6 Bizarrely Specific Movie Moments UK Censors Banned

Movie censors are among the most hated people in the film industry, and some of the vitriol is completely justified. They've hacked martial arts masterpieces to bits, ripped the heart out of classic horrors and neutered our favourite action flicks.

Sometimes they're just doing their jobs, making sure movies are slapped with the right certificate so impressionable youngsters don't end up corrupted. It's not like they're illegally downloading or streaming said films at home or anything.

Generally speaking, censorship requests fall into two broad camps: reasonable and overzealous, but there's also a third category - the downright bizarre.

From oddly specific changes, to ludicrously unfounded fears, here are the times the UK's BBFC hit filmmakers with editing demands nuttier than squirrel turds.

When Casino Royale reinvented Bond as a grittier spy with a penchant for edgy violence, the BBFC had trouble deciding whether to hand out a 15 rating or a 12A.

After much deliberation, it finally decided on the latter, but only if the filmmakers made a few seemingly inconsequential tweaks to a torture scene to tone down its perceived sexual connotations. Well, whatever floats your boat.

The sequence in question sees Bond strapped to a chair while Le Chiffre goads and whips him with a length of rope. Apparently, the flogging was absolutely fine but a shot of the rope approaching 007's groin was too ballsy for the powers that be.

The shot originally depicted the rope swinging in the direction of Daniel Craig's nether regions twice, but the BBFC was adamant once was enough and demanded an edit. They also took issue with Le Chiffre uttering the line "such a waste" after remarking on what good shape Bond is in, for some reason.

Obviously this line of dialogue and few shots of swinging rope are the difference between acceptable torture and all-out depravity.