Video Nasties, Mary Whitehouse and Censorship (Part 1)

Britain in the early 1980s. A nation gripped by fear.

Not of war. Not of crime.

But of what was lurking... on the video shelf.

Cheap horror films. Violent exploitation movies. Unregulated VHS tapes passed from hand to hand…

They became known by one unforgettable name...

...the Video Nasties.

At the centre of the storm stood one woman - Mary Whitehouse

To some she was a campaigner. A Champion. A moral crusader.

To others a puritanical, self-appointed moral guardian…

She argued Britain was losing its moral compass...

Her critics argued Britain was losing something else...

It’s freedom.

The debate raged over who decides what we're allowed to watch?

And when does protecting society become controlling it?

Police raids… banned films… media-fuelled moral panic…

This is the story of a cultural battle that changed British censorship forever.

This is Video Nasties: Mary Whitehouse and the Battle Over Censorship.

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