Quotes

If violence is shown as normal on the television screen it will help to create a violent society.

[on Doctor Who (1963)] I think it's extraordinary that people with a brilliance in many ways, of making a programme of that kind, couldn't have extended their awareness to the effect of what they were doing upon the children who were receiving it. That was almost as though they were a bit dumb.

If they didn't show it on the screen, most people wouldn't know about oral sex.

[from her first public speech] Last Thursday evening, we sat as a family and saw a programme that started at 6.35. And it was the dirtiest programme I have seen for a very long time.

[on The Dig (1990)] As someone who used to watch and enjoy Bergerac (1981), may I say how disappointed I am with its new style. Last night's episode was almost impossible to watch and indeed we turned it off, not least because of the close-up, rapidly changing camera work. Its mood and style was quite unsuitable for family viewing time and one suspects that many adults went to bed with a headache and many children had nightmares! Can we hope that in future it will be considerably less intense and more watchable.

[on Genesis of the Daleks: Part One (1975)] This series has moved from fantasy to real-life violence with cruelty, corpses, poison gas and Nazi-type stormtroopers, not to mention revolting experiments in human genetics.

[on The Seeds of Doom: Part One (1976)] Strangulation - by hand, by claw, by obscene vegetable matter - is the latest gimmick. And, just for a little variety, show the children how to make a Molotov cocktail.

[in 1976] The programme contains some of the sickest and most horrific material ever seen on children's television, but no-one has to take my word that such material is likely to disturb. For young children, even a week may be too long to wait for reassurance that the characters with whom they identify are safe. Doctor Who (1963) has turned into tea-time brutality for tots.

[on The Deadly Assassin: Part Three (1976)] Violence of a quite unacceptable kind. It permeated the programme but reached a climax when the children saw one of the characters - in modern dress - in flames, and then a shocking sequence in which this character, after a vicious close-up fight - got Dr. Who by the throat and held him under the water until he was drowned. Shots which could only be described as sadistic.