Mondo Knows Facts
The British film censor dates from 1912
Local councils still hold the legal power over cinema admissions The British Board of Film Censors was set up by the industry in 1912 to give films consistent certificates, after councils began issuing their own. Councils never gave up their statutory power to license cinemas and can override its decisions or ban a film locally. The board added video classification in the 1980s and became the BBFC. It sits in Mondo's movies & tv collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Mack Sennett built comedy around the chaseKeystone Films turned car chases and pie fights into a formulaShowing drug dealing sympathetically was off limitsThe Code required crime to be punished and never shown as attractiveThe Production Code policed Hollywood for three decadesFrom 1934 studios needed a seal of approval before a film could be releasedA Hays Office seal decided what cinemas could bookFilms without approval struggled to find screens in the 1930sThe Production Code listed what could not be shownIts rules covered crime, sex, religion and even the appearance of evilA 1952 ruling gave films free speech protectionThe Supreme Court reversed its earlier view that cinema was mere entertainment
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Tags: britain, censorship, 1912
The British film censor dates from 1912: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- Local councils still hold the legal power over cinema admissions. The figure is taken from BBFC, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a movies & tv fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Movies & TV shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
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- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.