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Nanny knows best

Charles Spencer

Wednesday, 24th September 2008

Although I waste a lot of time these days gazing longingly at advertisements for luxury cruises in the Daily Telegraph, I don’t think I could ever leave England for good.

It has to be said that the dispiriting succession of banned maudlin ballads on this collection sometimes makes for thoroughly dreary listening, and one feels some sympathy with Sir Arthur’s muscular point of view. It’s a real relief when skiffle and early rock and roll arrive like the cavalry on the third disc, bursting with testosterone-fuelled vigour and sexual innuendo.

During the mid-Fifties, as teenage spending power increased and morals loosened, the BBC censors found themselves stretched. One overworked member of the dance music policy committee likened their work to ‘a crazy weather vane in a storm’ to which the controller of sound broadcasting memorably replied, in pompous tones reminiscent of Captain Mainwaring, ‘No one is more alive than I to the need to buttress the forces of virtue against the unprincipled elements of the jungle.’

Listening to these records, however, one gives a big hurrah to the ‘elements of the jungle’, whether it be Ella Fitzgerald’s achingly poignant account of Cole Porter’s ‘Love for Sale’, Shirley Bassey’s astonishingly risqué ‘Burn My Candle’, or the sharp, mocking satire of Tom Lehrer’s ‘The Old Dope Peddler’. This collection forcefully underlines the eternal danger of censorship — yes, there may be a lot of exploitative dross out there, but before long those who would limit our freedom are likely to find themselves banning work of genuine merit.

Charles Spencer is theatre critic of the Daily Telegraph.