A familiar set of headlines last week: Brits are growing more prudish. The James Bond film From Russia With Love would today be slapped with a higher age rating: modern audiences fret about the violence. A long sex scene in the 2018 film Vita & Virginia would now move it from a 12A to a 15. We are, meanwhile, growing more worried about references to suicide and misogynistic language. You can’t say anything these days.
But within the findings of the vast research project conducted by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) was a little noticed second story: Brits are growing less prudish. We are getting more relaxed about cannabis on screen: a new biopic of Bob Marley would previously have been a slam dunk for a 15 rating, according to Natasha Kaplinsky, the board’s president. It will now be a 12A. We are also less bothered about older teens seeing references to sex, especially in a comic context: risqué jokes that used to merit an 18 rating might now get a 15. You can say everything these days.
