Radio

BBC Program Draws Protest: 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. According to the Associated Press, Whitehouse’s efforts are backed by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Prince Charles and Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie. BBC Radio 4 preceded Monday’s broadcast 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 that they contained words and descriptions of sexual acts some listeners might find offensive.