The "decapitation" of Diana is removed on the TV airings, but not the one of Charles.
Animated Bean was primetime Saturday night when it started. It was revived again last year for the CITV channel, but AFAIK all the episodes from all the series air in rotation on there.
Channel 4's editing of The Simpsons is odd because it's as bad as Sky's editing of the same episodes in the 1990s, but removing completely different things. Sky tended to see it as a kid-friendly cartoon and cut mild swear words and the odd bit of cartoon violence (Halloween and Itchy & Scratchy-episodes were cut to ribbons), leading to some episodes becoming completely surreal and baffling - my favourite example being where the closing punchline of an episode was removed simply for the presence of the word "ass", meaning a character simply said "Hi everybody!" followed by a sudden and confusing cut to the end credits, mid sentence. For years I thought it was just the show being deliberately weird and Pythonesque for the hell of it rather than something being cut. New episodes went out mostly unedited after about 1997, and the older ones were slowly replaced with uncut copies during the early 2000s.
BBC's editing was similar to Sky's with the odd exception - a scene of Richard Nixon in a Halloween special was cut to remove a mention of him still being alive, which wasn't true by the time it aired on the channel. A few seconds around ad-breaks were also cut to remove any obvious gaps between parts which were redundant on commercial-free telly, such as the same moment being repeated twice. One pointless edit was the removal of a joke "Next week on The Simpsons" closing gag, which might have been a snip-happy editor getting confused and thinking it was an actual trailer for the next episode, rather than just a parody of one.
Channel 4 initially seemed to pride themselves on broadcasting uncut episodes - on the first night showing the series in 2004 they showed a few clips featuring cut footage from Sky. That all changed a year later when there were complaints about a 20 year old episode that negatively referenced New Orleans being shown soon after Hurricane Katrina, and suddenly the scissors went everywhere - this time the focus was less "This might not be suitable for kids" and more "This might offend adults" so you had references to Indian gods cut out in an Apu-themed episode, various scenes or references of natural disasters like tsunamis taken out, and the word "gay" removed if it's used as a punchline. The most bizarre cut I've read was a line joking that the cartoonist Matt Groening can't draw - the guy who created the show in the first place and an obvious playful gag, but I think it may actually have been removed at some point by a clueless editor who didn't know who he was but thought they'd cut it just in case this Matt Groening bloke complains to the channel or something...
The most fuss has been over an infamous episode where Homer buys a gun. Meant to air in 1997, Sky banned it completely as it was a bit too soon after Dunblane and other events of the time. It was a video-only episode for years until BBC2 aired it quietly without fanfare in late 2001, and Sky finally aired it themselves in the mid-noughties.
Even then, when Channel 4 began showing it, a subtle bit of editing changed the ending completely from the show's intention - in the original, Marge is about to throw the gun away, but decides to secretly keep it instead, and walks off confidently to a dramatic music sting. In Channel 4's edit, Marge appears to actually throw the gun away instead, still walking off to the same music sting but one which now has a different meaning. Neither BBC or Sky cut the ending, at least not a decade ago - Sky may do the same now, if the episode even remains in circulation given the increased worldwide focus on US gun crime in the last five years.
Channel 4's editing of The Simpsons is odd because it's as bad as Sky's editing of the same episodes in the 1990s, but removing completely different things.
If you want more Simpsons info, a fansite listed the Sky/BBC cuts up to 2001:
That's reminded me about 'The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson'. A sufficient amount of time has now passed that it can be shown regularly again, but I think the line 'They stick all the jerks in Tower One' has now been permanently removed for obvious reasons.
Watching Mrs Doubtfire tonight on Channel 4 and it was, understandably, packed with edits to cut out swear words and one instance of a middle finger.
I work as a video editor (sadly not in TV) and I've always wondered whose job it is to screen a movie before its airing to rid it of any profanities or unsuitable material. Are there specific staff members at Channel 4 whose job it is to stick a movie into Adobe Premiere and edit it? There were some relatively creative workarounds that I noticed, more so than some of the hack jobs I've seen ITV commit.
All major broadcasters will have a compliance department which ensures that programmes are suitable for the slot and also issue all the guidance warnings (Dentons, as they're called at the Beeb) for the announcers to read and so on. When complying programmes they'll sometimes note things that need to be edited out, not just for pre-watershed but also other Ofcom-bothering things like product placement or election impartiality.
A number of programmes will have pre- and post-watershed versions available, as well as the compliance edits it's not uncommon for factual shows to be commissioned and delivered in pre-shed and post-shed versions (happened quite often on BBC Three). Scheduling software should usually flag when a version has been scheduled in an incorrect slot but a look back through Ofcom bulletins shows it doesn't always work, especially on local TV!
Watching Mrs Doubtfire tonight on Channel 4 and it was, understandably, packed with edits to cut out swear words and one instance of a middle finger.
I work as a video editor (sadly not in TV) and I've always wondered whose job it is to screen a movie before its airing to rid it of any profanities or unsuitable material. Are there specific staff members at Channel 4 whose job it is to stick a movie into Adobe Premiere and edit it? There were some relatively creative workarounds that I noticed, more so than some of the hack jobs I've seen ITV commit.
All major broadcasters will have a compliance department which ensures that programmes are suitable for the slot and also issue all the guidance warnings (Dentons, as they're called at the Beeb) for the announcers to read and so on. When complying programmes they'll sometimes note things that need to be edited out, not just for pre-watershed but also other Ofcom-bothering things like product placement or election impartiality.
A number of programmes will have pre- and post-watershed versions available, as well as the compliance edits it's not uncommon for factual shows to be commissioned and delivered in pre-shed and post-shed versions (happened quite often on BBC Three). Scheduling software should usually flag when a version has been scheduled in an incorrect slot but a look back through Ofcom bulletins shows it doesn't always work, especially on local TV!
Isn't the ITV equivalent the reason they bought out Channel TV?
Isn't the ITV equivalent the reason they bought out Channel TV?
I recall that being mentioned as a major part of it. Channel used to make a fair amount of money providing compliance services to the rest of ITV, something to do with Ofcom fines being linked to the revenue of the licencee responsible. Tiny little Channel TV being responsible for compliance meant tiny little fines.