The Green Book (BBC)

The Green Book is the common name of the BBC Variety Programmes Policy Guide For Writers and Producers, a booklet of guidelines issued by the British Broadcasting Corporation to its producers and writers of comedy programmes in 1949. It detailed what was then permissible as comedy material. Its bureaucratic tone and strictures caused great amusement in the comedy world and most of these are now completely out of date. It was a confidential document and it was kept under lock and key. Many of the instructions caused much hilarity even at the time and have continued to do so. The executive responsible was the then Head of Variety, Michael Standing, though it was to a considerable extent a collection of memos which had already been issued over the years.

The full text was published in the book Laughter in the Air by Barry Took with the BBC’s permission in 1976. It has since been put on sale by the BBC itself.

Among things banned were jokes about lavatories, effeminacy in men, immorality of any kind, suggestive references to honeymoon couples, chambermaids, fig leaves, ladies underwear (e.g. ‘winter draws on’), lodgers and commercial travellers and the vulgar use of words such as ‘basket’.

Caution had to be taken with jokes about drink with not too many in any programme. Also to be avoided were derogatory references to solicitors, commercial travellers, miners and ‘the working class’. Banned too was any reference to The McGillycuddy of the Reeks, or jokes about his name, in response to past complaints.

While the word ‘niggers’ was banned, the phrase ‘Nigger Minstrels’ was still tolerated.

It has been observed that if these rules were still followed a great many of the BBC's many successful comedy shows since such as Beyond our Ken, Till Death Us Do Part or Steptoe and Son would never have been aired.

Further reading

• "How radio comedy changed a nation". BBC. 2008-10-17. Retrieved 2010-07-23.
• Stewart, Graham (2008-11-01). "When the BBC banned baskets and fig leaves". London: The Sunday Times. Retrieved 2010-07-23.