Channel 4 Rapped Over Gordon Ramsay Swearing

Ofcom has rapped Channel 4 over Gordon Ramsay's swearing immediately after the watershed.

The regulator has upheld 51 complaints over the two-hour special Ramsay's Great British Nightmare, which featured 115 uses of the word 'f**k' and its derivatives in its first 40 minutes. Half an hour in, a two-minute row featured the word 'f**king' 30 times in two minutes.

Ofcom noted that the complainants included many fans of Ramsay's shows who felt he had gone too far.

Despite Ramsay's reputation for profanity, it said C4 "did not apply generally accepted standards" in scheduling the show at 21:00.

It said the "unexpected and sheer intensity and level of swearing" by Ramsay and restaurant staff in the first two parts of the programme, were aggressive rather than comedic and could not be justified by context.

In its defence, C4 said the front-loading of the strong language was a by-product of the format, in which Ramsay delivers his hard-hitting advice on a struggling restaurant and tensions start to rise.

Waveguide, 11/05/09.

In this case it was not Ramsay. The swearing that caused the complaints was done by the chef in the Sheffield restaurant at his friend/boss who was refusing to listen to the advice given.

Perhaps the show was scheduled too close to the watershed time of 9pm. A little later may have been a wise move.

And of course, these types of programmes always carry a warning about language prior to starting.

IMO OFCOM has, once again, over-reacted. There has to be a time when adults are allowed to make their own choices and when nanny minds her own business and leaves us all alone.

IMO OFCOM has, once again, over-reacted. There has to be a time when adults are allowed to make their own choices and when nanny minds her own business and leaves us all alone.

I agree Eddy. I also find it odd that we British and indeed American TV find swearing a cause for complaint yet we tolerate some quite nasty violence.

I get quite depressed at the way in which adults and their privacy are treted in the UK.

And it is getting worse.

:angry: