Sweet Sixteen

The film sparked a censorship debate in the UK regarding the amount of bad language used. Under current British Board of Film Classification rules, multiple uses of the word "fuck" usually only warrant a 15-certificate, but a single aggressive use of the word "cunt" tends to lead to an 18-certificate, as was the case with this film. Opponents argued that an 18-certificate would prevent the people who could most closely identify with the characters from going to see the film, and that such language was much more common, and therefore less offensive, in the north of the UK, where the film was set. The London-based censors stuck to their guns. The local authority covering Inverclyde, where the film was shot, used their cinema licensing powers to award the film a 15-certificate for screenings in the area.

Featured in Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach (2016)