Yes I am an old prude.

I do remember when French Connection started their logo fcuk I was a bit baffled. I thought they would soon change it when they realised what it looked like at first glance. Oh silly me. Dear little iPad has underlined fcuk to suggest I might like to change it and I've just looked to see what it suggests fluke or focus. Ha it's as prudish as I am.

I agree with NanKate - I was busying sewing this morning with only half an ear on Woman's Hour, so missed the "warning" and I was very shocked by the language - because of the time of broadcasting. A time when young children are around at home. It would be better going out as Book at Bedtime

I read the book in the 70's when I was an avid reader of any feminist literature. I listened to half this morning programme on the car radio but turned it off because I found it boring and dreadfully dated.

I share the general feeling about the amount of casual swearing that goes on, especially amongst many younger people. But hey ho - I'm old!

A dear family friend (who has died) was a comedian and a script writer for other comedians.
I never ever heard him swear or use sexually explicit language.
But he was very, very funny.

I laugh as much as the next person watching Mrs Brown's boys but the other day at a friend's house Brendan O'Carroll was on the TV with a stand up comedy show. It was full of swear words and not at all funny. My friend's husband soon switched it off saying what a load of rubbish. They are great fans of Mrs Brown's boys but that was just not comical.

Quite agree. It's not clever and it's not funny.

I totally agree with Nankate,I couldnt believe it was chosen as a morning story ......horrible .If you want to read it fine but I will be switching off at 10.45 until next monday.
p.s and Im an ex Chorus Girl !!

Always loved Flanders and Swann. Quite often when I want to swear I say Po, pee, belly, bum, drawers. I shall try to stick with that as our grandson gets older as it is fairly innocuous. I hate to hear people talking and using the 'f' word repeatedly whilst being seemingly unaware they are doing so. It seems to be the only descriptive term some of them can come up with!

Sadly there is very little good taste or discernment shown by those who choose what to broadcast or 'put out there' in any medium. There is no difference in young people or old in that they will all push the boundaries to get away with as much as they can. It is a form of bullying to impose it on people and see what they can get away with and when people are too apathetic to complain the standards fall ever lower and lower. Language comes first and then comes violence and then it is aped in real life.
It is a sure sign of whether the comedian or scriptwriter is first class and funny or just lazy and mediocre and the latter is now the majority. Occasionally you are gifted with the delight of being able to laugh with the whole family without being subjected to embarrassment.

There is a certain responsibility when you have the power to decide what is aired or printed but sadly there are ever fewer people who are capable of exercising it.

I suppose that that must mean that there is no watershed for radio programs then, something to be aware of when children are around.
Regarding comedians, we went to see Dara O' Briain live, I don't remember him using a single profanity, and my stomach ached with laughing so much, I really don't understand the need to pepper language with the "F word" as so many do nowadays, and it's not really about being prudish, for me it's about keeping up standards, and education.

It's difficult really, what is offensive to some is acceptable to others. I dislike swearing, I asked a poster on this forum to never again tell me to piss off - hate it , she replied that she always uses it

With you on this one, Anniebach. It is sad that the poster you mention didn't understand how offensive she was being. I think it says a lot more about them than it does about you.

We went to see Rob Brydon on stage a few years ago. He entertained us for a whole evening, with no foul language, some innuendo, but no downright crudity. A very clever and funny man, most of the laughs came from very shrewd observation of his fellow man.

I might make the effort to write and complain:
www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/

I took my 2 GC to see Avenue Q the musical,they are 15&16 and I knew there was 'adult language' in it,as I'm very broad minded I thought supervised we'd all have a bit of a giggle. Most of it was OK until two puppets start to have rampant sex both regular and oral !!! Well my poor hubby nearly died of embarrassment! My GS and I laughed it out and my dear GD didn't quite know what to do. We did talk about it on the way home and all decided it was 75% OK but we wouldn't go and see it again. Hubby still can't believe I took us all to watch it!!! Well I didn't know!!!

I was thinking of starting a thread about this myself. I tried to read 'Fear of Flying' when it was first published. I wasn't a prude then and I'm not one now, but I thought it was awful - coarse, and without much literary skill at all. I know we all liked shocking people then but this was just beyond the pale. The BBC must be mad to have put it on the radio at 10.45 a.m. and 7.45 p.m. I know there is no 9 p.m. watershed on the radio, but I think it's time there was. I rarely listen to Woman's Hour now - much too militant, self-satisfied and, to be frank, boring.

TriciaF - it will be interesting to see if 'Feedback' gets sacks of letters about this. Trouble is, if people complain, they are classed as 'Mary Whitehouses' and therefore some reactionary, old-fashioned biddy who doesn't understand that the world has moved on. I can just hear the patronising tone of the BBC representative!

One of the reasons I can't stand Bob Geldof. He's a very bright, articulate man but peppers any interview with the f word.

The very occasional use of the F-word for effect can be funny, but when repeated many times, like any word it's just boring.

We saw a comedian (I can't remember his name but he wore a crazy suit all covered in question marks) in a club back in the mid 1970s and his catch phrase was 'kinell! It was funny and somehow not offensive even though it was obvious what it stood for. It was even funnier that there was a footballer at the time whose name was (Paul) Cannell and commentators used his name loads when the Magpies were playing. It cracked us up every time.

However, I despise unnecessary swearing. I like to shout something expressive if I hurt myself, drop something or something goes wrong but it's usually fishcakes, fiddle or rats! Occasionally, I shout 'blood and sand!' or 'dash, bother and blow!'
I once shouted 'fish!' loudly and someone nearby asked if it was a clean way of shouting the actual f word. I denied it but I suppose it has a similar feel...

You're saying it's swearing, but in fact Fear of Flying just uses these words correctly. The whole thesis of the book is Isadora's search for the Zipless 'Encounter' [so as not to raise your collective blood pressure]. I had wondered how they were going to do it with euphemisms, but they have gone whole hog.

She names sexual parts the way most people do especially during those Encounters.

There is no watershed for R4 as it's an adult network. That's Adult as in grownup, not the trade name for schoolboy-interest.

What did drive me nuts this week was the really bad first play in their Riot Grrls series, Monday's was about 60s relationships and was so stuffed with stereotypes there was no room for a plot. The later two [#3 is on now] not quite so bad, but the author had not bothered to talk to anyone older than herself for the 60s story, she had just read old Daily Express cuttings.

Maybe some books are just to read in your head, not out loud in front of the whole world.
Back in the 60s we had a copy of The Perfumed Garden - they'll be putting that on the radio next (although I think it was rather more poetic.)

When I was a teen living at home, dad was so strict about what we watched. I was not allowed to see Dr. Kildare, or Peyton Place. All my friends would discuss these programmes and I was left out. Even if anyone started kissing on tv dad would get up and switch it off. Bless him. I wish he was still here. He was born in 1913 so of course he was prudish.

My dad was exactly the same! All my friends watched Top of the Pops, Man from Uncle and Forsyte Saga (was this the beginning of cult viewing?) and I wasn't allowed to watch any of those! I was totally left out at school.

I visited DD when she and (then) new husband had just moved into their first flat. It was on the ground floor. The first floor flat was arranged differently and their bedroom was above DD's kitchen. She and I were sitting having a quiet cup of tea on afternoon when the couple above...well...let's say due to their wooden floors you could hear everything. The whole ceiling was vibrating. I am not sure who was more mortified, me or DD. But whenever I visited after that we always had tea in the living room