In 1964, Mary Whitehouse launched a campaign to fight what she called the 'propaganda of disbelief, doubt and dirt' being poured into homes through the nation's radio and television sets. Whitehouse, senior mistress at a Shropshire secondary school, became the unlikely figurehead of a mass movement for censorship: the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association, now Mediawatch-uk.

For almost forty years, she kept up the fight against the programme makers, politicians, pop stars and playwrights who she felt were dragging British culture into a sewer of blasphemy and obscenity. From Doctor Who ('Teatime brutality for tots') to Dennis Potter (whose mother sued her for libel and won) to the Beatles - whose Magical Mystery Tour escaped her intervention by the skin of its psychedelic teeth - the list of Mary Whitehouse's targets will read to some like a nostalgic roll of honour.

Caricatured while she lived as a figure of middle-brow reaction, Mary Whitehouse was held in contempt by the country's intellectual elite. But were some of the dangers she warned of more real than they imagined?

Ben Thompson's selection of material from her extraordinary archive shows Mary Whitehouse's legacy in a startling new light. From her exquisitely testy exchanges with successive BBC Directors General, to the anguished screeds penned by her television and radio vigilantes, these letters reveal a complex and combative individual, whose anxieties about culture and morality are often eerily relevant to the age of the internet.

'A fantastic read . . . I can't recommend it highly enough.' Lauren Laverne, BBC Radio 6 Music

In Ban This Filth!, Ben Thompson unveils the filth and the fury from the Mary Whitehouse archive! The birth of British pop culture and the swinging sixties told through outraged letters and angry campaigns.

About the Author
Ben Thompson is one of Britain's most respected cultural critics. He currently contributes to the Financial Times, Mojo and the Sunday Telegraph. As well as two critically acclaimed collections of rock journalism (Seven Years of Plenty and Ways of Hearing) and a landmark history of modern British comedy (Sunshine on Putty), he has co-written memoirs with Vic Reeves (Me Moir), Phil Daniels (Class Actor), Mike Skinner (The Story of the Streets), Dizzee Rascal (The Dirtee Truth), and others who would prefer the collaborative nature of their bestselling autobiographical endeavours to remain a private matter.


Book Information
ISBN 9780571281510
Author Ben Thompson
Format Paperback
Page Count 424
Imprint Faber & Faber
Publisher Faber & Faber
Weight(grams) 330g
Dimensions(mm) 199mm * 127mm * 26mm