Sir David Jason believes modern TV programmes are too vulgar and has called for a return to the standards set by the BBC in the 1940s, while also speaking about his response to a Strictly Come Dancing invitation.
The 84-year-old actor says when he switches on the telly nowadays he is shocked by the amount of crude and rude words used in comedy and drama series.
Back when David was first playing Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses in the 1980s, writer John Sullivan would come up with insults like “plonker”, wally” and dipstick” to bypass the decency rules set out in the BBC’s Green Book, and David believes we need a return to those rules to stop the swearing on shows.
Appearing on the Plot Twist podcast, he said: “I found a book of rules in my house, from 1947, and what it was, was a rule book for writers, directors, actors, you name it, from the hierarchy of the BBC telling you what you’re not allowed to say because you might offend people.
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BBC)“Blimey, if they were around today! The rationale is we’ve gone the other way. We’ve superseded it. In order to be a working class person in television today you use the expletives constantly, all the time. And some of them are pretty vulgar, in my opinion. So everybody is using that, constantly, all the time. That’s filtered through to everyday language, so young people today are using all the language that we were banned from saying in everyday speak. The problem with that is, is that you’ve given up manners and you’ve given up respect for your fellow man, for your fellow woman, because the argument was ‘but it’s in common use, it’s been there in Shakespeare’s time’, well that’s not good enough.
“If you tried to follow the rule book today you wouldn’t have a show at all. I think we’ve gone too far away from that book of rules. In order to offend the audience you were given this set of rules that you had to abide by, writers, actors, directors. You weren’t allowed to say anything about religion or religious people, it’s all there.”
David made the comments as he promoted his new book This Time Next Year. Last week the Mirror told how he detailed his meeting with a secret daughter he didn’t know existed. He also revealed he turned down Strictly Come Dancing in 2021 saying: “I turned it down for a number of reasons. Mainly two left feet. Ah well, it was the viewing public’s loss, I’m sure.”
English (US) ·