Yours, Not-Nearly-Disgusted-Enough Of Tunbridge Wells...

Given the nauseating frequency of whining complaint letters from prudes, philistines, bigots and shitwits who seem totally unable to locate a 'change channel' or 'off' button on their remote when life so desperately requires it, this gem from the "Duty Log Mental" section of the excellent Holy Moly Weekly Mailshot is a genuinely refreshing change...


Dear ITV
I am writing to complain in the strongest terms about the level of violent and sexually explicit scenes in the recent TV series Lost In Austen. To begin with there was virtually no violence at all. There were plenty of occasions where the lead characters could have "mixed things up a little" by delivering a hard slap across the face, a kick in the shins or a kidney punch. These are all fairly standard fare in television drama these days, and the level of excitement in this series could have been considerably enhanced but their more liberal use.

When Jemima Rooper's character finally delivered an entirely deserved knee in the groin, my wife and I found ourselves punching the air and shouting "at last!" Then there were the sexually explicit scenes, sorry, no there weren't - they were entirely missing! In a programme that puports to be a modern slant on a novel which in it's day, was considered highly passionate, risque even, I should have thought there would be ample justification for nudity and sexual scenes.

Indeed, it was only the prospect of there being, eventually, a bit of exposed flesh that kept my wife and I viewing this series to the bitter end. Ultimately we felt rather cheated and wished we'd spent the time watching the excellent re-runs of The Sweeney on Men and Motors.

The whole point of the so called watershed is that it offers the adult viewer a degree of certainty about the level of gratuitous sex and violence they can look forward to in programming shown at this time. My children however, enjoyed the series enormously, though they were somewhat disappointed by lack of swearing even by the modern day characters. I hope you will pass these comments on to the programme makers.

(via email - unedited)