Show some responsibility

I’M no opera fan, but I am concerned about the graphic rape scenes in the recent William Tell production at the Royal opera House (Mail).

I watch a lot of films, many of them some of the most controversial produced. My view is that if you don’t like the thought of a particular film, you don’t have to watch it. When it comes to TV, provided that an 18certificate movie, drama or series is shown after the watershed, none of its disturbing content should be edited.

over the past ten years there has been a trend towards adding sexual and violent content to traditional child-friendly adventure and superhero stories, such as William Tell.

In one deeply embarrassing scene in the first of the modern Transformers films ( 2007), the main human character, the socially awkward Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), is asked by his mother if he’s so sweaty because he had been masturbating.

Some people in the packed Swindon cinema where I saw this film howled with laughter, but others were clearly disgusted. LaBeouf’s co-star Megan Fox, and other females in the sequels, often wear revealing clothes, and sexual innuendo and bad language feature in all these films.

This kind of smutty, laddish content should be restricted to black comedies of The Hangover and American Pie type, not franchises, whose merchandise is sold in High Street shops to children as young as five.

The Batman film, The Dark Knight, was especially graphic, and in one scene The Joker killed a rival thug with a sharpened pencil.

Having grown up with Transformers and Batman, I’m disappointed that these modern franchises and others like them are being tarnished in this way in an effort to make them ‘edgy’.

Many younger children will watch these films and become desensitised to what they’re viewing. The whole entertainment industry, including opera, should behave a lot more responsibly.

PAUL TREACY, Melksham, Wilts.