When British actor John Hurt passed away in January, news editors around the world quickly started broadcasting clips from the actor’s many iconic roles. But it was maybe not the smartest idea for one of them to air Hurt’s most gory (and memorable) movie moment immediately after kids finished watching Saturday morning cartoons.
Image: 20th Century Fox
British broadcaster ITV has been criticised today by the UK Government’s TV regulation body Ofcom for being in breach of the UK’s stringent broadcasting codes — which, among many things, include rules limiting what times TV channels can broadcast mature content. This follows a lengthy investigation into the company’s news program, ITV News, for broadcasting 10 seconds of Hurt’s, uh, explosive Alien death scene at 9:30AM on January 28, immediately after the channel’s block of kid’s shows finished airing.
Although later broadcasts from ITV — like the version above that aired during the 12:30PM bulletin — edited the scene down, the initial version featured a more extensive clip that showed the moment the alien emerges from the body of Hurt’s character, Kane, in one of the most iconic and gory moments in movie history.
The program was found to be in poor taste by Ofcom, considering there was a good chance a lot of kids were still watching the channel after Dino Dan: Trek’s Adventures and What’s New Scooby Doo! finished airing that morning. In fact, Ofcom estimates that up to 19,000 children between four and 15, a sizable 16 per cent of the viewing audience at the time, could still have been watching, mortified at what was going on with John Hurt’s chest cavity.
ITV was not fined for the breach of broadcasting codes, but released an apology for the lapse in judgement following today’s ruling. Suffice to say, it probably won’t be running many Alien clips around kids programming blocks any time soon.
[BBC]