- Born
- Died
- Birth nameConstance Mary Hutcheson
- Mary Whitehouse was born on June 13, 1910 in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England, UK. She was married to Ernest Raymond Whitehouse. She died on November 23, 2001 in Colchester, Essex, England, UK.
- SpouseErnest Raymond Whitehouse(1940 - December 8, 2000) (his death, 5 children)
- Roger Waters ripped her in the third verse of "Pigs (Three Different Ones)" from Pink Floyd's 1977 album "Animals." ("Hey you Whitehouse/Ha, ha, charade you are/You house proud town mouse/Ha, ha, charade you are/You're trying to keep our feelings off the street/You're nearly a real treat/All tight lips and cold feet/And do you feel abused?/You've got to stem the evil tide/And keep it all deep inside/Mary you're nearly a treat/Mary you're nearly a treat/But you're really a cry.") After Waters went solo in the 1980s, he would replace Whitehouse with Margaret Thatcher.
- She was a fan of the comedy series Yes Minister (1980).
- She was Britain's most vocal critic of the growth of sexual content, violence and bad language on television during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.
- In 1965 Mary Whitehouse founded the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association in the UK.
- She was a fierce opponent of Till Death Us Do Part (1965) for its strong language, Doctor Who (1963) for what she described as its "nightmare qualities" and the comedian Benny Hill for his sexy sketches.
- If violence is shown as normal on the television screen it will help to create a violent society.
- [on Doctor Who (1963)] I think it's extraordinary that people with a brilliance in many ways, of making a programme of that kind, couldn't have extended their awareness to the effect of what they were doing upon the children who were receiving it. That was almost as though they were a bit dumb.
- If they didn't show it on the screen, most people wouldn't know about oral sex.
- [from her first public speech] Last Thursday evening, we sat as a family and saw a programme that started at 6.35. And it was the dirtiest programme I have seen for a very long time.
- [on The Dig (1990)] As someone who used to watch and enjoy Bergerac (1981), may I say how disappointed I am with its new style. Last night's episode was almost impossible to watch and indeed we turned it off, not least because of the close-up, rapidly changing camera work. Its mood and style was quite unsuitable for family viewing time and one suspects that many adults went to bed with a headache and many children had nightmares! Can we hope that in future it will be considerably less intense and more watchable.
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