Tynan, Kenneth

Kenneth Tynan (1927–1980) was a remarkable theatre personality in various important roles, notably as a highly regarded and perceptive drama critic for the London Observer (1954–1958 and 1960–1963) and The New Yorker (1958–1960). As literary manager for the British National Theatre (1963–1969) he spearheaded the assault on censorship, becoming involved in a number of confrontations with the office of the Lord Chamberlain, whose position was finally abolished in 1968.

Tynan was a witty, provocative, and fearless controversialist, as well as a relentless self-publicist, generating a number of scandals. In 1965 he caused a national furor by becoming the first person to utter the word fuck on national television (November 13). In a late-night show called “BBC-3,” in which Mary McCarthy was also a guest, Tynan was asked if the National Theatre would allow a play in which sexual intercourse took place. Tynan replied nonchalantly: “Oh I think so certainly. I doubt if there are very many rational people in this world to whom the word ‘fuck’ is particularly diabolical or revolting or totally forbidden” (Tynan 1988, 236). Despite this context, as his biographer notes, the B.B.C.’s switchboard was jammed by indignant callers, and the episode for a few days

eclipsed all other news, including the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Rhodesia and the war in Vietnam; and provoked a barrage of headlines and stories like “That Word On TV …”; “Insult to Womanhood”; “Is This Moral?”; The War on BBCnity"; “Sack 4-letter Tynan.”

(Tynan 1988, 237)

Four motions were set down in the House of Commons calling for prosecution on the grounds of obscenity, for the resignation of Tynan, and for the dismissal of the director-general of the B.B.C. None produced any concrete response, but Tynan himself seems to have been genuinely dismayed asking: “Is that how I’m going to be remembered?” (Tynan 1988, 236). Others regarded it, albeit later, as an utterance of considerable éclat: “As becomes a great pioneer,” wrote Ashley Montagu, “his stock has considerably risen in the world” (1973, 312). However, amid the welter of sermons, cartoons, limericks, and philological discussions, the key question was asked by Stanley Reynolds in the Guardian , namely why “that one simple word of four letters can provoke a greater reaction in us than long and complex words like apartheid, rebellion, illegal, police state and treason” (cited in Tynan 1988, 237).

Although this was Tynan’s most notorious use of fuck in public, it was not the first. During the Chatterley trial (1960) he quoted an expert witness, Dr. Richard Hoggart, who claimed that D.H. Lawrence had “striven to cleanse [the word] of its furtive, contemptuous, and expletive connotations, and to use it in the most simple, neutral way: one fucks.” This was the first use in a British Sunday newspaper, but as the editor David Astor recalled, “He slid it in and there was no fuss” (Tynan 1988, 178).

Tynan’s most famous contribution to popular culture was his association with the erotic review Oh! Calcutta! , featuring mass stage nudity and simulated stage sex. (The odd title was a subtle pun on the French “O quel cul t’as” [“Oh what an arse you have.”]) However, for legal reasons he conceded that “indecent exposure is out, and so are 4-letter words” (Tynan 1988, 278). Although the show got mixed reviews, it was enormously successful. Tynan’s penchant for shock found other outlets: he wittily and outrageously described his friend Orson Welles’s performance as Othello as “Citizen Coon” (Tynan 1988, 98).