Dr Pete Turner

This article explores some of the findings from a work-in-progress project that I began working on in
2020 to investigate the retrospective memories of 1980s British audiences surrounding viewing films
classified either 15 or 18 by the BBFC, while the participants were underage. I question the so-called
victims of censorship that have matured into their 40s and are no longer at the mercy of parents
or the classifications of the BBFC in order to investigate the retrospective memories of these adults
who were once participating in forbidden viewings as children in the 1980s. This article explores
Annette Kuhn’s idea that for audiences, the movie fades from memory to make way for more movies,
but it is the life experiences that stay with the viewer. By focusing on underage viewers and films
that had been deemed unsuitable for their age, I hope to review Kuhn’s claim, by resituating the film
itself as the prominent memory – a memory not replaced by many decades of movie watching since.
This article outlines the methodology for the project, before turning to a discussion of participants’
memories of interrupted film viewings. In exploring the dichotomy between memories of viewing
conditions and memories of the film themselves, this article then considers memories of the horror
genre (and terrifying scenes in other genres), and also the issues of watching sex in films, and the
impact of parental restrictions, or watching while with parents.

It has been proposed that ‘the star’ is a social phenomenon, image and sign. Using this theory, I conduct a content analysis of the Instagram posts made by two stars of the Fast and Furious (2001–2017) franchise in 2017 in order to critique Dyer’s categories. This article argues that social media generates another category –
the stars as interstellar community. This is demonstrated by the visible networking that adds a level of exclusivity to these stars and their lives, even as social media makes these stars appear more accessible to fans. I propose two levels of community; the interstellar community that is networking between stars to create exclusivity. The second level is a star to fan community, emphasising the star’s presence in the lives of fans. I focus on the stars’ posts that refer to the franchise itself to demonstrate how this interstellar community is conversing through Instagram in a public forum. Finally, this article considers how these posts converge with and diverge from the idea of stars as commodity, construction and ideology. This content analysis is conducted with a view to create codes and a methodology that can be applied and replicated across other social media platforms and across other stars’ social media content.