There have been two Channel 4 Banned seasons. The first aired in April 1991 over three weeks and saw the broadcast of a number of films and documentaries which had previously been banned from British television or cinema. The second was in 2004/2005 and consisted of a series of documentaries concerning the history of explicit and controversial material on British television.
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1991 Banned season
Banned was a series of programmes shown over a three-week period in April 1991. The idea for the season was conceived as a statement about the censorship of broadcasting at the time. The season included network television showings of Scum (which was edited to remove some of the violent gang rape scene and the subsequent gory suicide of the victim), Monty Python's Life of Brian (which was preceded by a warning that viewers may find the film's treatment of religious themes upsetting), the controversial documentary feature The Animals Film and Derek Jarman's Sebastiane and Jubilee. There was also a second broadcast of the controversial 1988 Thames Television documentary Death on the Rock which investigated the shooting of three members of the IRA by the SAS in Gibraltar. The season proved to be controversial and Channel 4 was investigated by the Obscene Publications Squad and referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
2004/2005 Banned season
The Channel 4 Banned season was a series of television documentaries on the UK's Channel 4 in 2004-2005, examining the history of explicit and controversial material on British television, and its infiltration of the mainstream.
These documentaries included (original airdate if known):