The Naughty Bits

Today, the idea of censorship is still up for debate; does it help to shield the public from a harsher truth, or, can more sinister motives be at play? This episode of The Naughty Bits starts by looking back in history to wartime Aotearoa. Interviews with historians, journalists and former censors paint pictures of day-to-day censorship in the forms of intercepted letters and tampered-with news from the war, political and anti-war propaganda, and misinformation on international events. The episode also presents some strange anomalies from later decades, such as animated film Bambi being banned in prisons.

This episode of censorship documentary The Naughty Bits casts its eye over "matters of the flesh" — how New Zealand censors have handled sex and nudity. Narrator Ian Hughes touches on key books and films that were banned or pushed the envelope — from 1926 Kiwi novel The Butcher Shop to 1967 James Joyce adaptation Ulysses (which originally screened to separate audiences of men and women). Past censors Jane Wrightson and Bill Hastings talk about changing trends in what is acceptable on screen. Also mentioned: anti-pornography campaigner Patricia Bartlett, and more open Māori attitudes to sex and nudity.

This episode of The Naughty Bits examines how violence, offensive language and drugs have been handled by Kiwi censors. Ranging across film, music, video games and more, writer/director José Barbosa looks at key cases of censorship in New Zealand, including the many comic books banned in the 1950s, and controversial movies Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986, which was classified in Aotearoa two different ways) and Maniac (2013). Also touched on are banned songs, and two infamous legal cases involving offensive language — by Germaine Greer in one case, and Suburban Reptiles vocalist Clare Elliott in the other.