Channel 4

Possibly previously edited for an earlier slot rather than specifically for this showing?

That is my thinking, too.

I think the same happens with any film ITV broadcasts. If there's a possibility that it'll air before the watershed, the edited version will be the only version shown regardless of the time.

Seems to happen increasingly on many channels with all sorts of stuff- possibly to try and avoid previous cock-ups with post-watershed versions going out pre-watershed and getting their wrist slapped by Ofcom they just have a pre-watershed version all the time.

No thanks. Let's not give them this idea at all.

C4 have got a little over-zealous with their editing in recent years I think. For example, bleeping out mildly rude words on Countdown and editing bits out of The Simpsons that Sky 1 leave in in pre-watershed screenings. Mind you, with some of the inane complaints that Ofcom get these days as the snowflake generation seems to get easily offended, its hardly surprising.

Channel 4 (or more specifically Film4) have aired what are officially 12-rated films at 7pm, edited out the strongest language and pushed it out as PG. About A Boy is a key example of this and when they've aired the Airplane! film.

The Simpsons trims on Channel 4 have been going on for years, though probably aggravated somewhat by their insistence on airing it at all hours of the day recently.

The silliest Simpsons edit I recall seeing was a Treehouse of Horror episode where there was a running gag that saw Willie get killed with a pickaxe just before he was about to save the day. The pickaxe in his back was somehow deemed too graphic, so they decided to crop and zoom into his lifeless face as he falls to the ground instead.

If a film or a TV show has to be butchered to make it on air before the watershed, it shouldn't be there in the first place.

There basterd, wanker, bullocks have been cut. Suicide with ppl trying to hang themselves.

But the cuts were just as bad on sky1

Isn't that the Treehouse of Horror segment where Homer the house toaster as a time machine?

While it's true that Sky don't edit as much out of their Simpsons repeats, it's also true that they don't show some of the more rude ones until after 10pm or so which might explain why their edits seem less severe.

Yes it was. Channel 4 are much more consistent with editing than Sky1 but they do keep some until after 10pm (I would just show them unedited on Sky all the time: It's not the like they are a terrestrial channel attracting millions of viewers daily).