11 - Live entertainment

Summary

How live entertainment differs

11.1 We have made clear earlier in our Report that little of the controversy surrounding our subject and only a small part of the evidence we received has touched on the field of live entertainment. For Lord Longford's Committee in 1972, the production of Oh! Calcutta! in 1971 represented a new level of pornographic activity, and some of those who gave evidence to us referred to that and to certain other theatrical presentations and regretted the failure, or refusal, of the prosecuting authorities to take action against them. But for most of our witnesses this area of our review gave rise to no interest or concern at all. As we submit our Report, Oh! Calcutta! is, perhaps surprisingly, still running in London but the point which deserves comment is not so much that such a show should have lasted so long as that it has been running for a number of years with virtually no controversy.

11.2 The reason for the low level of public concern about live entertainment no doubt has much to do with its not being a mass medium. A pornographic magazine can be printed in quantity and distributed throughout the country, to come to the notice of innumerable people when displayed in local shops. A film can be made with immense skill and utilising specialised techniques for producing startling effects and an extremely powerful impact, and prints of it can be distributed throughout the world and shown to audiences in most of the principal towns in Britain. Live entertainment, on the other hand, affects few people. It has to be created anew for each performance, which is seen only by the people actually attending at the time. No performance will impinge on more than a tiny fraction of the population, and even the places where performances can be given are more rarely encountered than shops or cinemas. Live entertainment, too, is predominantly an adult interest and the fact that it does not attract children in the way that the cinema does has meant that people are less concerned about children being exposed to shows that might be thought unsuitable for them.