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PaperclipPerfector  8d ago (text post)   26004 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 28, 2025

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The same was true of Jimmy Saville:

The BBC allowed all manner of creative swearing and graphic insults to air during The Thick Of It.

But there was just one line in all of the scripts that made executives so nervous they insisted it be censored, creator Armando Iannucci has revealed.

The excised line, spoken by Peter Capaldi’s fiercely foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker was: 'That's inevitable. It's as inevitable as what they'll find in Jimmy Savile's basement after he's dead.'

'The BBC lawyers said you can't say that,’ Iannucci told an audience in Melbourne

Although Savile died in 2011, between seres three and four, the extent of his sexual abuse of children only began to emerge in September the following year, a month before the final episode aired.

https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2017/05/12/36483/revealed_the_one_line_the_bbc_censored_from_the_thick_of_it

Everybody in TV knew. And were performatively shocked later on, of course.

IIRC John Lydon of the Sex Pistols fame was making noises about this open secret in 1978.

Sure enough.

“I don’t know, I just want to make a film of it. I want to kill Jimmy Savile – he’s a hypocrite. I bet he’s into all kinds of seediness that we all know about but aren’t allowed to talk about. I know some rumours,” he added.

Eeesh

Right most people know "open secrets" in their community or profession. Sometimes they get picked up by the public, sometimes they don't, but conspiracy theories that actually come out are almost always in this category.

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