Sexual intercourse began, of course, in 1963. And so, by absolutely no coincidence, did what would become the 30-year campaigning career of Mary Whitehouse. The Nuneaton art teacher-turned-scourge of the permissive society and moral decay the 60s had ushered in was at the peak of her fame and power during my childhood in the early 80s. I was already surrounded by northern matriarchs of unswerving personal convictions, so it seemed to me that one more added to the mix could make no difference.
Whitehouse, however, did. Not to the children who came within clouting/educational range like my militant lineup of local battleaxes (although I suspect she could deliver a clip round the ear with the best of them) but to the nation. The two-part, two-hour documentary Banned! The Mary Whitehouse Story (BBC Two) is an exhaustive – and slightly exhausting – look at how and why she engaged in her long and impassioned struggle against Britain’s decline and what its effects, intended and unintended, were.
