Unsuitable Film and Video Audiences

Underage Viewing Memories and Practices in 1980s United Kingdom

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by Peter Turner

Type

Studies

Subject

Sociology

Keywords

sociology, Great Britain, censorship, children

Publishing date

2026 (February 28, 2026)

Publisher

Edinburgh University Press

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 240 pages
6 x 9 ¼ inches (15.5 x 23.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-3995-3359-1

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Book Presentation:
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.

About the Author:
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).

Press Reviews:
In Unsuitable Film and Video Audiences, Peter Turner’s extensive audience research opens a doorway to rich and evocative memories of illicit childhood film viewing. Rigorously researched and contextualised, Turner’s examination of these memories explores, challenges and reframes our understanding of the pleasures and problems of childhood consumption of forbidden cinema. ― Stacey Abbott - Professor of Film at Northumbria University and author of Undead Apocalypse (2016)

See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press