The Mary Whitehouse Experience
| The Mary Whitehouse Experience | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Bill Dare |
| Starring |
David Baddiel Rob Newman Steve Punt Hugh Dennis Mark Hurst (radio only) |
| Opening theme | Jack to the Sound of the Underground by Hithouse |
| Composer(s) | Peter Slaghuis, Simon Brint |
| Country of origin | United Kingdom |
| No. of episodes | 44 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | William Sargent Joanna Beresford |
| Producer(s) | Marcus Mortimer, Armando Iannucci |
| Running time | 30 mins |
| Production company(s) | BBC, Spitting Image Productions |
| Release | |
| Original network | BBC Radio 1 (March 1989-December 1990), BBC2 |
| Original release | 3 October 1990 – 6 April 1992 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows |
The Imaginatively Titled Punt & Dennis Show Newman and Baddiel in Pieces |
The Mary Whitehouse Experience is a British topical sketch comedy show produced by the BBC in association with Spitting Image Productions. It starred two comedy double acts - David Baddiel and Rob Newman, and also Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis, all of whom had graduated from Cambridge University. It was broadcast on both radio and television in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The show was named after Mary Whitehouse, a campaigner against what she saw as a decline in television standards and public morality. She became the target of mockery in the UK for her attitudes. The BBC feared Whitehouse would initiate litigation for the use of her name in the show's title, and for a period the alternative title The William Rees-Mogg Experience was considered.
A radio pilot was broadcast on 10 March 1989 on BBC Radio 1 and a series of 13 shows began on 7 April the same year. The format was devised by Bill Dare. The two pairings of Newman and Baddiel and Punt and Dennis were central to the show, with support from Nick Hancock, Jo Brand, Jack Dee, Mark Thomas and Mark Hurst. The show also included musical interludes from Skint Video and The Tracy Brothers.
It was originally aired at midnight on Friday. It was subsequently moved to a 10:30pm slot, before being moved again for its fourth and final series to 7pm on Saturday evenings. The show ran for four series and a special (44 episodes in total) from March 1989 to December 1990.
In the episode originally broadcast on 17 March 1990, there was a brief reference to Robert Newman losing his virginity to a music teacher, a Mr Clulow, in detention. This is widely thought to be a reference to Peter Clulow, a former music teacher at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School (where David Baddiel was a pupil) who left the school in the mid-1980s following allegations concerning indecent approaches to the boys. Clulow was subsequently convicted and imprisoned on charges of indecent assault and one count of causing a child to engage in sexual activity.
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