The Stage

Actor fury as Sainsbury’s and Woolworths drop Springer DVD

Published Wednesday 14 December 2005 at 13:45 by Nuala Calvi

Thousands of Equity performers have lobbied retailers Sainsbury’s and Woolworths over their decision to withdraw copies of the DVD Jerry Springer - the Opera from their shelves following complaints about the show’s content.

The union says members have contacted the stores to register their concerns about the implications of the decision for freedom of artistic expression, after it was revealed that Sainsbury’s action was prompted by fewer than 20 objections to the controversial musical.

Woolworths described the number of complaints it had received as ‘substantial’. A spokesman initially said the decision had been prompted by customer feedback but later said that statement was a mistake, insisting the DVD had simply fallen out of the top 100 DVD chart and remained available online.

Union general secretary Christine Payne said: “Equity is opposed to the action which Woolworths and Sainsbury’s have taken on two grounds. Firstly, Equity strongly supports artistic freedom and equally strong opposes censorship in all its forms, however offended any individual may feel themselves to be by a particular piece of dramatic art.

“Secondly, Equity members derive income from the sales of recorded material, including DVDs, and so stand to lose income from actions such as these. Equity is inviting all of its members to make their views known to Sainsbury’s and Woolworths about these acts of censorship.”

The union contacted 20,000 members to inform them of the incident and received emails of support from high-profile performers such as Rowan Atkinson, Miriam Margolyes and Jerry Springer star Michael Brandon.

A spokesman for Sainsbury’s said: “In the first week that Jerry Springer - the Opera was released, we sold only 111 copies in all stores nationwide and received a high number of complaints from unhappy customers. Due to these very poor sales figures this DVD would have been withdrawn at the end of the week but in view of the complaints we had received we removed it a few days earlier than planned.”