Sex and Violence

Although this episode was fortunate enough to survive the BBC's wiping policy of the 1970s and is still held by the BBC on its master tape, it has never been transmitted due to fears within the BBC that it contained libelous depictions of living people. Made as the fourth episode of the third series and intended to be transmitted sixth, the concern over the episode's content was internal to the BBC, with the official publicly given reason for Doomwatch running an episode short in 1972 being that a "sub standard production" had been rejected on "technical grounds". When director Darrol Blake objected to this description, which could have harmed his career, a "clarifying" statement was issued indicating that the complex topic with which the episode dealt needed more than the allotted 52m and that the writer and director were not to be blamed. Despite later assumptions any controversy regarding this episode spoofing real-life personalities was unconnected with the series being canceled during production of "The Devil's Demolition", the final episode of season three, months later. This was due to the series having halved its ratings since the first season and the public disapproval of the series' recent direction by creators Gerry Davis and Kit Pedler, who had walked off the programme during series two.

Features Cannibal Holocaust (1980)