The BN Village - View Single Post - Jerry Springer

LadyDay · (#1 (**permalink**))

WILL ANYONE BE WATCHING THIS BBC2 10PM Jerry springer the opera. it has caused outrage before being screened tonight due to blaspheme and swearing

Jerry Springer: the Opera, the outrageous award-winning musical based on the programme's more notorious guests. Contains very strong language.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...io/4154071.stm

BBC braced for Springer criticism

The show's star David Soul has also defended the broadcastThe BBC is bracing itself for further criticism as it prepares to screen Jerry Springer - The Opera on Saturday.
Christian protesters sang hymns and said prayers outside BBC buildings prior to the show's broadcast on BBC Two at 2200 GMT.
And the Conservatives have joined the attack on the screening, with deputy leader Michael Ancram saying the BBC had a duty to exercise caution.
Meanwhile the BBC insisted there were fewer than 300 swear words in the show.
'Broadest definition'
A reported total of 8,000 obscenities was reached by adding every swear word sung by each member of the 27-strong chorus.
However, on Saturday, a BBC spokesperson said the number was less than 300 and was arrived at "even using the broadest definition of an offensive word".
The BBC has received around 45,000 complaints over the controversial stage show - mostly about swearing levels and the show's religious themes.
But director general Mark Thompson has defended the corporation's decision to screen the play, which continues to run to packed audiences in London's West End.
Practising Christian
Mr Thompson, himself a practising Christian, said he believed there was nothing blasphemous in the production and was going out after the watershed with "very, very clear" warnings about strong language.

There is nothing in this which I believe to be blasphemous

Mark Thompson
BBC director general
Stephen Green, national director of Christian Voice, said: "I find it astonishing that Mark Thompson and David Soul claim they are Christians and they can see nothing wrong with Jerry Springer - The Opera.
"What kind of Christians are the sort of people who find mocking God and Jesus Christ acceptable?
"If this show portrayed Mohammed or Vishnu as homosexual, ridiculous and ineffectual, it would never have seen the light of day."
About 150 protesters, some bearing placards calling for senior BBC staff to be sacked, were gathered outside BBC Television Centre on Saturday night before the show was due to be screened.
Imran Joseph, 38, a caterer from Feltham, Middlesex, said the BBC should have pulled the plug on the show in the face of "an intense volume of criticism".

A lot of people in this country feel the same

Frank Saunders
Protester

Have your say - should the BBC show it?
"There should be freedom of speech but there should never be freedom for desecration," he said.
And charity fundraiser Derek Cartwright, 64, of east London, said the show's "mockery" of Jesus Christ and God "lowers the moral tone of the nation".
"Showing Jerry Springer - The Opera sews evil into people and scandalises Christianity.
"It shows Jesus as a homosexual and that is entirely false."
At a similar TV Centre broadcast a day earlier protester Frank Saunders, a security manager from Brentwood, Essex, said: "It's the last straw. The standards of broadcasting have slipped far too low. "
About 30 people also protested outside BBC Broadcasting House in Cardiff on Saturday night with a similar-sized demonstration taking place outside the corporation's offices in Birmingham.
BBC facilities in Belfast and Plymouth were also targeted by demonstrators.
The National Secular Society has defended the BBC's right to screen it, urging the BBC not to give in to "religious bullies".
Organised attack
Vice-president Terry Sanderson said: "This organised attack is the latest of a series of attempts by religious interests to control what we can see or say in this country."
TV lobby group Mediawatch-UK has written to BBC chairman Michael Grade claiming the show breached the corporation's guidelines on respecting religious sensibilities.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions on Saturday, Conservative deputy leader Michael Ancram added his voice to the protest.
"What they are trying to do is to get people to watch it because they think it is going to shock them. I don't think it is the duty of the BBC to do that," said Mr Ancram.