The Family Sex Show: police investigation

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Baroness Nicolson tweeted an excellent reply from Sir Nicolas Serota, Chair of Arts Council England in a letter dated 3rd May.

I have uploaded the image on imgbb as well as here on Mumsnet as MN images are displaying so poorly at the moment:

ibb.co/FwZ6Sgs

Text using OCR:

Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne
House of Lords
London
SWiA 0PW

3 May 2022

Dear Lady Winterbourne,

Thank you for writing to me to express your concern, as well as the concern of people who have contacted you directly, regarding The Family Sex Show at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival 2022.

I would like to reassure you that we acted promptly to investigate the matter and to seek assurances from the production company. The proposed tour has now been cancelled, and no performances are planned.

The Arts Council never compromises on the safeguarding of children, young people and vulnerable adults. We require the organisations and artists we support to have appropriate measures in place, and this is part of the terms and conditions of their grant agreements.

Whilst our investigation showed that we had followed all of our processes correctly, we will be considering those processes and also what additional requirements for project organisers we can put in place in the future, in order to provide even greater assurance that children and young people are always safe and protected.

Thank you, again, for writing to me, and I hope this note addresses some of your concerns.

Yours sincerely,
Sir Nicholas Serota CH
Chair

Arts Council England, 21 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3HF www.artscouncil.org.uk

Phone: 44 (0) 845 200 6200
Email: [email protected]

Thanks for the link @JemimaPuddlegoose. I do hate the way this has been framed as right vs left. It's so reductive (and wrong).

Thanks for pursuing this @theDudesmummy - even if it's disappointing they're unable to pursue this, I do hope this makes the arts council think more carefully in future about what they (we!) fund.

Very disturbing to hear of personal threats and hateful material being distributed. I do hope there will be a full and transparent investigation

I wasn't sure where to put this, but if anyone knows The Stage (theatre newspaper) they published several letters discussing the Family Sex Show, both supporting and against.

One letter that caught my attention was from someone who identified themselves as a "non-binary theatre-maker who makes theatre exploring stigmatised and non-mainstream sexualities", stating that they had been triggered by the Family Sex Show and had been demonised and made to fear for their careers because of not loving the show. The letter also discusses safeguarding, the lack of trigger warnings, grooming, weakening children's boundaries, and explicitly says the show is dangerous.

Other letters mentioned the dodginess of the website, and the lack of proper response from the company.

I know a lot of posters will be rolling their eyes at "non binary" but I actually think it's really significant that people who are clearly neck deep in the whole woke ultra-leftie theatre scene are publicly saying the Family Sex Show is dangerous and grooming. Because ThisEgg can hardly claim continue to claim all their detractors are right wing T**fs, can they?

www.thestage.co.uk/your-views/the-family-sex-show-cancellation-controversy--your-views-may-4 (Might need to register a free account to view.)

If you listen very carefully to the background voices there is some very disturbing stuff

have you contacted Baroness Nicholson ? She did complain to the Arts Council, and I know she will help you take this further.
Thank you - and good luck

Oh, have they. Good thing several people archived/recorded it, isn't it?

Thanks for the update OP. I also reported this to the police before the last planned performance to an invite-only audience was cancelled (according to the puff piece in the Guardian).

I also wrote to DCMS to point out the safeguarding failures of the Arts Council and was advised to complain directly to the Arts Council. Their claim of taking safeguarding seriously just cannot be taken seriously.

Who gives funding to something called The Family Sex Show without making detailed checks? Who does that? I suspect they ticked the right boxes and waved it through but that doesn't cut it when it comes to children.

I'll be complaining to the Arts Council though I expect I'll get, at best, a cut and pasted reply.

I see they have deleted that link btw!

I'm not surprised by the police response, but it was good to report it anyway. I do however, think that the NSPCC should have released a statement about concerns on this. That would have been more in their remit, to raise awareness of what is inappropriate. Its the Children Charities I feel let down by. There really should have commented on this.

Thanks for the update, OP. That is frustrating.

I'm also not aware of anyone protesting in any way other than signing petitions and writing to safeguarding bodies, etc.

That's incredibly frustrating, OP. I wonder if the author of this piece in The Critic will pick up the cudgels? thecritic.co.uk/why-are-we-allowing-the-family-sex-show/

See also this piece by another journalist about sex education in schools: thecritic.co.uk/we-need-to-talk-about-sex-education/

Am I imagining it or does one of the background voices at the end say ‘Will I get to meet your kids?’

Just another post to say thank you OP for doing this. I feel sick to my stomach about the content of all of this. 🤮 Thank you for standing up for child safeguarding 👏👏👏

Jesus H Christ!

It generally gives me the rage that still STILL, progressive left leaning organisations like the Arts Council, like the BBC and like the Guardian can be endorsing or encouraging stuff like this.

I used to be firmly on the left, but now I see the progressive left as standing for intolerance and disregard for safeguarding. ' Only prudes and bigots raise safeguarding concerns, don't you know. Its a cover for their bigotry!'

@theDudesmummy I salute you and every other person reporting this shit show 👏 👏👏👏👏👏👏
I have really been encouraged recently by WOMEN taking control.
Thank you, I hope the police shut this down.

I don't have any material to add, but just wanted to say thank you for following this up, you're a star and I hope the police will have a good dig into all this.

Thank you OP. I hope the police do a good job and that those promoting this will be tackled appropriately.