Her crusade led her to a face-off with the man she held responsible for what she regarded as a tide of filth – the BBC’s director-general, Sir Hugh Carleton Greene.

Her dispute culminated in a fight over whether the Corporation could play The Beatles’ song I Am The Walrus, with its reference to “knickers”.

Julie Walters (pictured) stars as Whitehouse and Hugh Bonneville plays Sir Hugh in this drama inspired by real events that brings to life the battle for Britain’s morals.

The so-called liberal Sixties that spawned the Profumo scandal and the Fab Four also shot Whitehouse to fame as the leader of a section of society with absolutely no desire to join the Permissive Society.