The "Video Nasties" Part 4: Spring 1983

All eyes were now on the BVA and their eagerly awaited final report produced in partnership with the BBFC. This was to be the video trade's chance to put its own house in order and was seen by many as a last chance - if they couldn't do it, something stronger, more legally binding, may have to be applied. Various concerned groups, ranging from the NVLA and the church to the children's welfare charity, the National Society for the Protection of Children (NSPCC) were attempting to address the members of the working party, voicing their concerns through a variety of media.

On 10 March 1983, government spokesman Christopher Mayhew announced that the report was ready and was confident that the self-regulation scheme was workable, so long as the government monitored the way it worked. Labour MP, who in the previous December had unsuccessfully tried to introduce a Bill into the House of Commons making it illegal to rent adult movies to children, sought clarification from William Whitelaw, the Tory Home Secretary and was told that "it would be wrong to involve the government so directly in matters of censorship" and seemed to signal the government's stand on the matter by suggesting that "it is preferable to rely on effective measures of self-regulation."

The report itself was published at the start of April 1983 - shortly after police had raided video dealers in Leeds - and announced the setting up of the Videograms Standards Council (VCS) which would oversee the new self-regulation process. It also recommended that video dealers be forced to register (by the following September) and anyone failing to do so would be punished by having tapes withheld by distributors. It further announced that all future video releases would be certified, using the same certification system that was currently in use at the cinema and that it would be the VSC and the BBFC who would oversee this.

But the recommendations of the report would never see the light of day. Catching everyone by surprise, the government decided to do a u-turn and plunged itself straight into the heart of the debate. Earlier in the month, it had announced that a General Election would be held in June and the video trade was stunned when it received copies of the Tory party manifesto in which they promised to "respond to the increasing public concern over obscenity and offences against public decency, which often have links with serious crime. We propose to introduce legislation to deal with the most serious of these problems, such as the spread of violent and obscene video cassettes.

All the work that the BVA and the BBFC had done was now redundant. The self-regulation that had apparently been encouraged was suddenly strangled at birth and would never be given a chance. It understandably caused great consternation among the video trade and also added to the growing unease of horror fans who feared the worst.

Last Updated: 15 October, 2008