"Clearly I could not allow people like this to have the use of the microphone or be prominently identified with the BBC," the corporation's then regional director for the north, John Coatman, wrote. He added: "It must be remembered that Miss Littlewood and her husband were concerned chiefly with programmes in which they were brought into continuous and intimate contact with large numbers of working class people all over the North region."

Yow. Contact with working class people. Scary.

Is it worse that they were northern?