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Between 1824 and 1968 British theatre was controlled by censorship. As Kenneth Tynan described it, 'Censorship is implicitly to blame for the fact that the whole panorama of British theatre contains only a handful of plays dealing at all controversially with sex, politics and law, the Church, the Armed Forces and the Crown'. When the English Stage Company was founded in 1956 staging the very best contemporary drama, it was bound to come into conflict with the office of the Lord Chamberlain. But as the 1960s really began to swing the writing was on the wall for the whole idea of censorship. By the time Edward Bond's next play Early Morning was performed in April 1968, despite the fact that it contravened almost every taboo that censorship sought to preclude, no prosecution was brought and on 26 September 1968 a new Theatres Act became law, effectively abolishing the power of the Lord Chamberlain's Office over the theatre. We are looking back over the detail of this turbulent era with the help of critic and author Nicholas de Jongh and featuring performed extracts from some of the key moments - both before and after censorship. And we bring the debate on censorship up-to-date with a panel of distinguished guests.