Censorship and the Permissive Society

Stage or film presentations of "Look Back in Anger", "A Taste of Honey", "Alfie" and "Darling" were much changed, even transformed, by censorship between 1955-1965. This study highlights the debate over the liberalizing or progressive aspects of social changes affecting British society at the time. A key decade in the postwar social and cultural history of Britain, the period saw a noticeable move towards "decensorship" and the loosening of traditional constraints imposed on literature, plays and films. Anthony Aldgate shows, however, that censorship altered the progression of the artistic and creative renaissance of this period, and how the process brought changes in the work of writers and directors. Drawing upon a mass of recently released or hitherto unseen documentation - including records, files and photographs from the British Board of Film Censors and Lord Chamberlain's Office - this volume charts the impact of the censorship process between 1955 and 1965 upon playwrights and directors, many of whom endured the rigorous scrutiny of the film and theatre censors.