Tom Brown's Schooldays is a 1971 television serial adaptation of the Thomas Hughes novel Tom Brown's Schooldays. It was originally screened on the BBC1 Sunday afternoon slot, which often showed serialisations of classics aimed at a family audience. It made some free adaptations to Hughes's novel, creating the role of Flashman's father, and writing new sub-plots about Flashman and Arnold. It also included some scenes of bullying and corporal punishment which may have been strong stuff for family viewing. "Clean-up TV" campaigner Mary Whitehouse claimed that the programme broke the BBC's guidelines on the depiction of sadistic violence.