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

I wish I could remember the details, but I *do* remember that the word "c**t" was first used in a British TV drama in 1977, the same year that one of the Sex Pistols used it on live TV in an interview with Bill Grundy... If I can find out what the drama was called, I'll be back...

H.

Funny, I thought its first use was in a drama about Oswald Mosley and his fascists about 4 or 5 years ago on Channel 4.

Nope, I definitely heard Gerry Sadowitz say it, in about 1993, in a "Without Walls" documentary on Channel 4 which was all about swearing on TV. And he said it to introduce the clip of the first use of it... which went back to 1977. I just wish I could remember/find out the name of the original show...

H.

Don't know about appearing in a drama (although to be honest, if you're citing Jerry Sadovitz as a source, it's bound to be unreliable), but the Sex Pistols interview with Bill Grundy did not feature the c-word. The word s***, yes, and the phrase "dirty old b*****d', but not c***.

They did, however, have an interesting way of pronouncing the title of their single 'Pretty Vacant', which you might be remembering.

Jims

I'm not citing Sadowitz as the source - I'm citing "Without Walls". OK it was presented by Sadowitz - but they showed the clip, of some gritty drama showing some woman dressed in a white top sitting at a table telling some bloke why she was upset, the reason being someone had called her a c**t. Brave stuff for '77.

And are you *sure* they didn't say c**t in the Pistols interview? I think I might have got it mixed up with another live studio interview with a bunch of long-hairs in the seventies in which the word was definitely used. Pretty sure I was thinking of that one in fact...

Wish I could remember it...

H.

Sorry, it's just whenever I see the name Sadowitz I think "Wind-up". A bit like Chris Morris

Pretty certain about the Sex Pistols - I'm running the interview through in my mind and it all starts when they mutter the word s***, and Bill Grundy goads them into repeating it, which John Lydon does resentfully. Then one of them calls him a dirty old b****** and then he just sits back and smirks, knowing full-well he's just kissed his TV career away.

But I'll check with my usual suspects on the first use of the c-word. You might be onto something there

Cheers,

Jimster

...hit the post button twice there

Jimster, as I remmeber it, it went:

"You dirty old b*****d... (pause) You filthy c**t" with Grundy talking over the second part.

(remmeber = remember )

btw, I remember the Jerry Sadowitz programme; it was a good and reasoned argument on swearing as a social phenomenon.

Against the argument that the words themselves were somehow inherently offensive regardless of context, he asked why it was permissable to say "I pricked my finger" on Channel 4, but not "I fingered my p***k"...

The way I remember that interview, the last insult thrown was "what a f***ing rotter"......

commendable use of the word "rotter" there, IMHO not used nearly enough in everyday conversation............

The 'Withnail And I' DVD mentioned that IT was the first to mention c**t on TV.

Did it say when?

(great name, btw )

H.

About three quaters of the way through. (ha ha ha)
'87

Perhaps it was the first *recorded* c**t on TV, with all the earlier ones being "live"...?

JustdeletethespacestosavespaceRULEANARCHY.

not a drama, but on a record from before all the other mentions (as far as i know) peter cook and dudley moore accuse the buyer of being a c*nt.

I think I remember those Pete and Dud records. About 12" across, black, round, with grooves on them?



Seriously, I do remember them, but not what they were called. They can't have been records of radio or tv shows though. Where they records of stage shows, perhaps?

Thanks for posting Si9mon.

B

They were characters originally created when larking around between recording sessions and TV segments - "Derek and Clive".

My favourite was:

"...Jump, you f**ker, jump; into this here blanket what we are holding...

He jumped...

Hit the deck...

Broke his f**king neck...

There was no blanket.

Laugh? We nearly sh*t!..."

"Derek and Clive, Live" - yep!

I also remember a sketch (which I think was a tv sketch) about them going round a museum looking at nudes, and talking about how the gauzy bits in the crucial places.

Thanks, Peet.

B