h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This may be old news to many of you, but I checked out the FilmFour website last night, and was impressed and appalled in equal measure by their comprehensive list of cuts made to films screened on both C4 and FilmFour. In particular Maitresse and Ms.45 (the two films I've most recently taped off FilmFour), but some surprises too, such as The Cable Guy and even My Best Friend's Wedding...

The latest shocking news is that they're being obliged to cut The Idiots (and this after the BBFC passed it uncut), but they're also taking a brave step forward and streaming the cut sequences on the website. Sadly though, they also explain why it's impossible to do that for many other films (e.g weapons sequences in Bruce Lee films; headbutts in The Matrix etc). They seem to be actively campaigning for change though, and also pushing the boundaries as far as legally possible (i.e publishing stills from scenes cut from Driller Killer and Maitresse), so that's something to be thankful for. After my freebie runs out, I may sign up after all...

It is a bit of a bummer, but as they point out, it's not their fault and they do seem to be doing the best they possibly can. Ludicrous really when you can pick up videos of most of these ofending videos for less than the price of F4 subscription.

I've seen the uncut version of My Best Friend's Wedding, and can personally vouch for its capacity to deprave and corrupt...

Actually, that's a good example of how ludicrous the censorship rules are. MBFW contains the one standard usage of the F word required to get you a 12 rating here or a PG-13 in the States. However, the line was cut by the BBFC because the word's used in a sexual context and therefore, apparently, unacceptable for younger audiences.

So to summarise, "I'd like to take you home and f**k you" will get you a 15 rating, but "I'd like to take you home and rip your f**king head off" is OK for a 12. Hmmm.