Page "Monty Python's Life of Brian" Paragraph 34

Richard Webster comments in his A Brief History of Blasphemy that, " internalised censorship played a significant role in the handling " of Monty Python's Life of Brian.

In his view, " As a satire on religion, this film might well be considered a rather slight production.

As blasphemy it was, even in its original version, extremely mild.

Yet the film was surrounded from its inception by intense anxiety, in some quarters of the Establishment, about the offence it might cause.

As a result it gained a certificate for general release only after some cuts had been made.

Perhaps more importantly still, the film was shunned by the BBC and ITV, who declined to show it for fear of offending Christians in this country.

Once again a blasphemy was restrained-or its circulation effectively curtailed-not by the force of law but by the internalisation of this law.

" However, on its initial release in the UK, the film was banned by several town councils – some of which had no cinemas within their boundaries, or had not even seen the film.

A member of Harrogate council, one of those that banned the film, revealed during a television interview that the council had not seen the film, and had based their opinion on what they had been told by the Nationwide Festival of Light, of which they knew nothing.