More sex please, we're British

WHEN Billy Elliot was shown in cinemas in France, the film was awarded a U-certificate by the censors. You could see it whatever your age and, if you were a child, without an accompanying adult.

In this country, the story of a North-East miner's son who wants to be a ballet dancer was given a 15 rating by the British Board of Film Classication because of 50-plus uses of the f-word. No one under 15 was legally allowed into the cinema. Not even its underage star, Billingham actor Jamie Bell, although he'd used some of the offending words on screen. The video release also received a 15 certificate.

When the Brit-hit, partly financed by BBC Films, is shown on terrestrial TV in the next few years, it will be shown uncut after the 9pm watershed. Billy Elliot illustrates that it's not so much what you see and hear on screen but how and where you want to view it that counts. Changing attitudes towards matters of sex, violence and swearing only serve to blur the issue.

Undoubtedly, Channel 4 will receive complaints over screening Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange tomorrow. An outcry of the level that greeted the cinema release in 1971 won't happen. Scenes of brutal violence and gang rape remain tough viewing, but the truth is that we've seen much more explicit stuff in cinemas and on TV since then.

The controversy surrounding A Clockwork Orange was kept alive by Kubrick himself when he withdrew the film from circulation three years after its release, the first time a director had "banned" his own film. He was reacting to reports that the thuggish behaviour of Alex and his gang on screen had resulted in copycat crimes off-screen. Only after his death in 1999 did Warner Bros re-release the film in cinemas and on video.

What we can see in cinemas and on video is still strictly regulated by the BBFC. The name change from censors to classifiers and a new openness in its work reflects a desire to be seen not as a lapdog of the nanny state but an organisation in touch with public opinion.

Television remains self-regulatory, with programme makers and TV companies keeping themselves in check. Adult material is placed after the 9pm watershed. Upset viewers can complain to the various TV watchdogs, which have powers to fine and, ultimately, take away the licence of the franchise holders.

There are few taboos left. Soaps have pushed back the barriers in the pre-watershed period and been rebuked by the TV watchdogs for dealing with adult issues, including rape, incest and homosexuality, in the early evening schedules. As soaps are the most popular form of drama, there's no likelihood makers will be restraining themselves in future. Controversial storylines equal higher audiences and ratings is the name of the game. The days when the BBC banned dramas such as the Borstal drama Scum and Dennis Potter's Brimstone And Treacle, in which a mentally-ill girl is raped by a satanic figure, are long gone. Both were shelved by Auntie in the 1970s and then remade into 18-rated cinema movies. The TV versions have since been shown on the small screen.

Films with adult content no longer worry TV executives. They can screen them uncut in late night slots. The Last Temptation Of Christ, The Exorcist and Last Tango In Paris all caused a furore when first shown in cinemas but have been screened on terrestrial TV to no great outcry. Another 1970s film, Straw Dogs, was unfairly lumped in with cheaper, nastier video nasties in the past, and has not been available on video for 30 years. The British-made drama, starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George, was finally released uncut on video this month. Screening on cable and satellite, followed by terrestrial TV, can't be far behind.

While the TV off-switch gives viewers censorship at their fingertips, films and video continue to be assessed before reaching the public. Not so much censored as put into clearly labelled piles according to guidelines, updated to conform to changes in what the public will accept. The policy remains very much "not in front of the children". Classification is designed to protect young minds open to corruption.

Cinema films, like TV programmes, contain more bad language, sex and violence than used to be allowed. The BBFC has now made the 12-certificate advisory, leaving parents to decide if a child is mature enough to see such a film. Before, a 12 film meant no one under 12 was admitted. Now the under-12s can attend if accompanied by an adult.

This follows the backlash when summer blockbuster SpiderMan was given a 12, because of the level of violence. This barred many of its target audience, eagerly awaiting the film as a result of massive marketing and merchandising campaigns. Between 20 and 30 of the 464 local authorities that have the power to overturn BBFC rulings changed it to a PG, enabling youngsters to see the picture.

BBFC Director Robin Duvall says the board had already launched a pilot scheme in Norwich to evaluate if the public would accept a 12A (advisory) rating. That research, together with a poll of 4,000 people, found that parents welcomed the chance to decide for themselves what their children see.

"From the whole consultation process, one of the clearest signals from the public was that they found the c-word unacceptable," says Duvall. "Our guidelines respond to what the public will accept. We are a public organisation, it's not for us to say, 'you're a load of fools, go away'." He admits the public is "more relaxed" about sex than the BBFC had been properly aware. He instances an explicit love-making scene in Monster's Ball, for which star Halle Berry won an Oscar. This "remarkable scene" would never have been given a 15 a few years ago, he says. Simulated sex merits an 18, while real sex an 18R and is only available in licensed sex shops.

The BBFC tours a road show round the country, meeting schoolchildren between 15 and 18 to discuss censorship issues. "We find they're much more sophisticated and media literate than they were ten years ago," he says, but doesn't anticipate further easing of the rules to make the 15 and 18 certificates advisory. "We don't permit anything at 12A level we consider harmful to children. The moment you get a 15 or 18 you're beginning to expect content that's inappropriate for a child, whether accompanied or not.

"The response to the 12A has been encouraging. There have been concerns, but overwhelmingly people have seen it as an overdue development. It pays respect to the ability of the British public to behave in a responsible way."

TV and film regulators get it wrong despite their best intentions. Occasionally, there are moans that matters haven't gone far enough. The BBFC received a complaint that Bram Stoker's Legend Of The Mummy 2 failed to supply the erotic content promised on the video cover. And inevitably, BBC2's new lesbian drama Tipping The Velvet attracted complaints with its same sex love scenes.

Less predictable were viewers complaining it wasn't explicit enough and they'd been promised something much raunchier by the advance publicity. A case for the Trade Description Act rather than the censor.

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