Daily Express
ITV bosses put trigger warning on hit teen film
BOSSES at ITV have placed a trigger warning on family favourite musical Grease for scenes of teenage misbehaviour, it has been reported.
The classic 1978 film, which stars John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, has been targeted by TV executives for trivialising issues such as a consent for sexual encounters.
Grease sees the main characters Danny and Sandy getting back together at high school after a summer fling. The late Newton-John plays an Australian student on transfer to a US school.
The movie features scenes that reportedly caused ITV to put on the warning: “With mild language and teenage misbehaviour.” These include a faulty contraceptive and interactions between characters which ridicule virginity. The 1950s-set film remains hugely popular and spawned a box-office hit musical. It is also apparently in trouble for the song Greased Lightnin’, which is about a car but with lyrics interpreted as “vulgar”.
Meanwhile, the character Rizzo, who was played by Stockard Channing, is said to be “slut-shamed” when she fears she may have become pregnant. The film is currently available on the online streaming service ITVX.
It is the latest movie in recent days to be reassessed, after iconic musical West Side Story was reclassified from a parental guidance (PG) film to a 12.
This followed a decision by the British Board of Film Classification which said it identified themes such as sexism and transphobia that could trigger young viewers.
One character is told to “go wear a skirt”. The 1961 adaptation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet with New York gangs the Sharks and Jets replacing the Montagues and Capulets - also features characters who smoke and drink. One is stabbed and another is shot.
The BBFC also hit the recent big-screen sequel to Wicked with a warning, including cautioning viewers that it features characters that are witches who “cast magical spells on one another”.
The BBFC warned viewers of the Wizard of Oz spin-off that “occasional threatening scenes include people caught by falling debris in a cyclone and fantastical creatures rampaging through a crowd”. In the Wizard of Oz, which is based on the 1900 novel by L Frank Baum, Dorothy is transported from her Kansas home to Oz via a tornado.
The BBFC updates its classification guidelines every four or five years after public consultation.
By Aaron Newbury
Daily Express Opinion
It's Grease frightenin'...
PROMISES that movie musical Grease contains scenes of “teenage misbehaviour” will only encourage younger audiences to take a look. They may be disappointed. While the 1978 film does contain references to sex, they are fairly tame by today’s standards.
Even so, television executives appear convinced that viewers require a warning before being exposed to Grease - which viewers of multiple generations have watched without complaint - West Side Story or even the musical fantasy Wicked.
They fear that some of the opinions expressed in these movies will appear shocking.
But audiences understand perfectly well that they are watching fictional characters who are not necessarily paragons of virtue.
Rather than protecting viewers, we suspect TV bosses are trying to shield themselves from potential criticism.
Across the world, people are growing increasingly sick of this woke nonsense.
2026 must be the year that it ends.