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Press Releases
Julie Walters to play Mary Whitehouse in new ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ drama
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³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Two has commissioned an original drama about renowned taste and decency campaigner Mary Whitehouse – 40 years after her battle with the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Director-General over The Beatles' use of the word "knickers."
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With Julie Walters starring as Mary Whitehouse and Hugh Bonneville playing her arch-enemy, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Director-General, Hugh Carleton Greene, Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story will bring to life the battle for Britain's morals that raged in the Sixties.
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Julie Walters said: "I am very excited to be playing Mary Whitehouse, and to be looking at the time when she attacked the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and started to make her name."
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In an era that spawned Carnaby Street, the Profumo scandal, and the Fab Four, Mary Whitehouse was the voice of those that had no desire to join the permissive age.
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Armed only with her own sense of good Christian values and a sharp tongue, Mary Whitehouse was on a mission to stop "filth" entering family homes via the media.
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Backed by her loyal husband Ernest (Alun Armstrong), Mary set out to fight an almighty war with some heroic and surprising victories along the way.
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Written by Amanda Coe and based on first-hand documented accounts, the film has at its heart two great, and very strong-willed, characters – Mary Whitehouse who leads her Clean-Up TV campaign donned in her best coat and hat, versus ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Director-General Hugh Carleton Greene, who in his determination to modernise British television, responds to Mary's campaign by commissioning a painting of a nude, five-breasted Mrs Whitehouse for his office.
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Leanne Klein, Executive Producer at Wall to Wall, said: "We are totally delighted to have such a wonderful actress as Julie Walters in the starring role.
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"She will bring so much to the surprising and often very funny story of the rise of Mary Whitehouse, and her David-and-Goliath type struggle with the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ."
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Lucy Richer, Commissioning Editor, Independent Drama Commissioning, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ, commented: "This fantastic, revealing film brings to light the controversy that marked the launch of ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Two, whose groundbreaking programmes so infuriated Mary Whitehouse.
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"The clash of values between Mary and Hugh Carleton Greene is a battle of hearts and minds – an entertaining portrait of a time which shaped the TV we watch today."
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Produced by Richard Burrell (Robin Hood) and directed by Andy de Emmony (Bafta-nominated Fantabulosa!, The Canterbury Tales), Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story is a landmark film for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Two, and the latest instalment in a number of rich dramas commissioned by the channel, from Shoot The Messenger, Tsunami, and The Line Of Beauty, to forthcoming dramas on Robert Maxwell (Maxwell) and Daphne du Maurier (Daphne).
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Filth: The Mary Whitehouse Story, a 90-minute film to be broadcast in 2007, is commissioned by Jane Tranter, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Controller, Fiction, from independent production company Wall to Wall.
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Notes to Editors
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Amanda Coe's many TV writing credits include the award-winning Channel 4 series As If, which she devised and wrote; several episodes of Shameless; and the recently aired Elizabeth David: A Life In Recipes.
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