U.K. BROADCASTER FORCED TO CENSOR CLASSIC MOVIE

Old movies used to be a staple of afternoon television on U.S. broadcast television. No longer. However, that may still be the case in the U.K., although the difficulties of finding acceptable films during a time when children may be watching was highlighted this week when the classic Agatha Christie film Death on the Nile came under scrutiny by Britain’s broadcast regulator OFCOM. After a viewer complained about a suicide scene featuring Mia Farrow, OFCOM took ITV, the commercial network that broadcast it, to task for doing so. “Her suicide was shown in some detail and was not, in our opinion, appropriately limited,” the regulator said. “Given the Saturday afternoon scheduling of this film, our assessment was that it was likely that a significant number of children would have been watching ITV’s main and public service channel at this time.” ITV responded that it had aired the PG-rated movie during the day some 20 times without a previous complaint. However, it added, “In keeping with our periodic review of pre-watershed material and in the light of viewer concerns, particularly those of parents, we undertook some additional editing of this scene for future daytime broadcasts.”