Rude Britannia
BBC4, Tuesday 15 June 9:00pm - 10:00pm
BBC4's exploration of the lewd truth behind Britain's facade of respectability continues into the Victorian era and up to the 1950s. From "penny gaffs" - rooms set aside for the entertainment of the new urban working classes - to the music halls whose "promenades" were a front for prostitution, from Victorian nude "art" photos that soon became explicit to the saucy postcards of Donald McGill, it didn't take much for polite society to be outraged. Once you stop being distracted by the graphics and cheap re-creations of routines belonging to stars such as Champagne Charlie and Marie Lloyd, this is a fascinating exploration of the type of social history that doesn't usually make it to the history books.
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Subtitled, Widescreen, Audio-describedRadiotimes
