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Mary Whitehouse dies aged 91
Media standards campaigner Mary Whitehouse has died at the age of 91.
Mrs Whitehouse, who fought tirelessly to raise broadcasting standards, died at the Abberton Manor Nursing Home in Colchester, Essex, after a long illness.
A spokesman for the home said: 'She passed away peacefully. She had become increasingly frail in recent times.'
Mrs Whitehouse started her Clean Up TV Campaign in 1964.
It became the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association the following year and she acted as its president before stepping down in 1994.
She campaigned for more responsible standards in broadcasting, tighter controls, and changes in the law to make it easier to prosecute TV companies for corruption of morals.
Mrs Whitehouse battled against what she called the 'drip, drip technique' of TV attacking Christian beliefs which she believed set limits to moral principles, social codes, legal precepts and political ethics.
But she always denied being in favour of censorship.
'The very last thing I want to do is to impose my wishes and thoughts on anybody,' she once said.
'One of the things I have fought for is the right of people to make their own judgements.
'I don't think that to stand up and say what one feels puts an imposition on anybody.'
Entertainer Bruce Forsyth said television standards were declining and the media needed more people like her.
'She may have been a little bit over the top at times but TV has become so very, very crude, with the language and subjects and everything. I think we need a few Mary Whitehouses right now,' he told ITV News.
Mrs Whitehouse was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, in 1910 and was an art teacher until her retirement in 1964 when her clean-up campaign began.
Her watchdog group brought a successful private prosecution in 1977 for blasphemous libel against the homosexual paper Gay News, for a poem about a Roman Catholic centurion's homosexual love for Jesus at the crucifixion.
A few years later she initiated a criminal prosecution against National Theatre director Michael Bogdanov for his play The Romans In Britain, which had a simulated gay rape scene. Her lawyer dropped the action midway through the case.
She also protested about Clockwork Orange and Last Tango in Paris.
Mrs Whitehouse criticised a wide range of TV programmes, including Till Death Us Do Part, Benny Hill's 'soft porn' dancers and Dr Who, which she claimed it had nightmare qualities.
The news was also a target. She said 'irresponsible' coverage of Ulster's riots stimulated violence.
Mary Whitehouse dies aged 91
Media standards campaigner Mary Whitehouse has died at the age of 91.
Mrs Whitehouse, who fought tirelessly to raise broadcasting standards, died at the Abberton Manor Nursing Home in Colchester, Essex, after a long illness.
A spokesman for the home said: 'She passed away peacefully. She had become increasingly frail in recent times.'
Mrs Whitehouse started her Clean Up TV Campaign in 1964.
It became the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association the following year and she acted as its president before stepping down in 1994.
She campaigned for more responsible standards in broadcasting, tighter controls, and changes in the law to make it easier to prosecute TV companies for corruption of morals.
Mrs Whitehouse battled against what she called the 'drip, drip technique' of TV attacking Christian beliefs which she believed set limits to moral principles, social codes, legal precepts and political ethics.
But she always denied being in favour of censorship.
'The very last thing I want to do is to impose my wishes and thoughts on anybody,' she once said.
'One of the things I have fought for is the right of people to make their own judgements.
'I don't think that to stand up and say what one feels puts an imposition on anybody.'
Entertainer Bruce Forsyth said television standards were declining and the media needed more people like her.
'She may have been a little bit over the top at times but TV has become so very, very crude, with the language and subjects and everything. I think we need a few Mary Whitehouses right now,' he told ITV News.
Mrs Whitehouse was born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, in 1910 and was an art teacher until her retirement in 1964 when her clean-up campaign began.
Her watchdog group brought a successful private prosecution in 1977 for blasphemous libel against the homosexual paper Gay News, for a poem about a Roman Catholic centurion's homosexual love for Jesus at the crucifixion.
A few years later she initiated a criminal prosecution against National Theatre director Michael Bogdanov for his play The Romans In Britain, which had a simulated gay rape scene. Her lawyer dropped the action midway through the case.
She also protested about Clockwork Orange and Last Tango in Paris.
Mrs Whitehouse criticised a wide range of TV programmes, including Till Death Us Do Part, Benny Hill's 'soft porn' dancers and Dr Who, which she claimed it had nightmare qualities.
The news was also a target. She said 'irresponsible' coverage of Ulster's riots stimulated violence.
