The episode
Sex and Violence (2016) was made but never broadcast in the UK due to a decision by
David Attenborough, then the BBC's director of programmes. A long-standing myth claims it was banned because it incorporated footage of a real military execution; however, this was just a cover story and the footage in question has been featured in other programmes since. The real reason why the episode wasn't broadcast is because it spoofed real-life personalities such as
Mary Whitehouse,
Lord Longford and
Cliff Richard (then taking part in an investigation into the moral pollution of the nation, as mirrored in the programme) and would have been too libelous to broadcast and almost certainly would have resulted in legal action being taken against the BBC. More than three decades later the episode still hasn't been broadcast in the UK, although was released commercially on DVD in 2016 by Simply Media. Ironically, this is one of the few episodes from the third season which has survived the BBC's archive purges of the 1970s, perhaps because of its non-broadcast status. Whilst
Sex and Violence (2016) has never aired in the UK, some reports suggest that it was broadcast in 1995 on UK Gold. This is also untrue, as whilst the episode was listed in the schedules, it was ultimately not broadcast and a repeat of
The Logicians (1971) went out in its place.
