Well, I suppose comedian Stewart Lee, who wrote the lyrics to
'Jerry Springer The Opera', should be pleased really:
I didn't realise people could still get this pissed off about a TV show. Reports this morning suggest that the BBC had to employ a security firm to look after two of its senior executives this weekend after the uproar of the unedited TV screening of the Jerry Springer musical went into hyperdrive - among the 50,000 complaints the BBC received before the show had even aired were a number of "threatening" and "abusive" phone calls aimed at BBC2 Controller Roly Keating, and the BBC's
Director of Television, Jana Bennett - some coming directly to the BBC execs after the Christian Voice website published their phone numbers.
The
BBC stuck to their guns and went ahead with their screening of the West End show, with initial stats suggesting some 1.8 million viewers tuned in, considerably up on the audience achieved by your average televised opera. After the screening a spokesman for the Beeb told reporters: ìWe are pleased that a wider audience has been able to see this important piece of contemporary musical theatreî.
The screening of the show - which caused offense for being both ìobsceneî and ìblasphemousî - got an unprecedented number of complaints. OfCom received more than 7000 complaints - substantially more that the previous record holder for complaints received by a broadcasting watchdog, which was for the TV screening of Martin Scorsese's film 'The
Last Temptation of Christ', which scored 1554 complaints back in 1995. However BBC bosses say that the majority of the complaints came by email and followed a standard form letter supplied by the Christian groups who opposed the screening.
The high number of complaints was due, they argue, to the fact it is much easier to complain in the internet age.
**Stephen
Green**, the boss of Christian Voice, whose organisation staged peaceful protests against the screening of the show at various
BBC offices over the weekend, distanced himself from the threats to BBC executives, but admitted his organisation had been "naive" to publish their home number and said they had been removed when BBC lawyers complained. However, they stand by their decision to try and prosecute the BBC through the courts using the common law offence of blasphemy, which should prove interesting because, while the tabloid press were keen to jump on the bandwagon and damn the show last week, few media organisations like supporting the suppression of freedom of speech through the courts, even when their rivals are in the dock.
No word on whether Paul McCartney can be persuaded to incorporate extracts in his Superbowl show later this year, though the producers of the stage show are cashing in on the controversy by offering ticket discounts to anyone who brings a bible to the box office.
Wonderful.