[Neil Jones]

The alternative could be to just put up a caption before the episode airs with something like "This episode references individuals who were famous at the time but have since been found guilty in court, or have passed away. These references remain to represent the culture at the time of original broadcast": iirc, I think WB did something like that with their really old cartoons that contained discriminatory language [but which was considered acceptable at the time the cartoon was made], but I don't see Challenge having the budget for such things, nor the audience / market that would really care about a passing reference in a quiz show question to a disgraced individual.

One of the That's channels regularly does this, but then go and stick it on everything, which sort of dilutes the issue they're drawing attention to.

The WB cartoon disclaimers were for racism and stereotypes in American culture of the 1940s and 1950s that made its way into the cartoons of the time. And even then on occasion they were edited regardless of that.

But yes, quiz TVs just say yes the answer is Rolf Harris, and move on. So its probably a case of overkill to chop it back even further (Virgin Media edits not withstanding).

Worth pointing out that, in the Crystal Maze S1-S4 re-airing recently, a couple of incidents of contestants audibly swearing are left in as is, only because its the most minor of swears (the word being the slang for excrement, you can use your own mind to work it out) and doesn't really offend anyone.

Though its ironic really because there's a collection of outtakes from Crystal Maze and in one of them somebody swears, causing the producer to ask somebody to have a word with a contestant about swearing - this was in the Tudor-Pole era IIRC.

[James2001]

Only just noticed that Challenge are showing series 2 of Blockbusters, don't think this has been shown before since 1984/85? All I'm aware of Challenge ever showing is series 1, the last 2 ITV series and the Sky One series.

Edit: just noticed it was mentioned further up page, I've clearly missed it until now!

[iloveTV1]

The alternative could be to just put up a caption before the episode airs with something like "This episode references individuals who were famous at the time but have since been found guilty in court, or have passed away. These references remain to represent the culture at the time of original broadcast":

Mind you, having to put it before every show that involved someone who had since passed away would probably mean that every other show would have a caption before it, given a lot of the stuff they show was made 30 years ago or longer.

[bilky asko]

The alternative could be to just put up a caption before the episode airs with something like "This episode references individuals who were famous at the time but have since been found guilty in court, or have passed away. These references remain to represent the culture at the time of original broadcast"

This is the UK, we don't need huge walls of disclaimer text like they do in the US. "This programme may feature the dead, perverts, and/or dead perverts" would suffice if such a thing were deemed necessary.