Censored Podcast

Episode 1: Rocky Road to Dublin (1967)

How revolutionary was Ireland anyway? Journalist and director Peter Lennon asked how a nation birthed by rebels seemed to be run by Catholic priests. His caustic script allied to Raoul Coutard’s captivating cinematography made for a unique documentary. We discuss odd accents, cheeky children and creepy priests.

Episode 2: Video Nasties, Part I

Lloyd Meadhbh rewinds the tape back to the 1980s, when a new film medium caused a new (ish) moral panic.

Episode 3: Video Nasties, Part II

What’s the worst celluloid crime committed in The Evil Dead: excessive violence or Bruce Campbell’s fringe? Lloyd Meadhbh (a fan) tries to persuade Aoife (a sceptic) to embrace this video-nasty classic. Also, listener correspondence on The Rocky Road to Dublin.

Episode 4: Richard’s Gear (American Gigolo)

Ties, suits and sex – Paul Schrader’s exploration of consumerism and Richard Gere’s hotness was pruned of bad language and “sex scenes” by the Irish censor.

Episode 5: Anti-Natal Nightmares (Rosemary’s Baby)

A horror fan (Lloyd Meadhbh) and not-a-horror fan (Aoife) agree that this unexpectedly feminist film did not deserve to be banned twice in Ireland. Caveat: Roman Polanski directed it.

Episode 6: A Celluloid Nasty (Peeping Tom)

One of Martin Scorsese’s favourite films and guess what? We agree, it’s brilliant. Contemporary audiences detested it, preferring to ignore why they derived pleasure from realistic, filmed torture and terror. This film has everything from Freudianism to a Hitchcock doppelganger. Cuts made by censors might be lost forever but it still shocks and gives us a perfect amount of ick.

Episode 7: The Wild Bunch

In Sam Peckinpah’s film, standard Western tropes – outlaws, heroes, beautiful landscape – are used to interrogate an exhausted genre. He knows spectacular gunfights are problematic but did the cut version shown in Ireland convey Peckinpah’s intent?

Episode 8: Abject Grace (feat. Rob Doyle)

This remarkable neo-noir, directed by Abel Ferrara, has never been certified by the Irish Film Classification Office (the new name for the censor’s office). Aoife and Lloyd Meadhbh are joined by author Rob Doyle to discuss how Abel Ferrara and Zoe Lund, with backgrounds in porno sleaze, made a sincere film about redemption, and forgiveness.

Episode 9: Transparent Classification

Censors have been replaced by classifiers, opaque silence by annual reports. We read recent annual reports from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and the Irish Film Classification Office (IFCO) to see how those offices work in a digital media age, and to see what the (complaining) public thinks of their role.

Episode 10: Interview with the Censor

In our last (for now) episode, we chat to John Kelleher who was appointed Irish film censor in 2003. When he left in 2009, the Irish Film Censor’s Office had been renamed the Irish Film Classification Office, a reform that reflected how it had become, as John says ‘more guide dog than guard dog’.

Filthy Films: A Teaser

What do you do when you’ve read a lot of smutty books? Watch dirty films, of course. This season is about films that annoyed the censors. And, to double your fun, there are now two hosts: Aoife Bhreatnach and Lloyd Meadhbh Houston. Here’s a taste of what to expect from us

Episode 1: Caught in the Act

Film censorship in Ireland is a hundred years old this year. What were Irish cinema goers watching in 1923, and what would the Censor keep them from watching in the future? Find out in this bumper anniversary episode.

Episode 2: “It” Girls

We investigate “It”, a type of sex appeal that raised the temperatures of cinema goers and censors in the 1930s. “It” was personified in the screen personas of Clara Bow and Mae West, but, did you know that tigers and Derry also have “It”?

Episode 3: Blasphemy!

How did the Irish Censor feel about Biblical epics? How could a convent have a “sex atmosphere”? We find out, discuss Mary Magdalene’s spangled bikini, and try to work out how sexy an Englishman is legally permitted to be in 1940s Ireland.

Episode 4: An Underground Scene

We learn about an illegal “stag” film scene in 1950s Dublin and the ends to which the state would go to punish those involved.

[Content note: mental illness, self harm, and suicide.]

Episode 5: Don’t Mention the War

War brings propaganda, and propaganda invites censorship. We explore what happens when you can’t mention a war, and how the “Emergency” saw Betty Grable’s legs withdrawn from war-time Irish cinemas.

Episode 6: Ulster Said No!

Lloyd Meadhbh explains the North of Ireland’s special censorship sauce to Aoife. There’s cross-border agreement, even more censors than usual and a bit of flogging…

Episode 7: (Un)Willkommen

A film beloved by our hosts that proved too much for the Irish censor. Was it Liza Minnelli’s (as Sally Bowles) legs or men fancying other men? The answer is quite surprising. But then, so is writing a musical about genocide.

[Content note: discussions of queerphobia, anti-Semitism, and genocide.]

Episode 8: The Graduate

Banned, appealed, cut eleven times: “The Graduate” (1967) had a torrid time in Ireland. What narrative were Irish audiences allowed to see? And, Mrs Robinson, we stan.

Episode 9: Devilish

According to its US trailer, Ken Russell’s The Devils is ‘not a film for everyone’, but, it’s definitely a film for us. Satanism, orgies, exorcisms – what’s not to love? Join us for a complicated censorship story of different cuts for different censors.

[Content note: sexual assault, sexual violence, torture.]

Episode 10: Censorship by Sharpie

Did you know DIY censorship was practiced by those outside the film censor’s office. Even after official censors vetted publicity material, some film posters showed too much skin, especially male arms and legs.