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The Walking Dead returned to UK screens on Monday night with an episode which was startling in its brutality – yet incredibly, those who watched it live saw an edited version which omitted even more violent scenes, and a critical line at the end of the episode. Spoilers to follow...
In both the US and the UK versions, Negan beats the heads of Abraham and Glenn into a bloody mess with his personalised barbed-wire baseball bat, Lucille. But in the edited UK version, Glenn manages to deliver a heartbreaking promise to his wife saying: "Maggie, I'll find you" before Negan emphatically kills him off – a scene that didn't make the live broadcast.
The reason for the edit is that by this stage, Glenn had an eyeball popping out, and part of his brain exposed – and Fox UK decided that was too gruesome a sight for prolonged viewing at 9pm. Also removed were further heavy blows from Negan, and more close-ups of Glenn's mutilated body and pulverised head. However, the scenes were restored for additional late-night broadcasts.
"As Fox Networks Group is regulated by Ofcom, we have a duty of care to ensure all our programmes broadcast adhere to the parameters of the Ofcom Broadcasting code," A FOX UK spokesperson told Digital Spy.
For more analysis, be sure to read of our season 7 episode 1 recap.
The Walking Dead season 7 airs every Sunday at 9pm on AMC in the US, and every Monday at 9pm on Fox UK in the UK.
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