Satirical program fronted by the Rev. Bob Lowe.
The Rev. R. A. Lowe said tonight that the N.Z.B.C. had virtually banned his latest satirical series.
(New Zealand Press Association) AUCKLAND, August 31 1969.
Originally planned as a six-part series, it had been cut to a single 15-minute programme, he said. “The cutting has destroyed the whole point of the series, and I would not wish to be associated with the feeble thing that will eventually be screened," he said. He believed the N.Z.B.C. was particularly worried about one sketch in which the Queen, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the leaders of New Zealand’s three political parties sang in harmony “Thank you for the birds and bees.”
“It just confirms my contention that the N.Z.B.C. treats viewers like children, and that as a nation we cannot laugh at ourselves,” he said. “This is a pity because the N.Z.B.C. is about the most laughable institution since Laurel and Hardy.”
Mr Lowe said he attributed the “ban to traditional timidity within the N.Z.B.C. hierarchy” and the “disproportionate influence wielded in our society by the lunatic puritan fringe of the Protestant church.” He said: “If you doubt that you should see the letter sent to me by an Auckland Baptist minister after I appeared on television drinking beer with the Marist Rugby Club. It expressed sentiments worthy of the Bogside barricades.’*
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