WHAT do Abigail, King Kong, Alvin Purple, Graham Kennedy and Dr Who have in common?
All have suffered at the scissors of society's moral watchdogs, the television censors.
But while some of Abigail and Alvin 's greater moments may rot in the Broadcasting Control Board's waste bins. three previously censored Dr Who classics have been salvaged from the ABC's archives after 15 years, and are to be screened here for the tint time beginning next week.
The first, a seven-part series called Inferno, starts on ABC TV at 6.35 pm on Tuesday. The Mind Of Evil begins April 7 and The Daemons on May 5.
Screening was originally scheduled for 1972, but the censorship board threw up their bands in horror and declared the trio just too hot for Auntie to show before 7.30 pm.
A change in regulations has given the ABC the right to censor its own shows. Coupled with what the ABC calls "a change in social morals", the shows are now considered fit for anyone to see.
And they shouldn't be missed. says the editor of the Dr Who fan magazine, Tony Howe.
He was lucky enough to gain a sneak preview of the shows in America several years ago, and says they're some of the best ever made.
But don't expect anything too explicit. Sudden death in early '70's Dr who could be best described as a gunshot and a thud rather than litres of gushing blood, and the programs were probably censored for other reasons.
Mr Howie said Mind Of Evil contains scenes of a prison riot, which he believes may have been considered unacceptable because of the Pentridge riots at the time. The Daemons has strong implications of black magic and Inferno has a "very scary atmosphere'.
"I really don't know what they were all worried about in the early '70s." he said.
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