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BBC Executives Threatened Over Jerry Springer Opera

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Posted by: forwardone

BBC has called in police to investigate a torrent of abusive calls made to the homes of its senior executives before its broadcast of a profanity-laden opera, a BBC spokesman said on Saturday.

Security guards are protecting senior BBC executives after phone threats were made by campaigners irate over last night’s screening of the allegedly blasphemous Jerry Springer musical, the Opera features a nappy fetishist, a tap dance routine by the Ku Klux Klan, and Jesus and the devil locked in a swearing match.

Critics allege the show, which was shown uncut on BBC2 last night, features more than 8,000 swear words and are angry at scenes showing Jesus in a nappy, admitting he is "a bit gay".

The BBC insists there are fewer than 300 offensive words in the opera, even under the broadest definition of the term, including 117 ‘f-words’ and seven ‘c-words’.

It is believed Roly Keating, the controller of BBC2, and Jana Bennett, the director of television, are among those who have been given security guard protection.

A BBC spokesman said: "Roly and a number of other BBC staff and their families have been the subject of a large number of abusive and unpleasant calls."

Private telephone numbers of those concerned were posted on a campaign group’s website.

The spokesman added: "Our lawyers were able to have the website taken down. The matter has been reported to police in the normal way."

A senior manager, who did not wish to be named, said a number of small children received the phone threats.

The disputed 8,000 figure is arrived at by multiplying the number of swear words by the number of people in the chorus singing them in the show.

By early afternoon yesterday, the BBC had received 45,000 calls and letters on the issue but stressed that some correspondence had been supportive of the decision to air the show.

Last night, prayer group Christian Voice held a vigil outside BBC Television Centre in Wood Lane, west London.

The storm took on a political dimension after Tory deputy leader Michael Ancram joined the criticism. He said: "You can choose to go to the theatre, you can decide that you want to pay a sum of money to go to see something. That is where you go to see freedom of expression."

BBC director general Mark Thompson defended the move to air the musical, saying that as a practising Christian he found nothing in the show he believed to be blasphemous.

Geoff


Posted by: forwardone

Quote:
BBC chiefs are facing legal action for blasphemy after screening the controversial musical Jerry Springer: The Opera.

And guards have been brought in to protect the homes of BBC executives responsible for broadcasting the show which was watched by 1.8 million people on Saturday evening.

BBC2 controller Roly Keating and director of television Jana Bennett have fled their London homes following death threats against them.

Geoff


Posted by: betrdanevr

Good grief!

I'm not in love with Springer, and he probably should have done this in the Italian theater or something as opposed to the British , but nothing irks me quite as much as when the conservative "Christian" right goes bonkers and turns into the antithesis of Godliness.


Posted by: forwardone

This has caused huge controversy over here. I think the point that`s been made Terri is that if a show depicted virtually any other religion in the same way as this one has there would be a such an uproar that I`m convinced it would never have been aired.

In other words it`s a case of political correctness when it suits.

Geoff



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