Woke-Bashing of the Week: The Sun throws tantrum over ‘woke’ ITV bosses and a simple content warning
Such warnings have been standard practice for years on those channels which earn a crust by recycling ancient television series. The Sun only seems to have noticed when ITV engaged in the practice. Imagine their response if it had been the BBC!
You might expect that, with a greater awareness of mental health, legal and reputational risks, and changing industry standards, broadcasters would use more trigger and content warnings in 2026 than they did in 1964.
You might also expect a national newspaper to have more important things to report than a trivial warning attached to one television programme.
But this is the Sun we’re talking about.
According to the Murdoch tabloid, ITV bosses are a ‘woke joke’ for placing a content warning on a celebrated British television documentary series.
The original episode of 7 Up broadcast in 1964. It followed a group of seven-year-olds from different social backgrounds as they discussed class, money, education and their hopes for the future. Intended as a one-off programme, it was later developed by its director and narrator, Michael Apted, into an extraordinary documentary project, with the participants filmed every seven years.
As the group approach retirement age, the series has returned to ITV with the first of a three-part programme aired over three successive evenings.
So, what has the Sun got its knickers in a twist about?
A warning.
Before the original 7 Up episode, ITV informed viewers that it “contains outdated attitudes.” That is apparently enough to trigger the tabloid’s latest bout of culture-war outrage.
And, naturally, the Sun found an ally willing to complain about the complaint. The Free Speech Union’s Lord Toby Young told the paper: “It can’t be a surprise to anyone that a 1964 documentary contains outdated attitudes.”
Indeed, it can’t. Which rather raises the question of what, exactly, the Sun is objecting to. The warning doesn’t prevent anyone from watching the programme. It doesn’t censor the documentary, edit out controversial material or tell viewers what they should think about it. It simply gives modern audiences a small amount of context before they watch a programme made more than 60 years ago.
That hardly amounts to the great suppression of free speech.
Yet this is not the first time the Sun has put ITV bosses in its crosshairs over a content warning.
Earlier this year, the paper took aim at ITV for placing a warning on a repeat of Bob Monkhouse’s 1994 An Audience With…, telling viewers that the programme “reflects the language and attitudes of its time.”
Like the original 7 Up, Monkhouse’s comedy, and the conventions that shaped it, belong to a different era of British entertainment. It was therefore entirely reasonable for ITV to provide some context for a modern audience.
A brief warning doesn’t condemn Monkhouse, erase his work or prevent anyone from watching it. It simply acknowledges the blindingly obvious fact that social attitudes change, and comedy changes with them.
The Sun’s response is part of a familiar pattern. Anything that acknowledges changes in social attitudes can be branded ‘woke,’ regardless of whether anyone has actually been censored, cancelled or prevented from expressing themselves.
It is a particularly curious position for a newspaper that routinely claims to defend free speech. It also ignores the fact that such warnings have been standard practice for years on those channels which earn a crust by recycling ancient television series. The Sun only seems to have noticed when ITV engaged in the practice. Imagine their response if it had been the BBC!
Left Foot Forward doesn't have the backing of big business or billionaires. We rely on the kind and generous support of ordinary people like you.
You can support hard-hitting journalism that holds the right to account, provides a forum for debate among progressives, and covers the stories the rest of the media ignore. Donate today.
Donate today
