Radio 4 programme presented by Samira Ahmed argues case for nuance in judging campaigner mocked as ‘puritanical harridan’
She has long been a symbol for mid-20th century moral panic, a censorious crusader quixotically tilting at the windmills of sexual liberation and social liberalism, but a senior BBC broadcaster has suggested the legacy of Mary Whitehouse may be due for reappraisal.
Samira Ahmed, who grew up in 1970s and 80s watching the much-mocked campaigner against perceived immorality in the British media “demonised and mocked as a puritanical harridan”, has produced an hour-long Radio 4 programme on Whitehouse’s diaries, which were donated to the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library and cover 30 years of her life.
