'My TV show was so outrageous it was banned by the BBC and Government' says Michael Aspel

Veteran broadcaster Michael Aspel has revealed how one of his TV shows was banned by the BBC and the Government.

The mild-mannered presenter - who found fame hosting Ask Aspel and This Is Your Life - was invited to front a documentary about the horrors of nuclear war but it was deemed too graphic and realistic. The 92-year-old star now admits: “I had no idea about the uproar that was to follow.” Aspel was invited to be part of a mini-film called The War Game in 1965 to mark the 20 th anniversary of the American nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. Director Peter Watkins wanted to show Brits the realities of what could happen if the same happened here.

The show used actors to play the victims of an atomic attack and it gave gory detailed descriptions of what would happen to their bodies before death. Aspel was asked to narrate the project which would air on the BBC and he happily agreed.

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He recalls in a new BBC 4 documentary: “Now I had done a few of those before but little did I know the furore this particular film would cause.

“It was made to reflect what had happened in Hiroshima and Peter wanted to see what life might have been like in this country if we had been the victims of an atom bomb.

“Although newsreaders used to do odd jobs away from the BBC with medical films and stuff like that, I was particularly interested why the director and writer of this film would want me to be the narrator.

“And I could only suppose, because being a newsreader and perhaps being familiar to listeners as well as to viewers in that role, it would suit his film very well.

“The idea was to give the film authenticity. The director wanted to present a very ordinary community of people in this country with all the foibles of the time such as casual racism.

“The film was made to be as realistic as possible so the viewer would believe what they wee watching it as though it was a Government warning.”

However, the programme was pulled from broadcast. The BBC claims it was their decision. It had given some members of Harold Wilson’s Government a copy of the violent and graphic documentary in advance as it feared it might be seen as an advertisement for nuclear disarmament with a pacifist CND agenda. Even the ex-BBC head of documentaries – the late Huw Weldon - branded it ‘a political hot potato’.

The BBC maintains it was told it had to make the decision over whether to broadcast the show itself. And the director general at the time - Hugh Carleton Greene - shelved the show saying it was ‘so shocking and upsetting’ that he could never forgive himself if someone ‘threw themselves under a bus’ because of it.

However Aspel reveals another side to the story. He claims Peter Watkins felt ‘betrayed’ by this decision and always believed it was really The Government who banned his documentary.

The TV host – who also presented Aspel and Company and Give Us A Clue and Crackerjack - adds: “He was always sure it was Government interference that stopped the film.”

And archive footage is shown from a 1998 interview with the late Labour MP and former postmaster general Tony Benn. He admits: “Frank Soskice, who was the home secretary, ordered me to ban the programme... because it was argued this would lead to panic.

“I was only his master’s voice and had nothing to do with it (the decision) so I had to send a directive to Carleton Greene saying ‘You must not broadcast it’. I greatly regret it. I never believe in censorship.”

It took another 20 years for the film to see the light of day. The War Game was finally broadcast on the BBC to mark the 40 th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ironically it even won an Oscar for best documentary feature.

Aspel now says: “It is now 80 years since the bombings in Japan and 60 years since I sat in that little recording studio with no idea of the uproar that was to follow.”

* Michael Aspel Remembers.. The War Game will air on BBC 4 on Wednesday July 30 at 10pm followed by a screening of the 1965 film.