Series 3, Episode 29: Apology for Violence and Nudity
The sketch:
Voice Over (Eric Idle): The BBC would like ‘to announce that the next scene is not considered suitable for family viewing. It contains scenes of violence, involving people’s heads and arms getting chopped off, their ears nailed to trees, and their toenails pulled out in slow motion. There are also scenes of naked women with floppy breasts, and also at one point you can see a pair of buttocks and there’s another bit where I’ll swear you can see everything, but my friend says it’s just the way he’s holding the spear. (pulling himself together) Because of the unsuitability of the scene, the BBC will be replacing it with a scene from a repeat of ‘Gardening Club’ for I958.
(A beautiful well-stocked garden bed. ‘Gardening Club’ music. After two seconds there are shrieks of licentious and lustful laughter. A nude woman pursues a city gent, both screaming with pleasure, into the middle of the flowerbed and they roll around smashing up the flowers in unbridled erotic orgy. lmmediately two nuns run in to join the fun, followed by two Vikings, a gumby, a pantomime goose, etc. The whole of this orgy is speeded up.)
CAPTION: ‘KEN RUSSELL’S GARDENING CLUB (1958)’
Voice Over: And now back to the story.