SAUCY TELLY - OOOO-ERRRRR , FNARR-FNARRR MISSUS!

Saucy seaside postcards were once a mainstay of British life during summer, but are rarely seen in the 21st century.  In an age of instant communication, it is easy to forget that sending a postcard to friends and relatives was a ritual for holidaymakers.  Postcards made their first appearance in Britain in 1870. They were plain with an imprinted halfpenny stamp on the front, half the price of sending a letter. With the address going on the front and the message on the back they were a great success, with over 75 million sent in Britain in 1871, rising to over 800 million by 1910.

In 1894 picture cards were introduced but only really took off when, in 1902, the now familiar divided back postcard was introduced with room for both the address and the message on the back and an image on the front. The Bamforth & Company Limited of Holmfirth were now one of the pioneering picture postcard companies which started production 1903, often using scenery sets from their photography work but by 1910, wanting to improve their revenue stream, they employed an ex-Naval Draughtsman who had a penchant for sauciness and capitalised on it by designing saucy postcards.  For 50 years, this chap produced approximately 12000 designs spread over 200 million postcards with their comedic images and risqué jokes and double entendres. 

By 1952 the stuffed shirt establishmentarians decided that public morals had slipped as a consequences of freedoms enjoyed in the post WW2 period hence the director of public prosecutions, Sir Theobald Mathew, together with the police, led the assault on "postcard sleaze!”.  In Blackpool, a campaign was executed whereby a plain clothes officer would visit a shop, pick up a saucy postcard before asking the shopkeeper whether not they would sell a copy  to their daughter.  If an embarrassed “No" response was tendered then  a prosecution would follow. Buoyed by this success, the campaign rolled out to most UK holiday resorts and during the 1953 holiday season some 32,603 postcards were seized under the Obscene Publications Act (1857).

 Measures were taken further to bring the perpetrators of such smut to brook and in 1954,  Bamforths were targeted and so it was that on July 15th 1954 a frail seventy nine year old ex Naval Draughtsman was up before the beak to answer charges of ”corrupting moral fortitude."  Salacious wits undulled by age served the septuagenarian well and he claimed that he was unaware of the double meanings his cards engendered.  The defence was partially successful  though the defiant pensioner was still found guilty, fined £50 with £25 costs, with four of his offending postcards banned immediately and his publishers prevented from reissuing seventeen others.    

 Common sense prevailed and by 1957, a Commons Select Committee, amended the Obscene Publication Act, after consultations with many parties - including, yes, you guessed it a (now) 82 year old ex Naval Draughsman!!!!! - who successfully argued that a national censorship system would never work due to the inconsistancies in personal taste. The committee were swayed and changes to the law weakened censorship, in turn heralding the return of the saucy postcard.

The death knell rang for the saucy postcard industry in the early noughties though due to a change in public taste.  The amount of angst, deleterious effects on 'mental elf', handwringing from the  “ woke, wet fart, killjoy, perpetually outraged “ perspective meant that saucy subject matter  was now seen as sexist, sometimes racist, certainly politically incorrect, occasionally xenophobic or homophobic, as outmoded as the humour of Benny Hill, the televisual manifestation of the saucy postcard. 

And if that wasn’t enough spiralling postal costs meant that the stamp to send the saucy postcard made the expense of sending a card quite significant.  

So having read through the above, I am sure many of you are wondering why Mr Mullard Magic is blethering on about saucy postcards, well, what is interesting though is that TV technology featured  prominently in quite a few cards, and I intend to share a few with you.

WARNING, IF YOU ARE EASILY OFFENDED THEN LOOK AWAY NOW YOU POOR DELICATE FLOWER:-

And for those that feel left out as no radio related sauciness is shown, well, here's one just for you:-