The Skewer

In its election special, BBC Radio 4's comedy show The Skewer delivered as one of its customary surreal audio mash-ups a series of Keir Starmer's declarations about his family background interrupted by famous film quotes.

Thus the Labour leader went from declaring that "my dad was a toolmaker and my / mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries" (Monty Python And The Holy Grail) to "my dad was a toolmaker and my / mother sucks cocks in hell" (The Exorcist). The programme went out at 11.15pm at night on 10 July, prefaced with a stern warning it "contained strong language".

Three days later, Rupert Murdoch's Talk Radio - "The Home of Common Sense" - devoted a lengthy phone-in to the broadcast. To make sure listeners were aware how "highly offensive" it was, presenter Peter Cardwell, a former Tory special adviser, played the single out-of-context clip of The Exorcist quote no fewer than four times, at one point in a "slightly slower version" so listeners couldn't miss how "gratuitously offensive" it was. In case any listener has missed it, Cardwell repeated the phrase "your mother sucks cocks in hell" himself another four times.

That broadcast, which went out at 11am on a Saturday morning, included Cardwell squeaking indignantly that "children can listen to this! Children can go on the BBC iPlayer, although there is a flag that it is age-restricted content."