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Watershed: Difference between revisions
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** Conversely, films [[Media Classifications|rated 15]] have been known to be screened with an 8:30 start on the rationale that most of the film will indeed be after the watershed. They'd be unlikely to get away with bending the rules like this for a film rated 18, though. Sky Movies has an 8 pm watershed for 15 films and a 10 pm watershed for 18 films.
*** The rules are ''slightly'' more relaxed for pay TV, although not much. A free-to-air channel would struggle to get away with the same thing.
* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' (and ''[[Torchwood]]'', by extension) seems to be pushing the envelope as far as it can to see what it ''can'' get away with pre-Watershed. The parent programme is aired in one of the most successful television spots in the country (Saturday evening) and can get away with quite a lot including male-on-male kissing, dying with eyes open, several bondage scenes and [[High Octane Nightmare Fuel|Davros' shirtless scene]]. The second series of ''Torchwood'' had watered-down airings of episodes at 7pm on Wednesday, but was still quite risqué.
** ''Doctor Who'' has always done this, with its infamously high body count. The mid seventies in particular was especially graphic, often showing impalements, decapitations and blood squibs with brutally graphic detail.
** On the subject of ''Doctor Who'', Tennant's portrayal of Hamlet was aired in the early evening during Christmas 2009. Their interpretation of the famous [[Country Matters]] line was so heavy handed you wonder how they got away with it.
*** If it's Shakespeare, it's educational!
* UK police drama ''[[The Bill]]'' is an interesting case study. It started out in 1984 as a series shown in the late evening, after the watershed, meaning it had liberal cases of sex, violence and nudity (it was in this period that it was at its most gritty and realistic). In 1988 [[Executive Meddling|the production team]] decided to move the programme to be broadcast ''before'' the watershed, which meant such things were quickly toned down and, eventually, removed altogether. It ran in this pre-watershed timeslot for most of its life, however in 2009 [[Executive Meddling|the decision was made]] to move it ''back'' to being broadcast after the watershed, at 9pm.
* The watershed was outright invoked on ''[[Top Gear]]'' in the "Top Ground Gear Force" special, since the special aired beyond the watershed when the show's normal timeslot is before it. A very annoyed James May stopped to verify the special was airing beyond the watershed before dropping a [[Precision F-Strike]]. It was still [[Curse Cut Short|cut off]] by a hard cut to Richard Hammond, though.
* One of the most notable breaches of the watershed in Britain was the infamous [[Smarmy Host|Bill Grundy]] interview with the [[Sex Pistols]] in 1976. Grundy provoked them into saying [[Cluster F-Bomb|all sorts of swear words]] - during prime time viewing hours.
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