In some circumstances the word fuck is used where we more or less expect it - in pornography, modern novels, and "progressive" talk.

Historically it has sometimes appeared when least expected: for instance the dread word slipped into the columns of "The Times" (London) on 13 January 1882. The report of a speech delivered by the Attorney General, Sir William Harcourt, included one man's sentiment that "he felt like a bit of fucking."

The shock at this in Printing House Square was so great that a full four days elapsed before "the management of this journal" could steel itself to issue an apology - it spoke of "gross outrage," of a "malicious fabrication" that was "surreptitiously introduced" and noted that the matter was under legal investigation -- "it is to be hoped that the perpetrator of the outrage will be brought to punishment." "The Times" suffered another terrible blow when an advertisement for a book about the public schools was discovered, after the paper had been printed, to include the line - "With a Glossary of Some Words used by Henry Irving in his disquisitions upon fucking, which is in common use in these schools."

And this only a few months after the first incident! Not a good year for "The Times". It is also noted that in a daily paper reporting the birth of a royal child - "the substitution of an F for a B in the name of the palace where the queen was confined gave the heading of the notice a suspiciously suggestive appearance." All in all, Kenneth Tynan's delivery of the word fuck on BBC television had one or two "establishment" precedents.