Dear Censor...

Dear Censor...: The Secret Archive Of The British Board Of Film Classification uses files and correspondence from the BBFC's archive to show how films were censored in the UK from the 1950s to the 1980s. The documentary features letters exchanged between BBFC directors and film directors and distributors, and examiners' reports on controversial films such as The Wild One, Rebel Without A Cause, A Clockwork Orange, The Devils, and Salo.

The programme, part of BBC4's Timeshift series, was directed by Matt Pelly and broadcast on 29th September 2011. Its access to the BBFC's archive is unprecedented, though the BBFC's policy of preventing access to material from the past twenty years means that the documentary couldn't cover more recent controversies such as Child's Play III, Crash, Grotesque, and A Serbian Film.

Dear Censor... is the third TV documentary exploring the history of the BBFC. BBC2's Empire Of The Censors, a comprehensive history from the 1910s to the early 1990s, was broadcast in 1995. Channel 4's The Last Days Of The Board, covering the BBFC in the 1990s, was transmitted in 1999. Tom Dewe Mathews wrote Censored, the definitive book on British film censorship, in 1994.