BBC SHUT DOWN AFTER PROGRAMME ABOUT BIG, FAT COCKS
THE BBC has been shut down temporarily after complaints about a documentary featuring dozens of big, fat cocks.
Oddie sailing close to the wind
Regulator Ofcom ordered the Corporation to cease broadcasting last night after a complaint from retired Maidenhead schoolteacher, Elizabeth Turner.
Mrs Turner contacted Ofcom after discovering a listing in the Radio Times for the BBC2 programme Bill Oddie's Big, Fat Cocks.
In her letter to the regulator Mrs Turner said the use of the word 'cock' was made all the more offensive given that it was preceded by the words 'big' and 'fat'.
She added that as the programme was broadcast at 5.30pm, children could have been exposed to images of cocks and cock-related language.
Upholding the complaint, Ofcom ruled that the BBC would be closed down for one week so it could think about what it did.
The Corporation has accepted the ruling but stressed the programme was simply a well-researched history of the domestic chicken, written and presented by Britain's favourite bird-watcher.
A spokesman added: "We accept we should not have broadcast a programme about chickens before the watershed.
"It is absolutely right that one complaint from a nutjob should cause everyone who works in the media to piss their knickers."
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