Hiding the naked truth

You, like me, have probably been listening to the Pogues' Christmas song, Fairytale of New York, for years without noticing the words very much. But the BBC takes lyrics seriously and, after taking its time about it, decided to bleep out the word "faggot" from on-air transmissions. The censorship was short-lived since listeners complained and the BBC did a sharpish U-turn so that we can all enjoy the f-word once more.

The BBC has form for this kind of thing. I remember when it banned Je T'aime in 1960s, the Sex Pistols' rather disrespectful God Save the Queen in the 1970s, and Relax by Frankie Goes to Hollywood in the 1980s.

But I had not realised until reading about it the other day that George Formby had upset the BBC censors with his Little stick of Blackpool rock. It came as quite a shock.

Given this history of British prudishness I don't suppose we should be so surprised that the National Health Service is canvassing people about its plans to feature some lifelike naked images of men and women in an online diagnostic service. It has two versions, one with all the reproductive organs where they should be, and one where the man looks as if he's wearing some flesh-coloured Calvin Klein's. I had thought this "fig-leaf mentality" had died with the end of the Victorian era. Not so.