‘Lady Chatterley’ on Bedtime Radio Sparks Row

Thousands of Britons started listening to “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” as their bedtime story Monday night, complete with sexually explicit passages and four-letter words that have outraged anti-pornography campaigners.

The British Broadcasting Corp. decided to go ahead with its 15-part radio adaptation of the unexpurgated version of D. H. Lawrence’s novel despite efforts by the country’s leading TV watchdog, Mary Whitehouse, to keep it off the air.

In addition to broadcasting the first part of Lady Chatterley’s romp down the primrose path with the gamekeeper, BBC Radio 4 preceded it with a nearly 2 1/2-hour reconstruction of the 1960 trial at which Penguin Books was charged with obscenity for publishing the sexually explicit version.

Both programs started with warnings they contained words and descriptions of sexual acts some listeners might find offensive.

It took 30 years from the first printing of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” in Florence, Italy, to the celebrated Penguin edition of 1960 and another 30 years before that version was judged fit to be heard on radio. The uncensored version was published in the United States in 1959.

The Penguin trial gave the all-clear for the book’s full publication in Britain and was regarded as one of the key events that led to a more permissive attitude to sexual morality in the 1960s.

The choice of the original “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” to launch the 42nd year of BBC Radio’s “A Book at Bedtime” was one of its most daring. In a highly unusual move, the choice was approved by the BBC Board of Governors, who do not normally get involved in such program decisions.

Listeners to “A Book at Bedtime” have heard a wide range of titles, from the classics to popular literature. Recent titles include the James Bond thriller “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” and John Le Carre’s “The Russia House,” read by the author.

The BBC said an average of 250,000 listeners tune in to “A Book at Bedtime.”

Lawrence said after he wrote “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” that he knew it would bring “only abuse and hatred.” The BBC said it is expecting fresh protests.