Taboo (2001)

Joan Bakewell traces the dramatic changes in public attitudes to the naked body that have taken place over the last 50 years. Contains scenes of nudity.

In the second of her four-part series on the history of censorship, Joan Bakewell explores the outer edges of permissiveness and pornography and asks if society is happy with how sex has suffused the modem world. She revisits landmark moments that helped to break down barriers against the open portrayal of sex and also meets artists who embrace images of sex today. Contains strong language and scenes of nudity and sex.

In the third of her four-part series on the history of censorship, Joan Bakewell traces public attitudes towards violence, once a prohibitive phenomenon that's increasingly tolerated as it pervades stage, film and TV. Bakewell interviews people who have tested the limits, including film-makers whose work has been banned, and artists with an interest in violence and sadomaschism.

In the conclusion to the series tracing the history of censorship, host Joan Bakewell explores how conventional taboos concerning religion and obscenity have given way to those concerning race, sexual orientation and politics. As a new and seemingly unstoppable world of cyberspace evolves, is the public ready to accept material that is beyond the reach of the censor? Contains strong language and scenes of a violent nature.