I think I can remember hearing some episodes of the adventures of the special agent – I certainly remember the music – so even in an age when the radio might be switched off, or we might be sent out of the room, if anything unsuitable came on my parents & grandparents cannot have thought it would do me any harm, encourage me into evil ways. All I can remember, all I was capable of understanding, is that he got into danger, threatened by Baddies, the kind who wore black hats in the kind of western I occasionally saw at the pictures when Mummy could not get a babysitter, but Dick Barton always triumphed in the end.
It was extraordinary to hear some of the contemporary reactions from magistrates & other moral arbiters who saw the BBC as encouraging juvenile delinquency. The BBC took fright & Dick Barton was even banned from using the word twerp!
That reminded me of the time David Cameron got into trouble for using the word twat.
Why on earth David Cameron found it necessary to say that his staff would be talking to Facebook about taking down the eulogies to Raoul Moat is beyond me. The idea of imposing such censorship was either a cynical political sop to those who would truly censor such things, or a clever way of keeping that wing of his party on side, or shows a just plain stupid & scary willingness to contemplate inappropriate heavy handedness. It would be better to reflect on why such characters* can always attract sympathy and/or admiration from those who cheer what they see as the defiance of the world that has denied them the chances they deserve.
*Robin Hood, Dick Turpin, Bonnie & Clyde, the IRA ...
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