The Stage

ITV’s Rock Rivals breaks Ofcom code with swear words

Published Monday 7 July 2008 at 12:35 by Matthew Hemley

Rock Rivals, the ITV drama that featured Michelle Collins as an X-Factor style judge, has been found guilty of breaching Ofcom’s broadcasting code.

The media regulator said the series, broadcast earlier this year and made by independent production company Shed Productions, had broken its code because it included offensive language in a repeat of one episode shown before the watershed on ITV2.

When asked to respond, Channel Television, the company responsible for ensuring the show complies with the broadcasting code, admitted that Rock Rivals did use some bad language, but said these were “editorially justified” in a drama not intended for a child audience.

It also said that in the episode in question, one actor had made a series of “facial expressions and grunts”, which a subtitler for the show had thought included a particularly offensive word, which was subsequently included in the episode’s subtitles.

Channel Television said “it greatly regretted” this incident and added it had tightened its procedures to ensure similar mistakes do not happen in the future.