A FORMER mayor of Worcester is to follow in the footsteps of the late Mary Whitehouse in a bid to clean up bad language on television and radio.

County councillor Bob Bullock is exasperated by the proliferation of four-letter words in broadcasting, which he believes is having a poor effect on society and plans to take action.

"What was once regarded as barrack room language is now common currency among the young," said Mr Bullock.

He complained that families could no longer watch television without being bombarded with abuse in their own living rooms.

"I am going to write to the broadcasting companies and say that I am appalled at the low standard of comedy.

"It seems they can't get a joke out without using the 'f' word to shock the audience into laughing at them.

"If they can't be controlled any other way, they should be fined £10 each time they use the 'f' word and they would soon stop or be out of pocket.

"Even on Radio Five from 6am, the innuendo they use is quite frightful at times."

Producers and programme controllers should exercise more control over scripts, in which swear words were being used more and more, he said.

"I watched Helen Mirren in Prime Suspect and she used four letter words when talking to her subordinates to express the fact that she was rather fed up with life.

"You don't need to use that sort of language, so why do it?"

During the 1970s and 1980s, Mary Whitehouse became a household name as she fought to clean up bad language, sex and violence in all forms of media.

Coun Bullock has taken up a theme raised by the Rev Peter Holzapfel at a Remembrance Day service in Kempsey Parish Church.

The vicar, deploring the low moral standards and bad language of today, said he had counted 35 uses of the 'f' word in the space of quarter of an hour in a Worcester video shop.

"I fully endorse what he said. You hear it all the time. Four letter words are used casually now, where they were once only used occasionally to express some sort of anger," said Coun Bullock.

"There is a new generation of parents who use this language themselves and young teenagers take delight in sprinkling their conversation with the 'f' word.

"I think it's time to take a stand."