Mr Willow’s Wife, Radio 4 Extra, 17 March 2023

Complaint

The broadcast was one of a series of repeats of a situation comedy made in the early 1970s, and was preceded by a continuity announcement which said it was “first broadcast in 1971, dressed in attitudes and language that reflect the era”.  A listener objected to the announcement on the basis that it manifested partiality towards contemporary mores.  The ECU considered the complaint in the light of the BBC’s standards of impartiality.


Outcome

In the ECU’s view the announcement simply alerted listeners to material which they might consider offensive in relation to today’s standards.  It did not mean that those standards were necessarily preferable to those which prevailed when the series was made.
Not Upheld