Graphic ballet axed by BBC

Ballet scenes showing a hunchback pope garrotting a pregnant woman with rosary beads have been pulled from BBC4's schedule.

Eternal Damnation To Sancho And Sanchez - one of four acts of In The Spirit Of Diaghilev by Javier de Frutos - had been given a pre-watershed time slot over the Christmas period.

The channel will still broadcast the other three acts from last month's Sadler's Wells performance on 18 December.

Critics described the ballet as "violent", "lurid" and "deliberately offensive".