1980s
A01=Peter Turner
Author_Peter Turner
BBFC
Category=ATFA
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eq_isMigrated=2
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eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
film censorship
Underage Viewing Memories
VHS
video nasties
Product details
- ISBN 9781399533591
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 28 Feb 2026
- Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Film classification and censorship in the UK has been extensively researched by scholars. What requires further analysis is audiences' experiences of watching films that had been subject to BBFC interventions. The classification system attempted to ensure that only viewers of or above specific ages (15 or 18) would be able to watch certain films. However, significant numbers of child viewers saw films deemed inappropriate for their age group, whether at the cinema or more commonly by watching videos.
This book investigates how these audiences managed to see age-inappropriate films, exploring the memories of over 300 questionnaire and 30 interview respondents. The responses detail what the children of the 1980s remember watching, viewer memories of the how, when and where they were watched, how genre affected the experience and what the post-viewing experience was like for these viewers, including the effects of these viewings on social dynamics, identity formation and later cinephilia.
Peter Turner is a Senior Lecturer in Digital Media Production at Oxford Brookes University. He is the author of Found Footage Horror Films: A Cognitive Approach (2019) and Devil’s Advocates: The Blair Witch Project (2014).
