The BBC is in trouble yet again for airing scenes depicting nudity before the 9pm watershed…

This time, it was content aired during a screening of a movie version of Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice – starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons – which aired last Saturday on BBC2 at 1.45pm.

The scenes that attracted complaints reportedly included several which featured topless women, and one in which a male character “groped” a woman who was playing the role of a prostitute.

You may recall that earlier this week, we reported that an episode of Sherlock – A Scandal in Belgravia – which featured actress Lara Pulver appearing naked as her character Irene Adler became the most watched programme of the year on BBC’s catch-up service iPlayer. And inevitably, that was in no small part thanks to the complaints received about it…

However, returning to the issue of complaints about The Merchant of Venice, one viewer wrote on a BBC forum, “Personally I have no problem with it but I’m mildly amused at seeing bare knockers not just once but six or seven times on BBC2 at 2pm on a Saturday.”

A spokesperson for TV watchdog Mediawatch UK said, “It is incumbent on broadcasters to check what the content is.

“This should not have been shown at this time of day.”

However, the BBC has so far received just four official complaints over the movie, and has insisted that the film was “acceptable for a daytime audience.”

So, is this Much Ado About Nothing or do you think it’s unacceptable to air such content during the day?