THE strange saga of The Exorcist in Swindon began this week in 1974.

As we recalled in Rewind a while ago, the classic horror film didn’t make it to Swindon until 1976.

By that time it was old news; those who wanted to see it had gone elsewhere and many of the rest found themselves wondering what all the hype had been about.

It was precisely this hype – that it was the most terrifying and potentially dangerous film ever made – which put the skids under it in 1974.

“Swindon faces a ban on controversial film The Exorcist,” we said in a front page story.

“Thamesdown councillors are expected to announce the ban tomorrow night.”

The councillors in question were the five-strong General Purposes and Performance Review Sub-Committee. They’d attended a private screening of the film and clearly hadn’t been impressed by the obscenity-flecked, pea soup-spraying, demon-bothering mayhem.

The screening had been arranged after another councillor, Daphne Bampton, objected to the film.

As had been expected, The Exorcist was banned, but not without some dissent from other councillors.

Coun Peter Furkins said: “Are we trying to put ourselves above the film censors? If people want to see it, they will go elsewhere.”

Coun Les Gowing added: “It seems unfair that a small committee should take this decision on behalf of 150,000 people.

“I can remember in 1961 or 1962 when Rock Around The Clock was banned in Swindon. But busloads of teenagers went out to Melksham or somewhere to see it.

“If adults aren’t capable of making up their own minds on what they want to see, we are living in a very senile, decadent society.”

Many cinemagoers were outraged by the decision. They included Adver film critic Laurence Levine, although he wasn’t exactly impressed by the film itself.

“It is boring and superficial,” he wrote. “It lacked the impact and the sincerity of the original book.”

In far less controversial showbusiness news, James Bolam was in Swindon.

The actor, best known these days for playing much-loved veteran detective Jack Halford in cold case drama New Tricks, was already a household name thanks to a starring role in Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?

The sitcom, in which he appeared with Rodney Bewes as one of a pair of friends in the North East, is an icon of the era and regularly drew more than 25m viewers. Two years later, Bolam would have another huge success with gritty Depression-era Geordie drama When The Boat Comes In.

He was in Swindon to appear at the Wyvern Theatre in Alan Ayckbourn comedy Time And Time Again, about a drop-out schoolteacher who becomes a park keeper.

The frostiness of his relationship with Bewes has since become well-known, but Bolam gave a pretty clear hint when we asked him whether the two would return to their Likely Lads roles.

“Not that I know of – that’s up to the BBC,” he said.

“I haven’t time to get in touch with Rodney when we are not in the series.

“We play friends but we are not that friendly – just two actors doing a job of work.”

Also heading for Swindon were the Science Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council. Both were planning to relocate from London to a purpose-built site at North Star, and another five would eventually follow.

Seldom has the old saying about phoenixes and ashes been more appropriate, as an ash pit was precisely what the site had been during the heyday of the Railway Works.

The material, some of which was still burning, was to be removed to Barnfield for disposal.

“The Science Research Council’s decision to move out of London,” we said, “will create a large number of prestige clerical jobs for Swindon workers.”

A shiny new structure already firmly in place was the Hambro Life Building, which towered above the equally new station.

Until the David Murray John building came along a couple of years later, it was Swindon’s tallest, and our photographer was sent to help us share the view with our readers.

The top floor, he discovered, was the canteen.

“It’s life at the top of Swindon’s tallest building for Hambro Life’s 350 employees,” we said.

“Here’s the meal-eye view from the 12th floor restaurant at the insurance giant’s new home at the station.

“And the panorama proves that very big trees do come from tiny acorns.

“Centred in the picture is the company’s old home in Fleming Way – a six-floor minnow.”

Change elsewhere in Swindon spelled bad news for some of the town’s oldest residents.

Road crews were about to alter the junction of Bath Road and Okus Road to include the roundabout that’s still there now.

Improved traffic flow was vital for access to Princess Margaret Hospital.

Sadly, the work meant doom for a line of well-established trees, at least one of which seems to have been there since the 19th century if our photo was anything to go by. They stood in the grounds of the old Victoria Hospital on Okus Road.

A hospital spokesman said: “Everyone here has become very attached to the trees and the way they enhance the entrance.

“But we appreciate improvements have to be made to the junction.”