featured Mrs Smallgood, a parody of her, who was depicted launching a "Freedom from Sex" campaign with a friend. A scene with a prostitute was cut from another episode of the series, after a television studio worker leaked an advance copy of the script to her. She was told "It's too late to re-shoot.", and answered "I don't want re-shooting, I want cuts." She delivered a letter of complaint in person to the Postmaster General of the United Kingdom, who appears to have passed the matter on to the BBC, and the scene Mrs Whitehouse found offensive was cut. Turner resigned from the series.